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Flat Feet & Co.

All or Nothing


Author: Chrissi Nerantzi
Translator: Adam Frank

[...]

One gloriously sunny day, the friends found themselves in their favourite place. Flat Feet had brought all her toys, and her friends wanted to play with some of them as they did every day.
"No!", snapped Flat Feet. "They're mine, do your hear me? MINE! How many times do I have to tell you?!" And she continued to play on her own as she had done the last few days.

Bouncy, Bubbles and Hairy were furious. They all three gathered together a little way off to discuss Flat Feet's strange behaviour.
"This can't go on!" cried Hairy. "Haven't we suffered her dramatics long enough?"
The others said nothing but sat there deep in thought. In the end, they decided to teach their friend a lesson. They started to ignore her, to pretend as if she wasn't even there, but Flat Feet didn't notice. She was lost in her own little world.
"Hmpf! I'm sick of you lot," she said, and with that she packed all her toys into her net, stuck her nose high in the air and waddled off somewhere else to play.
"You should see how sick we are of you…" her friends shouted after her as she was leaving.

Flat Feet felt wonderful. Finally she could play all alone with her toys without anyone interrupting her all the time.
"Hey! I'm having such a great time by myself!" She said, trying to convince herself and spread her toys out on the lily leaves and across the water. "Hmmm, what shall I play now?" She asked herself. She thought and thought for a long time until she began to feel very sad. "I can't believe it! What's wrong with me?! I actually miss them!"
And then she understood what a stupid thing she had done, but it was too late, and she was too ashamed to go back and say sorry.

So she decided to find some new friends and start all over again.
"It can't be that hard," grumbled Flat Feet. "I'll share my toys with them. From now on I won't keep everything for myself".
And she continued on her way until she reached a school of fish. When they saw the shark, they were afraid and swam away. Flat Feet saw this and laughed.
"Don't be frightened," she called after them. "He's not real. He won't eat you!"

The fish looked at her but when they saw the net full of toys, their eyes lit up. Flat Feet saw this and started to share her toys out. She only kept one - the little shark that was a present from her grandmother.
As soon as she gave them the toys, the fish swam away, without so much as a thank you. They didn't even ask her who she was.
"What have I done wrong now?" Flat Feet wondered and she searched the water for a chance of finding the fish to ask them. But she found no one. They had vanished.
[...]
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