The Pellet Girl By Effie Botonaki
Once upon a time there was a little orphan girl living with her uncle and cousin in a village in the mountains. The village was very cold and many houses were heated by pellet burners. This girl was responsible for emptying the trays with the pellet ashes, just like she was responsible for most of the household chores. Her cousin, on the other hand, did nothing. And because the neighbors saw her throw the pellet ashes in the litter bin every other day, they named her “The Pellet girl.” The Pellet girl did not wear new clothes, did not have new toys, nor did she have a large, beautiful room like her cousin. Her cousin was somewhat prettier too, so many children preferred to play with her rather than with the Pellet girl. Whenever her cousin invited friends home to play, the Pellet girl was never invited to join them in her cousin’s beautiful room, which was filled with expensive toys. Nor was she offered the sandwiches, the sweets and the refreshments that she herself would prepare for the guests. She was only allowed to bring them in her cousin’s room in large trays and then she was asked to leave and play alone in her own room or, better, do some house-cleaning. The Pellet girl, however, had two precious things that her cousin did not have: a kind heart and the determination to improve her life. Her kind heart attracted the friendship of the kindest children around her, so her friends were those boys and girls who did not care much about fancy clothes and toys like those her cousin had, but about kind feelings and good deeds. And the Pellet girl was distinguished for both. One day the Pellet girl’s cousin decided to throw a party for her birthday. Her father had given her as a birthday present a large box full of toys, and she was eager to show them to the other children to impress them. She also bought the most beautiful dress and shoes for herself, but gave the Pellet girl an old, shabby dress and shoes that were both worn and too small for her. When the two girls got ready and looked at themselves in the mirror, the Pellet girl looked pretty but plain, whereas her cousin looked stunning. When the guests arrived, all the boys wanted to play and dance with the Pellet girl’s cousin and only a few with the Pellet girl. The handsomest boy in the party was the son of a rich merchant. This boy, because of his beauty and his father’s riches, was called “the Prince.” The Prince had eyes only for the Pellet girl’s cousin because she was the most beautiful girl in the party and she wore the most beautiful and expensive clothes. The Prince had an older brother, a not very handsome boy, who had many freckles on his face and also some extra weight. To tease him, some children called him “Mr Freckles,” which he did not like at all. This boy was a very good student and a genius in Mathematics. Whenever any of the kids at school had problems with their Math exercises, they asked for his help, and he would kindly offer it to all—even to those who sometimes called him “Mr Freckles.” This boy noticed that the Pellet girl was sitting silent at a corner of the room as most of her own friends had got the flu and had not gone to the party. The other reason she was sitting was that those awful shoes her cousin had given her had hurt her feet and she had taken them off. Mr Freckles sat next to her, took out a small notebook and a pen from his pocket, and said to her with a kind smile: “I will write a Math puzzle for you to solve. Let’s see if you can do it!” The Pellet girl was very happy that someone finally paid her some attention so she looked at the exercise and replied with a big smile: “This is easy!” “It is what?” the boy replied surprised. “I assure you that it is really difficult!” The Pellet girl took the pen and the notebook and solved the exercise within a few minutes. “Let’s try something else,” said the boy in amazement, seeing that the Pellet girl had solved the exercise correctly. He wrote another, still more difficult problem, and the Pellet girl solved that too. “You are a genius!” he told her, and his face shone! “I will lend you all my Mathematics books and you will become even better.” From that day the Pellet girl and Mr Freckles became best friends. They played together, studied together, went to Math competitions together and took pride in each other’s accomplishments. When Mr Freckles finished High School, he went to one of the best Universities in the world to study Maths. He was able to go to this University not only because he passed the very difficult exams and got a scholarship that covered the expensive tuition fees, but also because his father could pay for his other expenses. The Pellet girl wished to join him the next year, when she would finish school, but she knew that this would be extremely difficult as her uncle would not give her any money for her studies. Her only way to join her best friend was to get one of the very few full scholarships the University gave to students who got extremely high grades in their exams. The Pellet girl studied hard every day, trying to do her best to achieve her goal. The big day of the exams finally came. The Pellet girl went to school full of worry, fearing that she would not succeed. Before she entered the classroom, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and told herself: “I can do it! I will succeed!” She thus entered the classroom with courage and determination, and wrote better than anyone else--not only in her school, not only in the nearby city, but in the whole country! When the exam results were announced, the Pellet girl was happier than she had ever been in her life: she had achieved her goal, based on her own efforts, and now the full scholarship to her friend’s university was hers. When the time came for her to leave her country and her family, she was not sad but excited. Her uncle and her cousin, on the other hand, were sorry to see her leave as now they would have to empty the pellet ash tray themselves, and also do all the household chores that she had been doing. A few years later, the Pellet girl became a famous Mathematician, like her best friend, “Mr Freckles.” As for her cousin, she did not manage to see her childhood dream come true and marry “The Prince,” because he eventually preferred another girl, who was prettier and richer than she was. The Pellet girl, on the other hand, did marry her own “Prince”—guess who—“Mr Freckles,” who did not have that many freckles anymore and had lost the extra weight because every day, after work, he would put on his running shoes and go jogging. The Pellet girl and Mr Freckles lived happily ever after and when the time came to buy a house, they made sure that the heating-system would not use, guess what: pellets! Because the Pellet girl did not want to see pellet ashes ever again
