Lily's fairy party: The invitation

Lily decided last year (approximately 2 days after her 6th birthday party) that she wanted a fairy party for her 7th birthday.  It became a family affair to plan, but we had lots of fun with this theme.  Carl played an intregal role this year by setting the stage with the backstory which served as the invitation....

Once upon a time, a long time ago, far too long to remember precisely, a young boy was walking alone through the woods as he often did.  On this particular Fall afternoon, many of the umber-orange leaves already littered the ground and made rice krispy sounds as they were traipsed upon.  Only a few reddish stragglers clung persistently to their brown limbs like best friends after dance class, reluctant to part.  For a young boy who liked to catch insects and frogs and turtles, this was a less interesting time of year than Spring or Summer.  Only a rare errant bug buzzed by, probably happy that all of the reptiles and amphibians had buried themselves deep in the earth, like dragons in their treasure caves, on the first cold night of the year.  Still, the crunch, crunch and saprophytic smells of Fall signaled the chance that he might encounter the larger animals of the woods as they prepared for Winter’s holy fast. 

Turning a corner of the path he suddenly found himself in a clearing and only a few feet from a large buck with more antler points than the boy had years.  Both startled, and uncertain they stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity.  Or perhaps not actually an eternity, but long enough the distant clouds turned from white to red to orange to blue and the woods grayed and lost the sharpness of daylight.  Finally, signaling an end to this interruption in his critical foraging, the buck stomped his left fore-hoof sharply on the ground and snorted.  The boy took his cue and backed slowly away but could not help but stomp one of his Velcro tennis shoes and snort in reply from the edge of the clearing.

Now, having extricated himself from this encounter the boy was dismayed to see when he turned around that the path that had led him to this place was gone.  It was growing darker fast as he stumbled and hurried through the woods roughly in the direction from which he came.  Luckily between the dark silhouettes of the trees ahead, he saw the faintest glimmer of shimmery light.  Although he knew the warnings about naughty will-o-wisps that lead travelers to the edge of cliffs and bears’ caves and witches’ cottages, he followed it anyway, hoping instead that it was the mundane headlight of a passing car on the road he knew was nearby. 

Following the intermittent sparkly  flash of light he soon found himself at the ingress of a small glen and, there built into the side of a grassy hill was a large door twice the size of a grown-up and a stone chimney with wisps of smoke rising from it.  As he approached this odd undoubtedly  eco-friendly, ultra-green home, he was struck by the terrible smell that emanated from it – like spoiled cabbage left in your baby sister’s diaper pail.  He knocked timidly at the door and was greeted by the ugliest visage he had ever seen.  Heavy, hairy brow, bulbous nose with a piece missing at the tip, rectangular yellow-green teeth like old-fashioned chalk erasers that had not been cleaned in the months since school started and bad breath that a thousand tic-tacs could not cure, not even the wintergreen kind.  It was an ogre.

Taking a step backwards the boy prepared to run but the ogre whispered, “Stop.”  It was lucky that he only whispered because even that caused a sufficient gale force wind to knock the boy over onto the ground.  He said slowly in an even better attempt at an ogre-quiet, indoor voice, “Please come in.”  Reluctantly the boy followed the polite monster into his home and there learned that the ogre had been watching him for some time.  The ogre appreciated how much he loved the woods and that he always returned the animals he caught and he said that he would tell the boy a secret.  One day, the boy would grow up to be a man, he would get married and have three beautiful children.  His oldest daughter would be named after a flower and when she turned seven, she would invite all of her friends to her house for a fairy birthday party.  At first the boy said, “Ewww!!!”  What was all of this stuff about marriage and daughters and fairy parties… boys really don’t understand.   But then he settled down and listened to the story of Lily’s birthday.

Centuries ago an evil golem, carved and animated by the magical powers of a wicked witch, stole the woodland fairies’ treasure.  It was completely unnecessary to steal it since the fairies always shared their treasure with everyone but that is what evil golems do.  Without a treasure to share with the rest of the world, the fairies became despondent and returned to their tree houses and went to bed.  Have you ever wondered why you see so few fairies around these days?  Well, now you know.   But before their long sleep, the oldest, wisest fairy prophesized that in 700 years a human girl would be born who on her seventh birthday would, with the help of her friends, find the stolen fairy treasure and free the fairies from their slumber. 

This treasure hunt would be no ordinary treasure hunt.  Oh, there would be clues, sparkles and cake and fun but the naughty golem would also try to ensure that the stolen treasure stays hidden.  There might even be a little brother involved and you know what kind of trouble they can be.  “Ohhh,” the boy groaned, “I don’t envy those girls their task.  That golem will be hard to deal with, not to mention the little brother.”   Then the ogre said, “The will-o-wisp that guided you here will take you home, and it will reappear on the night of the birthday party to help the girls find the treasure.” 

So, if you are up for an adventure, please come to Lily’s birthday party on Sunday, November 18, 2012, at 4:00 PM (707 days to the minute, hour and year after the fairies went to sleep) and help her find the lost fairy treasure. 

Maybe you don’t believe my story but you should because I have a secret for you.   I was that little boy all of those years ago and everything the ogre said has since come true.