Too Much

Posted on May 20, 2014 in Children's Fiction | 0 comments

TOO MUCH OR NOT TOO MUCH… THAT IS THE QUESTION!

The Fairies in Fairy Tales come in all sizes and colors.  I have written about Rainbow Fairies, White ones, Big ones, Tiny Fairies, Invisible Fairies and for a change quite a few Elves too, a whole family of Trolls and a Witch or two, but even yet they seem to call me to write about them and their shenanigans, which are endless.

I include those other magic beings like Santa Claus, The Tooth Fairy, The Easter Bunny, Talking Dragons and many assorted Monsters both good and bad, along with Unicorns and flying Reindeer, Mermaids and Sirens, all of those mythical folks I call, Fictitious to gracefully keep hiding reality from believers who may never be ready, to come out of the dark. 

It seems to me sometimes that there are far too many of those fictitious beings.  I haven’t actually counted them.  Why bother when the need for them is so strong that we writers must go on propagating their existence and amazing abilities beyond belief.

Even now as I mentally cast them off as useless, needless and worthless I am being called to write another.  It asks… 

“Are we wanting too much of you?  Is it really too much to expect you to fill a need for more, more, and more, of the same?”

So I cave a little   No, its not asking too much.  A lot maybe, but surely not too much! 

How about just one more? I am asked once again. 

I imagine one more of anything is not too much.  But how am I to know too much when it comes?

“Do one more, then wait and see.”

 Okay, fine I’ll do one more, but be prepared and forewarned, I may scream out,  “That was just too much!”  at The End.  So here is the beginning…

SANTA CLAUS’S VACATION

Once upon a time the one Santa Claus decided to take off the month of August and go on vacation.  I am talking about the main Santa the one who lives at the North Pole, not the thousands who put on a white beard and a red suit for the Christmas season. 

So Santa chose one Elf to take with him, Edger Elf who was the tallest Elf in his Company and remember Santa Claus himself is an Elf.  So he is not very tall either. The two of them would travel and play together at the chosen Beach resort far down South in the Bahamas.  

Edger Elf left his green work clothes and pointed shoes behind and packed a nice assortment of Bermuda Shorts and tennis shoes to vacation in.  

Santa himself had ordered a good vacation ward robe and was packed and ready to go. 

However if you are hired to spend the month of December having little children climb upon your lap it is to your advantage to be fairly large.  Thus you see the majority of the Christmas Store Santa’s to be good sized men.  

Since the public becomes accustomed to large Santa’s they are less likely to recognize the real, smaller one when they see him.

Especially since on vacation he shaves his white beard for the summer.  Edger Elf is one of the largest of the Toy Maker Elves and they are close to the same size .  So Edger Elf  and Santa Claus, known as Sandy and Ed, for the vacation away from the North Pole, work well together and plan to have all of the fun vacation places offer.

 Mrs. Claus, Clara and Ed’s wife, Ellie chose to stay North and have the free time for their other hobbies.  Ellie loves to knit and makes winter sweaters for all of the Elves and Mrs. Claus, Clara, enjoys designing and sewing little doll clothes for the beautiful Christmas Dolls Santa takes to very special little girls.  

Ellie and Clara surrounded themselves with fine yarns and delicate fabrics, laces and special pretty buttons for their work, then waved goodbye to Sandy and Ed as they flew South for the month. 

The two men chose an Island in the Bahamas with a list of things to keep them busy for the entire month,  like water skiing, they get enough snow skiing up north, then they had Ski-Do’s which are like a water,  motor cycle.  They could sail a small boat or fish and the land offered golf and tennis. Water to swim in was everywhere.  What more could they want? Except of course, to dine with the best chefs and eat gourmet food.

Vacation folders made these things look as if they would be nothing but fun, fun, fun.

When the plane landed in the little airport they couldn’t believe their eyes as they peered out the window.  Never had either seen so much unfrozen water surrounded by houses.  Up at the Pole the houses get so buried in snow that you can hardly see them. But down on the ground Santa forgot to order a car and they found none were left when they got there, so they went to get their luggage and guess what?

Well you have to expect something to go wrong on a vacation. Everything can’t be perfect all the time.  Their luggage was lost.

“You lost our luggage?   My goodness where could it have gone?” Sandy asked,

The man suspected the South Pole as there was often confusion about which Pole was which.  Just like Arctic and Antarctic keep getting mixed up.       

Oh well, they would make do… for now.  If they each bought a pair of swim trunks they would be off to a good start.  But Ed’s were too big and Santa’s too small.  They tried to trade, but that didn’t work either, so Ed wore a tight belt to keep his up and Santa wore suspenders to let his be unfastened at the tight middle.   They just hoped their good wardrobes would catch up soon.  But meanwhile they dashed off to have fun anyway.  

