A Toothbrush and a Chocolate Bar

While Max, his daddy and I were on vacation, we read through books about dinosaurs, about Easter, and about learning the parts of the body. However, those reviews will come later. As I sat through the long drive home to Indiana from Florida, I wrote Max a story. Tell me what you think!

Once there was a boy named Max who lived in a castle.

He wasn’t the prince. Rather, he was the boy who played with the prince when the prince was tired of all his lessons.

They played hide and seek.

They played tag.

Their favorite game was surprising people with help when they least expected it.

For the prince’s teacher, whose bad day started with dropping his toothbrush in the toilet, they left a brand new toothbrush on his schoolbag when he left for lunch.

For the royal mechanic, whom the king scolded for taking too long fixing the king’s favorite car, Max and the prince left a chocolate bar and a note saying, “We appreciate you.”

Max and the prince liked to do these nice things, then scurry away and imagine the smiles on the faces of those they helped.

One day, after the two boys left a brand new violin for a friend who dearly loved to play, they returned to the prince’s room to find a note under the door. “Thank you,” it said.

The boys looked at each other in confusion. “Who has found us out?” asked the prince.

“Mr. Ceipley?” Max guessed.

Walking to his adjoining study, the prince poked his head in to talk to the teacher.

“Thirty more minutes of recess,” Mr. Ceipley said, his teeth sparkly clean.

“Did you hear anyone in my room?” the prince asked.

“Not while I’ve been grading your work.” The prince walked back out to Max.

“I don’t think it was him. Maybe Lewis?”

Max led the way to the garage. The two found the mechanic elbow deep in the engine of the king’s favorite car.

“Hi boys! The part I’ve been waiting for finally came in about an hour ago. Care to watch me finish the install?”

“That’s great, Lewis! Mr. Ceipley’s waiting, though. We just wanted to say hi.”

The mechanic waved a greasy hand and took a bite out of his still-mostly-wrapped candy bar, and the boys trudged away, perplexed. When they got to the stairwell, they examined the note closer for any grease or chocolate spots.

“Hang on, do you smell that?” Max asked his friend.

“The garage?”

“No, the coconut on the note. That’s the lotion my mom uses!” Wide-eyed, Max and the prince looked at each other a moment before they clambered up the steps and burst into Max’s mom’s room.

She looked up at the noise from where she sat holding a cup of hot chocolate and chatting with the queen.

“Mom!” both boys yelled. “How did you know?” The two mothers giggled and opened their arms for hugs from their sons, who jumped into their laps.

The queen said, “I was curious when you asked me for a violin, so Max’s mom and I were keeping our eyes open. Then we heard the stories of all the random acts of kindness that have been going on, and we figured it out.”

“And we are oh, so proud of you both!” Max’s mom finished.

From then on, Max, his mom, the queen and the prince kept surprising people with nice gestures, and the castle was a very nice place to live.