Jake The Fireman

   Jake was sitting on the floor in his bedroom playing with his red fire engine.  
    “Oh no Firetruck, there’s a fire at the Brown’s house!” Jake exclaimed.  He grabbed the firetruck, turned on the lights and siren and rolled it over to his bed, which he was pretending was the Brown’s house.  Jake raised the ladder up and rotated it around to meet the edge of the bed, then pulled the fireman doll from the front seat.  He walked the fireman up the ladder and onto the bed.
    “Fireman Bob to the rescue!” he yelled.  Bob ran to the fire and using his imaginary hose, doused the flames.  The Brown’s house was saved and Bob was the hero.  Jake put Bob back into the firetruck and lowered the ladder.
    That was fun, Jake thought to himself, but not as much fun as actually putting the fire out himself.  “I wish I could be a real fireman,” he said aloud.
    “Well, maybe you can,” a small deep voice said from his firetruck.
    Jake froze, then stood up and backed away from the firetruck until he bumped into his closet.  He looked carefully at the firetruck and inside the cab of the truck to see what was going on.  Suddenly, the Bob the Fireman stuck his head out the window.
    “So, how about it, do you want to be a real fireman?” Bob asked.  Jake was speechless.  Bob, his toy, was talking to him.  This had never happened to him before.  Boo-Boo, his blue
bear, had never spoken before.  None of his stuffed animals had spoken before.  But here was Bob, his fireman in the firetruck, talking like a real live person.
    “Sure,” said Jake while crawling over to get a better look, “I’d love to be a real fireman.”
    “Good,” said Bob, “now just get in the truck, because we have a fire to go to.”
    “But, I’m to big to fit in the firetruck,” said Jake sadly, looking at the seat next to Bob.
    “No problem,” said Bob, “just grab my hand and we will be on our way.”
    Jake wasn’t sure what taking Bob’s hand would do, but since he’d never talked to a real live toy before, he wasn’t going to argue.  He reached out and took Bob’s hand and ....
    WHOOSH.  Jake felt himself spin like a tornado and suddenly he was sitting next to Bob.  Bob smiled at him.
    “Ready to go to work?” he asked.  Jake looked at Bob with amazement in his eyes and nodded his head.
    Bob reached out and pushed a button on the dashboard labeled “Go To Work”.  Suddenly, the firetruck lifted up off the ground, into the air and disappeared in a flash.
    Before Jake knew what had happened, they were on a city street next to a two-story house that was on fire.  Bob looked at him.
    “Time to save the house and any people inside.  Put on your fireman clothes and let’s get to work!” Bob said.  Bob, who was already in his fireman clothes, hopped out of the truck and grabbed an axe from the side of the truck.
    Jake jumped out of the truck and quickly put on the jacket,  pants and boots of a real fireman.  Bob was already running towards the house, so Jake followed him as fast as he could.  It was hard to run in the big clothes, but Jake caught up as Bob stopped to look at the burning house.
    “We’re going to have to in the front door to see if anyone is inside, “ Bob said, “are you ready, Fireman Jake?”
    “Yes Sir!” Jake said eagerly, ready to do his best.
    Bob walked up to the front door and swung the big axe against the door handle.  The door flew open with a crash to reveal the fire inside.
    “Keep your head down and follow me,” Bob said and they both ran into the house.
    Fire was on the walls and the ceiling as they ran inside.  Bob came to the first bedroom and kicked the door open with his boot.  He looked inside and then turned to Jake and said, “Nobody in this room, let’s go to the next bedroom.”
    Jake and Bob went to the next bedroom and once again Bob kicked the door open.  Inside there was a little boy with a small bear in his arms.  Bob rushed over and picked him up.
    “It’s all right little boy, we have you now and it’s time to get you out of the house,” Bob said, picking up the little boy and starting to walk to the door.
    Jake started to follow when he heard a little yelp behind him.  He turned around but didn’t see anything.  He started to turn back around to leave the house when he heard another yelp, followed by several short barks.  Jake turned back around and went to the last door.  Kicking the door just like Bob, the door burst open to show a small little puppy sitting in the middle of the room looking very scared.
    Jake slowly walked up the puppy.  “Here boy, “ he called with his hand stretched out.  The little puppy sniffed his hand and then gave it a couple of licks.  Jake picked up the puppy and held it in his arms close to his chest.
    “Come on boy, let’s get out of this house,” Jake said and started to run for the front door.
    They came around the hallway corner towards the front door when Jake stopped.  The front door was completely covered in flames.  Jake turned to look at the back door and it was also covered in flames.  They were trapped!
    Jake looked at his jacket and pants.  He knew that fireman clothes were fireproof but he also knew that the puppy wasn’t.  Jake unbuttoned his jacket, put the puppy inside and then buttoned it back up again.  He held the dog against his chest and then said “Here we go little boy, it’s time to be brave!”
    Jake pulled the hood over his head and ducked his head against his chest so that the fire would hit the hood.  He ran as fast as he could and jumped through the fire!  
    When he came through the other side of the flames he saw that everyone was clapping.  Jake unbuttoned his jacket and pulled out the little puppy.  The puppy licked Jake’s face and then jumped down and ran to the little boy Bob had rescued.  The little boy knelt down the hugged the puppy.
    “Thank you Fireman Jake.  You saved Buster!” the little boy said.  The boys parents hugged them both and also said thank you to Jake.
    Bob came over.  “Well done Fireman Jake,” he said, “you’ve proved yourself to be a real fireman.”  Bob shook Jake’s hand and patted him on the back.   “Now, I think it’s time for us to get back in the truck.”
    Jake and Bob walked back to the firetruck.  The neighbors cheered and waved at them.  Bob jumped into the drivers seat and Jake climbed into the passengers seat.
    Bob turned to Jake.  “Remember Jake, only a trained firefighter goes into a burning house,” he said.  “Today you were a real fireman but now we have to go back to your room and you’ll be a little boy again.”  Bob smiled at Jake and then pushed another button on the dashboard of the truck labeled “Back To Jake’s Room”.
    Instantly they were back in Jake’s room and Jake was sitting in front of his toy firetruck again.  He reached inside the cab of the truck and pulled out the little fireman doll.  He looked like any other plastic doll except now he smelled slightly of woodsmoke.  Jake smiled and put him back in the truck.  What an amazing adventure.  He stood up and walked out into the kitchen to get a snack.  Firefighting make you hungry, that’s for sure!

