Karma

            by Kiara Vaughn

 

Sophia was excited about going to school that morning because it was Friday and every Friday they had show and tell. She wanted to bring in a toy that was very special to her. She had a stuffed teddy bear named Carlos that her mother had given her. It had been given to her mother when she was a child and she had then passed it down to Sophia. It was a little rough looking because it had been around for decades, but Sophia still loved it. She got her teddy off of her nightstand and put it in her Dora The Explorer backpack.

 

After Carlos was properly secured, she walked to the bus stop with her mom. Soon after, the bus arrived and she headed to school.

 

          “Bye, mom,” said Sophia.

          “Bye! Have a good day at school,” said her mom.

          She walked into her classroom, smiling in excitement at the day she had ahead of her. Then she saw her one and only friend, Patrice, and waved to her.

          ”Hey Sophia, come sit next to me!” said Patrice.

          “So what did you bring for show and tell today?

          “I brought my new doll, Tiffany, that I just got for my birthday,” said Patrice.

 

“What did you bring?”

          “I brought my teddy bear that my mom gave me. It used to be hers when she was a little girl.”

“Oh that’s nice, well here comes Ms. Caldwell.”

“Good morning, class!”

“Good morning, Ms. Caldwell,” they all said in unison.

“Today we are going to be doing some arts and crafts, then we’ll have story time, and last but not least we’ll have show and tell. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like fun!” said one of the students.

“Good. Well let’s get started.”

Sophia and Patrice got their materials for arts and crafts and began painting and cutting and pasting away. Sophia painted her fantasy world and Patrice painted her family. They were having so much fun that time just flew by and before they knew it, it was story time. They lay down on the carpet and just listened while Ms. Caldwell read Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. That too went by very quickly and it was finally time for show and tell.

Some of the kids had some really neat things. One boy brought in a toy rocket that he made with his dad, and another boy brought in his Nintendo DS. Most of the girls brought in their favorite dolls to share with the class. Patrice was one of them. Then it was Sophia’s turn. She stood up in front of the class with a huge smile, ready to present.

          “This is my teddy, Carlos. My grandmother bought him for my mom when she was a little girl and now she has given it to me. My mom said that he used to make her feel safe whenever she was scared, so she gave it to me one night when I was having a bad dream.”

“Eww it looks older than my grandma. Look at it, one of the eyes look like it’s about to fall off,” said Elijah, one of Sophia’s classmates.

“Hahahahaha,” the whole class erupted in laughter.

          “Elijah! You apologize to Sophia right now. That was not a very nice thing to say. Remember, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

          Elijah sucked his teeth. “I’m sorry.”

          Sophia ran off to go sit in the corner. Even though Elijah apologized, the damage had already been done. Her feelings were hurt. She had been so excited about show and tell that morning. She couldn’t wait to show Carlos to everyone, but hadn’t even finished presenting before Elijah made fun of him.

She sat at her desk, where her picture that she painted earlier was drying, and quietly wept. As she cried, her tears fell on her painting and some sort of portal formed. Sophia looked down at it with a puzzled look, and just as she was getting ready to call Ms. Caldwell, she was sucked into the portal.

When she finally came out of the portal, she landed in this strange place. Then she heard a voice say…

“Sophia, are you alright?”

“Who said that?”

“It’s me, Carlos.”

She turned around and saw Carlos standing behind her.

“You can talk? …But how?”

“I can only talk when we’re here.”

“And what exactly is here?”

“Fable. We are in the magical land of Fable. Come on I’ll show you around.”

They walked down the road and Sophia looked around in amazement. She saw everything from a peppermint bush to a candy apple tree. She loved the place already. After walking down the road for a few minutes, they came to a village. The first house that they came to belonged to a family of fairies. Carlos introduced everyone to each other.

“Hi Carlos.”

“Hi everyone. This is Sophia. Sophia, this is James, Jennifer, Justin and Jason.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you,” said Sophia.

“Likewise,” said James.

 

 

“Oh you must come over for lunch later,” said Jennifer.

“Lunch? Well what do fairies eat?”

“ We eat berries and cake and other goodies.”

“Well that all sounds pretty good, but I don’t know, I really should be finding my way back home before people get worried.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. Time is a lot slower in here than in the real world,” said Carlos. “It feels like we’ve been here for about an hour but actually out there, it’s only been one minute, so you can stay here for a couple of hours and no one will hardly notice you’re gone.”

