Mr. Mitchell Billionaires' Club Book 2 - Raylin Marks Page 0,148
row. He didn’t finish planting. ‘You are supposed to finish first, mister,’ she said to him. Jake looked at Sally and said, ‘I’m done. I have my muffin. I’m going home.’”
“Well, that’s not fair.”
“Not fair to Mr. Jones, nope,” Jim said. “So, now Sally ignored that Jake was going home and even that he’d pulled on her piggy tail. Instead, she worked harder and even faster now.”
“Oh, wow,” Addy said.
“When suddenly,” Jim’s eyes opened wide, “she was pushed down in the dirt.”
“No, no, no! Not fair, Jim,” Addy said, ordering Jim in the right direction of the story.
“Well, it didn’t hurt Sally. It was just a little nudge, is all,” he said. “So, she looked over, and there was silly old Collin. He was smiling and eating a muffin.”
“Ugh, Collin!” Addy said with exasperation. “Collin, like our surfing friend, right?”
“Pretty close,” Jim laughed, his eyes mischievous. “So, Sally looked at Collin’s row. ‘You didn’t finish your work,’ she said. ‘You can’t eat that.’” Jim mimicked the cutest voice for Sally. “‘Oh, Sally, we want to play. Come play with us.’”
“She has to work.” Addy was catching on to Jim’s story, and if this interaction could’ve filled my heart with any more joy, it would’ve burst wide open.
“That’s right. So, Sally got up, brushed off her little overalls, and let Collin run off with Jake to go and play. Now, she was working really hard, was almost done, and then there was Alex.”
“Oh, no, Jim. Not Alex from the surfing too. He’s so nice.”
“Yeah, he’s nice, but that didn’t stop him from eating a muffin before he was finished working. He decided to eat that muffin while Sally ignored him. Then Sally finally finished, and when she got up, Alex laughed that she was last, and he followed her into the house when she went to get her muffin. When she walked in, she looked all around, but there were no muffins anywhere to be found.”
“What?” Addy gasped.
“Yep, you heard me right,” Jim sighed. “It felt like all her hard work—no cheating like those rascals had—had got her nothing. No food. Nothing. Not that warm, buttery muffin she’d been smelling, and her stomach wanted so badly now.”
“This is such a sad story, Jim.”
“It’s not over yet. Do you think Sally would give up so easily?” Jim asked.
“No.” Addy became more intrigued.
“That’s right. Sally kept looking, and then Mrs. Jones walked out with a basket filled—almost overflowing—with muffins. All kinds of different flavors too.”
“Oh, wow,” Addy said.
“Then Mrs. Jones said, ‘Thank you, little Miss Sally. You worked hard to help Mr. Jones and me today. You didn’t give up even when the sun was warm, and the muffins smelled yummy. This is for you to take home to eat for you and your family,’” Jim said in a funny, old woman’s voice.
“What did Alex say? He was there too,” Addy reminded him, her eyelids getting heavy as she struggled to stay with the story.
“Alex was not happy that he learned a tough lesson that day. He knew that he didn’t work as hard as Sally had, and even though Alex got a muffin, he wasn’t rewarded for his full day’s work. So, he got to watch Sally achieve a goal and go home happy with a full basket of food. Sally was so happy when she figured out that she may have been a bit slow, but she never gave up. She got her piggy tail pulled, and she’d gotten pushed down, and, of course, she had little Alex, laughing at her and watching to see how it would all end for her, but both of those little ones learned their lessons that day. Work hard, get up, and keep going, no matter what happens, and there will be a reward at the end.”
Before Jim had reached the end of his thought, Addy was breathing heavily. I made sure the blankets were tucked around her securely, and then I lay on my back and brought my hand to Jim’s cheek.
“I think she crashed once she knew little Sally was taking home the bacon in your life-lesson story for children,” I whispered.
Jim leaned over and kissed my lips. “Muffins,” he corrected me. “And, yes, all she needed was a little happily ever after with food, of course. Now, she’s out like a light.”
“This story will stick with her, you know. So, Jake, Alex, and Collin will love you for making them the rascals in your silly story.”