The Cheerful Little Girl

By Sarah Betlu

Once upon a time there lived a little girl in a beautiful big mansion just outside of town. The little girl loved to smile. Everyone who crossed her path would say, “There she is the cheerful little girl.”

Every time she goes to town, she would smile at the vendors in the market, she would skip happily along the river bank and she would wave happily at the old lady sitting on her verandah.

The innocent joy in her eyes at little things would make people smile too. Everyone loved seeing the cheerful little girl.

However, when it was time to walk home the little girl would sigh with a heavy heart. The smile on her face would turn to sadness. And from sadness to fear. For nobody knew, there at the beautiful big mansion waiting for her, was a monster.

A monster that lived like a human. The monster was nice and friendly during the day. But at night it would take its true form and come to her bedroom and eat parts of her joy away.

The monster would tell her, “I won’t eat you up whole if you only share parts of your joy with me, so I can be cheerful as you.”

The monster was big and scary and the cheerful little girl feared the monster.

One day the little cheerful girl got enough courage and tried to tell the people in town about the monster living at the beautiful big mansion. But before she could utter a word, the monster came out during the day and took away her voice.

Every night, the monster ate part of her joy away until the cheerful little girl could no longer feel joy.

Now, unable to speak she would do the same things she had always done. The only familiarity she knew.

She would smile at the vendors in the market, she would skip happily along by the river bank and She would wave happily at the old lady sitting on her verandah.

No knew. No one could see the empty scared lonely little girl inside.

The end.

By Sarah Betlu