The Tale of the Opal Stone

The little girl sunbeam had her own special place that she loved.

Every morning she would perch on one of the rays as the sun extended its long fingers across the sky, chasing the shadows of night and turning the navy and purple to shades of pinks, and oranges, until finally the sky would turn a lighter shade of blue as the day progressed.

The sunrays would reach out and drop the little sunbeam off on her perfect white rock, where she would spend the day basking and chatting to her friends. Sometimes she would watch the spider’s web that was there every day, sparkling like diamonds as the sun caught the dew drops lingering there.

“They look just like a beautiful diamond necklace,” she would compliment the spider, and the spider would smile in reply.

“I wish I could wear them around my neck. I'd feel like a queen!” she would exclaim. As the sun grew warmer, the droplets would disappear one by one, until all that was left was the web with the spider curled up asleep in the center.

Sometimes she would collect the dew drops and place them in the hollow of empty berry seeds, so that she'd have a drink during the day. More often than not, the bees would come by and deposit a drop of honey in one or two, and the honey would soften in the warmed liquid, making the most delicious brew.

Quite often, the birds would flit down from their nests, peck at the ground, squabbling and chattering amongst themselves, and the little sunbeam would laugh and joke with them. The little rows of beetles would march across the ground on their way to school, and woe betide if they stepped out of line. Once the garden quietened a little she would gather tiny daisies and string them into garlands and little posies to decorate her plain white rock.

Some days she would dance on the rock to the melody of the birds chirping and the insects would stop in their busy day to watch this little sunbeam moving so gracefully across the rock, shimmering and moving as she swayed.

At the close of day the rays would come around and collect all the rays and take them back up to heaven so that they could have a good night’s rest. And invariably, there would be those little garlands and cups left to show she had been there.

This amazed the boy moonbeam that swung by there every night. He would drink the nectar from the cups, and dream wonderful dreams of a beautiful golden girl who sang and danced, and made garlands for her hair. He used to wonder if it just was his imagination, or was there really such a girl for him.

He would ask the crickets and the nocturnal creatures that walked by but because they were nocturnal they couldn’t give him any answers. He decided he would leave gifts for her too and he began to gather stardust in his pockets, and leave it for her but he never knew whether she received it or not. So he decided he would give her something really special.

For weeks he collected baby stars and made the most beautiful necklace that shimmered and sparkled as he held in his hand. He laid it upon the white rock and left it there, watching the shimmer as he rode back up to the moon again.

The next morning the little sunbeam came down singing softly, looking forward to the start of her day. As she was sliding down the ray she noticed what she thought was a spider web on her rock, shining and glimmering with dew drops from the sun’s reflections. It was only when she landed, that she realized it was a necklace, the most beautiful one she had ever seen and it was just her size. As she placed it around her neck Jimmy and Jack the crickets, staggered by. They had been to a party the night before and were headed home, bleary eyed and more than a little worse for wear.

“Hey there, Sunshine! I see you found the necklace. He left it there for you last night. You must be the girl he was talking about….” Jack said.

“Oh! Who are you talking about?” she replied, startled.

“Some guy! He comes down every night. Drinks from those little cups. Looks daft – with those flowers around his neck – like a lovesick kid. Do you leave those for him?” Jimmy asked. The two crickets sniggered and carried on their way, leaving behind a very rosy-cheeked sunbeam.

That days she gathered as many flowers as she could. She decorated the entire rock so that it was barely visible; she made little pillows and cushions, and begged the bees for two drops of honey instead of just one. She wanted to thank this mysterious stranger for the beautiful gift he had left her.

Finally she left, proudly displaying her necklace and all the insects watched her go off in the distance, her beautiful jewellery sparkling so brightly that she was visible a lot longer.

“Mmmmm. looks like love,” said Mrs Ant to Miss Butterfly.

“Oh, it does,” sighed Miss Butterfly as she fluttered around, excitedly.

The moon rose and sent its rays down to earth and the little boy moonbeam slid down as fast as he could to see if his gift was still there….If it wasn’t there, it meant she existed.

“Whoa!’ he shouted. He had almost overshot the rock. It didn’t look like his rock!

Wow just look at this! he thought. He beamed from ear to ear as he gazed at the rock; and he was overwhelmed by the smell of perfume from the flowers. He tasted the nectar warm from the sun, and sweeter than normal. It gave him such a buzz – though he wasn’t sure if the buzz was from the nectar, or from the realization that she really existed, and that she had done all of this for him.

He lay down amongst the flowers, his head nestled on the soft petals and drifted off to sleep, to dream once more about his golden girl, now wearing his necklace, he was sure.

When he opened his eyes again the necklace was right there in front of him, and for a minute he thought he had dreamed the entire thing. Until he saw her eyes wide, staring at him, her mouth an O, her face framed by a head of golden hair. His heart thumped, so did hers, then she smiled, he was lost.

And so - the boy moonbeam and the girl sunbeam stayed on their white rock, happy together forever.

And if you look closely into an opal, you will see the different colors shimmering inside there.

Those are all the boy moonbeams and girl sunbeams living happily ever after.

Word count 1159