The chocolate fairy
The family bundled out of the car and into the sculpture garden. The sculptures were by many different artists from all over the world and were surrounded by forest. Because it was Halloween, the leaves were various shades of orange, red, gold, and brown. In the parking lot, a worm was struggling to get over the dry concrete.
Elizabeth who was four, nearly five, jumped into each puddle between her family’s car and another that was already parked. Then she saw the worm, gathered it onto a leaf, and moved it onto the nearby grass.
As the family organized themselves, Elizabeth climbed the hill towards the first sculpture, setting the pace for the rest of the family. As she approached the first sculpture she screamed in delight. Behind the sculpture was a Hershey chocolate bar, wrapped in its shiny brown and white wrapper.
“How did this get here?” Elizabeth wondered, excitedly, and then yelped in delight – words evading her. “I wonder if it was a fairy?” she said, almost to herself.
From behind a nearby granite boulder, the fairy covered its mouth with its hand and snickered. Leaving chocolate for good little girls made the fairy very happy indeed. It flew on to the next sculpture that it knew the girl would reach and pulled another chocolate bar from the little bag wrapped around her waist. The bag couldn’t go over her shoulder, of course, because it would be in the way of her wings.
Now that there was another chocolate bar ready, she flew around in circles a little, and then flew off to her fairy house under a giant toadstool at the top of the hill. There she picked up another two chocolate bars.
As she flew away, her brother called out “There are more on the way from Pennsylvania!” Of course, he said this in a fairy language, and it sounded a lot like dry leaves rustling in the wind.
The fairy flew back towards the family who had, by now, already found the second chocolate bar.
The fairy’s cousin was flying from Pennsylvania. The cousin had visited the Hershey factory and found the little door at the rear. The door, no more than 6 inches tall, opened into the Hershey factory where new chocolate bars could be collected by fairies from all around the USA and Canada. The fairies leave some fairy dust, and then fly back to where the good children need to be given their treats on Halloween.
As the fairy’s cousin flew out from the door again, she passed hundreds of other fairies, all arriving and fluttering around, chatting to each other before their long journeys back.
At the next sculpture, the fairy left two chocolate bars. Elizabeth only found one, though. But Elizabeth was so excited, she showed her whole family what she had found. Elizabeth’s aunt wondered if perhaps it was a reward for being kind to a worm.
The fairy buzzed her wings in agreement, and flew back down to the sculpture. She picked up the chocolate bar that had not been found, and flew onto the next sculpture.
At the next sculpture she put the chocolate bar on the sculpture’s face and giggled to herself again, knowing how excited this was going to make little Elizabeth. Then she flew on and skipped a few sculptures so that Elizabeth could continue to be surprised. As she flew, she heard Elizabeth scream loudly. “Thank you fairies, thank you for more chocolate!”
When she heard this, the fairy did a somersault in the air and her wings shimmered different colors. How lovely little Elizabeth is, she thought. “Happy Halloween” the fairy whispered, to herself.
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