Coach Oscar’s Secret Boots
In the attic, Kira finds a pair of dusty old boots with a name inside.
On a rainy afternoon, Kira climbed the creaky ladder up to the attic. It smelled of dust and old books. Behind a wooden chest, she found a pair of boots, hard and brown and scuffed.
Inside one boot, a name was scribbled in faded ink: ‘Oscar’. ‘Coach Oscar!’ gasped Kira. Kira knew Oscar the owl was the coach of the Orange Tigers, but she didn’t know Oscar had ever played.
The very next day, Kira took the boots to training. Oscar went quiet when he saw them. Then a smile spread across Oscar’s face. ‘Come, sit,’ said Oscar. ‘I’ll tell you a story.’
‘When I was your age,’ said Oscar, ‘we had no pitch. We played on a school playground. We had a squashy rubber ball. We played until the stars came out. These boots were the first I ever owned.’
Kira listened with wide eyes. She thought about how the boots had run and jumped, scored goals and missed goals. And now they were sitting in a cold dusty attic.
‘Would you like to try them?’ asked Oscar. Kira slipped them on. They were far too big, but Kira laced them up twice. Together, they walked out to the pitch.
Kira kicked the ball in the old boots. It flew in a perfect curve. Oscar laughed so hard he nearly fell over. ‘Just like the old days!’ he said, and jumped up to join in.
From that day, the old boots stayed on the shelf in the clubhouse, not the attic. And on cold, rainy afternoons, when the team came in, Oscar would tell them yet another story.
The little lesson
Old things carry stories, and listening to them is a gift to both of you.
Let’s talk about it
- Do you have something old that has a story?
- What did Kira learn from Coach Oscar?
Finish stories to collect Kira as a sticker in your Sticker Book.
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