Tender

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Lily who loved to play outside. One day, as she was running through a field of wildflowers, she accidentally stepped on a sharp rock hidden beneath the grass. She let out a loud yelp and fell to the ground, feeling a sharp pain in her foot.

As her mother rushed to her side, she asked, “Are you alright? Does it hurt?”

Lily nodded her head, tears streaming down her face, and her mother said, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you. We’ll clean it up and put a bandage on it.” As her mother gently cleaned the wound, Lily winced in pain, feeling a tender soreness in her foot.

Weeks went by and Lily’s foot slowly healed, but she didn’t forget the feeling of that sharp pain that left her with a tender sore. So when she saw the word “tender” in a crossword puzzle, she immediately thought of that day in the field and wrote in the answer — “sore“.

From then on, whenever she did a puzzle or heard the word “tender” mentioned, she was reminded of the importance of taking care of her body and being mindful of her surroundings.