The Search for the Missing Sock

Violet was frustrated. She was supposed to be going to the park with her best friend Savannah but she couldn’t find her sock. She had found one of them. It had been tossed over the back of her toy chest from when she and her magical unicorn best friend Savannah had been playing the “floor is lava” the day before. Savannah had thought she could use the sock and one of Violet's pillows to carefully skid her way across the floor. However, the pillow had refused to cooperate, the sock had slipped out from underneath Savannah’s hoof and she had succumbed to the lava below. 

“Where is that sock?” Violet said, huffing and puffing as she moved the box with all her craft making things in it from the floor to the desk. She sighed, causing a mini-tornado in the glitter that had gathered at the bottom of the box. Normally glitter made her feel so much better, but today she barely even smiled as she watched all of the tiny, shiny bits of bio glitter settle back down in the bottom of the box. Violet pulled her knitting needles and wool out of the pool of glitter. Maybe she’d have to make herself a new sock. The thought made her smile slightly, so Violet tucked the knitting needles into her pocket.

“Mum! Have you seen my sock?” Violet called. 

“What sock?” came her mother’s muffled reply, as she appeared in the doorway behind a basket full of freshly washed clothes.

“My pink and purple ones. They’re my favourite and I can only find one of them!” Violet called, her head stuck halfway inside her toybox.

“Well I just did the laundry and I didn’t see a pink and purple sock. I have a blue pair or a white pair though?“ Mum balanced the basket on her knee and fished around inside for a pair of Violet’s socks.

“No thanks, I want the pink and purple pair,” Violet said. Mum shrugged and continued down the hallway with the washing.

“Where is that sock?” Violet said, grumbling. She was still looking when Savannah came trotting in a few minutes later.

“Violet! Why don’t you have your shoes on? We’re supposed to be leaving for the park soon!” she said. Violet frowned.

“I know. But I can’t find my other sock.”

“Well just pick another pair and let’s get going,” Savannah said, trotting over to Violet’s chest of drawers.

“No, I don’t want a different pair. I want to wear the pink and purple pair because they are my favourite,” she said.

“Well if you have to have them then I guess I had better help you find the other one,” Savannah said. The best friends searched all over the house. They looked behind the potted plants. They looked under Kimmy the cat’s bed. They even looked in Mum’s sock drawer, just in case it had somehow gotten mixed up with hers. But they could not find the other sock anywhere.

“It’s useless,” Violet said with a sigh. “My favourite sock is gone for good.”

“Oh, you don’t know that,” Savannah said, trying to reassure her friend. “It might turn up.”

“No, it won’t. You probably don’t know this but humans lose socks all the time. You put a pair of socks into the wash and when the washing comes out, only one sock is there. It’s like the washing machine eats them or something.” Violet explained to her friend. 

“Oh! You mean you have a sock monster too?” Savannah asked, surprised.

“What are you talking about?” asked Violet.

“The sock monster,” said Savannah. “He lives in fairyland. He’s not actually a fairy, no one is really sure what he is. But the fairy’s say he likes to steal socks.” 

“Why does he steal peoples socks?” Violet asked. Savannah shrugged. Then Violet had an idea.

“Savannah, do you think the sock monster might steal humans socks too?”

“I don’t see why not,” Savannah said.

“Can you take me to him?” Violet asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Savannah repeated with a smile. “Jump on!”  Violet climbed onto her unicorn friends back and Savannah took off. They flew out the window and soared up into the air. 

“Hold on tight!” Savannah called back to Violet. “We have to break through the barrier to get into fairyland!” Savannah flew faster and faster and just when Violet didn’t think she could hold on much longer, Savannah lowered her head and glitter burst from the end of her magical unicorn horn. Violet closed her eyes and held her breath as they flew through the swirling cloud of glitter. When she opened her eyes again, she thought that perhaps they were still inside the glitter cloud. But when she looked closer, she realised that everything was just much brighter and so much more colourful than any place she had ever seen before. Looking down, Violet saw houses with shimmering golden roofs, and gardens full of flowers in colours she had never seen before. The sky was bluer than any sky in the human world, and the grass was the brightest green Violet had never seen, even in cartoons.

“Oh Savannah, it’s beautiful!” she cried as her magical unicorn friend slowly flew lower and lower. As they touched down, Violet breathed in deeply and thought she could smell apples.

“Yes,” Savannah said with delight at the questioning look on her friend's face, “the grass smells like apples when you stand on it. The water tastes like peppermint too, and why don’t you try licking that sunflower over there?” Violet looked at her friend, a little puzzled. Savannah nodded, and Violet shrugged and walked over to the sunflower. She tentatively poked her tongue out and lightly touched it to one petal.

“It takes like honey!” she exclaimed. Savannah laughed. “Try the tulip next” Violet licked the tulip and tasted blueberries on her tongue.

“It’s as if I just bit into one and the juice is running over my tongue!” she said, thoroughly amazed. “But if the grass smells like apples, and the flowers taste like food, does that mean that the apples smell like grass and the food tastes like flowers?”

Savannah neighed in laughter.

