The Fairy Who Couldn’t Sing
By Elisabeth Whittaker
Once upon a time, there was a young fairy named Amelia. Amelia was a very sad young fairy because she couldn’t sing. It’s a well-known fact that all fairies have beautiful singing voices, to lull flowers to sleep with and to bring stars out from behind the clouds. But try as she might, Amelia just couldn’t sing. When she tried to sing lullabies to the flowers, they shriveled up in disgust. When she tried to call the stars out, they raised their shrill voices in protest and hurled themselves out of their beds in the sky. It was very depressing.
One night, Amelia sat crying on a mossy rock. All the other fairies hated her and she had just killed a beautiful daisy with her tone-deaf warbling. As she sat crying, two of her tears fell into the moss and from it up sprang a porcupine in a fluffy lavender dress.
“Why are you crying, Amelia?” the porcupine asked.
Amelia looked up in surprise. “Who are you?” she said.
“Why, I’m your Porcupine Godmother!” the porcupine replied. My name is Florinda.
It’s common knowledge that all children, unbeknownst to their parents, have a Fairy Godmother. What is slightly less well-known is that fairies themselves don’t have Fairy Godmothers, but Porcupine Godmothers instead. But back to our story…
“Oh, Florinda, I’m so depressed!” Amelia sobbed. “All the other fairies have beautiful singing voices and I can’t tell a harmonica from a bullfrog!”
“There, there,” Florinda said. “I’m sure you can sing beautifully!”
Amelia merely shook her head, and great tears rolled down her cheeks.
“Come now,” said Florinda. “You’re imagining things! Come, dearie, let’s hear it. Let’s hear that lovely little fairy voice!”
Amelia sniffed twice and took a deep breath. “Jeremiah was a bullfrog!” she began.
Florinda covered her ears.
“Was a good friend of mine!” Ameila sang.
The grass nearby turned brown and started to shrivel.
“I never understood a single word he said…” Amelia warbled.
Somewhere in the distance a dog howled along.
“But I helped him drink his wine! I’m singing—“
At that moment, Florinda clapped her paws over Amelia’s mouth. In the river nearby, a few fish floated to the surface.
“There’s only one thing that can help you,” Florinda said as she took her paws away from Amelia’s mouth.
“What’s that?” Amelia asked.
“Ben and Jerry’s New York Double-Fudge Chink Chocolate Ice-cream!” Florinda replied.
Amelia looked at her skeptically. “Will that help me sing better?” she asked.
“No,” Florinda replied. “But it’s the only thing that can cheer you up when you’re that hopeless!” And with that, Florinda disappeared in a cloud of purple and blue smoke.
“Oh!” Amelia cried, and stomped her little fairy foot in frustration.
Tap.
Amelia looked down. Her small fairy shoes were made of sparkling silver, and they made a satisfying “click” on the rock.
Tap. Tap. Amelia stepped again.
Tap. Tap. Shuffle-shuffle-flap-stomp-kick. Amelia’s shoes tapped out a rhythm on the rock. She spun and kicked and swayed her hips.
Shuffle-shuffle-stomp-stomp-stomp! The floating fish gasped and swam back underwater.
Flap. Flap. Flap-flap-tap! The brown grass greened and perked back up.
Tappety-tappety-tappety-kick-stomp-twirl! The flowers lifted their wilting heads and the stars peeked out from behind the clouds to see what was going on.
Stomp-stomp-stomp. Flap-shuffle-stomp! “I’m dancing!” Amelia cried.
The other fairies peered out from behind leaves and underneath flowers to watch Amelia dance. They began clapping their hands and tapping their feet. A few even whistled.
Amelia was overjoyed. Perhaps she couldn’t sing, but she could dance! She’d never felt happier in her life.
Well, that night was the beginning for Amelia, and the rest is history. Amelia went on to become one of the most successful tap-dancers of modern fairy culture, and the schools that she opened during her career are still training little fairy feet today.
So when you see the stars come out, or when you glance at the flowers nodding their heads, think of those little silver shoes tapping, and a little fairy named Amelia, who couldn’t carry a tune to save her life.
THE END
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