Chapter 1
One Christmas Eve when a little girl named Sara and her younger brother named Ben could not sleep and knew for certain that their mother was fast asleep, they thought that they would snoop around the house and look for presents. You see, they really were not quite sure of this Santa Claus and little elf thing, but they did not want to be caught either by mother nor Santa and his little helper elves; let alone one of those pesky Good Maiden Tooth Fairies they had heard about also.
Sara, age eight and a full three foot eight inches tall with shoulder length stringy grayish blonde hair that had a slight curl at the ends was the older and bigger of the two children. She knew what was going on in the world; She was sophisticated. Ben, however, age 4 and all of two foot four inches tall with a shank of reddish brown hair and freckles was less sophisticated.
While they were snooping they happened
upon a little colorful wooden box that they had never seen before. The little box measured three inches square and was located way back in the corner of the big walk-in living room closet. The little box was simply beautiful. The outside of the little box had a background color of pale light blue with tiny small shapes printed on it. The shapes were circles, squares, diamonds, triangles and half moons. The colors of the shapes were red, yellow, pink, orange, purple, green, white and black; and the box sparkled like the stars on a frosty winters night.
How come we have never noticed this
little box before, they asked each other?
Sara, being the first to spy the little
box quickly picked it up. It was very light in weight. “What do you suppose is in this little box,” she asked her brother?
“Why don’t we open it and find out,”
the unsophisticated young Ben asked?
And then Sara looked at Ben, Ben looked
back at Sara, and both gave each other a smirky little smile, and Sara popped open the lid.
“What in the world!” they both said at once.
It’s just some dumb old white mascara powder.” Their mother must have put some in the little box for storage,then shoved it back in the corner of the closet and forgot about it. However, that still seemed to be an odd place to put mascara powder.
And then, just as they were about to
put the little box back to where they had found it, the children had an idea. The idea was this: Seeing as though they had discovered the mascara powder, and because they were wide awake, they might as well have some fun with the powder. Ben was the first to grab some and throw it as Sara. The powder hit her right smack in the eyes. But before she got hit with the powder, she too, picked some powder out of the little box and threw it at Ben. The powder hit him in the eyes, too. Then as they were both laughing they began for no reason to get very sleepy. Because of their sleepiness their muscles relaxed and they were dragged into a black hole. The vacuum of the black hole sucked their lifeless bodies down and outward in to an abyss. The sensation seemed to last an eternity, but in reality only a few seconds. When they awoke they found themselves in a forest land. The forest land was full of large trees and clumps of colorful flowers and patches of green tall fescue grass. They were on a trail. As they walked along the trail they noticed a chipmunk scurrying along. As their eyes followed the small rodent they were startled to see a small old woman standing near a tree not far from them. They were terrified at first but when the small old woman called them by name, they knew she meant them no harm.
The small old woman was, at most, a cute, but kind of ugly person. Hew face looked like the classic witch one would see in a fairy tale, but unlike the witches in fairy tales, this witch was not tall and skinny, but short and rather fat. She was a little smaller than Sara, but ten times as round. Her gray black hair was pulled behind her head into a bun. Her face was brown and very wrinkled. Her nose was big, fat, and hooked. It, the nose, curled down and in, and pointed right at the top of her small crooked mouth. She did not have many teeth, and the ones she had, were blackish in color, gnarled and pointed. One wondered as to how she was able to eat. Her clothes were odd too. A bit. her dress, if one could say it was dress, seemed at one time to be black in color; now it seemed to be a dull grayish black in color. It, the dress, also had long sleeves that were frayed at the ends and the front had a large pocket that also was frayed and it had in it, holes too. She also wore long woolen stockings. The background color of the stockings was in color, pale blue. Imprinted on the pale blue background of the stockings were the prettiest tiny shapes. The shapes were circles, squares, diamonds, triangles and half moons. The colors of the shapes were red, yellow, pink, orange, purple, green, white and black. Her shoes were black in color too. They, the shoes, had medium high chunky heels that were worn down and the fronts had big fat tarnished silver square buckles.
At first the children could not believe
what they saw. Where did this small woman come from? Who was she? What did she want of them? But again, when they heard her say their names, and how her eyes twinkled, they again, knew she meant them no harm.
“Well, well, well,” the small old woman
said to the children. “You are just in time to see something very special.” She then led them to a clearing in the forest.
In the center of the clearing was
a large area of dark green tallfescue grass known as a fairy ring.
The fairy ring was about 100 lineal feet in circumference.
Right in the middle of the fairy ring was the largest hollowed out log they had ever seen in their entire lives. The log was from a dead hickory tree that had been blown over in a giant windstorm. The log looked as though it would be fun to play in.
“There! Now, do you see that?” Exclaimed the small old woman.
“They have been at it again!”
“Who, have been at what?” the children asked?
“Why! Don’t you see the Magic Pixie Dust?”
The small old woman inquired, jumping up and down excitedly, totally out of control. “Those little rascal trolls were here again last night gathering more dust to sell to Santa Claus and his little helper elves at the North Pole and to those pesky Good Maiden Tooth Fairies.
“MAGIC PIXIE DUST!” the children shouted! “What is Magic Pixie Dust and where does it come from and what does Santa Claus and his little helper elves and the Good Maiden Tooth Fairies do with it, and what gives the trolls the right to sell it; and just who are you anyway, and where did you come from”? the children demanded to know.
