eNewsletter Archives

How Leah Became A Fairy Princess
By Joel Haas

It all began with a very loud crash. Then everything was quiet, and Leah was in her garden again. For the longest time nobody came, but the day was pleasant and nearly all the flowers were in bloom.

After awhile, Helen and Margo from down the street came through the gate. Then Lindsey came in the garden, and Leah heard her mother’s voice and Lindsey’s mother’s voice outside the tall wooden gate. They seemed to be speaking in hushed tones, but the girls didn’t care what sort of tones their moms were speaking in.

Margo and Lindsey had capes and crowns, Helen had pink boots with glitter and a very fancy sparkly wand her daddy had made. Soon kingdoms and castles had been conjured, and tea parties arranged.

A buzzing, tinkling sound was heard in the distance. The garden grew even brighter. The air shimmered. Suddenly, in a shower of silver sparks, the Fairy Princess appeared, mounted on her faithful steed, Charley Horse. The girls had never seen such a wonderful sight!

“Do you all want to play fairy princess?” the Fairy Princess asked, casually brushing her magic wand through Charley Horse’s mane.

Hardly able to speak, Margo, Lindsey, and Helen nodded yes.

“Well, then,” the Fairy Princess proclaimed serenely, “We shall need wonderful dresses and castles and wands for everybody!”

As she slipped gracefully from Charley Horse’s back, the Fairy Princess shouted, “Tiaras for everyone!” With a glowing wave of her magic wand, they were all transformed – every one of them.

“Leah!” Margo said and the other little girls looked up. “We didn’t know you were here too!”

“Of course, she’s playing too,” the Fairy Princess said airily as she waved her magic wand again. Presto! Leah was wearing pink gauzy wings, a sparkly purple dress, yellow crown, and she had a wand. Leah felt a bit wobbly and saw she was perched on some of her mother’s old high heels.

“Perfect!” the Fairy Princess said. And so the morning passed – the girls waving their magic wands to create kingdoms and wipe away tears.

“May we please ride Charley Horse?” the girls asked the Fairy Princess.

“Of course,” the Fairy Princess answered, “He loves to race with butterflies, but he’s not really fast enough to beat the hummingbirds.”

And so they played until the shadows lengthened as the afternoon sun turned the garden lawn to a hazy gold.

Leah was having so much fun riding Charley Horse, she hardly noticed that Margo and Helen and Lindsey had left. “Where did they all go?” Leah asked the Fairy Princess. “Did they have to go home?”

“No,” said the Fairy Princess as she conjured up sugar cubes and apples to give Charley Horse, “They said they were too old to play fairy princess any more and left.”

“Will they be back?” Leah asked.

“No,” was the reply. “They’ll always be too old to play fairy princess now.”

Surprised and a little upset, Leah declared, “Well, I’m not too old to play fairy princess. I never want to be that old!”

So she played until the tide of shadows washed over the garden and lightning bugs began to twinkle.

“I would love to be a real fairy princess like you!” Leah sighed. Even the coat hanger wire in her gauzy pink wings seemed to slump a bit in resignation.

“Why nothing could be easier!” The Fairy Princess said. “You have only to ask your mother if you can come with me to see Titania, the Fairy Queen. I’m sure she could make you a real fairy princess for ever!”

“Now?” Leah was startled.

“Just go ask,” the Fairy Princess pointed to the back door. Already the porch light was on to show the steps in soft glow.

The screen door shut quietly behind Leah as she entered the house. It seemed so dark and so late. Hadn’t the sun just gone down? Had she missed supper? She hurried down the hall and into her mother’s bedroom.

Her mother had new pajamas and her hair looked different. But this was the safest and coziest place in the world!

Leah climbed into bed with her mother as she had so often in the past. She heard her mother’s happy murmur of a sleepy greeting and felt her mother’s arms around her.

She told her mother all about the day – about Margo and Helen and Lindsey, and about Charley Horse and the Fairy Princess who could really fly and turn columbines into teacups and pecan sticks into wands.

Leah told her mother how the other girls were too old to play fairy princess and had left, but how the real Fairy Princess had promised that she could be a real Fairy Princess too, if her mom would only let her go see Titania, the Fairy Queen, and . . .”

Her mother was smiling.

“Oh, please Mom! May I go? May I?” pleaded Leah.

For the longest time, her mother did not say a word. Finally, “Yes,” she nodded.

Leah was out of the bed, nearly flying down the hall shouting, “Thanks, Mom!” She never saw the tear coursing down her mother’s face.

Charley Horse was waiting nearby as the back door slammed shut and Leah skipped into the moonlight shouting, “My mom says it’s okay! I can be a real Fairy Princess!”

Leah’s mother stood crying silently by the back door. She had had the most wonderful but painful dream of Leah last night. The joy of holding her child once again and then the pain of letting her go.

She went out the door and felt the dew and grass between her toes. There were voices – softer than daybreak’s whisper – in the jasmine along the back wall.

Sparkling dimly in the tree branches overhead was a regal woman in a magnificent gown – Titania, the Fairy Queen. All around her were little girls in a multitude of fairy princess robes. And she saw Leah, standing before the Fairy Queen, a look of puzzlement and awe on her child’s face.

“Where’s my real crown and real magic wand?” Leah asked. “In your mother’s garden,” the Fairy Queen answered. “You’ll have to seek them there.”

Then waving her wand, the Fairy Queen wove a circle of sparkling fairy dust around Leah’s head. “This is what I decree: that whenever you are carried in your mother’s heart in her garden, you will be a real Fairy Princess.”

With that, the Fairy Queen started to fade away. It was already hard to tell if she were still there in the treetop – or if it was just a trick of the light on leaves and branches.

“Wait!” Leah called, “Can I have my friends over?”

“By all means,” she heard the Fairy Queen say, “and Charley Horse too.”

Then . . . they all vanished. And it really was just morning light playing tricks on leaves and branches.