Camel Crazy

The day Daisy fell in the playground, hitting her copper curls against a yellow rock, Daisy stopped dancing. She stopped painting and drawing. She stopped eating cookies and drinking milk and playing on the playground. She even stopped making her bed without being asked. In fact, Daisy stopped doing practically everything.
Daisy grew a bump as large as Alaska on the top of her head, received a big bandage on top of that and was asked to lie calmly in her brass bed until she felt better.
This Daisy did, although she wondered at the camels on her ceiling that hadn't been there before.
Through the next several days Daisy received many colorful camel cards from her classmates, and after a time was allowed to return to school.
When her teacher, Ms. Hayes, suddenly and quite surprisingly began to grow a hump on her back no one else seemed to notice, Daisy grew worried.
She drew a picture of her teacher who now had the face of a camel.
When Ms. Hayes asked, "Do you like to ride horses, Daisy?"
Daisy responded, "This is not a horse, it is a camel. It is you, Ms. Hayes." And then, rather uneasily, Daisy watched the class change…
On Daisy's walk home from school, she no longer saw people in cars. She saw small camels on top of larger camels. Camels with one hump, camels with two humps, camels with three humps and more!
At home, her mother asked, "What did you do in school today?"
Daisy handed her mother the camel picture of Ms. Hayes and went into her room where her very own camels were waiting for her.
It must be my accident that has caused me to see so funny, Daisy thought to herself as she looked up at the ceiling. She touched the bump on her head and tapped her fingers against the flat-backed camel that served as her table.
The next day Daisy went to the shopping mall with her camel mother.
When her mother asked, "Do you like the blue shirt?"
Daisy didn't see a plain blue shirt. She saw a blue shirt with camels on it. And a blue shirt with camels on it was much more exciting than a shirt without them and so Daisy nodded her head, yes.
Daisy's camel mother bought the shirt, and Daisy snickered behind her hand as she watched the camel salesgirl type the numbers into the cash register.
Her camel mother looked at her strangely when Daisy did not accept the slice of pizza or the ice cream cone.
She only asked, "Are you feeling well, Daisy?"
Daisy nodded her head, no, and slowly climbed the one-humped camel for the bumpy ride home.
Back in her room, Daisy gently rubbed her legs. They felt stiff and funny and she could only walk with them far apart.
Suddenly, nothing seemed funny, especially walking.
When her camel mother saw her she laughed. "Been riding a horse?" she asked. Daisy nodded her head, no, and sat on her bed. "I just think I'm tired of riding
camels," she breathed.
"Camels?" her mother asked.
"And seeing them," Daisy whined. "They are everywhere!" Daisy's camel mother smiled.
"I saw camels at school yesterday," Daisy told her. "I saw them on the shirt you bought me today. The pizza was a camel and the ice-cream cone!"
Daisy's camel mother pointed hesitantly at herself.
"Yes, even you are a camel, mother," Daisy said looking at her with tear-filled eyes. "It was fun at first ... but now... "
Daisy's camel mother laughed. "I've been waiting for this day," she said.
"You've always been a imaginative girl. I wondered when you'd discover this for yourself. Let me check your bump."
Daisy's mother ran something like fingers through Daisy's red hair. "Just as I thought," her mother said. "Uh hum ... just as I thought."
"What is it?" Daisy asked.
"Your bump ... it is growing smaller," her mother replied. "Pretty soon, it will be gone."
Daisy looked at her mother. Everything was the same. The long camel hair and
the camel hump. But her mother's hands... they had returned!
"You will think this fumy," her mother said. "When I was about your age I hit my head too. I got a bump on my head as large as Alaska. I received a big bandage, and I had to stay in bed. My imagination ... well, it was just as enormous as yours!
"But my imagination is real!" Daisy breathed. She watched, surprised, as her mother's hairy skin turned back to normal.
Daisy looked up at her ceiling. All that was left were the camel's rumps. "They're going away!" Daisy sang, hugging her mother's changed body.
"Of course," her mother replied, hugging her back. "And when the camels go away you will be able to see and do all the things you used to--even imagine when you want to."
"You mean I don't have to hit my head again? And the camels can come and go whenever I want?"
"Of course. You can even imagine other things when you want to. " Daisy's mother wrapped her arms snugly around Daisy's shoulders. They felt comforting and warm.
Daisy thought with joy about all the things she had loved before the camels had made their surprising appearance. Painting. Drawing. Eating cookies and milk. Playing on the playground and dancing. Even making her bed, because it really did look pretty when it was done. Still, Daisy was sure having an imagination every once and awhile was something she never wanted to give up.
"So, what did you see, when you hit your head, mother?" she asked.
Her mother grinned widely. "You wouldn't believe it," she said.
"Tell me," Daisy prodded.
"Well," said her mother grinning, "I saw whales as large as houses."
"Whales? As large as houses?"
"Hump-backed," her mother added, laughing.
"Hump-backed whales?" Daisy chorused, thinking of her mother then, very quickly, as the funniest whale she'd ever seen.

3rd place - 1998 Oquirrh Writing Contest

Published September 2002 - Parents and Children Together Online