Abracadabra

Anticipating adventure, we excitedly dug out the dusty, old lamp from the attic at our grandparents’ house.

“Hurry, before someone sees us” urged my younger brother tugging at my sleeve.

“Stop!” “You’ll make me drop it” I barked in a low voice.

“Give it to me.” He demanded.

“No!..this lamp needs some dusting.” I snapped, wiping its surface, unaware of my miffed, mutiny-filled companion muttering sharply under his breath.

The cloud of dust billowed larger and I found myself shrunk in size, into an old woman; the cobbled pathway where I stood resembled large salt pans.

A voice echoed,” next wish!”

Copyright - Dawn Q. Landau

Word count: 101

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Linking the 100 word fiction to this week's photo-prompt at Rochelle's Friday Fictioneers, and

to BlogAdda's WOW prompt-A twist in the tale

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Back in time

“Amma, Appa, see I've drawn a dragon. See its wings and the fire it spouts out of its mouth! You know it’s the most powerful dragon in the whole world” I almost pulled my lazy parents off their bed in my excitement to show them my masterpiece.

Amma scooped me in her sleepy arms and planted a proud kiss on my cheeks. She was very happy to see the dragon even if it disturbed her slumber and encouraged me to keep up the good work but gently added that I refrain from calling out to her every two minutes. Appa seemed to be tired since he kept sleeping. They had more important stuff to be accomplished and time was seemingly short.

Sigh! These grown-ups had no clue how much work I had! Airplanes with propellers had to be built, rockets were to be sent into Jupiter and then there were the great white sharks and blue whales that needed some behavioural observation too. What work did Amma and Appa do, I wondered? They never seemed too excited to share their work secrets with me.

“Amma, I want to go alone on that hill on my cycle. Can I go?”

“Of course not, you've to wait until you grow up for that!” Amma looked horrified “It’s dangerous for little kids, you know” she added softening a little.

“But..but..only this morning you said since I'm five years old now, I've become a big boy and that I should eat on my own!” Amma and Appa always confused me. One moment I was a big boy and the next moment I was not yet big. Why can’t they make up their minds for once?!

I really want to grow up fast so that I can build real-life airplanes, climb the mountains, and take a plunge into the sea with the whales. “Oh God, please make me big soon!”

The sun streamed into the window and I woke up to realize that the above was a scene from my dream last night. It was a moment of epiphany for indeed I had forgotten what it is to live in the moment, dream big and have exciting adventures in my wish list. I had wanted to grow up to fulfill my dreams but when I grew up I had forgotten my dreams just like Amma and Appa. 

"Dear God, can I be a 5 year old again?"

http://bit.ly/1svpvWz
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Written for the Blogadda WOW prompt-‘Back in Time’. Imagine, one fine day, you wake up as a 5-year-old child and not as a grown up! What will you do then?

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Prayers #100words

And its a WOW post once again. Thank you BlogAdda!

The little girl sat before her favourite deity-The naughty cowherd who sported a peacock feather and played haunting notes on his flute. How He defied Lord Indra and lifted mount Govardhan was her favourite tale.

“Ask Him with all your heart and He’ll surely give” her mother would tell often.

“Kanha, Amma says if it doesn’t rain this year too, we’d surely die. Is it true? But, aren’t you are more powerful than the rain God. Won’t you ask him to save us this time?”

Her tearful innocent eyes and pure devotion melted His heart.

And, it rained that night.

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100 word fiction written in response to the WOW prompt-'And it rained that night' at Blogadda.

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If only...

Sakshi was packing her bags for her week long business trip to Germany. Being on the advisory board of a multi-national firm her work involved a lot of travel all over the world. Normally, Ajay was very supportive of Sakshi’s work and the amount of commitment she needed to give it. Somehow, this time, for reasons he could not place a finger on, Ajay was not too keen on her going on this particular trip. 

“Do you have to go? What’s Varun doing? He can go instead.” Ajay argued. Varun was at the same level as Sakshi in the firm and they often collaborated on many projects.

“Oh, come on. He’s busy with the upcoming management event this week. Besides, his wife is expecting and is due to deliver anytime now. She needs him more.” Sakshi reasoned logically. As always she was right. 

They were as different as chalk and cheese. She was the cool-headed logical person and Ajay was the temperamental emotional fool. Yes. Quite contrary to the typical man-wife combination. Even their colour preferences defied the typical sampling but matched their personalities. She loved blue and he preferred red.

 An architect and designer by profession, Ajay too held a high-profile job that left them very little couple time. Their work-assignments always clashed. Yet, they made sure they were there for each other at all times. A quick call during the day, a SMS, or even over Whatsapp, they’d remain connected. 

Ajay loved Sakshi for the strong-headed, independent woman that she was.  Ace at her work, she was well-respected among her colleagues and seniors and had risen to a high position in the company within a short time-frame. He was proud of her and her achievements.

Yet, this time Ajay sulked. Being an emotional person, it was sometimes difficult for Ajay to argue his case with his highly rational wife who’d be amused at how much importance he gave to his gut feelings.

“It’s our anniversary next weekend. What if your trip gets extended? You know that’s a common occurrence with your kind of meetings.” he tried to play the emotional card.

“I’ll be back just in time for that, Honey. You know how much that day means to me too. Plan something.” said Sakshi with a twinkle in her eyes and left with a quick goodbye. 

