Ella and her Oupa Zakkie have gone on long, rambling walks together for as long as she can remember. They watched fairies, saw traces they'd left behind on rocks, under leaves, at the roots of trees. Ella's Christmas wish was a Fairy Painting by her artist grandfather. Zak treated Ella, still 7 at the time, as he would any client. He interviewed her to ascertain her specifications. He got her to measure the space on her bedroom wall where the painting would hang (she had to do it by herself!) and she had to collect colour swatches from magazines and paste them onto an A4 page for him. They spent an afternoon drawing fairies, and other things that Ella wanted in her painting.
