Taj Mahal

• Zara Van Hamburg, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2016

I went to this beautiful place called Taj Mahal, the kingdom of loveliness. My tummy felt queasy, it was really weird, like I was bloated. I heard these really strange sounds, I just ignored it, but I couldn’t take my mind off it.
“What is it?” I thought.
Ralph (my brother) said, “Anyone hear that noise? It was mentioned in my book of witches.”
I said to myself, 'Did he just read my mind? Witches do not exist, he is just wrong, wrong, wrong. It just cannot be that.'
“Gimme that book, Ralph,” I snarled and snatched it out of his hand.
“Hey, give that back! Mackenzie.”
I flicked through the book and I finally found the page, I read off the book, “Fun Fact: If you are in India, and you hear swooping noises and you look up and it is not a bird, it is sure to be the witch of tragedy.” I gasped.
“Hey Ralph, where did you get this book?” “Ur… Real Statistics Bookstore, anyway why?” “I was just wondering. This is so fake; Ralph why did you get this book? It sucks.” “Offensive!” He snarled and snatched the book out of my hand. “It’s so true, you just don’t get it.”
I searched the sky for anything like a witch, there where little black things swooping around. It was probably just birds.
A minute later, we saw a whole crowd screaming their heads off and running out of the Taj Mahal.
“Kids! Mackenzie and Ralph!! Run! Its witches, I can see them with my own eyes! And everyone is screaming WITCHES!” mom ordered.
We just ran.
“I’m really sorry Ralph, you were right. I just do not get it,” I said to Ralph, out of breath from running.
We finally reached the spot where mom said is safe.
We said “Phew!”.
A minute later, we heard a witchy kind of voice saying, “Nice try little ones, you’ll never get away with this!”
It was the witch of tragedy.
“Oh! So you think you will get away with this! Why do you witch only care about your species! Imagine you being harmed by these awful, mean and unkind monsters. People will like you if you are nice to them! Please can you stop harming us? Go tell Rumpelstiltskin to stop it, take a copy in your mind of what I said,” Father Maxwell exclaimed.
I was so amused of what my father said.
The witch blushed and started to have tears, she said softly, “Sorry we’ve harmed you it’s just… I dunno, I will tell Rumpelstinkybum that his orders are done with us.”
The witch swooped away.
I said to Father Maxwell, “That was really kind of you, thank you, I really appreciate it!” I exclaimed “And Ralph, you were a lifesaver, without you I would’ve been terrified. And mom you warned us and that was really kind and thoughtful.”
My father started crying with happiness.
“That was so lovely, we love you, Mackenzie.”
And that was the end of it.