L-1: A Piece of the Sun

A young man sat alone on a bench in the city park. His face showed that he had a lot of problems. And really. On the day before, he lost his job. He had only very little money, and he needed to get a new job quickly. He sat there and thought “What am I going to do?”.

“The life is so difficult,” he thought. “You must go to work every day, you work for many hours and after work you are very tired and must go to bed. Then you get some money, but you must pay your rent, your electricity bill, your bus tickets and food. And then you have no more money and you must go to work again. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Is this life?” he thought and felt very sad.

Suddenly, he saw a woman with many young kids. They all walked in his direction and talked happily with each other. It was probably a group of children from a kindergarten.

When the group of children came closer to the bench, one child looked at the young man on the bench. It was a little boy and he came to the young man and smiled.

‘I found something. I can show it to you, if you want. Do you want to see it?’

The young man smiled a little. ‘What is it?’

‘It is a piece of the sun. It makes people happy. Do you want to see?’

‘A piece of the sun?’

‘Yes. A piece of the sun. When you look at it, you will smile. I can see that you are sad now,’ said the boy and then he asked again: ‘Do you want to see it? Do you want to smile?’

‘Yes,’ said the young man. He already had a big smile on his face. ‘Yes, I want to see. Show me a piece of the sun, please!’

The little boy lifted his right hand. He held something in his palm, but no one could see it. It was hidden in his fist.

Slowly, he opened his fist and said: ‘Look!’ There was a piece of the sun shining on his palm. It was a small gold coin and it was beautiful.

‘It is beautiful,’ the young man said. ‘Was there only one piece of the sun or were there more pieces?’

‘I don’t know,’ said the little boy. ‘I didn’t look for other pieces because Ms Lorna said that we had to go home.’

‘Timmy!’ called his teacher. The group was moving away from the bench.

‘Can you tell me where you found this piece of the sun?’ asked the young man.

‘Timmy!’

‘You don’t need it anymore. Look! Now you are smiling!’ said Timmy and ran away to join his group of children.

---

English Reading, Level 1 / © Sparrow’s English Reader