Question

“Father’s great speech for the Port Authority had been lost.” What had happened to father’s speech?

Answer 1

Hint: The context of the above question is given in the chapter ‘ The Little Girl’. It's a story of a little girl with her parents. Various emotions have been portrayed in the story that exists in the family, especially of what goes in a child’s mind.

Complete answer:
 “Father’s great speech for the Port Authority had been lost” because Kezia had torn the sheets to fill up ‘the’ cushion.

The Little girl's name in the story was Kezia. She lived with her father, mother and grandmother. She found her father to be very strict and unavailable. Thus, she was usually shy and hesitant before him. One day, she was informed by her grandmother that her father’s birthday was approaching in a week. Grandmother suggested that she should prepare a surprise gift for her father in order to make him happy.

Thus, Kezia prepared a pincushion of beautiful yellow silk as suggested by her Grandmother. After stitching it from three sides she looked for some material to fill up the cushion. She wandered into her mother’s room and picked the papers lying on the side table of the bed and tore them to fill the cushion.

The same day there was yelling and chaos in the night. The Chaos was due to the fact that “Father’s great speech for the Port Authority had been lost”. Kezia’s parents found out that she had damaged them. Thus, she was punished by her father for the same.

Note: Even though Kezia tore up the document it was unintentional and out of pure innocence. Her parents didn’t even consider her explanation and other instances of their unavailability made Kezia develop negative thoughts for them. The story tells that children take time to comprehend the actions of their elders but if given the right space and right way they do.