Note: The contests I write for provide rules for the story: a genre, a character, and a topic. For this story, I had to write a fairy tale about a sunset that included a baby sitter.

One more paper to write, Ellie thought, and I’ll be done with this class. She wished she remembered who told her creative writing was a slam-dunk. Probably someone in her physics class. She’d like to give her, or him, a piece of advice about advice. Too many sleepless nights were clouding her brain. She hoped never to see the phrase once upon a time ever again.

As Ellie walked toward the front door, she noticed Dr. Blaine sitting in the family car in the garage talking on her mobile phone. She ran up the stairs and opened the door as Amory turned and bopped her open-armed father with her Styrofoam sword.

“Hee-yah!” she shouted and swung again at his head.

“Can I get a kiss?” her dad asked, sitting back on his heels out of the range of his daughter’s weapon.

“I’m a ninja,” Amory stated, waving the sword in the air. “No kisses.”

She turned away from him, shouting threats at an imaginary foe and flailing the sword against the furniture.

Standing up, the tall man said, “Well, okay.” He reached down and patted the toddler on her head. “Good-bye, Amory. You’ll be asleep when we get home.”

“Ninjas don’t sleep,” she responded. Neither do babysitters, Ellie thought.

Turning to Ellie, he said, “We’re leaving you with a handful. We’ve been at the park all day. Theoretically, she should wind down soon.”

“What did the animals talk about today?” asked Ellie.

He laughed. “Apparently they discussed dirt, flowers, and leaves. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it.”

“Yup.”

They walked to the mudroom.

“You hear from MIT yet?” Mr. Blaine asked.

“No,” she lied.

He laughed. “Any day now. We should be home before nine.”

“No problem, I’ll get her to bed on time,” Ellie said.

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

“Thanks.”

While he shut the door to the garage, she detached herself from her backpack. She wasn’t going to work on her story until she got home. Ellie closed the pocket door against the cooler mudroom and returned to the now silent living room. The sun was making its way toward the west, draping the room in shades of yellow and orange. Amory lay on her stomach, scratching at something on the pristine hardwood floor. Ellie stretched out and put her chin on the back of her stacked hands.

“What are you looking at?” she asked.

“Dragon poop,” said the toddler.

Ellie scooted her face closer to the child’s hands. She stared at a speck on the floor, and frowned. “That’s awfully small for dragon poop, Amory. Dragons are big. That’s probably fly poop.”

The toddler squealed with laughter. Ellie reached out a hand to grip the small body. Amory slithered away, got to her feet, and ran into the tiny playroom where action figures and building blocks lay strewn among dinosaurs and stuffed animals. Ellie rose and followed her.

“Go outside?” the toddler asked.

“Nope. You’re all scrubbed, in your jammies, and ready for bed. Look the sun is going down. Soon it will be sunset.” She knelt by the little girl and pointed toward the big picture window where the sun shone bright above the horizon.

“What does a sunset do?” asked the child.

“You remember how the earth spins and half the time it faces the sun and half the time it’s in the dark?” Amory glared at Ellie and nodded. “We watch the sun disappear as it moves to the other side of the earth. Should I get the solar system model out again?”

The toddler shook her head. “What does a sunset DO?”

Ellie sat back on her heels thinking about Amory’s question. I wonder if I can tell a fairy tale to a feisty, pre-school, science geek who loves a stuffed duck. She grinned at her friend.

“Let me tell you a story.”

Once upon a time, there was a little ninja who lived in a castle. She was very young and very brave.

The little ninja slept in a tiny room at the top of the stairs. Every day she ate tasty meals in the castle kitchen. Every morning, she worked in her playroom. She learned her letters and numbers, colors and shapes from books on the shelves, and talked about science with her babysitter.

“Ninjas don’t have babysitters.” Amory gripped her stuffed duck.

“Hmm. But we talk about science and I’m a babysitter.”

“No, you’re a scientist.”

“Okay.”

In the afternoon, she and her scientist would stay outside in the yard, guarding the castle against dragons and serpents. She drew magical pictures on the pavement, built towers with nearby stones, and poured water on the plants to protect them. She always came inside before dark.

“I don’t like the dark.” The ferocious frown was a counterpoint to Amory’s smile.

