Culture Day

[Sweetcherrie]

Today was culture day in the centre, and Fred was well excited. They would meet people from all over the world, and it would be great fun. He’d been up very early already, and had run downstairs for breakfast, but nobody had been there yet. So, he patiently waited until everybody else would be downstairs, and they could eat.

 

Slowly people started dripping into the big dining room, and even some of the group leaders were awake now. They started carrying out the bread and Fred rushed to the kitchen to help with the tea. He hoped that Ann would be there; she always let him help with making breakfast. Ann, one of the activity leaders, was just about to turn on the electric kettle when Fred came running in. Dutifully she stepped to the side and let him take over. Then she looked at his feet.

 

“Fred? Why aren’t you wearing shoes?”

 

Fred looked at his bare feet, and wiggled his toes.

 

“I think I forgot miss Ann, I was so excited about the people from different cults we will meet.”

 

She laughed.

 

“Cultures Fred, not cults, but maybe you can go and put some shoes on now.”

 

Fred checked if the kettle was really on, nodded, and bounced off into the direction of his room. When he slid through the communal hallway he almost bumped into someone. He apologized and wanted to move on, but when he saw the lady’s face he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at her with his mouth wide open.

 

“You have something..” his hand pointed at her forehead, “right here.”

 

To his surprise the lady started laughing, and although Fred though she had a pretty laugh, he didn’t understand why she was laughing.

 

“This red dot means that I’m married.”

 

Now Fred was even more lost, his parents were married, but they didn’t have red dots on their heads. And if getting married meant that you had to have a red dot on your forehead than he didn’t think he wanted to get married. Or perhaps only to miss Ann, she was always nice. Maybe he could ask her if he could put a red dot on her forehead, so he wouldn’t have to have one on his. He had just opened his mouth to ask all this to the lady when Ann walked in.

 

“Ann! Ann! Can I put a red dot on your forehead?”

 

Ann looked confused.

 

“I think you have an admirer,” the lady with the red dot chuckled, and winked at Ann.

 

Fred had no idea what an admirer was, but if it meant that he could marry Ann he didn’t mind being one.

 

“There is more to it that that Fred, but what do I see you still haven’t put your shoes on?”

 

“I was on my way there miss Ann, but then I met this nice lady, and-“

 

“Fred!”

 

Ann looked seriously at him and he bent his head, and walked out to do as she had asked him. The two women walked out, and Fred was just about to go to his room, when he saw that the lady had dropped something. When he took a closer look he saw that it was a blue ribbon. He picked it up. It felt soft in his hands, and it felt even nicer when he rubbed it against his face. It was a nice, shiny ribbon and Fred really liked the colour. He put it in his pocket, and decided to give it back to the lady once he had put his shoes on. While he walked to his room he kept his hand in his pocket and kept rubbing his thumb over the velvet. He really, really liked the ribbon, and when he had reached his room he sat down on the bed and took the ribbon out of his pocket. He didn’t want to give it back, but felt a bit guilty about this. But then he wasn’t sure that it was the lady who had dropped the ribbon, it could have been someone else. And of it had been someone else, he didn’t know who it was, and that would mean that he could keep it. Finders, Keepers!

 

Fred put the ribbon under his pillow. If the lady would ask for it he would give it back, and if she didn’t it wasn’t hers and then she could keep it. He looked at the time, and saw that the big hand of the clock was already pointing to the nine, which meant that the cult day would almost start. He ran out and ran back to the breakfast room.

 

More people had arrived, and he hurried to find a good place. Miss Ann was still talking to the red-dot lady, and Fred watched them curiously. Would she ask? Would it be her ribbon? When everybody was here Ann decided that it was time to start. She told the group to be silent, and when they were she started introducing the different people. One by one they told something about their country. Fred saw an Indian, and someone who looked a bit yellow, and of course, the lady with the red dot. When it was her turn she told the others what she had told Fred. She also told that blue was a special colour in her tribe, and that she had brought a piece of ribbon to show them what colour blue it was exactly. At this moment Fred sank deeper in his chair; the blue had not only looked special it was special, and now he had it under his pillow. The lady opened her bag, and when she couldn’t find her ribbon she looked very sad.

 

“Unfortunately I seem to have lost my ribbon, so I can’t show you what the exact colour blue it is.”

 

Fred silently got up from his chair; he would sneak off, get the ribbon and put it back in her bag, without her noticing. He managed to get out of the big hall unseen, but when he ran past the hall…he slipped. It was rather slippery, and since he’d still forgotten to put shoes on he had slipped. He tried to grab a chair, but because he had been running too fast he mis-grabbed, and the chair fell over together with him.

 

Miss Ann came running from the big hall, and hurried over to see if he was ok, but Fred started crying. Not because he had hurt himself, but because by now he felt so guilty that he just wanted to cry it all out.

 

“I took the riiihiibbon miss Aaahann, iiihit was oohon the floohoor and Ihii took it.”

 

He was sobbing louder and louder, and even the lady with the red dot came running over. Ann was a bit angry, but when the lady heard that he was feeling so sorry, she kneeled next to him and asked him quietly why he had taken it.

 

“Because it was so nice and soft miss, and because I thought that it wouldn’t be yours, and-“

 

“Shhh, you can keep the ribbon, but could we maybe show it to the others so they also know how special this colour is?”

 

Fred dried his eyes and showed a watery smile.

 

“So you’re not mad at me?”

 

The lady shook her head and smiled.

 

“It is a special colour isn’t it?”

 

Fred nodded happily, and got up from the floor. Everything would be all right; the lady wasn’t angry with him, and he got to keep the ribbon. He had learned a lot about cults today. People with red dots were married, and really nice, and had blue ribbons; what a special day! He was darting off to his room when he heard Ann yelling after him.

 

“And put some shoes on!”

 

OOC: I know I got half the facts on hindoeism wrong but my muse was having a holiday....so look at it as creative freedom, or something like that...