Written by: Rebbecca Hemmings
Ideas by: Class 3S from Harborne Primary School, Birmingham, UK
The children were asked to respond to the title: What happened When the Food Came to Life
This was their response...
There was once a grumpy wizard called Spelco, who lived in a very big house in the middle of Bangalore, India. He spent many of his days creating spells and potions. He often helped rich people get whatever they wanted and they paid him very handsomely for his magic. However, his spells were not always perfect. Sometimes they went very wrong. Once he turned a young lady’s head into that of a snail’s. All her parents had asked was to make her more beautiful. Her father was so angry and beat Spelco with a stick. As he beat the wizard he repeated Spelco’s name 3 times and all of a sudden his daughter turned back to normal. That was how Spelco learnt how to undo his spells. But from that day onwards he decided to work even harder on his magic so that mistakes like that never happened again. He could not afford to lose the business that the noble people of Bangalore gave him.
One day whilst creating a spell and preparing lunch in his kitchen, Spelco heard a knock on the door. When he opened his front door he saw a very poor family. Every single one of them was smiling at him.
He asked them very coldly “Why are you peasants knocking on my door?”
Anand (the oldest child of the family) answered brightly; “We are a very poor family who live on the road just down the road from here. We smelt the beautiful aroma of food coming from your house and we wondered if you might be so kind to share some with us?”
Spelco was far from impressed. He did not like poor people. He thought they were smelly and dirty and most of all, he could not understand why they didn’t get up off their lazy bottoms and work to get money. He thought they were a waste of space.
“Get away from my door! I will give you nothing!”
With that, he slammed the door and went back to his kitchen to eat his lunch and finish his spell which involved cooking a chicken head, a pig’s trotter and tiger’s tongues. When he had finished he decided that he wanted to go for a walk down the road to help digest his food. When he opened his front door, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. Anand, his mum, his dad, his little sister and their dog were all standing in the same place he had left then hours ago and they were still smiling. He was furious!
“What is wrong with you crazy people? I am not giving you my food, you fools!”
Anand and his family were very patient people and understood that sometimes rich people did not understand the way they lived. Rich people often thought they were good for nothing, but that was far from the truth. They worked very hard to find work but often people did not want to employ them because they looked poor and the smelled. The family often went days without food so the often the only way to get some was to beg for it. Begging required a lot of patience. They wished things were different.
Anand said “Please sir, we are all very hungry and we will even eat the scraps you give to your dogs. Feed us once and we will never bother you again.”
Spelco would not be convinced. He said “Oh I will make sure you never bother me again! You want food. I will give you food!”
The whole family smiled even more. As Anand was about to say “Thank you”, the miserable wizard angrily said “I will turn you into my favourite food; mangoes. Then I will eat you one by one until you are all out of my life forever, you pestering idiots!”
At hearing those words, Anand’s father told his family to run but it was too late. Spelco said “Bili bili bango, bili bili bango turn these fools into juicy mangoes!”
Straight away there was a loud noise that sounded a bit like a vacuum. The family started shrink and turn orange and in no time at all they had all been turned into mangoes which all sat on a mango tree. Spelco laughed an evil laugh as he picked up the tree and planted it into his back garden. As he was planting his said to himself, “That will teach you all a lesson forever. Maybe if you had done something with your lives you would have come to a better ending. Now when I eat you, you will be gone forever. Well, if I was really kind I would say my name times to bring you back to life. But why would I do that?” He laughed as he skipped back to the house.
What Spelco did not realise was that even though he turned the family into mangoes, Anand’s transformation wasn’t quite complete. Anand was still able to use his brain and he was still able to see. Once again one of Spelco’s spells was faulty. Anand called out to his family:
“Mummy, daddy, little sister, doggie! Can you hear me?”
But all the other mangoes sat still on the tree, lifeless.
“Oh my! What am I going to do? The wizard is going to eat us all very soon and then we will be gone forever! What shall I do?”
Then he remembered what the wizard had said whilst he was planting their tree.
