The Worn Out Toothbrush
This is a bath-time story. James chews his toothbrushes so they get worn out quickly, whereas Sam makes his last forever.
Once upon a very clean and sparkly time (with a slightly minty smell), there was a wise old toothbrush. He lived in a cup in the bathroom and had been there for a long time, nearly as long as the last trip to the dentist. He was getting a little bit worn out, but there were still plenty of brushings left in him.
Then one day, a brand new toothbrush appeared in the cup. She was called Ginger. All her bristles were nice and straight (with an interesting pattern like lots of little pyramids).
Unfortunately, she was a bit rude. She looked at the old toothbrush and said, “Ugh, look how scruffy and worn out you are!”
The wise old toothbrush was not offended. He just smiled and said, “You'll be like me one day!”
“Nonsense!” laughed Ginger.
So the weeks went by, until eventually the wise old toothbrush became too old to use. The people were very sad to see him go, but he did not mind, because he had enjoyed a good life and kept lots of teeth sparkly clean.
Ginger was still rude though. “Glad he's gone,” she thought, “he made the place look untidy.” She did not realise it, but she too was starting to get worn out, with her beautiful bristles becoming untidy and scruffy.
Then, one day, a brand new toothbrush arrived. It was small and neat and tidy and very proud of its bristles (which had an interesting pattern like a crocodile's teeth). The new toothbrush was not rude like Ginger, but had never seen a worn-out toothbrush before. He kept staring at her.
“What?” she asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Sorry, you just look a bit different to the other toothbrushes in the shop. You're bristles are all curly and messy.”
“Nonsense!” she said, “I'm not worn out.” She went to look in the bathroom mirror and was startled to see an old, worn out toothbrush.
“The wise old toothbrush was right,” she sighed, “Now I'm just like him.”
She explained it all to the new toothbrush. “This is what happens to us, you see. We come in nice and shiny, we put all our effort into keeping people's teeth shiny, then we end up worn out and they have to replace us. Now I feel really bad for being rude to the wise old toothbrush. I wish I could do something to make up for it!”
“Well maybe you can,” said the new toothbrush. “Why not go and see if there's anything else we can do apart from clean teeth? That way, we'll have something to look forward to even when we're worn out.”
So off Ginger went. She hopped down from the shelf in the bathroom and found her way into the kitchen. She looked around and saw the scrubbing brush up by the sink. She jumped up to ask if she could help.
“Well, you can try,” said the scrubbing brush, “but some of the plates are very big, and I'm afraid that you're quite small.”
Ginger did try, but after ten minutes she had only cleaned a small part of the plate.
“This is no good!” she sighed.
She carried on round the house, until she found the hall cupboard. Inside, there was a great big broom used to sweep the floors.
“Do you think I could help you?” she asked.
“By all means!” replied the broom, “But there's an awful lot of floor to sweep.”
Ginger did try, but before long she was exhausted, and had only cleaned a small corner of the floor.
“This is no good either!” she moaned.
She had almost given up hope, when she saw the hamster cage in the bedroom.
“Maybe the hamster will have some ideas,” she thought, and went over for a chat.
“You know,” said the hamster, “the people here always struggle to clean between the bars of my cage and to get into the corners. They could do with a small brush like you.”
Ginger decided to give it a try. She brushed around the bars for a few minutes. She was just the right size to fit in the gaps, and her curly bristles could reach right round the bars. So she sat there, wedged in between the shiny bars, and waited.
When the people came to look at the hamster, they noticed Ginger and the shiny bars, and realised she was just the brush they needed to help keep the cage clean.
Ginger was overjoyed. When the people had finished giving the cage a good clean, they took her to the bathroom and washed her in the sink.
“So?” said the new toothbrush, “How did it go?”
“Fantastic!” she said. “Us old brushes might not be any good at keeping teeth sparkly, but there'll always be something we can do to help people.”
The new toothbrush was pleased. “What a wise old toothbrush!” he thought.
The Strangest Sound
We thought of this one after we'd been trying to talk while breathing in, which makes a very strange sound.
Once upon a particularly dull Saturday, a little boy called Ram was being dragged round the shops with his mum and dad. He hated this kind of shopping. His parents only went into really boring shops that sold socks, pans and make-up. As they wandered along, Ram became more and more bored, until everything around him seemed to fade away and become a blur of noise.
Suddenly, as they were walking past some shops that sold only keys and vacuum cleaners, he heard the strangest sound. It was like “Argly arble wubabley bloo”, but there was more, like “bnnnnnnn bnnnnnnn”. And there was also some “bluba looba bluba looba”, and other sounds that he could not describe.
Ram turned and looked around to see where the noise had come from, but could not find it. So he carried on walking.
The shops became more and more boring – there was one that sold nothing but tea towels, one that sold chairs (and not even spinny-round ones) and one that sold wool (but only grey and brown wool).
Everything was so boring it started to blur again, when suddenly he heard the strange sound once more. It seemed to be a mixture of “oywi boywi soywi” and “warb warb warb.”
This time, his parents had stopped to look at a bookshelf shop, so Ram had time for a good look round. Across the street was a very small shop, just a door and a narrow window. That was where the sound was coming from!
He went over, pushed the door open carefully and peered inside. The sound was coming from the shopkeeper, who was a perfectly ordinary looking lady. She was on the phone to someone. As Ram listened, the noise stopped being strange and he found that he could understand it.
It sounded like, “Btoob btooby toob, ybbi bibby, anyway, jrrr jrrr, there's a customer here, so I'll call you back later.”
She smiled at Ram. “Sorry, I've been on the phone all morning. Not many customers at the moment. People don't normally notice my shop when there's so much noise and bustle in the street. Is there anything you'd like to buy?”
“I don't know,” said Ram, “I don't have any money. I was just wondering what the strange sound was.”
“Oh, that was just me! I always talk like that when there's no one around. Most people don't hear it anyway above the noise of the other shops. Anyway, you don't need any money here. In this shop, you pay for things with promises.”
“Promises?” asked Ram, puzzled. “I don't understand. What sort of things do you sell?”
“Well, we have a special offer on ideas at the moment, and the dreams are very good value. We could even do you a packet of imagination.”
Ram looked even more puzzled. Even though he could now understand the shopkeeper's words, what she was saying did not make any sense.
“Look, it's simple. I can give you a big bag of ideas, but you've got to promise to use them to make other people happy. If you'd like the dreams, then you've got to promise to go to bed straight away when your parents ask you without messing around. If you want the packet of imagination, you've got to promise that you'll use it to stop being bored on long car journeys.”
“Well, OK, I promise all those things!” said Ram.
“Good!” said the lady. She rummaged around under the counter and gave Ram a big carrier bag full of packages, wrapped up in paper so he could not quite see what was inside them.
“I'd better be getting back to my mum and dad, but thanks for the things!”
Ram went out of the shop and found his parents, still looking at the bookshelves.
“Look what I've got from that shop over there!” he shouted at them excitedly. But when they turned to look, his bag had disappeared. He looked at where the shop was, but he could not see it amongst all the coffee bean stores and chopping board shops.
So they all carried on shopping. But now Ram's head was full of ideas for pictures he could draw to brighten up the school noticeboard and new games he could play with the children at school – things that would make people happy.
That night, he did go to bed when his parents asked, without any fuss. While slept, he had wonderful dreams, full of adventures and excitement, that left him refreshed when he woke up the next day.
And thanks to all the imagination, he could always think of a song, a story or a joke to tell, so even on the longer car journeys, he never got bored again.