I know evil. It is not the looming shadowed figure that everyone suspects. Evil wears a tacky green suit laced with sequins and lurks in the most unsuspecting places. I met this evil. It slithered into preschool and stole our classroom treasure that had been viciously guarded by my teacher. My classmates joined me in my outrage. Our treasure, our gold, was gone, stolen by the cunning of a leprechaun.

The leprechaun, though, made one fatal mistake. There was a clue to his whereabouts, a message written in a thick marker gracing the green construction paper.
"You will never find me,
Of that we can all agree.
Theiving can be such a trying affair,
And I've hid where you'll never thinnk to look.
So I will snuggle up in the chair,
And read a good book."

We puzzled and puzzled. Where could he have gone? We must get our treasure back! A book? A chair? Of course, he was in the library! We all gathered down the halls and ran, a scurrying cluster of preschoolers, entering the library, only to find an empty chair and a book propped open from reading. Alas, he was gone and only another of those taunting notes remained.
"Ha ha! You missed me.
I have forged through the maze,
And entered a room of praise.
Memories of a joyful song,
That will be heard again before too long."

Our class was racing to catch this evil. We found ourselves in the band room, faced with an absence of our enemy and another unfortunate note. All day our class darted in and out of various classrooms, searching and searching, finding only notes. It wasn't until much later, our class beaten and weary, when we had our first big break. We caught our culprit!

He was a red head whose face was sprinkled with freckles. Unlike the classic leprechaun, this one stood tall. He shot us a guilty look and reached over his gaudy green suit to tug at his tie. He did not speak one word but dropped our treasure and flew out the doors. Back in our classroom, the teacher passed out gold coins to each of us and as we peeled back the aluminum foil to the chocolate insides, we laughed and cheered. Our journey was finished, our treasure was home. Our St. Patrick's Day was the best ever!

In preschool I was the most free that I can remember. I didn't have any responsibilities or anyone depending on me. School was mostly games and we even got to nap. As I got older, that freedom got harder and harder to find. I have to juggle school, work, the gym, chores, and anything else that must be done.

Because I have so little time, I never squander it. It does not take much too invent a creative way to spend time. I would much rather go one a leprechaun hunt than sit at home and watch TV. Although, my leprechaun's acts were wrong, they were more beneficial to me that he will ever know.