Katie and Her REAL Fairy Adventure

My name is Katie.  I used to believe in fairies just like most little girls do.  I dreamed of fairies coming to my bedroom to play hide and seek.  I imagined how wonderful it would be to have them sprinkle fairy dust on me and go flying through the trees.  However, I never imagined that a fairy would come to my bedroom early one morning in desperate need of my help.

Funny, because that is exactly what happened.

It was a beautiful spring morning and the sun was shining through the gaps in the window shade onto my fuzzy green blanket.  I had the blanket pulled up under my chin and it was very cozy warm and I had NO intention of getting out of bed any time soon.  Normally my little brother would be bothering me by this point but it seemed he was still asleep or possibly equally cozy warm with his fuzzy blue blanket.  Either way, it was quite nice and I had no wish to be elsewhere.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised when I heard a very soft, very high pitched voice whisper “Katie!” urgently in me ear.  I sat bolt upright and scrambled to the very end of my bed.  I was about to yell “Daddy!” when I saw what was sitting on my pillow.

A fairy.  A real live, not a picture or a movie or a bedtime story, fairy.   She sat on my pillow with her arms around her pale green legs, with her blue wings moving slightly, as if she was nervous.  After a moment I calmed down enough to speak.

“Who are you?” I whispered, leaning forward slightly, not enough to frighten her, but only enough to get a better look.  She had golden hair which shone brightly in the sunlight with a shiny blue bow tied around the top.  She wore a silky dress of blue with little yellow flowers all over it and had on the cutest blue slippers.  All of this made her look very cheerful and bright except for the very, very sad expression on her face.

“My name is Rose.  I’ve seen you playing around your house and through that maybe, just possibly, you could help me with a terrible situation.”

Without even thinking about it, because who wouldn’t help a little fairy in a terrible situation, I said “Well, yes of course.  Tell me all about your terrible situation.”

She sighed.  “It’s truly awful you see.  But, for you to really be able to understand, I have to tell you a little bit about fairies.” Rose said, and then proceeded to tell her.

There were four types of friendly fairies:  Air, Water, Tree and Flower.  The friendly fairies all lived in harmony with nature and do their best to be good to each other and to the forces of nature they were born too.  Flower fairies helped the flowers grow and made their colors as beautiful as possible.  Tree fairies helped trees grow strong and tall.  Air fairies cleaned the air and water fairies made the water sparkle.  Everyone was happy and worked together to make the world a better place.

There were, however, one other type of not so nice fairies, the Mud Fairies.  Mud Fairies felt that the other fairies thought badly of them (which isn’t true!) .  So they were always playing mean tricks on the other fairies, like throwing mud on newly bloomed daffodils or putting green dye in the favorite water fairy swimming hole.

