Sima and Siza

Simamkele loves dolls. Mama buys him lots. They keep his loneliness away. Sima’s favourite doll is Siza. Sima wants to be a nurse when he grows up.

He loves to put on Mama’s skirt, and twirl. Like magic, he suddenly becomes Sima the nurse. He plays hospital-hospital and makes sickly Siza and all his dolls better.

Wherever Sima is, Siza is there too.

But Sima’s friends do not like Siza. One day, they took him away and stuck his head in the toilet.

When Papa came home, Sima was nursing Siza. ‘What are you doing?’ asked Papa. ‘I’m being a nurse,’ said Sima. ‘Will you play with me?’ ‘Yes. But we will go to the park and play soccer,’ said Papa.

His friends saw Sima and Papa playing soccer. They joined in. Sima and Papa often play soccer now. But they still haven’t played with dolls.

One day, Sima was playing hospital-hospital with his dolls. He heard Mama shout. ‘Sima! Run! Papa is waiting to play with you at the park.’

‘Why on earth are you wearing a dress?’ said Papa in an angry voice. Just then a ball flew out of nowhere and …

… knocked Papa down. Everyone panicked. Except Sima. He knelt and tied his blanket around Papa’s bleeding head. ‘Call an ambulance!’ he shouted.

‘He needs stitches in his head. You did just the right thing,’ said the nurse. Sima was proud.

‘You’re a hero. You’ll make a great doctor one day.’ ‘But I want to be a nurse, just like you,’ said Sima.

‘Thank you, Nurse Sima,’ said Papa. Now Sima and Papa play hospital-hospital and soccer – and his friends do too.

Sima and Siza