|
|
KIDS UNITED
It is so much fun to belong to a circle of friends. It lets us share ideas and find out how we all live. Sometimes we live differently, but that's part of the fun. Sometimes we talk differently, but that's how we communicate exciting ideas. Sometimes we look different, but underneath our hair and clothes and skin, we're really all the same. We're a circle, and whether we're boys or girls, we're friends. And that's the most important thing in the world.
The Treasure Hunt
"Once upon a time, there was a pirate ship. It was a long, long, long, long time ago, so long ago that there wasn't even a date. And on this ship, there were pirates. Big ones, tall ones, short ones, fat ones. Pirates with long hair, pirates without hair. Pirates with eye patches and two or three with wooden legs. They were a bunch of really bad guys because pirates being pirates, they robbed people. It wasn't very nice, but they did it anyway, and they buried all of their treasure in one spot, marked it with an X and it's all still there." Sean, who had been telling the story, took a big breath. "Really," he said to all the friends gathered in a circle around the campfire, listening intently to his story about pirates. Their eyes were big and their mouths were open.
"Were they scary?" asked Niklas.
"Who cares if they were scary or not," said Chehn. "What I want to know about is the treasure. Is there really a buried treasure?"
"Sure is," nodded Sean.
"How do you know?" asked Natasha.
"Because…" Sean said, dragging out his sentence so that it sounded really important, because as far as he was concerned, it was. All the friends seemed to agree because they all leaned a little closer waiting for what Sean was about to say. Only he didn't say anything. Instead, he reached into his back pack and pulled out…
A nice, neat scroll held together with black string. On the end of the string, was a real pirate patch. Sean took the string off the scroll and put the patch on himself, covering his left eye. Then he unrolled the scroll and showed the friends…
A map!
"Wow." "Cool." "Is it real?" All the friends were impressed.
"Of course it's real," said Sean. "Now all we need to do is find the buried treasure!"
The friends got up and carefully put out the fire with dirt. Then they all gathered together and studied the map.
From where they were, it looked as if the path leading to the treasure went off to the right. It climbed up over a mountain and across a stream without a bridge. Then it went round a big group of palm trees, and ended up under a rock. On the rock, was a great big X.
"Looks like we go that way," said Ana.
"It's an awful lot of work," sighed Luc.
"Well, maybe not," said Tommy, pulling the map away from Sean and studying it closely. "Ha!" he said loudly.
"Ha?" asked the friends in unison."
Tommy kneeled down and spread the map out on the ground. Then he traced a different line with his finger. "If we go this way," he said, "we go straight to the treasure and we won't hardly have to work for it at all."
"Is treasure like money?" asked Maria. Some of the friends nodded and other shrugged their shoulders as if they didn't know. "Aren't you supposed to work for your money?"
"Who cares?" said Tommy. "I can go get all of that treasure and I could be rich. And when I'm rich, I'm going to move to a really big house and get a really fast car."
"You can't even drive," said Sean.
"It doesn't matter," said Tommy. "What matters is that I'll have all the money in the world to buy whatever I want, do whatever I want and be whoever I want."
"The money isn't just yours," said Heidi. "It would belong to all of us."
"Isn't it better to have a lot of money than a little bit of money?" asked Sean. "Is a person who has money more important than a person who doesn't?" asked Suzie. "Does money make the world go round?" asked Abibi. The friends all thought about the questions, and came to this conclusion. Maybe the reason the pirates buried their treasure was because they couldn't decide who should get the money or what they should do with it. Maybe they were saving it up to spend all the money at once to make the world a better place to live. Maybe... just maybe... pirates weren't the bad guys that we thought after all! Read next month's edition to find out what the friends do about their buried treasure!
|
|
|
|
