The Bank of the Fairies

Money, printer cartridges, and vegetables. All these things were in short supply in The House of Stories by the middle of the week, so after Toddler Group I went to the small town about a mile along the road.

I don't do online banking and am deeply suspicious of hole in the wall money machines. Also, I'd received an advance payment for a book coming out in 2013, and I so love paying those in. I feel a sense of achievement about it. And apart from anything else, we have very pleasant people working in our local branch and I want to keep them in a job.

So there I was, sitting down with my handbag and cheque book on my knee, sorting out which money was going where, when a mother came in with two little girls in a pushchair. The older one was dressed as a fairy, all in bright pink with a tiara and a magic wand (and I suppose wings, but I couldn't see.) The toddler sister made a dash for freedom as soon as she was out of that buggy. The automatic doors obligingly parted for her and she was only a few steps from a busy road when her mum caught her.

Mum duly finished what she had to do, and left. When I stepped up to the cashier's desk I saw the magic wand abandoned and alone. Another lady in the queue (who was also in bright pink and silver) ran outside with it and looked up and down the street, but the Fairy Queen appeared to have flown away.

'Never mind', said the kind cashier. (She's lovely. I've been going in that bank for years now, and she's always been around.) 'I know the family, I can get it back to them.' But five minutes after leaving the bank, I met the Fairy Queen, her mum and the absconding sister in the street. 'Have we left our wand in the bank?' asked Mum, and went back for it. The afternoon was still young, and already I was part of a fairy story.

You don't get that with online banking.