What’s happening? She thought. A noise murmured in the night, voices whispering, almost below the level of hearing. Then… A tapping noise, but quietly, hidden.

In the morning, on the little footstool, a small pair of red shoes, deftly tacked together, leather and small nails and stitching. Where had they come from…?

That night she tried to stay awake, ears straining. She let her eyes get used to the dark. She saw, a tiny old man, an elf? sitting on the footstool. There was a shoe last in front of him. He was expertly turning blue leather around the last. In a few minutes a new left shoe was finished. It shone like sky blue. He laid it down and created a second shoe, righthanded, crystal blue as was the first.

The girl sat back, she was entranced, impressed by the skill of the tiny fairie. She fell asleep in wonderment and amazement. In the morning the blue shoes sat proudly on the footstool, a label pinned to them. ‘for Lucy, with love, we shall not visit again’. She never wore the shoes.