3. Rachel's Old Rag Doll

Learning to appreciate what you have, to share it with others, and that the best things cannot be bought with money.

“Wake up, little fairy! I think we are arriving!"

Little Celestial Fairy opens her eyes, half asleep. The stork has woken her up from a dream in which she was playing with her friends at changing the colours of their dresses with their magic wands.

She and the stork have been flying together for some days across the sea, and now and then the little fairy has rested on the stork's back. When she sticks her head out of the feathers, she looks down but she only sees the sea.

“I can't see anything," she says, tired of having the same view everyday. She covers herself with the feathers again and tries to keep on dreaming that amusing dream. 

But suddenly, she feels something pricking her thigh, and a little peck makes her jump.

“Come on, wake up, you sleepyhead!" the stork shouts at her smiling. “And look there!"

Celestial rubs her eyes and looks above the stork's head.

"We've finally arrived!" she cries happily. “But, where are we?"

There's a big city in front of them, with the highest houses she has ever seen. It's a city of skyscrapers.

When they fly over the streets, the little fairy is dumbfounded: thousands of things are advertised on neon signs all over the place; crowds of people are walking quickly down the streets; there are so many cars that they have no place left to move... In a corner, some boys wearing caps and sunglasses are dancing, with their heads on the floor and their bodies spinning in circles.

Celestial's head is spinning, too. There is too much noise, and after a while she wants to get out of there.

They fly over some streets and approach a bell tower.  The stork lands there and says:

“My friend, my trip ends here. This place is quite good to make a nest, don't you think?"

The little fairy hugs the stork.

“Thanks for allowing me to fly with you. I must keep on looking for my wand. Perhaps we'll meet again someday."

And, after kissing the stork on her beak, Celestial flies off and continues travelling.

Soon she realises that the streets have changed. Now the houses are old and everything looks very sad, but she hears the laughter of some children playing football with an empty plastic bottle.

This place makes her feel upset because the people who live here are poor, and sometimes they don't even have money to buy food...

But after she's been flying for a while, the streets change again. Now the houses are lower, and there are gardens in front of them, and there are trees and flowers everywhere.

Suddenly she sees a red balloon flying by... and then a yellow one... and a blue one... and a green one... Just in front of her the sky is filled with coloured balloons, and Celestial has fun pushing them away with her hands.

Below her there is a birthday party in a garden, and Celestial decides to get closer. There is a girl wearing a crown with the name "Rachel" glittering on it. There are children around her, wishing her Happy Birthday and giving her gifts.

Sitting on a tree branch near the house, Celestial sees Rachel unwrapping the packages quickly and putting them in a big bag by her side.

“May I play with a doll?" a little girl asks her.

“No, I'm sorry. It's new and it might break" she replies.

And when she has fi-nished unwrapping the last gift, she gets up and drags the bag with all her strength into the house.

“Do you feel like making some drawings?" says a freckly boy.

“If we use the pencils, the points will wear down" Rachel says.

“Then we can play ball" says another.

“No, it could burst" she replies again.

So the kids decide to play hide-and-seek, but Rachel doesn't feel like it. She sits on the doorstep and thinks:

“I hope they go home soon. I'm looking forward to playing with my new toys."

Meanwhile, Celestial has got into the house through an open window.

“This must be Rachel's bedroom" she says.

There are toys everywhere: plenty of dolls on the shelves, a pile of stuffed animals on the bed, a wardrobe full of fancy dresses, and drawers full of drawing and craft tools and materials.

“But there's no room for all the gifts she got today!" says Celestial aloud.

And when she flies to the window to go out, she sees the little legs of a rag doll, sticking out of a half-closed chest.

“What are you doing here?" she asks the doll, opening the lid. “Why aren't you sitting on a shelf with the other dolls?"

“I’m the first doll Rachel got" the doll replies. “She loved me very much, and we played together every day, but when she got new dolls she put me aside and she doesn't even remember that I'm here. At any moment she'll throw me in the bin."

“Well, I think you're the most beautiful one," says the little fairy. "Perhaps one day she'll play with you again."

But deep down, Celestial knows this is unlikely. Today Rachel has got a pile of new toys and dolls to play with.

Suddenly, while she's wondering how she could help the doll, she hears someone coming upstairs and she hides inside the chest with the doll.

The door opens and Rachel comes into the bedroom carrying all her gifts.

“Oh finally they are all gone and I can play without anybody touching my stuff!"

And, sitting on the floor, she scatters all the gifts around her and starts playing.

“I’m so sorry" the father says to his wife, “I’ve lost my job, and if you're the only one working we can't keep on living in this expensive house.

Tomorrow we'll have to take our things and move to a smaller place."Celestial waits inside the chest for Rachel to go to sleep. When the girl falls asleep, Celestial gets out, and then she hears the girl’s parents talking in another room.

Little Celestial Fairy gets very sad.

“Poor people" she thinks. “I’ll stay here until tomorrow and see if I can help them."

She gets into the chest again and falls asleep next to the doll.

