When Jessica met Jennie...

The yellow school bus came to a halt in front of the big, white house at four-fifteen in the afternoon. 5-year-old Jessica stepped out of the bus, with an orange school bag on her back and a tiny white water bottle in her hand. Her friends waved at her through the windows. ‘Bye-bye, Jessica.’ She turned round and waved back, smiling. The bus driver smiled at her, shifted the gear, and drove on.

Boo boo the Labrador was already waiting for her at the gate, sticking his tongue out and wagging his tail. The moment Jessica opened the gate Boo boo put his limbs on her tiny shoulders and started licking her face. Jessica giggled and patted his head. Both of them went inside, with Boo boo in the front, leading the way to the little princess.

‘Grandma!’

‘Hello, darling. How was school?’ said Jessica’s grandma, pinching her cheeks.

‘It was nice. You know our teacher made me the class monitor today,’ she said, placing her bag on a nearby table.

‘Really? How wonderful!’

‘And there is an elocution competition on Monday. I have to tell a story to the whole class.’

‘You’ll win of course. You know so many stories, don’t you?’

‘I do. But I have to say it with proper hand-gestures and voice modulation. I don’t know what voice modulation is,’ Jessica said everything in one breath.

‘Your mother will teach you that, don’t worry. She used to win a lot of prizes in school. So have you decided on any story?’

‘David and Goliath,’ said Jessica.

‘Fantastic,’ said her grandma.

***

Jessica was having her evening snack – cake and milk – when Jessica’s mother, Mrs Howard, returned from work. Jessica left the table and ran toward her mother.

‘Mom!’

‘Hello, sweetheart, how was school?’ Jessica’s mother asked.

‘I’m participating in elocution competition on Monday,’ said Jessica, looking up.

‘Wow! Which story do you want to tell your friends?’

‘David and Goliath. Will you teach me?’

‘Of course, my dear. It’s still Friday. We have plenty of time to learn.’

‘And I am the class monitor,’ said Jessica, jumping on the couch with a “blup.”

‘That’s fantastic,’ said her mother, sitting next to her and kissing her on the cheek.

***

‘Once upon a time the Philistine army had waged a war against the Israelites…’ began Jessica’s mother. ‘Standing for the Philistines, Goliath threatened the Israelites…’

Jessica listened to the story once again as if she was listening to it for the first time: she widened her eyes, covered her mouth with her tiny hands, ‘Wow!’ she cried from time to time. When the story was over Mrs Howard asked Jessica to tell the story – with hand-gestures and proper expressions and voice modulation. ‘Give proper pauses, lower your voice and stress the words whenever needed,’ her mother said. ‘Give a pause after “once upon a time,” stress the phrase “waged a war…”’

Jessica tried to emulate her mother, but to no avail. She frowned when she went wrong. ‘Oh, don’t worry. You’ll get it right. Now let’s try again…’ said her mother.

Jessica practiced till eight o’clock. ‘All right, my dear. Time to have supper,’ said her mother. They were just about to get up when they heard a voice: ‘What’s my darling doing?’

‘Dad!’ cried Jessica, jumping up from the floor, and ran toward her dad.

‘I am going to tell a story to the whole class on Monday. And I am the class monitor now,’ said Jessica.

‘Oooh, that’s marvelous!’ said her father and picked her up.

‘Mom is teaching me elocution. I am going to tell the story of David and Goliath.’

‘Excellent, excellent. May I hear it once?’

‘We are going to have supper first,’ said Jessica’s mother. ‘Story time is afterwards.’

Together the four of them sat for supper. ‘By the way, I have got something for you,’ said Jessica’s father.

‘Oh, come on now. Couldn’t you have said it after supper?’ said Jessica’s mother.

‘Really?’ said Jessica. ‘What is it?’

‘After supper, my dear. I promise,’ said her father.

