"Glaze" by Vicki "Kiddalee" Nemeth

A bright yellow tulip splashed with red was becoming the favourite hiding place of a fairy named Bubblybelle. This tulip was in a garden, and this garden was in a park, and very close to the tulip and the garden was a sandbox. Bubblybelle had begun to like watching four human children playing with tiny colourful balls they called marbles. She admired their beautiful marbles. Some were clear, with a swirl of colour in the middle. Some were plain and silver, but shiny. Some were covered with a single beautiful colour. Still some looked to be plain and uncoloured, but then painted upon with pearls, so that in just the right light a different colour than one would ever expect shone out. But Bubblybelle’s favourite marbles were completely clear, for when you held them up to your eye and looked at something through them, whatever you were looking at turned into a pool of mixed colours. Only one of the four children had this kind of marble. His name was Leon.

Not only did Leon own Bubblybelle’s favourite kind of marble, he was also the best marble player. The other three children hardly ever beat him. Bubblybelle noticed that Leon was sometimes a bad winner, and he laughed at his friends when they lost against him, but she admired his marbles so much that she didn’t care, and if you asked her, she would have said she liked him best.

Now Bubblybelle couldn’t always watch Leon play marbles all day long. She had work to do every day, as all fairies do. One day she had so much work to do that she didn’t finish until very late, and she didn’t get to her favourite hiding place in her favourite tulip until it was almost suppertime for the four children. She could only watch them and admire their marbles for a short time, until they all decided to go home and take their marbles with them. Bubbybelle liked Leon’s marbles so much that she hated for him to leave.

Suddenly, she got an idea. She put a spell on Leon, so he became very tired and decided to sit down on the edge of the sandbox as his friends were walking home.

When they were very far ahead of him they finally noticed he wasn’t coming and shouted, “Hurry up, Leon!”

“Just go ahead without me,” Leon answered, and so his friends went home without him, and he was all alone. “I wonder why I’m so tired,” Leon said to himself with a loud yawn.

Then he heard a strange voice behind him, saying, “Turn around, Leon!” Leon got up, turned and saw Bubblybelle standing in the sandbox. Now she was as big as him, for fairies can become any size they want.

“Who are you?” asked Leon.

“My name is Bubblybelle,” answered Bubblybelle. “I’m a fairy.”

“Well,” said Leon inquisitively, “I can see your wings, but are you really a fairy?”

“Yes,” said Bubblybelle, “and I want to be your friend. Will you play marbles with me?”

“Okay,” said Leon, kneeling in the sandbox and dumping all of his marbles out of the bag in which he carried them.

Oh, how happy Bubblybelle became when she saw those beautiful, glorious marbles! She gasped with joy and jumped into the sandbox on her hands and knees, putting her face very close to her favourite, clear marbles and staring at them and giggling as only fairies can! At first it made Leon think that Bubblybelle was very strange, but then her fairy magic began to work on him and he felt almost as much joy as she did. He began laughing and laughing, and when they finally stopped, Leon told Bubblybelle that he liked her very much, but he had to go home for supper. So they made a time to meet at the sandbox every day, and Leon went home.

“Goodbye, Leon,” said Bubblybelle, as she watched him walk away. But Bubblybelle did not have to wait very long for Leon to return, for every morning he woke early to go to the park and play with Bubblybelle, and they became very good friends.

One day, Bubblybelle was hiding in her favourite tulip watching Leon play marbles with his three human friends when she heard him say, “Let’s play for keeps this time.” Bubblybelle wondered very much what playing for keeps meant, and so she watched this game very closely to see what was different about it. She saw that the smallest of the humans didn’t have any of his own marbles, so he had to sit out and watch. Bubblybelle found this very confusing, for fairies love to share and are always looking for chances to do so. As the other three played their game it didn’t appear any different than usual, until the end. When the game was over, all the players didn’t have to give the marbles they won back to their original owner. They got to keep whatever marbles they finished the game with! Bubblybelle looked at Leon’s beautiful clear marbles. Oh, how she loved them, how she wanted them for her own! Now she knew how she could have them! Soon it was almost suppertime and Leon’s friends decided to go home, but Leon stayed at the sandbox and told his friends to go on without him, for he secretly wanted to stay late and play marbles with Bubblybelle. He sat in the sandbox with his marbles out and waited, and waited, but Bubblybelle didn’t come into his view. Finally it began to grow dark, and, with a frown, Leon picked up his marbles and took them home.

