The Little Things Of Life

Gemma-Rose has a new calculator. It's small and red, just perfect for a girl like her. She wants to put it in a pencil case.

"But I don't have a pencil case," she tells Mum.

"Why don't you look on the craft shelves?" Mum suggests. "There might be one there."

So Gemma-Rose and I comb the shelves. There are paintbrushes, pencils, glue, and pens. But no pencil case for a small red calculator.

"Let's try the chest-of-drawers in the garage," I say. "There might be one in there."

We hurry out to the garage and start rootling around in the drawers. There is even more stuff in the drawers than there was on the shelves. We look through mounds of paper, jars of beads, coloured pencils enough to sink a battleship. But there's still no pencil case for a small red calculator.

Gemma-Rose is disappointed. She has a nice new red calculator, and we can't find a pencil case to put it in so she doesn't lose it. I think very hard. Where could we find one? And then it comes to me.

"Come with me," I say. "I think I might have an old one in my desk."

Gemma-Rose's face brightens. She skips to my room. We hunt through the drawers. And there it is. An old purple pencil case filled with forgotten pens. Quickly I shake out the pens and hand it to Gemma-Rose. A huge smile spreads over her face.

"Thank you!" she cries. "I always loved this pencil case. It's so grown up. Oh, thank you."

I smile a little awkwardly. To tell the truth, I hadn't though about that pencil case for months. Certainly it didn't require much effort to give it to her.

Right now I can see Gemma-Rose threading some ribbon through the zipper of her new second-hand pencil case. She's so delighted with my cast off case. She doesn't care that it's not new. All she knows is that now she has a place to put her lovely new red calculator. And she's very happy. Truly, it's the little things of life that make people happiest.