“I know. I have a present for you later.”

The little girl’s brow cleared. She hugged her stuffed duck and nodded.

The ninja and her scientist loved the outdoors. Sometimes, the little ninja would put down her sword to play with friends while her scientist stood guard. When the weather was fine, she collected water for the birds to bathe in. When it rained, they splashed in puddles together. She cleared paths for her ant friends as they did their daily chores and closed the doors to their hilly houses before she went inside. She played tag with the butterflies who never let her catch them no matter how hard she tried. Most of the time, the little ninja asked questions. Why do ants walk in a line? Why aren’t dinosaurs still here? Why can’t I fly? What is the sun?

Together, the ninja and the scientist looked for the answers. Some questions had no answers like the one about the ants.

Amory nodded again.

Some answers were long and hard to understand like the one about the dinosaurs. Some answers were unsatisfactory like the one about flying.

“I want to fly.”

“I know. But, you can’t do it without an airplane and you need to get taller to fly an airplane.”

The one that stumped them both was the one about the sun. The scientist explained about the sun being a star and the twinkle, twinkle song. But, there was a big problem and the little ninja expressed it best. ‘The sun is bigger than twinkle, twinkle,’ she said, ‘ so why isn’t it always in the sky keeping away the dark?’

The scientist answered, ‘I don’t know. Let’s go ask her.’

‘Ask who?’

‘The sun.’

‘You can do that?’ asked the little ninja.

‘Yes,’ said the scientist. ‘We have to go to the other side of the forest.’ With that, she held out her hand and, together, they walked down the hill, past the castle wall, and into the forest.

Amory gasped.

“Be brave,” Ellie said.

The little ninja didn’t like the forest, it was dark and very noisy. Birds screeched, trees creaked and groaned, and something invisible pinged, whistled, and whined. That was just from behind the castle wall. What would it sound like inside? Taking a breath, she glared at the forest as they walked up to it. Her mouth dropped open when the first thing she saw was a family of rabbits. The largest one stood on his hind legs, holding his shaking paws out to stop them.

‘Halt! Don’t come any closer,’ he said in a quavering voice.

‘It’s okay, Mr. Rabbit,’ said the scientist. ‘We didn’t come to hurt you. We’ve come to find the sun. Can you tell us which direction to go?’

‘That way,’ the rabbit said, pointing into the dark. ‘We never go that way. It’s dark enough here for us to hide.’

‘What do you do here?’ asked the little ninja.

‘Why, we sleep, of course. That’s what you do in the dark after the sun sets. It’s very calming after a day running away from everyone.’ He stretched out his paws to shield his family. ‘We need our rest, could you go away now? Please?’

‘Of course,’ said the scientist, moving around the little family.

Ellie recognized the thinking frown on Amory’s brow. The toddler stared at the floor.

Ellie wondered at the power a simple tale had to hold the child’s attention, let alone create the intensity Ellie saw etched on her face. Maybe, for Amory, the tale was real. Maybe that was the secret. It should be, Ellie thought.

The two went deeper into the forest. The little ninja, bored now, practiced her silent walking, a hard task with tree roots popping up out of the ground to catch her feet. Out of the dark came a low voice.

‘Whooo are you?’ it asked, drawing out the ‘ou.’

The little ninja and the scientist stopped in their tracks. Looking around, they saw nothing.

‘Whooo are you?’ repeated the voice.

The voice came from above. The two looked up at the boughs above them.

‘Oh. Mr. Owl. I’m sorry, did we disturb you?’ the scientist asked.

‘Well, yes. We weren’t ready to wake up. We need to sleep. For our eyes, you know. For the young ones, too. They are still growing and learning to fly.’

The little ninja peered into the darkness and, seeing nothing, said, ‘I don’t understand. How are they growing?’

‘It is the science of sleep. It is what young ones do as they dream: they grow. We need the darkness of the forest to sleep. You humans need the darkness of the night. Sleep is the same, for both.’

‘I’m sorry we bothered you. We have to find the sun,’ said the scientist. ‘We will leave you in peace.’

“I grow when I sleep?” Amory asked.

“Yes. Your brain,” Ellie tapped Amory on the head, “relaxes, too. Remember what the rabbit said about how calming sleep is?”

“Do you grow?”

