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SEAN AND SHOELACES Dejan Aleksić Illustrated by Dušan Zaklan
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Lost Marble Granny Ill
27 The
Big
Day
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Lost Marble Sean Knotson is a boy like any other. He has a clever look on his face and nicely combed hair. He likes pancakes and can’t wait to start going to school. Sean will be seven soon. His childhood would be perfect if one thing didn’t trouble him. Some may think this is not a big problem at all, but it is for Sean. He never liked tying his shoelaces. As a matter of fact, he couldn’t even do it. His granny usually did it for him. All he had to do was to stretch his leg and turn his head to the side. Easy-peasy.
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But that wasn’t enough for Sean to run away from his problem. Even his own surname reminded him of the problem all the time. The name Sean sounded like the word shoelace and his surname always seemed so knotted and it constantly bothered him. Knotson! Every time he said his surname he remembered a knot he could never tie. “I wish my surname was Marbleson!” , Sean said once to his best friend Cherry. Sean was great at playing marbles and the surname would have suited him. Cherry said it would be very funny because no one had ever heard of the surname Marbleson. “It’s so easy for you”, said Sean. “You are lucky because you don’t have a problem with your name and surname.”
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Cherry said the world was as big as a marble. This confused Sean. “Really!”, Cherry went on. “That’s what my dad says. We all live on a marble.” Sean said nothing and Cherry thought he was sad a bit. The story reminded him that he had lost his favourite marble a few days ago. Sean was so fond of the precious marble that he even gave it a name.
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The marble’s name was Prince. He had been trying to find it for such a long time and he gave up in the end. “Let’s try to find it together”, Cherry suggested. “All right,” agreed Sean. “Maybe your surname will bring us some luck.” Sean had a big nice garden. There were lots of flowers beside the concrete path leading to the front door.
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Cherry looked carefully under the clumps of flowers. Stems of roses, tulips and other flowers bent gently under her hands. The smell of touched petals spread over the garden. Cherry enjoyed this. She laughed and called Sean whenever she caught a bug by surprise and made it run away from her keen fingers. She also saw a line of hard-working ants carrying straws into their nest.
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Meanwhile, Sean was looking for Prince around his dad’s garden shed. He remembered that the last time he had played with his favourite marble was in that very place. It was the week before. Prince
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brought him a lot of glory that day. A few boys from the neighbourhood gathered in Sean’s garden. They all praised their marbles but Sean managed to beat every one of them. He even beat Evan seven times in a row. The boys were impressed when Prince hit Evan’s marble called Mighty from a huge distance of a couple of steps. Sean was so happy. The blow drove Mighty in the street. It was a miracle that took boys’ breath away. Then Evan offered Sean his old military compass and a snow globe in exchange for Prince. But Sean wouldn’t swap his favourite marble for the world. The very marble he was now trying to find without success. “Let’s search the house!” suggested Cherry. She had already gone through the whole flower patch and most of the lawn.
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“It’s enough for today,” said Sean. “I’m so tired.” But the truth was Sean wasn’t tired at all. He did want to keep looking for the lost marble. He just didn’t like the idea of looking for it in the house. He would have to take off his shoes and then it would be embarrassing for him to have his granny tie his shoelaces for him in front of Cherry before leaving the house again. “Looks like my surname didn’t bring us much luck,” Cherry complained. She was sorry they couldn’t find Prince. Sad look in Sean’s eyes said how much the marble was important and precious to him. That was why Cherry promised to come back the next day and help him look for the marble.
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