Many beautiful flowers grew in the park. There were lilies, carnations, violets, tulips and many more besides. The colours were amazing to look at and the smell of the flowers was very soothing.
Maya's favourite flowers were roses; she loved the red ones, the yellow ones, the pink ones, the orange ones, and the white ones. Every day she would go to the park and pick a rose of each colour, then she would take them to her mother's grave at the bottom of the park. Maya's mother had died two years ago after becoming very ill and the young girl had promised herself that she would visit the grave every day so that her mother would never be forgotten.
One day, while Maya was picking roses in the park, she saw a boy sitting on the grass wearing a school uniform. He had a yellow rose in his hand and he was tearing all of the petals from the rose, one by one. Maya ran over to the boy and shouted at him.
'Why are you tearing the petals off of that beautiful flower? Why are you doing that?'
'Because I am bored,' replied the boy. 'Why are you getting so upset about it?'
Maya could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she said to the boy, 'I am upset because I love roses and my mother loves roses. I pick some for her every day and if you tear them all there will be none left!'
The young boy felt sorry for Maya and asked, 'Where is your mother?'
Maya pointed silently towards her mother's grave at the bottom of the park. She sat down on the grass clutching her roses and asked the boy for his name. He told her that his name was Sami and that he had run away from school because he was finding mathematics class too hard.
Sami learned that he never saw Maya at school because her father was too poor and so could not afford to send her. The young girl told Sami that she often wondered what it would be like to go to school and have friends to play with.
Sami asked, 'Do you like maths? I don't like maths and I can never understand how to do it.'
Maya took a look at Sami's maths book and chuckled as she told him how easily the sums could be worked out. Her father had taught her about mathematics everyday at home and she loved working out the sums and was very good at it too.
'You can do maths better than me!' exclaimed Sami. 'You should come to school.'
But Maya was sad because she knew that she could not afford to go to school even though she loved the idea very much.
Suddenly a tall man appeared in the distance. He was shouting Sami's name and the young boy looked very sheepish as he explained to Maya that this was his maths teacher, Mr Karim.
When Mr Karim approached the children, he asked Maya why she also was not at school. The young girl explained to the teacher that she was not at school because her father was very poor and he could not afford to send her to be educated.
'I am very sorry to hear that,' said the kindly teacher, 'but I must take Sami back to school now because he is not supposed to be here.'
Sami reluctantly went with his teacher and they both left Maya alone in the park once more.
On their way back to school, Sami told Mr Karim about how Maya was so good at doing sums and how she loved to learn from her father.
'She seems like a very smart girl,' agreed the teacher, 'and it is a great shame that she cannot afford to go to school.'
The next day, after school had finished, Sami went back to the rose park to play with Maya. The two children met in the park every day that week and played and talked and studied for hours.
