Secret Treasures

Anthony remembered watching his grandfather painting. There was the smell of oil paints and thinners and the sounds of the brush swishing and grandfather humming. Grandfather used a wooden box to store his paints. Anthony loved the squishy tubes and bright colours.

When his grandfather died, the box and an old painting were given to Anthony with a note that said, “You will know what to do with these.”

“What old junk!” Anthony’s brother said scornfully.

Anthony ran upstairs and banged the door to his room. He gripped the box and painting tightly while hot tears ran down his cheeks.

His mom came in and hugged him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “Your brother is going through a difficult stage.”

“Mom, I need a hammer,” Anthony said.

“What for?” his mom asked suspiciously.

“To hang the picture,” Anthony said.

Then they both looked at each other and smiled.

He was banging a hook into his wall when part of the plaster fell away. He found that one of the bricks underneath was loose and carefully he edged it out.

“Perfect,” he said and slid the wooden box into the space left by the brick.

He banged another nail into the wall and hung the painting over the hole. This way, mom would not get upset, and he had a secret hiding place.

Sweethearts

In the window of a cake shop was the most beautiful display of wedding cakes. The centrepiece was a five-tiered cake with an old-fashioned bride and groom, who looked as though they were about to step into a dance. Every night, the Master Sugar Chef covered them with a special glass case.

But one night he forgot. It was spring and everyone had fallen in love and wanted to get married immediately. The Master Sugar Chef locked up his shop and dashed home to prepare his ingredients.

When the clock chimed twelve o’clock, all the little brides and grooms on the wedding cakes came to life.

“Look at that,” one groom said, “The master forgot his little angels.”

On top of the five-tiered wedding cake the old-fashioned groom said, “My dear, you look beautiful this evening,” as he usually did and she replied, “You look so handsome, my love,” as she usually did and they exchanged a sweet kiss.

Then they realized that their glass prison was gone!

Mrs Freakle Finally Freaks Out!

Mrs Freakle looked like everyone else’s mom. In fact people were always stopping her and saying, “Aren’t you Mrs Smith” or “Aren’t you Mrs Jones” and she would say politely, “No I’m Mrs Freakle”.

Then they would say, “Who?”

Mrs Freakle was a very good mom. She cooked wonderful, tasty dinners. She washed the very dirty clothes of her four very naughty boys and she even cleaned up the dog poop!

But one day, Mrs Freakle finally freaked out. It wasn’t anything big. It was just one of those little things that made her finally explode like a volcano.

Mrs Freakle had been busy experimenting with her plant extracts in her basement. She had mixed special ingredients for a spray that would make her flowers bloom beautifully.

There was a puff of pink smoke, then a puff of purple smoke and a weird goopy green liquid oozed into her spray bottle.

“Hmm, not quite what I expected,” Mrs Freakle said, “But I will test it out.”

She hurried outside to try out her new garden spray. It was kind of oozy and instead of spray, it puffed out a yellowish vapour.

Then, before Mrs Freakle’s surprised eyes, the flower she sprayed shrank smaller and smaller until it was the size of her little finger.

“My goodness!” she said.

Charlie the little boy next door was peeping over the fence. He grinned with no front teeth because he was only five.

“Wow!” he said.

“Ssh Charlie,” Mrs Freakle said.

She heard Charlie’s mother yelling, “Charles Stromberg! You get off that wall right this minute!”

Charlie’s mother was not very patient.

“Bye,” Charlie said.

“Bye,” said Mrs Freakle looking at her plant spray.

That evening, Mr Freakle, came home from work as he usually did. He sat in his favourite armchair with a six-pack of Icy Pops – his favourite sodas and said, “What’s for dinner?” as he usually did.

Little Tommy Freakle said, “I hope it’s not that disgusting meatloaf again.”

And Mr Freakle and the four little Freakles all laughed very rudely.

Mrs Freakle’s dinners were always good and tasty. But that day at the school bake sale, her cake had been the last one to be sold and all the ladies had left her to do all the cleaning up and so Tommy Freakle’s rude words were the last straw.