“And that is why I’m here.  The mud fairies tricked my little brother into a mud fort and they won’t let him go!” said Rose tearfully.  I saw the little fairy tears flow down her green cheeks and swore to myself I would do anything to help my new fairy friend Rose.

“Let me get my clothes on and we’ll go save your brother, “ I said and quickly threw on some pants and a long sleeved shirt, as it was still cold outside.  

“Hide in my pocket and I’ll tell my daddy I’m going outside,” I told Rose.  She flew over and settled gently into the small pocket on the front of my shirt.  I walked out into the kitchen where my daddy was making his coffee.

“Daddy, can I go outside before breakfast?” I asked.  He looked at me and smiled.

“Of course, sweetheart.  Breakfast will be ready in about a half hour, so don’t go far.” he said.  He turned around and finished scooping coffee into the coffee machine.

I opened the sliding door to the backyard and slipped on my shoes.  “Where do they have your brother?” I asked Rose.  She poked her head out of my shirt and looked around.  Seeing that we were alone, she flew out of the pocket and landed on my shoulder.

“Down next to the stream by the big oak tree,” she whispered into my ear.  I nodded my head and walked to the gate.  I opened the gate, slipped through, closed it and headed through the pasture to the big oak tree.

As we were walking, I asked Rose, “Why don’t you just break into the mud fort and get your brother out?”

She sighed.  “It’s against fairy rules to break another fairies nature.  The mud faeries don’t play by the rules, but I do, and since you’re my friend you have to play by the rules too.” she said.  “If we don’t play by the rules, it would make us as bad as the mud fairies.”

I thought about that and realized she was right.  You can’t do what you know is wrong just because someone else is doing it.  

A minute or two later we arrived at the big oak tree.  Rose whispered in my ear “Right over there, t looks like a pile of mud next to the stream.”  I walked over to the pile of mud and saw that there was actually a little house with barred windows and a small, green fairy boy inside.  When he saw me he ran to the farthest corner and looked very very scared.

Rose flew off my shoulder and hovered at one of the windows.  “Michael,” she whispered, “it’s Rose and my human friend Katie.  We’re here to help you.”  Michael look at me and slowly walked to the window.

“Are you going to help me?” he asked, his lower lip trembling as he tried not to cry.

“Yes, “ I said with much more certainty than I felt, because without breaking the little mud house I had no idea how I was going to help him.

As Rose was trying to sooth Michael and Michael was trying not to cry ,  I was desperately trying to think of how I was going to free him.  Suddenlya group of mud faeries started to crawl up and out of the mud.  Although the same size as Rose, they didn’t look very much the same.  Their skin was brown instead of green, they didn’t have wings, and their hands were long and strong, unlike Rose’s which were small and delicate.  They had mean looks on their faces and walked in a group with their chests puffed out, trying to look bigger than they were.

“What are you doing here human?  This is fairy business.  The boy is our prisoner and entered the house of his own free will,” stated the mud faerie who had moved to the front.  He was bigger than the rest and had on a crown of broken rocks and bits of hard dirt around his head.  He didn’t look very nice and I wondered how I was going to convince him to release Michael.  My only hope was that deep inside there was a good faerie who wanted to do the right thing but just didn’t know how.

“What is your name? “ I asked the mud faerie leader.  He looked at me suspiciously and considered the question for a moment.

“Slip-Slop, “ answered reluctantly, as if he was somehow embarrassed by it.  I didn’t think Slip-Slop was a very nice name but it did seem to fit a fairy that was constantly covered in mud.  Slip-Slop scratched himself absent mindidly  as the mud seemed to irritate his sensitive faerie skin.

“Slip-Slop, why do you want to keep Micheal here anyway?” I asked.

“We’re teaching the silly little tree fairy a lesson, “ Slip-Slop sneered, “see how he likes being on the ground all the time with mud making him itchy.”  Slip-Slop picked up a handful of mud and threw it at Michael, getting mud in Michael’s eyes and making him cry even more.  The group of mud fairies all laughed at him, making boo-hoo noises and calling him a cry baby.

Then I had a thought.  Maybe the mud faeries were mean to the other fairies because they were always so itchy.  I knew I hated being itchy and I couldn’t imagine what it would like to be that way all the time.  With all the caked on mud I figured that they probably never took a shower or a bath and I was willing to bet that a nice shower would make them feel much better.  But I didn’t know how I was going to convince Slip-Slop to take one.

“Slip-Slop, why don’t you take a bath?” I asked.

“The water is too cold!” he snapped, looking over at the stream.  “Also, we can’t swim and the water moves to fast.  Why do you care?” he asked.  The question had plainly made him sad and I just knew that a nice warm shower would cheer him up.

