A short message for grown -ups.
The new season of Mysteries About True Histories is here.
Max and Molly are back, facing off against the power hungry pogs, a group determined to rewrite history.
With help from Aunt M and a few surprise guests, they'll travel from ancient Egypt to 1875 to stop them using math, history, and a whole lot of teamwork.
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Hello friends and welcome to Sleep Tight Stories!
Margaret and the Secret Soft Tree is written by Jamie Lee Mann and served as inspiration for her wonderful Legend of Rhyme series of books.
We are so happy to be able to share this with you.
To learn more about the Legend of Rhyme series, please follow the link in our show notes.
Margaret is a girl who always does as she is told.
It's her birthday, and she is turning eight.
And Margaret is very excited because this is the day she gets to go to her friend Mary's house all by herself.
After breakfast, she starts on her way to Mary's, but something magical happens along the way.
Margaret and the Secret Soft Tree Part 1 Margaret was a sweet girl who always did what she was told.
It had been that way since she was two and a half, or so her mother always said.
And that, to anyone who knows anything about two -year -olds, is very rare.
On the evening before her eighth birthday, Margaret was too excited to sleep, because the next day, she would finally be allowed to go to her friend Mary's house, all by herself.
And as everyone knows, that is a very important step to becoming a grownup.
It's especially important to a little girl who needs a wheelchair to get around.
And nobody thinks she can do anything by herself.
When Margaret woke up on her birthday, she wheeled herself to the kitchen.
Happy birthday, Margaret, said her mother.
Happy birthday, sweetie, said her dad.
I'm eight. I'm hungry when I'm eight, said Margaret as she gobbled up her French toast, which happened to be her favorite breakfast in the whole wide world.
She ate so fast that she got the hiccups and she gulped down her milk faster than she ever gulped anything before.
Margaret, her mother said, you're eating like a wild animal.
Margaret wiped her mouth with her napkin and said, but I have important things to do today.
I'm going to go through the woods to Mary's house all by myself.
Remember? Remember, how could I forget?
her mother said. That's all you've been talking about for three weeks.
Mary and Margaret had been best friends forever.
They saw each other every day.
But Margaret was never allowed to visit all by herself before.
Until today. Margaret put her plate and cup on her lap and brought them to the sink.
May I please go to Mary's house now?" As long as you're dressed and your teeth are brushed, be careful, dear, her mother said.
Her mother gave her a hug and kissed her on her special birthmark, a small silver streak of hair on the back of her head, as she had every morning for the past eight years.
Then she told Margaret she loved her and to be home for lunch. It was a beautiful sunny day so Margaret didn't even need a jacket.
The sun felt warm on her face and there wasn't even enough of a breeze to move her hair out of place.
She went into the backyard and followed the path her father had made for her through the trees.
There weren't many trees between Margaret and Mary's houses, and Margaret had been through them before, many times with her parents and Mary.
But things looked different when she was by herself.
She started feeling a little nervous that maybe she would get lost. But since she could almost see Mary's house, Margaret kept on going.
The ground was squishy under her wheels, and now and then a twig would snap loudly beneath her.
When she was about the length of her school gym away from Mary's house, a stick got caught in one of her wheels, and Margaret's chair tipped over.
She caught herself by leaning into the tree, but the tree was not firm.
The tree felt as much like nothing as air did.
In shock, she watched her hand disappear.
Before her brain could register what was happening, the trunk sucked her in, and she disappeared.
Margaret opened her eyes and was dazzled by what she saw.
The sky was the same shade of purple as a lilac in June.
Underneath her, the ground wasn't brown like dirt or green like grass.
It was cotton candy pink, and fluffy like feathers.
The white trees sparkled, like they were covered in silver glitter.
Margaret was so awed by her surroundings that it took her a few minutes to realize that her wheelchair was on the ground beside her, and she was standing on her own two feet.
She hadn't used her own legs for walking before.
Shaking, she took a slow, small step.
Easy! She started taking bigger steps.
Easy! She took off her shoes to see if the fluffy pink ground felt as soft as it looked.
Margaret let out a huge laugh that echoed throughout the strange, silent place she was in.
Then she heard something.
A faint tinkling sound like a tiny bell.
The tinkling grew louder and Margaret saw a flash of blue light coming towards her.
