Sophie and the Magic Fireflies |
Sophie was a curious little girl, who loved to ask questions about… well, about everything really! But there was one question Sophie was never able to ask: “Can I play with you?” Sophie was not able to ask this question because she was a teeny tiny little girl, too tiny – she thought – to play with the big children. She was afraid they would say NO to her, if she asked to join their games. “Why would anyone ever want to play with me? I am such a teeny tiny little girl… I can’t run as fast as they can, I can’t jump as high as they can, I can’t climb trees as easily as they can…”. Instead, Sophie spent her days searching for lizards, collecting bugs and freeing them afterwards, and picking up colourful flowers. “I love you so much, my dear little friends. But why do I feel so lonely?” Sophie also loved looking at the clouds. She could stare at them for hours and hours and never get bored. If only she could fly up high in the sky and join their games! Surely the clouds wouldn’t say NO to her… One day, Sophie decided to trust the clouds with her little secret: “Why can’t I be like you, lovely clouds, and change shape and grow bigger and bigger…? Then the children would play with me!” The clouds stopped, and listened. And the old sun listened too. And smiled. When the sun smiled, a shadow appeared. Not a big shadow. A teeny tiny little shadow, big enough for Sophie… to feel lighter and lighter… The shadow was lifting Sophie up in the sky! Sophie swirled and twirled in the air like a leaf in the wind… When the wind blew faster, Sophie gained speed: “Help!”She cried. “Where am I going? Where is my house?!”Sophie was flying so fast that the desert soon replaced the forest, and the moon replaced the sun.Suddenly, a sandstorm rose from the ground to slow her down and land her gently on a carpet of sand. Sophie looked around, astonished. All around her, a thousand sandcastles of different heights and shapes were shining and sparkling with diamonds, rubies and emeralds, and were decorated with threads of golden and silvery silk. The air was warm and smelled like honey. The sky was sparkling with stars… big stars and little stars, shooting stars and shining stars, all above her and all around her, almost tickling her, and hiding in her hair. Sophie reached out for one: “You are not a star: you are a firefly!” she shouted. Sophie sobbed. She felt so sad that she started to cry. As her eyes were covered with tears, she did not see that as soon as they touched the ground, her tears turned into… fireflies! One by one, the fireflies flew inside a lantern dropped next to Sophie by a child. The lantern soon lightened up. Sophie touched it: it was warm and smelled of honey. She hugged it and felt safe again. …Until she saw a little boy who was crying desperately. She felt so sad for the boy that she took a few steps towards him and asked if he needed help. “I lost my lantern” he explained, “with all the fireflies I had collected”. “Here, take my lantern”, she heard herself saying, while handing over her lantern to the boy. The boy stopped crying and thanked her with a big and grateful smile. That smile made Sophie ask, for the first time: “Would you like to play with me?” But the boy remained silent. He then turned around and ran away from her! Sophie was heart-broken: “Oh no! He left me here… Nobody will ever want to play with me…”.But the boy had only ran away to call his friends, and they all come back together… to thank Sophie and to play with her! Sophie was so happy! She finally knew what to do… If only she could be back home now…. At that very moment, all the fireflies left the children’s lanterns to twirl around Sophie and lift her up in the sky… “I am flying back to my village” she realized. And as the forest replaced the desert and the sun replaced the moon, the fireflies turned into stars… big stars and little stars, shooting stars and shining stars… and they all went to sleep, one by one, as the day replaced the night. Back home, Sophie was again the tiniest child in the village, but she did not care about her size anymore. She ran towards the children in her village, took a deep breath and dared ask: “Can I play with you?” She then closed her eyes, afraid they would say no. More and more children arrived and they all stood around Sophie, silently staring at her. Her eyes were still closed and her hair was shimmering with fireflies. She had golden dust all over her skin and she smelled of honey. But above all, she had the most beautiful smile in her face. As she opened her eyes, the children grabbed her hand and said: “We thought you would never ask. We thought you did not like us”. Sophie ran off to play with them, and as she ran off, the fireflies left her hair and flew up towards the sky, higher and higher... and they reached the sun. And the sun smiled.
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