Dream land 1/2

Pop! Sizzle! Tommy liked the sounds all those liquids and powders made. He was playing with his chemistry set at the attic of their house. He had gotten the set from his father for his birthday last month. It came with a useful guide that taught him the useful stuff. Explosions and sizzles and lots of foam and all that. Jumbo looked up sleepily from the corner. When he saw that it was his little master busy again with those strange tubes and all, he put his head down again. His big ears covered his face, and soon he was back asleep. The young boy looked out the window, but his mother’s car was still not there. She was out with his twin sister Carol. They had gone shopping for clothes. Mother had asked Tommy to accompany them, but he had refused. He didn’t like to go shopping, especially for clothes. How contrary to his sister. Carol loved shopping; trying new dresses on and going to shops she had never seen before. That was Carol. Always curious what would be behind the next corner. Tommy had stopped counting the times she was lost, and was brought home by some concerned adult. Tommy liked inside more. He was always looking for how things worked. With him, his father had stopped counting the times Tommy had dismantled some piece of equipment and forgotten how to put it back together again. There certainly weren’t any dull moments with those twins.

Tommy gets back to his experiment. According to the book he has arrived at the big moment now. Only a few drops of the yellow liquid, and he would have a nice little explosion. But not more than a few drops, the book said specifically. The first time he had read that, he had laughed. Being the young and enterprising boy he was, he had of course ignored this warning. His hair had almost grown completely back now… Carefully Tommy collected a few drops, and moved the pipette towards the powder mixture in his mother’s cake paste bowl. But what he hadn’t noticed was that Jumbo had woken up. The small dog dribbled over towards his young master, his big ears hanging at the floor. Jumbo stopped just behind Tommy, but the boy still didn’t notice. Instead he slowly moved the pipette over the bowl. Just as he wanted to release a few drops into the bowl, the dog decided to lick his boss’s other hand. That really startled Tommy, and caused him to totally empty the pipette into the bowl with one big splurt. For a fraction of a second nothing happened, but the relieved boy’s

            “Phew!”

Was overpowered by a powerful reaction. The contents of the bowl were reacting strongly to each other, which resulted in a big sizzle. Suddenly a big powder cloud emerged from the bowl. Tommy and Jumbo jumped back. The powder cloud expanded towards the ceiling, but then something strange happened. The cloud seemed to travel in a certain direction. Normally you would expect it to expand to all sides evenly. As a matter of fact, it was moving in a certain direction. From a safe distance child and dog followed the cloud towards the corner of the attic. It landed at a big brown box. The powder cloud totally covered the box. After a while Tommy saw something he couldn’t believe. The box started glowing. Jumbo covered his eyes with his ears. The glowing got bigger and bigger, but then in an instant it was gone. The powder fell to the ground and there was silence.

Just as Tommy wants to open the box, he hears his mother’s car pull up the driveway. As soon as the door opened, he heard his sister chattering unstoppably about what she had bought, but more importantly: what new shops she had discovered today.

            “Tommy, lunch is ready!”

Shouted his father from downstairs. So Tommy decided to examine the box later, with his sister. He just hoped she wouldn’t go on and on about her new clothes like she usually did. Tommy helped his dog down the stairs, and they both rushed to the kitchen table. The boy sat on his chair near the window, Jumbo lay down besides him in his basket. Both were treated to a nice meal and an ever talking Carol. However the latter one seemed to be lost on the dog. Tommy envied his little companion. Impatiently Tommy ate his lunch, and rushed back upstairs again. His sister had understood his excitement, so she followed him on foot. When they arrive at the attic, Carol is disappointed. She had expected a lot more than a box with some dust next to it. But when Tommy explained what had happened, her curiosity was aroused. She wanted to open the box. But Tommy stopped her.

            “What if something’s wrong with the box? Be careful!”

But Carol had never been the careful type. So she opened the box. Nothing happened. She looked inside. It was empty. Tommy and Jumbo joined her over the edge of the cardboard box. There was nothing in the box, but still something wasn’t quite right about it. But they couldn’t figure out what. Jumbo growled at it a bit. Suddenly Carol saw what was wrong.

            “Look at the bottom!”

Her brother looked and asked

            “What bottom?”

            “Exactly.”

