This week's prompts are
Scuttle Rapper
Drop
Machine
Flowery
Button
Oops. I only noticed the first set of prompts today, and I used only five of those.
Actually I already had written today's chapter in advance. The words were already in the text or fit in seamlessly. except for machine.
Erm, maybe I'll have to use the rest in a later instalment ...
Here's the other half:
Cashback
Tipping
Pizza
Energy
Unsubstantiated
Clear
Anyway I just continued the story about Susan's first visit to Unicorn Farm.
I need help. In Danish we distinguish easily between people pulling rabbits out of hats and coins from peoples' ears: Tryllekunstnere, and those changing people into cats and making strawberries grow and ripe in minutes: Troldmænd. I can't seem to grasp this difference in English. Except from calling the first kind stage magicians, as opposed to the real ones.
All this translating and editing in English do indeed help me realize that I can't translate passages, that I have not yet finished to some degree. Fuzzy, sketchy or foggy passages in Danish turn meaningless when I try to translate them. This is showing me the weak spots in my writings. And it is a great eye opener, and an exercise I would recommend every writer knowing a second language.
***
As Thora had foreseen, Linda had had so much fun with the children from near by, farm that she talked all through the evening meal. Mom and Dad didn't have time to question Susan how the summer school had been, they were satisfied by her "very nice!". Neither did they wonder why she was even quieter than she used to be. Linda's horse magazine also included a small gift. A small suitcase with miniature horses inside. When you opened the suitcase there was a tiny barn and a riding track inside. Linda's fingers and eyes were busy as well, and she let Susan have her stick to herself.
After dinner, the adult continued the ritual with soda, Campari and the Olympics. Linda was tired, and Mom sent her to bed early. Susan sat outside on the patio with her stick. She sat watching the setting sun bring colour to the clouds and let the fingers run up and down the stick feeling all the little smiles in the bark.
"A magic wand ..." she thought. "Maybe I can conjure up rabbits out of hats or flowers out of silk scarves just like the magician at the party." She shook her head. Magicians were cheats, everyone said so. They couldn't do magic at all. It was done with invisible strings, mirrors and dexterity. What she had seen today could not be explained away like that. She swung the stick tentatively through the air, just like she had seen the wizards do at the Unicorn Farm. She could feel the joy flowing through her, and suddenly small greenish and white sparks sprang from the end of the wand. She almost dropped it. Quietly she went to bed. She would not ruin the evening by trying more.
* * *
Next morning, Susan woke up very early. At first she could not understand why she was in such an exceptional mood. Then she remembered it all and was afraid that it had only been a dream. She closed her eyes again and saw the strange people, Torben's beautiful beard, the black man who looked like a pirate, the tow headed twins with all the friendly wrinkles. The children from all the Nordic countries, the undressing and selection. It was far too long and detailed for to be a dream.
"My wand!" she thought, and her hands groped under the quilt until her fingers closed on the slender stick, and a smile spread on her face. It was real! Linda turned over with that little grunt that usually annoyed Susan no end, but today she only smiled indulgently.
After breakfast, Susan told that there were others from the summer school who lived nearby and that she would go together with them to school today. As soon as Mom and dad nodded, she ran out of the door and found her way to the small, yellow farmhouse up the road. It was one of the few houses in the area that was not a summer house.
Susan noticed the door rapper. It was formed a bit like a pirate's flag only with an old fashioned top hat for the scull, and two cross-laid wands below with stars sprinkled around it. She hesitantly raised it and let it fall. Shortly a friendly-looking lady with long, brown curls dressed in a sunshine yellow dress opened the door. "You must be Susan. I'm Sandra, mother of Heidi, Lis and Tage. They told us about you last night. Do come in and wait for them."
Susan thanked her and went in. It was a small, cosy home, filled with strange objects. It was not messy, just very, very full. There was a fireplace, with a small, but warm fire, and near the fire a man sat in a rocking chair with his lap full of balls of fuzzy, grey yarn. He had a long, pointed beard, Susan remembered having seen such a beard before. As the man caught sight of Susan, he moved and all the yarn balls fell on the floor. They jumped and scuttled around, and Susan realized that it was not balls of yarn at all, but baby rabbits.
"Kai at your service!" he said, bowing to Susan. He was dressed in a bottle green dressing gown with purple, flowery patterns and big, sky blue buttons.
"Kai, you're scaring the girl," Sandra warned, but Susan was too curious to be really scared. Her eyes went all over. There were quirky flower bouquets in vases, silk scarves hung out to dry on a string in front of the stove and there were at least 10 wands in a disorderly pile on the table.
"The magician from the party," Susan gasped. "But ... how. I mean ... why? uh ..." Susan fell silent.
Kai laughed quietly. "Isn't it the easiest way to hide my magic? I mean, nobody believes that stage magicians really use magic, they know it's all cheating and sleight of hand. But I'm the real thing." He laughed even louder, an infectious laugh and both Sandra and Susan laughed with him. At the same time, Lis and Tage came bumping down the stairs.
"You're late. Where's Heidi?" said Kai still smiling. Susan breathed deeply to stop the bubbling laugh, and looked up when Heidi came in from the garden.
