Once upon a canister, there lived a petite, periwinkle cordless vacuum cleaner, dubbed Daisy. She was the principal dust-buster of a prodigious home that comfortably housed five enormous bedrooms and two titanic living rooms, to say nothing of a jaunty family of four who resided there. Although she was carefully manufactured to serve all purposes of a vacuum, she seemed to struggle with the most salient one of them all, sucking up dust from the floor. Week after week, she would disappoint and rather confuse her mistress by doing an incredible job on the carpets and sofas, but hardly picking up anything off the mosaic-tiled floor. Daisy had lost all hope of ever becoming the vacuum everyone wanted her to be, until she met a special somebody.

               “Daisy, look who we’ve got here!” cried the youngest child of the family, clapping her hands in glee, as the mistress unboxed a large cardboard container. Daisy cocked her dustbin in surprise and peered intently at the interiors of the box. Inside the box, lay a sleek, inky-black cordless vacuum, much like herself. She gasped in amazement, her nozzle pulling in dust, as the other vacuum introduced herself with a cheeky grin plastered over her wand. 

        “Hello!” greeted the new vacuum, “I’m Millie, what’s your name?” 

        “Why hello there Millie, I’m Daisy, and welcome to the house!” replied Daisy eagerly, over the moon to discover her first friend!

       “Wow, you seem like a great vacuum!” complimented Millie as she ran her eyes up and down Daisy’s structure. 

       Daisy sighed heavily, letting piles of dust out of her brush.

      “Well, actually…” she began, and narrated the entire story of her lack of competence as a vacuum and how useless she feels to her mistress. 

Millie listened intently, nodding her handle, as she remembered something interesting. 

       “Say Daisy,” remarked Millie, once Daisy had concluded her truly upsetting story, “You say you can’t seem to clean floors, but guess what? That’s my speciality! And between you and me, I abhor mattress cleaning, and I’m as lousy as a mop at it too, so if we work together, we can cancel each other’s weaknesses out!” 

     “That’s an amazing idea Millie!” exclaimed Daisy, once again letting out clouds of dust in excitement. 

                Over the next few months, Daisy and Millie embodied the definition of teamwork. Daisy would easily glide over the beds and fabrics, whereas Millie would skate gracefully over the floor, and together they made up for what each other lacked. The house was nearly always spotless and Mistress was as pleased as punch to find that her two vacuums had never let her down. Millie and Daisy were absolutely enjoying each other’s companionship, until one day, something extraordinary happened.

               “Daisy, Millie, listen up!” called Mistress one lazy Saturday morning. Daisy and Millie sat up from their docking stations drowsily, as Mistress animatedly relayed some thrilling news! 

             “I am entering you both in a vacuum contest downtown, which will decide the best vacuum cleaner of 2022! I want both of you to do your best and have fun!” she finished with a huge smile on her cheery face. Millie and Daisy glanced at one another in glee! “This was going to be loads of fun!” they thought, as they commenced practice immediately. 

                    “Number 53, please line up, the floor dust race is just about to begin!” commanded an intimidating voice that blasted through the megaphone at the Grand View Park downtown. Millie and Daisy lined up nervously, holding brushes, as they timidly rolled over to the registration booth. Soon enough, they received their badge numbers and were directed to the central dust race track, where all vacuums would have to race each other to suck up all the dust on their line in the track. They entered the gigantic arena, and what a sight it was! Vacuums of all shapes and sizes, hustling and bustling around, mistresses and masters in the audience cheering with deafeningly loud voices and the smell of vacuum dust encompassing the whole stadium. They were both trundled over to the starting block, where the presenter was ready to begin.

                “On your marks, get set, go!” 

The bullet shot upwards with a bang, as the vacuums bolted along the dust-ridden track. Millie sprinted easily over all the floor dust, starting to enjoy the competition even through her jitters. She looked over her shoulder to shoot a bright smile at Daisy, but what she saw was completely unexpected! Daisy had started off, nice and strong, but floor cleaning was not up her street at all! She wrestled with herself to make it halfway, but suddenly, she released a huge cloud of dust and couldn’t move an inch after that! Millie happened to glance over at her-at just that moment, and she gaped in horror!

                   “Millie!” yelled Daisy, across the track, “Go for it! You’ll win for sure, come on! 

Millie watched her best friend in dismay, and shook her brush head firmly. To the audience's immense surprise, Millie rolled right back to Daisy and lifted her bewildered friend’s brush head on hers and sluggishly carried it all the way to the finish line’s ribbon. 

          The crowd was misty-eyed at the sweet scene unfolding in front of them. 

“Millie, you could have won, you know!” whispered Daisy in amazement.

“But we’re best when we work together Daisy!” replied Millie, giving her friend a huge bear hug!

That day, both Millie and Daisy displayed a valuable lesson of life-one that we all forget from time to time. When we work together, that is when we are our strongest and best selves. Instead of having our geese cooked whenever we have to compete, we are always stronger and better when we have each other. 

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