Maddie Saves the Socks

Maddie threw her clothes out of her basket and sorted through them again. No socks. She was just sure she put her pink socks and flower print socks and cupcake socks into the washing machine when Mommy washed clothes that morning.

She stomped into William’s room. “Did you lose my socks again?”

William shook his head, but didn’t look up from his blocks. “Why would I want girly princess socks?”

Maddie huffed. “They’re not girly. And besides, you used them for your catapult last week, remember?”

“So?” William pointed to his laundry basket. “Maybe Mommy put them in there.”

“Maybe.” Maddie searched through his clothes. Pants, shirts, underwear, but no socks. “Where are your socks?”

William shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Maddie wrinkled her nose. “Did you forget to wash them again?”

“No. Mommy made sure to pick them
up.” William looked up and made a funny thinking face. “You’re sure my socks aren’t in there?”

Maddie nodded. “Look yourself. I’ll go ask Mommy if she knows where they went.”

She ran down the stairs to find Mommy. There was no one in the kitchen or the living room, so Mommy was probably in the office. “Mommy? Hey, Mommy! Where are you?”

Mommy poked her head around the
corner. “What did you need, Maddie?”

“I can’t find my socks anywhere.
And I neeeeed them. Do you know where they are?” Maddie pointed at her bare feet. “I want my special pink socks for my tea party.”

“Did you check the mismatched sock pile? I just put a few more in there today.”

Maddie shook her head. “But they’re not mismatched. I put them in together so they wouldn’t miss each other.”

“You’re sure?”

Maddie nodded and her eyes widened. “Do you think someone came in here and stole them?”

Mommy raised one of her eyebrows super high, something she only did when she was sure Maddie was doing too much imagining. “Sweetheart, no one came in here just to steal your socks.”

 “But Mommy, if they’re not here and they’re supposed to be, then someone had to take them. Unless it was a washing machine monster.” Maddie’s breath caught, and she ran for the washing machine.

“Maddie, it’s not a—”

But Maddie was already busy searching every inch of the washing machine to find the cave of the washing machine monster. It had to be there somewhere. Nothing. Maddie sighed. Nothing would have been more exciting than to find a washing machine monster. Oh, well. Maybe she could still find some clues.

The mismatched pile was older than Maddie, and some of the socks were still there from when her sister, Megan, and brother Adam were little. But wait. There were way more socks than there usually were, and some of them were even Mommy and Daddy’s socks.

Maddie sorted through them and
found all of her special socks. “Oh! I found them!”

Except that there was only one of each. Maddie frowned. Where did the other ones go? She turned to see if they were on the floor, and knocked the basket off the counter.

“Whoops!” Maddie scooped up the pile and dropped it back in the basket, then wiped her hands to get the glitter off.

Wait—glitter?

Maddie hadn’t used glitter on anything for at least a whole day. And she liked pink glitter. This was more purpley and silver. She crouched down, making sure that her fancy princess dress didn’t get glitter on it.

A clue!

Maddie ran from the room and scrambled upstairs to find her wand. Her sister gave it to her so she could go on adventures, but no adventure was complete without Muffins. Except that he was too small if she didn’t use her magic to make him bigger. But it wouldn’t be a good thing to have Muffins show up in her house full-grown, so she escaped out the back door.

“Muffins? Hey, Muffins! Where’d you go?” Maddie searched the flower beds for the mini unicorn.

A loud pop came from behind her. Maddie whirled around and squealed. Muffins and Eoin the leprechaun stood
there, looking confused.

“You came!” Maddie threw her arms around Eoin and then Muffins. “Oh, you need to be bigger or I can’t ride you.”

“Why do you need to ride him?” Eoin stretched like he just woke up. 

“I need to ride him because I have to find out who has been stealing our socks. And there was glitter by the washing machine.”

Eoin blinked. “You mean, like the glitter on your dress?”

Maddie looked down. “These are sequins. And they’re pink. The glitter is purple and silver. I think it’s a fairy.”

Eoin stroked his red beard. “Did you smell flowers by the glitter?”

“Flowers? No. Why?”

“No reason. Can I see the glitter?”

Maddie waved for him to follow her into the house. “Muffins, you stay here. We’ll be right back.”

The glitter still sat in a pile on the floor when they got back inside. Eoin crouched down and touched it, wiggling his fingers. The glitter formed a path through the house.

Maddie frowned. “I don’t think Mommy will like that very much.” 

“She won’t see it. That’s just for us. Let’s go get Muffins.” Eoin snapped his fingers, and they disappeared, then reappeared in the backyard.