It was a bright April morning. Gracie stretched and opened her eyes. The sun streamed through her window and she listened for sounds to let her know Mommy was awake and fixing breakfast. The house was silent . It was Saturday and Gracie decided Mommy and Daddy might still be cuddled together, sleeping late. She quietly got out of bed and pulled on the shorts and  t-shirt from the chair next to her bed. She shook the dark brown curls back from her face. The day was just too beautiful to take time to brush it right now.

Tiptoeing through the house, Gracie stopped in the kitchen and gazed up at the cookie jar on the cabinet. She stretched as far as she could, but her fingers still didn't quite reach it. Pulling a chair across the kitchen, she climbed quickly to the top of the counter. Reaching into the cookie jar, she grabbed a cookie and scooted off the cabinet. As she went to the door, she took a bite of the cookie and paused, listening. The house was still quiet.

"Mommy will be mad," she thought as she grinned and snuck out the door into the backyard.

As she turned to pull the door shut, a brown and black shape bounded across the yard and launched itself at her. She hit the ground rolling and pulled the dog along with her.

"Quit it, Mojo!" she scolded him as he licked her face.

"But it's kisses. I want to give you kisses all over your face," Mojo whined.

Gracie giggled and squirmed under the puppy's frantic greeting. Jumping to her feet she ran around the yard, Mojo jumping in circles as he chased after her. They rolled and tussled in the grass, jumped over Mommy's flower beds and finally ended up laying under the tree in the center of the yard. Neither noticed the tiny, flickering sparkle sitting on a limb high above their heads.

Nose to nose they lay, Mojo's dark brown eyes gazing into Gracie's pale blue ones. Gracie lazily tugged at his ears and traced patterns on his soft puppy fur with her fingers.

"I love you, Mojo."

Mojo woofed softly at her to let her know that he returned the feeling. His mouth was open in that doggie-grin puppies have when they are especially happy.

"I sure do wish you could talk, Mojo." Gracie sighed. "Or maybe it would be better if I could talk like you. Then no one would know what we're saying and we could tell each other secrets and stuff. Wouldn't that be great, Mojo?"

The sparkle grew brighter and moved lower in the tree.

Mojo cocked his head to one side and barked.

"Yep, that would sure be good, alright. Wow, the things that I could tell you, Gracie ..."

"Not so loud, buddy. You'll wake Mommy or Daddy and I'll have to go inside. You know, and eat breakfast. And brush my hair ..." Gracie glanced at her hands " And wash my hands, " she added, looking at her grimy fingers and wondering where she'd dropped the rest of her cookie.

"Yeah, about that breakfast thing ..." the puppy whined and put his paw on her arm. Mojo wished he could tell her how yucky the dry food that HE got for breakfast tasted. The cookie that she'd dropped had tasted much better ...

Gold, silver, purple, pink and blue dust twinkled and winked in the sunlight as it drifted down from where the fairy sat in the tree. She smiled as she waited for her gift to touch the puppy and the girl beside him. Though the spell wouldn't last long, the puppy was going to be able to talk to Gracie in a way dogs seldom get to do. They wouldn't know it for a few minutes, but soon ...

Gracie lay on her tummy, one leg bent at the knee, her bare foot slowly waving back and forth above her back. Her little hands never stilled as she stroked the puppy and talked to Mojo about all of the things they could do later in the day. Mojo tilted his head to the side, wondering at the funny tickle in his nose and the back of his throat and the shimmering mist of colored light that seemed to float around Gracie's body.

Suddenly Gracie sneezed  and sat up.  Jumping to her feet, she ran to get the ball that lay a few feet away.

"Hey, Mojo! Want to play ball with me?" Gracie threw the ball across the yard and Mojo ran to get it, his barks filling the air.

As he dropped the ball at her feet, it happened.

"Why do I always have to go get the ball? Why don't you run after it sometimes?"

"I thought you LIKED to play ball?" Gracie's eyes grew wide and her voice trailed off as she realized that Mojo was actually talking to her.  Even more amazing, she could understand him.

Surprise stilled his wagging tail.

