The Pixies, Part I

Once upon a time, everyone used to send each other lots of letters and cards. They would write the letters with pens or type them on typewriters. Then they would put the letters in a shiny red pillar box and the Pixies would collect and deliver them.

The Pixies wore smart uniforms and were always clean and tidy and very busy, especially at Christmas time, when they became Santa's little helpers. The Pixies were very happy at their work, whistling and smiling as they went along, and would often enjoy a glass of lemonade with the Chief Pixies at the end of a satisfying day. And everybody loved the Pixies. For they didn't just do a marvellous job with letters for thruppence ha'penny farthing. No. The Pixies were very helpful with other things too. Like picking up shopping and medicine, reading gas meters, fixing small plumbing and electrical problems and they even saved lives. Then, one day, something terrible happened to change all of that.

Far, far away, in an evil empire known as America, a wizard named Tomlinson created a magic spell which meant people could send millions upon billions upon trillions of words, without using paper. But worse was still to come. For in the land of Nokia, the wizard Makonnen invented an even more dangerous spell called Texting. This spell meant that people could send each other postcards, birthday cards and christmas cards with a tiny telephone! As time went on, people started using the spells, and this meant that the Pixies had less and less letters and cards to deliver.

Some of the Pixies were sent home to live out their remaining years drinking too much lemonade which made them belchy and grumpy. The Pixies that remained missed their old friends and, feeling sad, began spending the money that they had kept in a pot of gold for a rainy day. The Chief Pixies were very worried about losing their pot of gold, so they decided to get rid of even more of the Pixies by inventing a machine to do some of their work. This made the Pixies quite angry indeed and they threatened to stop working altogether if the bad machines were not taken away.

The Chiefs told the Pixies to stop being silly and to go back to work. But the Pixies refused, so the Chiefs decided to hire lots of new Pixies to do their jobs. The Pixies were really furious now, but they also felt very helpless, so they asked the good Wizard Acas to speak to the Chiefs on their behalf. The Wizard Acas was only too happy to help, but the Chiefs refused to speak to him unless the Pixies promised to go back to work.

Meanwhile, the people of the land were beginning to lose their affection for the Pixies. Birthday cards were being delivered late. Where once letters would arrive at seven in the morning, now they didn't come until ten or after. Sometimes, people got the wrong letters. The Pixies had so much mail to carry, that they couldn't stop to help anyone out any more, or even smile or wave. And sometimes they were so busy that they didn't even have time to ring doorbells, and just put cards through people's letter-boxes telling them to go and get their own letters. So people stopped inviting the Pixies in for tea and chocolate and stopped giving them gifts at Christmas.

And everyone was very sad, and no one was living happily ever after. And not even the queen of the land, Queen Mandy, could get the Pixies back to work. To be continued...