Maya’s Boots with a Story
In the attic, Maya finds a pair of dusty old boots with a name inside.
On a rainy afternoon, Maya 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: ‘Ben’. ‘Coach Ben!’ gasped Maya. Maya knew Ben the pony was the coach of the Midnight Owls, but she didn’t know Ben had ever played.
The very next day, Maya took the boots to training. Ben went quiet when he saw them. Then a smile spread across Ben’s face. ‘Come, sit,’ said Ben. ‘I’ll tell you a story.’
‘When I was your age,’ said Ben, ‘we had no pitch. We played on a pitch made of sand. We had a ball made of rags. We played until the stars came out. These boots were the first I ever owned.’
Maya 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 Ben. Maya slipped them on. They were far too big, but Maya laced them up twice. Together, they walked out to the pitch.
Maya kicked the ball in the old boots. It flew in a perfect curve. Ben 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, Ben 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 Maya learn from Coach Ben?
Finish stories to collect Maya as a sticker in your Sticker Book.
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