deborah eve freedman: stories

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BOBBI'S TALE

Once upon a time a long, long time ago in a place far, far away was born a fairy. She was silver. Her skin was silver. Even her dress, shoes, hair and eyes. She had a fairy heart, yet...she was born without wings! She walked the forest floor or rode on the backs of worms and snakes. But she always wanted to go faster and have wings. She would look up and see all the other fairies flying effortlessly from flower to flower then disappear quicker than a blink. She tried to get to a flower many times by climbing up the stalk leaf by leaf with a lot of effort. When she did finally reach the flower, it would bend over so low that she found herself back on the ground again.

SAMPLE OF ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATED PRINT

So, she contented herself with things that crawled and sat and chatted with the beetles, ants and spiders. Often after one of her rides with snake, she would sit on a stonein the open meadow. The sun warmed them both. The stone glistened because she was there. She became known as the fairy of the stones. She added her silver magic to each stone she sat on. People would come by and admire these stones, often picking them up. But when they got home our fairy had long since hopped off and the stone looked dull and ordinary. This is how our fairy spent her days, but secretly she wanted to go faster and have wings.

One ordinary day she was sitting on a stone glissening and chatting with a caterpiller, which she often did. She told him of her secret wish to go faster and have wings. His eyes opened wide and jaw dropped. "Me too!" They looked at each other in disbelief. "I am so slow. I am bound to this earth. But I guess that's all there is. I get so tired sometimes. I just want to hole up." he said. "Me too" said our fairy. She then sat and crocheted him a green cocoon with gold flecks and watched him crawl off with it on his back to take a nap.

A long time passed and she missed their chats. One day while she was sitting on a stone in the meadow, she heard his voice. "Bobbi." "Bobbi" She looked all around, but couldn't see him. "Up here!" She looked up and there he was going fast and with wings. "Bobbi, come on, I have an extra pair!"

deborah eve freedman
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