Contest round 1

“For crying out loud Ellie! Your baby brother did not break that dish. Now, tell me what really happened.”

Ellie looked at her mom with wide, innocent blue eyes. “Well, gee mom. It’s like I said, Billy broke your special show off plate. I came in here to get a snack and Billy was standing on that chair.” She thrust her finger towards the kitchen chair that was against the counter.

“Standing was he?”

Ellie looked at Billy who was sucking on his own toes and leaving a gross puddle of drool on the floor. “What can I say? He’s a real smarty pants! He musta thought that plate was pretty cause he was reachin for it. I told him not to but it slipped right outta his hands. KER-SMASH! And then you showed up.”

“Ellie.” There it was, her name in that ‘tired-and-I’m-done-playing-around’ way.

“Mo-om!”

“So, it was your brother this time? Like the time the elves left a trail of sugar and ants got in the house? Or when sprites took all of our shoe laces? What about when the Easter Bunny ate all the candy?”

“He could’ve done it! He’s always grabbing everything and he pulls himself up in the crib so he’s standing!” Ellie tried to stare her mom down but knew it was useless as soon as her mom tilted her head and gave her THAT look. The kitchen went all wavy and Ellie started to cry.

“I just wanted a cookie! But I slipped and the plate fell down and it broke and I’m really really sorry! A-And B-Billy was ruh-right there a-and I th-thought y-y-you’d be luh-less ma-ad at him ca-cause he’s a-a-a buh-baby!” She was crying so hard now that she was hiccupping. When her mom held out her hands Ellie barreled into her, nearly knocking her over with the hug. She knew it was her mom’s most specialist thing ever. And she did feel awful about breaking it. She didn’t tell stories to her mom because she was trying to get out of trouble, not exactly, she was hoping that if she got just the right story at just the right time it would come true. After all, her dad always said if you could imagine it, it could be real. But even so, she had broken her mom’s most specialist thing ever so after her mom stopped hugging her, Ellie ran to her room and grabbed the black horse off of her bed.

“Mommy!” She said running back into the kitchen where her mom was picking up pieces of the plate with tears dripping off of her nose. “Mommy, you can have Wind. I broke your favoritist thing so you can have mine instead. I’m sorry you can’t serve cookies on Wind, but maybe we could tie another plate to her back?”

Her mom smiled a little, only a little, and Ellie frowned. If she could tell the right story would that unbreak the plate? Maybe if she wrote it down, that would be the right combination to make magic happen for her mom. With a six year old’s determination, she went to hunt down paper and pencil to tell the right story and make her mom happy again.