Short Story 6

Xiao Zhuang and The World Sweets Day

One day, when Xiao Zhuang had finished her Yamaha class at Thomson Plaza, she came across the "sweet" expending machine.

"Daddy, can I play with the sweet machine?" she asked.

"I am sorry, but I have no coins for you to play with the machine." came the reply.

Xiao Zhuang, not feeling disappointed, started to dig into her little pink bag. And after some rummaging, a twinkle appeared in her eyes and in her right hand held a 1-dollar coin.

"Can I play with it now?" she was telling her daddy more than seeking approval.

Daddy nodded and Xiao Zhuang immediately slotted the coin into the machine. Some lights and music came on and she struck the stop button. The electronic number scrambled from 1 to 5 repeatedly and finally came to a stop at number 3.

Thereafter, 3 sweets were dispensed one at the time. All this while, Xiao Zhuang was attracted by all the moving parts and sounds rather than the interest in eating the sweets.

"My little one, you have been eating quite a fair amount of sweet recently. This is not good for your teeth and your health too. Would'nt you like to share them with others?" Daddy asked her in the attempt to get her reduce her "sweet intake".

"But I have only 3 sweets, I cannot possibly share with many other people, right?" rebutted the little fellow.

"Well, if you are willing to give a try, we may be able to do it. Do you want to try?" challenged daddy.

"Well, teacher Isabel always say "The most important thing is you try." So, why not?" replied Xiao Zhuang, albeit there was a slight sense of reluctance.

So both of them when outside of Thomson Plaza where daddy took out the magic box. When he opened the box, Xiao Zhuang saw him pulling out a water hose and a magnifying glass.

"What do these things have to do with sharing sweets with others" wondered Xiao Zhuang.

Daddy connected the water hose to the tap and asked Xiao Zhuang to turn on the tap. Soon, water came sprinkling out of the hose. Daddy pointed the water spray into the sky, where the sun was shining brightly. Using the magnifying glass, the water spray was magnified many times and the water is now spraying to high into the sky! This is not ordinary magnifying glass, it did not make things look big, but rather make them big, really!

In a few minutes, many rainbows appeared in the sky. Just like Xiao Zhuang's favourite number at this age, there were exactly "One Hundred" rainbows in the sky. Making the world appear wonderfully colourful.

"Pass me the sweets." Daddy called out to Xiao Zhuang. Xiao Zhuang passed the sweets to her daddy who immediately used the water hose to pump the 3 sweets into the sky.

The 3 sweets flew into the sky and exploded into millions and millions of pieces, each piece then merged with the rainbows. The rainbows began to disintegrate and floated down onto the ground, in the form and shape of colourful sweets, millions and millions of them!

The colourful sweets covered the roads, on top of cars, rooftops and shelters. Children and adults all over the world were busily catching and picking up these sweets that dropped from the sky.

"Now, there you have it, your sweets being shared with others!" said daddy proudly. "Is there anything that you would like to say to all these people? If you want, you can just say it in your heart and all of them will be able to hear you."

After thinking for a while, Xiao Zhuang nodded her head and closed her eyes.

"Hi everybody, I am Xiao Zhuang. I hope all of you will enjoy these sweets that are shared with you today. Like my daddy and mommy always say, remember that sweets are not healthy foods, we can eat them but eat them in moderation. Also, always brush your teeth after eating them, so that our teeth can be kept clean and strong. So today, even when there are so many sweets, I will only take 3 of them, and only eat 1 at most a day. I hope you will do like what I do."
Xiao Zhuang spoke sincerely in her heart.

"Yes, Xiao Zhuang, we thank you for the sweets and we will do like what you do. Happy World Sweets Day!" came the reply from everybody.

From that day onwards, 7th June was also known as World Sweets Day, when sweets and candies are shared with all.