Chapter 3

Lacey is still sad. She is in her bedroom sitting on her bed waiting for dinner to be ready. She has all the pieces of the papers spread out, and her mom gave her some tape to see if she can put most of them back together. Once Lacey realizes that quite a few of them are unreadable she starts to cry again.

"Don't cry, Lacey."

Lacey takes in a quick breath and looks around surprised. "Who said that?" she asks.

"I did."

Lacey slowly turns her head and looks at her Teddy Bear that is sitting on her pillow leaning against the headboard. It is a brown and gold Teddy Bear with a little red heart on it that says, Hugs. Lacey's mouth falls open as she says, "Hugs, did you just talk to me?"

"Yep!" says the teddy bear. As he is talking to her his head moves and looks at her, and his red string lips move as he is talking.

Lacey is stunned and excited that her teddy bear is talking with her. At last a big smile comes to Lacey's pretty face, and she giggles as she sees one of her stories coming to life before her very eyes. "I didn't know teddy bears could talk."

"Only when the need is great. When little girls are sad the universe weeps for them. When that happens, the magical kingdom of Kindness sends for one of its warriors to help. My job, or my part in this tale, is to lead you to the magical kingdom so you may learn to overcome adversity and sadness."

"You can help me with bullies?"

"We can show you how nature is. How the weak and gentle get singled out in all aspects of life. If you stand up for yourself most bullies will melt away."

"But I'm scared. I don't want to fight."

"Your knight will be able to explain it better than I. So, Lacey, do you want to go to the magical realm of Kindness with me, or do you want to let people continue to tear up your wonderful stories?"

Lacey looks over at her stories on her bed. She sees them in many pieces and again tears come to her beautiful blue eyes. She sniffles sadly and then with a courage that would make a warrior proud she says, "Yes, I want to go and learn to be self-reliant."

"Excellent!" says Hugs, the foot tall teddy bear. He holds out his little arms for Lacey to pick him up.

"Won't mom get worried about me?"

"Where we are going is a land of magic and we will be back before supper is ready."

"Okay, let's go. How do we get there?"

"We enter the magical realm of Kindness through the doghouse."

"Through Lilly's house?" Lilly used to be Lacey's dog until she got sick and went away.

"Yes."

Lacey giggles prettily and she goes out to the backyard carrying Hugs. Lacey is still wearing her cute pink tank top and pretty pink and white skirt. She gets down on her hands and knees and crawls into the doghouse. Once she is in all the way there is a bright flash.

"What happened?"

"We are here."

Slowly the very adorable Lacey crawls out of the doghouse, but she is no longer in her backyard, she is in a lush green forest. There is a pond with a big waterfall falling into it. "It's pretty," says Lacey, standing up and brushing the dirt off her knees and pretty outfit.

"Let's go over to the Pond of Gentleness and wait for our first new friend to come by."

"Okay," says Lacey. She carries Hugs over to the clear pond that is being fed by the waterfall.

As they are walking over there, Lacey can hear birds singing joyfully in the trees. "Put me on that boulder right there, and then you can walk around and look at this very pretty and serene place."

"Okay," says Lacey again.

Lacey sets Hugs on the big rock and makes sure he doesn't fall over when she lets go of him. After a very sad day, Lacey has a divine smile on her pretty face. She is looking around at the lush forest that smells of life. Her pretty blue eyes are full of wonder. She takes in a deep breath in through her nose to savor the marvelous smell of earth and creation.

She puts her hand into the pond to feel and experience the water. Lacey loves swimming, and now that she knows the water is warm she wants to go swimming, but she has on her nice skirt and doesn't want to get it wet.

As Lacey is crouching with her hand in the water, a fish the color of the rainbow pops his head out of the water and looks at Lacey with a kind smile. "Hello, mister fish."