Page 3 - LN-ON THE FACE OF IT

changed into a handsome prince.’ Only he wouldn’t, he’d have stayed a
monstrous beast.

Derry’s opinion:

Derry replied that often he had heard people saying that beauty is not related to
one’s appearance, rather, inner beauty is our real beauty.

Even a handsome man is the one who does something good rather than one who
looks good. He said that once, a beautiful girl loved a beast for who he was and
kissed him which turned the beast into a handsome prince. He wouldn’t have
changed, if she hadn’t kissed him.

Derry said that no one would kiss him ever because of his face. Even his mother
kissed him on the good side of his face. He did not like this at all.

Derry said that he will never look different. When he will be as old as Mr. Lamb
then also he will have only half a face.

Lamb said that yes he will always have half a face but the world was full of so
many things to look at. So, he must look at its beauty.

Derry’s concern about Mr. Lamb.

He then questioned him whether his leg hurt. Lamb replied that tin didn’t hurt, it
never pained. Derry asked him if he suffered pain when he lost his leg.

Lamb said that sometimes it pained in wet weather but it was not that important.

Derry continued that people told him to look at those people who were in worse
conditions than him.

He told him that he might have become blind, be born deaf or be handicapped
and have to remain in a wheelchair. He may even have been born with mental
disorder. Mr. Lamb said that yes it was true and that Derry knew so much.

Derry said that all this would not change his face.One day as he was waiting at a
bus stop, a woman passed by him. He heard her telling another woman that he
had such a terrible face that only his mother could love him and no one else
could. Mr. Lamb asked him did he believe what he heard. Derry stressed that he
heard it.

Efforts of Mr. Lamb to change Derry.

Mr. Lamb said that there was a beehive in one of the trees. People considered
the buzzing sound of the bees to be a noise but for him it was a song sung by
the bees.
He then narrated a story about the man who locked himself in his room as he
was afraid of everything. The man thought that he would meet with an accident
with a bus, he would catch infection from someone, a donkey would kick him to
death, the lightning may hit him or he may die because the girl whom he loved
may leave him or he may even slip off a banana and people would laugh at him.