Because it was buried in mumbo-jumbo a couple of posts down, I am re-posting this short children's story I wrote. It's about fairies, exclusion, heroism, and forgiveness. I hope you enjoy it. And yes, this may be the beginning of a trend.

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Maribeth's Moment
by Steve Walden

Once upon a time, there was a fairy. Maribeth was unlike all the other fairies because she had green eyes and all the other fairies had blue eyes.

Now, mind you, in our world, this is not a problem. Most of us have green eyes, or blue, or brown or even a combination of these colors.

But in the fairy world, every fairy has blue eyes, so blue that they would practically glow, and to have green eyes...well, the other fairies called her all sorts of names.

All of the names were horrible, but the one Maribeth hated the most was "leaf eater." Fairies, you see, don't harm plants, and there was a vicious rumor that Maribeth ate a plant and it turned her eyes green. It was completely untrue, too.

Maribeth had been born this way, and she had spent most of her days wishing her eyes were blue. In fact, she would imagine waking up one morning and finding her eyes the most beautiful shade of blue in the whole world.

She would think blue thoughts, have blue dreams, and even pray that the God of the fairies would make her eyes blue for even one day. Unfortunately, this never happened. This made her blue, except for her eyes.

One day, the fairies were playing out in the meadow. The dawn was beautiful, and all the fairies' eyes shone brightly in the new day's bright sunlight.

The fairies were playing with the dew and throwing dew drops back and forth at each other in a game of dodgedew. The air was filled with the sound of fairy laughter and screams at being hit...

...when suddenly the air shook with a dreadful sound: "Crrroooooak!" It was a frog! All the fairies screamed at the sound. They knew that frogs always mistook fairies for bugs, which isn't all that hard for a frog to do, given the resemblance.

So you can imagine the panic when the frog croaked again and leaped into the middle of the dodgedew game. Fairies were flying left and right and over and under each other...

...until someone cried out "Get down!" and everyone remembered their frog training and dropped like flies. Once on the ground, they wouldn't move as fast, but they would look less like bugs, which the frog would surely eat.

Maribeth was frightened by the frog, but she was safely in a corner and not very near the frog. Suddenly the frog stared very hard at one of the littlest fairies, Junie, who stared back with her very blue eyes.

The frog got closer and began to zero in on Junie, like a frog does to a bug right before he eats it. Someone else called out, "shut your eyes!" and Junie immediately shut her eyes.

The frog, confused, looked away, because of the sound and because Junie had shut her eyes, when the frog looked back, he took no notice of her. The rest of the fairies closed their eyes and they knew they were safe...for the moment.

There was only one problem. Since they couldn't see, they couldn't escape. They couldn't tell if they were going away from the frog or right into his big, scary mouth.

Maribeth looked at the frog, and for some strange reason, she didn't shut her eyes. She saw that the frog's eyes looked over her and they looked beyond her, almost like she wasn't there.

Then she realized, her eyes weren't blue, they were green, like the plants around her. Maribeth realized that she was safe and she could easily walk away from the danger that sat in the middle of the dodgedew field.

But then she wondered what would happen to the other fairies. They couldn't see to get away, and the frog certainly would discover one of them looking at him with their blue eyes.

And then, Maribeth swallowed. She knew the fairies certainly didn't deserve her help after the way they treated her, but could she leave knowing that a fairy or two, or even most of the fairies would die inside a frog because she wouldn't help them?

Maribeth stood straight as a twig and marched -- quietly -- over to Junie. "Psst. Junie. Take my hand. Keep your eyes shut, but take my hand."

Junie felt for Maribeth's hand and grabbed it tightly, mostly because she was so scared. Then Maribeth led her off the dodgedew field and into a high patch of grass.

Then she said, "Okay, open your eyes and run -- don't fly -- to the village and tell everyone there's a frog on the dodgedew field." "There's a frog on the dodgedew field," Junie repeated, and ran as fast as her fairy legs would let her.

Then Maribeth began to get the fairies, one by one, until at last every one of them was safe, covered by their parents' wings.

When the frog left, there was a terrific celebration in the fairy village, and Maribeth had the high seat of honor normally reserved for the Grand Fairymaster.

From that day on, no one called her "leaf eater." And no one made fun of her very green, and very beautiful eyes.

The End.

Maribeth's Moment, (c) Steve Walden 2006

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