#35 – The Tale of a Bad Day – Part 1

Once upon a time, through no fault of his own, there existed a ‘Bad Day’. The Bad Day didn’t really think he was bad, but he had reached this conclusion based on his experience that people didn’t seem to like him very much. In fact, he had become so used to people saying things like, “I wish this bad day would just end,” or, “I am having such a bad day that I’m going to go home and cry,” that he assumed that he must be doing something wrong. Which was a shame, because The Bad Day took his job very seriously and wanted to do the best that he could. His bosses always seemed very pleased with the work that he did so he could never understand why the humans he worked with didn’t feel the same way. He wanted to discover the truth, so, one morning, he arrived at work extra early to find out who the lucky human was that he would be working with today and this is how he met Emily Crumbert.

The Bad Day found Emily’s family’s house, went over his itinerary and excitedly got to work. It took quite a bit of preparation to help a human through their day so he always like to start with the basics. Humans can always do with some more sleep, so he found her bedroom and reached over to turn off her alarm clock before it went off. Great, thought The Bad Day, she’ll be good to go for our adventurous day ahead following a good night’s sleep. The Bad Day went over to her dresser and noticed she had accidently left some of her school clothes folded neatly on top. He thought he would try and help by putting them back in her draw so she would know where they were, but he accidentally dropped the clothes on the ground before trying to shove them back in her already overcrowded draws.

Satisfied he had done what he could in that part of the house, The Bad Day set out to find the kitchen. Once there, he looked in the fridge and shook his head. Will they every learn? All Bad Days knew that milk tasted best when it was left out for the night so he promptly took it out of the fridge and left it on the kitchen counter so it would warm to a nice room temperature before Emily and her family woke up. Now in the bathroom, The Bad Day found the gift that the humans always left for him waiting in a holder on the bathroom sink: Toothpaste. The Bad Day was never sure how the humans knew that toothpaste was his favourite food, but he always made sure to show his gratitude by squeezing all of the toothpaste out into his mouth until the tube was nice and flat. He checked his teeth in the mirror before leaving the house and heading to Greenvale School.

Once there, The Bad Day found Emily’s classroom and made sure that any nasty, sharp ends were quickly removed from all of her pencils. He also didn’t really like where Emily was sitting, so he peeked in a few desks and saw that Michael’s math’s book was particularly neat, so he moved her desk to be next to his. He stood back and admired his work in her classroom. The next part of his shift was the part he enjoyed the most. At 5:30 every morning, The Bad Day had to hold a formal meeting with his friend, The Weather.

The Weather was always very busy deciding which requests to fulfill, but The Bad Day and The Weather were very good friends, and they always worked well together. Once they had finished discussing the finer details of Emily’s day, it was decided that rain would be absolutely necessary to assist this particular human. Not some light rain, either, (which was usually more than enough), but the type of storm that you could feel coming from many miles away. The two of them settled upon a schedule for the storm and shook hands. The Bad Day then decided that he would break his usual routine and go and make sure that everything went well for Emily. His shift usually began very early in the morning and usually ended the moment his human woke up but, today, he wanted to see how his plan would play out. He wanted to know, once and for all whether he was good at his job, or not.

He went back to Emily’s Family’s house and waited for her to wake up.

Click here to read The Tale of a Bad Day – Part 2

My name is Gregg Savage and, every night when the house is quiet, I write and publish a free children’s story at dailytales.com.au for you to share and enjoy.

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