Meanwhile, Bubblybelle had gone to find marbles of her own. She flew far and wide, searching for anything she could use, but it wasn’t until she had gone to the edge of the neighborhood that she saw a garden where peas grew. Bubblybelle squealed in delight and picked three large pods of peas. With her fairy magic she shrank them small enough for her to carry all the way to her favourite hiding place in the park. When she was inside her favourite tulip, she shelled the peas and made them very hard with her fairy magic. Then she fell asleep.

The next morning, a Saturday, Leon awoke early and ran all the way to the sandbox to see Bubblybelle, for he had missed her dearly the night before. He ran across the sandbox where Bubblybelle often sat while playing, and searched for her in the distance.

Then he heard her voice behind him, “Turn around, Leon!”

Leon turned, and when he saw Bubblybelle sitting in the corner of the sandbox with her legs crossed he grinned with joy and said, “Hello! How are you Bubblybelle?”

“I’m doing very well, Leon,” answered Bubblybelle, smiling the way only a fairy can smile. “Look, I’ve got my own marbles.” She held out her hands, and to Leon’s amazement, fifteen round green marbles grew as big as his own.

“Wow” said Leon, his eyes smiling with wonder. Then he suddenly exclaimed, “Let’s play!” So Bubblybelle and Leon played marbles and soon they were grinning and laughing the way only fairy magic can let somebody grin and laugh, for Bubblybelle was having so much fun that hers was beginning to work on Leon.

Before long, Bubblybelle said, “Let’s play for keeps, now.”

“Okay,” said Leon, and they began a new game.

Now Leon was the best marble player around and usually won against Bubblybelle, so he wasn’t worried about losing any of his favourite or best marbles to her. They played and played, but Leon kept winning. Bubblybelle became very worried that she would never win her favourite marbles from Leon, for no matter how much she tried, she could not win. So she began to cheat using her fairy magic. Now fairies were never meant to use their magic for dishonest things, so the more Bubblybelle cheated with it, the more horrible she felt. Because her fairy magic was working on Leon, he also began to feel horrible, as well as confused, because suddenly Bubblybelle was winning all of his clear marbles in very strange ways. Sometimes she would flick one of her green marbles at the marble pile, and all the pearly or colourful marbles would roll away, exposing a clear one in the middle, which she knocked out easily. Sometimes she would flick a marble and it didn’t even reach the pile, but a clear marble would suddenly roll towards her green one, touch it, and continue to roll towards her. This continued until Leon had lost all of his clear marbles to Bubblybelle. No matter how many rounds he played to try to win them back, he could never get them. He became very displeased and very confused because he didn’t know that Bubblybelle was using her magic to cheat. Soon it became very close to suppertime, and so it was time for him to go home. He so wanted to play another round to try to win his clear marbles back, but he knew that he had to go home in time for supper, and so he packed up the marbles he still had, and prepared to go.

“Goodbye, Leon,” whimpered Bubblybelle.

“Bubblybelle,” said Leon, “I know that we were playing for keeps, but can I please have my clear marbles back? I like them a lot.” Bubblybelle looked at Leon, her favourite human friend, and looked down at her favourite clear marbles in her hand. They were so beautiful, and she finally had them! She couldn’t just give them back to him.

Finally, she answered, “We were playing for keeps, so I get to keep them.”

“But they’re my favourite marbles,” begged Leon, “Please can I have them back, please?”

“Well they’re my favourite too!” Bubblybelle yelled, “Now they’re mine, because I won them and I won’t give them back! I won them fairly!” Now fairies were never meant to lie, and Bubblybelle knew that she had not won those marbles fairly, so her fairy magic began to work on the whole neighborhood. It became very cold and, because the fairy magic was working on Leon, he began to cry. He was so surprised at himself; nobody his age cried over marbles, and especially not him! He became so embarrassed that his face turned bright red and he ran home.

