Lara, the One Who Wasn’t Afraid

A little girl named Lara lived in our town. She liked to say she was a secret agent and that's why she wore a special earphone in her ear. Just like the secret agents in the movies! She’d touch the handset with her finger and talked to her watch as if it was a walkie-talkie.

That earphone was indeed special. However, it wasn’t for secret agents or spies. It was for children who can’t hear, like Lara. Well, she didn't hear in one ear at all, although she could hear a little with the other one. But she could see, feel, and do all of the other things, just like any other child, sometimes even better.

If you saw what a brilliant picture of a monkey she'd painted, you would definitely be jealous of her artistic talent! And when she was doing a sum in the Maths classes, Sam and Tommy would copy it from her because she always had it right.

But when the children all went outside to play, no one played with Lara. This was because of the strange device in her ear. And it was not the big ear pipe people had two hundred years ago, that looked like a trumpet!

Skillful scientists invented a new digital device. Nowadays it's small, shiny and works really well. Lara could play songs at home, dance and sing - because she heard very well with her hearing aid.

But whenever she wanted to play with the other children, one of the boys, Sam, teased her and dragged his friends away. He would shout: “Lara is here with her weird device!" he'd shout in pretend horror. "Run!”

And all of the children would laugh and run away.

“It’s not a weird device, I'm a secret agent!”…