FROM BAD to GOOD

I WANT TO BE A PRINCESS
by
Jean Thibault Castagno

Bee, Cee and Dee were playing in Bee’s backyard one fine, sunny, and rather warm spring day. The flowers on most plants were in full bloom and all the tulips that Bee’s Dad had ordered from Holland were looking really great. Bee’s Dad liked to get his bulbs and seeds straight from the source.
The three young girls had a project to complete for their school ecology class. ”Shall we do something about flowers?” asked Cee.
“Oh, everybody will do flowers,” said Dee. “It’s just too easy. Let’s do something different and more challenging.”
“Well, you can say that, Dee,” said Bee. “But what?”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Dee. “How many pairs of wet shoes do you have, Bee?”
“I have two or three pairs of those rubber slip-ons that we can slide over our bare feet and, even if the water in the tidal marsh runs over them, we won’t get our socks wet if we don’t have them on.”
“That sounds good,” said Cee.
So the three girls ran into Bee’s house and found red, blue and yellow rubber slip-ons right in the closet by the back door. Bee’s mom liked a place for everything and everything in its place. Sometimes, it was a real pain to remember to put things where they belong but, it sure made it easy when the search was on.
“Leave your shoes and socks right by the door,” said Bee. “No one will bother them because no one is home right now.”
“I really like these yellow ones,” said Dee.
“Well, that’s good,” said Cee “as I’d rather have the blue.”
“Ok OK” said Bee. “I’ll take the red and don’t forget your water bottles. We never go out into the tidal mash without water. Remember, the water out there is not fit for human consumption as my Mom always says.”
The three girls had their hoodies wrapped around their waists as they thought it might just get a little cool while hiking through the reeds and stuff. They jammed the bottles of water into the waistbands of their long, blue, denim jeans and wrapped their hair in vines from the loopy flowers growing just beyond the grassy lawn of Bee’s back yard.
“Does it matter where we start?” asked Cee.
“No. Not really,” said Bee. “When the tide is out, like now, the water is further out from our lawn and we can walk anywhere, really.”
2
“What are we looking for?” asked Dee.
“Well, we don’t know, do we?” asked Bee. “That’s half the fun. Just going for a walk into unknown territory and seeing what we shall see.”
So, the three girls set out on their journey of a day - well, that was the plan - and kept their eyes and ears open for something they could use for their junior high ecology class. It was still very early in the morning as the sun in May rises around 5 and not a one of the three girls liked to sleep in daylight.
They saw a lot of different plant growth but didn’t know the names of any one of them. And the coyotes hadn’t come for their breakfast yet, so it was quiet and, really, a bit lonely. The girls kept on going and going and were disappointed that something didn’t just jump out at them and say, ‘I am your ecology project.’
Their feet were wet and it was a little cooler than when they had started as the sun couldn’t shine through all the tall, weedy growth. So, they put on their hoodies with the hoods hanging down their backs and the big pockets right in front and ready for collecting stuff. What stuff, they didn’t know yet.
They stopped for long drinks of water every now and then and, finally, they saw IT. Well, they didn’t know what IT was but it sure looked different.
So, Bee struggled though the reddish colored reeds until she was very near what looked like an animal. “What are you?’ she asked never expecting an answer, of course.


‘I am a little spotted Kiwi and I am lost.’
“Wow!” said Cee and Dee and Bee. “You talk?”



