Layla loved jigsaw puzzles. She loved everything about them – from the picture on the box to the moment when she fitted the last piece in its place. She even liked the sound and the feeling of the pieces as she shifted them around on the table. So every Saturday morning, when Layla’s mother took her to the library to change her library books, Layla also took out a puzzle.

Now, the librarian kept all the puzzles on a shelf behind her desk and each Saturday when Layla asked if she could look for a puzzle to borrow, the librarian would say, “Wow, Layla, but you are puzzle mad!” And Layla didn’t mind at all because she WAS puzzle mad!

Most Saturdays after the library, Shireen, Layla’s best friend, came over to play. Well, she was almost Layla’s best friend, except for one thing – Shireen had to be the best at everything.

One Saturday morning, Layla borrowed a puzzle of an African fish eagle from the library. The picture showed the bird high up in the sky with its wings spread wide and a fish in its claws. The puzzle had more pieces than any puzzle Layla had ever done. And not only that, the pieces were also smaller than any puzzle Layla had done. Layla could not have been happier! But Shireen was not at all happy because all Layla wanted to do was start the puzzle.

“I don’t want to do a boring puzzle,” said Shireen. “Let’s rather play shop-shop.”

“Okay,” said Layla, “and then we’ll do my puzzle.”

“I’ll be the shopkeeper,” said Shireen, “because I’m best at being the shopkeeper, and you can be my customer.”

Soon Layla had spent all her money. Then Shireen said, “Let’s play hospitals.”

“No,” said Layla. “I played shop-shop. Now let’s do my puzzle.”

But for some reason, Shireen still did not want to do the puzzle, so she said, “Let’s play hospitals now and then we can do the puzzle after lunch.”

And so that’s what they did.

“I’ll be the doctor,” said Shireen.

“No, you were the shopkeeper,” said Layla. “I’ll be the doctor.”

“But you can’t be,” said Shireen, “because I’m best at being the doctor.”

So, Shireen was the doctor and Layla was the sick person!