Cheerful Charlie

Cheerful Charlie was a very special boy. When he was still tiny, and in his mother's tummy, she had had an accident, which meant that Charlie couldn't walk. But that had never been a problem for him; he had always been happy to be able to grow and become an older boy. They had started calling him Cheerful Charlie because his joyful and enthusiastic nature was so contagious. He really brightened everything up for those around him.

There wasn't a builder, a postman, or a taxi driver who wasn't pleased to see Charlie. "Cheer up, Mr. Postman, that way you'll deliver more letters today than any other!" he would say, or "That was great, Mr. Taxi Driver, you park that thing better than anyone. You should enter a competition!" He also had great ideas and solutions for everything; and he shared them so generously that, just about every day in that town, someone did a great job of something, or invented something new, thanks to Charlie's ideas.

One day, though, he came up against a really tough nut to crack. A young boy came to town on his holidays. He was known as Waterworks, and he was a real crybaby. No matter what Charlie said to him, Waterworks would always find some reason to be sad:
"I don't have many sweets... my parents didn't buy me that toy... I can't watch television... I have to go to school, and I don't like it..." Everything seemed so bad to him. But Cheerful Charlie wasn't going to let a grump like that drag him down, and he kept spending more time with Waterworks, constantly trying to cheer him up, just as he did with everyone.

Then, one day, when the two of them were together in the street, someone dropped a pie from a window above, and it landed right on Charlie's head. He got such a fright that he couldn't even move his lips. The two boys were speechless, and although Waterworks was just about to cry, during those moments of silence, he missed Charlie’s happy words so much that he finally said, "Wow, Charlie, that's a nice clown disguise you just put on. And so quickly too!"

And, on saying those words, Waterworks felt so good, that he finally understood why Charlie was always so happy and cheerful. He realised that he was now so used to his friend's enthusiasm that he couldn't help but see the good and the funny side of everything.