AI generated picture
Tade kicked up some dust as she went around the bend on the tarred road. She could feel her scalp cringe from the scourging sun. What to do? She asked herself. Her father had given her the strange commission of organizing the school's fundraising. That included her running errands and making sure everything needed was provided for the day. She was extremely tired but she kept walking. Regularly covering her face from the rays of the sun with her palm. On the sides of the road were poplar trees full of leaves in spring. She felt relieved as a gentle breeze suddenly blew past and touched her cheeks, blowing back her hair. And closed her eyes for a brief moment to savor the feel. When she opened them, she could see the stationary store from a distance; the shopkeeper seemed to be packing and getting ready to go, so she hastened her footsteps and soon began to sprint. She had to get markers and cardboard for the wall designs and handicrafts. If not, her party was going to be a complete failure.
As she got to the shop, she ran in, almost bumping into the shopkeeper.
“Hello, young lady,” the shopkeeper said, lowering his face to look at her from the top of his glasses. “Can I help you?”
“Please, I need to buy some cardboard and permanent markers.” She said panting from the short sprint.
The shopkeeper smacked his lips and thought for a while before finally speaking, “we were almost closed,” he said. “And I've packed up already, but I guess I can help you with that.”
“Oh thank you!” Tade exclaimed, laughing and sighing out of relief at the same time. She couldn't imagine walking any further to the next shop, she may have soon slumped on the road out of tiredness. Soon, she had gotten the stationeries and was on her way back to the school. She walked, then jumped, giggling out of excitement like a little child. She felt accomplished as she thought of how her party was going to be a smashing one. Then suddenly, her big toe kicked against a hard stone; it was a big rocky stone she had avoided on her way, the first time. She felt the shock wave mingled with a sharp pain coursing through her entire body and screamed as she came crashing to the ground with a big thud. When she looked down at her toe, it was red and trickles of blood ran down the sides.
“Ouch!” She yelped and started crying. She sat up slowly and looked around her, all her cardboards were spewed on the road, some dirtied and some torn. She could see some ink stain on the brown paper bag she had been holding, some markers must have broken, she thought and covered her face with her hand, her body trembling heavily as she wept. What was she going to tell her father and the kids?
While she sat there weeping, a man came whistling and cycling down the road. Tade heard the tires of his bicycle halt as he got to where she was sitting.
“Hello there,” he said touching her shoulders. Tade lifted her eyes, it was the man from the stationary store. She lowered her face and cried more, he reminded her of how much mess she had made. She had disappointed her father and now she didn't even have the money to buy new ones.
The man looked at her for a while and said, “I see there has been a little accident here. Why don't you stop crying, and we can go to the store and get you new cardboard and markers?”
Tade's eyes popped open as she heard that. “But I have no money, sir; I'm only fifteen years old, and I won't be able to pay you back.” She said looking up at the man.
The man smiled and said, “It's okay, kid, let's get you on the bike.”
He cycled back to the store with Tade in front of him, and after treating her wound, he gave her new rolls of cardboard and markers. Tade thanked the man repeatedly and was soon on her way again; this time, she didn't jump or dance or run but walked quietly home, hugging the stationaries to her chest as if protecting them from harm.