“Ah ha, all I have to do is say his name three times and then we will go back to being human again. Oh yes! But err… what was his name? I have forgotten!”
Anand squeezed his brain very tightly and tried to remember the wizard’s name. But because his brain was now a lot smaller, he found it difficult to remember things. At that very moment Spelco came walking down the garden path to the tree.
“Right, I am hungry, it is time to eat my precious mangoes.” Spelco laughed as his picked Anand’s dog from the tree.
Anand cried out “No! Please don’t eat my doggie, he is my best friend!”
But Spelco could not hear Anand’s tiny voice and even if he could, it probably wouldn’t have made any difference. Spelco, bit into the mango several times until he had eaten the whole thing.
Anand cried as the horror unfolded before his little mango eyes. Spelco wiped the juice from his lips and said “Mmm… that was one of the tastiest mangoes I have ever eaten.”
He then picked Anand’s little sister from the tree and took a huge bite.
“God, oh God please help us, this wizard is destroying my family before my very eyes. What have we done to deserve this? Please oh please, help me to remember his name. Was it Spelly? Spiko? Oh why can’t I remember?”
Of course Spelco could not hear any of this and even if he did. He wouldn’t have cared; he was too busy enjoying himself eating the delicious fruits. Once he had finished eating Anand’s little sister, he then picked Anand’s Mum from the tree.
Anand went bonkers “Oh you wicked wizard! I will not let you destroy my family. We might be poor but we are just as valuable as any other human being! I know your name, I know your name! Spelco, Spelco, Spelco!” He has remembered!
All of a sudden, Spelco dropped the mango from his hand as it started to grow back into a full grown woman, Anand’s mother. Anand and his father also turned back to normal!
“Run, mummy, run daddy! I am going to get my little and sister and our dog back!”
They did what he said and ran as fast as they could. Whilst they were running his mother shouted “Be careful my son.”
This all happened so quickly that Spelco was startled. Anand quickly broke a branch off the tree and he started to beat Spelco. Spelco cried out!
“Ow! Please stop. I am sorry! Ow”
But Anand continue to beat him like a crazed boy. “You ate my sister and my dog. I want them back you wicked Wizard!”
At that moment, Spelco fell on the floor. He looked very pale. Anand stopped beating him and watched as the wizard held his stomach in pain. Then his stomach made a loud growling noise and Spelco wriggled and writhed. Then as quick as you could say his name, Spelco vomited a huge orange mess. It was all the mangoes he had eaten. Anand seized his opportunity and said:
“Spelco, Spelco, Spelco!”
As he had hoped, out of the orange messed two figures started to form. It was his sister and his dog. When they were back to normal he ran to them and hugged them. He then told them to run back to their cardboard home down the road. They obeyed and ran as quickly as they could.
Spelco was still on the floor exhausted. He felt awful for what he had done. He had witnessed just how hard Anand had fought for his family and he had gained a new found respect for him and his family. He realised that the love they had for each other could not be broken and that they were prepared to do anything to protect each other. He had never seen someone work so hard for what they wanted. He said;
“Boy, I am very sorry for the pain I have caused you and your family. I looked down on you because you are all poor. But I have learned today that you are very strong, courageous people, who are willing to fight for what you believe. Please forgive me.”
Anand was still very cross; “You think we are nobodies because we have no money. Yes, we have no money but we are smart, we are loving people and have each other. No amount of money can buy that. I wouldn’t change my family for all the money in the world. You have all this money but you are miserable. All we asked you for was some of your scrap food and you wouldn’t even give us that!”
Tears started to fall from Spelco’s eyes. As he wept, he said “Please let me right my wrongs. I will give you and your family work so that you never have to beg again. You will be able to afford your own home and live a more comfortable life. I will not take no for an answer. What I have done is very wrong.”
Spelco kept his word; he provided work around the house from Anand, his mother and his father whilst Anand’s little sister and dog often played in his huge garden. Spelco grew very close to the family and that made him very happy indeed. He had learnt a huge lesson that day: having lots of money does not bring lots of happiness but having people around who love and care for you makes you very happy indeed.
The End