"Did you hear that? Did you really understand what I said, Gracie?"

Gracie nodded, her eyes big.

"Wow!  This is great! This is so really great!" Mojo's excitement caused him to bounce around on his back legs. He put his front paws on Gracie's shoulders and gave her puppy kisses, wetting her cheeks and nose with his warm, rough tongue.

Gracie, knocked off balance by the exuberance of the puppy, sat down harder than either of them expected.

Mojo stepped back and sat down beside her. "Whoa. I'm sorry.  Are you okay?"

"I didn't know you could talk, Mojo. I've never see'd a dog that could talk before! How did you learn to talk to me, Mojo? Why didn't you always talk to me?" The words tumbled from Gracie so quickly that Mojo couldn't find the time to answer one question before she asked the next.

The fairy smiled as she drifted down to eye-level. Both Gracie and Mojo looked at her silvery wings and tiny body, speechless.

"Hi." The fairy's voice sounded almost like singing, but so much more beautiful it made it hard to breathe.

"Well?" she said. "Don't I even get a hello or a thank-you or anything? I thought you wanted to talk to each other, but it doesn't look like you're even going to talk to me."

Mojo broke the silence first. "Uh ... hi."

"Who are you," Gracie asked, somewhat subdued by the chain of strange events that were turning an ordinary April day into something anything but normal.

The tiny fairy smiled and the morning sun seemed to glow even brighter than before.  Gracie and Mojo both blinked and stared at the little creature who sparkled like she was made of sunbeams and diamonds.

Gracie, realizing that it was impolite to stare, looked at Mojo and jabbed him with her elbow.

"Don't stare - it's not nice. Mommy says so."

"I know, I know.  I've heard her tell you that when we're at the park," Mojo answered impatiently. "But this is so ... weird! And she's so weird," he added, cocking his head at the fairy.

"Shh!" Gracie tapped him lightly between the ears like she'd seen Daddy do when the puppy peed on the kitchen floor or dumped the trash bin.

"That's not nice," she whispered. "And she can hear you. " Gracie peered at the laughing little fairy from beneath the bangs she had deliberately flipped over her face.

"Okay, okay! Let's start over," interrupted the fairy. "My name is Annabella and I know that you are Mojo," she said to the puppy. "And you," she turned toward the spell-bound little girl. "You are Gracie."

"Yes," piped up Mojo. "She's my girl." He paused. "And I'm her favoritist puppy in the whole wide world. She says so."

The fairy stilled her delicate wings as she drifted down to sit on Gracie's knee.

"Well, yes. I'm sure you are. And now you can talk to her for awhile. Tell her all of the things that you've always wanted her to know and couldn't make her understand."

She turned to Gracie. "This little bit of fairy magic only lasts until lunchtime, so don't waste it, Gracie. Not everybody gets to visit with their puppy this way."

"Why us, Annabella?" asked Mojo. "What made you decide to do this?"

The fairy laughed softly. "No particular reason, Mojo." She motioned to the nearby flowers in the garden and the sun overhead. "I guess I'm just in a great mood today. It's a beautiful day and the sun is shining. The flowers are happy and the butterflies are beginning to dance. I saw the two of you down here playing and you are such good friends. It all just made me want to give Gracie a gift."

Gracie frowned.

"But I could already talk, Annabella. It's Mojo got the present," she protested.

"Is it, Gracie? Mojo understands a lot more than you think he does. It is you,  my dear, that needed a gift to be able to understand him." She smiled again. "Human children often need a little fairy magic to help them understand special things."

She spread her wings and floated up from Gracie's knee.

"Remember, Mojo. Don't waste this gift. It will only last until lunchtime. And Gracie, you must always remember the love and the beauty and the magic of this morning."

Gracie and Mojo blinked as Annabella disappeared in a flurry of the same glittering dust that still drifted in the air around them.

"Well, I never ..." Gracie wasn't sure what that meant, but Mommy said it when she didn't know what else to say. It was the first time Gracie had ever repeated it and she thought it made her sound very grown-up.

She looked at Mojo. "So what do you want to talk about, Mojo?"