By Nusrat Ahmed
She is known by the name Anna. She lives in a gigantic mansion. Her great grandfather left that. Anna is a little girl for her mother and a big girl for her Dad. One day, she squeezed her left eye with her fingers by standing in front of the mirror. Suddenly, she saw her baby pink finger glowing in the mirror!
After a long observation of herself through the mirror, she tucked herself in the comfy, cosy blanket. She kept thinking about why was her index finger glowing Infront of the mirror. Then she realised her grandma once mentioned to her that, It wasn’t an ordinary mirror; it was a magical mirror! And she went back to sleep in her little bedroom.
As Christmas was around the corner. God’s hand-made snowflakes fell from the miserable, dark sky shrouded in pregnant clouds. She gazed outside at the wooden enchanted pine tree.
The grandfather clock made a loud noise at12 am. It was midnight.
Anna woke up from sleep by her wildest dream. She rushed to her storyteller grandmother to find her answers to the wildest imagination.
She desperately wanted to know why an angelic girl with “pink fingers” had this monstrous and mysterious dream!
There was a big creaking noise at the door of her grandma…
“What happened, Anna?”
Anna replied in her baby, trembling voice. “Why does an angelic girl like me have this scary dream?”
Her Grand maa took her close to her heart made her head lay on her chest. She could feel the warmth coming from the white sweater of her grandma. A sweet scent of vanilla essence was coming from her body. Ouch, Anna cried.
“Your wool sweater has stung my pink figures.”
Just a whisper for the audience (Anna has an allergic reaction to wool).
“OH, apologies for the accidental inconvenience”, grandma uttered. “Now, tell me what you’ve seen.”
Anna explained, with fascinated and sparkling eyes, “I had seen some naughty elves who had disrupted and stolen my essential ingredients when I was making a sweet potion for myself to turn myself into a “pink fairy”.” “To be approximate, there were three elves together—one with a long-nosed elf, with a red hat. The second has a long moustache and wears a blue hat. The third was the most hideous and frightening, wearing a bottle-green cloth and the world’s most extended hat. And “My lavender sticks were stolen by the elf with the red capstone, and the elf with the blue hat stole my cinnamon stick”. The third elf with the most extended bottle green cloth. He got too close to me and hurt my baby index pink finger, where my secret magic lies in. By making a howling sound, he trapped me in a golden cage. He snatched the power from my finger, and he slammed the old antique door, leaving me to starve in the golden suffocating cage.”
“And I woke up, grandma.” Anna took a deep breath.
Her Grandma said that they all are the causes of your “food digestion” and your faith that your pink index figure has magic.
“My little sweetheart, please do not get scared. Would you like to sleep with me, Anna?”, She reached for Anna’s eyes.
“Okay, grandma”, Anna whispered.
She sighed and tried to fall asleep in the cloud-like bed of her grandmother. But she couldn’t.
After so many twists and turns in the bed, she heard an unusual noise upstairs. She held her breath, took her teddy bear, and tiptoed toward upstairs very cautiously.
She peeked through the door hole of her bedroom and saw her room was turned shimmery golden yellow with amusing, glowy lights. On the right-hand side of her bedroom, dinner was being cooked by one of the Elves!
“An Elf!” She screamed.
The chef elf with a red apron looked for the baby voice that was heard a few seconds ago. After a few stern gazes, he got busy cooking for tonight’s “Christmas dinner.”
The smell of the flavourful turkey lured her inside the bedroom, which is not her bedroom anymore! Suddenly, the room got darker.
Human-like trees were moving fast as if a storm had arrived. Little Anna was shivering with the cold wind, tightly hugging her teddy bear.
“GLOWING”, she said.
Her index pink figure was glowing again, and it was not pink in colour now. It was bright yellow, just like fireflies hovering through her index finger. As soon as she touched her index finger, a voice appeared behind her back.
“OH, HELLO! Little munchkin.”
Anna turned back with a shivering fear to find the voice was coming from.
“I AM AN ELF! My mates call me Mr Dumpling.”
“So listen to me carefully, let me clear things for you.”, Mr Dumpling continued, According to the human dictionary. “An elf is a mythical creature that lives alongside humans. The only problem is that humans “can’t see us with naked eyes, People who can see us are the people who have some special power in them”.
“But my grandma says elves are evil!” Anna suggested.
“Yes, to some extent, she is right. To some, she is not”! Mr Dumpling paused, “Let me explain”. Ahem. I’m sorry. Please allow me to clear my throat. Bahahaha, my voice is quite husky. So initially, we have the reputation of being evil and scaring misbehaved children. “We are often considered as a dwarf. We are often mistaken for gnomes, goblins, fairies, and dwarfs due to poorly translated tales”. We are indeed mischievous, but only to naughty children, but you are a very magical child with the gifted pink index finger.”