First it was off to ride the Ski-Do, ocean motorcycles.  They were zooming around having a good chase when Ed ran into a buoy and stopped so fast he flew up and over the flag on top and down the other side to land on a seal.  The seal squawked and Ed apologized and sat on the buoy to rest.  Santa kept going until he ran out of gas.  So Ed had to get on his and go get Sandy to tow him back in.

Santa was offered more gas but they felt like doing something dry now anyway, like sit and eat. Nothing could go wrong there, right?

Santa’s burger looked pretty good.  Cooked just as he liked it.  He picked up the catsup bottle and gave it a little swat to put a dab more catsup on it for perfection.  But splat!  The entire bottle emptied on his just right burger and drowned it in catsup!  But jolly Santa ate it any way with a fork and knife so he could use the knife edge to keep scraping some catsup off of the burger and into a pile on his plate.  

Ed tried and tried to not laugh, but just couldn’t help it. But Santa got even when Ed picked up the metal container that held the balance of his chocolate Malt.  As he tipped it to pour into the glass the entire blob came out together and bounced off of the glass and all over Ed’s Fish and Chips.  So Santa covered his mouth to laugh Ho Ho Ho, quietly.

As they walked toward the golf course, Ed remarked, 

“Our lunches were a little soggy, but a lot of laughs!”

“Yes they were very generous with their catsup, I must say.”  Santa admitted.

“Who would have thought cold chocolate malt fries could be so tasty!”

Ed chuckled. Hee Hee Hee, Elves do have a good sense of humor.

Santa added, “ I guess one must expect a couple of things to go wrong on a relaxing vacation.”

“Yes.”  Ed smiled, “But I do hope we have had all of ours already.”

“Just look at the beautiful green, golf course, rolling hills and trees.  How relaxing it looks.”

They each rented clubs and set merrily out to the first green.  They expected to walk , but the agent said the first time guests could have a free Go-cart. So they climbed on and rode slowly away.  At the top of the hill overlooking the first hole they got off and each took a club and drove the balls out toward the flag, just not very far..  But when they turned to the Go-cart it was gone.  

There it was going down the hill backward in the opposite direction.  Ed took off running after it.  Santa stood and watched. Ho Ho Ho.  No point in both of them running.   He watched Ed catch the cart and begin to drive it back up.

Santa,  I mean Sandy, got back on and they drove to the first ball which was Ed’s.  Ed set the brake on the Go-cart good and tight this time and went to hit his ball.   Oops! He missed going at it and hit it coming back, so that it flew right toward Sandy sitting in the Cart.  It would have hit him too if the window of the Cart had not caught it full force and sent it flying right back to where it started.  Ed was disgusted as he eyed the ball back by his feet,

‘We’ll be all day at this game if things keep going like that” 

Of course Sandy saw it coming and ducked automatically.  Then he looked up laughing.

“Ho Ho Ho!  That was close!  I hope that doesn’t mean you are mad at me for something, Ed.”

“Golly no Sandy,  I guess we need a golf course up North so we can get some practice.  Lucky the window didn’t break.”

“I guess the Cart makers know what the Cart is in for out here.”

“Maybe we should get them to build your next new Sleigh. That Sleigh starts out looking pretty, but it is darn beat up by the time you get back each 26th of December. “

“Ho Ho Ho,”  Sandy laughed, “You are right.”   Ed stood and thought about it as Sandy struck his ball and it flew far up the hill onto the thorny bushes.  It was too close to drive so Sandy walked to find it.  Ed drove the Go cart up to the edge of the shrubs but Sandy had not yet found his ball.  His arm and hand had scratches from feeling around under the plants and getting stuck by thorns.

“Here’s a new one Sandy.  You can drop it at the edge of the grass.”  Ed explained.  He backed up the Go-cart to get out of the way and ran off the edge into the soft mud.  

After Sandy hit his ball down the hill, it rolled further than it flew. The two of them spent ten minutes trying to get the Cart, which was heavier than it looked, back up onto the grass. 

“You know we have only been on vacation one day and we have had more accidents today than we have delivering gillions of gifts all over the world.”    Hmmm, Sandy thought , 

“Why is that?“   Now Ed was thinking too.

“Do you suppose we are just not paying attention to our vacation.  We came out here to have fun not to work, but there is not much fun in everything going wrong!”    

“Are you saying that we must work at having fun?”

“I think you have… as they say,  hit the nail on the head, Sandy.  Good fun is hard work.”  

To demonstrate what he meant, Ed walked seriously over to where the ball stopped on the grass, stood beside it and looked at the flag, then back at the ball.  One more peek at the flag and whamo! The ball flew off the spot, high into the air and landed one foot from the flag then rolled right into the hole.”  

Ed beamed back at Sandy.  “Now that was fun!”

“I agree.” Sandy said, “It was even fun to watch!”

So now that they had figured out what was wrong, they both worked hard at the rest of the vacation, the golf , the tennis and the dancing and the hand ball.  Then the next day working hard at sailing a little boat properly and even had a very good time hiking the green forested hills all the way to the top for a magnificent view..  

