NEW WORDS TO LEARN
- Ashamed (adjective) over-come with feelings of shame or guilt
- Brainwave (noun) A sudden idea or understanding of something
- Peep (verb) To look quickly or secretively
Lily woke up on Saturday morning with the feeling that she’d forgotten something. It was at the back of her mind so, even though it was Saturday and she didn’t have to get up early for school, she couldn’t get back to sleep.
She got up and walked into her brother’s room. Harry was still fast asleep and Lily knew if she woke him up he’d be grumpy, so she tiptoed out of his room again, trying to remember what she could have forgotten.
Her mom was in the kitchen making a cup of tea for Lily’s dad. He liked to lie in on Saturday mornings and drink his tea in bed with the newspaper.
All of a sudden, Lily remembered what it was she had forgotten.
‘Mommy, when is Father’s Day?’ she asked.
‘It’s on Sunday, the twentieth of June,’ her mother answered.
‘Oh!’ said Lily, her eyes wide.
‘What on Earth is wrong?’ her mom asked.
‘I’ve spent all my pocket money and I forgot about Father’s Day. I haven’t got Daddy anything.’
‘It’s okay. Daddy won’t mind.’
Lily thought about that for a moment, but it didn’t feel right. She wanted to get her dad something. Her mom led her into the lounge and sat her on the couch.
‘Are you sure you’ve spent all your pocket money?’
Lily hung her head. She felt ashamed. When she thought back she couldn’t even really remember what she had spent it on, apart from a High School Musical colouring-in book. At the time she felt she just had to have it, but now she wished she had listened to her mom and not bought it.
‘Why don’t you make your dad something?’ suggested her mom.
‘Like what?’ Lily asked.
‘Take some time and think about all the things Dad loves and use that as inspiration. A present is so much more special when a lot of thought has gone into it,’ she explained.
Lily was starting to feel excited. That was a great idea! She sat down with her notebook to make a list. At the top of the page she wrote: ‘Things Daddy likes’, and underneath that she wrote: newspapers, gardening, walking Jeff, golf, rugby, and taking the motorbike to pieces and putting it back together again.
There were lots of other things her dad enjoyed, like cooking big breakfasts on the weekend and talking about things he saw on the news, but she didn’t think she could make a present to do with those. When she was happy with her list she looked at everything for a long time. Could she make her dad a present to do with golf? He had clubs and a hat and gloves and strange shoes. She didn’t think she could help him there. What about newspapers? She could make him one, she supposed.
Or she could make him something to do with his garden. He said it helped him relax. Lily had a brainwave. She waited until her mom was up and dressed and asked her to come into her room. ‘I want to plant dad some seeds in a nice pot. Then I can give them to him on Father’s Day as a present I made myself.’
‘That’s a lovely idea,’ said her mom. ‘But even seeds cost money, and so will the pot.’
Lily hadn’t thought about that. She looked so upset her brilliant idea couldn’t happen that her mom gave her a hug and said, ‘If you promise to look after them until Father’s Day, then perhaps I can help you out. I’m going to the shops now if you’d like to come.’
At the grocery store Lily and her mother spent a long time choosing the right seeds. They eventually decided on herbs because that way Lily’s mom could use them too when she was cooking. They chose basil, thyme, chives and rosemary seeds, as well as four little pots Lily could grow them in.
They had potting soil at home so while her dad was watching rugby, Lily planted the seeds. She followed the instructions on the packet, making a little hole with her finger and dropping each seed in. It took a long time and her hands were covered in soil afterwards. She hid the pots behind the shed where there was a little bit of sun and her dad wouldn’t find them.
Over the next few days, Lily snuck out to the shed to check on the pots. Every time she did, she hoped maybe she’d see a green shoot peeping out of the soil. But there was nothing.
‘They don’t grow overnight, Lily,’ her mom said when she tucked her into bed.
Her mom said it would take at least a week for anything to start growing, so every day when Lily got home from school, she carefully watered the pots and made sure they had enough sun.It didn’t take long before she saw the first little green shoots appear. Lily felt very proud.
Find out more in the June issue of Kids SuperClub!
