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Never too Late – A Story Submitted by Raima Imran

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Raima Imran is the student of the Creative Writing Program by Author Ayesha Marfani. The author conducts online classes for the kids and this is what they have written during the class. The kids also practiced the art of storytelling. This is the original unedited work of the kid.

Please appreciate it by commenting!

If you wish to be the part of the class then contact +923138997470.

Never Too Late

 

Kevin gazed at the final present. It was a present from his Aunt Leena for turning five years old. It was covered with a blue metallic wrapping paper and a pink ribbon with golden 5’’s on it. Kevin tore the wrapping paper and inside was a beige teddy bear. He named it “Teddy”. He knew right away that he and Teddy were going to be best friends.

All of a sudden, everything faded into a blur. And Teddy found himself staring at the ceiling while lying down on his bed.

Teddy jumped out of his bed and turned to his closet. He scurried out of the house and glanced around. “Empty as usual!” sighed Teddy as he crossed the road.

He peeped through the window of one of his friend’s house. Inside he saw his friend, Bunny the stuffed rabbit, sitting on the sofa looking glum because he wanted to be played with.

“Everyone ….” Thought Teddy, “Everyone in PettyVille is glum”.

He was right. PettyVille, the home for old toys who are not being played with anymore, was a gloomy place. The inhabitants rarely left their houses or interacted with each other. The weather wasn’t a big help either. It was always cold and gray.

As Teddy gazed at the small houses on the street, the chilly wind swirled around him, making him shiver. He remembered how he used to love the wind on his face when Kevin used to make him zoom all around the house on a toy airplane. He could never understand why Kevin gave up playing with him.

He nearly slipped on the wet road because he was too lost in his thoughts. Drops of rain came down splashing on Teddy’s forehead as he walked back to his house. His house was small and gray, just like all the other houses in town.

Before he entered his house, he glared at the hole that connected PettyVille to the real world. “My only hope to meet Kevin again is through that hole”, whispered Teddy to himself.

“No!” said Teddy, “It’s too risky … I can’t do it without a thorough plan”.

He glanced at the tiny shop a meters away. Maybe he could visit the shop to get ideas of how an escape from this gloom hole be made. So he went in.

The shopkeeper was a monster with six eyes. He didn’t talk at all. He just made gestures in response to Teddy’s questions.

Teddy sprinted back to his home. He rushed inside his house and flew towards his bed. He was hopeful but also exhausted and soon dozed off.

He startled awake as the first ray of light hit his face. The cogs in his head started spinning as he clumsily headed towards the window to examine the hole.

“Aha!”, Teddy cried, “There’s a nail sticking out from the edge of the hole. I can easily throw a lasso to grab on to it.”

After a couple of hours of fine-tuning, he came up with a spectacular plan. He was happy with himself. He could finally meet Kevin. At the same time, Teddy heard a creak from the door and he saw Kevin through the hole, tossing stuff around and mumbling something about not being able to find the TV remote.

Teddy woke up the next morning all excited because it was almost time to meet Kevin. He grabbed the lasso and hurried outside. He bumped into the fence and got scratched by a shrub in his haste. But nothing slowed him down. Upon reaching the hole, he threw up his lasso but it was only after a few failed attempts that it finally got hooked. He swiftly mounted and moved towards the top. Once he reached the top he leaped down into the real world.

Teddy heard Kevin watching TV in the distance, so he followed the sound to find him. As soon as he found Kevin, he jumped in front of the TV and shrieked, “Why won’t you play with me anymore? I never could understand why you stopped!”

Kevin did not reply for a long time and just stared at Teddy in fascination. When he did find his words, all that came out of his mouth was “What?!!, Whaaa … How?!, Who are you?”

This made Teddy even more agitated. He unplugged the TV and stuttered in anger “How can you not know who I am? I am your best friend!”

Kevin’s face turned red with fury and he screamed “I DON’T even care anymore. I am not a little child who plays with Teddy bears and monster trucks. Now go away. You are making me miss my program!” He stomped over to Teddy, snatched the plug from him and threw him all the way to the end of the corridor.

