Rainbow Stew - a short story
Rainbow Stew
By Ilana Hoegler
For Madison, Jack and Wyatt
The Arrival
The children arrived in a garden surrounded by a 25ft pink wall. Mady, Jack and Wyatt were without memory of their beginning or history. All they remembered of their past was that one night when they were 11, 9 and 7 year old they went to sleep in their beds and woke up the next morning in a magnificent garden with nothing but their clothes, and school backpacks.
When Mady, the oldest, woke she noticed that the flowers and vegetables of the garden had been planted in the order of a rainbow. Although she thought this was strange what she wondered more was how, whomever had grown the garden, had been able to grow green and blue flowers naturally. The garden was enchanting. She felt at peace and would have preferred to sit quietly in the garden but she had to find her brothers, her family or her cats, Tucker and Charlie. Someone else had to be there.
First she found Jack, the oldest brother, not too far away in an orchard. Again strangely the trees had been grown in the order of a rainbow. He was still asleep on the ground under a very odd looking fruit tree with blue fruit, almost like blue pears. It seemed so odd. He was surrounded by 2 chickens, a rooster, 2 cows, 2 sheep, 2 goats and there was Tucker and Charlie curled up in his armpits. She thought he looked not as she remembered and after he woke up and stood she realized he was now taller and bigger than her. She was curious how this happened but now they had to find Wyatt, the youngest brother.
They found him by a pond full of fish in an array of rainbow colors and when they woke him up at first he wasn’t speaking English. He was speaking a language the children hadn’t heard before but then his speech corrected, they forgot about the weird blip in his language when they noticed he was holding a wand and it was glowing. The children felt that nothing here made sense.
The garden seemed to provide the children with everything they needed to survive but no supervision, no rules and nowhere to live. Where were their parents? Even though they didn’t remember their past they remembered that someone loved them so much that the absence of it caused them an empty feeling now that that great love was missing.
Mady ‘the mother’
Mady was the closest thing to a mother the boys knew. She did all the cleaning, cooking and taught the boys reading and writing using the books she found in their backpacks. She sewed their clothes from material she wove on a loom that Jack built, with wool from the sheep that Jack had sheared.
She grew food in the garden and she made butter, cheese and sour cream from the milk Jack collected from the cows and goats. She made omelettes from the eggs that Wyatt collected from the chickens. The best thing she had learned to make was her amazing ‘Rainbow Stew’! She used all the rainbow flowers in the garden but she could only make it once a month because it took a full month to grow the flowers.
The children knew the flowers were special. They suspected that the flowers were where they got their special abilities from them. Mady’s will and knowledge, Jack’s strength and Wyatt’s magic. When they ate the stew on the 23rd of each month they became the strongest, most productive and most creative they were all month but they also became cruel to each other.
Jack ‘the Strong’
When Jack arrived in the garden he was larger and stronger than they remembered. He was so strong he could push a tree over with his bare hands and carry it to wherever it was needed. He built their house, ploughed their field but most of all he wanted to do was escape the garden. The emptiness he felt weighed on him more than all the others.
He spent all his extra time trying to escape. He tried to climb over, dig under and go around the wall without success. There was no way out. The magic that kept them safe also kept them trapped.
Jack also was the keeper of the animals and the orchard. Jack’s strength made the animals feel safe. They willingly gave him their wool, eggs, and milk. They helped him plough the fields and build the houses and other tasks. They felt a sadness in him and they tried to fill his loneliness with help and friendship.
Wyatt ‘the Magical’
Wyatt, was the youngest and the most creative of the three. He came to the garden with magic and he woke up holding an ancient, glowing wand. He could pull magic from the air, and with that and the wand, he became family’s pharmacist and doctor and kept the family healthy.
At first he showed his creative side by painting murals on the wall of the house that Jack built but then small things would happen. Not only did he figure out a way for the children to cool their food but once he did the ice never melted. He figured out a way for them to wash their clothes but then he powered it so that they didn’t have to spend all day cranking the handle, it just went on its own and stopped when it was done.
