Storytime

Once upon a time there was a wonderful amusement park called Fairyland Park. It had wonderful rides, and attractions, and games. Everything was colored in pale colors -- pink, blue, green and purple -- and all the rides were gentle, so the little kids could ride them. And although the park had been around for years and years, the rides never broke, the paint never peeled or chipped, and all the kids for years and years had great fun there.

One day, two little siblings named Susie and Jimmy went to the park and noticed that the paint was peeling on the rides, and the rides weren't gentle anymore. In fact, when the kids got on them, they went VERY VERY VERY FAST and were so scary that the kids threw up and were green and dizzy when they got off. And gradually the park fell into more and more disrepair.

One day a spirit appeared, and he roared over the whole park: "This is MY park! Go away! All of you!" And that's when Susie and Jimmy realized that that was why the paint was peeling and the rides weren't gentle anymore -- it was an evil spirit who had taken over the park and made it that way. Susie and Jimmy went home and tried to figure out what to do.

The next day they went to the park and asked the spirit why he was so mean. "Because a long time ago, little kids made fun of me and teased me, and this is my way of getting back at them!" he roared.

"Well, that's not very nice," Susie and Jimmy said, and then they had an idea: they'd gather all the little kids from their town, and there were about a hundred of them. So the kids came to the park and they all spoke to the spirit. "How about you have the park for a certain number of hours and we have it for the rest of the time?" they asked.

"NO!" the spirit roared. "It's MY park! MINE! I will NEVER share it with ANYONE! Go AWAY!"

Well, Jimmy and Susie told the spirit that if he wouldn't share the park, they'd bring their friends. And the next day, they brought the same hundred kids who had been there the previous day -- plus waves and waves of kids from the towns nearby. There were hundreds and hundreds of kids, and they all stood in front of the spirit and shouted, "This is not YOUR park. It's OUR park! Be GONE, spirit! Be GONE!"

And all of a sudden the spirit started howling, and swirling, and twisted upward into a great cloud of dust...and tiny dust motes of fairy sprinkles in all different colors started drifting down. And the colors of Fairyland Park were restored, and rides were fixed again...and that is the story of how the kids took back Fairyland Park.

***

That's the story I told Rachel on the way to Sunnyside Park today, after she asked for a story that's "a little spooky" but not a lot because she didn't want to have spooky dreams. She made up the names of Jimmy and Susie but I supplied the rest.

***

Cute Rachel sayings from yesterday:

"I love Superman! He's the best!"
"Why?" I asked.
"'Cause he SAVES people!" she replied.

"Mom!" Rachel said as I was pushing her, hard, at her request, on the tire swing. "I feel like I'm dancing in a swirl of fairy dust!"

Yes, it seems we have a budding writer in the house. Despite all our best attempts not to.