Chapter 1
Once apon a time, in Durban situated in South Africa
They all belonged to the Smith family. One day there was a horrible tragedy, Mrs. and Mr. Smith died in an awful car crash. The Smith family were distraught when Tony came one day (after being out the whole night) and told them that their parents had passed on. The following day Amber went to collect the mail from their mailbox when she saw a letter addressed to:
Sandy Smith
Daniel Smith
Samuel Smith
Amber Smith
Tony Smith
She hurried inside, opened the letter and read it out aloud to the rest of the family who were quietly finishing their breakfast. The letter stated:
According to your parents’ will, you have inherited a house that you will move into. This house belonged to your Grandmother.
“So we are going to move into a House in the 80’s that belonged to our Grams,” said Sam.
Daniel hated the idea of having to live in an old fashioned house.
“Let her finish, Sam,” urged Tony.
Tony was very eager to hear what the letter stated.
You are all to be moved to your new house by tomorrow.
“What?” shouted Sam as he began to get extremely worried.
“Ssh, Sam let her finish,” said Tony, who was now beginning to get very annoyed.
Your parents have saved money that will pay for a caregiver who will check on you once a month. If the house is not maintained and kept in good shape, you will have to be moved to an orphanage.
“ORPHANAGE!” said Daniel in a loud yet high-pitched voice.
“Okay, calm down. We can all start packing in the morning,” suggested Amber.
“I will start packing now!” said Daniel again in a high-pitched voice.
“Err, Dan, lose the squeaky voice,” said Amber awkwardly.
“Err, right,” said Daniel who was very embarrassed.
Chapter 2
The next morning they drove to their new house in a hired car. Their new house was still situated in Durban
Amber informed her siblings that there would already be furniture and basic necessities in the house awaiting them, at least that was what she understood from the letter that they had received.
“Cool, free furniture,” said Sam
“No, dummy, it’s our grandmother’s old things,” said Tony in a know-it-all kind of way.
“Oh sure, I knew that,” said Sam very unconvincingly.
“Wow, this is such a cool house!” exclaimed Tony.
“It’s so dirty,” said Sandy
“We have a lot of cleaning up to do,” said Amber
“What do you mean?” enquired Sam.
“You saw what the letter said,” said Amber.
“Aw, can’t we just get a domestic worker?” asked Sam.
“No, we don’t have any money to pay them,” replied Amber.
“Do we have to pay domestic workers to help us?” wondered Sandy
“Duh, do you honestly think they would work for free?” said Daniel.
“I’m sure we can clean it up tomorrow, we just got here,” said Tony.
Amber agreed with a heavy sigh.
A few minutes of silence broken by Sam saying that he was going to inspect the bathroom, just like he did for every single house they moved into, followed by Tony saying that he was going to get something to eat. When he stepped into the kitchen he saw that that somebody had gone grocery shopping for them and had bought items to last them a month.
Amber and Daniel also decided to get a bite to eat.
“I am starving; I think I will also have a bite,” said Sandy
“Samuel, would you like something to eat?” asked Tony.
“I told you to call me Sam and I do not want to eat, I am checking the bathroom for germs and this bathroom is full of them,” snapped Sam angrily.
“All bathrooms have germs, now put away that scientific brain and come eat,” insisted Tony.
“If you insist. I must mention that I do not like how you are so bossy just because you’re bigger than me,” said Sam.
“I am not bossy, you are!” argued Tony.
“I am not.” said Sam.
“Yes you are,” replied Tony.
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
Amber, who never liked fighting, decided to intervene.
“Guys, just forget about it,” shouted Amber.
“Sorry guys, it looks like we can’t watch a movie,” said Tony gloomily.
“What are we going to do now, I am so bored,” complained Sam.
As two hours passed by, the children did nothing but stare out the window, until finally…
“I have an idea… We can have a dancing competition. That would be awesome,” said Amber.
“Oh, I forgot to mention that the reason we can’t watch a movie today is because there is a power outage,” stated Tony.
“There goes that idea. How will we have the competition without any music?” asked Daniel.
“Well, we could use body percussion,” said Amber.
“Body what?” asked Daniel with a very confused expression on his face.
“Body percussion, it’s when you use your body to make music. We could also use instruments for the competition,” suggested Amber.
“That’s a great idea, Amber,” agreed Sam.
Each of them performed their own dance and in the end Sandy
“That was great!” exclaimed Tony.