That night, both Leon and Bubblybelle felt so rotten that as they went to bed, they both resolved never to speak to each other again. Bubblybelle lay inside the squirrel’s nest that was her home, looking at her beautiful marbles and thinking that even though they were so beautiful and wonderful, she was sorry she had cheated to get them. Now Leon was angry at her. Surely she should have known that a friend was more important than some pretty things! In the cold night, Bubblybelle began to cry.

Now fairies were never meant to cry, but if they do enough bad things, they can become unhappy enough to moan and wail in tears. Bubblybelle was wailing, and she could not make herself stop. Soon a breeze began to blow against her tree, and every time she wailed, the wind blew harder and harder. Before long, it began to rain. Suddenly, the squirrel’s nest was blown right out of the tree by the wind and into the soaking grass, where it split open with a grand crash. Bubblybelle tumbled out of her home, the clear marbles rolling after her. She hurriedly gathered them in one pile and continued to cry over them. Had she caused all this? How could she fix it? She stared at the marbles in desperation. Soon, the crack of thunder was heard above her, and sheets of lightning made the sky like day. Bubblybelle saw the light sparkling in the marbles; how beautiful they were, if only they were not hers! She didn’t like having them to herself at all. If only she could share them with everyone in the world, if only she could never have anything to herself again! Bubblybelle looked up and saw the huge cloud her fairy magic had gathered together. It looked as if it could cover the whole neighborhood in rain. Bubblybelle never had rain to herself, and rain was something she usually liked very much. She had liked the marbles too, until she had them all to herself, for although she didn’t know this, fairies were never meant to keep anything to themselves, but to share with everyone and everything.

Suddenly, she had an idea. Bubblybelle shrank all the clear marbles, took them in her hands and flew up to the enormous rain cloud. Fairies can become very fast when they want to, and Bubblybelle didn’t want to wait a moment to stop her fairy magic from causing the sad rain.

When she reached the cloud, she cried “STOP!” The rain stopped, but the cloud remained, dark and threatening to burst once again. So Bubblybelle quickly began growing each marble to an enormous size, breaking them into tiny pieces and dusting the cloud with them. She was working so hard that she didn’t even notice the air becoming warm again as her magic improved. She only saw the cloud grow as she worked, and tried desperately to cover each new area with the marbles’ dust, but simply couldn’t work fast enough. Finally, she ran out. There was nothing left for her to do but let the cloud rain. Bubblybelle stared at it sadly. Her job didn’t seem to be working. The cloud grew and grew, as it became overloaded and soggy with rain.

“But I don’t want my magic to cause unhappiness anymore,” whimpered Bubblybelle desperately, “I just want to share.”

At that time, the cloud could no longer hold the rain it was carrying. It burst in torrents, knocking Bubblybelle out of the sky and through the distance onto the freezing ground.

The next morning, Leon awoke to sunshine. He was only pleased for a moment, for he then remembered what had happened between him and Bubblybelle. His mother came into his room and saw him frown.

“Get up,” she smiled. “Get dressed and go play outside. And you should wear your long jeans.” So Leon did as he was told.

What a surprise he got when he stepped out of the door! The whole ground was sparkling, yet the green of the grass just barely shone through. It was as if each blade was covered in… could it be… could everything be covered in bits of his glass marbles? He tried to run all the way to the park, but ice was on the sidewalk and he was forced to walk to keep from slipping.

When he finally reached sight of the sandbox, he yelled in his loudest voice, “Bubblybelle! Where are you?” But he got no answer. Filled with joy and amazement, he walked home.

Bubblybelle woke up very late that morning and had to use her fairy magic to melt the ice that was cementing her to the ground. When she had finally got her bearings, she looked at the park and gasped. The entire ground, and all of the trees’ leaves and branches, and even her favourite tulip was sparkling as if it had been iced with the clear marbles! After cheating to get them the night before, she thought she could never share again. She never expected her plan to work. She squealed and danced around on the slippery surface.

When Bubblybelle saw that some ice-covered grass had been crushed, she realized that Leon had been looking for her, but she didn’t go to find him. She knew that he was her friend again, and would be forever.

Leon and Bubblybelle never played together again, but they no longer disliked each other. Since then, every spring and fall, and some warm winters, ice storms have glazed the world like a sparkling, clear glass marble. Throughout Leon’s long life he was reminded of his friendship with Bubblybelle with each ice storm.