They realized the box didn’t seem to have a bottom. The blackness inside just seemed to go on and on. They stared, and stared some more. It was almost as if something inside that blackness was moving, but they just couldn’t see it properly. So they leaned over the edge of the box some more. All three of them, because Jumbo was also a very curious dog. Suddenly the edge cracked, and they all tumbled into the box. They expected to land on the hard attic floor, but they were mistaken. They tumbled and tumbled. Tommy, Carol and Jumbo were all tumbling down. Or maybe up or sideways, they couldn’t tell. They had lost their sense of direction and felt weightless. And all that time all they could see was each other. After what seemed like an eternity they saw a light in front of them. They were heading for it. The light became closer and closer, and brighter and brighter. In the end they had to cover their eyes. And then, they felt like they had all their weight back, because they felt themselves falling down fast. The three adventurers landed on a big pile of fluffy pillows. When they looked up, they saw nothing but a clear blue sky. Curious as they were, they crawled out of the pillows and onto the grass. They looked around, there was only grass. As far as their eyes could see. And above them only the clear sky. Their world consisted of nothing but green, blue and a touch of white at the moment.

Tommy had the sharper eyes of the two, so in the end he spotted something.

            “Hey Carol, look over there. I see something. It looks like a boot!”

Carol had to agree.

“Strange, who would leave a boot out here in the middle of nowhere? Come on, let’s go and check it out.”

But Tommy didn’t want to. He first wanted to know how they got here, and why they couldn’t see the tunnel they fell down through. Carol however didn’t give him the chance. She pulled him by his hand and dragged him along over the grass field. Carol and Jumbo led, Tommy followed. They were getting closer to the boot, but it seemed to grow only bigger. After about an hour Tommy noticed something weird on top of the boot. It seemed like there was a roof on it. And when he looked even better, he thought he saw windows on the boot. Another hour passed. The boot grew bigger, and Tommy’s ideas were confirmed. The boot was a house, probably about 10 meters high. They now can see a nice little garden with a fence around it, and smoke coming out of a little chimney. Soon they arrive at the house. Carol wants to open the gate, but it opens on its own. The twins are a bit scared by that, but their curiosity wins. They enter the garden, closely followed by Jumbo. From the boot house comes a stumbling sound, like someone walking down the stairs. And indeed, after the sound is over, the door to the boot slowly opens. And out comes a gnome.

            “Hello, my name is Jerome the Gnome.”

He didn’t waste time on introductions, so after they had given their names, he invited them into his boot. The small hallway had only one other exit: the wooden stairs they had expected from the sounds the gnome made. Going up, they now all made those sounds. Upstairs, halfway up the boot, was the gnome’s living room. There they all sat down and had tea. Jerome told them how he liked riddles. He was a big fan of riddles. And it showed: everywhere they looked where books full of riddles, and the walls were scribbled full of them. When they had finished their tea, the twins got.

“You have been very kind to us with the tea, but we must move on now. We have to find a way to get home.”

At that moment the polite smile disappeared of the gnome’s face. Instantly the door to the stairs shut with a hard bang.

“You do not leave me! I have finally found someone to test my riddles on. You shall not leave until you have solved this very hard riddle.”

Tommy and Carol were shocked by the sudden change, but they ran for the door anyway. Unfortunately, it was closed and they couldn’t move it one bit. Jerome the Gnome laughed. He demanded that they answer his riddle, but he was sure they would never get the answer.

            “What is once in a minute, twice in a moment but never in a thousand years?”

Wow, that was a difficult one. They thought about it hard. A minute had second, and so did a moment. But a year had seconds too. So it couldn’t be seconds. They thought hard and considered every option. They tried different angles: clocks, time, emotions, et cetera. But they couldn’t find the answer. In the meantime the gnome couldn’t stop laughing. Tommy looked down at his shoes in despair. They were nice shoes with all the letters of the alphabet on it. Suddenly he had an idea.

            “Can you repeat the riddle for us please?”

The gnome obliged. But this time the young boy listened carefully to what the gnome said literally. It took him a few seconds, but then his face gave birth to a big smile.

            “I know the answer!” He said proudly.

Both Jerome and Carol were surprised. The gnome didn’t believe it.

“Be very careful what you answer young boy. You get only one chance. If you answer wrong, you will stay here forever.”

Carol brought her mouth to her brother’s ear, and whispered if he was sure. He whispered something back to her, and after a short while she smiled too.

            “The answer is the letter M.”

The gnome fell silent. With a sad look on his face he admitted that the boy got it right. He agreed to let them go, the door swung open at the snip of his fingers. Before they left, Tommy turned around.

            “Do you know how we can get home?”

The gnome got a bit of his smile back.

            “Yes I do, but I will not tell you. Goodbye.”

He turned around. But Tommy didn’t give up that easily.

“What if I have a riddle for you that you can’t answer? Will you tell us how to get home then?”

Dream land 2/2

Jerome the Gnome agreed, positive that such a little boy could never come up with a riddle that he, the great riddle master, couldn’t solve. So Tommy tried him.

            “What strange creature has two eyes in front and many more behind?”

