the Thinker

Summer has not yet arrived with its full blaze, but the warm night winds, the sweat on my forehead and my dry throat was already reminding me of its arrival. I tried to sleep, but it refused to come effortlessly. I opened the window thinking that perhaps, there might be some fresh air that will sooth my nerves and lull me. I went back to the bed and lay down.

Just as my eyelids were getting heavy, a faint noise woke me up. I opened my eyes and looked around, there was no one around. I tried to sleep again, but the moment I closed my eyes; the noise started again. I woke up and lighted the torch. The noise was coming from the study table. I went near it and flashed my torch on the objects lying on it. Nothing seemed to move. Confused, I started to move towards the bed again. Suddenly, that noise again! It was a very light sound of some liquid being splashed in very tiny amount.

I flashed the torch on the table again. The noise was coming from the inkbottle. I recalled that I had forgotten to put the lid on the bottle. Perhaps, something had fallen into the bottle. I brought the torch nearer to it and jumped back, frightened. What is this creature? Never seen the like of it in my life. It looked like a human, but its size was only a centimeter more than an adult human thumb. It had wide, big eyes, tiny hands and legs and it had two tiny little wings that were glowing in a golden hue.

"Please miss, do not hurt me. I lost my way. That crafty owl was after me, so I sneaked in from that window. I was hiding behind those big books on this table. Accidentally, I fell into this bottle. Please, do not hit me..," it said.

I was baffled out of my wits. This thing can speak. I summoned all my courage and asked, "What..what on earth are you?"

"I am a sprite, miss. My name's Rain," it answered.

"A sprite? You mean the one's in fairy tales and all that rubbish? You think I am a fool to fall for that? Now tell me, where are you from?" I was feeling more commanding now, as I realised that the creature (a sprite or whatever it called itself) was petrified of me.

The creature swallowed its breath and replied,"Miss, I am from Neverland."

"Netherlands? That is far away. How did you get here from there?"

"Not Netherlands miss. Neverland," the creature trembled as it mentioned that name again.

"Now where on earth is that?" I asked.

"It is there, miss. You have to fly left from that purple star there," it pointed towards the sky. I looked out of the window. To my utter shock, there was a purple star in the sky that night. I had never seen it before. Somehow, a strange sense of amazement and cheerfulness conquered me, as I looked at it.

"I was up there miss, flying with my cousins. We slipped out from home when everyone had left for the carnival. My cousin, Ben, found this way to the your world yesterday. We thought it will be so much fun to see your world. We have heard that men walk on wheels here. We asked aunt Nebula whether we could see them once. But she said, 'no, there are giants out there. Don't let me catch you trying to sneak there.' But, we wanted to visit this place so much. So, I was up there some hours ago flying with the others, but I lost my way. Aunt always told me,'Rain, you are very slow during a flight. You should hurry up.' Golly! She was so right."

The creature was now sitting on top of my dairy, which had its page open. Little tears rolled down its cheek and fell on the letters I had written on the page. A dark inkblot stared at me, where the teardrop had fallen.

"I should have listened to aunt. I was left behind in the flight. Was trying to sort my way out miss, when that horrible bird pounced on me with its ghastly claws. Flew for my life, saw this house of yours and sneaked in," it paused.

I took a chair and bent down to have a closer look at it. I could not help feeling sorry for it.

I said,"I am sorry if I scared you. But I got frightened myself when I saw you all of a sudden inside that inkbottle. You know, they teach us at school that you people do not exist. They say you are present only in fairytales."

"Oh yes miss, that's where we live. Neverland is the land of fairies. Tonight, we are having this huge fairytale carnival. They light up the entire forest with starlights. All the 'fairy-things' are put up for display. Its so beautiful," said Rain (Thank God, I remembered its name this time).

I never realised when I started enjoying this conversation with it. I was craving to know more about Neverland. "What are err...fairy, fairy-things?" I asked.

"Fairy-things miss, all those wonderful magical things, beings and objects you read of in fairy stories. There cannot be a fairytale without them. We have them in loads there from all kinds of fairytales. Wizards are also there. There are stops full of candies, puddings, pies and all those superb delicacies. There are fairies, prince and princesses charming, kings and queens, dwarfs, talking creatures, wizards and witches there. People from other fairytales also visit our carnival. You will love it there," answered Rain.

"But how can it be possible? There cannot be a real place like that," I said.

"Yes miss, there is. Do you want to see it?" asked Rain.

I loved Rain for asking me that question for I really was dying to see this place for once.

"Can you take me there?" I asked.

"Oh yes miss, but you cannot go like this," said Rain.

"Like this, meaning?" I asked, bemused.

"They call the likes of you are called 'giants' at our place. You have to be one of us to be there," said Rain.

"How do I become one of you?" I asked anxiously.

"Oh miss, you will have to believe in magic from the core of your heart and say 'Off to Neverland.' But you got to believe in magic," said Rain.

"Oh all right, I believe in magic now," I said.

"Okay then miss, close your eyes, spread your arms and say,'Off to Neverland'," said Rain. I did as per instructed and waited for some transformation. I wondered whether it will be like the one's they show in Disney movies. After a second, I felt as if nothing happened. I opened my eyes and was dismayed. I was wearing the same nightgown and my hair was as disheveled as it was before.

"What happened Rain? Why do I still look the same," I asked, disappointed.

"I do not know miss, maybe you still do not believe in fairyland and magic within your heart," said Rain with in a thoughtful manner.

"But I do, Rain," I said.

"Then let us try one more time," said Rain.

I stood up hopefully, closed my eyes and spread my arms. I was already in love with Neverland.
"It is my greatest desire to see Neverland. I do wish, I am there this time," I thought.

I took a deep breath and spelled out the magic words in anticipation, "Off to Neverland."

to be contd...

nice one!
peter pan and neverland is one of my favorite books....and you have done a great job reliving those memories....

with the hope to see hook,
with a deep breath and with anticipation i say "off to neverland"  

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aaww - is this your rendition of the tale?  

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hi kaushik, i read peter pan long back, i was hardly 6-7 years old, now i do not even remember the entire story. but yes, captian hook is one of the most memorable characters.

hi shankar-haha, hmm i will just say, wait for the next half.

hi demonic dude, hook will there with a lot of others, by ways, this neverland is not altogether a replica of Peter Pan's. but wait for the next half for more interesting things to come. i hope u ll like it.  

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hey, I like this!... A very interesting change in style and quite nicely done... I'll be looking forward for next part of the adventures with that little guy from the Netherlands... ;)  

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:)) Quite Kool...
I like ur style of writin' !!!
Waiin' eagerly for the next part...  

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I sure will :) ...now, that puts me to wonder, when does the next half come?  

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hi gonsings, glad u liked it. hey gonsings, ur repeating the mistake i made, its Neverland, remember?

Thanks brownstone, still working on the next half.

soon, I promise shankar.  

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Alice in Wonderland
Amrita in Neverland?

:-)  

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haha, right vinesh. welcome to my blog.  

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I am not sure if you can read tamil..can you?  

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amrita you can do it. Just believe hard and say 'off to neverland'. (Sprites come in fairy tales? I thought they were objects in video games)  

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no krish, i cannot. why?

thanks manoj, just waiting to get there. maybe i ll tell Rain that sprites are also spotted in video games.  

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This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.  

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Good Story...
I followed ur comment from my blog to yours and found this great story.....I by mistake read the final part first and then the others.....Very very nice blog Amrita  

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hi girl interrupted,

its ok u read the last one first, i am glad u liked it. byways, u too have a nice blog.  

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That's a great story. Waiting for more. » » »  

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