Five Day Prompt Challenge

Monday: a summer day in the city

Words: 341

Parikrama turned over in bed, luxuriating in the feeling of 'summer holidays'. No waking up early to get to school! No rushing about to make sure she had her schoolbag, her homework, her lunch box ...

"Parikrama!"

Was she dreaming? Could that be her cousin Anamita's voice? But what was Anamita doing here at 7 AM on the first day of the summer holidays? Surely she was in her own home, snuggled in to her own bed ... ?

"Parikrama! Get up!"

The voice was coming closer and Parikrama heard rushing footsteps, then her bedroom door was flung open. Before she knew it, she had been unceremoniously tossed from the bed to the floor.

"Hey!" she cried out, indignantly.

"Parikrama, listen – the sun is shining, the sky is blue and my Dad is willing to drive us to the pool. Come on, we're leaving from my house in ten minutes. I came running over, you didn't answer your phone!"

Had she thought she didn't need to rush?

Hastily, she searched out her swimsuit, swim-cap, a towel and a change of clothes.

The community pool hadn't yet gotten crowded. Everyone was sleeping in, her uncle had been right in hurrying to get here. There was just one other family there, a young couple teaching their two-year-old daughter to swim. The child was gurgling and splashing happily in her mother's arms at the shallow end.

Parikrama, along with Anamita and her parents, dived neatly in to the deep end. All of them were good swimmers. Soon, they were playing various swimming games and racing each other across the width of the pool.

The young man, father of the child, watched them for a while. Then, he swam over and spoke to Anamita's Dad.

"Hello! I'm Harvansh. I've been watching you. All four of you are good swimmers, have you had coaching somewhere in this city? Do you know of any swimming coaches for young kids?"

Anamita's Dad looked across at the child. "Your daughter is certainly a water baby. Look at how much she's enjoying herself!"

Tuesday: an apple orchard

Words: 325

Parikrama and Anamita swam to the child. She gurgled at them and reached out her arms.

"Be careful, be careful," the child's mother yelled, as each of them took one of her arms and started to swim with her. The child turned, gave her mother a big smile, and kept on swimming toward the deep end with the bigger girls.

When they were in the middle of the pool, the child suddenly whispered, "Do you like apples?"

"Apples?" Parikrama asked.

"Shhhh. Not so loud," the child replied. "Yes, apples. Do you like them?"

"I love them," Anamita whispered back. "But —"

"Do you like apples?" the child persisted to Parikrama.

"I love them, too."

"Then look down."

The girls looked in to the depths of the pool.

They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

It was an underwater apple orchard.

Trees. Apple trees. In the pool, under the water. They seemed to be growing out of the floor of the pool itself, there was no soil in sight. Beautiful, luxuriant apple trees, laden with ripe fruit.

"It can't be!"

The child laughed and pulled out of the grasp of the girls. She dived underwater. The girls had time to hear the mother scream as they dived in after the child.

She was swimming among the apple trees. She signaled to them to hurry. With swift kicks, they were beside her. To their utter astonishment, they found they could breathe underwater and speak underwater.

"The magic wears off if an adult comes," the child explained. "My mother can't swim underwater. We have a few seconds till she tells my father, and he swims here and sees us. The apple trees will disappear then. Quick, grab them while you can."

"But, how –"

"There's no time for explanations, I tell you! It'll disappear before my father can set eyes on it!"

Each girl reached out for an apple. They looked absolutely lovely, big and gleaming.

Wednesday - pie or cake

Words: 396

The girls had their fingertips on their chosen fruits when ...

"Well, hello," a male voice said.

And simultaneously, the fruit changed. Instead of holding a juicy apple, each girl found she was holding a large slice of apple pie! What's more, in spite of being underwater, the slices were fresh – hot, with steam rising from them. They were engulfed in an absolutely gorgeous aroma.

"Papa?"

"You think you're the only magical being in the family?"

The child's father was laughing and embracing her. The orchard vanished.

"Now we'd better get back to the surface before they send a search party."

"How are we going to explain all this pie?" Parikrama asked. "I mean, we dive underwater and come out holding slices ..."

"We can say sur-PIES!" the child said.

"I don't believe this," Anamita blurted. "I'm in a pool with two magic people, I'm holding pie, and there's a two-year-old child making horrible puns."

"Did you see all the puns on National Pie Day? Social media was full of them. I baked three pies of a fourteen-inch diameter each."

"Your mother didn't notice her kitchen suddenly had 3.14 pies in it?"

"No. She had noticed everything until then, so the law of averages caught up with her."

"Listen, we're about to have a search party dive in to this pool. What about the pie we're holding?"

"That would make a good song title. Or even a movie. What about the pie we're holding, pie we're holding, is it hotting or is it colding, is it colding, is it silvering or is it golding, is it golding ..."

"I really don't believe this," Anamita repeated. "I'm in a pool with two magical people, I'm holding pie, and there is a two-year-old child making horrible puns and singing out of tune."