Right there, in front of Margaret's face, appeared a fairy.
She could have fit in a teacup and she was as pretty as a flower, with iridescent wings and glowing skin.
"'My name's Eloise,' she said, blue eyes sparkling.
What's yours?" Margaret was almost too shocked to answer Eloise because she had never met a fairy before.
But then she remembered it wasn't polite to remain silent when asked a question.
Her parents had taught her that.
My name is Margaret.
She said You are very big.
Surely you are not a fairy.
Are you a people girl?
Asked Eloise. splitting around Margaret's head.
When Margaret nodded Eloise opened her eyes wide and said, I've never seen a people girl in Gardenia before, I must go get the queen.
Gardenia, Margaret squealed, what is this place?
But Eloise didn't answer.
She simply disappeared as quickly as she'd come.
In a flash of light and a puff of twinkly fairy dust. Within seconds, Eloise returned and she had another fairy with her.
A lovely blue fairy with a beautiful silver wand.
It was the queen. Suddenly, Margaret was able to hear noises.
Normal sort of noises like wind and the rustling of leaves.
Margaret, said the queen, carefully studying the girl's face, My dear child, we've been waiting for you," said the Queen Fairy.
What do you mean? asked Margaret.
Before the Queen could answer, Margaret heard more noises.
She looked around, and more fairies than she could count started poking their faces out from the candy colored toads tools that littered the ground.
My darling said the queen stroking Margaret's head.
Have you ever noticed that in your dark hair there's a streak of silver?
Yes, said Margaret touching the silver streak with her hand.
Mom told me that was my birthmark.
Said Margaret. Oh, your mother is such a kind soul.
said the queen. You know my mother?
said a wide -eyed Margaret.
Why, yes, dear. Oh, I suppose you don't know the story.
When your mother was a very little girl, she once saved a fairy from a trap in the woods that had been set by a naughty human child.
The fairy she saved blew some fairy dust in her face to make her forget what she saw.
That fairy was me. According to fairy legend, a kind human would one day save us from a fierce beast and she would go on one day to have a special little baby who would be the chosen one.
A gilded girl, who would arrive in Gardenia on her eighth birthday to watch over the fairies.
That silver streak in your hair, Margaret, is the mark of the human fairy princess.
Margaret couldn't believe what was happening.
Her? A fairy princess?
Would she get a crown?
You may come and go back and forth to and from Gardenia however often you wish, but until you decide to stay here forever, each time you come back another tree will grow in front of the secret tree to protect us from someone else coming into our world.
The more you come here, the higher the chance of someone seeing you disappear into the tree you see, explained the Queen.
So more trees will grow to hide the Secret Tree, making it difficult for humans to see us and enter our world.
When you're here, she said, you'll be able to live like us.
You can fly, and you will have special fairy magic.
You can help the garden fairies shape the daffodil trumpets, and you can help the animal fairies teach the baby birds to fly.
She looked down at her feet.
My legs work here? Are they fixed now?
When you are here, you will have full use of your legs, But I'm afraid that when you return to your human life, you will not," said the queen.
Margaret frowned. Then she asked another question, even though she was sure she already knew the answer.
Can I bring my friends and my parents here with me?
Oh no dear, said the queen, nobody can know that you're one of us, not ever.
Many humans don't believe in fairies and we want to keep it that way.
This was an impossible decision.
Did she leave her friends and mother forever and stay in this perfect world or did she go back to her normal life where the ground was firm not fluffy and she could never run like she could here.
There's something else you should know.
Time works differently here.
You can stay here for a full day before one hour passes in your world, explained the queen.
But remember, when you go back home, a tree will appear in front of the secret soft tree you fell into.
Now, take this. The queen handed Margaret her intricately carved silver wand.
This belongs to you.
This wand has been given to every fairy princess for the past five hundred years.
It is now yours and you will have it until you have a successor.
In Margaret's hand the wand seemed tiny.
It looked like a doll accessory.
What do I do with it?
She was too embarrassed to ask what a successor was.
Eloise is going to be your guide.
She will be with you the entire time you're with us in Gardenia.
She will answer all of your questions.
Now I must go. Happy birthday, Margaret.
And with that, the queen disappeared in a flash of light and a puff of fairy dust. And that is the end of this part.
Good night. Sleep tight.