It was always a challenge for Mrs Howard to make her daughter eat her food. Mr Howard, upon telling Jessica about the present, only made it worse. ‘That’s enough. I’m done with supper,’ said Jessica, every once in a while. Mrs Howard shot a glance at her husband. Mr Howard threw up his hands in the air as if saying he was sorry.

Finally when they had finished eating their supper, Jessica followed her dad everywhere. The good humored Mr Howard teased her by walking up and down the house without any reason. Mrs Howard couldn’t help smiling. ‘Oh, that’s enough. Show it to her already. It’s not funny to tease her like that.’

‘All right. Here it is,’ said Mr Howard, opening his bag.

Jessica stood in front of him as he took out an iPad.

‘But that’s yours,’ said Jessica, her eyes sad.

‘Yes. But what’s inside it is yours,’ he said as he ran an application: iStoryTree.

Jessica sat next to him and leaned towards the screen. ‘What is it?’

‘You shall see.’

And as the story of Crab and Crane started Jessica got transported into a different world altogether. She sat still, becoming numb to her surroundings. Her grandmother once asked her: ‘What is it, darling?’ Jessica neither heard it nor responded. Her expressions changed from time to time, depending upon the rhythm of the narration and the animations and the sounds.

It was only when the narration was over did Jessica take her eyes off the screen. She turned to look at her dad. ‘How is it?’ he asked.

Jessica could only laugh. Nicknamed as “Chatter Box” by everyone, Jessica didn’t have any words to say this time. Her dad taught her to explore other options in the application. She did; and she clapped and danced and laughed in delight.

Finally when Jessica came across the feature, “Avatar,” it was a different game entirely. Standing in the middle of her colorful bedroom, Avatar Jennie narrated the whole story, with apt expressions, hand-gestures and proper voice modulation. Jessica listened to 8-year-old Jennie a couple of times without uttering a word. ‘It’s time to bed, Jessica,’ said her mother thrice. Jessica didn’t hear it at all. Jessica’s father, who seemed to have been engrossed in Avatar Jennie’s narration, got a nudge from his wife.

 

‘Oh, right. Jessica, darling, it’s time to go to bed. You can listen to it tomorrow.’

Jessica gave the iPad back to her father unwillingly, and said, ‘Mom, is this how elocution is done?’

‘Exactly. That’s how it is done,’ said her mom.

‘Wow!’ said Jessica.

Mrs Howard understood the implication. She said to her husband when Jessica went to bed, ‘Did you have to bring it now? I was teaching her elocution skills myself. You bought that thing and spoiled my impression. You stole my thunder, you know.’

Mr Howard broke into a peal of laughter. Mrs Howard joined him a moment later.

***

The following day, as guessed by everyone, Jessica didn’t ask her mom to teach her storytelling at all. She got busy with iStoryTree’s Avatar Jennie. It was during lunch time, after having listened to Jennie over twenty times, that Jessica announced she was going to narrate the story of Crab and Crane instead of David and Goliath. Her parents were not surprised.  

For the next one and a half days Jessica listened to Jennie and practiced the art of storytelling. Her mom once suggested her to practice by standing in front of the mirror. Jessica did and found it very useful. Jennie, although a fictional character, seemed to be real to Jessica; such was the impact the Avatar had created on the little girl. As Jennie narrated the story, Jessica imitated the expressions and learned the story by heart.

***

On Monday morning the yellow school bus arrived at eight on the dot. With her orange school bag on the back, Jessica was ready. Her parents and her grandmother wished her luck for the elocution competition. They could see confidence in her smile. Boo boo nuzzled against Jessica, wagging his tail. She patted his head, hugged him once, and trotted off toward the school bus.

The competition began at ten in the morning. Little boys and girls had come prepared with colorful stories. Jessica eagerly waited for her turn. And when her turn came, she went up the stage with conviction and gave a performance that her teachers defined as “fine and delicious.”

After having witnessed a lot of good performances, Jessica was surprised when she won the first place. Her parents, however, were not. After all, they had seen how Jennie had trained her to perfection.

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