"My daughter does NOT sing out of tune. She has the best singing voice ..."

"Er - please, dear man, never mind your daughter's melifluous voice. What about this pie?" Parikrama pleaded.

"It's okay, nobody'll notice you are eating pie," the child's father said. "Now, one ... two ... three!"

The four of them rose to the surface together. They swam to the side of the pool and climbed out. As predicted, nobody noticed they were holding slices of pie. Nobody seemed to see or smell the pie except them, nobody seemed to realise that they were eating something.

Thursday, April 7: a coffee shop

Words: 370

Anamita's mother and the child's mother had made friends, and were happily exchanging notes about the best places in the city for various things. The topic came around to 'the best coffee shop'. Whereas the two ladies had agreed on the best places for clothes, toys, books and household stuff, they got in to a huge argument about which the best coffee shop was.

"I tell you, there's nothing to beat QOTD - Quaff Of The Day," Anamita's mother said.

"You're wrong there," the child's mother countered. "Lilli's Coffee Shop is best."

The two husbands listened, smiling. It was a change for each man to watch his wife arguing with someone other than himself. They sat back and watched the show, until ...

"Harvansh," his wife ordered, "take us to Lilli's Coffee Shop in the car now. Let's settle this."

Though she had been addressing her husband, nobody dared disagree with her. Her tone was everything.

Meekly, three girls and three adults allowed themselves to be sheparded to Harvansh's car.

"It's a bit of a squash, but we'll all go in one car," the child's mother said. "It's difficult for two cars to keep together in traffic and we'll lose time if we lose each other."

Like Mrs. Weasley, the unsuspecting Mrs. Harvansh hadn't reckoned on her husband's magic powers, since she wasn't aware that he possessed any. She got in to the front seat with him, herding her own daughter and Anamita in between them.

Parikrama and Anamita's parents got in to the back seat, which expanded till it resembled the sofa in Anamita's living room. The adults didn't seem to notice anything except that they were more comfortable than they expected to be.

In ten minutes' time, they were at Lilli's Coffe Shop, being ushered to a table by Lilli herself.

Once they were seated, Lilli asked, "Yes, what can I get you?"

"Something really substantial. The girls have been swimming and they haven't eaten anything."

"Oh, but we've ..." Parikrama began, and found herself being kicked hard under the table. Of course, only one adult knew they'd eaten pie! Their tummies were full to bursting, and here was a concerned mother ordering extra food!

Friday: a picnic

Words; 499

Lilli glanced at Parikrama, then at the other two girls and Harvansh. A small smile came to her lips. She pulled out her notebook and began writing the items being ordered.

As the two mothers named item after item, Lilli paused at each and asked, "Whose favourite is this?" Each parent (aunt) looked highly gratified at the interest Lilli showed, and reveled in showing off how much she knew about her daughter's (niece's) tastes. The girls felt more and more guilty and more and more nervous as the list grew.

Mrs. Harvansh had to add her favourite items, too. After all, she was proving that this was the best coffee shop in town.

"Right!" Lilli said, putting her notebook away in her pocket once the ordering was done. "And now, I have a special secret to share with the girls. If you'd allow it, they can have a picnic in a cave."

The girls jumped to their feet at once. "Oh yes," they shouted. All the parents nodded.

Mr. Harvansh rose, too. "I'd like to see that cave," he said.

Lilli led them to the back of the cafe. "You see, this entire area was once forested, and had tiny hillocks with little caves. When my grandma created this cafe, she left as many of the natural features of the site as she could. So she's left the cave there."

"Your grandma's name was Lilli, too?"

"Yes, I'm named for her. She taught me a lot about cooking. Those pies you got in the pool, for example – those were her recipe. She specialised in Pool Pies."

Everyone stopped short.

"You –" Anamita sputtered.

Lilli threw back her head and laughed. "Yes. When Mr. Harvansh telepathically asked for apple pies, they had to be ordered from somewhere. My grandma was famous in the magical community for her Pool Pies, so the order was diverted to me."

She ushered them along, and they got to the cave.

"Now, I'm guessing all four of you are nicely full of pie and don't want to eat another thing. So I'll just bring you some soup or juice or something light. And I'll very thoughtfully serve the other three adults their favourite items at the table."

"Oh, that's why you took all those notes!"

"Yes, Parikrama. I actually knew it telepathically, but couldn't let on that I did. So I took notes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to conjure up some delectable dishes for my guests. They're trying to prove which is the best coffee shop."

"The other contender is QUTD - Quaff of the Day."

"Which is owned by my cousin! So it's all in the same portfolio family!"

"Just how many magic families do we have in our town?" Anamita asked.

Mr. Harvansh chuckled. "I can answer that. There are one hundred and twenty two magical families in your town."

"You mean almost our whole town is magic?"

"Yes. And I think once you've picnicked in this cave, you'll be magic, too!"