Best-Selling Author & Writer

“This tastes like death!”

“What!” Shouted Julia, while Sybil scolded her daughter.

“Rosa! What an awful thing to say.”

“Well mummy, the last time we had this, I told you it tasted gross and Julia told me if I used those words again then she wouldn’t talk to me for a month, so I used different words.” “Different maybe Rosa. But in fact, they are worse.”

Julia stormed out of the dining room with her wings on her hips, while George sat across the table from Rosa with an amused smile on his face, while Timmy giggled and Brenda lay fast asleep in her cot in Rosa’s room.

“It would be better to use kinder words, young lady,” it was time for George to come to the rescue of his eldest daughter before his wife got a little out of hand.

“Sorry daddy, but this is… this is.. I’m sorry, I can’t find kinder words.” She took a deep breath and pushed her plate into the middle of the table.

Another glorious day in paradise.

“Nirvana! Nirvana! Nirvana!” shouted Pawo at the top of his lungs as he took a deep breath of salty air and extended his wings as far as they would go and looked out over the Atlantic Ocean towards Africa.

“It truly would be nirvana if God realised he made a mistake by creating seagulls and fed them all baking soda.”

Pawo scowled at Elizabeth with whom he had just finished doing yoga, thereby welcoming in a new day. “You don’t agree?” asked Elizabeth.

“No,” replied Pawo, “they are God's creatures. We need to be nice to them and welcome them into our paradise.” Elizabeth disagreed as she bent down to pick up her towel and shook it violently to get rid of all the sand. Pawo covered his eyes as she did that.

“You’ve never been dived bombed by one of those ugly creatures, have you?”

“Daddy, are you as old as dirt?”

George dropped the newspaper he was reading, Julia let out a sharp laugh, Sybil smiled her evil smile, Timmy rolled his eyes and Brenda kept sleeping peacefully in her cot in Rosa’s room.

“Why do you ask me a question like that, young lady?”

“Well,” continued Rosa putting her crayon down and looking at her father laying on his favourite deck chair. “Well, my bestest friend Anjali, told me her father is 50 years old and then she asked me how old you were, and I said 500 years. So, she told me you must be as old as dirt!”

George shook his head in disbelief. By now one would think he would be used to his second youngest daughter’s outrageous pronouncements, but every time he felt he couldn’t hear anything more outrageous, Rosa surprises him. Before he said anything more, George looked around at his family as if he was looking for support, but none appeared to be forthcoming. So again, he was on his own. Sybil as usual looked at him with the same look which meant, ‘she’s your daughter, not mine,’ and so he continued.

“What are you doing little one?”

“Colouring in a Junior Ranger colouring book, mummy.”

“Oh, I see. Where did you get that from?”

Rosa stopped and looked up at her mother with a crayon in her hand. “We had a Park Ranger come to school today and she talked about all the things there are to see and do in a national park.” Rosa smiled at her mother and then blurted out the sentence Sybil never thought she would hear from one of her children. “Can we go camping one day mummy in a national park?”

Sybil nearly dropped her ice cream bowl. George smiled and looked up from the newspaper he was reading. Julia let out a sharp laugh, while Timmy giggled and Brenda remained fast asleep in her cot in Rosa’s room. “That’s a great idea!” Julia picked up on what Rosa had mentioned. “Yes, mama, let’s go camping and I can make dinner on a campfire.”

“And I can roast marshmallows on a campfire,” added Rosa getting overly excited.

One Sunday morning before anyone else in the house had stirred, Rosa woke up and instead as she usually did jump out of bed and begin her day in earnest, she instead lay in bed for a while looking up at the ceiling and then over at the little cot close to her bed and smiled as she saw Brenda laying on her stomach fast sleep.

She smiled for a second and then said quietly, “you know what God, I love my little sister. At first, when my mummy told me she was having another chick, my heart was broken. I knew I would no longer be the youngest in my family and that there would be someone younger than me. But you know what God, it’s all because of you that my little heart is overjoyed with love. You changed my heart. You made me look at life differently nowadays. I can no longer be the brat my brother Timmy tells me I am. I have to be a role model for Brenda. I don’t want her to grow up and be a brat like me. She can be a JAP though just like me, but not a brat. And God while we are talking, you are listening to me, aren’t you? I thought so. So I will continue. Please make my sister Julia stop talking with a strange accent. She thinks that she should wear clothes that make her look like Dolly Parton and my mother, oh well she’s just doing the best she thinks for us little ones. But please can you while she’s asleep come to her like a dream and tell her to stop being bossy and be more like my daddy.”

The alarm sounded. Rosa opened her eyes slowly and smiled. The sun was shining through her window, warming up her bedroom nicely. She looked over at the cot where her baby sister, Brenda, was sleeping on her stomach and took a deep breath letting it out slowly. She then threw off her sheet, sat up, abruptly clapped her wings and shouted, “Today will be a great day! I am a gift from God!”

Brenda jumped, turned over and groaned, but smiled when she saw her sister sitting up in bed. But then their bedroom door opened. An out of breath Sybil poked her head around the corner and first looked at Brenda and then at Rosa. “What was that noise?” she asked. “Nothing,” replied Rosa, believing what she had said out loudly wasn’t noise, but words of inspiration which would alter her day.