For my niece...

Olivia and the Sun

Olivia Faye was the toughest girl in her second grade class and maybe even her entire school. She could run faster than all the third graders and hang for longer on the monkey bars than any fourth grader, but when it came to dealing with nasty teachers, Olivia didn’t know what to do. So when Olivia climbed out of bed just as the sun rose on the last weekend before school began she knew it was going to be a very busy few days. Olivia combed her short brown hair and brushed her teeth until they sparkled. She had only three days to catch the sun.

“There,” Olivia said happily as she buttoned the last button on her blue summer jacket. “Now it’s time to get started.” Olivia had been thinking about catching the sun ever since she learned that Mrs. Skiffington would be her third grade teacher.

There were rumours that Mrs. Skiffington was the meanest, cruellest teacher in the entire city. Some kids said she had fangs like a vampire and that spiders lived in her long blonde braid. Other kids said that she cast spells on the children who misbehaved, even if they only misbehaved a little bit. Olivia would do anything to stop school from starting, and catching the sun meant that summer couldn’t end. If summer couldn’t end, then fall couldn’t start and neither could school.

 “I’ll use my fishing rod to catch the sun,” Olivia decided. “But what can I use as bait? Fish like worms, would the sun like those?” Olivia thought for a long time and decided that the sun was famous for drying up even the deepest puddles. “I’ll use puddle water,” she said. Olivia gathered up her fishing rod and a cup of puddle water and climbed to the highest part of her roof. “If this works,” she thought as she tied the cup tightly to the end of her fishing line. “I’ll never have to meet Mrs. Skiffington.” She cast the line as far as she could into the sky. The cup flew waaay up and then fell right back down with a splat. Olivia got some more puddle water and tried again. She cast as hard as she could, but it was no use. The cup flew waaaaaaay up and then fell right back down with a SPLAT!  Olivia started to think again. “Sometimes when my kite gets stuck in a tree, I use rocks to knock it free; maybe I can knock the sun from the sky.”

Olivia gathered up all different kinds of rocks: big ones, small ones, light ones and heavy ones. Olivia found brown rocks, black ones, white ones and even a reddish-green one. She piled all the rocks into her backpack and climbed to the highest part of her roof once again. Olivia decided to throw the lightest rock first. She gripped it tightly in her hand and heaved it as high as she could into the sky. The rock soared up almost out of sight, then fell right back down with a smash. Next Olivia tried the heaviest rock. She gripped it tightly in her hand and heaved it as high as she could into the sky. Again the rock soared up into the sky and then fell right back down with a SMASH! Finally Olivia tried the extra special reddish-green rock. She gave it a kiss for luck. “You could be the rock that saves me from nasty Mrs. Skiffingtion,” she said and heaved it into the sky with all her might. The reddish-green rock came down with the hardest SMAAASSSH of all. “Hmmmm,” Olivia thought as she climbed down from the roof. “When a cowboy wants to catch his cow, he uses a lasso. Maybe I can use a lasso to catch the sun.” But where was Olivia going to find a lasso wide enough to fit around the sun, and long enough to reach the sun? And how was she going to find it before school starts?

Olivia gathered together all the skipping ropes, shoe laces, and bits of ribbon she could find and tied them all together to make the biggest lasso in the world. “This ought to be big enough,” Olivia said as she climbed back up onto the roof for the third time. Olivia gripped her gigantic lasso tightly in both hands and started to spin. She pulled and twisted and tugged, but it was no use. It was too heavy. Olivia sat down with her legs crossed in the perfect thinking position and thought hard until she came up with the perfect idea. “I’ll get birds,” she said. “They can help me swing my lasso up over the sun.” With a loud CHIRP CHIRP and a few little whistles, Olivia called over every bird she knew. Owls, ravens, pigeons, crows, and one bright pink flamingo fluttered down. The roof was covered from side to side with birds. “Grab on,” Olivia hollered at her friends. “I’m trying to catch the sun.” And without a peep every bird grabbed a piece of the lasso and started off.

Thousands of birds flapped together towards the sun. “Spin,” Olivia yelled. “Swing.” The lasso started to turn and take the shape of a giant circle. Olivia squinted to see the tiny speck of birds closing in on the sun.  Soon they were out of sight. All Olivia could do was hold her end of the rope and wait. Olivia waited until lunch pasted and dinner. She waited until the sun started to come down. “They’ve got it.” Olivia cheered. “They’ve captured the sun! No Mrs. Skiffington!”  Olivia cheered as she started to tug hard on the lasso, she leaned back as far as she could and pulled, but the sun kept falling without getting any closer.

 Soon all the birds started to fly back, but the sun was not behind them. “Where is my sun?” Olivia called. The birds looked sad. When they landed on the roof Olivia noticed that the lasso had been burned to a crisp. “Was it hot up there?” she asked. The birds gave a tweet, yes.  Olivia looked at the birds and the black lasso, she looked at the smashed rocks and splattered water, and she listened to her tummy grumble. The weekend was almost over and she still hadn’t caught the sun. What could she do? Tomorrow she would have to face Mrs. Skiffington.

Olivia was scared on the first day of school. Mrs. Skiffington led all her students into their new classroom with a smile. Olivia was assigned a seat in the very front row. Mrs. Skiffington wrote her name on the board in nice curvy letters.  Olivia watched carefully for the spiders in her braid and made sure to keep her eyes down to avoid out going spells. She waited for the fangs to appear, but nothing happened. At the end of the day, as Olivia packed her thing away, Mrs. Skiffington pointed a long skinny finger at her. “Olivia,’ she said. Olivia froze.  She had never been put under a spell before, is this how it felt? “Olivia.”

“Y-y-yes.”

“Your pencil,” Mrs. Skiffington said as she bent over to pick it up. Olivia reached slowly for the pencil. “Have a good day.” Her new teacher said with a twinkle in her eye. Olivia couldn't  tell if it was a spell or just a nice twinkle, but she smiled back.

“Thanks,” she said.