“Well…maybe I’ll stay just a little while longer and come back here for lunch.”

“Ok, great,” said Jennifer.

“We’re going to be going now. I have to show her the rest of Fable, said Carlos.

“Ok, see you later,” they all said.

They walked further down the road and passed by several houses, but one in particular stood out because it was so big.

“Wow. Whose house is this,” asked Sophia.

“This is old man Henry’s house.”

“It sure is big.”

“Well he’s a big man, he needs a big house.”

Then the ground shook a little and out walked a giant from the house. Sophia got scared, but Carlos assured her that there was nothing to be afraid of and that he was a friendly giant. Sophia trusted Carlos, so she calmed down and all of her fear went away.

“Sophia, this is Henry. Henry, I would like you to meet Sophia.”

 

“How do you do Miss Sophia?”

“Fine, thank you.”

“I was just showing her around to a few of the town people. I wanted to show her the castle as well, but we should be heading back to the fairies’ house, they’ve invited us over for lunch.”

“Ok. It was nice meeting you Sophia.”

“Nice meeting you too Henry. Bye.”

They walked back up the road so they wouldn’t be late. They arrived just in time. Jennifer had just set the table and called everyone to eat. They all sat around the table ready to dig in, when Prince Cornelius rode up on his horse.

 

 

“The dragon’s loose, the dragon’s loose!” yelled the prince.

“Oh no, what are we going to do?” said Justin.

“Carlos. What dragon?” asked Sophia. “You never told me about any dragon.” 

“Well once there was an evil dragon who tried to destroy the land and take over Fable. All of the King’s best knights fought it and they all lost. Then a special little girl, the same age as you, came to Fable and fought the evil dragon. Se won and reclaimed our land for us. We locked the dragon up in cage inside of a tower where it has remained for the past twenty-five years. That little girl was your mother, now we need you to help us beat the dragon.”

“Me? But what can I do?”

“There is a special magic inside your heart. That’s how your mother beat the dragon.”

“I don’t know. I’m scared.”

“Don’t be scared Sophia. I’ll protect you,” said Carlos.

“Ok. Let’s go get that dragon!”

So they started marching towards the tower where the dragon was, ready for war. They both had swords and shields. When they finally got there they saw the big ugly dragon.

 

“Dragon, we have come to slay you once and for all.”

“We’ll see about that,” said the dragon.

Then the battle began. The dragon blew fire and swung his tail at them. They blocked it with their shields and swung their swords. Then Carlos thought of something clever. He decided to try and throw a stone down the dragon’s throat that way he couldn’t blow fire anymore. He found one big enough and aimed for his tonsils. He made it in and the dragon started to choke. While the dragon was choking, he let his guard down and Sophia seized the moment and ran up to him and pierced her sword right through its heart. The dragon slumped over and Carlos and Sophia shouted in victory, “ We’ve slayed the dragon. We’ve slayed the dragon!”

They ran back to the village to spread the good news. Everyone was happy.

“Carlos and Sophia. We, the people of the magical land of Fable would like to offer you these gold medals of honor for your acts of bravery.”

“Oh thank you,” said Sophia.

“Yes, thank you very much,” said Carlos. “Come on Sophia, we should be going back home now before anyone notices you’re gone.”

“Ok. Thank you all. Good bye.”

“Good bye Sophia!” said everyone in unison. “Good bye Carlos!”

They walked back to the edge of the land where they first came in.  Carlos pulled out a back full of powder.

“What’s that,” asked Sophia,

“It’s a little fairy dust. We’ll need it to open the portal back up.”

He sprinkled some in the air and the portal appeared in front of them. They took a deep breath, counted to three and jumped in. They landed back in Sophia’s classroom and they had just finished their last show and tell presentation.

“Wow Carlos, I guess time really is slower here.”

Carlos didn’t respond.

“Carlos…Carlos?”

Then she remembered that he couldn’t talk in the real world, only in Fable. She looked at him and saw that he looked brand new. He was no longer the raggedy old bear that he was that morning. She walked back over with the rest of the class and everyone was admiring her new gold medal. They all wanted to try it on, but she only let her real friend, Patrice, see it because everyone else laughed at her. Then Elijah noticed her new looking teddy bear.

“Is that Carlos?” asked Elijah.

“Yes it is and he’s new and improved.”

In the end, Sophia had a good day after all. In fact, she had a great day. She learned not to let the little mean things that people say bother her, because in the end, good guys always win.