Mr Hero
In a place called Fringetown, deep in the Borderlands, lived Mr Hero.Mr Hero was a helpful sort of a fellow. If ever anyone was in trouble, or if anyone needed any odd jobs doing, Mr Hero loved to help out.
He also spent lots of time exercising to keep himself fit.
But helping people out wasn't the only thing Mr Hero did. No, this wasn't his main job.
But I bet you can't guess what Mr Hero's main job was.
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One afternoon, just before teatime, Mr Hero came home. He was busy helping old Mrs Hobble in her garden, clearing away all the weeds. And after that, he helped out Mrs Lamb, the butcher's wife, as her cat had got stuck up the tree again.
And after that, he helped Mr Wheat, the farmer, to fix his tractor.
And after that, he went to help Mr Bloomer, the baker, to paint his fence.
It was a very busy day. And after all that, Mr Hero put the kettle on to make himself a nice cup of tea.
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Just after he sat down, the phone rang. Mr Hero got up to answer it.
"Hello, Mr Hero speaking." said Mr Hero.
"Ah, Sergeant Hero. Major Moustache here. I have to say that, I'm afraid all leave is cancelled. You're to report to base in the morning.", ordered the Major.
"Yes, sir." replied Mr Hero.
You see, Mr Hero was a soldier. And a good one at that. Being a soldier can be good, but soldiers are often asked to carry out some rather dangerous jobs. And sometimes soldiers can get hurt. Being a soldier requires a lot of bravery.
Which Mr Hero had plenty of.
He packed his things, went to bed, and in the morning, he set off to the Army base.
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At the base, he wasn't referred to as Mr Hero, but as Sergeant Hero, as he was now on duty.
All the soldiers on the base had to be debriefed, which means being told what their next mission was going to be, and the debriefing all happened in the debriefing room.
Here, Major Moustache (who did have a rather large moustache) pointed to the map on the wall, telling the soldiers where they were going to go, what they would do when they got there, and what to expect.
They would have to fly out, and of course, all come back in one piece.
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So all the soldiers, including Sergeant Hero, went off on the mission.
But, something went wrong. There was fighting, but Sergeant Hero was badly hurt.
The mission was won, but Sergeant Hero had to be sent quickly to hospital.
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He couldn't remember getting there, but when Mr Hero woke up, he found himself wrapped in bandages, from head to toe. He couldn't move very much, and was in quite a bit of pain.
"Where am I?" he said.
"You're in hospital." a voice replied, to his right.
He looked to his right and saw Mr Bump in the bed next to him, recovering from a rather nasty bump to the head.
"Hospital? I was on a mission. I remember an explosion and I ended up here. What happened?" asked Mr Hero.
"The doctor said you stepped on a mine or something. You're lucky to be alive, they said!" replied Mr Bump.
Just then, the doctor came over to Mr Hero.
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"Now then, Sergeant, awake? How are you feeling?" asked the doctor.
"In pain. Feel a bit weird, doctor." replied Mr Hero.
"Afraid I have some bad news for you. We patched you up, but we had to amputate." the doctor announced.
"Amputate?" asked Mr Hero, surprised.
"We couldn't save your left arm and your right leg, so we've had to remove them. We did the best we could." said the doctor.
"Oh no!" said Mr Hero.
Mr Hero looked at himself. His left arm was gone, just a bandaged stump!
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After much rest, the nurses helped Mr Hero out of bed and taught him how to use crutches. It was difficult getting around, but before long, Mr Hero learnt how to do this himself pretty quickly.
Losing an arm was a difficult thing, though, and Mr Hero soon realised how difficult some things could be with only one arm and one hand.
Soon, Mr Hero's wounds had healed up, and he was sent home.
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Before all of this had happened, Mr Hero was used to helping people out in his spare time. Now, he found he couldn't do any of that at all.
And he now had a lot of spare time with nothing to do!
And, to be honest, this was what made Mr Hero the most miserable.
Sitting in front of the television with the most unhappy face ever.
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But this isn't the end of the story, oh no.
Because, there was a telephone conversation between two people not long after Mr Hero had got home. You see, word spread around about what had happened to Mr Hero, how he was such a good guy helping people out, and doing his bit to keep everybody safe.
It was Mrs Lamb, on the phone to Mrs Hobble first of all, just to discuss the plan. Then after that, Mrs Hobble phoned Mr Wheat, who then got onto Mr Baguette. Eventually, the message got all around Fringetown.
But what was being planned?
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A few days later, the phone rang in Mr Hero's house.
Mr Hero got up, and steadily went over to get the phone.
It was Mrs Lamb.
"Hello Mr Hero. We know we haven't seen you around lately, we know what happened, but we've being doing something for you. You know, just to say thank you." she said
"I don't understand.", said Mr Hero, who was much confused by this.
"We'll be around at 3 o'clock tomorrow, precisely." said Mrs Lamb.
Mr Hero wondered what was going on.
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The next morning, at 3 o'clock, the door rang at Mr Hero's house.
Mr Hero steadily got up, got into his crutches, made his way over to the door, and opened it carefully.
There before him, were many people from town. All the people he had helped in the past. And there, infront of them, was Mrs Lamb.
"Mr Hero." she announced, "We know you're such a helpful person, not just in your spare time, but when you fight for us as well, so we've decided to return that help to you. We've got together and paid for some things to help you live as normal a life as possible."
Mr Hero did not know what to say.
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Mrs Lamb told Mr Hero the things they had got for him.
First of all, they arranged for Mr Hero to have some prosthetic limbs made. A prosthetic leg, so he can walk about on his own without crutches, and a prosthetic arm to help him pick things up, and do many of the things people with two arms can.
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Secondly, days out, long walks to keep himself fit.
Mr Hero even learned how to swim again, and even climbed to the top of the highest hill in the Borderlands!
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Thirdly, as well as letting Mr Hero help them out with things, they helped Mr Hero back. A few things around the house, keeping the garden nice and tidy.
Mr Hero appreciated that.
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And fourthly, someone remembered Mr Hero liked to play football. So they managed to get Mr Hero onto a team with other people who had lost arms or legs.
And this team were so good, that they put their team forward to be included in that year's Paralympics.
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They played very well, against all the other teams, and in the end, they all won silver medals.
They were very proud of this, indeed!
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And that really is the end of the story.
Except to say that there may be someone you know who is like Mr Hero. They may have lost an arm or a leg. But just because they have, it doesn't make them any less of a person.
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