At the end of August they arrived back up North at the Pole exhausted from that hard working, but very enjoyable vacation. 

So they took a week off before starting to build next year’s toys to just laze about and read or watch T.V..  

Santa Claus began to grow his next year’s beard, as they rested and watched the wives, Clara and Ellie knit and sew beautiful new doll clothes, between bringing them those good tasty homemade meals.   They had eaten enough of that gourmet stuff.

          THE END OF SANTA’S VACATION

That wasn’t too much work.  I think I can tackle one more.  Because I was just remembering a little dainty Fairy I knew long ago.  She was very young then.  Well we both were.  That is how it works.  We all age at the same rate.  Yet we are surprised when we meet an old friend, we haven’t seen for some time, if he or she appears to have aged.  Why is that?

Maybe we just like to keep our memories of those we knew just the same.  Even if we are older, we expect them to be as we last saw them.

My dainty little young Fairy, must be an old Fairy now just as I am old now.  How sad.  I am not sad for myself as I don’t feel old.  Only when the mirror reminds me.  The rest of the time I feel just the same as always.

Maybe she does too.  I hope so.  Well my story about her when she was very young must stay the same as when it happened.

      THE DAINTY YOUNG FAIRY

This beautiful little Fairy was trying to help a little child who had fallen on bad luck.  As she was playing on a swing, she flew too high and fell out hitting the ground hard.  She cried as she could not get up. So someone called her mother who ran out to help her and she was rushed to the hospital.

The Fairy saw the accident and went flying to the hospital to watch over her.  I don’t recall the child’s name only how concerned the Fairy was over her fate.  She was asking the other Fairies to tell her their secrets.

But if everyone told them, they wouldn’t be secrets would they?  So she hadn’t gotten very far just asking. 

She knew she had some sort of abilities with magic, but had never had to use them and was trying to learn now what she could and could not do.

I don’t know them, but I told her to try the library.  If they don’t have a book of Fairy Secrets, I’ll bet the computer does. So off she flew.

“I’ll go there tonight and try to learn what I need to know. Thanks”  she said as she flitted away.  

Night is the best time for Fairies to use the library as they can go in any time they choose, but in the day time, people who can’t see them will just pick up the book they are reading and rudely put it away.  Not to be rude, just that they don’t know they are there. Most people can’t see them, you know.  

Luckily I can, or I wouldn’t be able to write so many Fairy Stories, if I couldn’t talk to them and learn how they think and what they do.  Of course if you don’t believe in them you will never see them.  There are so any things to see, if you look.  But actually seeing is kind of like… Part of the Magic.

Anyway, I didn’t see her again for weeks. By then she was able to tell me what she learned and how it worked.  That is why I am remembering it now.  

I was reminded by the Santa Claus Tale about how he had to learn to work at having fun.  Once she learned to make her magic work she began to have fun doing it.

The last I heard the child was in the hospital and the doctors had finished working their magic, so she was almost as good as new but still could not walk.  

The young Fairy had been reading lots of things and over and over no matter where she looked the word “Confidence” kept coming up.  So it must be important. 

She began by sitting on her pillow at night so that if she woke up crying she could soothe her by telling her a story.  She began with that old one about “The Little Engine Who Could.”   You know the little train who made it up the hill by repeating, “I think I can, I think I can.”

Then another night she told her the story of Hansel and Gretel who followed the bread crumbs one step at a time all the way to their home.

After the story of Pinocchio, the little wooden boy who wanted to be a real boy, she finished by telling about Jiminy Cricket who taught Pinocchio what it meant to be real and walk without strings. 

The very next time she sang that song about,” When You Wish Upon a Star”.  It was giving hope to Pinocchio, who was still the little wooden boy with strings.

Then that night she held the curtain open so the child could see the stars.  For awhile she just lay there looking out, then she sat up and smiled at a very bright star and said softly, 

“ I wish I could walk again.”  She went back to sleep smiling and the Fairy knew the magic was working.

When her Mom and Dad came in the next day, she was sitting up smiling and saying, “I think I can… “  Put four cookies on the floor all in a long row, so they sent to the kitchen for four cookies and did as the child asked.  She slipped out of the bed and walked one step at a time from one cookie to the next all the way across to her Mother’s waiting arms.  

The Fairy was very pleased and sang her a song about Waltzing Matilda, but called it “Waltzing Belinda”.  

Yes I remember now. That was the child’s name, Belinda, and soon she was home dancing all around the room as the Fairy sang and danced with her.

They often did that from time to time until the little girl grew too old to believe in Fairies anymore.  Some do that you know.  They believe for a while especially if a Fairy is on their pillow talking to them, but then… who knows what it is… Maybe that some of us just never grow up I guess.

THE END AGAIN 

Will this be the last Fairy Tale?   Only time will tell.

Beverly Mosier       May 2014