“No silly, they smell and taste like what they are. Fairyland just takes something that is already wonderful and makes it even better. Now, we’d better get a move on if we’re ever going to get to the park. The sock monster lives just on the opposite side of this hill.”

Violet and Savannah climbed up the hill, Violet taking deep breaths of the apple grass as they went, and when they came over the hill she gasped. There in front of them was what looked like a giant centipede. He was a dark, purple colour, and his skin shimmered in the afternoon sunlight. Next to him on all sides were piles and piles of socks and he looked like he was slowly sorting his way through them, trying on one after another. Violet scanned the piles as they got closer.

“No pairs,” she muttered to herself. Soon they were close enough to the giant sock monster that it finally noticed them.

“Who are you?” it said, “And what are you doing here?”

“I’m Violet, and this is Savannah,” Violet said, using her most polite voice. “We are looking for one of my missing socks, Savannah thought that perhaps it had ended up here?”

The creature nodded its head.

“Well it’s possible, I do have a lot of socks here.”

“Do you perhaps have one pink and purple sock?” Violet asked. The creature shook its head.

“How would I know? I just collect the socks. I don’t care what they look like. I just need more socks!” 

“Could you tell me why you collect the socks?” Violet asked. 

“I’m cold, I need more socks,” the creature said bluntly and resumed searching through the closest pile of socks. He picked one at random and pulled it onto one of his feet. He wiggled his toes for a moment, then resumed sorting through the pile of socks.

“But Mr Sock Monster, you already have socks on all of your feet,” Violet said. The creature sighed.

“My name is Jeff,” he said. “And I know I already have socks on all of my feet. But I am still so cold all of the time. So I am trying to find more socks, warmer socks, to help warm me up.”

“You can’t just take peoples socks though Jeff,” Savannah said. Jeff looked up at the unicorn briefly and then went back to sorting through the socks. As Violet watched, she saw him pull out a familiar-looking pink and purple sock from the pile.

“Stop!” she said as Jeff moved to put the sock on one of his feet. “That’s my sock!”

Jeff stopped and looked from the sock to Violet and then back at the sock.

“I guess it’s my sock now. I found it laying all by itself in a backyard. You obviously didn’t want it anymore and now it is mine.”

“But I do still want it! It’s one of my favourite socks. What can I do to get it back?” Violet asked. Jeff paused, the sock hanging off the big toe on one of his feet.

“I’ll make you a deal. If you can find me the warmest, coziest socks imaginable, socks that will keep me warm, where I only need to wear one sock on each foot, then I will give you back your sock. In fact,” he smiled, “if you can find me the perfect set of socks, I’ll return everyone’s missing socks to them.”

“Everyone’s missing socks?” Violet asked. Jeff nodded. Violet thought hard for a moment. She put her hands into her pockets, and suddenly she had an idea. “Ok Jeff, you’ve got a deal. But first, you’ll need to give me a sock to use as a pattern. We’re going to make you a set of socks.”

Jeff looked surprised, but he threw a sock to Violet. Violet caught it, turned to Savannah, and pulled her knitting needles out of her pocket.

“Ok, you know how you told me that you can fly as high as you want because your rainbow mane is made from beams of sunlight and it always keeps you warm?” she said. Savannah smiled.

“We’re gonna need a lot more unicorn hair,” she said. 

“Well if you are willing to let me use some of yours, maybe you can fly to the other unicorns while I start knitting,” Violet said. Savannah neighed her agreement, and let Violet cut off some of her mane. She flew off over the horizon and Violet began knitting with the unicorn hair. Jeff stopped sorting through the socks to come and watch Violet work. Soon, Savannah returned with several other unicorns carrying large baskets full of unicorn hair. Behind them were a dozen small fairies, all carrying knitting needles.

“I told the fairies what we were trying to do and they have come to help. They would like to get their missing socks back too!”

Violet and the fairies worked late into the afternoon, knitting sock after sock after sock. As each one was knitted, Jeff pulled off the socks on his feet and slipped the unicorn hair sock onto it instead.

“Ah,” he sighed, “my feet are so warm now. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.” When the last unicorn hair sock was knitted, Jeff finally threw Violet’s pink and purple sock to her and slipped his foot into the toasty new sock.

“Thank you, everyone. I finally feel warm,” he said smiling.

“You’re welcome, Jeff. And you can thank us by returning those missing socks to their owners.” Violet said. Jeff nodded.

“Of course. I’ll start right away. Goodbye Violet, goodbye Savannah,” The friends waved to Jeff the sock monster and Violet climbed back onto Savannah’s back. She was so tired she barely even noticed as they burst through the barrier in a cloud of glitter and she dozed slightly until they bumped down again on the floor of Violet’s bedroom.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get to the park today,” Violet said, looking out the window at the sun that was now sliding away behind the houses next door.

“That’s ok. We can go to the park tomorrow now that you have both of your socks. Besides, the trip to fairyland was so much fun!” Suddenly, Mum appeared at Violet’s bedroom door. She looked in and smiled.

“Ah! It looks like you’ve found your other sock. Funny, I just found two of my socks that have been missing for ages. I wonder where they have been?” Violet and Savannah just looked at each other and laughed.