Chapter 1: The Magic Tap
Tillie was an orphan.
She was a girl known for her hard work. She was so hard working that without her presence, her Uncle Myles and Aunt Jill’s house wouldn’t be spiff and clean.
She worked from morning to night and barely had a thing to eat. Neither her uncle nor her aunt, ever cared to give her a kind word, while she did her chores.
Whenever it was a school day, her eyes barely opened to pay attention to the teacher in class. Everyone called her ‘sleepy Tillie.’ No one worried to ask why she slept in class.
Her cousin, Maggie, who was same age as Tillie, always made fun of her in class and at home. But 10year old Tillie never paid her cousin or any of her mockers any mind.
One day, Tillie was at school, asleep in class. She was so deep asleep that she jumped in her seat, when she heard her name called.
She opened her eyes to everyone laughing and jeering at her. And her teacher fuming at her, for sleeping.
She was shy and sunk in her seat, hoping that the class would end soon. As soon as class ended, Tillie ran to her secret spot in the creek and cried.
She was sad because no one loved her. Everyone always made fun of her and called her ‘sleepy Tillie.’ She was tired of everyone calling her that name.
She wanted people to be nice to her. To love her.
Just as the autumn wind blew across the creek, Tillie heard the soft trickle of water nearby. Her ears perked to the sound and she followed the ‘toop’ ‘toop’ sounds of the water.
Soon, she found the source of the sound. A couple of taps that were dripping. She moved closer and saw that one of the taps had a shimmering diamond button, while the other tap had a rusty handle to pump the water out.
As she watched the taps with keen eyes, Tillie realized that each tap sang a tune.
The tap with the rusty handle sang;
“♪♪ Drink a handful from me, Only a handful and you would be loved.”
On the other hand, the tap with the diamond button sang;
“♪♪ Drink a handful from me, Only a handful and you would be beautiful.”
Tillie found the tunes amusing, yet she was intrigued, even though she wondered if the taps could grant such wishes.
She at the tap that had a rusty handle and found out that she was curious to see how it worked.
She wanted to see if she could lift the handle. And most of all, she wanted to be loved. She was tired of being sad. She was tired of being laughed at. She wanted to be happy.
Carefully, Tillie lifted the rusty handle, which was a bit heavy and pumped a handful of water into her palm. She brought the glistening water to her lips and drank it all up.
She waited a few moments for something magical to happen. Maybe a bright light to glow or something. But there was nothing. She felt very sad and went back home.
The next morning, Tillie woke up and did her chores. But instead of being scolded by her aunt Jill, she got a kiss on her cheek. She was confused.
She looked around and Aunt Jill gave her a very kind smile. Tillie walked on to go and prepare for school.
On her way out the front door, she found her uncle Myles had just given her cousin Maggie her lunch pack for school. He equally had his hands busy with another lunch pack, which he had ready for Tillie.
Tillie tried to hide her surprise but couldn’t as she looked at her uncle, confused. Then her uncle told her to have a wonderful day at school.
She had never heard or seen such acts of kindness from her uncle and aunt. It made her wonder if the water had anything to do with it. Even her cousin Maggie seemed surprised by her parents’ kindness to Tillie.
At school, an angry and jealous Maggie, couldn’t hide her annoyance at seeing everyone being kind to Tillie. She scowled and frowned and couldn’t help but wonder what must have made her cousin so special all of a sudden.
So at lunch time, Maggie went to meet her cousin.
“How come sleepy Tillie has become sweet Tillie for everyone, all of a sudden?” Maggie cried out in anger.
Tillie was hurt at her cousin’s words, for she had always seen her as a friend and family.
But this time, she was no longer sleepy Tillie. Everyone loved her and she was happy. She wondered if the magic taps could do something for her cousin.
“It was the magic tap, Maggie,” Tillie said excitedly.
Maggie looked at Tillie, confused.
“What magic tap?” She asked Tillie.
“The one at the creek. There were two of them.” Tillie told her cousin.
Then she went on to give her cousin directions to the taps.
Maggie greedily listened to her cousin and didn’t even wait a minute longer after school had ended, before she headed off to the creek.
Quickly, Maggie found her way to the taps and her eyes stared greedily at the taps. She drew closer and made a face at the rusty tap.
On the other hand, she looked with admiration at the tap with a diamond button. Suddenly, each tap sang the same tune to her that they had sang for her cousin.
Maggie smiled with delight after the tunes had finished, her heart set on what she wanted.
Who wouldn’t want to choose beauty?
Even though everyone told her that she was beautiful, she still wanted more beauty. Also, she didn’t need to touch a gross, rusty tap handle, when there was the tap with a sparkling button.
So in no time, Maggie reached for the sparkling button and pressed it.
The water flowed out of the tap in a ‘whoosh’ sound, into her hand.
Maggie drank a handful of the water in a rush. But instead of going her way, she greedily eyed the water again and went for another handful.
After taking her fill, Maggie turned around and walked back to her home.
The next morning, an excited Maggie woke up from bed, all ready to be told of her beauty.
But once she looked herself in her mirror, she yelled on the top of her voice.
Her dad, her mum and cousin ran quickly to her room and gasped in horror.
For it wasn’t beautiful Maggie that stood before them, screaming. It was Maggie with the face of a giant toad.
A giant toad face with gross warts.
She cried and cried and no one could do a thing. She told everyone how she went to the creek and drank more than a handful of water from the pretty tap.
Tillie asked, “Didn’t you listen to the song? It said drink a handful. Why did you drink more than a handful of water?”
Maggie cried some more. She should have listened to the song. She shouldn’t have taken more than a handful of the water. And now she was to live with a toad face forever, all because she wanted to be more beautiful than everyone else.
