Lindy Waits for Both

Lindy is a fluffy white lamb with a soft woolly coat and a pink nose. She is the most patient friend on Hollow Hill. While others rush and push, Lindy is happy to wait. She even carries a little sand timer, to watch the sand trickle down.

One morning, there was a problem at the swing under the old oak tree.

Toggle the goat and Halfpenny the hedgehog both wanted it, right now. They were not taking turns. They were standing on either side, holding the rope, glaring.

“I was here first!”

“No, I was!”

Lindy came trotting up. She looked at the swing. She looked at her two friends. And she noticed something they hadn’t.

“Did you know,” said Lindy, “that Gorse is building a second swing? On the other branch. He said it would be ready after lunch.”

Toggle and Halfpenny stopped glaring. “Really?”

“Really,” said Lindy. “So what if we wait? We could play something else this morning. And after lunch, there’ll be TWO swings. Then you can both swing at the same time, side by side.”

Halfpenny’s spines drooped. “But I want to swing now.”

Lindy understood. Waiting is hard. It can feel like a long, itchy, wriggly time. “I know,” she said gently. “Waiting is hard. But here’s my trick.” She held up her sand timer. “We don’t just stand and wait. We do something fun while we wait. Then the waiting goes quickly.”

So they played catch. And they played hopscotch. And they ate their lunch together under a tree. And then, just like Lindy said, Gorse the badger called out: “The new swing is ready!”

The three friends ran to the oak tree. There, hanging next to the old swing, was a brand-new one.

Toggle jumped on one. Halfpenny jumped on the other. They swung side by side, laughing, swinging higher and higher together. It was much better than one of them swinging alone while the other one watched.

Lindy sat on the grass and watched them, feeling calm and glad all the way through her wool.

“Sometimes,” she said to herself, “the fairest thing is to wait a little, and then both.”

That is Lindy’s middle. When you can’t both have something right now, sometimes you can wait - and while you wait, do something fun. Then, when the time is right, you can both have it together.