“You guys wait here, I’ll be right back,” I said.  Without waiting for an answer, I ran up to the house as fast as I could, took my muddy shoes off and ran to my bedroom.  I opened my closet and took out my Barbie Shower.  This would be a perfect fairy shower!  Quickly I went to the bathroom and filled the tub full of nice warm water and grabbed a piece of soap that was too small for me to use, but would be perfect for a fairy.  Lastly, I grabbed a small baby washcloth that would be just the right size for a fairy.  I picked up the Barbie Shower carefully walked out of the bathroom, through the house, and went back outside.

I walked as fast as I could to the old oak tree without spilling the water.  By the time I got back the mud fairies had surrounded Rose and were looking like they were going to capture her as well.

“Stop!” I yelled, “I have a solution to your problem.”  They all looked at me and then the Barbie shower.

“What is that?” asked Slip-Slop.

To answer his question I knelt down and put the shower on a flat piece of ground and motioned for him to come over.  He walked slowly over, expecting a trap.  When he got close enough, Slip-Slop put a long muddy finger into the water.  Surprise spread across his face.

“It’s warm,” he said.  Slowly he put his whole arm in and looked at it in wonder.  Most of the mud fell off to reveal pale white skin.

“Go ahead and get in and I’ll start the shower,” I told him.  Quickly he jumped into the warm water with a splash and a huge smile spread across his face.  I began to push the button to pump the water and it splashed down on his head like a warm soft rain.  I handed him the soap and he slowly started to wash all the sticky mud off his body.

When he was all clean I stopped pumping the water and helped him out of the tub.  I handed him the washcloth and he dried himself off.

Slip-Slop just couldn’t stop smiling now.  He looked down at his clean skin and smiled some more.  The other fairies came over and looked at him like it was the most incredible thing they had ever seen.  One of the other fairys, who’s name was Glip-Glop, walked up to the shower.

“Can I have a turn?” he asked, looking up at me with hope.

“Of course you can, “ I said, “but first you need to release Michael.”

Without the slightest hesitation, three mud fairies ran over to the mud house and ripped open the door.  The moment it was opened Michael flew out like a rocket, did three acrobatic loops and then settled on my shoulder.

“Thank you, “ he said, and then gave him the sweetest of fairy hugs.

Below, the mud fairies had lined up in a row at the shower.  I looked at the water and realized it would need to be changed as it was completely muddy now.

“I have to go home and have my breakfast now, “ I told them, “but as soon as I’m done I’ll get a big jug of warm water so you can all have a turn.”  They seemed a little disappointed that they would have to wait but nodded their heads to agree that it was OK.

I turned and ran back up to the house just as my daddy came to the door and yelled “Breakfast!”.  I kicked my muddy shoes off at the door, hopped in my seat and ate as fast as I could.

“My, my, aren’t you hungry,” said Daddy, smiling at me.

“Yep, “ I said, “can I go back out and play now?”

“Sure,” Daddy said, “but don’t forget, you have a soccer game later.”  I nodded my head and jumped down from my seat.  I grabbed a water container that we used for camping from the garage and filled it with warm water from the outdoor shower we used after swimming in the pool.  It was really heavy once it was full, but I got my wagon and managed to lift it up.  It was much easier to move that way.  Then I found some old rags that my daddy had in a box.   The fairies could use them as towels.

Quickly I wheeled the wagon full of water down to the oak tree and the mud fairies all cheered.  Rose and Micheal flew up and landed on my shoulder.  I dumped out the old dirt water and filled it back up again from the water container.  Glip-Glop hopped in a smiled with pleasure.  He was as happy as Slip-Slop and dried off with one of the rags.

For the next hour, I dumped out dirty water and filled the shower with fresh warm water.  Eventually all the mud fairies were clean and happy.

“Thank you so much Katie,” Slip-Slop said, looking a little guilty.  “We’re all so sorry for being mean all the time.  For now one we will be good fairies like the others and help nature whenever we can.”  Then he thought for a second and asked, “Do you think you could come down another time with the shower and warm water so we can get clean?”

“You can count on it, “ I said and pick him up and very carefully gave Slip-Slop a hug.  He turned bright red, which you could actually see since he was clean.  I packed up the shower and rags and water container and said goodbye to my new fairy friends Rose and Michael.

“Come and see me again,” I told them, “I want to know everything about you guys.”

“Absolutely, “ Rose said, “there is so much for us to tell you.”

I walked back up to the house pulling the wagon and thinking about fairies.  I was so happy I had finally met the fairies and I had a feeling there would be many more adventures to come!