The fairy’s tale

The fairies

Mark sat cross-legged on the floor and scowled at Jodi. “We are NOT going to play with fairies!” he said. “Fairies are for girls.”

Jodi looked up from the sand where she was arranging her three favourite fairies. “I AM a girl,” she said. “You can play with me or get something else to play with.”

Angelina spread her beautiful yellow wings and looked up at Jodi. She hoped they were going to have an exciting game in the sand. It was ages since the children had taken the fairies out and played with them. “I hope Marc doesn’t stop Jodi playing with us,” she said to her friends.

Patty was sitting quietly on her toadstool as usual. “Sometimes children make other people do things they don’t want to. I’m glad we’re friends and stick together.”

“Yes,” said Gabby, flapping her bright pink wings. “We’ve been friends ever since we were born in fairyland.”

“I wish we could visit our fairy palace again,” sighed Angelina. “It was so big and beautiful.”

Suddenly the three fairies found themselves picked up and tossed in a pile at the end of the sandpit. “OW!” said Patty. “That hurt.”

But before they could complain, they heard Jodi say, “Come on Mark, get the wooden blocks. We’re going to make something fantastic.”

“Bother,” muttered Angelina. “They’re not going to play with us after all.”

Mark brought the blocks over, and Jodi and he started building something in the sand. They built walls and roofs and stables and garages. Quite soon the building looked like a huge castle with battlements and a drawbridge.

“We still need someone to live in it,” said Jodi.

“Well, what about the fairies?” asked Mark.

Jodi looked at him in surprise and the three fairies held their breath. What would Jodi say? It wasn’t a palace, but a castle might be quite interesting. It would definitely be better than sitting in a heap in the corner!

Jodi stood Patty and her toadstool on the battlements. “She can be the look-out,” she said, “and tell us when the enemy is coming.”

Patty nodded. She liked watching everything that happened – there was always someone doing something interesting.

Mark opened the stable and put Angelina inside. “She’s looking after the fairy horses,” he said.

Jodi found a white horse with fancy reins and put it in the stable with Angelina. “There, that’s her favourite horse,” she said.

Angelina smiled happily. “This isn’t like our fairy palace,” she said, “but I’ve never looked after a horse before and it’s going to be fun!”

Jodi looked round. “What shall we do with the other fairy?” she asked Mark.

Mark frowned. Then he said: “She can stand here at the door and say hello to any visitors.” He put her near the drawbridge.

“Ooooh,” said Gabby. “I’m going to show visitors round the castle and make them a drink and something to eat. I wonder if they’ll like fairy food?”

Of course, Mark and Jodi couldn’t hear her talking, so Gabby nearly fell over in surprise when Jodi said, “She can give them cakes. Everyone likes fairy cakes.”

So the fairies lived in the castle until bedtime. Everything was exciting and new, and when they fell asleep, they realised they hadn’t thought of their own fairy palace for ages.

The moral of this Tale is that  you can get really interested in anything if you give it a chance.