The Misadventures of Curious Casey and Tricky Tina
Tricky Tina was in a quandary. Her bookstore, Tricky Tales Told, was in dire need of a new storyteller. She asked her friends, she begged her family, she even advertised in local papers. Still, no new storytellers were found. Children came and went from the bookstore, dejected from the lack of fun and adventure that was once a part of every Saturday morning.
Then one afternoon, having coffee and bagels in the park by her store, Tricky Tina spied a fleeting object fluttering around a very large live oak. Hues of blue and tendrils of fuzz blurred her sight. Was it a butterfly? Was it some sort of strange new toy?
“No”, she exclaimed, “I know what that is!”âÂ?¦.and she did, only she knew that what she thought it was couldn’t possibly be true.
“It’s a fairy!”
She leapt up, leaving half a bagel behind, to chase after the curious fairy.
“Fairy” she cried out, “Fairy, stop and talk to me a while”. Yet the harder she chased the quicker the curious fairy flew. Finally, she realized that her lunch time break was indeed over, and it was time to go back to the land of books and stories. “..Perhaps another day, another afternoon” she thought.
She made her way through the park, across the asphalt, down the two blocks to her cozy little shop. Keys were out, locks were re-opened, and once again she was reading to help people find their effortless vacation through the adventure of words.
After an hour of organizing, of reshelving and repositioning book after book, she sat down to reflect. It was in that time she saw it again. Just outside her field of vision, just in the corner of her eye. A wee bit of golden dust. A bit of fairy fluttering, if you will�
“Fairy, just tell me your nameâÂ?¦”
“Hmmm, I suppose that wouldn’t hurt to divulge. My name is Casey. You think me a curious fairy, so I guess you can call me Curious Casey”
Tricky Tina grinned. She knew she had found her new storyteller. And what a storyteller she would be�.people would come far and wide to hear a fairy storyteller spin her tales of lore.
“Curious Casey, I have a business proposition for youâÂ?¦.” And it was with that opening that the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to get the Fairy Casey to agree to spend two hours a week weaving an adventure to the bookstore’s children.
Whatever Tina bribed or promised must have worked because come the next Saturday morning, bright and early and dressed in her colorful best, Casey and her elfish pointed shoes sat perched atop a pedestal prepared to partake of story hour. The children listened with rapt intent at her words�.
“âÂ?¦. It was a land far far awayâÂ?¦where common bugs ruled the worldâÂ?¦ a land with no mommies and no daddies, no kids and no petsâÂ?¦. A land where Sam lived. Sam was a ladybug but he was no “lady” bug. In fact Sam was quite insistent on telling every bug he met that he wasn’t a “lady” bug. He told the beetle butlers, the firefly firemen, and the grasshopper gardeners. He told the cricket carpenters, the moth mailmen, and the aphid actors. Just when he thought there was no one left to tell, he heard “Hey sweet lady, you sure have pretty spots”âÂ?¦Angered and agitated, Sam spun around to see a praying mantis priest. “Father, I assure you. I may be a ladybug, but I am not a “lady” bug.” Sam sighed. He wasn’t even a girly color. He was a respectable manly tan and black instead of the more feminine red and black. He was beginning to think it would never end, that in a fit of despair he would have to fly right into fluorescent lightingâÂ?¦..Times were tough for a male ladybug. He was already seeing a therapist to deal with insectual anger management issues. There was even that unfortunate incident he was still trying to get over when he was in Bug High School where he was teased about his spots being more oval than circular. Yes, times had always been tough for a male ladybugâÂ?¦.. Then one day, among a leisurely fly among some buttercups he came across a katydid. “Hello Katy” he volunteered. But there was no responseâÂ?¦.so he said it again, louderâÂ?¦ “HELLO KATY”âÂ?¦still, no answer. Hmmm, it was indeed a strange feeling. He flew directly in the path of the katydid and said “I said HELLO”.
“Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t realize you were referring to myselfâÂ?¦you see, my name is Stan”
It was as if Sam was looking at his inner self. Stan was a Katydid in a land where ALL Katydids were somewhat dimwitted bugs named Katy. It was a pairing that would be an instant friendship��
“And you see children, you should never ever judge someone before you have all the facts” Curious Casey completed.
The children roared their approval, book sales were through the roof that afternoon, and Curious Casey and Tricky Tina forged ahead into a new and hopefully long lasting arrangement�.
�.to be continued ?
