Be Careful What You Wish For

Be Careful What You Wish For

By Azeema Davies

Retold by Jaida Roberts

In the beautiful village of Gimbia, that had tall beautiful plants, animals and small little huts, there lived a beautiful, dark-skinned girl named Naria. She lived with her fair, loving mum, Mrs. Okobi. Naria was very lazy, so she barely did any work.

One bright afternoon, her mum told her to go sweep the backyard because it was full of leaves. She grumbled at first but she knew she had to obey her mother, so she did it. As she was sweeping, she saw some butterflies take flight into the air. It was beautiful. She smiled, seeing all the butterflies fly in unison.

“What lucky butterflies, they don’t need to do any work. I wish I were a butterfly.” she thought to herself.

Later on, Naria slept off under the mango tree in her backyard.

As she was sleeping, she had a dream. She dreamt that she was a butterfly. In fact, queen butterfly. Everybody was hailing her, and she was being served with cheeseburgers, steaks and almost every single food she had never eaten before.

Mrs. Okobi came to check on Naria and spotted her under the mango tree sleeping.

“What are you doing here?” Mrs. Okobi asked, trying to wake Naria up.

“Huh? Oh! I am sorry mother. I must have fallen asleep. I was tired of sweeping the leaves.”

“Ok Nana. Come inside and go to sleep” said Mrs. Okobi “Goodnight Nana!”.

As Naria was on her bed, she thought about her dream. She giggled at the thought then she went to sleep.

The next day, it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Naria was sent to the market. As usual, she grumbled until she got there. When she got there, she saw people at the end of the market square crowding the village announcer.

Naria wondered what was going on but she ignored it and moved to the vegetable stall.

When she got there, she asked “How much are vegetables ma?”

“N20 little child,” said the lady.

“Thank you. What are those people there for? Why are they are crowding Mr. Chukwubuka like that?” questioned Naria.

“Oh, little child, you know nothing. Tomorrow is the coming of the Wind of Wishes. It comes every four years. Almost everybody in Gimbia village is coming,” answered the lady.

“Thanks!” said Naria.

Naria was so happy that the Wind of Wishes was coming. She was going to be a butterfly! She went to sleep happily that day.

Soon, it was finally Monday! She quickly wore some nice clothes, and rushed out before her mother could wake up.

When she reached the market square, she was alone but later on, more people started coming and they were all dressed beautifully. Before she had time to think she felt a strong wind. She beamed while trying to hold in her excitement as the Wind of Wishes was coming. She quickly made her wish.

“I wish to become a butterfly!” she whispered.

As soon as the Wind of Wishes blew her hair, she opened her eyes and everything looked bigger. She looked at her wings and saw colourful wings. She was so happy. She flapped her wings as she took flight into the air. She saw a fellow butterfly and she came to her.

“Do you wanna play?” she asked.

“Play? No. We need to work. We need to give food to the queen,” replied the butterfly.

Naria thought they would just work for a short time, but she worked for hours. When it was her turn to give food to the queen, she quietly asked the queen.

“Do we work all day?”

“Yes youngster, now go get some food,” said the queen.

Meanwhile back on land, Mrs. Okobi was looking everywhere for her daughter. Soon, she went to the village police. The police told everybody in Gimbia town. Everybody supported Mrs. Okobi and searched the whole town for her. Some people saw her at the Wind of Wishes but they did not know what she wished for.

Days went, weeks, months and years, but no sign of Naria. The next wind of wishes was close by. On the day of the wind, Mrs Okobi wished for Naria to come back. Immediately, Naria formed into a human and rushed to the hands of her mum.

Everybody was happy for Mrs. Okobi. Naria told her mum the whole story. Everything was back to normal and Naria wasn’t lazy again.

JAIDA KETANDU ROBERTS is a 9-year-old pupil of Corona School Victoria Island. This piece is her submission for the Jordan Hill September 2019 Writing Challenge.