PERSONS, places, or things become dearer to us when they are not with us or within our reach. Something like this also happened with the two siblings, Rania and Ramiz.

Rania was two years older than Ramiz. Both of them couldn’t tolerate each other and kept on fighting without any reason. Their parents tried their best to create an amicable relationship between them, but it seemed nothing had an effect on them.

One day, when the siblings had a fight, their parents had to take a serious step. It was night time when their parents had gone to sleep. One after the other, the children crept into the kitchen and both started fighting for the jar of cookies.

“These cookies are mine. Don’t you dare touch them,” Rania said in a sharp tone.

“Give it to me! Mum brought all these cookies for me!” Ramiz shouted. They both started to snatch the jar from each other so it slipped and fell on the kitchen floor. The jar broke into several pieces that spread all over the floor, as a result, Ramiz accidently wounded his foot by stepping on one of the broken pieces of glass. He started to cry loudly.

Their parents woke up with the cries of Ramiz and rushed to the kitchen. When they saw the kitchen floor all messed-up and the injured Ramiz, they got very angry.

“See what you both have done!” their mum scolded. But both the siblings still didn’t stop accusing each other.

“It was all Ramiz’s fault,” Rania said.

“No, I also wanted to eat these cookies,” Ramiz explained wiping tears from his eyes.

“That’s enough. We don’t want to listen to both of you now. Rania go to your room and Ramiz come with me. See what you have done to your foot,” father said in anger.

The parents thought for a solution to end all this nonsense forever. So the next morning, at the breakfast table, their parents revealed the solution — they were sending Ramiz to a boarding school to study. Ramiz didn’t want to go but his parents were firm. The news made Rania very happy.

Thus, Ramiz was gone and Rania was very excited and happy that now she was the only child in the house. The first two days for her were very peaceful and enjoyable but, as time passed, she started to miss her younger brother. She felt very lonely and depressed. She had no one to laugh or fight with.

After about a week, at the breakfast table, she requested her parents, “Mum, dad please bring Ramiz back home.”

The parents were astonished to hear Rania’s words but didn’t show it. Dad casually questioned, “So you want him back to fight again and make this house a battlefield?”

“No, I am not going to fight with Ramiz again, I promise dad, I have realised my mistakes as well. In fact, I am going to take care of him and I promise to fulfil all my responsibilities as an elder sister. Please call him back, I am missing him very much!” Rania pleaded and started to cry.

“Ok, we’ll think and see what we can do about it,” said her father.

Rania was lost in thoughts all day, wondering if her parents would bring Ramiz back home or not. She missed Ramiz even more.

The next day, when Rania woke up from sleep, she found her brother sitting on a nearby chair and smiling. She couldn’t believe her eyes! They gave each other a big hug and apologised for their mistakes. Ramiz had actually not gone to a boarding school, he was at his aunt’s house and he went to school from there. As Rania was in a different branch of the school, she never got to know about it. This was done to teach the siblings a lesson, which they never forgot.