The animals of the garden felt something unnatural in him. Something that scared them. Unlike Jack who attracted the animals, the animals would only go near Wyatt when Jack was around but although the magic scared the animals, the children needed his magic to survive.
Tucker and Charlie, the House Cats
Charlie and Tucker, the House Cats, were not good for much. Well at least that is what the children thought. They were actually no ordinary House Cats but they were the keepers of history. Although they could not speak a language the children could understand the cats would sleep with the children at night and they would send the children stories of their past through their dreams.
The cats held all the children’s memories and history and they kept it safe because one day the children would need it. They sent the children dreams of their parents and love and family. The children did not realize the dreams were real memories. They believed the dreams were wishes.
The first Year
In the first year after they arrived in the garden Mady created the
‘Rainbow stew’ using every flower of the garden. The boys loved the stew, they craved it because it made them feel strong, smart and gave them tons of energy but it took so long for the flowers to grow and the first 3 days after eating the stew the children would yell, hit and bite each other and on the fourth day they would be beaten and bleeding and feel terrible.
Mady knew that each colour of flower gave the children a different benefit but she needed the combination of all of them to get the abilities of the stew. She tried to adjust the recipe to prevent the fighting but no matter what she changed the reaction was the same. Jack suggested they stop eating the stew and see if that would help and so that is what they tried. They tried for a year changing the stew. One month she would only use red flowers, the next only orange and so on but each month they go weaker and weaker until all they could do is sleep. They could not work, dance, sing or create. They were dying.
Mack ‘the Unicorn’
On the last day of the stew fast the children were lying on the ground exhausted and sick when they heard the wall crumble or so they thought because at this point the children could do nothing more than sleep and lie on the ground not even opening their eyes. Jack, who was still the strongest and out of sheer desperation, crawled over to where he expected there to be a hole in the wall but what he found was just a horse shaped dent. As he turned around to return to his siblings, but before him stood a majestic, white unicorn holding one pail of Rainbow Stew.
The unicorn put down the pail and picked up Jack by the scruff of his neck and carried him back to where Mady and Wyatt lay. There she gently placed Jack on the ground and went back for the stew. She lay beside each child and spoon fed them the stew and then laid with them till they had recovered.
Once all the children had returned to health they welcomed Mack to their family. Mady even referred to her as her only sister.
Although Mack had magically appeared from the wall and saved the children, she didn’t have magic of her own but she could receive magic from Wyatt and he could and would share with her his magic. Together they kept the children, the forest animals and the fish healthy by brewing the most amazing magical concoctions made from the flowers and vegetables Mady grew, and the fruit and harvest Jack cultivated.
Mack would live with Wyatt and they became kindred spirits and went everywhere together. This was good for Wyatt because the other animals in the garden were scared of him and his magic. Mack helped to connect the garden.
And time went on…
After the year without eating the stew, the children decided to separate for three days after ‘Stew Day’ into different parts of the garden. Jack decided to build two more houses for each of them so for the three days that the children were separated that they would each have a place to live.
Mady lived in the main house, Jack’s house was a barn of sorts because he lived there with the animals and Wyatt’s was a small apothecary and art studio with a side pen for Mack. Each of the buildings could be used by all when they were together.
During those days the children would find that they would create. Mady would write songs about her brothers and her dreams, Jack would carve models for his siblings and Wyatt would draw and paint pictures of his brother and sister. When they returned to each other they would be so excited to be a family again and share their work and creations.
They truly loved each other.
And on…
Although the children had no real way of telling the passage of time, about 11yrs after they arrived in the garden Mady noticed that none of them were aging. This worried her. She started to become sad and quiet and the boys, Mack and the animals became concerned.
