Back in the mid-1990s I quite my job as a college writing instructor and freelance writer to work as a VISTA Volunteer. VISTA is like the domestic version of the Peace Corps. You live on a subsistence stipend to work in the United States where people need help. I was assigned to a City Mission in North Dakota where I was to work on problems of poverty and homelessness.

At the City Mission, I met a man who was once homeless and a drug addict, but was now drug-free and working at a good job. He now volunteered at the Mission to give back for the help he received while he was down-and-out.

But what he says really saved him was a fairy -- or more accurately, a tiny being which identified itself as an "elemental."

The man, whom I will call Jubal, encountered this fairy creature in a very odd way -- he had taken up the "hobby" of just staring at a common house plant for hours at a time. He did so as a way to get his mind off of drugs, and a lot of other of his problems, which included post traumatic stress syndrome -- he suffered from the latter because he had once been attacked and almost killed by a bear.

Anyway, staring at the plant was a kind of meditation that helped him remain calm -- except, one day, while absorbed into looking at his philodendron -- there suddenly appeared a tiny little man sitting on one of the branches of the plant -- it was a fairy!

Jubal was freaked out, to say the least. He was even more disconcerted when the fairy put a kind of spell upon him -- he was given a command to go on a quest -- and if he did the fairy's bidding -- he would be cured of his drug addiction and post traumatic stress syndrome.

I found Jubal's story so fascinating -- and believable -- because of the intense conviction in which he related the tale to me. Jubal swears it was no delusion -- he says he met a real fairy, and that the fairy cured him of his addictions and mental problems.

I wrote the whole story up as a short novel, and you can find it in e-book format by clicking on this link:

http://stores.lulu.com/ironghost

Did Jubal meet a real fairy. It may seem ridiculous or far-fetched, but lots of people tell me after reading this story, they are no long so sure it is impossible. At the very least, Jubal's story makes us all think -- and thinking isn't such a bad thing, is it?