Mrs Freakle shouted at the top of her voice, “You are the rudest most horrible, mean family in the world!”

She still had the goopy plant spray in her hand and she sprayed all of them. Instantly the whole Freakle family shrank to the size of your little finger and Mrs Freakle popped them all into a shoebox.

“Now you can learn some manners!” she said.

They squeaked and hopped like little mice, but it was no good. Mrs Freakle gave them a cupcake to share and a thimble of milk and then she left the shoebox on the table and went to bed.

The moon was a silver slice in the dark sky and thousands of stars were shining. Mrs Freakle thought how beautiful they were and how peaceful her house was and she fell fast asleep.

The next day, Mrs Freakle went back to her basement to work on an antidote to her shrinking spray. She was a good mother after all and didn’t mean to leave the family shrunken forever.

But she forgot that Mrs Meddle was popping over to collect jumble for the church bazaar.

“Hello Mrs Freakle,” Mrs Meddle called as she walked in through the front door, “Just collecting for the church bazaar.”

“It’s all in the hall,” Mrs Freakle called back, “Can you take it? I’m just in the middle of something.”

Mrs Freakle was in fact in the middle of a huge vat of dandelion flowers that she was stomping. She was covered in green goop.

“Thank you,” Mrs Meddle called and off she went.

Mrs Freakle didn’t think about this until later in the day when she decided she had finally got the antidote right.

She went outside to test the spray on her flowers. She sprayed the one she had shrunk and a greenish vapour covered it and it grew back to normal size.

“Hooray!” she said. And got a fright when Charlie from next door said, “Wow!” again.

“Charlie, you must stop spying on me,” Mrs Freakle said.

“I’m bored,” he said, with no front teeth, “Come over and spray my mom!”

“Charlie!” Mrs Freakle said, “I can’t do that! At least, not today. Bye!”

And she rushed back inside to spray her family back to normal size.

It was then she realized that Mrs Meddle had taken the shoebox containing her family to the church bazaar.

“Oh dear,” said Mrs Freakle.

She had a cup of tea and decided what to do. Did she really want her family back? She thought of her husband and his Icy Pops and her children with their rude shouting and the dogs that pooped in the hall.

“Right,” she said to the empty house, “We have to do it. Goodbye peace and quiet.”

And Mrs Freakle took her antidote spray and rushed off to the church bazaar.

The church was very busy. There were people having tea and cake and selling second-hand books and brand new vegetables.

Mrs Freakle looked and looked. No shoebox.

She saw kids playing games and grannies gossiping. No shoebox.

She saw pony rides and toys. And then she saw the shoebox.

It was under the arm of a little girl with brown pigtails who was holding onto her mother’s hand. The little girl and her mother were having a big argument.

“But I want the little dollies,” the little girl was crying.

“No, Samantha,” her mother said, “You have too many dolls at home.”

“But these are the best,” the little girl cried, “They’re alive.”

Mrs Freakle could see the mother was just about to give in because she was tired and fed up, so she rushed over and said,

“I’m so sorry, this was my box. It was collected by mistake – it’s not supposed to be for sale.”

“You see,” the little girl’s mother said and tried to take the box. But the little girl hung on tightly. “They’re real!” she yelled.

It was a shoebox tug-‘o-war! And then the shoebox broke in half.

Mrs Freakle gasped. Her tiny family and dog fell out onto the grass.

Quickly she picked them up and popped them all into her pocket.

“So sorry,” she said to the mother and the crying little girl and hurried home.

She could hear squeaking noises from inside her pocket, but she didn’t stop until she got home and shut the front door.

Then she put her noisy, rude family on the carpet and sprayed them with the antidote.

They all shot up to normal size and were amazingly quiet and well-behaved.

After all, as Mrs Freakle reminded them, they could have ended up in a little girl’s dolls’ house – not much fun for four naughty boys – or their father – or their messy pups!

.

THE FAIRY GOD-MADALA

One day a very old man came to the gates of a magnificent house. But the children who lived in that house were rude and naughty.

"Please can I have some water," the old madala said.

"No!" the children shouted, "Go away!"