Mady would do her chores and take care of her family but she was not happy. She stopped singing and dancing. All she would do is sleep when she wasn’t working. Everyone thought she was getting sick so Mack and Wyatt tried to create potions to save her but nothing helped her because Mady’s heart was broken. She had realized if she never aged and never left the garden she would never marry, never have a family of her own but in her dreams the House Cats were sending her dreams of her past, of a family, of love and of a home. They sent her dreams of a future where she grew up, went to university, got married and had a family of her own. There were times her dreams felt so real she didn’t want to wake up. There were times where she felt like her dreams were real life and the garden was the dream but if that were true where were her brothers? The House Cats knew it was time for it to end.
And in the end it crumbles…
12 yrs to the day of the children’s arrival in the garden, they awoke to the sound of the wall crumbling. As they all came running out of the main house they saw that the whole wall had crumble into a million pieces and in the middle of the rubble stood Mack the unicorn and the two House Cats. The garden had disappeared. The orchard, the buildings and the pond was no longer there. The children looked at their magical friends with confusion because Mack and the House Cats did not look confused or scared but more like they knew the answers.
But before they could ask their questions the three children collapsed to the ground in agony. For hours the children writhed in pain and their magical friends sat with them to comfort them and when it was all over the animals didn’t s
eem surprised. The children had aged 12 yrs. Mady was now 23, Jack was 21 and Wyatt was 19. The House Cats had returned the family’s history and memories to them and Mack had returned their age.
The children began to weep for the truth was their parents had vanished 12 years prior and their friends and spirit guardians, Mack and the two House Cats, had used what little magic they had to seal the children away from the pain and keep them in a safe place where they could learn to take care of themselves until they were old enough to live out in the world as adults. It had been a decision the children had made because the only surviving relatives wanted to split them up and the children loved each other so much they couldn’t bear to be separated. They had done it to stay together.
Knowing this they joined hands and with Mack, the House Cats and the animals they all returned to the world, to their family home and to their future.
The End
By Ilana Hoegler
For Madison, Jack and Wyatt
The Arrival
The children arrived in a garden surrounded by a 25ft pink wall. Mady, Jack and Wyatt were without memory of their beginning or history. All they remembered of their past was that one night when they were 11, 9 and 7 year old they went to sleep in their beds and woke up the next morning in a magnificent garden with nothing but their clothes, and school backpacks.
When Mady, the oldest, woke she noticed that the flowers and vegetables of the garden had been planted in the order of a rainbow. Although she thought this was strange what she wondered more was how, whomever had grown the garden, had been able to grow green and blue flowers naturally. The garden was enchanting. She felt at peace and would have preferred to sit quietly in the garden but she had to find her brothers, her family or her cats, Tucker and Charlie. Someone else had to be there.
First she found Jack, the oldest brother, not too far away in an orchard. Again strangely the trees had been grown in the order of a rainbow. He was still asleep on the ground under a very odd looking fruit tree with blue fruit, almost like blue pears. It seemed so odd. He was surrounded by 2 chickens, a rooster, 2 cows, 2 sheep, 2 goats and there was Tucker and Charlie curled up in his armpits. She thought he looked not as she remembered and after he woke up and stood she realized he was now taller and bigger than her. She was curious how this happened but now they had to find Wyatt, the youngest brother.
They found him by a pond full of fish in an array of rainbow colors and when they woke him up at first he wasn’t speaking English. He was speaking a language the children hadn’t heard before but then his speech corrected, they forgot about the weird blip in his language when they noticed he was holding a wand and it was glowing. The children felt that nothing here made sense.
The garden seemed to provide the children with everything they needed to survive but no supervision, no rules and nowhere to live. Where were their parents? Even though they didn’t remember their past they remembered that someone loved them so much that the absence of it caused them an empty feeling now that that great love was missing.
