Izzy Monroe's Princess Summer

Izzy Monroe would like you to know that she is an enchanted princess, and she intends to prove it by the end of the summer. She has all the gear—frilly princess dresses in every color of the rainbow, bedazzled tiaras, scepters with ribbons that jump in the air like spells being cast when she twirls them. Well, almost all the gear. She does not have glass slippers as her mother says she is too young for those. Rubbish. Izzy makes do with her white unicorn light up sneakers that flash red and blue every time she steps. She imagines that the lights are the sparkle from the sun off the glass, if they were glass of course.

The only thing she needs, besides real glass slippers, is to call the animals to her like a real enchanted princess does. Izzy loves animals, all animals, great or small. She has never met an animal that she did not love immediately: cats and dogs of course, but also bunnies, deer, lizards, squirrels, the little birdies that feed at the bird feeder, the possum that a hawk dropped in the back yard one time but her mother would not let her go help, the chipmunks that scurry under the trees, the mourning doves whose call she likes to imitate, her neighbor’s chinchilla, and a spitting iguana at the zoo. Izzy loves animals more than people most of the time. Animals are so uncomplicated and just amazingly cute! Furry, fluffy, fuzzy, downy, soft, tiny, with big eyes and interesting sounds, what’s not to love?

This morning, Izzy got dressed in her yellow princess dress, the one covered in bows, and grabbed some pieces of bread. She slipped out the front door before her mom could notice her outfit. Sitting on the front steps, she remembered the scene from one of her favorite movies where an old lady was feeding some birds. She tore the bread carefully into tiny pieces, to prevent choking of course, and held out a hopeful hand into the wind. Furrowing her brow and concentrating with all her might, Izzy tried to summon all her love for the birds and send it out into the surrounding atmosphere. Surely, they would feel it and come to her.

A cardinal looked at her curiously from the bird feeder. A house finch flitted by in search of more hardy fare. Some robins hopped around on the lawn, pulling up earthworms. None took the slightest interest in Izzy’s bread. Undeterred, Izzy revised her plan slightly. She decided to strew some of the bread on the ground in front of her. Perhaps these birds were just a bit timid. Maybe they needed to get to know her a bit first. After scattering the breadcrumbs in a wide arc at her feet, she sat back down and waited.

At first, nothing happened, but then, a large, jet black, noisy crow landed in the middle of the bread. He strutted around like he owned the place, neck arched, head turning this way and that. His loud, rather arrogant, “ca-caws” scared off every single other bird that had been in the area. Soon, he began hoovering up the breadcrumbs as if he hadn’t eaten in a week. Part of Izzy was delighted that at least one bird had come, but another part was incensed that this selfish crow was taking all the food for himself. She leapt to her feet and bellowed at him, “Mr. Crow, you must share!” The crow hopped slightly to his left but otherwise paid her no mind. This was a free breakfast buffet, after all.

By this time, Izzy’s mom had noticed the ruckus on her front lawn and came to investigate.

“Isabella Rose Monroe, what a mess you have made out here! We will have an army of ants by lunchtime.”

Full at last, the crow flapped lazily away, into the top of a nearby pine tree to observe the hubbub.

“Mom, I’m just feeding the birds, you know, princess work.”

“Oh, Izzy,” her mom sighed, ruffling Izzy’s unruly brown hair.

The screen door slammed as Izzy’s mom returned indoors. Izzy immediately spun around to observe what was left by the greedy crow. Mom was right, as usual. A small battalion of ants had already found the miniscule crumbs the crow had not inhaled. They marched in orderly lines between each little dot of bread, every ant biting off an even tinier bit to carry back home. Izzy got on all fours to look closer at them, all legs and antennae with a little burden of bread in their mandibles. It was a remarkable operation. Izzy wasn’t sure who was running the show, but clearly, the ants had their orders. Each one was doing a job—gathering food, following the trail back home, coming back for more. They were so very busy!

Out of the corner of her eye, Izzy saw a little green lizard skitter over. Its skin was the color of the grass, a bright cheerful green. The lizard’s belly was a greyish white, and there were small white spots on its back. She noticed its red tongue flick out of its long narrow snout once or twice, tasting the air. The adorable lizard had the cutest little bulging eyes that rolled in their sockets, taking in everything; Izzy desperately wanted to make it her friend.

“Hello, Lizard friend. What are you doing here this fine morning?”

The lizard did not respond. Instead, it darted over to the line of ants and slurped up a tongue full.

“Mr. Lizard! What have you done? Those ants were just working, trying to feed their families.”

Mr. Lizard looked thoroughly unabashed at Izzy’s scolding and continued eating, while the ant line broke in disarray. Izzy thought she could hear the ants frantically shouting, “Retreat!” Izzy sighed while Mr. Lizard enjoyed his morning snack. This princess work was a lot harder than it seemed.

Izzy grabbed a peanut butter and honey sandwich, some carrots, and a thermos of ice-cold lemonade for lunch. She would try her luck with the animals in the woods this afternoon. Maybe the neighborhood animals were just too ordinary to get it. At the end of Izzy’s block, there was a small, wooded area between two subdivisions and the farmland beyond her town, probably several acres wide. Izzy wasn’t sure, but it seemed like a forest to her. The neighborhood children had forged their own trails through these woods, and in the middle was a giant oak tree that everyone loved to climb. If you didn’t make too much noise, you could see deer and rabbits and sometimes a fox if you were lucky. Playing in the forest was Izzy’s favorite way to pass the time in the summer.

