Once upon a time there was a stapler. Actually, there was a whole family of staplers, but we only care about one right now. The littlest one. The littlest stapler lived with his whole family of staplers at the stapler store. His father had a very important job at the booklet factory, stapling booklets. His mother worked at an office, stapling import documents for very important businessmen. He had brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents and third cousins who all lived on the shelves of the stapler store with him.
But they didn’t live on the shelves of the stapler store forever. The dream of every stapler is to grow up and have a job stapling important documents. And sure enough, all the littlest stapler’s brothers and sisters started to grow up and get bought by people who used them to staple important documents. One of the littlest stapler’s sisters got bought by a famous author who used her to staple the draft of her newest book. One of the littlest stapler’s brothers was a very famous stapler. He was used to staple a treaty between two countries who had been at war for a very long time. He even won a medal for it.
After a time, all of the littlest stapler’s brothers and sisters had been bought and had jobs stapling important documents. The littlest stapler was the only one left, all alone on his shelf in the stapler store. “Who would want a little stapler like me?” he said, “I’m too small to staple anything at all.” One day, when the littlest stapler was feeling especially sad, a little girl walked into the stapler store. “What can I get for you?” said the man who owned the stapler store.
“I want a stapler,” said the little girl, “a pretty one!”
“Well how about a red one. That would be pretty.” The stapler store owner said.
“No,” said the little girl. “If I get a red one the boss-man might take it away.”
“Well, how about a blue one?” said the man who owned the stapler store.
“No,” said the little girl, “That’s the same color as the ocean. If I drop it in the ocean, I’ll never find it again.”
“Well, what kind of stapler do you want, then?” said the stapler-store owner.
“I want a little one that I can carry everywhere and who will be my friend.” said the little girl.
“Ahh!” Said the man who owned the stapler-store, “I have a perfect one for you right here, then.”
The man who owned the stapler sold the littlest stapler to the little girl, but the littlest stapler still wasn’t happy. “This little girl doesn’t look like she staples very many important documents.” he said. And the littlest stapler was right. The girl had a lot of tea parties with the littlest stapler, and gave him lots of hugs, and even had her daddy make him a little bed next to hers so that he could sleep right next to her. But she never used him to staple an important document.
One day, the littlest stapler got a letter from him mother and father. They were having a family reunion at the stapler store, and he was invited. This made the littlest stapler very sad, because all of his brothers and sisters were very important staplers, and he had never stapled anything even a little important. Not even a tax return. He went to the family reunion anyway, though, because he loved all his brothers and sisters and wanted to see them anyway.
Everyone was at the family reunion, and his brother was wearing his medal. It was a very nice medal, made out of solid gold, with a blue satin ribbon to hold it on. The littlest stapler felt very out of place around so many big important staplers. When the littlest stapler talked to all his brothers and sisters though, he was very confused. It seemed like they were all jealous of him! He finally went and asked his mom why everyone was acting so strange. After all, they were all better staplers than he was. She said to him, “Son, all your brothers and sisters have important jobs, and some of them are very famous. But you are the only stapler who has a friend.”