One sunny afternoon, Lala sat on the porch, swinging her legs and waiting for her sister, Thuy, to return from the market. The moment she saw Thuy’s bicycle appear down the path, Lala jumped up excitedly.
“You’re back! Did you get anything fun?” Lala asked, running to meet her.
Thuy smiled mysteriously and pulled a small cloth bag from her basket. “I found something interesting today. Come and see!”
Lala followed her inside, eyes wide with curiosity. When Thuy opened the bag, Lala gasped. Inside were the strangest fruits she had ever seen—some were spiky and green, others shaped like stars or glowing like tiny suns.
“What are these?” Lala asked, poking a round, purple one that shimmered like it was made of glass.
“They’re called dragon fruit, starfruit, rambutan, and mangosteen,” Thuy said, laying each one out on the table. “The vendor said they’re from faraway places.”
Lala leaned in. “They look like fruit from a fairy tale!”
Thuy laughed. “Maybe they are! Want to try them?”
Lala hesitated, then nodded. Thuy carefully cut open the dragon fruit first—inside was bright white with little black seeds.
“It looks like polka dots!” Lala giggled, taking a bite. “Mmm! It’s sweet and a little crunchy!”
Next came the starfruit, sliced into golden stars. Then the fuzzy red rambutan, which revealed a soft white fruit inside, and finally the dark purple mangosteen with its snowy sections inside like petals.
Each fruit tasted different—some tart, some creamy, all delicious.
Lala’s eyes sparkled. “These are amazing! I want to learn where they all come from!”
Thuy grinned. “That’s the spirit of curiosity. Let’s look them up together.”
And so, the afternoon turned into an adventure—not just of taste, but of learning. Lala wrote down the names of the fruits, drew pictures of each, and listened to Thuy tell stories about the countries they came from.
From that day on, Lala never looked at fruit the same way again.