Mady ‘the mother’
Mady was the closest thing to a mother the boys knew. She did all the cleaning, cooking and taught the boys reading and writing using the books she found in their backpacks. She sewed their clothes from material she wove on a loom that Jack built, with wool from the sheep that Jack had sheared.
She grew food in the garden and she made butter, cheese and sour cream from the milk Jack collected from the cows and goats. She made omelettes from the eggs that Wyatt collected from the chickens. The best thing she had learned to make was her amazing ‘Rainbow Stew’! She used all the rainbow flowers in the garden but she could only make it once a month because it took a full month to grow the flowers.
The children knew the flowers were special. They suspected that the flowers were where they got their special abilities from them. Mady’s will and knowledge, Jack’s strength and Wyatt’s magic. When they ate the stew on the 23rd of each month they became the strongest, most productive and most creative they were all month but they also became cruel to each other.
Jack ‘the Strong’
When Jack arrived in the garden he was larger and stronger than they remembered. He was so strong he could push a tree over with his bare hands and carry it to wherever it was needed. He built their house, ploughed their field but most of all he wanted to do was escape the garden. The emptiness he felt weighed on him more than all the others.
He spent all his extra time trying to escape. He tried to climb over, dig under and go around the wall without success. There was no way out. The magic that kept them safe also kept them trapped.
Jack also was the keeper of the animals and the orchard. Jack’s strength made the animals feel safe. They willingly gave him their wool, eggs, and milk. They helped him plough the fields and build the houses and other tasks. They felt a sadness in him and they tried to fill his loneliness with help and friendship.
Wyatt ‘the Magical’
Wyatt, was the youngest and the most creative of the three. He came to the garden with magic and he woke up holding an ancient, glowing wand. He could pull magic from the air, and with that and the wand, he became family’s pharmacist and doctor and kept the family healthy.
At first he showed his creative side by painting murals on the wall of the house that Jack built but then small things would happen. Not only did he figure out a way for the children to cool their food but once he did the ice never melted. He figured out a way for them to wash their clothes but then he powered it so that they didn’t have to spend all day cranking the handle, it just went on its own and stopped when it was done.
The animals of the garden felt something unnatural in him. Something that scared them. Unlike Jack who attracted the animals, the animals would only go near Wyatt when Jack was around but although the magic scared the animals, the children needed his magic to survive.
Tucker and Charlie, the House Cats
Charlie and Tucker, the House Cats, were not good for much. Well at least that is what the children thought. They were actually no ordinary House Cats but they were the keepers of history. Although they could not speak a language the children could understand the cats would sleep with the children at night and they would send the children stories of their past through their dreams.
The cats held all the children’s memories and history and they kept it safe because one day the children would need it. They sent the children dreams of their parents and love and family. The children did not realize the dreams were real memories. They believed the dreams were wishes.
The first Year
In the first year after they arrived in the garden Mady created the
‘Rainbow stew’ using every flower of the garden. The boys loved the stew, they craved it because it made them feel strong, smart and gave them tons of energy but it took so long for the flowers to grow and the first 3 days after eating the stew the children would yell, hit and bite each other and on the fourth day they would be beaten and bleeding and feel terrible.
Mady knew that each colour of flower gave the children a different benefit but she needed the combination of all of them to get the abilities of the stew. She tried to adjust the recipe to prevent the fighting but no matter what she changed the reaction was the same. Jack suggested they stop eating the stew and see if that would help and so that is what they tried. They tried for a year changing the stew. One month she would only use red flowers, the next only orange and so on but each month they go weaker and weaker until all they could do is sleep. They could not work, dance, sing or create. They were dying.
Mack ‘the Unicorn’
On the last day of the stew fast the children were lying on the ground exhausted and sick when they heard the wall crumble or so they thought because at this point the children could do nothing more than sleep and lie on the ground not even opening their eyes. Jack, who was still the strongest and out of sheer desperation, crawled over to where he expected there to be a hole in the wall but what he found was just a horse shaped dent. As he turned around to return to his siblings, but before him stood a majestic, white unicorn holding one pail of Rainbow Stew.
