Money isn't everything

Even if you have a beautiful house and tons of money on the bank, you can't buy health or happiness.

Niki gave a thumbs up to his two classmates when their attackers stopped the pursuit. "Thanks guys."

Rik gave Niki a pat: "No trouble. We had to teach them a lesson. They'll stay low profile for a while now."

Tom grinned and said: "The tall one will have some trouble with his nose for a quite a while, I think."

Without realizing it, they had arrived in a residential area and, driving slowly, they looked around. The three street urchins in their grubby clothes had never been here.

"What's that?" Niki threw his bike against a fence and stared at the end of a drive.

A moment later all three were gazing.

"I'd like to see that one from at short range," Rik yelled determinedly.

"Us too," the other two bawled in unison.

Danger

When they slipped through the fence, they hadn't seen the Rottweiler. Now he stood there in front of them, growling, with dangerous looking bare teeth.

"I'm out of here," Niki squeaked and ran behind the nearest tree, where he let his lucky marble roll through his fingers.

"I'm not afraid of a doggie," Rik said and he grabbed a thick branch.

"Wait, I have something better." Tom threw his sandwich with sausage to the animal and shouted: "Run as fast as you can, guys!"

When they stood safely behind the fence, Tom put his glasses straight again and sighed: "That was close!"

The dog was still growling at them, but he couldn't harm them anymore. From behind the fence, they could admire the shiny red kart as well actually.

"The way it's shining over there is pretty inviting," Niki held on to the bars of the high fence.

"I think it looks fast. I'd like to know how fast! If it weren't for the dog, I would've been in it for a while," Rik boasted.

"Pretty expensive kart, if you ask me," Tom estimated, while he examined it. "But yeah, if you live in such a villa, you needn't worry about a few dollars, I guess. I'm curious what kind of spoiled brat got this from his parents. We have to put aside the dog one way or another, so we can make a test drive."

"I'm in!" Rik was enthusiastic right away.

"Do we really want to do this, guys?" Niki asked, while jumping from one leg to the other, and the dog watching him while drooling.

Unexpected twist

Suddenly the front door opened. A tall, skinny man walked out with in his arms a boy of their age.

"Oh," Niki moaned. "He can't walk."

"But then he can't pedal either," Rik determined.

The man put the boy on the chair and put his legs in the kart cautiously. They talked for a while, and the man pointed at something. The boy pushed a button and the kart slowly started moving forward. It wasn't very fast, but the driver was shining as brightly as the vehicle. The dog ran along, barking and wagging his tail. The three boys watched bewilderedly.

"Wow, after the e-car and the e-bike, we now have the e-kart as well," Tom mumbled. "Come on guys, I've seen enough, I don't want to switch with this kid. Money isn't everything."

Sources: www.todio.nl