The Magical Flower

“The Magical Flower” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Megan Teoh Ru Yi, Sri KDU Primary School, Malaysia.

The Magical Flower

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Lisa who loved flowers. Every day, she would pick the freshest and most beautiful flowers just for her grandma.

One day, as she went to her favourite garden behind her home, she saw that the flowers were slowly dying! As she walked towards them, she saw something glowing by the bed of poppies. Upon a closer look, she realized that it was a magical flower!

She picked it up and immediately felt all the flowers around her swaying towards the magical flower. As she looked around her, Lisa realised that the flowers in the garden were dying because of the tractors that were there, clearing the garden to make way for new shops and offices.

Lisa ran home and told her grandma what she saw.

“I wish there was a way to stop those tractors from killing the flowers!” sighed Lisa. “But I’m just a little girl. What can I do?” she asked her grandma.

They thought hard, and finally, Lisa came up with an idea. As she could not carry out the plan alone, she went to her best friends Jenny, Jessica and Miafor help.

The friends decided to protect the flowers by making a circle to block the entrance to the garden. This prevented the workers from driving their tractors in. Mr Johnson, the owner of the construction company, wanted to know what the commotion was all about.

“What’s the problem?” enquired Mr Johnson. “Stop blocking us! We need to do our work!” he shouted.

“Please, sir! You can’t destroy this place. It’s our childhood garden and we’ve grown up playing here,” Lisa explained.

“Flowers are important to us!” cried Mia.

“Yes! That’s right! They are beautiful and they cheer everyone up,” said Jenny.

In the meantime, the villagers started to crowd around to see what was happening. Some of them stepped forward and joined the girls.

“Mr Johnson, this has been the village garden for a very long time. If you destroy it, you’re destroying our village too!” said Mr Keane, the local baker.

“Nonsense! What good are flowers when they don’t make money for me!” exclaimed Mr Johnson. “Work is work. We need to finish our job. So shoo! Shoo!” he said, and started to push Lisa and her friends aside.

“Stop! Stop this!” cried Lisa as she waved her hands in the air to prevent the workers from entering the garden. As she did so, she felt the magical flower in her hand start to vibrate.

Butterflies of all colours, shapes and sizes flew out of the magical flower and began to fly around the garden spreading pollen everywhere! Whenever the pollen landed on the dying flowers, they grew back immediately, in vibrant colours of red, pink, yellow, blue and purple.

The workers were astounded by what they saw and started to back away. Lisa, her friends and the villagers began to cheer and applaud.

That night, as Lisa and her family had dinner, they all praised her for her courage to stand up for what is right.

“Great job Lisa! I’m so proud of you,” said her grandmother as she hugged her tightly.

“I’m making you your favourite pie tonight, my little brave princess,” smiled her mother, as she laid the table for dinner.

Just then, the bell rang and Lisa ran to open the door. Standing in front of her were her best friends - wearing big smiles.

“Thanks for all your help today, guys. Without you, I would not have had the courage to stand up to Mr Johnson and his workers,” she told her friends.

After dinner, Lisa took her magical flower and planted it in her garden as a reminder of what happened that day. As soon as it was planted into the ground, a hundred little flowers started to bloom around it, instantly transforming her garden into a beautiful one that was filled with bright colours. It has remained there ever since – always in full bloom.

Everyone wondered how the magical flower ended up in the village garden that fateful day, but till today, no one knows for sure. All they know is that the village is now always filled with flowers of all shapes and colours.

Oh, by the way, did I tell you that Lisa’s village is called “Blossom Hill”?