Fatou and the Silver Seeds

Fatou and the Silver Seeds

Fatou and Sekou were twins. They did not look identical because they were fraternal twins. There was never a pair of twins who were more different from each other than these two. One was a boy, the other was a girl. One liked dolls, the other liked trucks, one liked chocolate, and the other vanilla, one liked staying indoors and reading, while the other loved being outdoors and climbing trees. There was another difference between Fatou and Sekou, though. Sekou was really tidy and neat, and Fatou was not. Fatou always forgot to wash her hands, but Sekou always remembered. What’s more, Sekou was in the habit of taking a bottle of hand sanitizer with him wherever he went out.

Fatou almost always forgot to wash her hands before meals and after playing in the mud and sand. She loved being outdoors and did not mind getting dirty. She touched her face, nose and mouth without washing her hands, and one day, she caught a nasty flu. The family doctor came to visit and said, “Fatou must remain in bed for at least a week!”

Fatou groaned. There was nothing she hated more than staying in bed or indoors. Although at first, she enjoyed the attention she was getting and the friends who came to visit her. Some brought her flowers, while others brought toys or candy. Despite all the attention and gifts, Fatou still longed to be outdoors.

“This is what happens to children who don’t wash their hands properly and regularly, especially before meals and after using the washroom or going outdoors,” the doctor said when she came in for a visit a week later. She also said that Fatou needed rest for at least two more weeks. Fatou groaned and sighed. She wished now more than ever that she had developed the habit of washing her hands more regularly. She was missing out on all the fun that she used to have outdoors. Soon it will be Kukua, her best friend’s birthday, and Fatou hated the idea of missing the birthday party. She hated would hate not being able to able to go to!

The day of Kukua’s birthday day came, and Sekou got dressed and came to bid Fatou farewell. Fatou felt miserable. She felt like crying but knew that would only make things worse and perhaps make the flu last even longer. So, she put up a brave face and bid Sekou goodbye and said, “Have fun!” in the most cheery voice she could muster.

The day was hot, and the birds twittered in the garden. Fatou’s bedroom window opened out onto the garden. The garden was well kept, and there were plenty of flowers and trees. Birds and butterflies of all sorts flew happily about in the garden. Fatou stood by the window staring stared wistfully at the garden. She made up her mind to try and be as neat and tidy as possible in the future. “I’ll wash my hands every day after I go outdoors, after using the restroom and before meals,” she said to herself.

Just then, she noticed a swallow flying towards the tree just outside her window. It perched on the papaya tree that stood so close to her window so that she could reach out and touch its branches. The swallow settled on a low hanging branch of the tree. Fatou watched quietly. The swallow sat, looked at her with beady eyes, twittered, and flew away from the branch again. Fatou sighed. She had felt happy when the swallow first came. Now she felt lonely once again.

To her surprise, a few minutes later, the swallow came back. This time it had something in its beak that it placed on the branch of the tree. The swallow cocked its head and looked at Fatou as if inviting her to come and look closely at the thing that she just placed on the branch, then it darted out off again. A few minutes later, the bird came back. It came and went several times. Fatou, who had gone back to rest on her bed from where she kept watching it, slowly fell fast asleep.

It was evening when she woke up, and she could see that the swallow was sitting on something brown. It had built a nest on the branch! She stared and couldn’t believe it when she saw that the swallow had laid some eggs. But she felt so happy that the bird had built itself a home on the tree because she liked birds.

“A nest on branch so close that I can touch it! Awesome!” she said to herself, looking at the swallow who stayed perched on top of its newly built nest. Soon, Fatou’s Dad came in, bringing her dinner. Fatou told him everything that had happened with the bird. When Sekou came back from the party, Fatou told him about it as well. Everyone in the family came to see the swallow’s nest through Fatou’s window.

One fine morning a few days later, Fatou was awakened by the sound of twittering. “The eggs must have hatched,” she said as she heaved herself up to stand on her bed to get a closer look. She could see the tiny heads of the hatchlings peeping out from the nest. Then suddenly, a strong draught blew and shook the branch of the papaya tree, and something fell with a thud through her window and onto the floor.

