The Day Everyone’s Feelings Got Hurt

Once there was a little boy who asked a little girl if she wanted to play, but the little girl said, “No,” and the little boy’s feelings got hurt.

A few minutes later, another little boy asked him to play, but because his feelings were still hurt, he didn’t even hear the question, and so this other little boy got upset and yelled, “Well, fine then. I don’t want to play with you either!”

A little while later, another little girl asked the angry little boy to play, but all he could say was, “Go away,” because his feelings were still hurt, and the little girl started to cry.

Then another girl walked over to comfort her, but she was so afraid this new girl was going to be mean that she cried for her mommy, and this new girl got upset.

Then, a little boy asked this upset little girl if she wanted to play and she thought about it and said, “No,” because she was afraid she might have misunderstood the question. And so on and so forth until every little boy and every little girl in the whole wide world was upset.

Eventually, a new little girl arrived at the playground and noticed a sad little boy all alone. The little girl asked if he wanted to play, but the boy shook his head no, because his feelings had just been hurt by someone else.

But instead of getting upset, this little girl decided to do something different. She asked him a question. “Is there something wrong?” she asked the boy. “Are you upset? You look upset.”

And the little boy nodded yes.

And so she asked, “Do you need a friend?”

And the little boy nodded yes again.

And so they played and played until some other boys and girls asked if they could play too. And they said, “Yes, of course you can!”

And pretty soon every boy and every girl in the whole wide world were playing together again.

The End.

-JLK