Birthday

Birthday Presents

When Angela was six, her cousin gave her a wonderful present. It was a spongebag, containing a flannel, a bar of soap and a toothbrush. Angela loved it. It was quilted and had a pattern of blue flowers all over it. It was so beautiful that she showed it to everyone. For a few days she even carried it about with her as though it were a handbag. It was much too pretty to leave in the bathroom, where no one would see it.

Her parents gave her a shiny new bicycle. Angela loved that too, and rode it round and round the garden, ringing the bell and singing out,’Look at me riding my bright red bicycle!’

She knew that she was very lucky to have such wonderful presents.

Soon afterwards her grandmother took her with her when she went to do some shopping. They went into a warm baker’s shop. A lady with a round pink face and big blue eyes leaned over the counter and smiled and said,’So you’re six now, are you?’

Angela didn’t answer at first. She looked up at the friendly lady and smiled back at her. She breathed in the smell of the fresh bread. She thought, ‘What a nice lady.’ With mummy ill, daddy out at work and Granny often cross, Angela didn’t get enough smiling attention, so she just stood there enjoying it, smiling back at the lady.

Then she realised that Granny was looking at her. ‘Go on, then, don’t be shy, you silly girl! Tell the lady what you had for your birthday.’

For a moment, Angela’s mind went blank. Then she realised she was supposed to say something. She was supposed to talk about her birthday presents. ‘Oh, I had a beautiful spongebag!’ she said. She wished she had brought it with her to show the lady behind the counter.

‘A spongebag, how lovely,’ said the lady.

‘A pretty blue one with flowers on it,’ Angela went on, gaining confidence.

But Granny interrupted, ‘Tell her what your real present was.’

Angela looked at Granny, who glanced back and forth between her and the shop lady. Angela went blank again. Was Granny cross? Not knowing what to do or say, Angela bit her lip.

'You had a bicycle, didn’t you? That was your birthday present.’

‘Oh yes, a bicycle,’ stuttered Angela, going red.

The shop lady smiled and nodded, and Granny said, ’She’s such a shy one.’

Not until they got home did Granny start to get angry with Angela. ‘What an ungrateful child you are,’ she scolded. ‘You are such a lucky girl, with wonderfully generous parents. That bicycle cost your father a great deal of money. And there you are in the shop talking about a spongebag! I don’t know what that woman must have thought of you. You really are a great disappointment to us all.’

Angela hung her head in shame, and went to her room. She didn’t feel like playing with her birthday presents, now that she knew she didn’t deserve them.