“Hello. My name is Sajid and let me tell you about the time I met a witch who cried a lot. Not just any cry, but a cry that made your ears hurt. Ouch!”
Sajid is a little boy, who doesn’t get scared very easily and he will tell you he is a very brave boy. Sajid lives with his little sister, mum, and grandma. They recently moved to a new village named Khoraj Kodiyar in India. Now, the village name may sound funny, but the village people were all very miserable.
“Mummy why is everyone so sad?” asked Sajid one day.
His mum looked around and saw the sad faces of the village people.
“May I ask you a question please?” she asked one of the men.
The man looked at her, nodded, and then looked back at the floor.
“Why are you so sad all the time?”
The man looked up at her with his eyes wide and said “You don’t know? You don’t know about The Crying Witch”?
Sajid and his mum looked at each other, “The Crying Witch!?”
“Yes, The Crying Witch. She lives just outside the village and every time we go past her big house you can hear her cry, a very, very loud and awful cry that makes everyone very miserable,” replied the man
“How come we have never heard of this crying witch?” Asked Sajid’s mum.
“You need to go that way, towards the big tree and outside the village to hear her. But be warned she can make you very miserable,” warned the man with a grin on his face.
“Right Sajid, let’s go home and get some supper,” said Sajid’s mum with a frightened face.
“But mum. I want to go and find out about the witch. Please mum, can I?” pleaded Sajid.
“No, it’s not safe to go there and I don’t want you to be sad as the other villagers,” replied mum.
“But mum I will be fine. I will cover my ears like this. Look at me mum.” Sajid covered his ears to show his mum.
“You cannot cover your ears with earmuffs in this heat!” Laughed his mum.
“I know it is very hot mummy, but my earmuffs will block out the noise of the crying witch and I won’t be sad. I want to help the witch mum,” replied Sajid with his innocent looking face.
His mum looked at him and she couldn’t resist the innocent looking face.
“Okay, but please be very careful and don’t eat or drink anything the witch gives you and remember be careful!”
“Thank you, mum. I love you. I promise I will be very careful.”
Sajid ran down the path towards the big trees looking back at his mum and waving.
As Sajid came closer towards the big trees he felt a sense of fear. He started to chant… “don’t be scared, you are brave, don’t be scared, you are brave.”
“Got you!”
“AHHHHHH!!” shouted Sajid as he turned around to see who it was. He had his eyes closed tight.
“Open your eyes silly. I thought you were brave, scaredy-cat,” teased the girl.
Sajid slowly opened his eyes and saw it was the girl from the village that he played hide-and-seek with often. Her name was Lata and she was a very cheeky little girl.
“I thought you were brave?”
“I am brave, but you just jumped at me and that scared me. Okay?” replied Sajid.
“Anyway, what are you doing here? You are supposed to be at the dancing club. If your mummy found out, you will be in trouble.”
“Don’t worry about my mummy. I thought you could do with some help and so I came to help you. I heard you talking to your mum about helping the Crying Witch,” confessed Lata.
“Okay but we have to be careful because we don’t know how big or scary the witch is,” said Sajid.
Lata and Sajid walked towards the big trees, that were near the busy road of Khoraj Kodiyar and they could hear a faint cry.
“Listen Sajid, I can hear the cry,” whispered Lata.
They both carried on walking slowly, holding each other’s hands… the cry got louder and louder.
“I think it’s coming from over there,” Sajid pointed to an old looking house with a broken chimney.
At this point both Sajid and Lata were shaking but they were being very brave. As they got closer the cry got very loud. Sajid was still wearing his earmuffs and Lata had put cotton buds in her ears to block out the noise and they were both still smiling. They got to the door of the witch’s house and rang the bell… Nothing happened… They rang the bell again… and this time the door opened slowly making a… creaking noise.
“Shall… we… go… in?” Lata asked with a trembling voice.
“I think we should. Hello, hello, can we come in?” asked Sajid walking in slowly.
“Look over there, by the cauldron. I can see someone sitting there,” said Lata.
“Hello there. I am Sajid and this is my friend Lata. What’s your name?” asked Sajid walking closer to the person sitting down.
The witch turned around to look at them and she started to cry more.
“I am lonely, and no one likes me,” she told them.
