‘I was a child (I think I was ten) in the back seat of the car on a family holiday. We were in Devon and we were driving down a country road in the day time. My father, driving the car, pulled over on the narrow country lane to let someone pass and as we stopped for a few seconds I looked out the window and saw what looked like a tiny woman in a dress floating near the roadside hedge. I kept telling myself that it was a flower, and it did look a lot like a fuchsia. But as I stared for several seconds it was [became the] face [of] a small woman in a tiny red dress, hovering. Then the car moved, and I kept quiet, and I didn’t even mention it to my parents who were in the car. I have never seen anything like it before or since… I am a very rational and sceptical person, and I was even as a child, so I have tried to tell myself it was a flower or an insect many times. But the fact remains that it clearly was not either of those things. It was a tiny woman in a dress. I have no way to explain it, and I even feel a bit silly writing it down as I have never told anyone.’ ‘A small woman in a tiny red dress, almost flower shaped. About the size of an adult’s little finger. I don’t remember seeing wings specifically, but they were hovering.’ ‘I really don’t know’ what fairies are. Why was this a fairy? ‘I suppose because the creature looked like a tiny woman in a red dress hovering… to my knowledge that is quite a normal description on a fairy, and I don’t know of any other name that people would call that.’
§515
Devon, England
1990s
Male: Age 0-10
never or almost never has supernatural experiences
on a country road
12 pm-3 pm
less than a minute
with several other people, none of whom shared my experience
you were undertaking a repetitive task (e.g. picking blackberries)
no fairy mood reported
unusually vivid memories of the experience