The Writers' Circle

A story I wrote for my daughter many moons ago.

In a little shop there were three unusual friends. 

Mrs Holsdyke’s grocery shop was far away from any big city.  And people would come from those cities just to buy her fresh vegetables.  She knew everyone of her customers by their first names!

[A VIEW OF MRS HOLSDYKE’S SHOP AND DETAILED SCENERY]

What she didn’t know about, were those three special friends who were about to have a very dark adventure.

Lucy was an onion, who was very proud of her tuft of hair.  And her best friend, Carrie, a carrot, sat snuggled on the vegetable shelf below.  One morning, Lucy couldn’t stop chatting.  Not even when she tried!  And today Mrs Holsdyke had opened her shop early because Mrs Bloomer was always in such a terrible hurry.

[LUCY, CARRIE, AND MRS BLOOMER]

“LUCY! LOOK!”  Carrie interrupted, in the loudest carrot voice she could manage.  “There’s that lady!  I hope she doesn’t toss us about again!  It hurt yesterday.”

“I hope she doesn’t bruise my skin in her hurry!” Lucy said. 

Mrs Bloomer’s hands were a whirlwind through the vegetables.  She was always rushing about - two of these, and four of those, and several pounds of potatoes and a leak or two.  It made Mrs Holsdyke feel quite dizzy watching her. 

[MRS HOLSDYKE FEELING DIZZY WITH HER HAND ON HER FOREHEAD, SHOWING LUCY AND CARRIE WIDE-EYED, AND HARRY TUMBLING.]

“Well that was close, Carrie,” sighed Lucy.  But Carrie did not answer.  She was nowhere to be seen.  Mrs Bloomer left the shop with her bag filled to overflowing with fresh vegetables, and another with potatoes.

“I didn’t like her yesterday, and I like her even less today!” said a very serious Carrie.  Carrie had hidden herself behind Harry, who was a very large marrow.

“She couldn’t hurt me,” Harry said, boastfully, as he expanded the broad yellow stripes on his chest.  “I’m far too strong you know.” 

Carrie chuckled, when Harry lost his balance and fell on top of the cauliflowers!

Mrs Borrington was the vicar’s housekeeper.  And one day she entered the shop feeling very upset.

“It happens every time,” she said, to Mrs Holsdyke, just as a teardrop splashed onto the floor.  “I need a whole box of tissues just to mop my tears away when I make a hotpot,” she sniffed.

[MRS HOLSDYKE BEHIND THE COUNTER WATCHING MRS BORRINGTON’S TEARS SPLASHING ONTO THE FLOOR AT THE DOOR.  BACKGROUND SCENERY SHOWS LUCY AND CARRIE LAUGHING WITH HARRY ON TOP OF THE CAULIFLOWERS.]

“Well, what a dreadful thing to happen,” Mrs Holsdyke said, and sold Mrs Borrington her last box of tissues.

“It’s the onions,” Mrs Borrington said, and sniffed again.

“The onions!” exclaimed Lucy.  “If she bought me I would make you happy, not sad.”

“Why don’t you try mine?  They are locally grown.  And not too juicy,” Mrs Holsdyke suggested. 

When Lucy overheard what had been said, she was happy.

“I’ll try that one, pointing at Lucy,” Mrs Borrington said.  “And I’ll have that carrot, picking up Carrie.”

Lucy was thrilled.  And so too was Carrie, to be with her best friend.

[LUCY STANDING OUT AMONGST THE OTHER VEGETABLES HOLDING CARRIE’S HAND, WITH HARRY LOOKING ON IN SURPRISE.]

It was the first time either of them had been inside a shopping bag.  Suddenly, Carrie was tossed from one side of Mrs Borrington’s shopping bag to the other.  She knocked poor Lucy into a bag of sticky jam doughnuts!

“Are you all right, Carrie?” gasped Lucy.

“Apart from being upside down, I think so.”

Mrs Borrington’s shopping bag would have fallen over, if it had not been for a passing farmer.  She’s bumped into Mr E. M. Wattlesbury.  He gave her some fresh fish for Kimo.  She was the vicar’s champion mouser.

“Why thank you, Mr Wattlesbury, you’re very kind,” she said, with a great big grin.

“You are most welcome,” he said, happily.  “Today is my birthday.  I’m feeling quite generous.  Goodbye.”

“Goodbye!” she said.  She picked up her bag and continued her journey.  Carrie peeped over the top of the shopping bag to see where they were going.