Today, Izzy headed straight for the big climbing tree but then turned off the trail to a special spot only she knew. Burrowing under an overgrown honeysuckle bush, she emerged on the edge of a little shaded glade where she had often seen wildlife before. Finding her favorite sitting rock, she opened her lunch and began to plan. The gentle buzzing of the bees in the wildflowers and the swish of the breeze in the trees kept time with her chewing as she pondered what to do. Thankfully, the little wood was quiet, since the Bradford boys were off at camp. They stomp down the trails like a herd of marauding elephants, shouting and throwing sticks and stones, scaring off everything within 100 miles. Izzy was glad they weren’t around today to ruin everything.

Izzy finished her sandwich and wiped her sticky fingers on the underside of her dress. Taking a swig of lemonade, she settled on her plan. She would take some carrots to the spot on the other side of the glade where she usually saw rabbits. They like carrots, or at least that’s what the books all say. She carefully selected a nice long, orange one and broke it up into bunny-sized pieces. Izzy couldn’t have them choking, after all. Then she carefully tiptoed across the glade. Crouching low among the grasses and wildflowers, Izzy inched closer to the spot where she usually saw the rabbits feeding.

“Oh”, a sharp intake of breath, there they were, about ten feet away under the edge of the tree line. Two of the most beautiful, brown, fluffy bunny rabbits she had ever seen. Hopping softly from grass tuft to grass tuft, they grazed, clearly unaware that they were in the presence of a princess. Two adorable little pink noses twitched as they chewed their food. And their tiny little paws … gah! Izzy felt as if she might explode from the cuteness. She absolutely must have them, must make them her friends.

She had planned to approach them carefully, offer them some carrots genteelly like a princess would, but overcome by their fluffiness, she kind of charged at them. She doesn’t know what happened really. Izzy just remembers being overcome with a desire to scoop them up in her arms, squeeze them, kiss them, and boop their little noses. Before she knew it, she was running at them, yelling, “Bunnies!” at the top of her lungs. It was not her best princess moment. The rabbits scattered in horror immediately, of course. They hadn’t the slightest interest in being kissed or booped.

After chasing the rabbits around the glade for a bit, Izzy was sweaty, out of breath, and no closer to her goal. Returning to her senses, a bit embarrassed by her impetuous assault on the rabbits, Izzy realized that she might have better luck with the deer. She just needed to keep her wits about her this time. Izzy wriggled her way back through the underbrush to the main trail. Sometimes the deer come through here in the evenings.

“It’s getting late. Mom will be calling me home soon. Another day will be wasted if I don’t make some friends with some animals soon.”

Izzy trudged down the path away from home, deeper into the wood. She tried to walk lightly, like a princess would, but her lack of success today weighed on her. What was she doing wrong? Maybe the animals didn’t like this yellow dress? But she’d tried all the other ones. Maybe she really did need glass slippers. She kept trying to tell her mother that. Izzy continued pondering the problem in her mind, not noticing that she had left the familiar trail and wandered into part of the wood she’d never seen before. The underbrush was a little denser, and the trails were a little older. The neighborhood on the other side did not have as many children anymore so its side of the wood had become overgrown.

Suddenly, Izzy heard a crashing, thrashing noise off to her left. What in the world could that be? Frightened, she realized she didn’t quite know where she was. She gripped her carrots to her chest and backed against the nearest tree, wondering what was about to emerge from the thicket. The creature huffed and whinnied in a high pitch display of its displeasure. In a panic, Izzy hurled broken pieces of carrots at the noise in hopes of appeasing whatever was in there. Emerging from the thicket to Izzy’s great astonishment and utter delight was a unicorn. At least, that’s the way Izzy will always tell it. And happily, the unicorn absolutely adored carrots.

The creature was beautiful with a glimmering white coat, a charcoal black nose, and black stockings. A white mane that seemed to sparkle in the dimming light tossed to and fro as it moved. Its large black eyes were incredibly intelligent, and they were obviously telling Izzy that the creature was unhappy at being stuck in a thicket. Izzy immediately dropped everything and rushed over to help.

“Oh, you poor thing. Calm down. I’ve got you.”

Izzy instinctively patted its nose, and her hand smelled of carrots. The horse/unicorn began to eagerly lick her fingers, to Izzy’s everlasting delight. Now, you might be wondering about the horn. Well, the poor creature had gotten tangled in a wisteria vine, and in its thrashing about, managed to wrap its head in vine and twigs. One happened to stick out at a rather hornlike angle. Izzy needed no further proof.

Rushing back to grab her carrots, Izzy hand fed the now blissful equine, who she named Fluffy, as she gently led him out of the thicket and back onto the trail. Fluffy greatly enjoyed the carrots, and Izzy was certain that she had finally had not only a princess moment, but a real magical princess moment. How many princesses have unicorns, after all?

After some enchanted time had passed, a woman from the farm beyond the neighborhoods came. She was calling for someone named Max. Fluffy raised his head from the carrots for a moment when he heard her but soon returned to eating.

“Oh Max, have you made a new friend?”

“Max? This is Fluffy, my unicorn! I met him here in the forest.”

Stifling a giggle and gently removing the tangled vine from Fluffy’s head, the woman said, “Well, you know, unicorns must pretend to be regular horses during the day. He stays with me and goes by the name ‘Max’ so no evildoers will find him. My name is Sara. Thank you for keeping him safe for me. Would you like to visit him sometime?”

“Absolutely! If my mom says I can. My name is Izzy, and I’m a princess.”

Doing a proper curtsey, Sara said, “Well, Princess Izzy, let’s go ask her. With a princess as beautiful and responsible as you, I’m sure she will say yes. Perhaps we can also persuade her to let me teach you to ride him.”

Izzy’s smile nearly broke her face as she trotted along beside Fluffy towards home.