“Knock, Knock” The door opened revealing a green  Quiggly, who looked quite young to be over 500 years old.

“Hello!” I said. “We came for an adventure trip”

“Oh! I love children and I thought so! Come inside to have a snack and drink!

“Ok” we all said, hardly frightened, as he sounded so friendly. We all walked in.

“So how did you enjoy the tea and snacks? The Quiggly asked.

We were sitting at a small coffee table and the Quiggly was telling us about himself.

Rishi asked “What is your name? How do we refer to you while talking?”

“The Wise Old Quiggly replied “My name is Ronto, you can call me Grandpa Ronto”

“Ok Grandpa Ronto” I said, putting his name into use.

Then Kiko said “Grandpa Ronto, Wizard Whoop Loop said that you could interpret the future and find problems to solutions. Is that so?”

“Partially true” said the Quiggly. I can solve any problem, but I can’t interpret any future. Only the Future Tree in Grand Square can do that.

“So….” Dhruv said. “Grandpa Ronto, how do you look so young, I thought you were really old.”

“Yes, my boy, I am, but a dip in the Trans-youth pond can make your skin glow again…”

“Do you talk in riddles all the time?” I asked

“Well, no, just trying to say that the water there is magical and makes your body look younger”

“Oh……’ I said. “We got to go now!! Could you tell us the way to the Fun Trees?”

“Sure, it is across the River of Love.”

“How do we cross the river?” asked Dhruv

“Oh! I don’t know that, I can’t tell you everything since it’s your trip. Find out for yourselves” he said with a grin.

So we all thanked the Quiggly and left for the River of Love. It held crystal-clear water and was quite big and deep. So we couldn’t swim after all. We scanned the banks for the sign of a boatman with my binoculars, but no one in sight. Then I thought, we are being silly, why don’t we just create a bubble? Then I remembered the wizard’s words, you can use the bubble-maker only 3 times in this trip. Use it wisely. So I thought of another idea. Just then, I saw an enormous leaf-boat coming towards us.

“Guys, look, a leafboat” Kiko said.

 That’s when I noticed it. A water Quiggly was pulling it towards us. I immediately realized that this water Quiggly was going to take us across.

“Hello” we said.

The little Quiggly brought the boat to a stop and told us to climb in.

“But………” I started saying. “It won’t hold our weight, it is made up of leaf, it won’t hold our weight.” I told the Quiggly.

“Don’t worry, everything is possible in Calypso” the little Quiggly said, proud of his motherland.

“Ok, If you say so” I said, gently putting one leg into the unstable boat which rocked from side to side.

We somehow managed to get in without falling. The Quiggly pulled the boat from the front at a tremendous speed, but I couldn’t feel myself falling. It was actually fun!! Really! It was actually fun!! I could feel the water splashing on the sides of the boat, squirting my face with tiny droplets. I didn’t expect the water ride to end so fast, but it did. We thanked the Quiggly for his unexpected help and started walking towards a canopy of trees.

“Wow!” we exclaimed, as all the trees were small, had eyes, nose, mouth and hands (branches that could move) It was so amazing!! There were only 3 trees. It was a small garden. On one of the trees, flowers of myriad types grew on the branches. Even the lotus, which grows in the water, was growing on this tree. Pretty roses, jasmines, sunflowers and lilies also grew on the trees. Dhruv and Rishi longingly looked at the flower tree as they wanted to pluck a flower for their mother.

I said “Go ahead! Just ask the tree. You know you can converse with them. They are just like humans except for their outer appearance.”

“Ok” they said, a little scared.

“I’ll try” said Rishi

So Rishi asked the tree in his sing-songy voice-

“Little multi-flower tree

Please give a lovely lily for me,

My mom loves wearing pretty flowers

Please pick one that is bright with colour”

“Oh really! Here you go!” said the tree, handing the boy a lovely newly blossomed lily. “Don’t worry” the tree said. “My flowers are magical; they don’t rot, even if you take them outside Calypso.”

“Wow!” Dhruv said, taking the lily from Rishi and putting it in their common bag.

“Let’s go have a look at the other trees.” Kiko said.

“Ya, come on guys! Let’s go!” I said.

We reached the 2nd tree. This was very similar to the 1st tree.

“J’ai faim” Madeline said.

“She’s hungry” said Kiko, translating the sentence to me. “Que veux-tu?” (What do you want?) She asked Madeline.

“Pomme” she said, which meant apple.

“ Oh no, but we don’t have apples, we have only snacks” I told Kiko.

Just then, she pointed at the tree we were about to see.

“Look” she said. “This is a multi-variety fruit tree, like multi-flower tree. Let’s ask this tree for apples.”

“Good idea! I will” I said.

I approached the tree, it opened its eyes.

“Yes……?” it said.

“Can I have a rosy apple?” I asked.

“What did you say?” the tree asked me.

After repeating many times, the tree still didn’t understand.

Then Rishi said “Try making up a poem, you know that my words to ask the tree was rhyming. I think they understand only rhyming words.

So I tried-

“Little multi-fruit tree

Give a rosy apple for Madeline please,

Some other tasty fruits for the 4 of us too

We are hungry, please could you?”

So the tree smiled a cute smile and handed a basket filled with more fruits than what I’d asked. 

“Thank you tree!” I said, happily since Rishi’s advice about rhyming words had worked.

We sat down under the tree and I tossed a rosy, red apple to Madeline.

In reply she said “Merci” which I knew was thank you.

“De rien” I said which meant welcome (I knew only few words in French)

We all ate some fruits and tossed the rest of the fruits in our bag, if we needed it later. I hung the basket on the lowest branch of the tree as it rose higher and higher, kept the basket higher up and lowered its branch down again.

“Bye!!” I told the tree.

“Bye little ones!” it told all of us.

“Next tree” I said, having so much fun.

“I love this place!” Dhruv said and we all looked shocked as he was the one who didn’t believe in magic.”

“What” he said, when he saw that we were staring at him.

“Oh so now you believe in magic?” Rishi asked.

“Yes I do,

And it’s amazing too” said Dhruv, trying to make a rhyming couplet.

We proceeded to the 3rd tree. We could not make out what the tree was when we looked at it first.

“Huh…. Is this a magical tree?” Kiko said. “I don’t think so…”

I felt bored now, as we couldn’t figure out what kind of tree it was. I started humming a tune. My friends also joined in but I heard another voice too.

“Stop, I hear something” I said. “Stop singing guys!”

They stopped singing and I stopped too. I still heard a humming and faint singing.

“What the heck!” I said.

Then I slowly approached the tree. The humming grew louder and louder.

“Hey” Kiko said. “This is a musical tree.”

So she said-

“Little lovely musical tree

Please sing a pretty song for me,

Shake your branches and twigs

Move your leaves to a lovely jig”

The moment she said that, the little tree started singing a beautiful song, which I recognized as Swing to the Jig. I started dancing as the song’s name suggested, as it had a very good rhythm and beat. I couldn’t resist my legs from moving to the tune. We all had a lovely time, thanked the tree and left the Fun trees enclosure.

“Now what’s on our list?” asked Kiko.

“Mushroom Corner” I said.

So we set off.