Story Corner: Forever a Monster

Once upon a time, there was a boy who was so badly behaved that the Chief Fairy of the land came by to punish him. The Fairy turned the boy into a monster, in a spell which meant the boy could only escape from being a monster if he managed to seriously frighten someone. At first the boy thought this would be easy, but he soon found that the children in his area were very difficult to scare. A long time passed and he got more and more fed up. So he decided to look for some easy prey: a boy who was well known as a sucker. To ensure success, he studied this boy for some time, following him wherever he went, and in passing, seeing all the good works he did. His target gave to charity, played with the children in hospital, helped old people—in other words; he was a good boy but considered to be a sucker. Finally, he had fully prepared the best fright ever, a fright that would free him from monsterhood forever. He thought he would leave that good, unsuspecting boy, scared stiff. However, when he went to frighten the boy, there came into his mind the images of all the people the boy had helped. The monster decided to leave the boy alone, because he realized that all his good work was without price. And if he did the boy any damage, he would be responsible for him not being able to help more people. At that exact moment the Chief Fairy appeared, and rewarded the monster’s good attitude by turning him back into a boy. And that boy, who had been so badly behaved, became very kind, and a good friend of the boy he had been about to frighten to death. Ends