So the story goes...

Now that Xena eats her lunch at home, I have stopped eating leftovers for mine. I make a proper lunch for both of us and we eat it together at the dining table once she gets back from school. Only, I finish mine in about 15 minutes, while hers takes close to an hour. Once I'm done, she continues eating, while I go about doing my chores, listening to all her stories from school. Sometimes, as she slowly works her way through her food, she'll ask me to tell her a story.

The other day, I decided to tell her a story incorporating the emergency phone numbers in Singapore. So I wove an elaborate tale about a brave girl called Niki (it was supposed to be Nicky, but she insists this is how it's spelt). In episode 1, she escapes from kidnappers and alerts the police by calling 999, and in episode 2 (which I told her on another day), she helps her mom who's had a bad fall, by calling 995 to summon an ambulance.

On Friday, Xena wanted to know what happens in episode 3. I did have a story with a fire engine situation in mind, but I hadn't fine-tuned it yet, so I asked her to tell me a Niki story instead.

She immediately agreed.

"So... Niki has taken her younger brother to his friend's house for a play date. She is babysitting the two boys and there is no one else at home. 

Suddenly, the doorbell rings. It's a policeman! He has a sack in his hand (at this point she notices my raised eyebrows)... but... the sack has these words printed on it -- 'Don't worry I am not a robber's sack; sometimes policemen carry sacks too'. 

She lets him in and he goes upstairs and starts robbing the house. (whispers) He's actually not a real policeman! She goes up and sees him and wonders what she should do. Then... she tells him to go sit on the toilet seat and close his eyes. She holds a toothbrush in front of him and asks him to try to touch it with his eyes closed. He tries for a while... but he is very tired because he has been robbing houses all day... so he falls asleep on the toilet seat. 

Niki locks him in the toilet. Then... she uses her brother's friend's toy phone to dial 999 and call the police (notices my raised eyebrows again)... but then it's a toy phone... so she uses a real phone to call the real police. The real police come... and they don't have any sacks with them. 

The toilet is still locked and the robber is sleeping inside. So the police take a big saw and saw through the door... pick the robber up by one strand of his hair... and throw him in jail! 

Everyone is very happy... but Niki is a little sad because her toilet door is broken... but actually it's not her toilet door, it's her brother's friend's toilet door so it's ok."