(I’ve started posting stories that I make up for my daughter here. This is the second one I’ve written up.)
I took E- to the barber shop to get a haircut. While we were waiting, we started to leaf through a copy of Juxtapoz Magazine that happened to be lying around (it was that kind of barber shop) and came to this picture:
E: (pointing to the blonde cartoon girl) Tell me the story of her!
Me: Well….
The Story of the Plastic Bottle Girl
Once upon a time, in a factory far, far away, a little plastic bottle was born. She was a cheerful little bottle and from the beginning of her life she knew exactly what she wanted to do in the world: she wanted to make people happy.
The little bottle was loaded into a truck with lots of her brothers and sisters and taken to another factory, and something was poured into her. Soon afterward, she was taken to a store and put on a shelf. She didn’t know what was inside her, but she was bursting with excitement: maybe she was full of delicious juice, or sweet perfume, or foamy bubble bath. Whatever it was, she was sure that it would make someone very happy.
Imagine her disappointment when a worried-looking woman came into the store, and bought her and took her home, and into a room where a sick little boy was lying in bed – and the sick little boy looked at her and said: “Ugh! Yucky medicine!â€
That’s right: the little bottle realized that she was full of medicine. The only time she came out of her drawer in the bathroom was when someone was sick, and however much she tried to think sweet thoughts no one was ever happy to see her. For her entire life, the little bottle helped people feel better on many occasions but she never once made anyone smile.
Finally she was empty, and the woman dropped her into the recycling bin full of other empty bottles. “Well, that’s the end of me,†the little bottle thought sadly. “I only wish that once, just once, I could have made someone happy.â€
She was loaded onto a truck with lots of other empty bottles and cans, and taken to a factory. The little bottle was put into a machine and felt herself becoming softer, stretching and changing. Something was stamped onto her. She wasn’t a bottle anymore, she realized. She was… well, she didn’t know what she was.
She was put into a bag and loaded onto another truck, and taken to a different store. But this was a very different store than the first one she’d been in: it was full of brightly colored toys and games.
Then a little girl came in with her mother. The little girl pointed to her, and the girl’s mother nodded. The girl took her off the shelf and carried her over to a man, who attached her to a nozzle. She felt herself swelling, and began to float up into the air. A string was attached to her, and the little girl held onto the string.
The little girl beamed up at her and, as they left the store, the once-upon-a-time bottle caught sight of her reflection in the glass: she was now a big, beautiful balloon with a laughing face! Everyone on the street who caught sight of her smiled, and the once-upon-a-time-bottle’s heart swelled with joy. Now, as she’d always wanted, she was making everyone happy.