Sajid and Lata felt a little sorry for the witch and as they approached, they couldn’t help wonder why she was lonely because she was a beautiful witch with nice long brown hair, chocolate skin and green eyes.
“You are a beautiful witch, I mean lady…” Lata told her.
“What is your name?” Sajid asked again.
“Oh, I’m soo sorry”, cried the witch. “My name is Kamla. Here, please sit down. Are you hungry? Shall I make you something to eat? Are you thirsty? Would you like some juice?”
“No!” shouted Sajid and Lata at once, scaring Kamla.
“I mean… no we are fine… Thank you,” said Sajid.
“Why are you lonely and why do you cry so much?” asked Lata again.
“I don’t cry on purpose. I don’t mean to cry. You see my mother was a very powerful witch and she cast a spell when I was younger to get rid of any bad things that would happen to me and the spell went wrong.” “
Oh no, that is terrible.” said Sajid.
“Yes, and that’s what makes me cry soo much. I wish I could get rid of the spell because my eyes are sore with all the crying and I have a crocked voice,” explained Kamla.
“How can we help?” asked Lata.
“The only way you can help is to get rid of the spell. But I don’t know how you will do that because my mother is not here anymore and she’s the only one that can get rid of it,” siad Kamla.
Sajid and Lata thought for a moment, looking around the room to see if they could find anything to help them.
“Look over there!” cried Lata.
Sajid looked to where Lata was pointing and noticed some very large and dusty books on some shelves.
“I have tried them already. I looked through every book trying to find a spell to stop all the crying but there is nothing there,” said Kamla explained.
“We are going to look again anyway. Just in case,” Sajid said.
Sajid and Lata rummaged through all the books and could not find anything. Until Lata came across a different looking book
“Look Sajid this book is locked. The spell could be in here,” said Lata.
“There is no use because my mother took the key with her and it’s not easy making a new one,” said Kamla with a sad face.
Sajid looked at the book and at the lock and realised something that would make Kamla very happy.
“I know this book and I know where to get a key made for it. Well, I know where there is a spare key for it!” he said.
Kamla looked at Sajid with a shocked face.
“Really you know how to get the book open? Oh, you know if you did, I could finally reverse the spell of me crying. This is soo very exciting,” said Kamala.
“Yes, I know how to get the key for the book, but it won’t be easy. If it is the same key I am talking about then we are going to have to be very brave indeed… Because… the… key… is… well… well… it’s guarded by this huge hairy blue and purple coloured monster”.
Sajid looked at Lata and Kamala with a very tense and scared face.
“Oh don’t you worry about Sajid. He is a scaredy-cat. He always has been. We will get past that monster thingy and get the key,” said Lata casually turning towards Kamla.
“I am not a scaredy-cat Lata!” shouted Sajid looking at Lata and Kamla with a shy face.
Kamla got up from where she was sitting and walked over to Sajid and gave him a hug.
“Thank you so much.”
Sajid and Lata got up and headed out back down the path towards the forest.
“So, who is this huge hairy blue and purple monster you are talking about”? asked Lata.
Sajid turned to face Lata and explained to her that a few weeks ago he came across a cave in the forest, where he saw a hairy blue and purple monster.
“I waited for the monster to go to sleep and went to explore his cave and found out that he is a collector of keys, so I am sure he has a key for this book”.
“Oh, so you are not sure if he does!” yelled Lata.
“You are either very silly or very brave because we have no idea who this monster is and we have no idea if he is friendly or mean. We have no idea if he has the key or not and we have no idea if he will even give us the key! Oh, Sajid how can you be soo foolish!” shouted Lata making Sajid show a look of worry.
“Look Lata, I don’t know, but I do know we have to save Kamla and help her to stop crying,” said Sajid.
Lata eventually calmed down and asked, “Okay. So what is the plan”? “
“Well.. we know that the monster is blue and purple so he must like blue and purple things. So we will have to get something blue and purple to give him to him as a bribe in exchange for the key,” explained Sajid.
Lata thought for a moment and said with excitement, “I have some blue and purple gum that he may like!”
“Oh, oh, oh I have a blue and purple spinning toy that I can give him,” said Sajid with a smile.
They then both ran towards their homes to collect the items.
“We will meet back at that swirly tree in the forest,” shouted Sajid as he ran towards his house.
Sometime later, Lata arrived at the meeting point of the swirly tree.