She saw mighty oak trees that stood on either side of the lane.  They cast their giant shadows over the primroses in the fields where the oak trees stood firm in the ground.  The morning sunshine danced between the oak leaves. 

[THIS VIEW IS OF MRS BORRINGTON WITH MR WATTLESBURY RAISING HIS CAP, AND THE SHOPPING BAG WITH CARRIE LOOKING OUT.  ; DRAWN FROM AN ANGLE SO AS TO SEE LUCY LOOKING AT THE OAK TREES AND THE PRIMROSES.]

Inside the kitchen, at the vicarage, Lucy found herself on a shelf above Carrie. 

“I’ll try and climb up, Lucy,” whispered Carrie.  As she climbs higher, using the odd splinter as a root-hold, Mrs Borrington returned.  Carrie stood very still beside Lucy, who was feeling very afraid.

“There’s some fish for you, Kimo.  It was kind of Mr Wattlesbury.  I do hope he has a nice birthday,” she said, as Kimo preened herself in readiness for her treat.

Carrie and Lucy saw a shiny pot.  It was bubbling and gurgling and whispers of steam rose from the pot below them.  CHOP!  CHOP!  CHOP!  PLOP!  All the ingredients tumbled into the steamy water, except for an - onion!

“Well, it’s no good without an onion,” she said aloud.  “The vicar won’t eat his hotpot without one,” she added thoughtfully.  “Now where is that onion I bought from Mrs Holsdyke’s this morning?”  She looked very carefully along the shelf.  They’re the ones that made her cry, and there was Lucy.  She couldn’t tell which was which.  Lucy let slip a little: “Help!” as Mrs Borrington’s hand snatched the onion next to her.

"This must be the one.   It doesn’t feel too juicy,” she said happily.  Poor Lucy didn’t realise that she would be chopped into little pieces and boiled!

[A VIEW OF THE KITCHEN WITH A SCARED CARRIE AND LUCY, SITTING TOGETHER ON A SHELF, WATCHING MRS BORRINGTON PREPARING THE HOTPOT.]

 “Is that going to happen to us, Carrie?” Lucy asked, feeling very afraid.

 “It must be, Lucy,” sobbed Carrie.  “But don’t worry.  Let’s get into that sack.  Look, over there.  We can hide in that!  She won’t miss us.  She couldn’t remember what we looked like – could she?”

 “What a marvellous idea, Carrie.  You are clever!” exclaimed Lucy, feeling braver.  “We’ll wait until its dark and then make our escape, Carrie,” Lucy suggested.

[THE SCENE IS OF THE SACK AND KIMO IN READINESS TO POUNCE ON THEM, WHILST WATCHING THEM PLANNING THEIR ESCAPE.]

 Kimo stared up at them with a cat’s curiosity over a mouse just before the cat pounces.  She hissed and spat, swishing her tail from side to side.  Carrie and Lucy shook with fear!

 “The sooner we leave the better, Carrie, with its hissing pots and Kimos,” Lucy said, and began to cry again.  Carrie too splashed a great big orange tear drop by Kimo’s front paw.  Kimo purred long, and meowed.  She had her green, watchful, eyes on them.  Lucy and Carrie kept very still and wished it were night-time.

[A VIEW OF THE KITCHEN WITH KIMO WATCHING LUCY AND CARRIE, KIMO IS ON THE TABLE BENEATH THEM WHERE THE FISH LAY AT HER PAWS AND MRS BORRINGTON IS SEEN JUST ENTERING THE KITCHEN.]

Suddenly Kimo sprang to her paws and landed on the big wooden table beneath the shelf where the two vegetables had frozen with fear.  Kimo’s claws barely missed scratching Lucy’s skin.  Kimo tried to knock Lucy from the shelf and made the most awful, “MEEEOOOOW!”  As Kimo did so.

“Since when did you like onions? Or is it the fish you want?” Mrs Borrington said, and put the fish into Kimo’s dish.  It had printed on the side: “KIMO CHAMPION MOUSER OF THE YEAR”. 

“If I didn’t know better,” she said, looking closer.  “I’d say that onion was crying!”

Seven long days passed and still Kimo wouldn’t let them leave the shelf.  She kept a watchful-eye on them all the time. 

“You know what is going to happen today.  Don’t you, Lucy,” Carrie whispered.  Her bright orange skin had shrivelled.  Lucy’s skin had wrinkled too, and her lovely hair had flopped down and over her eyes.