Pain shot through Teddy’s body but he somehow managed to get back on his feet and walked all the way back to his home. With a heavy heart, he limped towards his bed and sat down. He could have never expected what had just happened. But he felt even more determined to get through to Kevin and so he started pondering over a plan B.

He kept thinking, “If only I can make Kevin see what it is like down here in PettyVille! If only he could see what his carelessness is doing to all of us, I am sure he will change”. Just then an idea popped into his head. He had seen Kevin tweaking toy machines and had learnt a thing or two about them himself. He worked all night to make a machine that would help him carry out his plan. He seemed very happy about how clever his plan was. He couldn’t wait to carry it out.

After all the hard work, Teddy laid down on his bed and gazed at his amazing creation. He named it “The Shrink-a-majigger”.

He scurried outside with his masterpiece and tied a rope to it. Once again he threw up his lasso a few times until it was strong enough to carry the Shrink-a-majigger up. He used all his strength to pull himself and the machine up towards the hole.

He hopped down and saw Kevin, slouched on the sofa, playing a game on his phone. He crept up behind Kevin and shrunk him to the size of a toy.

“What do you want with me now?” screeched Kevin. “You’ll see.” was Teddy’s reply. He dragged Kevin into PettyVille while Kevin squirmed and kicked.

As Teddy hauled Kevin through the streets of PettyVille, Kevin saw a one of his toy robots, Buzzer, sitting alone on a bench staring into space while gray clouds thundered. It soon started to rain but buzzer did nothing to save himself from harm. He had the gloomiest look on his face. But he wasn’t the only one in town with that look. Everywhere Kevin went, he saw a sadness in everyone’s eyes. It was very troubling for Kevin.

By the end of it Kevin was almost in tears. “I didn’t know what I did that could cause all of this. I feel so sorry!”, he sobbed. Teddy put his hand on Kevin’s shoulder. “There’s no reason to cry,” he said softly. “Follow me”.

Teddy took Kevin back out of Perryville. He asked Kevin to stand straight while he hit the reverse button on the Shrink-a-majigger. Soon Kevin turned to his normal size.

Kevin was relieved to be back to himself but he did not leave right away. He hurriedly moved some boxes around from the corner of his room until he saw the dusty lid of his old toy box with a hole on the side. He opened the lid of PettyVille with a smile.

The sun started to shine brighter as Kevin took his old toys out of the box and remembered how much he loved playing with them. He thought about how foolish he was to think that he was too old to play with his toys. He now realized that you are never too old to play.

Check out books and booklets by Author Ayesha Marfani:

 

Story Submitted by Rumaisa Saify – Sara’s Mission

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Rumaisa Saify is the student of Creative Writing Program by Author Ayesha Marfani. The author conducts online classes for the kids and this is what they have written during the class. The kids also practiced the art of storytelling. This is the original unedited work of the kid.

Please appreciate it by commenting!

If you wish to be the part of the class then contact +923138997470.

 

 

 

 

Sara is a ten-year-old girl with dark blue eyes, golden long hair, wheatish complexion and the most interesting thing that adds to her cuteness were her chubby cheeks. She is a kind, friendly girl and has an impressive personality with a soft voice. That’s why she was the class leader. She was born with a silver spoon but she knew that her family won’t help her in her mission to save the earth so she was nervous yet anxious

Sara’s greatest fear was the destruction of the earth through pollution. It has scared her since she learned about it in science class in grade 3.

Sara hated the garbage thrown on the road. People throw-away liter from their cars’ windows and even in the school canteen, students leave their leftovers behind. Thinking of all these, Sara was lying on her cozy small sized bed with her favorite cartoon character, twilight, painted on its headboard. This was the place where she felt most confident as her father’s aggressive stares don’t follow her in here. She had pasted her drawings on the wall of her childhood and a few pictures of her family and friends. Her room is the place where she writes about everything that affects her like, Global warming. With all these in her mind, she fell asleep.

