Dawn at Daisy’s Desk

I

A small peony was still loosely tucked into her mermaid braid. Daisy was a little hesitant to give up this braid. After turning on the geyser, she pulled her braid over her pale yellowish collar bone. She softly touched the braid with her cheek and muttered, “I can’t glue this forever."

She gave a slow jerk to her braid and started untangling it. She carefully placed the peony on a white marble plate. She had already doffed the other flowers from her braid. Those flowers were in a bulky brass vessel. It’s the one—the left out of the bunch. Daisy sprinkled some water on the flower. It looked like an expensive ‘fortune-attracting’ crystal. Daisy heard this ‘fortune-attracting’ term from her piano teacher. She once saw this kind of soft, elite gleam on her piano teacher’s finger. When Daisy asked her the name, the teacher mumbled in her ear, “It’s the fortune-attracting sapphire.”

She opened the curtain of the old-fashioned bathtub and turned the faucet a little forcefully. She touched the thin sleeve of her gown and perhaps pulled out the elbow from the silky cloth. She felt a pokey, snowy breeze on her bare shoulder. She realized that the window was wide open. She adjusted her sleeve shoddily and moved towards the window. She bent over the window ledge and tried to pull one side of the window. Suddenly, the bathtub’s hot water started blowing her out like any furious yet quite protective hurricane. At first, she ignored this abnormality. She was continuously trying to get on the window’s handle. But when she saw her feet moving up, she tried to touch the ground. She felt something like reverse gravity. She couldn’t drop herself down, as she never could fly in ‘normal’ days. In a few seconds, she moved higher than the garden’s fountainhead.

She saw Dot, her cat meowing at her from the bedroom window. She wanted to scream but her words and her voice were not coordinating. In sheer confusion, she crossed her arms like a hug. Suddenly, Dot also moved up. He felt the slightest bang in the fountain water and then fell into her arms. No, not really. That will not be the proper way of saying it. Let put things like this: Dot rose up in her arms.

Dot meowed in horror, and a slice of cloud filled his mouth. He gobbled, chewed, and then swallowed, but again he chewed, and at this time Daisy frowned and said, “Well, finish it or throw it up!”

Dot finally swallowed and tried to meow again, but Daisy covered its mouth with her hand.

She said, “Do you wanna eat more…ehh?”

Dot hid his golden face with his paws. Daisy was dumbfounded by Dot’s unusual behavior. She saw a flash of blush peeking out under Dot’s long, shiny moustache.

II

Finally, their ride stooped at a toppled table site in the middle of a sky river!

Daisy said, “Dot, isn’t this a river? But the water isn’t going down! It doesn’t have any waves! And the table is also reversed. Look, it’s reversed base is on the floor, and the legs are like huge candles.”

Dot answered, "Meow..."

Daisy saw another ‘reverse’ table. There was an extremely old man sitting quietly on the reverse base. A book was flipped over on his head like any triangular cap. His eyes were closed, and his hands were on the two table legs diagonally. His fists were looking like two pumpkins.

Daisy called,”Hello! Excuse me… Can you please tell me where we are?”

The old man frowned and said,"Can't you see I am reading? Huh!”

Daisy said,”Reading? But the book is on your head! You are probably…”

“Human? Huh! I guessed so! Stupid… It’s called deep learning. The words are going straight to the brain, not via eyes!”

“But…”

“You won’t understand. Forget it. You humans just break concentration. What were you asking?”

Daisy tried to say something, but the old man shouted, “I know, I know what you gonna ask. What is this place? Well, this is LeLi. It means Learners’ Listening.”

Daisy again tried to say but he interrupted, “Wait, let me finish. I know what you gonna ask. Why am I here? Huh! Same question! Listen, once a week, our “head” picks up one human from your earth. It’s a “Sharing Sensibility Scheme,” or S3, for sharing the real dose of learning. Understood?”

Daisy stammered, "Okay, but why is everything reversed?

She pointed out the table and said, “I mean, you can take a chair to the table…”

Before she could finish, the old man snapped, “Reversed? Huh! Your brain is reversed. You always think something and then act the opposite. It’s not reversed... It's…Ufff… You’re mixing everything up!”

The old man all of a sudden started tickling his bald and started laughing.

Then the old man stood up and pulled out a key from his head! Daisy saw that his head had a pocket! He again shouted, “Come, get your things!”

