A work of Fiction by our Junior Kalamkar,
Saanvi Shrivastava- 9 years old
P.S. The illustrations in the attached image have been created by her too.
Chapter 1
“Tilly, I want you to come here at once! Come out of your room!”, Tilly’s mother screamed. Her name was Tiana. Now, now, now…don’t you close this book saying it is boring as you do not know who Tilly is. I am telling you. Tilly was a butterfly. She was very cute, pretty and clever. “Mummy, wait for some time. Or else, bring my breakfast here,” Tilly shouted. “Tillyyyyyy!” her mother yelled. Tilly opened the door of her bedroom and flew down to the dining room.
“See, I made nectar soup for you. Your favourite. And some fruit crumbs to put in the soup,” Tiana said. “Where is daddy?” Tilly asked. “He went to work. Eat your soup fast or you will be late for school. Look, its already 9.00 am,” Tilly’s mother said. Tilly got ready and went to her friend Milly’s house. They both always flew to school together and back. But when Tilly went to Milly’s house, her mother said that Milly was unwell and would not be able to come to school. Tilly was a little sad but she continued flying.
It took five minutes to reach school from Tilly and Milly’s house as they lived in the same building. Tilly reached school and took out her time-table from her pocket. It said the first period of the day was English.
Tilly ran to the class and sat down at her desk. 3 hours later, the bell rang for the end of the school. Tilly went to the exit door of the school.
When she was two buildings away from her school, Tilly spotted a hedge full of flowers. She had not eaten anything at school and so she was very hungry. Tilly flew over to a blue flower and started sucking the nectar. Now, Tilly did not know that there was a frog hiding behind the hedge waiting for Tilly to come. The minute Tilly started sucking the nectar from the flower; the frog caught her with its long, sticky tongue and swallowed her. At first, Tilly did not understand where she was. Then she remembered something – when she had seen the hedge, she thought she saw a pair of eyes looking at her.
She realised she was stuck in the frog’s stomach. Tilly looked at the time in her watch. It said 2.55 pm.
Tilly gasped. “Oh no, school gets over at 2.30 pm. Mummy must be so worried about me,” she said to herself. Suddenly, her phone rang. (Every butterfly in Tilly’s school had to have a phone.) “Hello” Tilly said. “Tilly, where are you?” her mother asked. But before Tilly could answer, there was a buzzing sound. “Your battery is low. Please connect your FLOWERGER (Flower+charger=Flowerger). Tilly looked at her screen. It said – PLEASE CONNECT YOUR FLOWERGER. 4% BATTERY REMAINING.
Tilly had forgotten to carry her Flowerger to school.
Chapter 2
Tilly did not know what to do. She was very worried, so worried that she started crying. She looked at her wings and suddenly, she had an idea.
Tilly looked up. There was a long tube hanging there, it was the frog’s food pipe.
Tilly jumped up and held the food pipe. She pulled herself up and looked down. Then she held the sides of the pipe and started climbing up. Now, you must be wondering why Tilly did not fly, right? Actually, the pipe was too narrow for Tilly’s wings. So Tilly crawled up the pipe, and reached the frog’s mouth. It was stinking of butterflies and flies. Tilly suddenly started flapping her wings.
The frog started feeling ticklish because of the constant flapping of the wings inside. He opened his mouth, which he had kept closed all this while. When it was big enough for Tilly to fly out, she darted out. The frog did not notice her, because he was busy trying to figure out who had tickled him.
Soon, Tilly came back home and told her parents everything. They were very proud of her. And as for the frog, he never ate butterflies again!!