That one took the gnome by surprise. He didn’t know that one. A puzzled look came over his face as he pondered over the answer. He dove into his books to find the answer or at least some clues. But however hard he tried, he couldn’t solve this one. Finally he admitted defeat.

            “The answer is a peacock.”

Jerome slapped his forehead. How could he have missed it? But he had, so he had to keep his word. He told them that this land was created by an old lady who had had enough of the normal world. She lived somewhere out there. He pointed out the window. He didn’t know exactly where she lived, but he was sure it was in that direction. The children thanked him, polite as they were, and went down the stairs.

Behind the boot they found a path, in the direction the gnome had pointed out. So they decided to follow it. The path led them straight to the south. To the left and to the right of them was grass, always grass. Every other kilometer or so the path was covered by a brick tunnel. The tunnel was long and small, and there was no apparent reason for it. The group went inside the tunnel, it was chilly there. Soon they were totally covered in darkness. After five minutes they saw light at the other end of the tunnel. They would have preferred to go past the tunnel but from the entrance of the tunnel there was a thick bush to both sides. It was very thick, so they couldn’t get through it. After they left the tunnel they looked back. They couldn’t see the bushes anymore, that was weird. A few more of those strange tunnels followed. Again at first the bushes, but they seemed to have vanished as soon as they left the tunnel on the other side. After a while they didn’t bother about it anymore. The road just went on dead straight. Another tunnel, they had stopped counting how many there were. But at the end the twins and their dog Jumbo didn’t end up on the road anymore. They were surrounded by bushes. When Tommy looked back, he cried

            “Where has the tunnel gone? There’s only bushes now?”

Carol soon followed in surprise. Suddenly they were in the middle of what seemed to be a maze. How were they ever going to get out of there? The boy and girl sat down pondering, while Jumbo sniffed around. Then Carol had an idea. She had seen once on TV that there was a sure way to get out of a maze.

“You just have to keep one hand on the same side all the time. It may not be the fastest way, but we will definitely get out of this maze.”

Following her advice, Tommy and Carol placed their left hands on the bushes, and started walking. Soon they were totally lost. They thought they recognized some bits, but were never sure. All that kept them going, was the knowledge that sometime they would reach the end of the maze. But just when they were starting to fear that maybe there wasn’t an end to this maze, they saw something that could be the end. They ran towards it happily. But their happiness was short-lived. The maze had led them to a big square. Besides their path no less than seven paths entered the square. Hope left them there at that point. For a few minutes Tommy and Carol sat there. Jumbo lay there as well, almost as if he knew that the situation was getting hopeless. But then Carol got up, she hadn’t given up hope yet.

            “We’ll just have to try every path until we get the right one.”

She decided. She dragged both Tommy and Jumbo with her, but not before marking the path they had come from originally. The first path they took, right next to the marked one, led them back to the square within 30 minutes. They marked both paths and chose another one. But unfortunately the result was the same. That was five down, three left to go. Luckily they didn’t have to try all eight paths, because number six seemed to be their lucky number. After about twenty minutes they suddenly found a tunnel after a corner. At the end of the tunnel there was light. They went for it, and found themselves outside the maze. As they looked back, all they saw was the tunnel and a long row of bushes on each side. Quickly the group moved on.

Jumbo picked up a scent. He ran along the path. The children followed him, but had to run too to keep up. At a crossroads he stopped and sniffed a bit. The children happily took their rest. But then Jumbo chose to go left, and Tommy and Carol had no choice but to follow. It didn’t take long for them to see a big farm ahead of them. Next to the farm, at a little distance, was a big barn. Both the buildings were surrounded by big meadows. In the meadows a strange and unbelievable array of… ehm… well… things were grazing. A big herd of camels on the one side, but also a number of bicycles. Bicycles roaming around without someone on it. And if that weren’t strange enough, on the other side of the farm the field was filled with huge standing clocks. They could hear their bells from a big distance. Fascinated by the sight of it, they decided to go to the farm. The nearer they got to the farm, the harder and more present the noise from the clocks became.

“Luckily the clocks are all at different times. It would be an incredible sound if they would all ring together.”

Carol screamed over the ringing of two big brown clocks near to them. Tommy nodded in silent agreement. Jumbo just pressed the flaps of his ears closer to his head. They opened the big gate at the end of the road, and walked over to the door of the farm house. Besides it on a bench sat an old lady, waiting for them. She welcomed them to her humble place.

            “Welcome my children. Can I offer you anything to drink?”

The children gladly accepted the big glass of cold milk the old lady came back with from out of the farm house. Jumbo really appreciated the big bowl of water. She explained that she had gotten so tired of living in real life, that she had created this world out of her imagination.

