“The fairies break their dances, And leave the printed lawn,” wrote A.E. Housman. One San Jose fairy has left the lawn for the plush carpet of the San Jose Center for Performing Arts. It is the fairy Wilis from the ballet Giselle. The city was in a bit of an uproar when it decided to relocate the statue of the Wilis there, from outside the Montgomery Theater, only to discover that the fairy statue had flitted off, barely leaving a pixie dust trail.

The good news is that the fairy is back. No, it didn’t fly in on a warm summer breeze. It was carted back in a wheelbarrow, covered with a plastic tarp, like a common fairy felon. From there it was loaded on the back of a pickup truck and taken to police headquarters, where it was sequestered as evidence.

In truth, the fairy wasn’t a criminal, but the victim of a fairy-napping. But then the real criminal felt a pang of regret, and had the statue returned to the city. The plan was to do it anonymously, through attorney Anthony Pagkas, and it was he who brought the fairy back, without disclosing the name of his client. He would not even confirm that his client was the original fairy-napper, saying instead that he was just “Someone who had no idea what this was.” Then he read about it in the Merc, and decided to do the right thing.

Regardless of whether someone is charged, Public Art Director Barbara Goldstein heaved a sigh of relief that the fairy had returned. “All’s well that ends well,” she said. Hopefully, the Wilis will be happier in its new home.
Read More at the Mercury News.