Ajay ignored the uneasy feeling, putting it down to his own work pressure. He plunged into working on his pending assignments. This worked both ways-a happy client and a mind free from unwanted thoughts.

Despite her logical persona, Sakshi believed in lucky charms. A pair of blue earrings was, she believed, was her lucky mascot and she’d never leave for any business trip without those. However, just a couple of days before she left, she misplaced one of the earrings. 

“Was it a sign? She wondered aloud her pretty face knitted in worry. Of course, she couldn’t have been bothered for too long by things like these and within no time her practical side took over.

A couple of days after she left, her missing pair of earrings emerged magically from underneath a pile of papers when Ajay was looking for his missing file. His face broke into a smile and he felt the signs were good after all.

A week flew by. Ajay wanted to surprise Sakshi the day she arrived. A bunch of sweet-smelling roses were placed in the vase. He’d ordered for her favourite butterscotch cake with a tinge of blue icing-just the way she loved it. The upcoming weekend was to be spent at a lovely quiet beach resort - his anniversary gift to her. 

“We both need the break and time together” he mused thoughtfully.

Ajay checked his phone early that morning for his quota of news feed and any new messages. His twitter feed left him gasping for breath. Nothing in the world could have prepared him for the news that greeted him. The plane on which Sakshi was travelling had gone missing. The aircraft had lost contact with the radar a few hours ago and the fate of the passengers and crew was now hanging in mystery.

“If only I’d trusted my instincts this time. If only I’d managed to convince you to stay back. If only…..” cried out Ajay in deep anguish.

 

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The unfortunate event of the Malaysian airline has had me disturbed and the post is a result of it. Wish and pray for the lives of the innocent passengers aboard.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda. It's a picture prompt this time.

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Will the witness speak?

This got selected by Blogadda as a WOW post!

This happened a couple of years ago during my tenure as a police officer in a small town near Guwahati, Assam. Sometimes what seems true is far from it and only a deep investigation will lead you to the core of the crime.

It involved a twenty year old girl, Arunima, who had gone missing suddenly. There was no suspicious trail of events. Involvement of a possible boy-friend was also ruled out as per the testimonies of her classmates. She belonged to a lower-middle class family and was apparently a studious girl whose life revolved around classes, college and home. She also did not seem to have many friends in college. 

The family was distraught. She was their only child. The father was a retired teacher who earned a measly income through tuitions and the mother pitched in by sewing embroidery work on hand-woven cotton fabric. They had put in all their hard earned savings to educate Arunima. She was about to start earning in a year's time after graduating from college and they had pinned a lot of hopes on her.

According to the mother, Arunima did appear a little worn out since a few days. Upon asking she had dismissed it as being preoccupied with her upcoming exams. The mother found no reason to worry further as Arunima had been a good students and a little anxiety was anyway natural before an exam. 

That fateful day was no different from any other normal day for Arunima. She had woken up early as usual and left for college. But, she never reached her college. Arunima always took a bus to college. The bus-stand was about 2 kms from her home and she travelled by foot to the bus-stand. The road to the bus-stand was not a busy stretch and also had a small lake that was equidistant from the stop and her home. 

Police dogs were set hot upon the trail. However, the dogs lost the scent near the lake. It had rained the previous night and it was quite slushy near the water body. We reached a dead end in our investigation. It did seem like Arunima could have slipped and fallen into the lake. The search team was set to fish out a possible dead body from the lake. It seemed like a open and shut case. Somehow, I felt that we were missing something. It did not seem plausible that Arunima could have slipped so much from the main path into the water. Unless she had chosen to be near the lake at that time and then had a accidental fall into the water. Why would she go near the lake at that time and hour?

I began my independent search near the lake-side in anticipation of some other clue. As I walked by some thick bushes just a little away, I heard a faint beep of a mobile phone. It seemed like the noise came from within the thicket. With the help of a few constables, I scoured the place and sure enough there emerged a phone. I looked for clues.The call registry showed two calls placed and one received from the same number in the last week. It was however the message history that nailed the case for me. The trail of messages read as below:

Sent: Meet me at 7 same place. 

Received: I'm not sure I want to.

Sent: Pls, you've to. Let me explain.

Received: K.
Date: 12th Jan 2011
Time recieved: 6.00 a.m.

Meanwhile, the search team found the dead body of Arunima. The autopsy confirmed the cause as death due to drowning

It was not difficult to then put everything together. The SMSes were exchanged with the same number that appeared more than once in the call registry. The time stamp of the last received message and the time of Arunima's disappearance were not too far apart. We confirmed Arunima's number from her family. It only remained to catch the culprit.


It was a case of one-sided love. The boy, Gaurav, had apparently expressed interest in Arunima a month ago but she was not interested. He'd wait for her near the lake everyday and tried to talk to her and convince her. Through his other friends he managed to get her number and called her a few times. Arunima had called up once to express her displeasure and threatened to tell her parents and the police. This explained the number trail in the call-registry. The trail of SMSes was exchanged on the fateful morning. 

Gaurav was nabbed and charged with murder. He admitted to having met Arunima at the place and time. However, pleaded guilty citing that the fall was indeed accidental and he panicked and ran away and lost the phone in the bush in a hurry. Whether she fell accidentally or was pushed we don't know yet.

The sole witness was the calm lake.

Judgement is still pending.


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Linking this to the write over the weekend theme at Blogadda.

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