“You see, what did I tell you?” said Amber, although in a modest way.
“We totally rocked!” shouted Daniel a bit too loudly.
“Yeah!” agreed Sandy
“It’s getting late; I think we should all go to bed,” suggested Sam.
Amber pointed out that there were only two beds.
“Amber, take Sandy
“I told you that he was bossy,” whispered Sam to Daniel.
“Yeah,” said Daniel agreeing to Sam’s statement.
“Did you say something Sam?” asked Tony in a rather sarcastic way.
“No, nothing,” lied Sam.
“Well, good night everybody,” said Tony in between a yarn. They all got climbed into bed and had sweet dreams for the rest of the night.
Chapter 3
The next day Amber came home from the Spelling quiz that she had entered and she did not look very pleased.
“How was the Spelling quiz, Amber?” asked Daniel.
Daniel asked this question as soon as Amber set foot into the house that afternoon.
Amber replied truthfully as she was a very honest person.
“It did not go too well, for another girl named Alexa won instead of me, but the worst part is that she just won’t stop bragging about it,” complained Amber.
Tony came into the scene and interrupted Amber and Daniel to remind all of them that they still had to clean up the house and that it should be spotless, after all they were actually supposed have cleaned the house ages ago. All of them decided what each of them would clean.
“I will clean the cupboard in my bedroom,” said Amber.
“I will clean the lounge,” said Tony.
“I will rake the leaves outside,” said Sam.
“Sandy and I will clean the kitchen,” said Daniel.
All of them started cleaning. Whilst cleaning the cupboard, Amber found, what looked like a diary.
Amber began to speak to herself.
“I wonder why this is here; it seems to be a diary. I forgot mine at our old house so I guess that I could use this one,” said Amber.
She pocketed it away for later.
Chapter 4
Two hours later Tony congratulated everyone for making the house look spectacular and clean.
“Now its time for a good night’s rest,” said Tony
Daniel, Amber, Sam and Sandy chorused a goodnight, changed into their pajamas and went to bed. Amber was having trouble sleeping so she decided to take out her diary and write an entry in it.
This is what she wrote:
Dear Diary
A pupil at my school is really annoying me, her name is Alexa and sometimes I just wish she had the head of a frog.
Amber put her diary under her pillow and then slept peacefully for the rest of the night. Sometimes it’s good to get your feelings off your chest and right them down in a diary.
Tony was the first awake in the morning and soon everyone else began to awake.
“Good morning everyone, there is a hired taxi to take us to school today, our old driver, Harold, has a nasty cold,” said Tony to his siblings.
All of them had a long and busy day at school. Tony was the first to come home and Amber was the last.
Amber was not quite herself when she came home.
“Hi Amber, how was your day at school,” said Tony gleefully.
Amber came into the house with a puzzled look on her face.
“It was alright, until I found out that Alexa, the girl who won the Spelling quiz yesterday, has the head of a frog,” said Amber in a confused tone of voice.
“Right… and a boy and in my class has the tail of a cow. No more caffeine for you!” said Tony sarcastically.
“I knew that you would not believe me, anyway I am so tired. I think I’ll sleep now even though it is a bit early. Please make sure that nobody disturbs me,” said Amber now in a tired fashion.
“No problem. I think we should all go to bed early today for we have all have had a tiring day at school.” replied Tony.
All of the children went to bed straight after supper. (Amber did not feel like having dinner tonight.)
Amber was so exhausted, but she just had to write what she had seen at school, in her diary.
Dear Diary
Something weird happened at school today, Alexa, the girl who won the spelling B, has the head of a frog. That was what I wished for yesterday.
Suddenly a thought struck Amber. She stared at the diary in amazement and the uttered something to herself.
“THIS DIARY GRANTS WISHES!” shouted Amber.
Amber turned to the back of back of the diary to and noticed what appeared to be the rules of using this diary.
This is what it said:
You are not permitted to:
· wish back the dead
· wish for immortality
· wish for super natural powers
Amber was lost in thought for quite a long time until she came running out of her room, waking everybody up.
“Everyone wake up, WAKE UP!” screamed Amber so loudly that you would have thought that she was getting attacked by burglars.
“What is it Amber?” enquired Tony.
All of them had come out of their room and met Amber in the passage.
“I think that this diary is enchanted; whatever I wish for comes true,” said Amber.
Tony questioned, “So are you saying that this diary grants wishes?
