It was a summer evening. Alex, who lived in a suburban neighborhood, was getting ready for bed when he heard the sound of fire alarms and screams coming from the outside. He quickly realized that there was a fire in his neighborhood and that his neighbors might be in danger.

He looked outside and saw that one of his neighbors’ houses was on fire. He knew that he had to act quickly to help his neighbors. After calling 911, he ran outside and heard his neighbors’ little son crying inside their burning house. “He must be quite scared,” Alex thought.

Alex quickly assessed the situation and found that the house was almost surrounded by flames (火焰). The best way out was through the front door, but it was blocked by fire as well. He knew that he had to find another way to help the boy escape.

He ran back to his house, grabbed a ladder and then rushed toward his neighbors’ house. He placed the ladder against the second-story window and managed to help the little boy climb down to safety. Once the boy was safe on the ground, Alex climbed up into the burning house again to see if anyone else was trapped.

As he made his way through the smoke, he heard cries for help from a bedroom on the third floor. He quickly ran up the stairs and found an elderly woman who was too weak to move. Alex quickly picked her up and carried her down the stairs to safety. By this time, many firemen had arrived, and they managed to put out the flames.

Looking around, Alex saw that other houses in the neighborhood were also on fire. He realized that the fire was spreading quickly and that more people needed help. Without hesitation, Alex joined those firemen, who were working tirelessly to put out the flames. He helped elderly neighbors, families with young children, and even pets.

After hours of effort, fortunately, the fire was finally put out.

When he woke up the next morning, he found his action didn’t go unnoticed by his school.

In class, I am sitting next to Mareena. We both have a good laugh. And when we laugh, it’s not small laughs. It’s more like big hair, we twist (扭曲) in laughter on our chairs and we end up under the table so much we are folded (折叠) in two. Sometimes, too, she annoys me a bit, especially when she uses my eraser or my pink pen that writes magic words. But best friends always fight a bit, that’s normal, Mum often tells me.

One morning, I found myself alone at my table. Mareena was ill. I found the day long, but I still laughed a bit. Because when Baptiste meant to say Madagascar (马达加斯加岛), he mistakenly said Madame Gaskal.

The next day, when I saw that Mareena was still away, I asked Mum if I could go to see her at her place. I wanted to bring her homework, but also make her laugh a little, so that she would feel better. Mum made a funny face and told me it was better to wait a few days. I thought maybe Mareena had a contagious (传染性的) disease. But still, it bothered me not to see my best friend. So I asked again. This time mum sat down with me on my bed and held my hands very tight. I realized that something was wrong.

Mum explained to me that Mareena was going to have to stay in the hospital for a while, because of an illness that I didn’t understand. Well, yes, what I understood was that my best friend wasn’t going to be back to school for a long time, and that we wouldn’t be laughing like whales anytime soon because of stupid things.

I still asked to go to see Mareena once at the hospital.

Mareena eventually recovered.

The classroom was so quiet that I only could hear their breath. I found that between classes, there were few students chatting or playing. It seemed that every student was buried in books and did exercises on and on. I knew the exam was drawing near and every student was preparing for it. Some of them even took books to the dining hall and there were others staying up studying. It was obvious that students took the exam seriously.

However, John, a top student in the class, wasn't among them. He used to work harder than anyone. Now, he was not only late for class but it was also typical of him to sleep in class. When I checked his exercise books, I found all blank（空白的）. I wondered what's wrong with him. So I called him out and asked him if he had trouble with his study. He bit his lip, lowered his head but explained nothing.

With puzzles increasing, I called his friend Mike into the office. Mike knew nothing about why his friend behaved so strangely. He also told me that John would be the first student to rush out of the classroom after school and refused to wait for him. And even when Mike invited John for their favorite football on weekend, John refused, saying he was busy, and hung off quickly. When I asked about John's family, Mike told me that John lived with his grandmother because his parents passed away many years ago. Though living a poor life, John's grandmother looked after him well. So John studied hard to live up to his grandmother's expectation.

Suddenly, I sensed maybe John was in need. So I asked Mike if he was willing to accompany me to John's house. To find out the truth, I decided to pay a visit to his family. Mike agreed and we set out without delay.

When the door was open, John was surprised at our arrival.

After the truth was discovered, we decided to take action.

My father’s T-shirt

As a teenager, I am not mature enough. I got angry quite easily and was not good at communicating with others. I had quarrels with my friends, and I was not polite to elders. Because of my bad behavior, I was sometimes punished by my father. However, it took me a long time to learn to control my temper and take the responsibility to make up for my mistakes.