Suddenly, Sara had nightmares of burning garbage, cutting trees, black clouds due to vehicles smoke and dirty sea with dead fishes on its shore. She had a shivering body from her scary nightmares. She woke up and vowed to herself to save the world from pollution.

She sprang up from her bed and ran down the stairs with her feet thumping on the wooden steps, making a loud thudding sound. Hearing that, her father, sitting on the breakfast table,  gave her a long stare and nodded his head with disapproval. Sara thought in despair that she gave him a bad morning. I should have walked properly and presented myself beautifully with an endearing hug to my mostly aggressive father. Ignoring her inner-voice, she decided to present her idea to her rarely loving dad. She wished her dad was rarely aggressive and mostly loving. But she knew that this wish will never come true!

Her dad rejected her idea straightaway and said in his hoarse voice:  “you are too young for this” and left for his office. While Sara half-heartedly finished her breakfast, drinking her mom’s special homemade juice, feeling that she was sipping her own tears.

She dressed up for the school quickly and rushed for the bus as she was already late. She arrived at her school gloomily, searching for her best friend, Eman. Her eyes moved to-and-fro looking for a blond hair girl with dark green eyes. She soon found her sitting on the bench near the basketball area. Her eyes lit up when she saw her. Her sadness resided when an idea struck her. Yes, my solution is my best friend. She cursed herself why didn’t I thought of it earlier. Sara had no time to discuss it now but she was determined to give details to her friend during break time. Sara anxiously waited for the break time. Finally, the bell rang and she was super excited to share her feelings.

Both of them strolled towards the canteen as it was already crowded and they could not walk faster. They finally got a table in the right corner of the canteen close to the Hand-washing area. They ignored the wet floor and rushed towards the table. They didn’t bother to order food instead of focused on the problem discussion. Sara started her conversation with her nightmares, going on to explain her idea for stopping the pollution. She got so excited that her voice grew louder and louder. Everyone else heard what she was saying and everyone stared at her for some moment and then the room was filled with the greeting sound of students laughing at her idea. Few commented that “You are too young for this”. She held her tears back and went to sit at the corner of the canteen. With her hungry stomach growling, she attended the remaining classes and ran to the Bus area.

While she was waiting for the bus, she saw one of the school girls waiving to her but she assumed it to be her illusion as her vision got blur with her tears. That girl came closer and said to her that she will drop her at home. She realized that girl was her classmate, Dana who lives close to her home. Sara agreed gratefully as she had no stamina to wait longer for the bus. This day was the most exhausting and humiliating for her!

Gloomily she moved with Dana to sit in her white sedan car. But suddenly, the red logo labeled on the cars’ front door caught her attention. How can she forget that Dana’s father, Uncle Moiz, was the Manager at the Environment Management company?

Uncle Moiz was the kindest father Sara had ever known. He was already briefed about today’s incident so he spoke to me in his pleasant tone. “I will not say that you are too young for this. But your mission will take time. You are a well-groomed mature girl, so Dana and I will help you in this task. I am giving you 48 hours to think of a solution to solve your mission”. With this, Sara felt that the car has stopped moving and realized that she was already outside her home. She waved him good-bye with the promise to meet up again after 2 days with a proper conclusion.

Sara drafted her plan to present it to Uncle Moiz. She wanted it to be perfect and very impressive. Her plan was to make a contest, that whoever uses fewer plastic bottles will be the winner of the Steel Vacuum bottles. She will also paste posters on the notice board to create awareness about the causes of pollution.  Her major task was to conduct a project named “Go Green”. Under this project, she will ask the students to plant trees with different seeds. These plants will be decorated in the school corridor. She was sure that this project will bring success to her mission.

