"Grandma, Grandma, please, tell me the Cinderella story! Please!"

The room was warm and dark, except for the lamp near the bed. A little girl lay under the covers, hugging an old teddy bear. Her voice was a sweet whisper.

"Not tonight, my love; tonight I've a new story for you, and I'm sure you'll like it."

The girl made a pretty grumpy face for a while, and the old woman smiled patiently.

"Tomorrow I'll tell you about Cinderella. Tonight, Lizzie, please listen to my story."

The child simply nodded, bringing the covers over her nose. Granny passed a hand through her curly hair and started to talk.

"Once upon a time--"

"How much time Grandma? How many years ago?"

"Once upon a time, honey, means that it happened a long time before you were born. Anyway, once upon a time there was, near this house, a beautiful sunflower field. They were the most beautiful, biggest and greatest sunflowers in the world. Children used to play in the field, laughing and shouting, and called every flower with a name-"

"But Granny, flowers don't speak . . . It's strange giving names to them."

Grandma looked at her tenderly, shaking slowly the head.

"Your teddy bear has a name, hasn't it?"

"Yes, its name is Mr. Candy."

"And it doesn't speak to you, does it?"

The child nodded and hugged the puppet with more strength.

"OK, I understand Granny. But I'm curious, please, keep on telling me the story!"

"Sure, my love, sure. I was saying, they called every flower with a name; but the most loved sunflower was Becky. It was the tallest, with the brightest colour, and all the children used to sit around Becky: there they created all their best games. One day they were all pirates, the next day indians and cowboys, the day after tomorrow astronauts. Great times . . . "

Grandma seemed lost in memories. Lizzie gave a little push to her.

"Granny, keep on . . . " She yawned. The child seemed curious, but also a little tired.

"Sorry, I was remembering . . . So-all was perfect, until some bad men bought the territory of the field, and started to work on a project for building a mall on it."

"They were so bad . . . Children can't play in this way." Her eyes were closing, and she moved a little under the cover.

"Yes, they were. But children loved so much the field that they thought, obviously sitting around Becky, about the problem, all together. Suddenly a child-"

Grandma stopped and smiled sweetly. Her little grandchild had fallen asleep close to Mr. Candy.
She kissed her forehead and stood up.

"I'll finish to tell you this story tomorrow. I'm sure Cinderella can wait."

Then she went away, closing the door and leaving the girl in her dreams.