A story about kindness
Snuggs and the Hug That Never Came Back
Snuggs gives everybody hugs, all day, and never asks for one. A story about the difference between being kind and being empty.
3 minutes to read aloud · 🥰 Grateful
Snuggs has a blanket, a spare blanket, and the best hugs in Candyfloss Land.
Mopsy had a hug on Monday. Lonny had two on Tuesday. On Wednesday there was a queue, and Snuggs got through all of it, and threw in the spare blanket for Shivvy, who was cold.
By Thursday, Snuggs was strangely flat.
It was not sad exactly. It was emptier than sad. Snuggs made the tea and folded the blankets and gave Blushy a hug that was, if you were being picky, about seventy per cent of a normal Snuggs hug.
"Need a hug?" Snuggs asked Lovey, out of pure habit.
And Lovey looked at Snuggs carefully and said, "No. Do you?"
Snuggs opened the mouth to say no, I'm fine, I'm the hugger and instead stood there, completely stuck, holding a folded blanket, with both eyes filling up.
"I don't know how to ask," Snuggs said.
"I know," said Lovey. "You've given about four hundred and you've never once asked for one. Did you think there was a rule?"
Snuggs thought there might have been a rule.
"There isn't a rule," said Lovey. "Hugs aren't something you hand out until you run out. They go both ways or they don't work at all."
"How do I ask?"
"Same words. Just pointed the other way."
Snuggs took a breath and, in a very small voice, said:
"Could I have a hug?"
And Lovey hugged Snuggs for a whole minute, which is an extremely long hug, and Snuggs cried a bit into Lovey's shoulder and then felt about a hundred times better.
That evening Snuggs sat down and did not make the tea and did not fold anything, and nothing bad happened at all.
Snuggs still gives the best hugs in Candyfloss Land. Snuggs will never stop; it is the warmest thing about Snuggs and the whole land runs on it.
But now, when Snuggs is running low, Snuggs says so. Out loud. With words.
It turns out everybody was waiting for the chance.
