Meet Abby.

Abby was a free-spirited, bright, and jovial girl who lived with her grandmother in a small village near the sea. Although Abby herself was energetic, she found the village too small and boring. Everyone knew everyone else, and they went about their daily lives happily and routinely.

Abby would rather have been with her parents in the city, where everything was noisier and livelier.

One day, Abby’s grandmother fell and broke her leg. She was admitted to the hospital.

Abby was sad and worried about her grandmother. Her mother came to the village to visit them. Knowing that Grandmother would need some time to recover, Abby’s mother decided to take Abby back to the city with her until she got better.

Abby was thrilled.

Finally, she could live in the city with her parents!

Abby’s parents lived in a high-rise apartment near a train station. Her mother had to work during the day, and her father was away on business, so Abby’s mother asked her to stay inside the apartment until she returned from work. She prepared food for Abby and left everything she would need.

Abby tried to convince her mother to let her go outside and explore the train station.

“It’s too dangerous for you to go alone,” her mother told her.

She gave Abby a cell phone and her phone number in case of an emergency.

For the first few days, Abby sat near the balcony drawing trains and watching the people on the streets below. Soon, she began keeping track of which trains arrived and at what time.

But eventually, Abby became bored.

The city was right outside her window, but she couldn’t explore it.

She began thinking about the village. Back home, she could wander around by herself and greet people she knew. She could visit her friends and go to the sea with them.

Most of all, she missed her grandmother, who always baked cookies and cupcakes for her.

The village didn’t seem quite so boring anymore.

One day, Abby received a call from her mother.

“Grandmother is doing much better now,” she said.

Abby was delighted.

But when her mother returned home that evening, she had more news.

“Abby, you’re old enough to start middle school here. I think you should stay with us in the city instead of going back to the village.”

Her mother was happy at the thought. She loved spending evenings with Abby after returning from work.

But Abby didn’t know how to feel.

She had always dreamed of living in the city with her parents. Now that she was finally here, she missed Nana. She missed her friends. She missed the sea. She even missed the freedom of wandering through the little village she had once found so boring.

Her mother noticed her hesitation.

“What do you want, Abby?”

Abby thought for a moment.

“I always dreamed about the city when I was living with Nana,” she said. “I thought everything here would be exciting. But after you’ve been somewhere long enough, I think everything becomes routine.”

She looked at her mother.

“I want to go back to the village. I want to live with Nana and be near my friends and the sea. But I still want to come here and visit you and Dad. Then we can explore the city together.”

Her mother smiled.

“I think we can do that.”

When Abby returned to the village, she ran straight into her grandmother’s arms.

Nana celebrated by feeding her far too many sweet things.

Abby visited her friends and went to see the sea again.

The streets were still small. Everyone still knew everyone. People still followed the same routines they had before Abby left.

Nothing about the village had changed.

But Abby had.

And somehow, the ordinary little village didn’t seem so boring anymore.