Daniella The Daisy

• Samara Bailye, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2018

In eastern Australia, where there were lots of lush farms, there was a property that had a paddock that held masses of gorgeous multi-coloured flowers. Beside this paddock sat the bee hives. The idea was for the flowers to attract the bees, who would then make lots of delicious honey. It was a good deal for everyone.
Sitting on the edge of the field, alongside a dirt road, on the corner of a sea of multi-coloured flowers, was a lone, white, daisy. Her white head stood out like a lake in the desert.
Daniella (the daisy) was happy and often thought that she would hate to live in the middle of the field because:
A) she didn’t want to be suffocated (several flowers died each year from this) and
B) she didn’t want to be jostled as she was unfurling her petals every morning/evening.

However, she did occasionally feel a bit lonely , being the only daisy in the field. Despite this, she was still friendly to the other flowers and they liked and admired her.

On one particular morning, upon waking, she felt that something about the fresh crisp morning air seemed… different, as if some unknown expectation hung with the morning mist. She realised that the bees hadn’t yet brought her any honey for breakfast and it was already 8:00 am! This was most unusual! Later that morning, she saw something racing down the road that she had never seen before. It had a long slender silver body and four wheels. Daniella was terrified, because she thought that it might be a ferocious animal that had come to live in the area. The roaring creature stopped at the farmhouse. The noise abruptly ceased, and everything went silent; so silent that you could have heard a bee whisper (which is what bees mostly do, anyway).

After about ten minutes the ‘animal’ roared into life again and raced back along the track. Unfortunately this rude beast did not seem to see her and nearly crushed little Daniella but seconds before the silver giant hit her, she squeaked in terror, flattened her leaves to the ground and bowed her head , until she looked like she was bowing before some high authority. She was so tiny now that only a small bit of her stem scraped the bottom of the giant as it passed above her. Whew!
That day saw the farmer babysitting his grandchildren. Happy laughter and shouts flowed from the house. The children skipped out the door and into the garden, looking for flowers. A young girl spied Daniella and plucked her up, despite her rather deflated appearance. “Look! I’ve found a beautiful white flower!” the girl cried. Daniella, the perfect pure white daisy, was placed in a pretty vase with a small selection of other white flowers. She was finally with her friends! And even though her life was short, she and her friends made others very happy with their beauty, if only for a little while.