I still remember it was an early autumn. Some leaves started to turn yellow and the weather became cool. One day, as I was getting ready for school, my mother carelessly handed me my father’s T-shirt instead of mine. At that time, I was getting to have a larger size than my father, so when I put on the T-shirt, I felt as if I wasn’t able to breathe! Soon, I realized that it was a small mistake which was made by my mother, but somehow the breathless feeling was so strong that it made me very angry. I could feel my anger growing, bubbling up inside myself. I shouted at her, “Why did you give me the wrong T-shirt?” My mother said sorry with a smile, but I continued to shout at her without thinking much. I got it off my body so wildly, making a hole in it and threw it on the floor. Then I put on my own T-shirt and rushed out of the house before my mother could stop me.

At that time, I didn’t consider how my mother was feeling. I just thought about myself. So after school, when I got home, I felt so regretful but I didn’t say a word to my mom. Feeling so frustrated, my mother shared her bad feeling with my father who was just after work from office, “See what your son has done.” I was so scared that maybe my father would punish me. But unexpectedly, instead of saying he would scold or beat me, my father quietly asked my mother to mend the T-shirt.

Seeing my father’s response, I felt more ashamed-of my bad behavior.

One morning last December, Bill McDonald read in the paper that a local man, Joe Day, was sick with lung cancer. That meant Day couldn’t assemble(组装) the magnificently lit, handcrafted Christmas displays that had made his house in Versailles, Indiana, a yearly holiday site for 95,000 people.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without Day’s lights, thought McDonald. Somebody had to come to his aid, he decided.

Day had made his own quick decision 33 Christmases ago when he came home one afternoon from his job as an electrician and found his five-year-old grandson, Nicholas, waiting. “What do you want to do today?” Day asked.

“Let’s build a reindeer(驯鹿),” Nicholas said. They fashioned one using wood from a fallen tree, then set it out on the lawn and lit up its cherry-red nose for the holidays.

Each year, Day added to his handiwork, placing reindeer on a track above his roof and winding lights as if they were electric vines(藤) around his windows and doors. Finally, thousands of lights, figures, and models filled his yard.

Then came December 2019. Day’s cancer, diagnosed in March, had spread to his liver. After 19 rounds of chemotherapy(化疗) and 43 radiation treatments, he was too tired and depressed to celebrate Christmas until McDonald called.

We lived in a quiet street with very little traffic so my mom let my brothers and me play out in the front yard a lot. One day we were outside playing when I saw something move under a bush near our neighbor's house. It looked very strange so we went over to check it out.

It was a puppy(小狗)II sat down in the grass and clapped my hands and it came running over to me and jumped on my lap.I was so happy.I had been begging my parents for a puppy for a long time and here it was.My brothers were going crazy.

I carefully carried the puppy to our yard and yelled with excitement,"Mom,Mom,guess what I found under the bush next door?"My mom came out of the room,looked at me,looked at the puppy and then back at me. "Mom,I think it's lost;it doesn't have a collar(项圈)or any tags.   And Mom,it surely looks hungry.”

Mom got a bowl and filled it with water.Then she got some food from the refrigerator and put it in another bowl.I put the puppy down.She ran joyfully over to the bowls and started eating and drinking.I was right…she was hungry.After a full meal,she curled up into a ball and went to sleep.My brothers and I just sat on the floor and watched her contentedly,praying this   moment would last forever.

My mom said that we needed to try and find the owner of the puppy.I didn't want to do that.I wanted to keep the puppy for my own.But Mom said that the owner was probably worried about the puppy and sorry that she was gone.She asked me how I would feel if I had lost my puppy.Would I want the person who found it to try and find me?Or just keep the puppy?

"Maybe she is right,”I thought.

We tried our best to find the owner.

One day,the phone call I least wanted to receive rang.

I checked my phone again. Still nothing from my 13-year-old granddaughter, Noe Why won’t she return my text messages? I wondered.

Noe was my grandchild. For years, Noe and her family lived close by and she and I spent a lot of time together. It made my day to see Noe’s face light up whenever I arrived. Then my husband and I moved to a different part. Actually it wasn’t an impossible distance. But with traffic it now took up to two hours to drive to Noe’s house. So, my regular visits with Noe came to a sudden end. The last time I saw her, she was excited about the latest addition to her life: Golden, a puppy (小狗). Golden was just like her name, a fluffy (毛茸茸的) ball of bright yellow down. For a while, Noe and I kept in touch via text messages and phone cells. Gradually, her text replies took longer to arrive. Phone calls became brief.

