Little Boy

A touching story and A good reminder : " Take time to appreciate what youHave now."

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On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to go toThe supermarket to buy the remaining of the gift I didn'tManage to buy earlier.
When I saw all the people there, I started to
Complain to myself," It is going to take forever here and I still have soMany other places to go.
Christmas really is getting more and more annoying

Every year. How I wish I could just lie down, go to sleep and only wakeUp after it..."

Nonetheless, I made my way to the toy section, andThere I started to curse the prices, wondering if after all kids reallyPlay with such expensive toys.


While looking in the toy section, I noticed a smallBoy of about 5 years old, pressing a doll against his chest.He kept on touching the hair of the doll and looked So sad. I wondered who was this doll for.

Then the little boyTurned to the old woman next to him, " Granny, are you sure I don't haveEnough money?"


The old lady replied, " You know that you don't haveEnough money to buy this doll, my dear."Then she asked him to stay here for 5 minutes whileShe went to look around. She left quickly.


The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.


Finally, I started to walk toward him and I asked himWho did he want to give this doll to." It is the doll that my sister loved most and wantedSo much for this Christmas. She was so sure that Santa Claus would Bring it to her."


I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus will bring itTo her, after all, and not to worry.


But he replied to me sadly. " No, Santa Claus can notBring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to myMother so that she can give it to her when she goes there." His eyes Were so sad while saying this. " My sister has gone to be with God. Daddy saysThat Mummy will also go to see God very soon, so I thought that she Could bring the doll with her to give it to my sister."


My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up atMe and said, " I told daddy to tell mummy not to go yet. I asked himTo wait until I come back from the supermarket. "


Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where heWas laughing. He then told me, " I also want mummy to take this photoWith her so that she will not forget me." I love my mummy and I wish She doesn't have to leave me but daddy says that she has to go to be With my little sister."

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, veryQuietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and took a few notesAnd said to the boy, "What if we checked again, just in case if you Have enough money?"
" Ok," he said. " I hope that I have enough."

I added some of my money to his without him seeing

And we started to count it. There was enough for the doll, and even Some spare money.

The little boy said, " Thank you God for giving meEnough money."


Then he looked at me and added, " I asked yesterdayBefore I slept for God to make sure I have enough money to buy this dollSo that mummy can give it to my sister. He heard me." " I also Wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mummy, but I didn'tDare to ask God too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll andThe white rose."

" You know, my mummy loves white rose."A few minutes later, the old lady came again and I Left with my trolley. I finished my shopping in a totally Different state from when I started. I couldn't get the little boy out of my Mind.


Then I remembered a local newspaper article 2 daysAgo, which mentioned of a drunk man in a truck who hit a carWhere there was one young lady and a little girl.

The little girl diedRight away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had To decide whether to pull the plug on the life-assisting machine, Because the young lady would not be able to get out of the coma. Was this the family of the little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, IRead in the newspaper that the young lady had passed away. I couldn't stop myself and went to buy a bunch of White roses and I went to the mortuary where the body of the young Woman was exposed for people to see and make last wish before burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her Hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her Chest.

I left the place crying, feeling that my life had Been changed forever. The love that this little boy had for hisMother and his sister is still , to that day, hard to imagine. And in A fraction of a second, a drunk man had taken all this away from him.

With Luv

"Neha Kotwal"