The Littlest Carpleifee

We all know that fairytales don’t really happen, and that magic is for children and fools. But there are places in the hidden spots of this world where magic lives.

One of these places is the Great Forest of Trambonio.

And it was in this forest that there lived a little Carpleifee called Mimsy. (For those of you that haven’t ever seen a Carpleifee is a beautiful creature with soft fur that can be any color, a round face, huge eyes, a tiny pink nose, long with whiskers, a bushy tail sort of like that of a fox, rounded ears, tiny hands that looked something like paws, but could pick things up, soft feathery wings and nubby little gray horns.)

Now, Mimsy lived in a borrow with her family of ten big brothers, ten big sisters, her mom and dad, eight aunts, seven uncles, thirty-three cousins and two sets of grandparents. Being the youngest of them all, she found that she frequently lonely.

The family of fairies that lived in a tiny palace in a big oak tree had no children, so poor little Mimsy had no one to play with.

And that was why she decided to run away. She was going to find a friend somewhere far away, and then she’d come right back home.

And so the littlest Carpleifee set off to find the adventures she dreamed of.

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Sammy was a little boy growing up in a small town in Georgia where everyone knew everybody, all the men drove trucks, and there were more cows than people. Sammy spent his days biking all over town with his dollar-store pop gun, bent cowboy hat and Border Collie named Sparky in tow, shooting bad guys only he could see and catching grasshoppers.

Sammy was biking down a dirt road surrounded by trees when he first saw little Mimsy. Immediately he skidded to a stop, making his training wheels rattle.

Mimsy looked at him through her big golden eyes. “Hello little person.” she said cheerfully.

“Hello.” responded Sammy. “I’m Sammy. What’re you?”

“I am a Carpleife from The Great Forest of Trambonio. My name is Mimsy.”

Sammy tapped his worn sneaker in the dust. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Trambonio before.” he said finally.

“But of course you haven’t.” responded Mimsy. “It’s a magical land where unicorns play, wheezles sleep and fairies dance. And I’m the only one who’s ever left before.”

“But if it’s so wonderful, why’d you leave?” asked Sammy thoughtfully.

Mimsy jumped up and down slightly. “Well, that’s just it. There was nobody to play with.”

“Oh.” said the five-year-old solemnly.

Mimsy suddenly perked up, a movement that made her little fuzzy ears stand up. “Maybe I could stay with you. I could sleep in your house, and you could feed me candy. I could be like Sparky.”

Sammy pushed a bit of his blond hair out of his eyes. “How’d you know his name was Sparky?”

Mimsy’s pink nose twitched happily. “He told me, of course.”

Sammy shrugged. He knew that he couldn’t understand his dog, but he saw no reason why a Carpleife couldn’t.

“You’re coming home with me, little Carpleife.” he said, picking up the soft, furry creature.

Mimsy turned a happy yellow color.

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When Sammy came peddling up the sidewalk, he found his mother sitting on the porch with a bottle of root beer in hand.

He proudly scooped up his new friend and ran over to his mom to show her.

“Look what I’ve got!” he exclaimed, “She’s a Carpleife named Mimsy.”

His mother, a pretty blond-haired lady, looked up nervously to see what her son had brought home this time. She was shocked when she saw only empty air in his arms. (Carpleife can only be seen by those who truly believe in magic. So most adults simply can’t see them.)

But, being the good parent she was, she wasn’t about to tell him that she thought he was holding nothing. You can imagine her surprise when something seemed to leap out of her son’s arms and a set of odd-looking tracks appeared in the dust.

“Hello. I’m Mimsy.” said empty air.

And the poor woman muttered something about needing a nap and hurried off into her bedroom.

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“Mimsy! Do you see them! The aliens are everywhere!” shouted Sammy, waving his pop gun. The boy was standing on top of the living room couch, shooting at bad guys only he and Mimsy could see.

“Yesssss! Never fear, brave cowboy, I shall chase them....Whoops!”

The sound of glass breaking filled the entire house as Sammy’s mother’s favorite vase fell from its perch atop their coffee table, shattering against the floor.

Mimsy blinked at the broken vase. “Sorry, I really didn’t mean to.” she said sadly, or coloring changing from yellow to a blueish gray.

Sammy picked up one of the pieces. “Mom won’t be happy, once she wakes up from her nap.”

“Hmmmm.” said Mimsy thoughtfully. “We should fix it.”

“How?” asked Sammy incredulously.

Mimsy climbed up onto the “With melted toffee, of course.”

“But I don’t have toffee.” said Sammy with a frown.

Mimsy looked more excited than ever. “So let’s make some.”

“Ooookay.” said Sammy nervously to his new friend.

Together the two walked into the small kitchen to try and make toffee.

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Sammy dumped an entire bottle of baking soda into the powdery mess that was supposed to be toffee. “Do ya think that mom’ll like to eat it?”

“Yup.” said Mimsy from where she was hanging on the ceiling.

And Sammy added liberal amounts of vanilla, and shoved the entire plastic bowl into the oven.

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Cadorius Cadgeon Scapulas was a tall, handsome-looking Carpleife with steely gray fur, long-fingered paws and a nearly-permanent scowl on his furry face. He was known for being nasty-tempered and having an awfully loud voice.

But despite all that, he loved his twenty-one kippers (kippers is what Carpleife parents call their kids) very much.

That was why he was so frightened when he discovered his youngest kipper, Mimsy, missing.

With a serious glare, he spread his feathery wings and flew off into the air to search for his lost baby.

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BOOM!

The oven exploded, spraying gooey melted plastic and slime everywhere.

“I think it’s done!” announced Mimsy happily, lifting up a particularly stick blob up from the floor.

Sammy tasted it and gagged. It was truly awful.

Apparently, Sparky thought the same thing because the dog coughed loudly and spit some out.

“Oh dear, I think that we did something wrong....” said Mimsy worriedly.

And then the tiny Carpleife broke down into tears. Suddenly, all she wanted was to go home, but she had no idea how. She’d just bounced away from the forest, and she had no clue how to get back. And now she’d wrecked poor Sammy’s house.

“Mimsy, what are you doing here?” asked her father’s familiar voice from the window sill.

The littlest Carpleife looked up and dried her tears. “Dad!”

Her father walked over on his hind legs, looking curiously at Sammy, the house and the mess.

Carefully, he waved his paw in a slow circle.

Instantly, the house was put back in order. The toffee transformed into a pile of wonderful-smelling candies, wrapped in golden paper. The vase was repaired, and all of Sammy’s chores done.

Carefully, the older Carpleife wound his paws around Mimsy. There was a loud crackling pop and both Carpleife vanished.

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Sammy smiled at his own five-year-old son twenty years later.

The boy was running around with a toy gun in hand. And he was followed by a ball of green-and-blue fur.

Mimsy smiled slightly at him. “They really are both so wonderful. And I can only hope that they don’t get into half the trouble we did.”

Sammy chuckled. “I can only imagine what your wife would say if she found us here.”

Sammy laughed. “No kidding. Now, how about some toffee?”

And they both laughed.