“Yes,” she said, glumly.  “I’m the only onion.  And you’re the last carrot.  We’re doomed this time,” she said, trying to be brave.

The two friends huddled together because they shivered when Mrs Borrington lit the fire in the big cooker she called the range.  She prodded and poked at the coals, until they burned with brightness.  Newly cut wood crackled and popped from the heat of the fire.

She took down her shiny pot from the shelf and filled it with freshly drawn water from the well.  She put it on the range.  The water soon began to steam.  Mrs Borrington opened the drawer, beneath the kitchen table, and took out the knife she uses for preparing vegetables.  Lucy and Carrie wept.

[THIS IS A VIEW OF MRS BORRINGTON TAKING OUT HER VEGETABLE KNIFE AND IS ABOUT TO SELECT HER INGREDIENTS FROM THE SHELF.  THE RANGE IS IN THE BACKGROUND SHOWING ITS HOT FIRE.]

“My goodness,” Mrs Borrington said aloud.   “I only have these left?”  Then she had a brilliant thought, as brilliant as the headlights on Mr Wattlesbury’s tractor!

[HERE IS A SCENE OF MRS BORRINGTON PLACING LUCY AND CARRIE ON THE DRY SHELF AND SHOWING THE VIEW FROM THE WINDOW THAT IS NEXT TO THE SHELF.]

“I’ve been making hotpots every day for a week now and not once have I become tearful,” she said, and picked up Lucy and Carrie from the shelf, “ever since this onion and carrot have been on my shelf.  I shall put you both in a dry place.  You do look poorly?”  And Mrs Borrington put them on a dry shelf, near to a window where they could see out into her lovely garden and where even Kimo couldn’t reach them.  How much better they soon felt.

Mrs Borrington put on her hat and coat and went to Mrs Holsdyke’s shop.

“Do you realise, Carrie, we’re not going to be CHOPPED into pieces and BOILED! After all!”  Lucy said, excitedly.

“We are so lucky, Lucy,” Carrie cheered.  They danced and sang.  They even poked out their tongues at Kimo, who was angry because she couldn’t reach them – no matter how much she tried.

Lucy’s colour returned along with her fine tuft of hair that stood upright.  And Carrie had radiant skin again.  It was brighter than before.

“You are a fine onion, Lucy.  I’m proud to be your friend,” Carrie said, her voice sang out with joy.

“Thank you, Carrie. I’m proud to be yours too,” said Lucy, smiling.

[IN THIS SCENE LUCY AND CARRIE ARE LOOKING OUT OF THE WINDOW.  MRS HOLSDYKE’S SHOP IN THE DISTANCE AND MR WATTLESBURY CAN BE SEEN PLOUGHING HIS FIELD.]

Many happy days passed and they swapped tales of when they were seedlings.  And on one glorious occasion, looking out of their window, they saw Mr Wattlesbury delivering some vegetables for Mrs Borrington in his green tractor.  She had flu and was unable to go shopping.

[MRS BORRINGTON IS IN HER BED OPENING A BOX OF TISSUES.]

Sitting on top of all the other groceries, in the basket, was Harry.

“LUCY! LOOK! Shouted Carrie, “there’s Harry.”

“I remember Harry,” Lucy said, excitedly.  “Is he coming in here?” She asked.

“He can’t go anywhere else, silly,” Carrie chuckled.

Mrs Borrington smiled to herself as she put Harry by the window with the others.  And when the kitchen was in darkness, they told Harry all about their incredible adventure.  And he told them how Mrs Bloomer got an enormous bump on her head.  She was in such a hurry one day that Harry bounced off her head and rolled out of the open door.  It made Mrs Holsdyke’s stomach hurt from too much laughter!

[THIS VIEW IS OF HARRY LYING ON THE TOP OF THE BASKET.  LUCY AND CARRIE ARE LOOKING OUT OF THE WINDOW FROM THEIR WARM SHELF.]

“It’s good to be all together again,” they chorused.

“Of course, if I had been with you I would’ve protected you both.  Nothing bothers me,” Harry boasted. “I’m extremely brave, you know!”

Kimo’s tail was swishing back and forth as she crept towards Harry in readiness to pounce!

[IN THIS VIEW THEY ARE ALL CUDDLING EACH OTHER WITH HARRY SHOWING OFF AND SHOWING HIS BROAD STRIPES AND KIMO.]