Mia had a very big drawer. It was full of socks: red socks, blue socks, spotty socks, stripey socks, one sock with a frog on it and one sock with a little star.
Every morning, Mia would open the drawer and look inside. She always picked the same two socks, The soft pink ones. The other socks just sat there, waiting.
One morning, something strange happened.
Mia opened the drawer. The pink socks were gone.
The Big Search Begins
“Where are my pink socks?” said Mia.
She looked under her pillow, just a teddy bear and a biscuit crumb.
She looked behind the bookshelf, just some dust and a forgotten crayon.
She looked inside her welly boots, just her welly boots.
She looked in the fruit bowl. There was a banana, an apple, and her dad’s glasses, but no pink socks.
She looked at the dog. The dog looked back at her. He was wearing a very innocent face.
“Did you eat my socks?” Mia asked.
The dog yawned. That was not a no.
The Socks Speak Up
Mia went back to her big drawer. She stared at all the other socks. They stared back, the spotty ones, the stripey ones, the frog one and the star one.
She had never really looked at them before. Not properly.
She picked up the spotty ones. They were red with white dots, round and cheerful, like tiny polka dot balloons. She put them on. They made her feel like dancing.
She picked up the frog one. It had big googly eyes on the toe. She put it on and wiggled her foot. The frog seemed to wiggle too.
She picked up the star one. It was soft and pale yellow, and when she held it up to the window, it seemed to glow a little.
“Oh,” said Mia. “You’re all rather lovely, aren’t you?”
The Best Sock Day Ever
That day, Mia wore one spotty sock and one frog sock. They did not match, not even a little bit.
Her dad noticed. “Nice socks,” he said, smiling into his tea.
Her mum noticed. She laughed a warm, happy laugh.
Even the dog noticed. He sniffed the frog on her toe very carefully, then walked away looking confused.
At the end of the day, Mia took off her socks and folded them up nicely. She put them back in the drawer.
Then she found something tucked right at the back, soft, pink, folded in a little ball.
Her pink socks, they had been there all along.
Mia smiled. She placed them gently back inside. Tomorrow she would try the stripey ones.
She climbed into bed, pulled up her cosy blanket, and closed her eyes. She was already thinking about what socks to try next.
Goodnight, Mia. Goodnight, socks.
✨ Moral: Sometimes the things you never noticed are the very things that make you smile the most.