Sunbath

The stream ran along like streams do, pooling in a quiet spot hidden by a stand of elegant white birches. A large boulder in the middle of the pond was well known for what looked like the face of a bearded man looking up from the depths of the cool mountain water.

A magazine came in and took photographs of a swim suit model bathing near the Fairy’s Grandfather. The press dismissed and ridiculed her after she claimed that she had seen fairies gathered around the pool in the early morning. Not long after appearing in the magazine she disappeared.

Sitting there eating a sandwich, a young man tossed bits of bread to the fish as they came to the surface to nibble and gulp the treat. A woman's voice startled him.

“They won't come out until you stop staring.”

“Excuse me?”

“The fairies. They won't come out and play in the water or dance on the surface, until they think that you aren't interested in them.”

Embarrassed about being found out, “What makes you think that's what I am after?”

“Because you and I are after the same thing, we need to see them again.”

It was then that he realized he was talking to the ex-super model, a bit unkempt, but her natural beauty shone through.

“I have pictures you know.”

“I guessed,” she pointed to the camera around his neck.

“They are beautiful. I just want to see them again.”

“People will mock you; call you a liar, a cheat, a fraud.”

“I'll prove them all wrong and show the pictures.”

“Blurry pictures that mean nothing.”

“What about you? You’ve seen them. Your story will back up my photographs.”

She turned away, held her head down, “In the end, you can't prove a thing.”