3
Bee’s bright brown eyes lit up a like a candle as did the blue eyes of Cee and the dark green eyes of Dee.
‘Well, yes I do. My Momma always told me that I must have good manners - Always speak when spoken to.’
The girls were so surprised that for a moment they were speechless. And then they remembered that their moms had taught them the very same thing. Always speak when spoken to.
So, Bee asked the Kiwi how he knew that he was lost. ‘Well, I think so,’ said Kiwi. ‘I’m not sure where I am but I live full time in New Zealand.’
“New Zealand?” asked Cee and Dee. “Where is that exactly?”
‘Well,’ said Kiwi, if you look on a map you will see that New Zealand is an island to the right of Australia and beneath the equator.’
“Ah,” said Dee. “I know where Australia is ‘cause we studied the major countries in our geography class.”
“Yes,” said Cee, “South of the equator means that everything is upside down. The sun doesn’t shine in the south but in the north and winter is really summer.”
“That was my first clue,’ said Kiwi. ‘The sun isn’t where it is supposed to be and it is too warm for winter.’
“Well, you’re right about the sun and the weather,” said Bee. “And you are so small. How did you get here from thousands of miles away?”
‘I am a regular Kiwi, nine pounds and nine inches high. We aren’t made better than that.’
“Even so,” said Cee. “New Zealand is a long, long way from here.”
‘Well,’ said Kiwi, ‘do you remember the movie The Wizard of OZ?’
“The Wizard of OZ?” asked Bee. “No, that must have been before my time. Was it a movie made in New Zealand?”
‘No,’ said Kiwi. ‘It was made in Hollywood a long time ago. It’s about a tornado in Kansas. A girl about your age, named Dorothy, and her dog, Toto, get swept up in the wind and carried to a magical land called OZ. I think that is what happened to me. But this doesn’t look like OZ.’
The three girls laughed and Cee said, “Now this isn’t magical at all. This is really Bee’s back yard and luckily it runs into a tidal marsh.”
“And we are looking for an unusual ecology project,” said Dee.
“So, will you be our project?” asked Bee.
‘Well, why not,’ answered Kiwi. ‘What do I have to do?’


4
“Just tell us more about you and anything that might be interesting for our junior high ecology class. Between the three of us, we’ll remember what you told us and pass it on,” said Cee.
‘I don’t have much more to say except that I am a boy kiwi, so I don’t lay eggs and have babies. But, this is exciting, I think. There is a fruit named for me and I wonder if you have ever tasted it,’ said Kiwi.
‘It doesn’t really look like me, ’cause it has no beak and no feet and I don’t taste good either – although, cats like to catch me and twirl me around just for the fun of it.’
With that, Kiwi looked around and breathlessly asked, ‘You don’t have any cats here, do you?’
“No, we don’t” said Bee. “The coyotes captured the few that lived on our street a long time ago.”
“And I have eaten Kiwi fruit,” said Dee. “I always wondered why it had such an odd name and now we all know.”
“Can we help you to get back to New Zealand?” asked Cee.
‘You sure can,’ said Kiwi. ‘Are you near an airport?’
“Bradley isn’t too far away. Would that help?” asked Bee.
‘Sure would,’ answered Kiwi. ‘When can we leave?’
“Right now,” answered Cee. “Bee’s dad is just getting home and he can drive us and pay for your ticket.”
So, Bee’s dad put Kiwi in the car seat that he kept on hand for visiting small children while the three girls sat in the back of the station wagon.
Just before they left, Bee’s mom handed them kiwi fruits to eat on the way. She had removed the peels because unlike apples, the skin wasn’t very tasty.
On the drive to the airport, Dee asked Kiwi what he would like to be if he could change his current state of being. Kiwi answered right away. ‘I would like to be an aviator so I could fly all over the world and visit other students looking for an ecology project.’
‘And what about you,’ Kiwi asked.
“Well,” said Dee, “I want to be an ecologist and study other creatures like you.”
“And, I want to be a railroad engineer so I can travel cross country and check out all the interesting animals along the way,” said Cee
“I want to be a princess,” said Bee.


5
“A princess?” said Cee and Dee in amazement. “Why a princess?”
“Because a princess can do anything at all and I’ll always have maidens to help me with my hair and clothes before I set out for the day. And a princess can go anywhere at any time. I can order my coach and horses, or my electric train with Cee as the engineer and Dee, the ecologist, to help me learn more and more.”
“Gee, I wish we had thought of that,” said Cee and Dee together.
The end