Sima and Siza

A boy has a tea party with his doll. The rest of the toys watch.

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.

Sima puts Mama's white skirt around his neck. Siza watches.

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.

Sima takes Siza to school. The other children point and whisper.

Wherever Sima is, Siza is there too.

A boy sticks Siza in the toilet. Sima watches with horror.

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

Sima plays with Siza on the step. Papa stands over them with his hand on his hip.

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.

Papa, Sima and his friends play soccer.

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.

Sima wears his nurse outfit. He runs to the house.

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.’

Papa shouts at Sima. A tennis ball flies through the air.

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

Papa sits on the ground. He is injured. Sima's blanket is tied around his head.

… knocked Papa down. Everyone panicked. Except Sima. He knelt and tied his blanket around Papa’s bleeding head.

‘Call an ambulance!’ he shouted.

A male nurse loads Papa into the ambulance. He talks to Sima.

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

Sima and the male nurse high-five each other.

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

Papa joins Sima and Siza's tea party.

‘Thank you, Nurse Sima,’ said Papa.

Now Sima and Papa play hospital-hospital and soccer – and his friends do too.

Sima and Siza

Created by Lwando Xaso, CClaire Ingram

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