I am 10 years old

(A short story for kids)

My age has One and Zero in it. This year(2010) too. I feel they are the two most important numbers. I imagine the number One as straight and single. Single like the One Sun and the One Moon that our One Earth has. It is really unique. Now I’ll tell you what I feel about the Zero. Zero to me also stands for the Sun, the Moon and the Earth. You may wonder how they can be one and zero because zero means nothing. To me they are like the zero as they are all round, hugely round.



I love all the three Ones or Zeroes that I have mentioned. But it still puzzles me that in the vast sky, when the Sun appears, the Moon disappears. But I have seen the Sun and the Moon together sometimes, one to the left and one to the right. Is it like my Mom says, ‘I am the opposite of my brother’? Are they enemies most of the time, I wonder? In my home my one father and my one mother live along with me even though they are enemies sometimes. So I imagine the Sun as the father, Moon as the mother and the many, many stars, their children all sharing a same home which is the sky.


I have not yet spoken about another single, unique, round object. That is the Earth. The pictures taken by astronauts orbiting the earth are all blue with clouds but the globe on my desk shows me new things everyday. There is a big dent on my globe which has made the Americas go into the earth. This dent was caused when my brother and I fought over a football and the ball banged into earth just like a meteor


I ask myself whether I should make Sun and Moon my current heroes as I do not have anybody, although it may sound stupid to my friends. I think I should leave out Moon and only choose Sun, as I feel Moon cannot be trusted. On some nights she is perfectly round, which I love. Then it is like a half eaten biscuit and at other times like a lonely ‘smiley’ mouth. Oh, well! Then I shall make only the Sun my hero. I feel he rules the whole world, unlike the many Presidents and Prime ministers who head only a small part on earth. He is always bright and radiant. I’ll forgive his scorching habit as he is fierce only for two or three months in a year. The clouds, rain or dust sometimes try to overpower him but they fail to drive him away permanently. When he wakes up and passes his wand in all directions, we wake up and when he goes to sleep, in a few hours we also sleep. I have learnt that it is due to him that we have the chlorophyll filled greenery on the earth. As I heard someone say, he helps life to go on. Till I turn eleven next year the One(1), round(O) Sun is my hero, when somebody else may take his place.