THE PUDDLE PIXIES - CHAPTER 5 - THE FAIRGROUND ADVENTURE

One day, during the long school summer holidays, the younger Puddle Pixies were getting rather bored. They were fed-up with just splashing about in puddles, waiting for the puddaloes to come home laden with their cargo of beautiful silky rainbows.

Alex was playing on the bank with his younger sister Natalie, when, as dusk was falling, he saw some bright lights on the far side of the puddle – then he heard some jolly music and the sound of distant laughter. As they watched, the lights seemed to go up and down and round and round! Natalie said: ‘It must be a funfair! Let’s see if we can go there!’ So home they ran and asked their Mum, who was busy making some new wellington boots, if they could go. ‘Okay’ she said, ‘but only if you go with an older pixie. Your brother George isn’t doing much’.

They got their pocket money from their money boxes, and ran round to the other side of the puddle, with George bringing up the rear. After lots of running, they arrived at the fairground, and wandered all round the funfair, looking at everything, enjoying the atmosphere with its bright lights and loud music.

They went on several rides and had lots of goes on the machines in the arcade, where they won several cuddly toys. George wasn’t that keen on funfairs, and was getting a bit bored. Soon, looking at his pocket watch, he said : ‘One more ride then we must go home.’ It was indeed beginning to get dark.

They decided to have one last ride on the Big Wheel. George waited at the bottom with their belongings and the new cuddlies, watching the two little pixies go round and round, enjoying the marvellous view of the fairground lights twinkling like thousands of coloured stars below them.

Suddenly, with a loud squeaking noise, the wheel stopped turning and ground to a halt. Nothing the fairground Pixie could do would make it start again. Luckily there were no other pixies on the ride, as most of them had already started out for home, but Natalie and Alex were stuck at the very top of the wheel. When they realised what was happening, Natalie began to cry, and Alex’s lip trembled, as he looked down with a very worried expression. The fairground Pixie said to George : ‘I am afraid they will have to wait for the Repair Pixies to come, but that will take a while as they have to come from over the Faraway Hill!’ Then George had a VERY GOOD IDEA. He shouted up to his brother and sister stranded high above him : ‘Look in your raincoat pockets. You should find one of Mum’s new miniature fold-up umbrellas’.

They did just that, and Natalie found a pink, gold and blue umbrella, and Alex a red, purple and orange one, which Mummy Pixie had popped into their pockets at the last minute, just in case it should rain.
Following Georges’ instructions, they carefully stood up, opened their umbrellas, and said these magic words, which they found on little labels sewn carefully onto one of the spokes:

‘Pixie dust, Pixie dust fly through the air
Rainbow dust, Rainbow dust make me a stair!’

As they did so, clouds of twinkling rainbow-coloured dust fell down from the umbrellas, all over Natalie and Alex, and as they watched, the sparkling specks whirled and swirled and formed themselves into a Rainbow Staircase, which ended right at the bottom of the Big Wheel. The children were able to walk safely down, and ran happily to their brother, who was looking very relieved. They ran off together and managed to get home just in time for supper!

After that, they never left home without their magic umbrellas.