The following morning, when Rachel wakes up, her parents have already been packing suitcases and dismantling the furniture for a long time. Out in the street there's a van which will take everything to their new home.

Rachel's mother comes into her bedroom and tells her about what happened. She asks Rachel to choose just one toy to take with her because in their new home there will not be room for all of them.

"No mummy, I want all of them! They are mine and I want to take them all!" the girl shouts angrily at her mother.

And with her eyes full of tears, she goes out of the room taking nothing at all...

When Celestial is alone, she gets out of the chest.

“Poor Rachel, she wants everything and now she'll end up with nothing."

Then she hears Sparkly's voice:

“Put the old rag doll in a box“ it says.

And the little fairy, knowing that this little voice is always right, takes the doll and, without anyone noticing, puts it in a box which is still open.

Some hours later the van is loaded. The little fairy sees Rachel and her parents getting in the car and driving behind the van. With a little jump she starts flying, and she follows them until she reaches the van and sits on the top.

They soon get to the streets with old houses, where people who do not have much money live. They stop in front of a little house and begin unloading the van.

It's a three-floor building, and other families live there, too. A group of kids sit on the front steps, looking at the men come and go as they carry furniture and boxes into the house.

Rachel goes into the house passing by the children without even looking at them. She goes to her bedroom and lies on the bed, crying.

Celestial, who has followed the girl without her noticing, talks to her:

“Don’t cry, Rachel. Surely you'll make a lot of friends here and you'll have fun."

“And what do you know?" the girl says without raising her head from the pillow.

But after a little while she gets up and finds out who's talking to her.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asks through her tears.

–"I'm Celestial. I went to your house while I was looking for my magic wand, and I saw what happened. If you like, we can be friends" she replies.

“I don't need any friends" Rachel says. “I like to play alone with all my toys, but now I have none left, and I'm sad and angry because I've had to leave them all in the other house."

“You know what?" Celestial says. “Once, a dwarf told me that everything happens to us for a reason, so that we can learn something from it."

“Leave me alone" the girl replies. “How can I learn something from all this?"

The little fairy realises that she won't be able to convince Rachel. She says goodbye to her and goes out to the street. But there she sees some girls playing, each carrying a rag doll, and they're laughing and having great fun. Then she hears Sparkly's voice:

“Give Rachel her rag doll and tell her to go out."

Then Celestial turns around and goes into the house again. She takes a look and soon sees the box where she put the doll.

“Come Rachel, and look what's in here!" she cries.

The girl comes closer, and when she sees the doll, she says:

“I don't want this doll. It's old and I don't like it!"

“Come on, take it and come with me, please..." Celestial insists.

The girl decides to trust her. She takes the doll and follows Celestial into the street. When she sees the girls playing, she stays on the doorstep looking at them, but then one of them says to her:

“Would you like to play?"

Rachel looks at the little fairy and, without saying anything, nods and walks slowly towards the girls. Immediately they start talking to her and they lend her their dolls, which look very like her own old rag doll.

A little while later Rachel is playing with her new friends and she looks really happy. Her doll is happy that they are playing together again.

And Celestial, seeing that they don't need her anymore, flies slowly away over the houses, with a smile on her face.

She's been able to help the rag doll, and she has also helped Rachel realise that she doesn't need so many toys to play with; that there's nothing better than playing with other children and sharing the little that one has, even if it's just a rag doll or an empty plastic bottle used as a football.

The night is coming, and the little fairy decides to visit her friend, the stork, and sleep by her in the bell tower.

“Tomorrow I'll get up early and carry on looking for my wand" she thinks.

And once again, without realising it, she has got closer to it today.

Will you go with her again?

Learn to share. If you share something with somebody, you'll make him or her happy. Later, you'll be glad when he or she shares something with you. It's quite normal that sometimes it's difficult to share things because you don't want them to get broken or because you love them. But the important thing is that things should make us feel better, and playing with friends makes us really happy, doesn't it?

Rachel doesn't want to share her toys, but when she meets the girls in the street they have a lot of fun playing together and sharing their dolls. She only has her old rag doll, but since all of the children share their dolls, it's like they have more than just one.

The things we can buy, like toys, sweets, our favourite food, etc., only make us happy for a while, for a few days or even for a few months. But as time passes by, they don’t make us as happy as before. On the other hand, the happiness we feel when we've got friends can last forever, even if we don't see each other as often as before.

Rachel has no toys left, and she now thinks she won't have fun anymore. But even though she only has her old rag doll, she has met some new friends, and she'll be able to have a lot of fun with them, besides playing with dolls.

We can always learn something from everything that happens to us, especially from the unpleasant things. When we have a problem or are going through a difficult time, we try to find a solution. We look inside ourselves to see if we did something to make it happen. When the problem has passed, we may even realise that things are better than before. And we learn and grow forever...

Rachel has learnt that she doesn't need so many toys to have fun. She has new friends and has fun playing with her old doll, which she had previously put aside. In addition, she has learnt that when people share things everybody has more of them: their own things plus the other people’s things.