Alice had a problem, and not just any problem that might have been solved with a little bit of hard work and a can-do attitude. The problem went back to one small simple problem that had quickly gotten out of hand. First her mother had started to cough, then sneeze, then hack and then it seemed like the very next moment Alice’s mother had fallen head first into the hydrangeas. Dead.

This left Alice with a problem, but not an insurmountable one. Certainly it could now be said that Alice was a penniless orphan whom no one in the whole world cared about, but Alice wasn’t one to let the little things interfere with her sunny disposition.

           

This is the part where the problem decided to grow. It grew right into a fairy godmother. Right there in the flower garden next to Alice’s dead mother. The fairy wasn’t very big certainly not bigger than two feet. The fairy was purple and ugly and Alice just didn’t know what to think.

          

To call it pretty would have been a lie, and Alice did not lie. The fairy was sneering up at Alice as she sat back and stared at the fairy in a rather befuddled manner. The fairy looked at Alice and didn’t like what she saw. “Here comes another little brat who is going to ask for the wrong thing and blame me when it blows up.” Thought the fairy to herself. No the fairy did not like Alice one little bit but the fairy had a job to do, and do it she would.

“Hello, I am your fairy godmother,” the fairy said to Alice in a surprisingly sweet toned voice. Alice smiled brilliantly and the fairy ground her pointy teeth at the pretty little orphan.

“Oh how wonderful, I didn’t know I was eligible for a fairy godmother.”

“Well you’ve only now become an orphan, you weren’t even in the system before,” the fairy said begrudgingly, really if there was one thing she couldn’t stand it was grubby little orphans who beamed at the side of dead relatives. The fairy noticed now that the little orphan was even a blond with perfect creamy skin. “All right what do you want?”

“I get three wishes right?” Alice asked with a pointed look at her newly deceased mother while an idea processed.

“I’m not a genie,” the fairy grumbled, “and before you ask, no I can’t bring your mum back to life. She’s very happy where she’s at. You and I are going to leave her alone.” At this the fairy realized that she might have sounded a little rude. Fairy godmothers were not allowed to be rude. The fairy closed her eyes and summoned up the memories of her training from long years past. She had the feeling she was going to need it. Now with a smile on her face, and it didn’t matter that it was forced only that it was there the fairy spoke to Alice. “I am here to make your happily ever after come true. Think hard and tell me what you need to make your happily ever after come true.”

Alice did think but not for very long and certainly not very hard. “Well, I’m a maiden. And what every maiden needs is a handsome prince.” The fairy blinked but managed to keep the sigh of disgust from exiting her mouth, it was going to give her heartburn later though. Instead she raised her stumpy wand and waved it at the garden gate. A handsome prince appeared.

“Excuse me, but I seem to have lost my way.” The fairy grumbled at this obvious pickup line but the prince wasn’t listening and neither was Alice.

“My name is Alice, and if you would like to rest a bit I could have you come and sit in my cool kitchen while I tell you the way to the village.” The prince wasn’t really listening though except to make certain the little maiden wasn’t a hag in disguise. Learning that she wasn’t, really it was quite clear that she wasn’t, he promptly swept her up onto his white charger and whisked her away to his castle.

The fairy went home. She did not try to stop Alice, that wasn’t in her job description although she did feel a small bit of remorse at leaving Alice to the cheating old prince. But Alice had asked for a handsome prince and that is exactly what the fairy had given to Alice. Just as she was settling down with a nice cup of tea and her favorite crossword puzzle though she felt her wand start to buzz. One of her cases was crying and it wouldn’t have taken a fairy Sherlock Holmes to deduce which one it might be. The fairy went off to the castle and Alice with a flick of her wand.

“Well what happened?” The fairy asked Alice bluntly who was sitting in a corner of the kitchens crying to herself.

“He’s horrible!” She gasped and sobbed out her little broken story, “he is mean and he pinches and he has a horrible little wife!” The fairy nodded in as much sympathy as she could muster.

“So you’ve decided you don’t need a prince for your happily ever after? What is it that you want then?” The fairy might have been a little blunt again, but in her defense she was thinking of the particularly difficult cross-word puzzle waiting at home.

“Aren’t you just supposed to give me my happily ever after?” Asked Alice and the fairy noticed that she didn’t look quite as pretty as she had earlier in the day. The fairy shook her head sadly and with a flick of her wand removed them back to Alice’s cottage.

“I can’t give you what you need for your happily ever after because I don’t know what it is that you need to make you happy.” The fairy explained, she didn’t know how many times she had explained just this fact in just this sort of run down hovel but she knew she was getting tired of it. “You need to sit and think hard about what it is that makes you happy, and if it is something I can help you with. When you’re ready let me know.” The fairy handed Alice one of her business cards. “The instructions are on the back.” And the fairy went home, again.

The fairy did not hear from Alice for days, and then months. But on the one year anniversary of Alice’s becoming one of her cases the fairy decided to check up on her. Alice was gardening in the hydrangeas. She looked a little fat to the fairy but the fairy shrugged it off and tapped her on the shoulder.

“It’s been a year and you never called for me, haven’t even cried. Did you ever decide what you need from me?”

“I don’t need anything from you. I’m making my own happily ever after.” She paused for a moment with her hand on her bulging stomach and looked wistfully at the house where a slender young man was making a cradle. “We’re making our own happily ever after.” Alice amended.

The fairy looked from the happy Alice to the happy young man. She nodded once and went home again. Alice wouldn’t need her and hopefully her child would never become a client. For the first time in many years the fairy was able to write a happily ever after success report. The silly humans never seemed to understand but the fairy was glad that Alice had figured it out. There were no happily ever after, only happily ever beginnings.