A girl named Nasma was feeling joy because the time of the weekend had come. Her grandfather was waiting for her visit. Nasma went to his house that was near her. She knocked on his door, placing her ear against it to hear the sound of the steps he walked with, which opened for her. She jumped before him like a small cat.
The grandfather carried his granddaughter Nasma, then kissed her at the time when her fingers were busy playing with his red mustache. Then the grandfather entered the large courtyard present in his house, which contained in its center a water pool. There were trees surrounded by green color. Nasma inhaled a beautiful fragrance. When she turned toward it and found before her the honey flower, she said to her grandfather: “Put me down, grandfather, for I want to say peace to this flower.”
The grandfather put Nasma down, who hastened toward the honey flower. She shook it gently and began as if she were talking to it, which made it vibrate with joy until flowers with yellow color scattered from it over her head. The little girl jumped, then collected some flowers to inhale their fragrance. Then she closed her eyes, saying: “O God… how beautiful this fragrance is. It revives the heart.”
Nasma returned to her house before nightfall, carrying in her hand a bouquet of honey flowers to present to her teacher. One day, the teacher was absent from school because she had given birth to a beautiful baby girl. When Nasma knew, she went to her grandfather’s house to get a bouquet of honey flowers to present as a gift to her teacher. But she discovered that the branches of her flower tree were empty of leaves.
Nasma hastened toward the gardener, then took the watering can to water her flower with it. But her grandfather saw her, saying to her in wonder: “What are you doing, beautiful one?” She said to him: “My flower tree is sick and needs medicine.” The grandfather laughed, saying: “The flower tree is not sick, but winter has come, which made its leaves fall. But when spring comes, your flower tree will bloom again.” Nasma said: “And what shall I give to my teacher now after she has given birth to a beautiful baby girl?”
The grandfather spoke in a tender voice to his granddaughter, saying: “I will give you a solution to this problem.” He went to her house in the morning of the next day, then gave her a red cardboard box wrapped with a shiny golden strip. Nasma opened the strip and found a transparent bottle inside the box, with perfume vibrating inside it. When she opened its cap, the fragrance of honey flowers wafted from it, filling the corners of the room.
Nasma hastened toward her grandfather, feeling joy, then jumped and hung on his neck until the red mustache fell to the ground from him. The grandfather pulled his mustache, then placed it on his granddaughter’s head, then carried her, and they were laughing together until the small bird present with the mustache danced from the intensity of joy.
A story from Arabic children’s literature by the Syrian writer: Khair al-Din Obeid