“A Package of Love,” Friend, October 2020
Bonus Story
A Package of Love
The author lives in Utah, USA.
“Nai Nai’s on the phone!” Mom’s called out. Tom leaped from the couch and ran to find Mom. He took the phone from Mom’s outstretched hand and cradled it against his ear.
“Wei? Hello?” Tom said, a large grin on his face.
Nai Nai was Tom’s grandmother who lived overseas with Tom’s grandfather, Ye Ye. Tom loved getting calls from them, even though he didn’t speak Chinese very well.
“Tom! We miss you,” Nai Nai said in Chinese.
“I miss you too!” Tom said. “Are you OK?”
“Yes! We are OK,” Nai Nai answered.
Tom didn’t know how to ask about the thing he was worrying about. He wondered how to say “coronavirus” in Chinese. Tom had heard all about the coronavirus on the news. He knew that many people all over the world were sick and that most countries were asking people to stay home to keep the virus from spreading.
“Nai Nai, are you sick?” Tom asked. He hoped Nai Nai would understand. He has spent a lot of time worrying about his grandparents.
“No!” she answered. “Hen hao! Very well!”
Tom smiled and breathed a huge sigh of relief. After a few minutes of chatting with Nai Nai, he passed the phone back to Mom. Soon Tom heard Mom say, “Hao, zai jian! Goodbye!”
After Mom hung up the phone, she turned to look at Tom. “Nai Nai says the stores where she lives have already run out of face masks. She asked if I could check the store here to see if there are any masks left. If we find any, we’ll send them to Nai Nai and Ye Ye.”
“Can I come too? I want to help!” Tom ran and put his shoes on. He couldn’t be with Ye Ye and Nai Nai right now, but he could at least do something small to help!
At the store, Mom pushed the shopping cart toward the pharmacy. They were very careful not to touch anything they weren’t buying and to not get too close to other shoppers. When they reached the pharmacy, Mom found the right shelf. There weren’t very many masks left. Mom put one box of masks in her cart. Tom spotted a bottle of green hand sanitizer and showed it to Mom.
“What about this? They could use it to help keep their hands clean!”
“Great idea,” Mom agreed. Tom set it in the cart.
Later, at the post office, Mom chose a red mailing box with spring blossoms. Tom helped put in the masks, the hand sanitizer, and a few packages of cookies. Mom closed the box with tape and brought it to the counter to buy postage.
Tom watched the mail worker take the package and get it ready to ship far away to Nai Nai and Ye Ye. Tom was still worried about his grandparents, but doing something to help made him feel a little better already.
“I’m glad we were able to help Ye Ye and Nai Nai somehow,” Tom said. “I really hope they don’t get sick.”
“Me too,” Mom agreed.
Tom thought about how happy his grandparents would be when they got the package. “They might even be able to share the masks with their friends,” Tom said.
“That’s right! Even when scary things happen, there is always a way we can help.”
As Tom left the post office with Mom, he felt warm all over. He knew that helping others was what Heavenly Father wanted him to do.