Tariq’s birthday

Tariq was exited. Today was his birthday and he was having such a great day.

When he woke up his mummy had put a pretty parcel wrapped in paper with racing cars on at the end of his bed. Inside he found just what he wanted.. you guessed it.. a racing car!  Everyone knows Tariq loves racing cars and this one was the fastest yet. At least Tariq imagined it was, and Tariq was very good at imagining fast racing cars.

Even school was good. The teacher sang “happy birthday” and all the children joined in making him feel very special and loved.

Then when he got home his mummy had made a special dinner for him and his family. His Aunty Alisha was there.  She was always happy  and told the best stories and played funny tricks. Aunty Alisha had brought his cousin Hadil who liked dresses, which Tariq didn’t understand, but she had drawn him a picture of a racing car which was pretty good, so Tariq thought she might be getting better. And even his big brother Jemal was being nice and he had saved up his pocket money to buy Tariq a ramp to race his cars down. Tariq was having a great day.

The only person left was Tariq’s dad Mo, who worked at the hospital saving lives and doing very clever operations.

The only trouble was Tariq’s dad wasn’t home yet and they had to start dinner without him.

As the evening got late Tariq’s mummy got a phone call. She looked very sad and was quite quet on the phone.

“Tariq” she said “Daddy needs to talk to you”

She gave him the phone and Tariq said “Hello Dad”

“Hi Son” said his daddy “I’m really sorry Tariq, but I have to do an emergency operation. A little girl was in an accident and she is very poorly and I’m the only surgeon in the hospital who can save her. I can’t come home for your birthday.. But be a good boy and enjoy your family and I promise I will make sure we do something special together tomorrow.”

Tariq felt like crying but he remembered just how clever his daddy was and how he was needed by other children who might be very poorly without him. Tariq knew deep down that he needed to understand.

“OK Dad.. I will be fine.” He said “Make sure you’re extra clever and save the little girl.. for my birthday.” He said.

Tariq’s dad felt so relieved and said “Thanks son.. I knew you would understand, you’re such a good boy and I love you very much.”

Tariq was very sad as he missed his dad a lot but he decided to be brave and had a lovely time for the rest of his birthday.

Tariq’s surprise

The next morning Tariq was woken up by a big smiley face. It was his dad!

“Hey dad,  you’re back home!” he said. Then Tariq remembered why his dad wasn’t at home last night “How is the little girl, did you save her?”

“Well son” said his daddy “It was really hard but I remembered you had been so brave and wanted me to be extra clever for your birthday so I tried harder than ever .. and yes ahe is going to be OK!”

“Great!” said Tariq, “So why are you waking me up so early?”

“We’re going on an adventure!” his dad said “Come on, we’re late”

Tariq got dressed and off they went in his car. They drove out of town until they came to a building surrounded by lots of roads. Tariq was confused, but then he saw a car outside of the building with a man wearing a hemet and special racing car clothes..

The he noticed that the car looked like it was fast..very fast.. It was a red racing car!!

“Come on slow coach” said his dad “You gave me the best present of all last night by being so kind when I couldn’t get home. So now we are going to give you your birthday surprise. We are going for a race!”

Tariq spent the day having the best time ever. His dad spent all day with him and they raced around the track again and again.

Tariq loved his dad, he was not only the cleverest doctor at the hospital, he was also the fastest!

Brrmmmmmm!!