The Sandbox, Security Blanket, and The Sacrifice

Once upon a time there was a little girl with a security blanket.  It was a lovely soft, pink security blanket with a satin trimmed edge and she adored it. The little girl's parents were less enamoured of 'Blankie'  and would spend hours and hours plotting Blankie's demise.   The tattered blanket was an embarrassment to them, after all, the child was four and would soon be going to school.  Something had to be done about Blankie and quickly!

The little girl knew she was growing up, too.  In her big back garden, where she and the neighbourhood children played, was a sandbox.  All the other children loved playing in the sandbox but she thought it was for babies, and besides sand was SO messy.   The little girl had a plan,  she would ask her parents to turn the sandbox into a flower bed.   Surely they would prefer flowers to a box of sand!  

   Everyone knows the best time to discuss a business proposition is over a nice meal, so at dinner the little girl introduced the 'Flower Bed Project'. 'Daddy, can we turn the sandbox into a flower bed?'   Silence, forks were held aloft in mid-air.  Daddy raised one eyebrow, he always did that when he had a cunning plan.   'I'll get rid of the sand and make a flower bed for you if you get rid of Blankie',  he said, seeing the final solution to the security blanket issue.

What a dastardly, evil plot, thought the little girl.  As much as she loved flowers she loved Blankie more.  'What if I get rid of the sand myself?'   Now Daddy knew how much sand was in that sandbox and that the little girl had no way of getting rid of it.  He didn't really want to make a flower bed anyway.  'OK, you get rid of the sand and I'll make the old sandbox into a flower bed.' Daddy was sure this was NEVER going to happen.

  Now, the whole time this conversation was taking place, Momma was quietly listening.  She loved Daddy but sometimes she thought he was too strict.   When Daddy went to the sitting room to read his newspaper she whispered to the little girl, 'I have an idea!' 

Early the next morning, after Daddy had gone to work, they put their plan into action.  Down at the end of the garden was a creek where they could put the sand from the sandbox.  It would settle to the bottom of the silty water and make a lovely home for the crawdads and little creatures that lived in the gently flowing water of the creek.  There was only one problem, how to transport the sand from the sandbox across the long garden and down the slope to the creek.  

   They began filling buckets and old pots and pans, and carrying the sand down to the creek but this took too long. All the neighbourhood children came to help but there was still so much sand! Soon Daddy would be home for lunch and know what they were doing.  The sand HAD to be removed before lunchtime.  

    Then someone,  I don't know who, had a clever idea.  'Let's shovel the sand onto Blankie and drag it down to the creek.  We can move lots more sand even more quickly.'   AND IT WORKED...

By the time Daddy came home for lunch, all the sand was gone from the sandbox.  The little girl took Daddy by the hand and proudly lead him to the empty sandbox.  'What kind of flowers would you like to grow?' asked Daddy, hiding a secret smile.  He knew he'd been out foxed but he'd won, too.  'I'd like blue cornflowers and petunias, please.'  

  In the corner of the empty sandbox lay the shredded remains of a pink blanket soon to be buried under a mound of dark soil, part of a brightly blooming flower bed.  And that is how I ...er...I mean... SHE became a budding young gardener.