With goosebumps in her stomach, she woke up the next morning. She hurriedly got ready for school. To her surprise, Dana’s father was waiting for her at her doorstep. Dana was as excited as Sara. They both greeted each other cheerfully. She started explaining passionately to Uncle Moiz all about her plan. Dana’s father was glad to hear that. So he said in his pleasant voice that “I will talk to the Principal about your idea and convince her.

Fortunately, the Principal loved Sara’s brilliant idea and appreciated her. Sara was then allowed to paste posters on the notice board. Those who laughed at her before were now running behind her for participation in the contest. One whole day at school was spent drawing posters. Everyone came up with brilliant ideas such as, Say no to plastics, Save our Earth by 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle),  Don’t destroy our planet, Save Water, Plant More Trees and finally, a special one designed by Sara and Dana was : Say no to Pollution, Say yes to Solution.

The next day, Sara and Dana distributed pots and few seeds, arranged by Uncle Moiz, to every student. This was done to encourage planting, a solution for pollution. The contest was successfully conducted in the break time where everyone participated happily.

Sara’s struggle was very successful. Everybody after that used Vacuum bottles and avoid plastic as much as possible. Her school was the greenest school in the city. Even Sara’s father was now proud of her and became her rarely aggressive and most loving father. Finally, Sara’s wish came true.

This story teaches us that you are never too young to work for any good cause. It always leads you to success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Story Submitted by Habiba Noman -The Big Change

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Habia Noman is the student of the Creative Writing Program by Author Ayesha Marfani. The author conducts online classes for the kids and this is what they have written during the class. The kids also practiced the art of storytelling. This is the original unedited work of the kid.

Please appreciate it by commenting!

If you wish to be the part of the class then contact +923138997470.

A BIG CHANGE

Alizah, a 10-year-old girl, with peachy lips, dark brown eyes small face and thick blonde shiny hair. She was a bright student, a good reader, and an active sports girl. She used to participate in assembly recitation. Everyone used to admire her voice. She never lied to anyone and was very fond of making good new friends.

Three classmates of Alizah Nida, Saba, and Fatima grouped together. They were bold. Nida was tallest so she thought she’d be a leader; Saba was chubby and always hungry. Her parents were working and she used to bring money for lunch that was not enough so she joined in with Nida so she can share in other’s lunch. Fatima was timid and shy so she just followed Nida as she said so. Nida uses Fatima for her personal favors to get lunch for Saba, complete her homework and stand in canteen queues. On the other hand, Alizah always wanted to be friends with Fatima because she thought she is a nice girl. She wanted to save her from the mean company.

After coming home Alizah used to pray as soon as possible, take a bath and tidy up her room. After lunch, She used to clean the table to help her mother who was busy with her younger siblings. One day Fatima called Alizah’s home and her mother answered. Fatima told her that Alizah is getting punished for talking in class during a lesson and its getting usual day by day. Alizah’s mom got upset and scolded her for being talkative in class and instructed her to be more attentive. The next day Alizah and her friends Huma and Ariba were targeted the same way. Nida laughed at them saying “poor girls! Mama scolded you, very sad: now behave well in class”.

Fatima felt guilty but Nida and Saba took her away.

In school the last unit was PE and Alizah was swinging in the garden when Nida and Saba pushed her hard. Alizah almost crashed on both of her knees. Fatima and her other classmates rushed to pick her up. At the same moment, PE teacher took Nida and Saba to the Principals office and Alizah was taken to First Aid. Sometime later, Alizah was called in the office and was asked to tell what actually happened. First Alizah looked at both Nida and Saba, they were ashamed and guilty. Alizah thought for a moment and told the principal that the girls were just standing nearby and actually it was her own fault because she was swinging fast. The principal asked her again if there’s anything more but Alizah affirmed her that there is nothing to worry about.

Nida and Saba apologized to Alizah for their arrogant and mean behavior. She forgave them and asked them to not to do this ever. They promised her. Alizah said, “We are friends and will be forever”.

Beauty is not the Key by Malaika Irfan

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Malaika Irfan is the student if Creative Writing Program by Author Ayesha Marfani. The author conducts online classes for the kids and this is what they have written during the class. The kids also practiced the art of storytelling. This is the original unedited work of the kid.

