“I am so unlucky!” groaned Laurie as he lay on his comfortable bed. Laurie was a rat who lived with his parents, Mr and Mrs Laurence, in a lovely little house. Laurie was a very dissatisfied rat and always kept on saying, “Oh! I am so unlucky,” and then wept his eyes out.

Now the reason for his mourning this time was that Laurie couldn’t get the answers to some of his sums accurately. Such a futile reason to waste his tears on, but Laurie had a habit of doing so.

Soon his mother entered the room hurriedly, holding a spatula that she was cooking with in her hand and asked worriedly, “Why are you crying my son?”

“Oh! Mummy, mummy! I couldn’t get my sums right. I am so unlucky!”

“Such a pointless reason to cry on! This doesn’t make you unlucky. You know that you are the apple of my eye and I can’t see you weeping. So please, stop crying,” she assured him and then went to the kitchen to resume her cooking.

The next day, Laurie woke up with a smile on his face, but as soon as he saw the clock, the smile vanished. He jumped out of the bed and looked at the clock with wide open eyes. Only 15 minutes for the school gate to close. He immediately washed his face, dressed up, had his breakfast and then ran like a shooting star to his school.

But sadly, all in vain, as the school gate had already closed. The poor rat started sobbing again and saying that he was very, very unlucky. And then suddenly, he heard a shriek that stopped his sobbing.

As he looked here and there, he came to know that a baby rat had fainted near him. Laurie went near the rat to have a clearer look. The rat was a bag of bones, had a round face and a bunch of tousled hair and was wearing worn out clothes. Laurie took the rat home and narrated the whole story to his mother.

She caressed Laurie’s hair and said that the rat could live with them till he was fine.

Laurie cheered up as he had no siblings and the thought of having another rat at home brought a mischievous smile on his face.

Next day was Sunday so Laurie woke up late and found the rat staring at him with big, bright eyes. On being asked, the rat told that his name was Theodore and he was an orphan. All his relatives had turned their backs on him and now he was living on the streets.

Laurie felt pity for Theodore and took him to the breakfast table. After having a hearty breakfast, both of them had a race in the garden which was won by Theodore. Laurie quickly broke into tears and started saying that he was so unlucky and couldn’t even win a race.

Theodore gazed at him for moment or two and then broke the ice by saying, “Laurie, you’re so ungrateful. You said that you are unlucky just because you didn’t win the race. Laurie, you’re so lucky. You’ve got everything in life — every necessity, parents, friends, clothes, food, home, everything. I have got nothing, not even parents, but I don’t think I am unlucky. Thank Allah for whatever you have.”

Tears streamed down Theodore’s rosy cheeks as he said these heart-touching words.

Mrs Laurence heard everything and said kind-heartedly that Theodore could live with them from now on, as they would be his family. Laurie also realised that he was very lucky and never felt sad again.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 14th, 2018