Given Time

For the small girl, it was her favourite thing in the world to skip so merrily up that path, the long winding walkway towards the place where the small boy lived. She remembered the first time she’d done it, before she’d known the small boy at all. She’d seen the path, all winding and colourful, and thought to herself that it was the most skippable path in all the world, and so she skipped along it, happy in the sun, not knowing at all where it might take her.

The path took her to the little house, and from within the house she heard happiness and laughter, so she snuck along outside the house, thinking sneaky thoughts so that the happy people inside didn’t know she was there. The path was gravelly, but there were stone slabs that she could hop along silently, and she thought perhaps this was the sneakiest driveway in all the world. Eventually, she’d found the window, and through it she’d seen the small boy.

The small boy was so cheerful in his little house, and he sang to his music and played his games, and the small girl watched him for the longest while, thinking that perhaps he was the loveliest boy in all the world. And then all her sneaky thoughts must have disappeared because he saw her at his window and the small girl had to quickly run away.

The second time she visited the house with the skippable path and the sneaky slabs, and looked in the small boy’s window, he wasn't there. But instead she did find a box. The box was plain, dark and mysterious, but on top there was some writing which the small girl was too young to read. It was the small boy’s writing, and she imagined all the warnings it might give, and she decided it was the most interesting box in all the world. The small girl simply had to open it, and she did, and inside was the first time she found the small boy’s Time. She took some then, because she wanted it so much.

Every day thereafter the small girl skipped merrily up that path, and thought sneaky thoughts across the slabs, so that she could get to the small boy’s window. The small boy was never there any more, but his interesting box with the mysterious writing always was, and each day there was more Time in the box, and so each day she took a little more.

It didn’t take long before the small girl began to feel terrible, though. She wanted the Time, ever so much, and she took it without pause, but as each day passed she more and more wondered if the small boy was missing the Time that she took from him. So one day she skipped merrily up the path, and snuck sneakily along the stone slabs, and she stood by the window which was the nicest in all the world, but this time she didn't take Time from the box, but brought all of the Time back with her, and this time she thought patient thoughts, as she waited and waited for the small boy.

The small boy eventually came to his room, as cheerful and happy as she had seen him the very first time, before he had an interesting box. She didn't say anything, for sometimes she was the shiest girl in the world, but she offered back the Time she had taken. The small boy smiled and shook his head, and he pointed to the writing on the top of the interesting box. She shrugged her shoulders slightly, to tell him that she couldn't read yet, and so he read it out loud to her.

“For The Small Girl.”