Please appreciate by commenting!

If you wish to be the part of the class then contact +923138997470.

Beauty is not the Key

By Malaika Irfan

Fatima sits in front of the mirror and thinks what beauty is?

Is it only the appearance? Or is it only fair complexion along with

Beautiful big eyes and long silky hair?

Our beauty is the strength of our character or beauty lies in someone’s eyes. She thought it is

very hard to define beauty. Even beautiful people feel insecure, especially if their character is not strong.

Have you ever seen anyone get judged on how they look? Well, this is the case for a girl.

Fatima is a twelve-year-old girl who suffers from a disease named Vitiligo that’s when some area of your skin has white patches. Fatima’s room is small it has a single bed in it, a small red desk with a white office chair and it has a big wardrobe for her clothes.

Every morning Fatima gets out of the bed and puts on her pink fluffy slippers and heads off to take a shower. After her shower, she sits in front of the mirror thinking every day, is the beauty the key to making friends. She can see herself sitting in front of the mirror with her long black silky hair with her green eyes. Sitting and wearing her maroon-colored school uniform. The only thing that people think is weird about her is her skin, but it actually is perfectly fine for her.

Fatima has a great personality she is caring, funloving and kind, but no one thinks of that they just focus on her skin with white patches. It’s just like judging a book by its cover not knowing what’s inside it. After that Fatima goes to the kitchen and gets her oats, she eats oats with blueberries for breakfast on weekdays only. Then she checked her school bag to make sure she has her library bag in it, as it’s her library day and she has to return her book which she borrowed last week from the library. “Oh, I forgot my USB drive on my computer desk”, said Fatima. I have to submit my science project on Solar System, she ran to grab it. She talked to herself. Then she rushed out of the house as it was about the time for the school bus and she saw her big yellow school bus is coming and took her bus to school.

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Fatima gets off the bus and she saw Mrs. Griffin standing near the gate chatting with some students who were working on the worm farm, Fatima went to Mrs. Griffin hugged her and said, “How are you, Mrs. Griffin?” Mrs. Griffin smiled and said, “I am, good darling.” and asked, “How are you, Fatima?” She replied, “I am very well.” Mrs. Griffin was her school principle. She is a tall lady, with grey hair and hazel eyes with a very graceful personality, she was not like other school principles, she really cares about her students and their families. Fatima hanged her bag outside the class on the designated place took out her library bag, homework folder and her USB and went into the class to put her stuff on her desk, after that she went to the worm farm to do her worm farm duty which she enjoys a lot, as her school is a sustainable school and they try to recycle most of their rubbish and food crapes and utilize it in worm farm to prepare, worm-wee, which they sell to parents on every Wednesday for their plants to make them rich and healthy.

Fatima’s school is big primary schools surrounded by lots of big trees, green shrubs and happy students, but very mean and judging Fatima and calling her names like a two-tone girl, spotted and zebra. At school in each and every subject Fatima has no partner, in class, her desk is at the back corner and she has no desk partner. At recess and lunch whenever she tries to join a game they say to her ‘’ you’re ugly get out’’.

Fatima still tried to keep her hopes up of getting a friend nearly her whole life she hasn’t had a friend. In class it was time to do the solar system presentation Fatima’s teacher called her name out and it was time for her to do her presentation as she was walking up with her USB drive everyone started to point to her. Fatima gave the teacher the USB drive and then went to the front of the classroom in front of the projector and stood up she was frozen her teacher said, what’s wrong Fatima why aren’t you presenting your powerpoint to the class. Fatima went up to the teacher and said that ‘’I can’t present my powerpoint because everybody laughs at me cause of my skin I am the only one in the classroom who doesn’t have a partner because everyone hates me. The teacher just read her powerpoint herself and marked it. On the other hand the teacher talked to the class and told them to be helpful and supportive to Fatima but during the lunch break and again start calling her names and taunting her.

