Fanni Farkas
There’s a big house down the roads of the countryside. The house looks like a little cottage. A family lives in it. The rooms of this house are very warm and cozy. One of the most important parts of this cottage is the kitchen, where people spend a lot of time. They always make homemade foods and the kitchen always smells like the season outside. When it’s May the place is full of strawberries, and the people make jam and syrup out of them. Another interesting room is the kids’ room. It is full of toys, and the kids spend a lot of time here, because there is always something fun to do. The last and most interesting room is the workroom. It is a library combined with a mini studio. There are so many types of instruments like piano, guitar, drums, violin, etc. This is where art lives.
Outside is the huge garden where a secret place can be discovered. It is a nearby lake and a weeping willow tree. Under the tree is the children’s kingdom. It’s where they always go, and it is basically their base. It is the dream of every kid.
It was a totally normal day. The kids went outside to their secret place to play and the parents stayed inside the workroom. They were learning a new piece. The man was playing the violin, and the woman played the piano. The kids loved to listen to their parents play, since they were professional musicians and could charm anyone with their music. But today the kids had to go outside, because they were planning an action. That night there was going to be a full moon and, because they had read too many books about full moon legends, they thought sirens and mermaids were going to show up in the lake. They brought blankets and pillows outside and also made snacks for the night. (Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, because that is all that they could make without any help.) They told their parents that they were going to sleep outside that night. The parents were a bit shocked to hear this plan, but they agreed to it.
The night came quicker than they expected. The children told each other spooky stories to pass the time until the moon came up. The smaller kids started whining that they wanted their mother and that they were scared, but the eldest told them that if they really wanted to see mermaids in the lake, then they were going to push through and stay right where they were. So they did. And they waited. The moon came up and the kids went out to the lake from under the weeping willow. The moon shone brightly, the water glistened. The kids were mesmerized by this beautiful view. Suddenly something started moving in the water, and from afar the sound of music reached them. The music was beautiful and mysterious. It was a duo of violin and piano. The creature in the water started swimming really fast, and when the music ended it disappeared. The next morning the kids came running into the house and woke their parents up by jumping on their bed. They shouted and talked at the same time, telling the story of the previous night. The parents just smiled and acted very surprised. They knew that the creature was their pet otter taking a night swim and the music was them practicing Beethoven’s moonlight sonata (with an added violin part). But they didn’t tell any of this to the kids; instead, they just smiled and nodded.