“Yes,” said Amber excitedly.
“Prove it!” said Sam.
“Yeah,” said Daniel.
Daniel was one of those children who liked to talk slang.
Amber agreed to prove that the diary was magical. She got out her diary and began to write in it.
Dear Diary
I wish that Sandy
“Nothing is happening,” said Tony.
“Any moment now, Sandy
But nothing happened…
“Why did you wake us up, Amber?” asked Daniel in a bothered tone.
“Come on guys, let’s go back to bed,” said Sam quite rudely.
They all went back to bed, Amber climbed into her bed very confused, and so she sat up the whole night thinking. Finally she realized why her wish had not been granted. She planned to tell her siblings the next morning.
Chapter 5
The next morning was a Saturday. After breakfast, Amber casually explained to her siblings why her wish had not been granted last night.
“Guys, I found out why my wish did not come true last night.” said Amber.
“Why?” said Tony plainly.
“I simply forgot to put a full stop”
Amber took out her diary from her backpack next to her and punctuated her wish.
Suddenly Sandy
“Sthop…, sthop,” begged Sandy
“I think that she is trying to say stop, stop,” said Sam helpfully.
“Okay, okay, I will just erase it with my eraser,” replied Amber.
As soon as Amber erased her wish, Sandy
“Don’t ever do that again!” shouted Sandy
“Fine, I just did that to prove to all of you that I was not being dishonest,” said Amber.
“Don’t worry Amber, We believe you,” said Tony astonished.
“Daniel, are you okay?” asked Sam.
Daniel was looking a bit faint and all he could say was, “wow”.
Chapter 6
After two hours of experimenting with the diary, the children began to build up an appetite. One of their adventures was when they wished the whole ocean in their back yard and had a swimming contest to hunt and find the most starfish. The winner of the game was Daniel. Another one of their adventures was fighting against each other with swords, but the tricky part was fighting while riding an invisible horse. (Sandy
“That was great! Life is so much better now that we have this amazing diary,” exclaimed Tony.
Tony sat on the couch in the lounge. Soon the others joined him.
“Amber, I want ice-cream. Wish for ice-cream,” begged Sandy
“No problem,” said Amber.
Amber took out her diary and began to write in it.
Dear Diary
I wish for five portions of ice-cream.
“Look there, it’s on the table,” said Sandy
Sure enough, on the table next to Tony, were five bowls each filled to the top with delicious ice-cream. They all run to the table and started guzzling down the ice-cream.
“Hmmm, yummy,” said Sandy
“Amber, I just thought of something, we could wish mom and dad back to life using this diary,” said Sam.
Sam was usually the one to come up with genius ideas. “The dairy said that it is not permitted to wish back the dead,” said Amber sadly.
“So it is still possible,” said Sam.
“I guess,” replied Amber.
“Let’s try to wish our parents back, PLEASE,” pleaded Daniel.
“What if the diary stops granting wishes?” asked Amber.
“It’s worth the risk,” said Tony.
“Well… okay,” agreed Amber.
Amber took out her diary and began to write in it, even though she felt that this would be the last time she would be writing in this extraordinary diary.
Dear Diary
I wish that my parents would come back to life.
“The dairy is gone,” said Sam.
“Oh, no,” cried Daniel.
“Don’t worry Sandy
“You know what, Tony, You are absolutely right,” agreed Amber.
“So we can still have loads of fun just being together,” said Tony.
“Now you are talking my language,’ said Daniel suddenly feeling much better.
All of them giggled at Daniel’s response.
Sandy, Daniel, Sam, Amber and Tony were never unhappy again.
Chapter 7
The next day was a Saturday and everyone woke up early to clean up the mess caused by the explosion of the diary from the previous day. Today was the day that the Agnes, the caregiver, was going to pay the Smith family a visit. When the door bell rang everything was neat and tidy. The Smith family dusted the remaining dirt of their clothes and opened the door for Agnes. Agnes was chubby lady was orange hair. She was extremely strict, but she was pleased was with how well the house was maintained. She left stating that she would return in four weeks time to inspect the house again. As time passed they got used to making sure the house was hygienic and clean every month.
Chapter 8 (six years later)
The Smith family still manages to keep the house clean and tidy, for their caregiver Agnes is extremely strict. Amber is now is her last year of college. Tony has a job and will be moving to his own humble, little flat in a couple of weeks. Sandy, Daniel and Sam are still their same old silly selves.
THE END
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