Gratitude for Friends - 85 Unforgettable Friendship Stories

Author: Teng Gang / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Nine-year-old Jack has messy brown hair and a pair of angelic blue eyes. Jack has lived in an orphanage since he was a child. There were only ten children there, and Jack was one of them. The orphanage had very limited resources, with its only source of income being the difficult and continuous fundraising efforts among the residents of the city. There was very little food in the orphanage, but even though the children were often hungry, there was always a little more food available during Christmas, and the children also lived a bit warmer. Moreover, during this time, the orphanage was always filled with a festive atmosphere. Of course, most importantly, there were always pomelos for Christmas! Christmas is the only time of the year when exquisite food is provided, and every child treats the Christmas pomelo as a treasure, as if there were no other food in the world that tasted better. They would caress it with their hands, feeling its cool and smooth surface, while praising it and slowly savoring its sweet and sour juice. Truly, it was the Christmas light for every orphan and the only Christmas gift they could receive. Therefore, one can imagine how immense the joy Jack would feel when he received his gift! However, the day before Christmas, Jack accidentally stepped in a puddle of mud somewhere and didn’t even realize it. He walked into the orphanage through the front door, leaving a long trail of muddy footprints on the newly laid carpet. Worse still, he didn’t notice this at all. By the time he realized it, it was too late. The punishment was inevitable, and the punishment was unexpected and ruthless—Jack would not receive his Christmas pomelo! It was the only gift he could receive from the cold world he lived in. But after waiting for his Christmas pomelo for an entire year, he would not get it. Jack, tears in his eyes, pleaded for forgiveness and promised never to bring mud into the orphanage again, but it was useless. He felt a helpless and abandoned sense of despair. That night, Jack cried all night long while lying on his pillow. On Christmas Day, he felt empty and lonely inside. He thought the other children didn’t want to be with a child who had been punished so cruelly. Perhaps, they were afraid he would ruin their only day of happiness. Or perhaps, he guessed in his heart that the gap between him and his friends was because they were afraid he would ask them to share a little of their pomelos with him. All day long, Jack stayed in the cold bedroom upstairs. Like a freezing puppy, he curled up under his only blanket, miserably reading a story about a family that was exiled to a deserted island. As long as Jack had a family that truly cared about him, he didn’t mind spending the rest of his life on a deserted island. Unfortunately, it was time to sleep, but Jack couldn’t fall asleep. How would he say his prayers? He knelt down on the cool and hard floor, whispering softly, praying that God would end all the suffering in the world for him and people like him. When Jack stood up from the floor and climbed back into his bed, a soft hand gently touched his shoulder. He was startled. Then, something was gently placed in his hand. The person who gave him the gift didn’t say a word and silently left the room, leaving the bewildered Jack in the dark. Jack held the object in his hand up to the dim light and saw that it looked like a pomelo! But it wasn’t an ordinary, smooth, and perfectly shaped pomelo. It was a special pomelo, a very special pomelo. Inside a pomelo rind pieced together from pomelo fragments, there were nine pomelo segments of different sizes. It was a complete pomelo made for Jack! The other nine children in the orphanage had each donated a segment from their own precious pomelos to form a complete one, as a Christmas gift for Jack! At that moment, Jack’s tears flowed like rain. It was the most beautiful and delicious Christmas pomelo he had ever received. P4-5