the magic cattail

This one’s for Thomas (6) and Sierra (3)!

Once upon a time, in a far away land1, nestled in between a small mountain range and a huge hill with a flat top, there was a magical place called Aspen Lake.

Many animals (and occasionally some humans) called Aspen Lake home. A family of deer came out each morning to graze along the water, as the squirrels zigzagged around the tree trunks. Out on the water, a flock of ducks spent the days patrolling the lake, keeping an eye out for any mischievous humans.

It was a small lake, surrounded by majestic ponderosa pines and quaking aspens. On breezy afternoons, the air came alive with the sound of the aspen trees, a soft shhhhhh like the forest was telling a secret. If you were to look up, you’d see their silvery green leaves shimmering in the sunlight.

One day, two kids—an older brother and his younger sister—were following the path around the Aspen Lake with their aunt and uncle. They were halfway along the path when they came across a patch of cattails growing in the lake!

Wait! Before we move on, here are a few important facts about cattails:

• They are aquatic plants, meaning they like to live in water.

• Some of the tails are long, like Neko tails, and others are short and stubby, like Cooper tails. And some of the tails are bald, like somebody plucked all the fuzz from them!

• When a special cattail lands in the hands of an especially cool kid, it gets ~*~magical powers~*~.

These cattails in Aspen Lake were usually protected by the water and a forcefield of false steps. If someone (like a curious human) stepped on a false step, they slid into the lake! But sometimes, a cattail fell over outside of its protective forcefield, and exposed its powers to humans.

On this day, one of the cattails had fallen over, its fuzzy tip reaching beyond the false steps and onto the path.

As soon as the boy picked up the cattail he could feel it buzzing with pent-up energy. An ancient spell2 floated down to him from beyond the aspen trees, and as he said the spell he pointed the cattail to the nearest object, which happened to be his uncle’s shoes.

“Heavy!”

Suddenly the shoes on his uncle’s feet weighed two hundred pounds! He tried and tried to pick up his feet, but they felt like two boulders. The poor guy was stuck on the trail and couldn’t move a step further.

Amazed, the boy gave the cattail to his sister. She aimed the cattail at the pinecone in her aunt’s hand.

“Heavy!”

The pinecone turned as heavy as a bowling ball! It was so heavy it almost made her aunt fall over trying to carry it!

“Heavy!”

Now her shoes were heavy too!

“Why are our feet so heavy??” Their aunt and uncle tried as hard as they could to walk, but it was no use.

Because the brother and sister were nice kids and didn’t want to leave their family members stuck on the side of the lake, they reversed the heavy spell.

“Unheavy!”

Whew! Everyone’s shoes were normal again.

They continued their walk around the lake, as the ducks looked on skeptically.

The cattail had lost some of its special fuzz in all the hullabaloo. The kids wondered if maybe they had used up all its powers. There was only one way to be sure…

“Double heavy!”

Gak! Now their aunt and uncle’s whole bodies were so heavy they could barely hold themselves up! Their shoulders slumped and they bent over under the invisible weight. The magical cattail definitely still worked.

“Uhhhhhh,” they said, struggling to move. “Help?”

Oops! “Unheavy!”

The adults rejoiced in being able to stand upright again. By now the sun was setting and it was time to get back home for dinner. “Why don’t we leave that at the lake?” their uncle suggested, eyeing the magical cattail suspiciously.

“You could put it in a special place where only you can find it,” said their aunt.

The kids agreed and found a patch of grass where they could hide the cattail.

By the time they got back to the house, the adults were so tired from being heavy that they immediately went to take a nap. As they climbed the steps to go inside, the boy and girl looked at each other sneakily. The brother pulled the cattail out from under his shirt and held a finger to his lips. The sister nodded and giggled silently.

The ducks, who had seen it all, looked at each other knowingly. The aspens whispered their quiet shhhhhh. Every living creature around Aspen Lake agreed to keep the secret of the magic cattail.