A SUN CREAM was once in great demand during summer months, as others would always make use of her so as to protect themselves from the Sun’s rays every time they went for a bath.

Despite her summertime popularity, however, no one would look for her during the other months of the year. “Unemployment can be a tough thing, right?”, the other cosmetics and creams on the shelf asked her one September day, and she got really disappointed, as every time the housewife opened the drawer, she felt that she totally ignored her.

Our good cream decided to prove them her worth. First, she made sure the housewife was nowhere near. She then jumped off the shelf and went straight to her bedroom, where she placed herself right on top of the nightstand. Her plan worked: as the housewife had gotten tired from everyday chores and her eyes could barely stay open, she confused the sun cream with her night lotion and used her instead. As soon as she realized what she had done, however, she laughed. “I must be missing the sea”, the housewife exclaimed, then returned the sun cream bottle back to the shelf where she belonged to, along with the other creams. Her plan had failed miserably.

As soon as the Sun rose in the sky the next day, the sun cream left the house in search of a real job with which she would impress the other cosmetics. After a long stroll through the city streets, she entered a beauty salon. So as to make sure no one would take notice of her even, she covered her identity up by erasing the description of her ingredients with a marker. Then, she positioned herself next to a lady that was having a beauty treatment at that time. The assistant mistakenly applied sun cream on the lady’s face who took no notice as she had her eyes shut. As soon as the assistant also placed two cucumber slices on top of her eyes, however, the lady found the sun cream's smell familiar, and exclaimed: “are you placing yoghurt on me?”, then threw the two cucumber pieces away. When the assistant realized she had mistakenly applied… sun cream instead of beauty cream on the lady’s face, she turned red with shame.

Our good sun cream wandered even further, offering her services to all sorts of tourists and passers-by, who simply ignored her, as the Sun in Autumn is nowhere near as bright or dangerous as in Summer. In the end, and after many clouds had gathered in the sky, she gave up all hope. Much to her surprise, however, she met a clown who was preparing for a street act, who noticed her and asked her what her problem was.

“I’m in great demand during summer time, and barely have any time to enjoy any vacations. Yet as soon as Autumn comes, I’m left jobless”, the sun cream replied. The clown then asked her to collaborate: since he had no white dye to apply on his face for his act, he applied sun cream instead. Then he appeared in front of a crowd so as to entertain them, thinking that it would take a while before the cream would turn to vapor.

Their trick seemed to work at first. Yet, a few minutes later, the clouds in the sky became dark and the first raindrops followed, washing the sun cream from the clown’s face. When the children who were watching the act realized it, they were astonished. “He used false dye!”, they exclaimed and the sun cream got so embarrassed that she hid behind a trash can. “A very fitting hiding place for a sun cream this time of year”, the garbage inside the trash can told her and she burst into tears to hear it, thinking herself doomed to never find work again before next Summer.

No sooner had she stopped crying, than a fisherman appeared, who collected the sun cream and put her inside his sack. Since that day, he makes use of her every time he goes fishing in his boat, that is, daily and regardless of season, so as to protect himself from the Sun’s rays.