“How’s school going?”

“Okay.”

“What’s your favorite subject?”

“Dunno.”

Nothing I tried seemed to break through Noe’s sudden wall of indifference (漠不关心), Was she okay? Did she even miss me? I asked about Golden every time we talked. But caring for Golden seemed more interesting to her than talking to me. She was often busy with him and didn’t come to the phone when I called.

Was I being replaced by the puppy? My cell phone rang. Noe! But there were no words in the text. Just photos. Noe on her bike with Golden on her lap. Noe and Golden walking on the street with a shining leash(狗绳) in hand. Obviously, it was carefully selected. I don’t want to be jealous (嫉妒的) of a puppy. Months passed with seldom a word from Noe. At last, I couldn’t wait. I decided to pay a visit to Noe’s house.

Upon my arrival, I said to Noe, “show me your puppy.” She was stunned (惊呆) but quickly led me to the backyard and introduced me to her fluffy friend, giving detailed descriptions of his preferences. It was more words than we’d exchanged in a year,

Then, Noe asked me whether we could walk Golden together.

We understood each other better after much conversation and now it’s time to say goodbye.

“Catch it!” My husband and I shouted, but saw the ball hit the grass near our four-year-old’s feet while he continued kicking at the dirt. It was mid-season, yet he showed no interest in the ball game. We called his name and told him to pick up the ball, but he just stared blankly before going back to kicking the dirt.

As the games went on, it was clear that the coach didn’t want our son to play. We practiced with him, showing him how to hold the bat and throw the ball, but he never understood running the bases or other things we tried to teach.

At the end of the season, our son once again received the “Most Improved” medal, which he had received in other sports before. My husband and I looked at each other and I said, “Well, at least he’s improving,” though it reminded me of other sympathetic gestures from coaches or teachers. I was used to the feeling of our son being different and unable to fit into ball games. The same year, his preschool teacher told me, “He’s not paying attention.” This was not what any parent wanted to hear, but I knew it was true. As a stay-at-home mom, I was tired of having to repeat instructions to him. Initially, I wasn’t sure how much of it was normal, as he was our first child. We decided to have him assessed, but it was a guessing game until he turned six, when a professional evaluation determined that he had Asperger syndrome (幼儿孤独症). My husband always believes our son will be a good boy. Fortunately, he is blessed with good looks, intelligence, and an ability to face the future. There are no obvious signs that he has Asperger’s, apart from frequent lack of eye contact.

A friend invited our son to her son’s birthday party after his diagnosis (诊断), but I turned it down because it was a dirt-bike party and our six-year-old couldn’t ride a regular bike.

We didn’t go to the party, but at least it inspired us to get our son to try cycling.

The attempt was not a success, so we decided to expose him to swimming lessons.

Ever since my Dad died, my life had changed. My Mom was always really busy with her work, and she didn’t spend any time with me anymore. I had to go to a daycare every day after school, eagerly waiting for Mom’s work to be done and picking me up. It was even a luxury to stay with her on Sunday.

One day, at dinner time, I begged Mom to take me to the fair on Sunday.

“Lilly, you know I have to work that day.” Mom refused immediately.

“But we never get to spend time together anymore! Can’t you take Sunday off?” I asked.

Mom placed a plate in front of me and kissed my head. I smiled and licked my lips as she had given me a piece of cherry pie. Then I looked into my Mom’s brown eyes and asked one last time, “Can’t you take Sunday off?”

Mom raised one eyebrow, staring at me. Maybe she didn’t want to make me disappointed and agreed that she would attempt to spare some time on Sunday.

It was Sunday morning, and I ran to see if Mom was awake. She was making pancakes in the kitchen with her work clothes on. Mom felt my disappointed staring and tried to explain. She bent down next to me and put her hand on my shoulder, “Sorry, Lilly! I have to go to work today.”

Tears streamed down my face as I yelled, “You never have time for me!” And I ran into my room and slammed the door.

As I was crying on my bed I could hear Mom talk on the phone. She asked her friend Charlie to come over and watch me. Half an hour later, Charlie arrived and Mom left. I heard him knock on my bedroom door and say, “Lilly, your Mom made pancakes. Do you want to come out and have some?”

“No!” I screamed.

“Your Mom told me why you felt upset, and she left a note for you.” Charlie muffled.

Hearing Charlie’s words, I jumped off my bed and opened the door.

Finally, the familiar sound of the car engine announced Mom’s returning.