The Little Dawdler

Hello everyone,

    The story that I am going to tell you today is my own creation.

    It is a story of a little girl who used to dawdle a lot. See what happens when she dawdles once too often. This story is based in U.K. although I have never been there. I wrote this story based on the facts that my friends gave me and the stories I read, i.e. the way of life there and the way the houses are over there.

    I hope you enjoy it and I hope you will forgive me if I have made a mistake anywhere. I do not wish to offend anyone.

    Read on and find out how she is cured of being a dawdler.

THE LITTLE DAWDLER

    Mary-Anne was a little girl. She was a very kind and a very sensible little girl, i.e. when she was outside. But once she was at home she was a very different person altogether! Her mother had to call her a hundred times before she answered or appeared. She was the biggest dawdler there ever was.

    Her mother would call her, “Mary-Anne, Mary-Anne, please, come here a minute! I have some work for you. Could you please go to the grocer’s and buy me some sugar.”

    After a lot calling, she would answer, “Yes, Mother! Let me finish this one paragraph, please!”

    After a few minutes, she would call again, “Mary-Anne, haven’t you finished your paragraph yet?”

    Again, Mary-Anne would answer, “Coming, Mother!” Then, there would be silence!

    Her mother got so fed up, that she, herself, would put on her coat and go out and buy whatever she wanted.

    Now, one Saturday, it was dinner time. Mary-Anne’s mother called her to come down for dinner. As usual Mary-Anne dawdled! She didn’t answer the first time and she did not answer the second time. She answered the third time! Her older brother Harry was already at the table and eating!

    Mary-Anne’s mother got so tired of calling that she gave her the last warning, “Mary-Anne, are you coming down or not? This is the last time I’m calling you!”

    Now, as she said this, Mary-Anne wished that she was in a place where other people didn’t bother her. Now, a very strange thing happened! Although, everything was as it was before, the atmosphere seemed to have changed! Mary-Anne noticed that her mother was not calling her as before and everything seemed to have gone quiet! She got puzzled and decided to go down after all.

    When she got down, she got the surprise of her life!

    Her mother was in the kitchen alright, but she was not cooking and was browsing through some magazine! The whole kitchen was a mess! The dishes of breakfast were still in the sink, unwashed! The cookers were dirty and floor had mud stains on it and the whole kitchen was stinking!

   Normally, Mary-Anne’s mother kept the kitchen so clean that it was a pleasure to enter it! Also, you would find aromas of baking and other cooking coming from it, so that you would find it extremely difficult to get out of it.

   This sudden change surprised Mary-Anne very much, indeed!

    “Mother, you called me for dinner, where is it?” She asked.

    “I have not called you for dinner, dear,” her mother answered. “I haven’t even cooked yet. Let me finish browsing through this magazine and then I will cook. Why don’t you have something to eat in the meantime?”

   Mary-Anne was even more surprised!

    She went to find her brother Harry. She found him in the sitting room, lying on his stomach on the sofa and reading some comics. His school bag and his books were lying around all over the place. Normally, he was a very clean and tidy boy!

   “Harry, why are your books scattered all over the place?”  She asked. “Have you finished your homework?”

    “Oh, I’ll just finish it later,” he said, much to the surprise of the little girl, because Harry never let his homework get overdue.

      Mary-Anne could not understand what was going on. Then, it slowly dawned on her that it was her own doing that this was happening. She had wished that she would be in a place where nobody would disturb her and here she was!

    Mary-Anne sat down to think what to do. She decided to do a bit of cleaning. So she started with the kitchen. First of all, she washed all the dishes and then she sat about cleaning the rest of the kitchen. By now she was so hungry that she decided to make some sandwiches for herself as her mother was making no move to do any cooking. So, she took some bread and cheese from the refrigerator. When her mother saw her doing that she looked at her and said, “You are making sandwiches? Good, make some for me too and ask Harry if he wants some as well. And make some for Daddy as well. He will be back from work just now. I don’t have time to cook.”

    Mary-Anne just nodded her head and went to ask Harry if he wanted some sandwiches as well. Harry was still lying on the sofa reading comics.

    “Harry, do you want some sandwiches?” She asked him.

    “Yes, make two for me,” he answered shortly.

    Just then, her father arrived from work. He just said hello to everyone and went and flopped down on a sofa chair.

    Mary-Anne began to make the sandwiches. Suddenly, her mother turned around and looked at her angrily and said, “Hurry up, will you? We don’t have all day.”

    Tears welled up in Mary-Anne’s eyes. She was tired and now instead of her mother appreciating her work she was scolding her. This had never happened before and she knew she was to blame for her foolish wish. Now, she wished she had never been so lazy and had done what her mother had wanted her to do. Now, she knew what she felt like when she called Mary-Anne to help her and she didn’t bother to answer her. Now, she knew how her mother must have been so tired after doing all the work. Mary-Anne felt very bad. If only she would get another chance, she would show her mother how much she loved and appreciated her.

    She finished making the sandwiches and put on the table for everyone. When she called her mother and Harry they dawdled for about an hour and then they came to eat. By now, it was about eleven o’clock. Normally, by this time she would have been in bed for about three hours. Mary-Anne was tired that all she wanted was to flop in bed.

    When everyone had finished to eat, they got up and went to bed with her mother saying, “Clean up and then go to bed, dear.”

And so Mary-Anne had to clean up and then she slowly went upstairs to her room and flopped into her bed. Once in her bed, she gave way to her tears and began to cry as if her heart would break and wished that her mother, Harry and her father were their old selves again.

    Suddenly, the atmosphere seemed to change and she found herself sitting at her computer the way she was when her mother had started calling her. She heard her mother call her again, “Mary-Anne, are you coming down or not for the last time. I will not call you again.”

    When Mary-Anne heard her mother’s voice, she jumped for joy! She felt she had never heard anything sweeter in her life! She jumped down from her chair and ran downstairs, straight into her mother’s arms and held her so tightly that her mother gasped in astonishment.

   

“Whoa, slow down! What’s the matter with you? You are hugging

me like we have met after a long time!” She said, laughing.

    “Oh, Mother! I will never ever disobey you again,” Mary-Anne said, sobbing and still holding on to her mother. “I’m so sorry I’ve been so horrid to you. From now on you will never get to complain about me again, ever.”

   Her mother stroked her head.

   “What’s the matter, child?” she asked, wiping her tears.

   Then, Mary-Anne told her extraordinary story to her mother, father and Harry. They were so surprised to hear her story that could not say a word for quite a while.

    From that day onwards Mary-Anne was a different girl altogether. She always jumped up and ran whenever her mother called her.