Reading Time: 4 minutes
A Pinch of Magic
It was summer 2019, the fun of summer break had just started. Every child was screaming out loudly and the excitement was heard through the walls or every corner. A voice came from the end of the school door, there was Priya, my best friend. Tarini, Priya and I (Swati) have been best friends since 4th standard. We all three are so close that now finally after so many efforts we are going to spend all the summer break with others and far far away from this town, my silly town Krishnapur.
We all gathered at Sushi’s place, the cafe and one of our close friends’ cafe to decide everything we have been dreaming about, the summer cooking camp. We all three were so involved in our conversations that we hadn’t noticed that we took the wrong way. Priya being the scary kid started screaming and Tarini calmed her down. We started walking and came across a new way which has never been seen before in the town. We followed the path and ended at the rear end, we were mesmerized by the beautiful river and the surroundings.
We got so excited that we started playing around and didn’t notice the time and were so involved in the moment.
After some time, I saw a woman coming closer to us who was very old and scary. She was wearing torn clothes and the moment was very horrifying. When she came and called my name in her low-pitched voice, “Swati, come closer to me dear!”. I got scared but somehow gathered the courage and moved forward towards her, my friends were trying their best to stop me.
The old woman held my hand and handed me a book. I still remember the name, “Fork and the spoon”. We were confused and were trying to look for the answer of what exactly this book has to do with us and what we have to do. The old woman left us with only one sentence, “clear your mind, have faith in each other and everything will be sorted, till the time you hold the mind and do not allow the mind to influence you”.
We all three ran as fast as the train of Japan and found the wag out from that mysterious place. We decided to meet at the cafe the next day.
The next day, we were surprised by looking at the book, it contained the recipes. Looking at our confused faces, Sushi came and asked if everything was going well with us or not. We were so tense and terrified and spoke everything about the last day and also about the book. At the beginning, he didn’t believe us but after seeing the book he did. He asked if this is any sort of problem which we might have taken into our hands.
After a lot of thinking, Tarini suggested that to find the answer to the question we must try and cook something from the book, we agreed. We met at my house because my parents were not at home and taking advantage of their absence, we decided to cook. We again went through the book but were unable to decide which recipe should be made. Suddenly, Priya saw a recipe which was titled as ” invisibility the recreation” and without hesitation we started working. We gave that recipe the shape of cookies.
After cookies were made, Tarini immediately took a piece and ate it. The next 10 seconds were indigestible. Tarini was gone, we were not able to see her anymore. But her voice was still there in the kitchen. It was the time when we realised that the book is magical. I and Priya went through the recipe again and discovered a new piece from it, it says, “to gain back the originality one must redo it”. We asked Tarini to eat the cookies again and she was back.
Three of us started making recipes, and ingredients which were given in the book. We also got the opportunity to find extra special ingredients from that mysterious place, which we used in our recipes. We got so entangled with the book that we skipped the camp as well. We decided to stay and cook from the magical book.
But that one particular day still terrifies us, the day when we mistakenly cooked a recipe which harmed a girl named Jahnvi. The girl who waa not all liked by us because of her attitude. The act was accidental but harmful. We cooked the recipe, “Repoussez tout le monde “. We didn’t realise our mistake which was made during the selection of extra special ingredients until we met her, and she ate the cupcakes offered by us. Due to the exchange of ingredients, the magic got chaotic and Jahnvi didn’t repelled anyone, but she was went dumb, she was not able to speak a single word. We got scared and tried to find a solution to this chaos from the book and even from the mysterious place.
We were helpless and afraid. Then we went back to the mysterious place and found the same old lady standing there, looking like she was waiting for us only. We confessed everything and were in tears and asked her to help us, she again left us with only one sentence, “take it in your, make it with your hand and stir it until it ends”.
Priya tried to solve the riddle and at the end she was successful. She stated that the old woman wanted us to make a new recipe on our own with the help of the extra special ingredients and solve the problem. We collected the ingredients from the place and with those ingredients which held a unique power themselves, we made the new recipe and took that to Jahnvi’s place. We were so happy at that moment when we saw Jahnvi speaking again and also, she thanked all of us and was crying out loud like a newborn baby.
After this incident, we decided that just for excitement and amusement we should not cook from this book, and it will be safe for everyone that this ends now. As this might be dangerous and can even be more harmful. So,we went back to that place and kept all the ingredients we took from the place and also the book and never looked back.
After that we never discussed that summer ever in our lives and each of us moved forward.