Problems!

• Jocelyn Loh, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2022

Lucinda is a young girl with a disability longing to be able to move around perfectly just like everyone else. She had just moved from Spain to London. She has dark brown hair and hazel brown eyes darker than her mother’s. Lucinda lived in a tall, blue apartment, on the fifteenth floor with her mother and her grey cat named Cleo.

She knew her body was aching. She knew that she had to do something. She knew she had to talk but she wasn’t ready. When she wanted to talk, her mum was busy, her friends just wanted to play and her teacher’s didn’t have the time. She didn’t have anyone to talk to! Every day, she would sit by herself, trying her best to look happy but deep inside the problems were drowning her bit by bit.

Until one day, she took a deep breath, stood up for herself, stood her ground, walked up to mum, grabbed her and said, “I need to talk”. With her heart pounding, her mum saw something was wrong. She put Lucinda on her lap and they started talking about what Lucinda’s problems were. Then, they started talking about how they could solve it. They talked about Lucinda’s problems that were drowning her away from happiness, until the last problem faded. She finally got her problems out!

Now every day, in the warm spring, Lucinda knows how to get over her problems, even if she finds them pretty big. She has learnt that even though she has a disability and is different to the others she is different in a good way and that meant she was special. She doesn’t want to be the same as other people, she wants to be unique.She now knows that it takes time for people like her to talk to someone that she can trust and who understands her.