Exquisite Peacocks

• Janani Prabhu, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2021

“Whoa! Take it easy girl!” My cousin, Janani was coming from Australia to stay with me for the summer holidays. By the way, my name’s Gayatri and I live on a peacock farm in India with my parents.
The reason I said "Whoa! Take it easy girl!” was for the reason that my peacocks were hungry and wanted to have their food.
“Gayatri! Your cousin Janani is here!” Mum yelled. I rushed out to the front of the farm, where I saw a beautiful silver car, in which my aunty, uncle and Janani came out from. Dad zoomed to hug uncle, to greet aunty and Janani and help carry the luggage. I helped mum serve the feast we’d made. After that I dragged Janani over to my bedroom to play hide and seek and watch the peacocks from the window. Janani slept in my bedroom on a soft mattress with a blanket and pillow.
The next day, I was startled and woke up by the noise of my parents screaming “NO!” in upset voices. I wondered what had happened. It didn't take me long to find out…
The scene I saw was a shocking and horrible sight; all the male peacocks were looking naked without their feathers. The females were panicking and feathers were flying and falling everywhere.
I power-walked as fast as I could dodging feathers and peacocks to ask my parents what was going on. When I questioned them, Dad exclaimed “We’ve called the best vet in India to cure the male peacocks and I know you’ll be able to calm the females down.” The vet walked in calmly, her name was Dr Priya. While Dr Priya was working her magic, I’d got the job of trying to calm the females with some singing and stroking.
Meanwhile, Dr Priya was feeding the male peacocks a purple sticky liquid which she’d made with a machine, it made the peacocks turn purple and feel sick.
Suddenly, there was an enormous flash and all the peacocks’ feathers flew up and landed on them. As the feathers landed, they stuck on because of the liquid Dr Priya had given them. Dr Priya then called mum to tell her that the peacocks were cured. Mum was delighted and told everyone the good news. The next day Dad announced that he was going to sell the farm and peacocks. Everyone was shocked but I was the most shocked of all.
“You can’t do this!!!” I screamed and stomped off in frustration.
Just before sunset a loud knock was heard at our door. There at our door stood a man that looked so perfect that he must have been an alien or a robot or maybe even both.
“Hi! I’m a real estate agent from Perfect CO INC” the man said with a voice of gold. “Oh good, I’ll show you the property right away, but we’ll move out later.” Dad soothingly whispered.
“By the way my name is Mr Patel.” Introduced Mr Patel. I can’t believe my parents were doing this (selling the farm and peacocks) I thought frustratingly.
For the next few days we were packing and soon we were all searching for a suitable home to live in peacefully.
Later in the afternoon we went to report a robbery of the money that Mr Patel had given as a payment for the house and peacock farm. “Don’t worry we’ll send over our best detective to your house. Just tell me your address and I’ll note it down right away.” The police constable exclaimed boldly. Soon enough, in half an hour there was a loud knock at the door. “This is police detective Virat, may I have a word with Mr and Mrs Prabhu please? I have been informed that I need to solve a crime case that happened in this area.” Janani and I ran as fast as our legs could go to inform my parents that the police detective, Mr Virat was here. Mum and dad were surprised that the police detective was here so soon and rushed off to let Mr Virat inside.
When we arrived at the living room, our parents were giving some evidence to jot down. When he left, it was like a calming wave washed over us for the reason that someone in the police being here had made us all frightened and wonder what would happen next, but there was still a sensation of worry. We all knew it was there, but we didn’t express it.
In the next few days, we were muttering to ourselves or being deadly silent, but it was just me and Janani who were the same, being lively and living our life peacefully. The next day, our family seemed to be in a panicking hurry to get to the police station. The police constable was reading the robbery report, in which the news that everyone was waiting to hear was revealed. "We also found out that Mr Patel had made your peacocks’ feathers fall off." The constable exclaimed in a horrifying excitement. “Why you little!! I’ll get revenge on you if it’s the last thing I do!!!” Mr Patel shouted hauntedly. “I don’t think that’s going to happen too soon.” I said to my family after we’d walked out of the police station.