{"id":5829,"date":"2019-04-22T08:46:03","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T08:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/phillippines?p=5829"},"modified":"2019-04-22T08:46:03","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T08:46:03","slug":"story-by-a-contestant-16-the-unusual-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/story-by-a-contestant-16-the-unusual-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Story By A Contestant (#16): The Unusual Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5830 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/phillippineswp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/04_13_19-6.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"820\" height=\"312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/04_13_19-6.png 820w, https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/04_13_19-6-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/04_13_19-6-768x292.png 768w, https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/04_13_19-6-125x48.png 125w, https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/04_13_19-6-75x29.png 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 820px) 100vw, 820px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It was a dark and stormy night, a young man was running out in the cold, trying to seek shelter. That man\u2019s name was Christian Jawhawk. He was a very mysterious man others would say, but you\u2019ll never know chances of something quite unexpected. He was starting to loose hope, thinking that he\u2019s gonna be stuck in this awful downpour, but wait, what\u2019s that around the corner? An old mansion that\u2019s what. He hurried up the steps of the huge house, there he found himself at the front of two large gates. He couldn\u2019t just stay out there in the cold, so he knocked three times and small hatch opened around the corner of his eyes. He swept down to the open hatch and to his surprise, he saw a cockatoo staring into his deep, brown eyes. Christian spoke, \u201cMy, my! Such a beautiful, white bird I see. Who would dare leave alone such a creature like you!\u201d Suddenly the parrot giggled and said \u201cThank you for the compliment, I am quite the razzle-dazzle myself aren\u2019t I? What a man of good taste! I\u2019ll let you in.\u201d Christian slipped and the weird, talking parrot flew out from sight. Then the gates opened with one big creak. Christian, with much shock in his eyes, out from the cold slowly crawled inside. Once he got in, the gates slammed into place. Christian was getting chiller. He couldn\u2019t see anything. The atmosphere was very eerie which gave him shivers down his spine, the room was darken than the sky he was under before and the dead cold silence, making him feel uneasy. Then, without any sound of someone flipping a switch, chandeliers started light up one by one. Amazed by the sight, the room was beautiful. Two curved staircases and hard railing made of shiny silver, the flooring made of marble and quartz, not a single spot tainted its gleam, a fountain made of gold which sprouted the purest of water chandeliers beautiful and delicate, giving the room a nice slice of light and red carpets along the floor. Christian thought he was dreaming and decided to pinch himself, having to sting, he realized this was reality. Then the talking parrot came fluttering along and sat on his shoulder. \u201cLike it? To bad this place is going down soon.\u201d Christian jumped, the parrot flew and laughed. \u201cIs this your first time seeing a talking parrot? Must be. Anyways, what makes you come here to this old place ha?\u201d Christian answered. \u201cI was looking for shelter because of the rain.\u201d \u201cOh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then the parrot answered yet again. \u201cNope! That\u2019s not what you\u2019re really seeking for! What your seeking for is a family am I right?\u201d \u201cW-what!? How\u2019d you know? Can you read minds?\u201d \u201cYes you middle-aged man! I don\u2019t mean to shout, its just that I haven\u2019t seen anyone came here since four decades ago.\u201d \u201cFour decades!?\u201d \u201cYes, decades it is mate. So tell me, why are you so deeply tested huh?\u201d \u201cYou mean depressed?\u201d \u201cYup. Let me guess\u2026 You have a late family don\u2019t you?\u201d Christian slowly lowered his head and nodded. \u201cYou poor thing! I have an idea!\u201d The parrot flew off and soon came back ten minutes later with a book. It was very dusty. The parrot told Christian to catch the book and so was done. \u201cFulfill your wishes using this book, it might make you feel better. Just hold the book with both your bare hands and wish for what you want.\u201d But then Christian dropped the book. \u201cHey! What was that for!?\u201d \u201cUsing a book that can grant wishes? That\u2019s pretty much cheating right? Its very unfair.\u201d The parrot was somehow pleased by his words. \u201cWell, you ain\u2019t getting wishes but you are getting the mansion. \u201cI don\u2019t need it. I don\u2019t wanna leave you homeless but I guess I could make one wish.\u201d Christian picked up the book and wished. \u201cI wish for my new parrot friend to not be lonely and that his home shall not be destroyed so that he can go along with his happy living.\u201d The parrot started to weld up tears and said. \u201cSuch a good man you are! You\u2019re kind and fair! I hope you will remember me and I shall remember you.\u201d And then everything stopped. \u201cOh dad please continue the story! Its super nice!\u201d My children pleaded, if your wondering what happened then I was just telling a tale about my old dream. I said to my kids. \u201cWhy so interested in such a boring fairytale?\u201d \u201cBecause it\u2019s nice!\u201d Nicholas said. \u201cI want two parrots now.\u201d Helen screeched. I chuckled. \u201cIsn\u2019t that a bit to much?\u201d \u201cNo! One for me and one for Nicks.\u201d \u201cHaha! I\u2019ll ask your mother about it.\u201d Then I heard footsteps entering the room. There I saw my beautiful angel, Lucy. Her blue eyes, raven-black hair, fair skin, her black dress and her wonderful wings are just lovely. \u201cHun, the kids want a parrot, can we buy one?\u201d \u201cWhy have a bird when you already have a big one!\u201d And she tackled us all, starting a tickle fight. I\u2019m very happy I have a family but I didn\u2019t forget that silly parrot. Soon years will pass, and I\u2019d like to hear amazing stories from my kids when they get older. Well, I couldn\u2019t say more than this.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>This short story was written during the Young Authors Competition on April 13, 2019 held at UEC Batangas City.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; It was a dark and stormy night, a young man was running out in the cold, trying to seek shelter. That man\u2019s name was Christian Jawhawk. He was a very mysterious man others would say, but you\u2019ll never know chances of something quite unexpected. He was starting to loose hope, thinking that he\u2019s gonna [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[93],"tags":[88,95,94,96],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5831,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829\/revisions\/5831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinekhoo.sg\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}