Scenario / Storyboard

I can feel the sunlight as it slowly brightens up my face early in the morning. It's a nice spring day. I open my eyes with great pain, another day to make it through.

As I walk up to my little but precious kitchen I notice that I'm all out of fruits and this could be a problem since Adam, my son said he was going to drop by in the afternoon with my little granddaughter, Anna. What a lovely child that is, only 5 years old but already a little knows it all. I put on some clothes as I plan my shopping for the day. Its ten past 7, and the market isn't open yet but by the time my old legs get me there surely there will be many open stalls.

Stepping out of the bus I can hear the crowd as it merges through the stalls seeking which prices are the lowest and trying to negotiate an even lower one. I'm hoping to see Mary here today; she's usually here through the morning selling what she so carefully draws every night on the streets. Sometimes I feel sorry for her and want to take her in with me, but Arnold wouldn't have wanted this. It's been 4 painful and lonely years since he passed away and I still can't stop living the way I know he would have wanted me to live…

But wait, what is that?

I don't recall seeing that here before… A couple of young people, just children perhaps, are standing at a stall and selling maybe. I don't know. I'm not sure. I better go find Mary and see if she knows anything about this. It's rather crowded here today, and I hate all this noise. It's dirty and filthy but nobody seems to care. They're all so occupied with themselves and how to sell as much more possible in order to make others jealous…

Oh no, I just stepped in to something… it's rather sticky… great, just what my legs need, something to make it even harder for them to lift up. And I just can't seem to find Mary. Maybe she hasn't arrived yet, and maybe she has but has gone away seeking shelter from this terrible market which looks like a horrifying crash just occurred and people are desperately looking for survivals amongst themselves.

Strange though, those young people seem to not notice all this mess, they are smiling politely to everyone who walks by them might as well go there and ask them myself.

"Hello" she says to me with a big smile over her face, as if I just gave her something very precious.

"Hello" I say back trying to hold back my curiosity as much as possible.

"What are you doing here", I ask with suspicion as she looks in my eyes with that same smile full of innocence and joy.

"We are promoting good will! Do you feel happy today? Do you wish for any of these foods here? We will give them to you, just say it!" she replies. This must be some joke; she wants to give me something. Since when did people around here started giving free food?

"Oh no my dear, I don't want anything, I just came here to buy some fruit, that's all."

"Well then take some! Here, take this apple if you don't like it, take anything else. Apples are good for you, full of vitamins that should keep you going for a while" she said with her sweet voice as she was handing over the apple to me.

"Thank you my dear, it means a lot to me" was all I managed to say as I was still shocked by the way she treated me. As I was walking away I could feel her shiny eyes watching me and smiling with satisfaction because she gave something to me.

Drifting away with my thoughts I stopped noticing all the noise and people surrounding me as I started to feel the tender sunlight on my wrinkly cheeks again. Buying my food provided me with no pleasure or what so ever because I was already feeling at my best. That girl showed me that there is more to life than just our ordinary habits and that a simple digression from our ordinary life can bring a person back to life.

I think I will tell this to Anna today when she comes. It's never too early to start passing on some good values in life.