The Impatient Fairy

This was written for "Character Flaws Contest"  with the prompt: An impatient fairy. It didn't have to rhyme.
It just sort of happened. WC = 862 This story won Honorable Mention.

Deep inside Tender Wood, beyond the sight of man, is a small colony of fairies, the last of their clan. Among these gentle beings, there is a special one. It's Sue, the impatient fairy, who insists she waits for no one. When the fairies are out picking berries, she's done before the rest. She whines and shouts and sniffs and pouts, and puffs out her little chest.

"Come on! Let's go! I'm done already! Hurry, Mike! Finish, June! Let's go! Let's go! Let's go, Freddy!"

The other fairies just ignore her, smiling as they pick. They let her rant. They let her rave. They let her stomp and kick. You see, there is a secret that all the fairies knew. Your feelings aren't in charge, you can pick them if you choose. So, Mike, he chose to be cheery, even when others may be blue. This only makes Sue angry. But Mike just smiles at Sue. Freddy is a steady one, never to get mad. Even when he shouldn't be, he'll smile and be glad. Now June, she is a special one. She's patient beyond the rest. Because she is so patient, Sue will always be her test.

Sue will mock and whine and hurry, tell them to be quick. For any other being, Sue might just make them sick. But you see, they're okay because the fairies know Sue can always change; if she chooses, Sue can always grow.

And on the day, so it would seem, it's a day like any other. The fairies are out, every one, every sibling, dad and mother. They pick and grin and cheer and spin like fairies often do. All but one are happy here and smiling at the view. But Sue has gone and wandered off, she's had enough of this--all the singing, all the dancing, all the other bliss.

The problem comes when darkness falls and Sue is no where near the little hamlet where she lives, and she begins to fear. "They need to hurry. They need to look. Soon they'd better find me. Oh no! Is that a troll? It's okay; I'm safe. It's just a scary tree."

But the darker that the darkness gets, then the more impatient she grew. "They'd better hurry up and find me," says huffy little Sue. Perhaps she'll never see the smile on sweet Freddy's face when butterflies and dragon flies he loves begin to chase. And what about Mike and his big toothy grin? Oh how she misses that cheery fairy. Will she ever see him again? Though there's one fairy she doesn't miss, good, ol' patient June. And to make herself feel better, she starts to hum a tune.

"They'd better come and find me. I say, they'd better hurry." Her impatience begins to dissipate and be replaced with worry. She begins to see things, shadows in the dark. She sees a bear and a wolf, and she's sure she sees a shark.

"I cannot do this, this I know. This just cannot be. I miss dear Mike and sweet Freddy. Yes, I miss all three." And then she thinks of patient June and, oh, June is so wise. "If she were lost, she could get home." Sue sits down and cries.

Eventually her tears dry up and Sue decides to try. "With all my huffing and all my fussing, I've never wondered why. But when the other fairies in our fairy wood have a problem they cannot solve, they still look for the good. Perhaps that's what I'll try to do. Impatience got me naught."

She chose to smile and think a while upon what she'd been taught. "I can choose my feelings. This I'm told is true. But never once before I tried, did I ever have a clue. How if I do it right at first, it's easy as can be. But if I wait a while and then my feeling fight with me. I choose to be calm and be patient. I choose to wait it out. Though of course, if they're looking for me, I'll also give a shout."

And so Sue chose just what to do, what to think and feel. And just like that, Sue felt much better and her heart began to heal. She hadn't realized it just before, but her insides were in pain. And when she chose just what to feel, her impatience began to wane. To be impatient takes a lot, a lot more than you'd think. She breathed in deep, smelled the night, and smiled with a blink. She looked around and laughed out loud when again she saw the shark. How silly of me to be so scared of shadows in the dark.

"Sue! Sue!" She hears them call, their voices sounding hoarse. But she knows it's her fairy friends that are the voices' source.

"I'm here! I'm here!" She excitedly exclaims. She runs to them and hugs them each, shouting out their names.

And from that day on evermore. Sue chose her feelings and was proud for never more did she whine, complain, nor did she huff out loud.