Too Many Things
Sara had a lot of toys, storybooks, clothes and shoes. She had too many things. The reason for this was that she had a lot of relatives. She got gifts on her birthdays, on other special days and also every time a relative visited. Her Aunties and Uncles who were abroad sent gifts through the post as well.
Soon Sara ran out of space to keep all her things. Her room cupboards and shelves were full. There were things on her desk, chair and bed as well. There were things under her bed and all over her room floor. Sometimes she found it hard to even move inside her room.
“You have too many things,” Sara’s father would say.
“You should give away some of your things,” her mother would say.
“Soon the whole house will overflow with your things!” her older brother would often complain.
But Sara never agreed. “They are all my things and I will keep them all!” she always said stubbornly.
One day, Sara’s class teacher made an announcement; “Our class will perform a lullaby for the school concert. Everyone should bring a doll tomorrow to practice for the song and dance.” Everyone got excited because they were not usually
allowed to bring toys to school.
“I am going to bring my dolly with blue eyes and golden hair!” said Vindya.
“My dolly also has blue eyes but her hair is brown,” said Nithya.
“What colour is your dolly’s hair, Sara?” asked Vindya.
“I have so many dolls! They have hair of all the colours you could possibly
imagine!” said Sara.
“How many dolls have you got?”
asked Nithya, her eyes widening.
Sara tried to remember, but she had too
many and it was not easy to count.
“Oh I don’t know… Must be about a hundred!” Sara replied.
“That’s a lie,” said Vindya,
“no one has that many dolls!”
“But I really do,” replied Sara.
“Everyone at home says that I have too many toys!”
Sara’s friends didn’t say anything. “They must be thinking that I am
lying!” thought Sara. “Well I’ll bring different dolls, on different days to rehearse and show them that I am not lying!” she decided.
Sara went home, spent the rest of the day in the usual manner and went to sleep, forgetting all about her
teacher’s request. The next morning while having her breakfast, she
suddenly remembered that she needed to take a doll to school. “Oh no, I have to take a doll to rehearse for the school play!” she shouted and ran into her room. But her messy room had too many things and it was difficult to find anything!
Sara tried to open her cupboard door, but the toys started falling out. So she pushed it all back in and closed the door. She didn’t want to get messy as she was all neat and tidy to go to school. She looked under her bed and found three dolls. One was too small for the rehearsal. Another one had a broken hand and all three of them were too dirty and dusty after being under the bed, untouched for a long time.
Sara heard her school van tooting near their gate.
“Sara, your van is here!” shouted her mother.
“Wait a little, till I find a doll!” shouted back Sara.
“Will you come here or shall we leave without you? All of us will get late,
because of you!” shouted her brother. Sara had no choice but to leave without
a doll.
When Sara went into her class, all of her classmates were laughing and talking, showing-off their dolls.
“Sara, where is your doll?” asked Nithya.
“I couldn’t bring one!” answered Sara.
“But you said that you have more than a hundred dolls. So why didn’t you bring at least one?” Vindya asked.
“I didn’t have time to find one!” said Sara and everyone shook their heads in disbelief. “They probably think I don’t even have one doll!” thought Sara
feeling embarrassed.
“Sara, don’t you want to take part in the school concert? Why didn’t you bring a doll for the rehearsal?” asked her class teacher. Sara felt very sad. She told her teacher everything that happened.
“Well then, go home today and sort-out all your things!” advised her teacher.
Sara nodded her head in agreement.
“Everyone else should also do this today,” the class teacher turned towards the class and said. “Go home and separate the things that you are using and that you really need. Collect everything else that you don’t want, into a bag. We can
organize our next class trip to go to an
orphanage or a rural school with no
facilities and share with those children, your additional toys, storybooks and other things!” Everyone agreed eagerly.
Sara went home and with the help of her mother, started to sort things out.
She was surprised to find some toys, which she couldn’t even remember that she had. Some toys were still in their original packaging, while some of the
storybooks had never even been opened. Soon she had over five big plastic bags, full of toys and other things that she didn’t really want.
That evening Sara had a doll ready to take to school the next day and a very clean room to sleep in. Sara realized that having too many things didn’t really make her happy. But the thought of
having a tidy room and sharing her extra toys with children who didn’t have toys, actually made her feel very excited and happy inside.