She rushed out of bed to see what it was. There was a tiny featherless baby bird on the floor of her room. She stared. She wondered what she should do. She stretched out her hand to pick up the little bird. Just then, the mother bird flew through the window with something in her mouth and sat on the window ledge looking at Fatou. The baby bird twittered. The mother swallow flew into the room, and there was a loud chirping noise. She then proceeded to feed the fledgling with the thing that she held in her beak.

Suddenly, Fatou heard

a sound from the hatchling that was lying on the floor. She jumped for joy when she saw that the hatchling was trying to spread its wings. However, within the twinkle of an eye, an eagle swooned up to Fatou’s window. Fatou was scared, but she noticed that the mother swallow was even more terrified. She was shivering. Fatou spread out her hands and screamed to frighten the eagle away.

It worked! The eagle turned flew away!

The mother bird who had been watching flew towards Fatou and perched on her shoulder and said, “thank you, girl, you are brave!”

Fatou was unable to believe what she was hearing.

“Did you just speak?” Fatou asked, looking at the bird.

“Yes, I did,” said the swallow before she hopped onto Fatou’s windowsill. I’ll be back,” she said, flying out of the window.

Fatou kept starring out through her window, waiting for the mother swallow, who seemed to have disappeared into the sky. She waited till it was nearly evening, but still, the mother swallow did not return.

Fatou waited impatiently for her mum or Sekou to come and see her. “The mother swallow must be busy,” Fatou thought, looking at the clock on the wall.

It was nearly six in the evening, and soon she heard footsteps and her mum come into her room. Fatou’s’ mother was amazed when she saw all the feathers on the floor of the room. Fatou told her everything that had happened except for the part where the swallow spoke, and her mother listened. She didn’t tell her that the swallow spoke because she did not think anyone would believe her. Besides, she had begun to think that maybe she imagined it.

“You are a really brave girl!” her mum said, hugging Fatou. “I’m proud of you!”

Fatou had her supper while her mum cleared up the feathers. Then her mum left her room, saying, “We’re having some visitors over for dinner. I think they are already here. I’ll be back soon as they are gone.”

As soon as her mum was gone, in flew the little mother swallow carrying something in its tiny beak. She landed on Fatou’s bedside table.

“Here is a reward for your bravery,” she said and added, “stretch out your hand.”

Fatou did, and the bird dropped two tiny silver seeds into her palm.

“What are these,” asked Fatou, looking at the seeds that were shining like two tiny glass beads in her hand.

“They are spell seeds,” explained the mother bird. “They will make you happy, wealthy and wise.”

‘Am I supposed to take them,” asked Fatou, looking at the seeds, unsure. She really hated taking pills, and she knew better than to swallow pills that she was not sure were quite clean.

“No. Just rub them together, and you’ll see how wonderful they are,” said the mother bird, twittering.

“Okay, here goes,” said Fatou, rubbing the two sparkling seeds together in her hands. As soon as she did so, her room became transformed. It became sparkling, beautiful, with the most exotic furnishing. She also suddenly felt very sleepy. She laid on her bed, closed her eyes and was soon fast asleep.

Her parents and Sekou soon ran into the room. The entire house had been transformed. Every room now had beautiful sparkling furniture. The house had everything every member of the family had ever wished for. They came into Fatou’s room to find out if it had been transformed too. When they found her fast asleep, they did not want to disturb her, so they went away.

The following day, Fatou woke up early in the morning and yawned. Her body ache was gone, her head felt light, and most of all, that pesky cough she had seemed to have disappeared overnight.

The swallow was sitting in her nest, looking at her. “How are you?” she asked in her sing-song voice.

“Much better, thank you,” said Fatou and added. “By the way, what are those seeds you gave me called? I’ve never seen any seeds like them before!”

“I’m not surprised that you haven’t said the bird twittering. The fairies make the seeds.”

“Fairies?” asked Fatou. “Are they real?” she asked in wonder.

“They are as real as you and I,” said the bird flying off out of the window.

Fatou jumped out of bed for joy. She ran through the house. Her family joined her, and they all ran out into the garden. They were all rejoicing and ran around singing and running in circles. Soon her dad went into the kitchen and brought everyone a big glass jar of freshly squeezed juice, which they all guzzled down.