You may have seen Ella on the television last year. A lady reporter was broadcasting from a festival in Queenstown and Ella popped out of nowhere right beside her.
“Take me home!” screamed Ella and disappeared again. You probably thought it was trickery but Ella really was there and an instant later she was home again. Ella had a secret.
Two Saturdays before, Ella had been to a garage sale with her mother and Ella had five dollars to spend. While her mother was looking at some large items outside, Ella was sorting through the bits and pieces inside the garage to see if there was anything that she would like.
And there was something that she liked. A pair of slippers. Not just any old slippers but the sort that Aladdin would wear. The toes came to a point, lifted up, and pointed backwards like the prow of a boat. They were made of the softest leather and were decorated with beads.
“How much?” Ella asked the garage-sale lady
“Too much for you Sweetheart,”, said the lady, “and there’s something strange about them. My husband brought them home from Egypt. They’re the right size for me but they REFUSE to go on my feet.”
“Can I try them then?” Ella wanted to pretend that she was Aladdin.
“They’re too big for you Lovey,” the woman smiled, “but—O.K.–have a go. It can’t hurt.”
Ella sat on a stool and took off her right shoe. The slipper for the right foot jumped off the floor and onto her foot all by itself.
“Good heavens!!” said the lady. “Look at that!!” Ella took off her left shoe and the left slipper did the same. The slippers then changed in size to fit Ella’s feet and they felt so comfortable.
“Aren’t you afraid?” said the lady. She looked scared.
“They like me,”said Ella.
“They’re magic, they’re dangerous! Take them off and I’ll burn them.” But they wouldn’t come off.
ELLA’S SLIPPERS. Page 2 “Well keep them then!”
As soon as the lady said that, the slippers came off easily. Ella put them in her bag and POOF!! They shrank to doll size. Ella’s mother came in. She’d seen nothing that she wanted.
“Have you bought anything Dear?” she asked.
“No,” said Ella waving her five dollars. She hadn’t actually ‘bought’ anything. The garage-sale lady didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go then,” said her mother.
But where to hide the slippers so that her mother wouldn’t find them? Then she knew. The slippers were now the right size for her old doll in the wardrobe.
But on that scary evening when Ella looked down she found that the slippers had sneaked from the wardrobe and onto her feet and when she had murmured, “Ooh! I wish I was there,” they had taken it to be a command.
The phone rang in the kitchen and her mother who was working there answered it.
“No! It wasn’t Ella on T.V. She’s right here in the lounge.” It was an aunty ringing. But Ella’s mother looked in as soon as she’d put the phone down and could see straight away that something was wrong. Ella confessed. The slippers on her feet were magic. But her mother didn’t believe her and took her hand.
“O.K. my sweet…..Where shall we go?…….How about the top of Mount Everest?” It was her mother’s turn to be shocked. POOF! That’s where they were. Shiverimg in the snow and the cruel wind right on the top of Mount Everest. . Home again and the slippers were safely locked away.
The one thing that Ella had always wanted more than anything else was a sister. Even better a twin sister but that was not to be hoped for and no new sister was likely. Her father now lived in a
ELLAS SLIPPERS Page 3 different town and her mother had not shown the least interest in anyone else.
Ella watched the television ads for African Aid with a particular interest. There were hundreds of African girls who would love to have her as a sister just as much as she would be love to have them. Couldn’t they adopt one of them? But her mother always told her that international adoption was difficult and very expensive.
“We could get to know one of them though.” Ella was thinking of those locked-away slippers.
“I know what you’re thinking. Those slippers of yours, ” said her mother. “That could be very risky. You could never be sure where or to whom those things would take you….Take us, I mean.”
“But I’d tell them exactly what I want. I’d make a list of just what I want. And I’d tell them ’listen carefully to what I’m going to say and don’t do anything until I say ‘GO’’.” Ella was quite serious about it.
“Well. Make your list and then show it to me,” said her mother.
Ella’s list:- She must be a very nice person. Not snarky like some I could name.
She must be poor and need help.
She must be my age. Same birthday if possible.
She must be my size so that we can swap clothes.
She must like the same things that I like.
Ella showed the list to her mother.
“You forgot something important my dear. She must speak English.”
“M-a-r-m! They don’t speak English in Africa.”
“Actually my girl, a lot of them do. In many parts of Africa, English is one of their official languages Nearly everyone speaks it or at least understands it.”
“She can come from anywhere then. Right mum? How about from. What’s that place? Kasala?” And that is exactly where they popped into existence before an astonished Olive Khumalo and her daughter Ivy.
ELLAS SLIPPERS Page 4 There was no longer a Mr. Khumalo and Mrs. Khumalo had taught high school until the education system had collapsed.
“They are still only paying us sixty two thousand dollars a month,” she said.
“Wow!” said Ella. “That much!”
“Wow is right,” said Mrs.Khumalo. “That’s something like a dollar fifty in your money. That’s how worthless our money has become and they keep printing more and more of it to make it worth still less. It’s the same as putting lots more water in the soup pot but no more meat and vegetables. We’ve had to go back to living off our vegie garden.”
Ella and her mother explained that perhaps they could help by having Ivy live with them for part of the year. Mrs. Khumalo looked unsure.
“I’d have to come there and have a look for myself. I mean, I don’t know you people do I? And New Zealand is such a long way away. I’ve got to be sure that I’ll get my daughter back.” So the four of them held hands.
“Take us home,” said Ella but nothing happened except that the slippers squeezed tightly on Ella’s feet. They didn’t like the number of people that they were expected to carry.
“Please slippers…..Pretty please.. .Pretty please with a cherry on the top. Can we go home?” Ella pleaded. And it worked. POOF! They were home.
Ivy now attends school with Ella. They have become closer than sisters, they never ever argue, and Ivy is teaching Ella to speak Swahili so that their girl-secrets remain private. In spite of the big time difference they are constantly backwards and forwards between their two countries. Just POOF! and they’re there and Ella’s mother now has a vegetable stall at the front gate.
“Where do you get these lovely vegies?” people ask. ”AND….out of season too!”
“That’s my secret,” says Ella’s mother and she smiles.
And if you should ever guess Ella’s secret, she will tell you that, while it’s wonderful to have a ELLAS SLIPPERS Page 5 pair of magic slippers, it’s even better to have a really neat sister.