Outstanding Stories » Where Are My Carrots?

“Where Are My Carrots?” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Sai Vaishnavi Balaji, India.

Where Are My Carrots?

Harry is excited everyday to wake up and to see his grandfather taking care of the garden in their backyard. He is keen like his grandfather to water plants, crop the weeds etc. One fine day, when spring was near, grandpa decided to plant some carrots for the family. The carrot seeds were spread in the row and Harry never failed to water the carrot plants every single day.

Harry dreamt about taking the home grown carrots to his school as a snack. Two months passed ever since Harry and grandfather planted the carrots. Harry asked his grandfather if the carrots are ready and grandpa advices Harry to wait for another month.

One fine morning, when Harry woke up to watch grandpa in the garden, to his surprise Harry’s parents informed him that grandpa had to leave to their village for an urgent work. Harry knew how to take care of the plants as he has always watched grandpa doing it. Days rolled and it was almost three moths the carrot seeds went into the soil.

Harry was at the peak of his curiosity to see the carrots and to pluck and eat them. But he was very worried and sad as he couldn’t see the carrots like he always plucked his lemons from the lemon tree. He was thinking about the carrots and why they don’t grow even though he and his grandfather took care of it so well like a baby. That day he asked his father why didn’t the carrot grow and he was worried about it. That’s when Harry’s father laughed at his innocence that Harry was not aware that carrots are shoots and can’t be plucked. Father took Harry to the garden and took the carrot plant by its leaves. When Harry saw the carrots in the roots, he was super excited and jumped and screamed in happiness. He was super happy to eat the crunchy carrots and also smiled at his ignorance of how he thought that he could pluck carrots like apples! Did you find the carrot in your home garden? I hope you don’t have a rabbit at home that already ate it from yours!!!