The Orange Tulips

Mother rubs the sweat from her forehead. Tired she looks at the garden and decide to bring Noor a cool glass of lemonade.

‘Darling, here’s a cool drink of lemonade, it’s so hot today.’

‘I like the weather Mom, but I’m also thirsty and I like lemonade.’

In a draft, Noor drinks the glass empty. ‘That was nice mom, and she rubs her mouth with the sleeve of her dress.

Mams looks at her lovingly and walks back to the kitchen.

‘Crow, crow,’ calls the crow and land next to Noor in the grass.

‘Go away crow. You always bring me into trouble.’ Noor flies with her hands, but every time the crow flies a little bit up and land further up.

‘I only want to help you, you know. Below there are very beautiful flowers. I’m sure you’ll find them beautiful too. There’s no harm in telling you that.’

Noor looks at him and thinks. No, it doesn’t hurt to look at them.

‘Okay, ‘That’s good. You’re going to find them ferry lovely. Follow me, it’s not far.’

Still, Noor doubts, but the flowers fascinate her. This time she will be careful. You never know what the crow is going to do again. She follows him and then she suddenly stands for a large house with a huge garden. Her mouth falls open, and she can’t believe her eyes. In the garden, there’s a sea of orange tulips. She has never seen that much of them together, not even in the flower shop where moms buy a bunch of flowers every week.

‘Well what do you think of it,’ says the crow. ‘Aren’t they pretty?’

Noor nods and sits down on the stone wall.’ What are they beautiful, beautiful, so beautiful…’

‘You can pick a few of them’, the Crow says.

Surprise she looks at him. Something is not right, she thinks, but the tulips are so lovely.

‘Pick only a few, really it’s okay. Just look,’ and he bites the stem of a tulip through. ‘You see, nobody says anything. Do it, your mom will be very happy with it,’ he encourages her, and Noor can’t resist the temptation and picks a few.

‘Say, young lady, what are you doing. That’s not allowed,’ calls a woman, who suddenly enters into the garden.

With a shock, Noor late drops the flowers out of her hands and mutters: ‘I’m so sorry, I find them so beautiful Mrs. They are really beautiful,’ and she looks to the Crow, who leaves immediately.

The woman sits down on her knees, picks up the tulips and makes a bunch of it.

‘I am sorry, but the crow said I could pick them. It is very stupid of me. I shouldn’t believe him, he has been fooling me so many times. Do you know soon I’ll just wake up again and then it never happens? I will not do it again.’

The woman looks at her and doesn’t understand anything that the girl says to her.

‘I’ll have to tell your mother. This is what they call stealing and that is not allowed.’

‘I promise you that I will not do it anymore. Please don’t tell mom. It’s the fault of the crow.’

‘I believe that the crow a nasty boy is. Whoever calls his child crow. I wouldn’t like to have him as a friend. He only causes trouble in your life. Come along,’ she said to Noor.

She takes Noor by the hand and takes her into the kitchen. ‘I want to go home now,’ says Noor.

‘Just sit down, I grab a glass of lemonade for you and then we tie the flowers together. We put also some other colours in it.’ The woman walks back to the garden and a little bit later she comes back with a bunch of colourful tulips and arranges them with the other. Look now you have a very beautiful forest. What will your mum be happy with it? Say that you received them from aunt Wies.’

Noor is visibly relieved and glad that she can keep the flowers. She thanks Aunt Wies for the huge forest and the lemonade and then she walks to her home.

In the garden, she sees the crow on a branch of the tree to smooth his feathers.

‘Your plan didn’t work out nicely,’ she calls to the crow.

He just looks up and continues to brush his feathers. Mother is singing in the kitchen and peels the potatoes. When she sees her coming in, she puts the knife in a safe place and rubs her hands with her apron.

‘What a beautiful bunch of flowers you have. You haven’t picked them out of a garden, is it?’

Noor doesn’t know if she should tell the truth. Eh… Èh…, yes, no…, no…, I got them from Aunt Wies.’

‘Oh, then it’s good,’ answers mom and picks the flowers up. Together they look for a gorgeous vase and put the flowers in it. The flowers are admired, and moms say, ‘What are they beautiful.’ Noor nods: ‘Yes they are very beautiful.’

The End