The Sisters Take a Walk
by Dale Haas
Once there were two sisters named Hannah and Harmony. They lived in a big city, at the top of a very tall skyscraper. They loved each other very much, but they never agreed. Whenever Hannah wanted to do something, Harmony wanted to do something else. And whenever Harmony wanted to do something, Hannah wanted to do the opposite.
One sunny day their Dad told them that they were going to take a walk. "Where are we going?" they asked him.
"We'll see," he said. "Put your shoes on."
So they put their shoes on and went to the elevator. It was Hannah's turn to press the "G" button, so they watched while the elevator went "48, 47, 46. . ." and all the way down to letter "G," which I'm sure you know means "Ground Level."
When they got to the street, people were everywhere and there were so many places they could go! Right beside them was a bakery filled with cakes and doughnuts and muffins, and right across the street was a candy store with more delicious treats than you can imagine.
"Where do you want to go, girls?" Daddy asked.
Hannah said, "I want to go to the candy store!"
Harmony frowned and said, "I want to go to the bakery."
So Daddy said, "Well, I guess we'll have to keep going." So down the street they went.
Not far down the street they came to a grocery store. And right across the street was a drug store. Since there were fun things in both stores, Daddy asked the girls where they wanted to go.
Harmony said, "I want to go to the grocery store!"
Hannah looked down and said, "I want to go to the drug store."
So down the street they went.
Pretty soon they came to the best places of all. Right in front of them was a BIG bookstore, and right across the street was a toy store.
Harmony jumped up and down and said, "I want to go to the bookstore!"
Hannah jumped up and down and said, "I want to go to the toy store!"
Daddy told them both to calm down and said, "If you girls can't agree about where to go, we'll just have to go back home."
Then Hannah thought something that she had never thought before. I guess because she was the oldest (didn't I tell you that before?), she decided that she could let Harmony do what she wanted and it wouldn't be so bad. It would be sort of like sharing. So she looked down at Harmony and said, "Sweetie, we can go to the bookstore if you want to."
And Harmony jumped up and down and yelled, "Hooray! We're going to the bookstore!"
And you know what? Hannah forgot all about where she wanted to go, because she had such a fun time with her sister in the bookstore. And on the way home, they stopped at the drug store AND the bakery and got treats for each other.
And when they got home, Hannah got to push the "48" button in the elevator, even though it was Harmony's turn.
Copyright 1996 Dale Haas