Carly had used the cream one day, but the next, she forgot. She had felt the relief that the cream gave her, but she thought that the itching felt better.

A few weeks later though, her mother caught her itching once again.

"Carly, have you been using that cream?" her mother asked sternly.

Carly blushed in embarrassment, "No," she said shyly.

"Carly, you must use that cream, or your feet won't get better!!"

"But mother," Carly whined, "Itching makes more relief than the cream!!"

Her mother took a deep breath and said, "Carly, your body is filled with cells that work very hard, day and night. They've been there since before you were born, and they work 24/7!! These cells make up your entire body, and so they are also in your feet." Carly looked down at her feet.

"What are cells?" she asked her mother.

"Cells are very tiny things that you can't see. The best way of saying it is really the tiny things that make up your body." Carly frowned in thought.

"Hm..." Carly tried to understand. "So my body..."

"-is a thing made of many cells. Each part of your body is made of different things which are made of other things!" her mother tried to explain. "Take your arm for example. Your arm is made of things such as muscles, bones, veins, and many other things! In those things, there are cells that make them up. Your bones and everything is made of tiny little cells."

"Oh! Now I get it!!" Carly smiled.

"Yes. Now, these cells get extremely old, and they always reproduce for more helpers. When you get a cut, what do you notice?"

"After a while, maybe a few days, it heals!" Carly answered.

"Yes. That's your cells working hard to make others of themselves which it called 'reproducing'."

"Wow!! Cool, mother!! I owe a LOT to my cells!!"

"Yes, you do. You owe your entire life to them. But you see, they work really hard to reproduce."

"Aw," Carly smiled sincerely. Her cells worked so hard for her!!

"And when you itch your Athlete's Foot, you give more work to them." Carly gasped. "You see, when you itch your Athlete's Foot, what eventually happens?"

Carly thought.

"Little white pieces come off."

"Yes," her mother nodded. "And the cells left have to replace those." Carly gasped.

"My poor cells!!"

"That's why you shouldn't itch your feet and use the cream instead."

"Oh my gosh, from now on, I MUST use the cream for my feet and never, ever itch them!!"

Her mother smiled.

Finally, her daughter understood. Now those cells wouldn't have to work so hard.