"I dropped one of my hair bands, the ones with blue balls and it fell out of the window. Now it's gone," she complained, "Oh! Hello Susan, good to see you again."
"Mom, why can't we use magic, just a little bit. It would be so easy to find my hair band myself."
"Stop pestering me, Heidi," Sandra sighed, "I do understand how you feel, and yes, it would be great, if only to stop you bothering me. But no! And that's final."
Kai stopped his index fingers all the way into the ears with the other fingers pointing in all directions. "I'll find it. Don't you worry." He grabbed a wand from the table and went out into the garden. There was a loud bang. and when he returned inside, his face was black. He laughed again and the kids and Sandra laughed with him.
Kai looked dramatic. "It was one of the wands I use for the performances," he laughed, "Sandra, you must find it."
Sandra walked into the doorway, pulled out her magic wand and muttered a spell. Heidi's hair band sprang up from the grass and landed in Sandra's outstretched hand. She handed it to Heidi. "Here you are, honey. And now scram, you'll be late."
Heidi hurriedly wrapped the hair band around her pig tail and the four children went smartly along the path towards the Unicorn Farm.
"Are your parents real magicians?" asked Susan.
"Yes!" Tage and Lis answered simultaneously. Heidi, who had anticipated this, nodded energetically.
"Mom always boasts that they both descend from ancient wizard families. They are related to all the well-known witches in history, all the way back to Merlin and the ancient Greeks." It was Tage who replied, and Lis continued: "But Dad works as you saw as a stage magician, and Mother takes a turn at the local Supermarket when it is needed. That is not very magic."
"Isn't it great to be able to do magic?" Susan asked.
"You heard what Mum said," Lis replied, "we're not allowed to do any magic at all, even though Tage is very good at it."
"She's scared to be found out and burned at the stake. No, I don't mean that," Tage said, "the stake, that is. She's afraid of being found out. Then something terrible will happen," she says.
"Yes, that's how she is," Heidi said. "But I'm looking forward to the summer school. We're going to do loads of magic."
Point the first. I am LOVING your continuing story.
SvarSletIn English we mostly use the term magician for 'stage magicians'. Those who have real magic are wizards, sorcerers, mages and witches. Witches are almost always female, and there are some negative issues tied to the name. And a very negative history. Wizards are almost always male for some reason. Mages can go either way. Warlocks is another term for male users of magic.
PS: Our use of magician to describe an illusionist makes Kai's 'hiding in plain sight' even more effective.
SvarSletThank you for your praise and your dictionary of wizarding words. We do not have that many words in Danish, but the connotations and history are mostly the same (Witch = heks). This will make it easier for me. Thanks.
SletHiding in plain sight -- Yup! Thanks.
Stage magicians can also be called "illusionists." This is a wonderful story, i am wondering why they can't do their magic in their own homes and what they are afraid might happen if they were found out.
SvarSletSandra, their mother, has some measure of second sight (she's a direct descendant of Cassandra, hence her name), and somehow "knows" that terrible things will happen. She might not be right. It was a common superstition in wizarding families, that magic by children in their home was a bad omen.
SletShe's afraid of persecution; just think witches, Middle Ages, water testing, burning at stakes, red hot pincers etc. etc.
isn't is strange the parents tells the kids they can't use magic and then they the parents uses magic, I don't quite get this logic. so the parents are good at it while the kids are still learning which means they might make a mistake & gets found out more easily but I just think the parents shouldn't say one thing and then do another. also, this is such a small thing that I just don't see any reason to use magic. too much thinking? skip this if you think so.
SvarSletbaby rabbits are called bunnies, at least I'm taught this but I kind of like baby rabbits. I have not thought to use pig tails (or pigtails) because for some reason, I usually have no characters that does their hair that way.
I'm finding you keep using words quite differently from me & I'm learning a few new things from it, so thank you. & your usage makes your writing more unique.
have a lovely day.
Oh I see I have to clarify the No magic for children rules some more. Here's a bit: It is not a case of do what I say, not what I do. The reason is simply that children are more apt to forget when and where magic can be used. Some families let their children do magic at home, but took their wands from them whenever they left the house. Secrecy is easier to uphold if you have nothing to brag about - or threaten others with. Scandinavian wizards were always few and far between. We had no wizard villages or close-knit communities like Hogsmeade or Brocken. For this reason the danger of discovery was always present. Wizard families had a propensity for out of the way places (like Heidi's family on an old farm in a summer house area) and / or the anonymity of bigger cities (almost all the Swedish wizard families lived in Stockholm).
SvarSletMy using the words differently form you can have at least three different reasons.
- Mistakes (I am not a native speaker).
- Age, I think that I at 57 am some years your senior ;)
- British versus American English (as we are taught the British variety at school).
I am still learning, and i learn a great many words from reading the stories of the Words for Wednesday participants. For which I am very grateful. Thank you.
I like the "hiding in plain sight" part.
SvarSletI thought perhaps the children couldn't use magic because it would make them lazier in real life if they could always magic up what they wanted or needed instead of having to work for it. A bit like spoiled very rich children always expecting everything is there just because they want it, not because they have to work and save to buy things. I hadn't thought of the discovery and persecution angle.
Your English is very good.