Once upon a time, in a far away country, there lived a little boy called George, who lived in a mansion at the top of a hill with his father, mother and little sister, Alicia.

George’s father was an ambassador, who was always travelling to other countries and always returned with expensive gifts for the family. George’s mother was a doctor, who worked in a nearby hospital. George was a mean, greedy little boy who always wanted more toys and never shared them with anyone.

“You must always share,” his parents told him, but he always stamped his foot and sulked, but would never share his toys.

Now the family had twelve servants working for them and one of them, the cook, sometimes brought her little boy with her. George thought that the little boy was rude because he was always trying to play with his toys.

One morning, the cook brought little John with her and, as usual, he tried to play with George’s toys, but George would not let him. George’s father called him to his study. “Do not touch my toys or I will tell,” warned George.

John nodded, but when George had left the room, John started to play with George’s toy truck, pushing it across the carpet, really enjoying himself. When George returned and saw John playing with his toy, he threw a tantrum and dragged the little boy out of the room, crying, “He is a bad boy! He played with my favourite truck!”

George’s father came running to see what was happening and immediately grew very angry. “George!” he yelled, pulling John away. “You are not to play with your toys anymore until you learn to share. Off to your room!”

George started to cry, but his father grew angrier and George hurried to his room. That night, as George lay in his bed, crying, a fairy took pity on him and flew into his room.

“Hi there, little boy. Why are you crying?’’ she asked as she sat on his bedpost.

George immediately grew frightened. “Who...who is there?,” he called out from beneath the blankets.

The fairy laughed and told him that he could stop hiding and see for himself.

Slowly, George peered out and saw the beautiful fairy.

“Hi there, my name is Flower,” said the little fairy with a smile.

“I am George,” George said, sitting up.

“Why are you crying?” asked the fairy again.

“Everybody hates me!,” George replied tearfully. “They are all making me share my toys and I do not like that!” The fairy sighed and shook her head. “Let me show you something, George.”

The fairy waved her magic wand and George suddenly became as small as she was and had tiny wings of his own. George flew around his room excitedly. “Wow! I can fly!” he exclaimed.

The fairy smiled. “Come on! Let’s go now.”

George followed the fairy and she brought him to a tree. She knocked on the trunk with her wand and a tiny door appeared. George flew in after her and was surprised to see other fairies who were all much smaller than Flower.

“These are my children,” said Flower as a baby fairy flew to her.

George smiled politely, not knowing what to say. He had never seen fairies before and now there were eight little ones staring at him.

“We are making presents for Christmas,” Flower announced with a smile.

George smiled happily. Christmas was tomorrow and he had been promised some new toys.

“These presents are for all the poor children down at the orphanage nearby.

George was disappointed. He wanted them for himself.

“You will get something too,” Flower smiled, “so now come and help us.”

George was happy again and started to help make the presents. He was having so much fun for the first time in his life that he did not want to stop helping, so they worked until the early hours of the morning.

“Come along everyone!” said Flower as she packed the presents into a large sack. “We must be going now.”

They arrived at the orphanage just as the children were starting to wake up. Carefully, they dropped the presents onto their beds and George watched as the children excitedly tore at the wrapping paper. A little girl had received a doll that George had made and clutched it lovingly to her chest. “This is the most beautiful doll in the world,” she said, and George felt happy that someone had liked something that he had made.

After they had finished giving out the presents, Flower handed George a toy truck. “This is for you, but the real present will come when you get home and share this toy with someone.”

George was excited. Once he arrived home, he was a little boy again and rushed downstairs to find John, who was playing in the garden by himself and hurried to his feet when he saw George arriving with the toy truck.

“John, this is my new truck. Let’s play with it together,” George suggested.

John wondered what had happened to mean George, but George just shrugged his shoulders.

While they played, George suddenly began to feel a strange sort of happiness and discovered that it was better to play with someone than to play on his own.

Everyone was surprised to see them playing together and later on, after George had opened his presents, he hurried to share them with John, who also shared his presents with George, and from then on George always shared his new toys with everyone and had much more fun because of it.

- Monisha Jador   (age 18)
West Pennant Hills, New South Wales, Australia.