Tale#32: Bedtime Tales: Episode20:The Broken Toy |Saturday
Even broken things can shine again
Zayn's toy box was a little kingdom of its own—cars, rockets, blocks, and a knight with one missing arm. But the red wooden car was the king of them all. A smooth, shiny thing with flame stickers on the sides and wheels that still spun like magic even after a year. It had been a gift from Baba when he turned six, and Zayn treated it like treasure.
That afternoon, while racing it across the hallway tiles, something happened.
Too fast. Too sharp a turn.
CRACK.
The car smacked into the edge of the wall, and one of the front wheels twisted out of place, hanging by a thread.
Zayn froze.
He picked it up slowly. The car looked wounded. The way the wheel dangled made something heavy settle in his chest.
He tried fixing it. Taped it. Pressed it. But it wouldn't roll right anymore.
He left it quietly near the shelf. Then walked away.
All evening, he was quiet. He didn’t tease Sara. Didn’t ask for screen time. Just sat by the window, watching nothing in particular.
Aymen noticed.
After dinner, she sat beside him. “You’ve been quiet, sweetheart. Something wrong?”
Zayn looked down. “I broke it.”
Aymen tilted her head.
“My red car. It’s not working. I tried fixing it but… I think it’s just broken now.”
Aymen didn’t rush in with a solution. She simply said, “Do you want to show it to me?”
Zayn got up and came back with it. She took it gently in her hands.
The break was clear. But so was the love.
“Do you remember when we fixed the teacup last month?” Aymen asked softly.
Zayn nodded. “It had a crack.”
“And we glued it. And painted a line of gold around it just for fun.”
Zayn’s eyes lit up. “Yeah… you said it looked like treasure.”
Aymen smiled. “Let’s do the same with this.”
That night, the kitchen table turned into a repair workshop. Zayn held the glue, Aymen held the wheel. Together they pressed and waited, then tested it gently.
It didn’t roll like before, but it moved.
Then came the gold paint.
Zayn painted a careful line around the cracked part. The shimmer made it look different. Not perfect. But strong.
Stronger, somehow.
Before bed, Zayn placed the car back on the shelf.
Sara peeked into the room. “You fixed it?”
Zayn nodded proudly. “It’s not like before… but I still love it.”
Then, after a pause, he added, “Maybe even more now.”
Aymen tucked him in and kissed his forehead.
As she turned off the light, she whispered, “We all break sometimes, Zayn. What makes us special... is how we choose to heal.”
Moral:
Sometimes the cracks stay. But they remind us of what we’ve survived. What we’ve cared for. What we’ve fixed. And that... is its own kind of beauty.