“Where have you been Sajid? I have been waiting for you for over half an hour now!” asked Lata with a concerned look on her face.
“My mum would not let me leave so I had to wait for her to have her nap and then I sneaked out,” confessed Sajid.
Sajid and Lata slowly walked towards the cave where the monster lived feeling anxious. They stood outside the cave for a while before making their way inside. They stopped outside when they heard a loud crash, bang crash!
Lata and Sajid stood still with fear and then… they heard footsteps… “
“Well, hello there! And what brings you two to my cave?” asked the blue and purple monster with a huge smile on his face, standing behind them.
Sajid turned around slowly, nudging Lata and they saw the purple and blue monster, who also had big green eyes, standing and slightly leaning against the tree with one hand on his hip.
“Oh no, don’t be scared, I am a very friendly monster. Oh, and my name is Green,” he said.
“Nice to… meet… you… Green… We need the key to this book,” stuttered Lata.
Pulling the magic book out of her bag. Green took the book from Lata, examining it carefully and shouted with glee.
“Yes, yes. I recognise this book. It belongs to The Crying Witch, right?” questioned Green.
“Yes, it does, and we need the key to the book so that we can get the spell to help stop the witch from crying,” said Sajid
Green started walking towards his cave waving at Sajid and Lata to go in with him. Lata and Sajid hesitated for a second as they were not sure what to expect inside and started walking slowly behind Green. As they entered the cave they were hit with a strong smell of lavender and the colour of the cave was painted in bright purple with a mixture of blue.
“Wow, it smells and looks beautiful in here Green!” said Lata with a surprised look on her face.
“Yes, I know I am a monster, but I still like to look tidy and smell nice,” grinned Green.
“Right then let me look through my bundle and see if I have a key to match your book there, ” he said, rummaging through the bundle of keys lying on the floor next to his big bed.
“Let me help?” said Sajid, moving towards Green.
“NO!” shouted Green moving Sajid’s hand out of the way startling him.
Sajid moved back backwards causing him to trip over some cuddly toys that were lying on the floor. Seeing the cuddly toys, Sajid put his hand into this bag taking out the blue and purple spinning top and gave it to Green.
“Now can I help you?”
Green moved some keys towards Sajid.
“I’ve found it, I found it.” cried Sajid as he put the key into the books keyhole and turning it, slowly hearing the click in the lock. He then hesitated to open the book.
“Stop!” shrieked Lata.
“This could be dangerous so please don’t open the book until we get to Kamla’s house,” she said.
Lata then gave the blue and purple gum she brought with her to Green, thanked him for his help.
They both left the cave and ran towards Kamla’s house. When they got there, they found her asleep.
“Should we wake her?” said Sajid.
“No… I think let her sleep. But you can open the book, now we are here at her house,” said Lata.
Quietly, not waking Kamla, Sajid turned the key in the lock of the book. The lock clunked open, suddenly followed by a flash of light. Then, magically, the book turned to the page to the spell they needed.
Sajid and Lata both looked at the page and were baffled at what was written on the page.
With the noise around her, at this point Kamla woke up, rubbing her eyes. She saw the surprised look on both Sajid and Lata’s faces.
“What’s the matter? Why do you both look so shocked?”
“This spell… like… how… what?” asked Sajid pointing to the page in the book.
Kamla looked at them and then at the book and laughed saying, “This part is easy! You did the hard part! So, Don’t’ worry.”
Lata looked at Kamla and said, “But this is so complicated, how can you possibly say that?”
Kamla looked at both Sajid and Lata and said repeat after me.
“Akal, bakal bambe bor, turn around and hope some more, shake your bottom wriggle your toes and jump up high to touch the sky. Clap your hands and say tak, tak, tak. Let me be gone with all the crying.”
“Oh yes and instead of saying ‘me’ you would say my name,” added Kamla.
But before Sajid and Lata could say the words there was a thunder of light, a shimmer of smoke and it completely went dark. Then suddenly, it was light again.
Sajid and Lata saw Kamla sitting on the floor with a shine to her eyes they never saw before. And no longer were tears filling her eyes but a look of joy, as she smiled looking up at them. The spell had been broken by Kamla’s own words.
The Crying Witch was no more, but instead, what Sajid and Lata were pleased to see, was a happy one.