A Children's Tale.

A Children's Tale.

Once there was a young girl with beautifull blonde hair. She was very pretty, but in a way that was different from how other girls were pretty. One day she met a boy that instantly fell in love with her.
Now this boy obviously liked her a lot, but he remembered what some wise grown-ups said once to him about girl: Do not rush.

He did not know WHY they told him not to rush, but it felt right so he listened • He waited for a month before going to her home and ringing her door-bell. She agreed to hang out and play with him and his best friend. He had known his best friend for five years. He was incredibly happy, looking for-
ward to showing his best friend the pretty girl he found and loved.

But when he introduced the girl to his best friend, the girl liked the boy's best friend more than she liked the boy • The boy felt this to be true, but he did not think much of it. He knew that his best friend would be loyal, and they would all have a good time. Besides: He knew that he loved the girl, and she loved him. How else could she have known he loved her, if he could not know she loved him? She did not have

special powers he did not, and besides he made sure to make it Øbvious to her that he loved her. He did not know YET that she knew, but he knew that it would be a matter of time before they discussed it.
Besides: If he loved her, she must love him, for why else would he feel such a way?
It would only be fair.

Imagine the boy's disappointment when he saw the girl ignore him.
She only wanted to talk to his best friend and play with him. The boy did not worry • He knew that the girl was just shy. And his friend was being nice. He knew that his friend was just trying to cheer her up and make her feel well come. His best friend had the boy's best interests at heart. He wanted the boy to be happy. He wanted them all to have a good time.

Or so he thought.

The next day, the boy's best friend and the girl got to-
gether to play.
The best friend invited the boy, but the boy got the funny feeling that the best friend did not really want the boy to play with them • The boy brushed it off. He knew that his best friend was loyal. Or so he thought.

The boy that day had to help some younger kids play a game.
So he let his best friend hang out with the beautiful blonde girl alone.

Two days later, the boy de-
cided to invite both of his friends, his best friend and the girl, to his parents' house.
He still lived at home because he was a kid, though some times grown ups still live with their parents too.

Imagine the boy's disappointment.
Rather than the three of them having fun, the girl and the best friend were mean to him.
When ever he tried talking to the girl, she started talking to his best friend, or other wise she only spoke in small sentences and like she was not interested at all.
When he tried talking to his best friend, he too either ignored him or shot down every thing the

boy said. When the boy expressed a point of view, saying what be thought was true, or telling them an idea, his best friend only told him he was wrong. But when the girl said what SHE thought, his best friend all ways agreed with him! And when the boy tried to talk about some thing with the girl, hoping they might Both agree on some thing,
again she would say some thing short,
like she did not want to talk to him, and look away • Usually at his best friend.

They went out side to play.
But rather than playing to -
gether, the best friend and the girl only talked to one an other! They did not so much as look at the boy!
So finally the boy sat down on a bench. He had a nose bleed. His head was spinning.
They did not care. And he watched them walk away.

Part of the boy's mind said:
This is not right. This can't be happening. She loves me. And he is my best friend.
But an other part said:
You should have known. He likes her • She likes him. You love her.
But she does not love you.
And then a third voice said:
He betrayed me! He does not love her! He stole her away! And he likes her more than he likes me!
Even though he just met her.

The boy's 'best friend' did not turn out REALLY to be a (very good) friend at all •

They boy could have gone home.
But he loved the girl and cared about his best friend too much.
The first voice in his head still said: He will not do any thing •
So he found them. And he saw that they were holding hands.
They walked back to the boy's house, because they left their toys

out side it. They could tell that the boy was very sad. He was miserable! But the best friend was happy • And the girl did not seem to care.

They said to him: Good night!
as he closed his parents' gate behind him. He hesitated. Then the girl said: Thank you for inviting us! The best friend chuckled.
And the boy said: Sure. He turned

to go home, and the last thing that he heard from them that night was laughter.
He knew that they were laughing at him. What could be so funny? That he was feeling worse than he had ever felt before in his life?
Even if they did not know it,
or would not admit it, they were laughing in spite of him, and there fore at him.

[end of chapter•]

*Ch. II.*

The boy never talked to his 'best friend' again. After a while,
the best friend stopped playing with the girl. The girl got mad because he did not love her.
She thought at first that boys were just naturally like him: They tended to be more interested in toys than in girls, and they only played with girls when they felt like it • But then she real-
ised the best friend never loved her.

She felt awful • She never felt this bad before in her life.
Or at least not so often.
She had been happy for a while • Or at least she thought she was. Before she met either of the two boys she wanted to run away or to jump off a building • She thought that the boy she chose, the best friend, would make her happy. So she did not want to

do those awful pointless things for a while. She tried to make the best friend happy so that he would love her. But it was no use. Even if he was happy with her he did not love her. At best she felt like she was just one of his toys. She felt bad that she had not chosen the other boy, the one that she first met • Then she wondered why she liked

his best friend so much. She figured that God or some one else wanted her to choose him. And then she got angry at the first boy not for warning her! But then how could he? He thought that his best friend would not hold her hand. How could he have known? But she did not know this. How could SHE have known?

She figured that the boy did not warn her and that she chose his best friend for the same reason: *God* or some other force WANTED her to choose him.
And she hated the first boy for trying to change her mind. She hated him for blaming the best friend. If SHE made the right choice, why was his best friend to blame? The best friend must have been perfect for her. But why did he not love her? She

could not understand it.
Again she felt miserable.
She wanted to die again.

[end of chapter ii•]

*Ch • III •*

The best friend did not understand what he had done wrong • HE had liked her • She liked him. What did it matter if she wanted to hold HIS hand,
and not his friend's?
He thought of what his Mother would say: She did not Have

to hold the first boy's hand. Of course. And since the boy's Mother was his only authority on what any one HAD to do or not to do,
he believed her. But did his former friend HAVE to still be his friend? It did not make sense. He could not figure it out. Why did he feel like he had done some thing wrong?
His 'best friend' was mad at him.
Was he right? It did not occur to him that his best friend did not

HAVE to NOT be mad at him. His feelings of being mad and hating him were at least just as real as the liking that the second boy felt for the girl, wanting to play with her and hold her hand. And they were just as real as the girl's feelings, especially when she chose to hold the boy's hand. So who was right? And why the fuss?

The boy's Mother could not answer that, so he decided to ask the Wisest Man he Knew. He visited the home of this kindly old man and his wife.

'Well, of course,' said the old man after the boy told him his story. 'He loved her. That was why he was unhappy. Did you KNOW that he loved her?'
'Yes,' said the boy. ' Well, all most.'

'Did you SEE that your friend was unhappy?'
'Yes,' admitted the boy,
frowning. Then he got an
idea: 'But she chose me!
Does that not make it
right?'
And the old man's wife laughed.
' If your mother had chosen
to hold your brother's hand, and not yours, would that be right?'

'No,' admitted the boy's best friend, even though he did not have a brother.

dm.*A.A.*