The unicorn put down the pail and picked up Jack by the scruff of his neck and carried him back to where Mady and Wyatt lay. There she gently placed Jack on the ground and went back for the stew. She lay beside each child and spoon fed them the stew and then laid with them till they had recovered.
Once all the children had returned to health they welcomed Mack to their family. Mady even referred to her as her only sister.
Although Mack had magically appeared from the wall and saved the children, she didn’t have magic of her own but she could receive magic from Wyatt and he could and would share with her his magic. Together they kept the children, the forest animals and the fish healthy by brewing the most amazing magical concoctions made from the flowers and vegetables Mady grew, and the fruit and harvest Jack cultivated.
Mack would live with Wyatt and they became kindred spirits and went everywhere together. This was good for Wyatt because the other animals in the garden were scared of him and his magic. Mack helped to connect the garden.
And time went on…
After the year without eating the stew, the children decided to separate for three days after ‘Stew Day’ into different parts of the garden. Jack decided to build two more houses for each of them so for the three days that the children were separated that they would each have a place to live.
Mady lived in the main house, Jack’s house was a barn of sorts because he lived there with the animals and Wyatt’s was a small apothecary and art studio with a side pen for Mack. Each of the buildings could be used by all when they were together.
During those days the children would find that they would create. Mady would write songs about her brothers and her dreams, Jack would carve models for his siblings and Wyatt would draw and paint pictures of his brother and sister. When they returned to each other they would be so excited to be a family again and share their work and creations.
They truly loved each other.
And on…
Although the children had no real way of telling the passage of time, about 11yrs after they arrived in the garden Mady noticed that none of them were aging. This worried her. She started to become sad and quiet and the boys, Mack and the animals became concerned.
Mady would do her chores and take care of her family but she was not happy. She stopped singing and dancing. All she would do is sleep when she wasn’t working. Everyone thought she was getting sick so Mack and Wyatt tried to create potions to save her but nothing helped her because Mady’s heart was broken. She had realized if she never aged and never left the garden she would never marry, never have a family of her own but in her dreams the House Cats were sending her dreams of her past, of a family, of love and of a home. They sent her dreams of a future where she grew up, went to university, got married and had a family of her own. There were times her dreams felt so real she didn’t want to wake up. There were times where she felt like her dreams were real life and the garden was the dream but if that were true where were her brothers? The House Cats knew it was time for it to end.
And in the end it crumbles…
12 yrs to the day of the children’s arrival in the garden, they awoke to the sound of the wall crumbling. As they all came running out of the main house they saw that the whole wall had crumble into a million pieces and in the middle of the rubble stood Mack the unicorn and the two House Cats. The garden had disappeared. The orchard, the buildings and the pond was no longer there. The children looked at their magical friends with confusion because Mack and the House Cats did not look confused or scared but more like they knew the answers.
But before they could ask their questions the three children collapsed to the ground in agony. For hours the children writhed in pain and their magical friends sat with them to comfort them and when it was all over the animals didn’t s
eem surprised. The children had aged 12 yrs. Mady was now 23, Jack was 21 and Wyatt was 19. The House Cats had returned the family’s history and memories to them and Mack had returned their age.
The children began to weep for the truth was their parents had vanished 12 years prior and their friends and spirit guardians, Mack and the two House Cats, had used what little magic they had to seal the children away from the pain and keep them in a safe place where they could learn to take care of themselves until they were old enough to live out in the world as adults. It had been a decision the children had made because the only surviving relatives wanted to split them up and the children loved each other so much they couldn’t bear to be separated. They had done it to stay together.
Knowing this they joined hands and with Mack, the House Cats and the animals they all returned to the world, to their family home and to their future.
The End
I find this story mesmerizing, maybe because I love the characters in real life, but I think also because the story itself is enchanting.
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