Straight away, a door walked towards them. He turned around the key on the top of the door. It had a reverse lock at the top corner. Daisy peeped into the giant room. In the room, every single thing was touching the ceiling, like birthday balloons. The old man pulled down a bunch of boxes. He handed one to Daisy.

The box looked earthly ‘normal’. Daisy opened the box. It had a glowing flower crown and a small leaf bow.

The man screamed, “Give that bow to your cat, and you wear that crown. Understood? Then silently sit. Here.”

The man pointed to a spot on the river.

It was probably the sixth time Daisy was startled by his boorish behaviour. She finally said, “Why are you screaming at us?”

The man sat on the ground rolling with laughter and then said,"The box is working!”

Before finishing the sentence, he fled, and his words were floating around.

III

Daisy and Dot sat on the river floor. It was like an icy jelly carpet. It was calm and soft. The leaf bow was shining around Dot’s golden neck. Dot started exuberantly meowing as if he were singing any famous country music with an extravagant band.

Daisy put on the flower crown. For Daisy, everything was just as it was. It probably would have been the same for another few centuries. But all of a sudden, Daisy saw a small rabbit coming out of a bushy corner. The rabbit was wearing the same flower crown as Daisy. The rabbit was knitting. After a few seconds, the knitter rabbit hopped and handed the crochet hook to Daisy. Daisy said, “I can’t do…"

The rabbit hopped back into the bushy corner without looking at Daisy.

Daisy saw some cloudy knitted letters, words, and sentences. In those few seconds, the rabbit knitted a paragraph!

Daisy poked the knitting pin into the wool ball and wrapped the threads around it. She concentrated on reading the paragraph. But the paragraph ratcheted down. She tried her best to cope, but her vision became blurry. She rubbed her eyes, but it got even worse. She rubbed harder and blinked slowly. At the third or fifth blink, she saw a giant Matagot instead of the paragraph. She remembered her past yelling. When for the first time, she saw this creature in the movie theatre the whole movie theatre shushed her in chorus. Here in LeLi, it became double the size of what Newt Scamander faced. She stayed calm and recalled the Wizard Rule. But Dot snarled. Dot showed an uncalled-for gesture. As Daisy rightfully guessed, the Matagot jumped on Dot. Daisy swiftly pulled out Dot from the Matagot’s paw and ran like a marathon runner. During her speedy run, Daisy shouted at Dot, “What do you think of yourself? Anyway, you sleep all day; now what? Wow, showing off, right?”

And she bombarded some more taunts at her now-silent pet.

She ran for some uncounted hours on the jelly-like river. She frequently looked back. When she was finally confident that the Matagot was nowhere, she and Dot sat on the floor. Daisy was still trembling, and Dot was astonishingly sniffing. Suddenly, she saw a reflection of a glow on the river floor. She became flummoxed and turned around. She saw a gorgeous, shiny, peachy glow. A lady was playfully dribbling the glow in the air.

The lady gleefully said, “Daisy, do you know how well you did? My goodness, you were brilliant.“

Daisy shyly said,”But what did I do?”

The lady softly nodded. She said, “You showed the power. You know how you should behave in certain situations. You were dumbstruck at this place. You asked. You couldn’t knit. You accepted. But when your fear came, you just didn’t run away; you saved Dot. You’re crystal clear!”

Daisy was still in awe. Then she bit her lips and asked, “But what was in that paragraph? I tried to read, but my eyes..."

The lady interrupted, “Well, those were names. We’re listing some names. Now you’re in it—in the list of strengths.”

Daisy felt a little boastful. She asked gladly, “So, is it any mission? Am I in?”

She smiled and said , "Yes, but not here.”

IV

At dawn, Daisy felt a sharp pain in her left arm. Her head was at the corner of the pillow, and her left arm was hanging from the edge of the bed. She sat down slowly and started massaging her left hand with the right one. She looked extremely bemused. Her usual yawns did not appear this dawn. She got out of bed. Her forehead hit the door twice, once while opening the newly painted door and then while searching for sleepers, she hit herself at the corner of the bedside table. She rubbed her forehead. Then she glanced at her bedroom mirror to see if there were any reddish bumps showing up. She saw a shiny reflection at her back. She quickly turned around. The same box was left a little open. Golden rays were beaming all over her desk. She was walking on tiptoe. But something startled her. Dot was meowing loudly from the garden. He was on the top of the fountain head. His neck was shining.