Next week Fatima’s class went to the picnic and unfortunately Maria was not coming as she was very unwell.

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After a few days people in her school started spreading rumors on how Fatima looks but Fatima didn’t really react. After school, Fatima sat down in her room and got her laptop and typed upkeep my secret in. ‘’ I always have a day that is rough and have no friends but I can’t let the rumors take self-control of me and make me burst’’. She wrote that because she wanted to tell nobody about what’s going on and get angry to tell a teacher.  The next day she went to school the first thing the teacher said was ‘’finally after being with the same students in your class for three years straight your getting a new girl named Maria. Then into class, Maria walked she looked like a friendly twelve-year-old girl, surprisingly the teacher told Maria to sit next to Fatima. Maria had short brown hair, she has blue eyes wears a maroon checkerd school uniform dress.

 

In a pleasant way Fatima asked Maria if they should be friends and Maria agreed. At playtime Maria and Fatima sat and started talking on the bench, then a boy came over and said to Maria ‘’why are you sitting and talking to this jerk’’. Immediately Maria stood up and said to the boy ‘’don’t come near Fatima if you’re not going to be kind, even this morning I saw people coming up to her and being rude’’.

 

Maria prepared to help stop people from bulling Fatima. After a few days Fatima decided to tell Mrs Griffin. As normal the next day Fatima arrived to school and when she saw Mrs Griffin she asked ‘’can we please talk in your office’’. Yes she replied. In Mrs Griffin’s office she sat, Mrs Griffin’s office was a small office with a book shelf and a desk with a computer and an office chair. Fatima started off ‘’ well something has been bothering me, since I  have Vitiligo people think I look ugly and no one wants to be my friend. People have been calling me names like spotted and zebra, I couldn’t hold it in so I thought I should tell you. Mrs Griffin was stubbed about what she heard, she said to Fatima, “I will 100% give a consequence to everybody in school.” In a rush Fatima replied, not Maria, she is a great friend and a support to me. Okay said, Mrs. Griffin to Fatima then she said consequence should be to all those students, who heart your feelings. They are not going to get any playtime for one week and an apology letter to Fatima.

Fatima decides to present a speech about what she is capable of doing and what are the patches on her skin and addresses to the assembly. On Wednesday morning in assembly, Fatima was addressing the assembly, “My dear friends, Real beauty come from the kind of person you are, the choices you make and how you treat other people. Beauty can be inherited but the character is forged.” People who rely on their youthful good looks as their primary strength in life may be in trouble as they get older. But those who develop other character strengths will find their life becoming richer as they age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video Teaser of the upcoming title Wounds of War by Author Ayesha Marfani

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Wounds of War is the eighth book by Author Ayesha Marfani. The book has gained instant attention of bloggers and reviewers due to the topic sensitivity.

About the book:

Age: 8 onwards (I recommend it for everyone, not just the kids)

Book blurb:

When humanity struggles for power and prestige at the expense of its own children, stories come forth from the midst of such terrors as genocide, ethnic cleansing and forceful occupation clothed in innocent faces and tearful voices.

Children are most strongly affected in these dire circumstances. This leads us to the stories of Sara, Fatima, Hammad and Ali. Their individual stories of heartbreak and pain lead them to Dr. Kamran’s research center, where they have one last opportunity to heal the wounds of war that bleed inside them.

Their lives weave together in this place to show readers that we are not the only ones who have been affected by such terrors. As we survive tragedies to find our world upside down, we all search for a balm to comfort our broken hearts.

Read on to discover if these four orphaned children might heal as they test the ultimate question we often ask ourselves:

Is war the only solution?

This is the video teaser of the book:

Ordering details:

Place your orders now on this link if you reside in Pakistan:

https://docs.google.com/…/1NcJ4716OqZBDQoZnCo8-fIPm53…/edit…

All the international buyers can place their orders on this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Ayesha-Marfani/e/B073W8ZQBN