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fredag den 28. juni 2019

Words for Wednesday - Unicorn Farm, Easter Holidays

For the last time in June 2019 Elephant's Child is providing the prompts. 
I'm once again time travelling. We're back to the first Easter holiday at Unicorn farm, Studies in magic has been taking place all through Summer hoildays, Autumn week, Christmas holidays and Spring week. The Easter Holiday "term" brings with it exams and tests, even thought the apprentices do not know this for sure yet. I think I'll have to make a timeline some day soon.  

This week's prompts are twofold. Two  phrases and six words:

Bitten off more than he can chew (taken on a task which is too much for him)
Diamond in the rough (a person who is generally of good character, but lacks manners, education, or style)
    And/or
Welcome
Trigger
Moving
Taller
Essential
Expecting


 "Welcome back for the Easter Holiday term at Unicorn Farm!" It was the gentle Thora, who stood up and welcomed Susan. She then turned to Heidi and her siblings, while Susan wended her way to the wardrobes. She greeted Helge in passing. He had become even  taller, but he was not stooping, trying to look smaller, he looked more at ease, more sure of himself, than he had ever done. He smiled at Susan and told her a joke in Swedish. She laughed, and finally she reached the wardrobe. She hung her clothes on the pegs, pulled the green tunic over her head and buttoned the striped skirt. While she stood combing her unruly hair, she turned her back on Hilde, the squat, Norwegian girl, who always knew better. And then Knud arrived. He had grown too, The lanky boy from the first year had become almost handsome. He undressed, and Susan looked at his suntanned, handsome body. He looked healthy and happy. How had he turned that brown in the meager Danish spring sunshine?
"Hey Susan, stop looking at me like that. I feel like a calf in a show." Knud said.
"Oh, sorry," Susan replied quickly, "I was just woolgathering."
Kírstin and Rósa, the two Icelandic cousins suddenly appeared, they were small and slender still. Their light blonde hair was cut short, their pale skin were almost translucent, and Rósa's freckes stood out against her fair skin. They looked like the winter had been long and harsh for them.
"Hello, Rósa and Kirstin," Susan said. " How are you? You look worn thin"
"Now, we're fine," Rósa said, "but we were ill all winter. All our siblings and cousins, mums and dads and aunts and uncles were ill too. I got the impression, the doctor was expecting some of us to die, but we all survived, not least thanks to Thora, who almost moved in, cared and cooked for us, and nursed us all back to health - or at least life." 
"Whoever poisoned us bit off more than they could chew with that Thora," Rosa said. One look at Kirstin's face made her shut her mouth and look around. "Oh bother. Mum told me silence was essential. But Susan is not bad, is she."
"No, Rósa, she's not. And now not one word more. We're not alone here,"  Kirstin said in quick Icelandic.
"I'm so happy that you are all healed and able to come here," Knud said a bit too loud, Susan and Kirstin smiled at him and Rósa nodded eagerly. 
Veronika had arrived and was combing her long, brown hair as Susan turned around.  She still wore the long velvet maxiskirt and multicoloured top with embroidered mirrors, but as soon as she too dressed in the school clothes and hung her flower power uniform on the hooks by the leaf, she was much less intimidating to Susan."Hi, Veronika, how are you doing?" Susan said. "Just fine, Veronika said, but Fiona, my crazy sister, almost broke every bone in her body trying out some trick while flying her broomstick." 
"I still do not understand how you can be so alike, and yet so different, Knud said.
"That's because you do not have any sisters or brothers," Susan said. "My sister cannot even do magic. I would like her to be like Fiona, dreaming of broomsticks and monsters, instead of music bands and boys."
Veronika turned and looked at Rósa and Kirstin: "Wow, you look worn! Did you catch the Icelandic plague as well," she asked. As Rósa just nodded and Kirstin began repeating the story, Susan took care to put herself next to Knud and between Rósa, Kirstin, and  Veronika on one side and Hilde, Josta and  Marja on the other. Those two nosy Finnish sisters always picked on Rósa, and they needed only small things to trigger a new assault.
The towheaded Swedes, big brother Kalle, and sister Anna arrived, and also placed themselves between the two groups. Last to arrive was Terje from Norway. His face lit up in a smile as he saw Susan and Rósa,  the big, friendly boy was not exactly an idiot, but he was  slow. Only his being nice and always willing to lend a hand, and a strong one at that, made the rest of the green group tolerate him without teasing. Gilvi called him a Diamond in the rough, Susan thought to herself that he was not unintelligent, just not quite at the same place as the rest of the world. "I wonder what will happen when he wakes up," Susan thought to herself. 

4 kommentarer:

  1. I love the vignettes of all these very different characters which you have managed to encapsulate in SUCH a short piece. I too would like to learn more about Terje, and that phase 'when he wakes up' is brilliant. We have all known someone like that.

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    1. Thank you. I so enjoy writing these vignettes.
      I hope the coming Wednesdays will bring more prompts for me to use, because I too would like to follow Terje, Susan and the ohter young apprentices.

      Slet
  2. So many characters to keep track of, i love your stories as i get to know each person!

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    1. I really enjoy writing this, and your responses make me want to continue. And yes, there's many persons to keep track of. I must admit that I sometimes make mistakes ... there's one in this chapter - Kirstin's hair was black and curly when first we met her. I'll have to correct and check all those details when / if I ever make it into a book.

      Slet

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