The madala went to the next house. It was a beautiful house and the children were smartly dressed. But they were not kind.

"Excuse me," he said, "Can I have some water?"

"No," the children said, “Go away.”

And they walked inside the house and closed the door.

"It's very hot on the road outside," the madala said wiping his head with an old handkerchief.

He was pushing a bicycle that was loaded down with different kinds of plants. He had pots of lilies, daisies, geraniums, palm tree shoots and wildflowers.

He was pushing his bike past the third house, when a girl and boy came out. It was a very small house and the children’s clothing was old and worn, but they smiled.

"Hi," they said

"Hello," he said

"Do you want a drink of water?" the boy asked.

"Yes, please. Thank you." the madala said.

The children fetched a bottle of water and watched while the old man drank it all.

Then he said, "I will tell you a secret. I am not just a poor, old madala, selling my plants, I am a fairy god-madala and I can grant you three wishes."

"Really?" the children said, their eyes wide as saucers.

"Yes," he said. "It's true."

The children looked at each other and then they said, "We know our wishes because we say them every night as prayers too."

"Then that should be easy," the madala said, "What would you like?"

The little girl tucked her hair behind her ears and said, "For the first wish, we would like our dad to get a job."

The madala said, "Okay, carry on."

The little boy said, "For our second wish, we want our mommy to be happy."

"Right," said the madala, "These seem like straightforward wishes."

"And the last wish," the little girl said, "Is that we wish for a puppy to play with."

"Okay, okay," the madala said as if he were thinking, then he nodded his head. "I can do it for you," he said, "All of your wishes will come true.”

He gave the children a mulberry plant that was as high as the boy’s knee.

“This is a mulberry tree,” the madala said, “Plant this in your garden and when you see the mulberries growing like little red worms, your wishes will come true.”

The children were very excited. They took the mulberry plant and planted it in a secret corner of the garden. Every day, they watered the plant and told it their wishes.

The boy and girl's parents wondered what had happened. Their children were suddenly so much more friendly and helpful and polite. They didn't fight or shout.

They said, “Please” and “thank you” and helped to make their beds and wash the dishes.

Every day, the children saw that the mulberry tree was getting a little bit bigger. And it was not long before they saw tiny red mulberries growing on their tree. Then they saw the old madala again. He came past, pushing his old bicycle and the children gave him a bottle of water.

“Give this to your father,” he said, handing them a white card.

“What is it?” the little boy asked.

“It is a magic card,” the madala said, “Tell your father he must phone that man.”

The children ran inside excitedly and gave their father the card.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“From the fairy god-madala,” the little girl said, “He said you must phone this man.”

Their father laughed and said, “Okay.” And he phoned the man. The children heard him talking in a very surprised voice. Then they heard him call their mom and say, “Guess what? I’ve just been offered a job!”

“Our first wish,” the little boy said, “It came true.”

The next day, their mother was singing in the kitchen.

“Our second wish,” the little girl said, “It came true.”

They stood at the gate of their house that afternoon.

“What about the third wish,” the little boy said.

“Maybe it is too much to expect three wishes to come true,” the little girl said.

Then they saw the old madala again. But this time, he didn’t have any plants on his old bicycle basket. There was a wriggling ball of fur.

“A puppy!” the little boy shouted excitedly.

“This is from another magic lady up the road,” the madala said, “She said this puppy is looking for a home.”

The children were so excited they rushed inside to ask their mother if they could keep it. And the most magical part was that she said, “Yes”.

That night when they were saying their prayers, their mother asked the children what they were thankful for.

“We are thankful that our wishes were granted,” the little boy said, “By the fairy god-madala.”

Then their mother smiled at them and read them a very special verse in the Bible.

It said: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hebrews 13:2)

“Do you mean to say he was an angel?” the little girl asked very doubtfully.

“Well, if he wasn’t an angel, he certainly helped some miracles along,” Mum said. 

Just as they were falling asleep, her brother said to the little girl, “You don’t suppose there will be a castle at the top of the mulberry tree one day?”

“Maybe,” the little girl said sleepily, “An ice-cream castle! Goodnight!”.