Ramila’s Christmas Wish
Ramila was a little girl in Grade 4 in school but she could barely read. She could write her sentences but found it difficult to pronounce the words. Her mother tried to make Ramila read and she sat with Ramila every day and helped her to read but Ramila was always escaping to the garden playing with her puppy dog Bingo or chasing butterflies. She never would stop and try to read. She was too lazy to try hard to read and only took a book to look at the pictures. She wanted to sing and dance or sit on the garden bench and day dream. Mother even asked Mrs. Kay down the lane to teach Ramila how to read but Ramila always found some excuse and hardly went to learn. Her mother was quite vexed with her.
One morning Ramila was in her garden playing with her puppy. Saturday was the day she had lots of time to play with Bingo. She ran and hid behind a tall tree and Bingo came sniffing and wagging his tail to find her. Then, as she looked towards the gate and the road she saw a young man whizzing past the gate. She ran near her gate and out of it to the road to look. There he was, whizzing by in a pair of roller shoes. Ramila clapped her hand in glee and thought if she had a pair she would go up and down her lane too. How Ramila wished she had roller shoes too. She sat on the garden bench under a shady tree and imagined what she could and would do, if she had them. “That would be my Christmas wish,” Ramila said to herself.
She hung about the gate and as she hoped, the young man came whizzing by. She hollered and stopped him and enquired about the roller shoes and wanted to know where to get them. He asked her name and then he smiled. “I know you, you are the girl who comes to my Mother wanting help to read.” Then Ramila knew who he was.
He was Mrs. Kay’s son who live abroad. He continued to speak saying, “Why don’t you come these days? Mother told me that you try to avoid coming and you are too lazy to read.” Ramila was embarrassed as he was speaking the truth. She tried to
stutter an excuse he said with a gleam in his eye, “Look here, if you can read by Christmas time I will post to you a pair of these shoes.” “Really,” gasped Ramila. “Yes, really,” he said and rolled away.
It was exciting news for Ramila indeed and she ran inside the house and ran to her room and got her books ready. She decided to go that very evening to Mrs. Kay after tea time. She kept to her decision and she went many times a week to Mrs. Kay’s for her lessons. She never did see Mrs. Kay’s son though.
A couple of months passed by and it was the first week of December. Ramila could read very well now. She sadly thought that Mrs. Kay’s son would have forgotten his promise by now as he was so far away. Anyway she was able to read now. She read many stories by herself and it was exciting to read the children’s paper Funday Times which was a favourite with her.
One morning, a bicycle bell rang vigorously near her gate and Ramila ran to the gate see the smiling face of the postman. There he stood by his bicycle and gave a big parcel and she saw her name on it she was surprised. She had to sign a book that the postman gave to take the parcel. She ran with it inside and shouted to her mother. They all came near the dining table to see Ramila reading the address proudly. She read out her name with pride and continued,“95, Rukmal Road, Mirihana” She took the covering papers off carefully and there was a box and she took the lid off. What do you think was there? Of course, there gleamed a bright red pair of roller shoes inside. She reverently took them out and gasped, “He never forgot.” “Who,” asked her mother and Ramila recounted her story.
At the end of the story, mother said “How kind of him. You must sit and write a thank you note to him at once. His address will be on the parcel cover.” “Yes, yes,” Ramila said excitedly and she put the roller shoes on and whizzed round the dining table to Mama’s disapproval. She asked her mother whether she could take any letter or anything to Mrs. Kay. Mother found her a light box of sweetmeats and Ramila rolled away down the lane to Mrs. Kay’s, holding the box tight in one hand.
So, that’s how Ramila’s Christmas wish came true. It was indeed a familiar sight to see Ramila whizzing by on her lane and sometimes, she also took messages and letters to her neighbours. Most of all she could read well too.