Fantasy: The Green Flash

This story may sound strange.  You may not even believe me!  I’m not even sure if I believe it myself and it happened to ME.  I’m going to tell you though and you can decide for yourself what you think.

After one long day of working and learning, my students quickly exited the classroom at the sound of the final bell and went on their way home.  As they left, I started to prepare for the next day.  I went into the closet and took out two bottles of green glitter, a tub of green paint, and a handful of green markers.  I looked around the room to choose a spot to begin.

Tomorrow was St. Patrick’s Day, one of my absolute favorite days of the year.  Every year, I use glitter and paint to decorate my room for my first grade students.  I don’t only decorate though; I make a mess all over the room.  I start out by knocking down books and pencils, replacing student work with funny pictures, and switching desks.  Then, I leave a trail of green glitter and tiny little footprints leading up to all of the chaos. Finally, I write a message to the students from “Sprinkles the Leprechaun”.

Essentially, I frame a leprechaun. 

Well on this very occasion, just as I was putting the finishing touches on the tiny green footprints I heard a voice from behind.  “Ya know those footprints need to be a wee bit smaller lass”.  Started, I turned quickly to face the door, only to find that the door was still closed.  Anxiously, I looked around the room for anyone that may have spoken those words and yet there was no one in sight.  Then, I heard a noise, as if someone was clearing their throat “mmhhmm” just below me.  Slowly, I moved my eyes down to the floor and at my feet there still a tiny green man, in a bright green suit, with a beard as white as snow, and a tiny black stick, looking straight up at me.

I was stunned into silence.  I couldn’t move and I certainly couldn’t speak.  I closed my eyes and then opened them very slowly.  I was half expecting it to have been my brain playing tricks on me.  But when I opened them again there he was, standing there on the ground looking straight up at me.  “Well, aren’t ya going to say somethin?”

“I…I…”

“Cat got yer tongue lass?”

“I just can’t believe it” I said in a whisper.

“Well you better because this room looks nothing like it would if I had come into it. You’ve been giving me a bad name for years and I’m planning to fix that”.

Before I could say another word the little green man was off in a tizzy.  He sped around the room so fast that all I could see was a tiny green flash darting from corner to corner.  In a matter of seconds he was back at my feet and the room was a mess.

“Now this is a room your wee ones will enjoy.”

Then, in a poof of green smoke, the tiny green flash was up the cabinet and out the open window.  As I looked around the room, I saw the absolute disaster that was my classroom.  Papers were scattered throughout the room, pencils, erasers, and markers covered the floor.  

Had I imagined this?  Had a big gust of air come through the open window and blown everything over?  Or, was the most unlikely of events actually true, had a tiny green man really come into my room and done this?

As I went to close the window, I noticed the tiniest specs of green paint on the cabinet leading to the windowsill. Were they…footprints?