“Do you know anything?” the elf stopped and looked at Anna.
“Know what, Mr Dumpling?” Anna looked at him back.
“I have received a letter from one of the dwarfs from snow white. He has been secretly noticing you through the tall mirror glass that every day you stand in.”, Mr Dumpling chirped.
Anna was quiet for a moment. Her little brain could not comprehend the miracle that had unfolded in her bedroom. She looked at her finger; it was still glowing.
Mr. dumpling exclaimed, “OH, look at that. It has changed its colour now! It is pink and shimmery again….”
“Would you want to join our Christmas meal tonight?” He added.
“But today is not Christmas”, Anna replied.
“Yes, indeed, our Christmas happens just the night before yours. Oh! Look new pair of blue glass shoes I just hired from Cinderella. Are you serious, Mr. dumpling? Yes, my dear.”
Moments later, Mr Dumpling had transformed Anna’s room into a fantasy world that resembled a woodland at night.
The grouchy chef began baking the red cherry cake with crunchy caramel and lemon zest on the top.
A far some thin glowy bodies fireflies started dancing around green bushes. She begins walking with Mr Dumpling by holding his hands.
Suddenly She saw a big, burgundy flower with a reddish tint peeping through the bushy plants. She uncovered and saw the whole flower; the flower was decorated with fine thin golden wires.
“By night, it sings”, Mr. dumpling added, “ but it sings only at night and sleeps throughout the day. Strange.”
“Sir, dinner is ready!” The elf chef shouted in the background.
The rosemary and garlic were finely garnished on the turkey and chicken. She ate them cautiously, nervously shredding the meats with a fork and knife she had never seen before.
“Let me assist you in shredding them.” Mr Dumpling cut a piece of meat with his fork and put it in her mouth”.
“Mmm, yummy!”, My mother never served me turkey or chicken.
The elves laughed, “No! who said that?” You eat them every day, but your mother mixes them and blends them in the blender, and unfortunately, you don’t know what secret ingredients get added to your food.”
“But that’s a crime!” Little Anna screamed,
“There is no such thing as approval these days, Huh!” Mr Dumpling rubbed a pink blusher into her cheeks and carefully brushed her angry, frowning eyebrows with his fingertips.
She became concerned after her finger began to leak honey. She shouted as it fell in the soil and blossomed into a giant pink bloom. “Pink blossom!”
“Yes, you are a gifted child, as I previously told you”, said the elf.
“You are a little girl with big and good powers who helps anyone heal from deadly diseases. Come in to see what I’m talking about.” When the elf king was sleeping, Mr Dumpling took her to a cottage. He had a pale face.
Mr Dumpling explained to her that…
“Only the juices of the flower that your pink index finger has produced will restore his health”.
Anna was both amused and delighted at the prospect of saving lives.
“Could you please help him to save his life?” She said.
“Only if you permit, Anna?” Mr Dumpling said.
“Yes, of course”, she replied.
Other elves put a pot underneath her squeezing flower juices, and she crushed the flower with her tiny fingers.
“Now, take the jug and pour the juices into his mouth and lips. You can save lives, do you know that? BUT…” Mr Dumpling added.
“But what?” she exclaimed.
His pale face came to life. The king of the Elves woke up, took Anna on his lap and kissed her hand. “Thank you, my loving child. For saving my life from this deadly disease.”
Mr Dumpling led her to a nearby oak tree’s corner.
“Let me respond to you, BUT it is now the end of the night, and the sun will rise soon. You will save lives but till a certain age”. When you turn 17, you will lose your supernatural abilities, and your magical pink flower can only flourish on the side of a mountain just north of town. And it’s a long and challenging journey. And now I have to vanish.” Mr Dumpling said that and disappeared in the air, followed by his voice.
Her bed space was transformed back into a regular room.
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
The grandfather clock struck 6 a.m., still dark outside. She hurriedly slid into her grandma’s lap, securely tucked herself in, and was quietly thinking about what had happened. Her eye moved, revealing something gleaming.
A PINK flower was left and a note on the corner bed table! When she placed her index finger on those letters, they illuminated the light and produced the most melodious sound, leaving a heavy fragrance of the pink flower she had created with her pink index finger. But Sadly, Anna never understood the language; the letters of the note was written in elves’ language. Regrettably, Anna could not grasp the elves language. She embraced the flower and the message and drifted off to sleep peacefully…
The Ruskin Journal 