“Not much anymore. I’m older now. But, I’m happy when I sleep and that’s important, too.”

She nodded but, once again, the little girl’s brow was furrowed.

The scientist and the little ninja continued through the forest. Soon, they noticed a glow beyond the trees . Walking out of the forest, they saw a golden unicorn watching the sun as it moved away toward the horizon.

‘Oh no,’ said the little ninja, ‘we’re too late.’

The unicorn spun around and trotted over to them.

‘Hello. Did you come to see the sun?’

‘Yes,’ said the little ninja.

‘I’m afraid you are too late to talk to her. She’s on her way to work.’

‘Work?’ asked the little ninja.

‘Yes. She works very hard and she never rests. That’s what life is like here. She works when we work. But she works when we sleep, too. The sun is our clock. She wakes us up and watches over us while we learn – who people are, how things work, what new things exist, how they grow.’

‘I like learning new things,’ said the little ninja. ‘Why can’t she stay here all the time?’

The unicorn looked at the little ninja. ‘She could, I suppose. But, if she did, you wouldn’t sleep. If you didn’t sleep, you would forget all those wonderful things you learned. Sleep helps you remember things. Just think. You wouldn’t remember your letters or your numbers; you wouldn’t remember your colors or shapes; you wouldn’t remember your mommy or daddy; you wouldn’t remember your friends. You sleep to remember.’

The unicorn looked back at the sun still peeking above the earth’s rim. ‘She gives everyone two signs. The first, at sunrise, is like an alarm on a clock. It reminds everyone to wake up. The next, at sunset, is like turning the light off next to your bed. It reminds everyone it’s time to sleep.’

With that she turned to face the sun.

‘Good-bye,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

She turned and put her nose down to nuzzle the little ninja. With that, the little ninja and her scientist found themselves inside the castle, watching the sun set beyond the big window and living happily ever after.

Amory sat staring at the floor. Ellie reached out and pulled the little girl around to sit on her lap. Together, they watched the sun as it moved lower toward the horizon. The blue sky streaked with orange and yellow darkened. The stand of trees near the house swayed in the light breeze. Amory’s voice broke the silence.

‘Good-bye, sun. I see you in the morning.’

The light in the playroom began to darken.

“I don’t like the dark.”

Ellie pulled a cylinder from her shirt pocket and held it in front of the child.

“Here,” she said, “I brought you a flashlight.” She pushed a button on the side of the tube. The room lit up. Ellie left the object in the toddler’s hand.

Amory switched the light off and on several times. She moved the beam around the room.

“Thank you,” she said.

“You’re welcome.”

Usually, Amory was on her feet dancing around, playing with a new toy. Now, she leaned back, her head pressed against Ellie’s chest.

“Did you hear it?” asked the little girl.

“Hear what, Amory?” asked the babysitter.

“Hear the sun, Ellie. The sunset talked to us.”

“What did it say?”

“It said, ‘it’s time to go to sleep, Amory.’ It said, ‘you need to ‘member the park and the slide and the swings. You need to ‘member what it feels like to fly. You need to ‘member Daddy and Mommy and Ellie.’ It said I needed to grow really tall so I can fly a nairplane.”

“It’s ‘airplane,’ Amory. An airplane.” Ellie kissed the top of the child’s head. “Yes, I heard it. But, I heard it say that I needed to stop worrying about my story for school. That I can write it and it will be okay. It said I need to remember my little ninja friend. It said to calm down.”

Amory sighed deeply.

“Can we go in the forest? I need to see the baby owls and the baby rabbits. I need to see the unicorn.”

“Well, we should ask Daddy first.”

“Daddy would like Mr. Rabbit,” Amory whispered.

Ellie felt the toddler’s head slide sideways. She took the flashlight, put it in her pocket, and hefted the sleeping child in her arms. She got to her feet and moved out of the playroom. She went up the stairs in the dark and tucked Amory into her bed. Padding back down the stairs she felt her way to the mudroom, switching on lights as she went. She picked up her backpack and took out her letter. She read the news from MIT. The little ninja would have her scientist.

Smiling, she set up her laptop on the kitchen table. She could write her story now. She didn’t hate the beginning and she loved the ending.

“Once upon a time, they all lived happily ever after.”