Once upon a time, there was a scientist, who was very old. So old, in fact, that everyone forgot her real name and just called her, ‘Scientist’. There so happened to be a potion she made, out of 28 rare ingredients. Amongst those ingredients was a flower found only every 100 years. When she went to pick it though, it had already been taken for the president baby daughter, who was very sick. The scientist was furious, and decided that if she couldn’t have the flower, then she’d have the girl. The baby was a mere 2 months, so she raised a big fuss when Scientist stole her away in middle of the night. The secret service attempted to stop her, but she got away. The scientist raised the child in her secret lab deep, deep underground where she was never allowed out. One day, the scientist went out to get ingredients for a new experiment. The not-so-little- anymore girl called Rapunzel, Zellie for short, was told that Scientist wouldn’t be home for 2 weeks. Zellie wanted to see the world, have fun and most importantly find out if there was more to life than science. Even though Zellie had been stolen away for revenge, she had grown near to scientist’s heart, and she genuinely wanted what was good for Zellie, but she was also frightened that if Zellie ventured outside, they would find out that she was the president’s daughter and Zellie would be taken away and would despise Scientist. As soon as scientist left, Zellie counted 10 minutes to give her time to get far enough away. She then ran into the lift that Scientist always used. But when she got in, she discovered a problem. The lift was key card operated, meaning that, without one, she could not leave. Zellie however, was good with technology, so she tinkered with the controls till she was racing upwards towards the surface, at a very high speed.
Soon, she was at the surface. It so happened that today was the day of a very important persons birthday. She wandered through the clearing, marvelling at the soft earth on her bare feet. Living in a small lab, with not much danger to her lower half, she had grown up without shoes, and only for her single outdoor excursion 2 years ago, at the age of 6 had she worn slippers. She heard childish laughter and suddenly found herself in middle of a crowd. She found so much pleasure in being around other people, she almost missed what was going on in front of the crowd. A young voice resounded from the front. Some unknown force pulled her to the front of the crowd. At precisely that moment, the boy onstage turned to her side. The two 8 year olds stared at one another. She could recognise his features. She saw them daily in the mirror. The sky blue eyes, the jet black hair, the fair, clear unblemished skin. The president turned to see what her son was looking at and gasped. She stumbled and ran towards her. Zellie completely startled, stared into the eyes of the woman who was grasping her shoulders.
“What is your name, child?” asked the president. “My name is Rapunzel. Zellie for short” replied Zellie.
“How old are you? Is today your birthday?” Zellie started. She had forgotten. She and Scientist did not consider birthdays a big deal, so she had forgotten
“Yes. Today I am turning 8” The president, Lani Haluki gasped and hugged the bemused little girl. Finally, she had found her daughter. After a confusing few hours, Zellie had been officially named first daughter of the country. Zellie turned to her new mother and asked “Can Amma live here too? Her name is Scientist” With a sigh, Lani agreed, and from then on, Zellie called Scientist ‘Paati’, and she stayed in the president’s mansion
No comments:
Post a Comment