The Magic Shoe

By Manoshi De Silva

Methuli washed her new pair of pink shoes and kept it under the mango tree, to dry out in the sun. A monkey who was in the mango tree, looked at the shoes curiously, wondering what they were. After Methuli left, he came down and grabbed one shoe and climbed up again. The monkey inspected the shoe by turning it around, but soon lost interest and threw it away as he leaped to another tree.

The pink shoe fell down and got caught between two mango branches. In the evening Methuli came out to take her shoes in. To her surprise there was only one shoe. She looked all around the mango tree but one shoe was missing. Then she checked all over the garden. But the shoe was not to be found.

"A stray dog must have taken it," said Methuli. "That can't be because the gate was locked," said Methuli's mother, who was helping to find the missing shoe. Methuli was very confused as to how one of her new pink shoes had vanished. "It has just disappeared!" said Methuli. "Like an act of magic. Maybe it was a magic shoe!"

The next morning as the sun rose, the birds came out in search of food. A sparrow saw something unusual among the branches. "What is this?" she wondered, flying around Methuli's pink shoe. She perched on it and observed it well. Then she crept inside the shoe and came out again.

"This thing is ideal to build a nest. I must start building my nest inside this because it will protect the eggs and keep them safe!" said the sparrow and she flew away to find twigs and other stuff needed to build her new nest.

A mynah came and sat on the mango branch and saw the shoe next. "Now what is this?" she wondered hopping around the shoe. "Looks like an ideal place to build a nest for me. I must bring some pieces of coir and start building a nest right away!" she said flying away in search of coir.

The sparrow got a little late to find twigs, so the mynah returned before her.  She put the coir inside and started building the nest. "This is going to be the best nest I've ever had," she thought flying away in search of more material to complete her nest. The sparrow returned meanwhile, with twigs in her beak. She peeped inside the nest and saw that the base of the nest was already built.

"What a surprise!" she said. "Looks like this thing is building a nest on its own, these pieces of coir were not here before. This is a magical thing!" The sparrow carefully arranged the twigs she brought on top of what the mynah built. Building a nest required a lot of hard work. It meant many flights to and fro.

The mynah returned as soon as the sparrow left. She was surprised to see new pieces of twigs added to her previous work. "How wonderful! This thing builds the nest on its own! I didn't even bring some of these things," shouted the mynah. "Uh oh," thought a squirrel who was there from morning. He didn't want to be the one to tell them that there were two owners to the shoe nest.

"The nest is magically building inside this thing!" said the mynah, "I only brought twigs once and when I returned it was bigger than when I left it!" A little while after the mynah flew away, the sparrow returned with some more twigs and feathers she has gathered. She arranged it and said, "This is the fastest nest that I've ever built. This has got to be magic!"

The squirrel watched quietly as the sparrow flew away and the mynah returned. "What! My bed has already been made with soft feathers by this magical thing!" shouted the mynah. "Thanks to this magical thing, my nest is almost complete," she said arranging the twigs and trying to make the nest neater. Just then the sparrow returned. "Oh, now is when the real magic starts!" said the squirrel shaking his head.

"Hey! Hey!" shouted the sparrow, "stop messing with my nest!" The mynah stared at the sparrow and fluffed her feathers. "What do you mean by calling it 'your nest'?" she asked sounding annoyed. "I found this magic thing and started building my nest in it. So it's my house!" said the sparrow perching on the pink shoe.

"Well, it is I who found this magic thing and started building my nest in here, so it's my house and not yours!" said the mynah who sat on the other side of the pink shoe. "Please stop fighting!" shouted the squirrel, "I was here from morning and saw what happened." The squirrel explained to the birds how they both took turns and built the nest. "And that's how the nest was completed magically. The sparrow saw it first and the mynah started building first. So it belongs to both of you!"

But the birds were not happy with this explanation. So they decided to have a fight and see who won the nest. They started pecking and attacking each other. "Please stop fighting!" shouted the squirrel but the birds started pulling the shoe with their feet. The shoe got pulled away and fell down under the mango tree with a thud, spilling out all the twigs and the coir.

Methuli came out to see what the sound was. She was surprised to see her lost pink shoe under the mango tree, just where she had left it to dry the day before. "My shoe has reappeared!" shouted the girl in surprise. "This must be a magic shoe! How else can it disappear and reappear like this?" she said carrying it inside.

"Serves you both right, for fighting!" said the squirrel, as the two birds flew away annoyed.