Grateful for friends Unforgettable 85 stories of friendship

Author: Shi Gang
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 was extremely resource-poor, with its only source of income being the difficult and continuous fundraising efforts toward the residents of the city. There was very little food in the orphanage, but even though the children were often hungry or full at different times, there was always a bit more food available during Christmas, and the children were also warmer to live in. Moreover, during this time, a festive holiday atmosphere always hung over the orphanage. Of course, most importantly, there was always a Christmas pomelo there! Christmas was the only time of the year when exquisite food was provided, and every child regarded 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 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 even notice this. By the time he realized it, it was too late. The punishment was unavoidable, and the nature of the punishment was unexpected and merciless—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 a whole year, he couldn’t get it. Jack, tears in his eyes, begged for forgiveness and promised never to bring mud into the orphanage again, but it was no use. 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. Maybe, they were afraid he would ruin their only day of happiness. Maybe, he wondered 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 pomelo with him. All that day, 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 no matter how hard he tried. How would he say his prayers? He knelt down on the cool and hard floor, whispering softly, praying to God to end all the suffering in the world for him and people like him. When Jack stood up from the floor and climbed back to 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 thing 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 shell made of pieced-together 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 pomelo 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