Magic, Earth & Us (eBook)

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Earth’s Fever & Lissie’s Light

Pekial’s Wish: “I wish, with the strength of all our hearts and souls, that magic herein lives, to someday be free to roam the Earth, creating new magic through heart-felt needs, rewarding creatures as our souls deem fair, to heal Earth forever more.”

Earth’s Fever:

Around the world, Earth’s ancient magic could feel that Earth was enduring a powerful pressure within one of its mountains, even though it shivered with an intense cold at the same time. Earth’s ancient magic knew that Earth’s magic would soon be needed, although it had yet to find out why or even exactly where the Earth suffered.

Earth’s magic looked everywhere, finally discovering that in Greenland, the Earth was cold, very cold, from the ice and snow that carpeted almost all of this region. The cold penetrated everywhere, except for deep within a mountain near Greenland’s coast. There, Earth’s pain persistently grew as the Earth tried valiantly to stem the rising lava.

As the lava grew ever hotter, melting more of the earth’s core and areas of crust around it, Earth began to groan intensely with its efforts to avoid releasing the molten rock. Earth’s ancient magic now knew that if the Earth failed to contain this lava, so many creatures would die a horrible death.

Earth’s ancient magic recognized that Earth needed help to hold the lava back, that it needed new magic, if enough could become available in time. Earth’s ancient magic, scattered across the globe in pieces of asteroids, looked everywhere for ways to grow more magic. One special fragment containing a small amount of ancient magic found Lissie:

Lissie’s Light:

Lissie loved, absolutely loved, the month of December. It wasn’t because of her birthday, which was in November. It wasn’t even because it was Christmas holiday time. After all, although almost everyone in the entire town of Enblish celebrated Christmas Day, Lissie’s family was one of the few that did not celebrate it.

As a result, Lissie learned early in life that there was no Santa Claus for the simple reason that Santa never managed to find her house. She never admitted this to her school friends. When questioned about what she got for Christmas, Lissie would make up something, generally something that everyone else had wanted for that year. Of course, not really having anything meant that Lissie never brought anything to school for show-n-tell, making the excuse that she forgot it that morning. The teachers never pressed the issue and never made Lissie feel bad about it, although her friends often teased her for having a bad memory.

She had lived with her aunt and uncle ever since her mom and dad had left for a very long journey, one from which they would never return. Once Lissie was old enough, she realized that this meant that they had died. Although she sometimes wished that they still lived, she knew she was happy enough living with her aunt and uncle. In truth, she felt that her aunt and uncle were really her parents and loved them deeply as such.

The problem, in Lissie’s mind, was that her aunt and uncle were minimalists. Their house was small with barely enough room to sit and eat. The couch was only big enough for two adults to sit next to each other with their legs touching. Her aunt and uncle had the one bedroom, up above the other areas. Lissie did not really have her own room but slept on a pullout that came from under the couch.

Having so little space for the three of them to share meant that there was not a lot of room for Lissie to have or keep many toys. She had a small barbie doll, with a couple of dresses, and a stuffed cow that she hugged at night. The best thing, to Lissie at least, was her collection of wonderful and beautiful stones.

Knowing how much her collection of stones meant to Lissie, her aunt sacrificed a small shelf above the counter so they could be displayed. When Lissie was bored, with nothing much to do, she would often rearrange her display, talking quietly to each of them about their beauty, their special points, and how happy she was with them.

Having so very little did not really mean much to Lissie, until December came each year. Lissie found the beauty and sparkle of Christmas holiday lights and other decorations to be mesmerizing. That was the one time during each year when Lissie would beg her aunt and uncle to put up lights. Her answer was always a firm,

“No. We don’t need to spend the money on cheap decorations that have no purpose!”

It did not matter how much Lissie tried to explain how wonderful, how beautiful, and how much the holiday lights made everything look like a fairyland. The answer was always “no”, an unhappy fact that Lissie had to accept each year. Still, there were enough other places decorated with bright lights, swaying reindeer, or other almost magical looking decorations that Lissie could enjoy on her walk home to and from school each day.

Having no other choice, Lissie accepted the lack of decorations at her home. She knew and felt that it looked dark and lonely when compared to so many other places around. Although she deeply wished otherwise, her only action was to take longer on her way to school and in going home each day than she spent doing so for the other months of the year.

However, this year, things changed for Lissie. At the end of the school year, her teacher told everyone in the class that Enblish was going to do something exciting, something that each of them could help bring about. Enblish had entered a nationwide competition for the following Christmas, competing for one of three categories, to have the biggest, brightest, or most sensational display of holiday decorations.

Each of Enblish’s stores and businesses would be putting up extensive displays. Enblish was also asking every household to contribute by putting up at least one display, a set of lights, a blow-up in the yard, or anything else that might help Enblish win one of the categories. The goal was for every building and every home to display something. Enblish was asking everyone to take the summer and upcoming fall to prepare for the event.

While everyone else in the class jumped up and down with excitement, talking loudly about their ideas of what each of their families might do to help, Lissie sat quietly. All Lissie felt was dread. She knew that her aunt and uncle did not believe in the holiday season and saw only how commercialized it had become. She knew they simply did not see or feel the holiday magic in the air like she did. Sitting there, Lissie barely managed not to cry out loud, keeping her sobs inside until she was nearly home once more.

Just as Lissie expected, her aunt and uncle did not waiver in their disregard for holiday decorations. Their reaction to Enblish’s goal was that the town just wanted people to spend even more money on useless items. Under no circumstances would Lissie’s aunt and uncle agree to participate in it. Lissie was understandably disappointed and somewhat depressed with their reaction, even though she had already known what the answer would be.

For the first time in Lissie’s life, she felt a hopelessness causing an anger toward her aunt and uncle, declaring that they were unreasonable, that everyone would blame them and Lissie herself when Enblish failed in their goal.

Lissie begged repeatedly, without success:

“Why! Why can’t we just put up ONE thing!”

As a result, for the first time in Lissie’s life, she decided to make a decoration despite knowing what her aunt’s and uncle’s answer had been or how they felt about the holiday season. Lissie decided that somehow, she would make and put out one item, even if she did not yet know what it might be. Lissie spent the next month, thinking about what she could make, something that was not too difficult for her to make at age nine, something she could hide from her aunt and uncle until it came time for the competition judging, and something that would shine with a light, repelling the darkness around their home.

What Lissie finally decided to make was a homemade candle. Having made up her mind, Lissie spent most of the summer going to homes and asking for pieces of used small candles, left over from birthday parties, explaining to the adults that she was making a candle to put out for the competition. Most of the adults, upon hearing her plans, readily gave up a candle or two, with a smile of encouragement on their faces. As her aunt and uncle knew nothing about Lissie’s actions or plans, Lissie worried that they might find out and prevent her from making her precious candle. However, they never did.

By the end of the summer, Lissie had managed to gather and keep over 100 small candles, storing them at the local deli. Then came the challenge of melting the candles down, pouring them into a large glass bottle that a grocery store had given her once she explained what she was attempting to do. Lissie knew that she had to find somewhere other than her home to make her candle.

Unbeknownst to Lissie, her seeking out so many candles had caused rumors to float around businesses and homes. Most of the town’s adults were aware of what Lissie was doing. Although they never said anything directly to Lissie, they were also aware of how her aunt and uncle felt about...