“I don’t necessarily want fantastic adventures all the time, I just want a little more imagination now and then.”

The kids agreed with her, and complimented her on her farm. But they had some comments on the maze.

            “Ah well, it shouldn’t all be too easy now?”

The old lady replied with a smile. The kids however disagreed. They were almost lost forever in the maze, and they hadn’t forgotten the adventure with the gnome either. Fantasy was alright, but within boundaries. And they ended their plea by expressing their wish to go home.

            “Because our parents will be worried about us.”

In the end, the old lady saw their points, and agreed to take them back to their own world. So after a good meal she led them to her camels. Tommy and Carol were scared a bit at first, but the camels turned out to be very sweet creatures. The three of them rode on the back of the camels, with Jumbo running next to them. He always liked running, so he was very excited now.

Surprisingly fast they reached the big pile of white pillows in the middle of the green grass field. The old lady finally opened the bag she had been carrying with her all the time. She took out four springs, two for each child. She helped them tie the springs underneath their feet. Then she gave them instructions.

“Jump as high as you can. Once you jump high enough, you will go back the same way you came here.”

Tommy and Carol look at each other. The woman must be crazy. But after some consideration they decide to try it anyway. Because they really want to get home. So the kids start jumping. Tommy with Jumbo held tightly in his arms. It’s actually quite nice. Better still, it’s a lot of fun to jump around. At first they are a bit careful, but soon they bounce around happily and freely. Suddenly however Tommy doesn’t see Carol anymore. She bounced up, but didn’t bounce down again. Frightened Tommy stops bouncing. Scared he looks at the old lady, who smiles.

“Your sister has reached the right point and height. She is on her way home now. You try it too, and before you know it you’re home.”

So Tommy starts jumping again. It takes some effort to reach the same height as his sister, because he is carrying Jumbo. But in the end he succeeds. Suddenly he isn’t bouncing anymore, but he is being hurled into the darkness. It’s the same darkness from earlier that day. After a while he sees his sister’s face. It’s at the edge of the cardboard box. Soon Tommy and Jumbo are thrown out of the box. They land on the attic floor. Carol helps them up. They take off their springs. As the old lady requested, they throw the springs back into the box. Then they close it. As they do so, they hear a faint ‘thank you’ coming from the box. Everything was still as they left it. They rush down to find their parents still clearing the kitchen table as if nothing happened. They don’t seem at all surprised to see their children again. Tommy and Carol look at each other and decide to keep their fantasies to themselves. Fantasies were alright, but with boundaries.

Little white lies

“Why did they have to move here? It was very cold and grey. Not at all like home. At home it was always sunny and warm, and you didn’t need a coat to walk outside.”

Her father nodded. He had heard his daughter’s complaint before. And he gave her the standard reply that he had to go here for work, and that it was only for two years. He also knew it was much colder here, but again he explained that she would get used to it. Sulking the girl got deeper under her covers, so father could only kiss her forehead goodnight. On his way out he switched off the light and looked back. She was already dozing off. If the weather forecast was right, she would be in for a surprise tomorrow. That made him smile.

The next morning, young Susie woke up. She pushed the covers down, her face was now fully visible. She looked around, listened. There were hardly any sounds at all this morning. And that was weird, because they lived in a busy street and it was an average week day. So Susie got out of bed, into her slippers and walked over to her window. Since a couple of weeks she was tall enough to reach the stick to move the curtains. So she did. But she stopped halfway.

            “What is that? It’s all white! What’s wrong with the windows?”

She opened the curtains completely. Everything was white. From one end to the other, she saw nothing but white. She rubbed her eyes; maybe she wasn’t awake enough yet. But she was, because after she rubbed them, there was still only white. She tried to clean the glass of the windows, but without result.

Suddenly, from the left, a dark figure approached. Before she got the chance to get scared, she recognized her father. He was dressed in a padded coat, and he wore boots and gloves. His hair was covered by a big black hat, with flaps to keep his ears warm. He smiled and waved as he saw his little girl at the window. When he reached the door and started looking for his key, the door opened. There was Susie in her pajamas, curiously looking outside. Father gently pushed her back in, and the coldness disappeared as he quickly closed the door. At her demand he explained:

“That, my love, is snow. It is like rain, but very cold. Snow is actually very nice as you can see. It covers everything and makes it perfectly white. And of course you can have a lot of fun with snow…”

Susie sincerely doubted that. To her everything cold was wrong, bad and boring. But eventually he convinced her to at least go outside and experience it. So Susie dressed in her warmest clothes, and tugged her hat deep over her face, using her thick woolen mittens. With a shiver that started before the door even opened, she entered the cold.

The snow made strange crispy sounds under the touch of her boots. It was just everywhere: on the terrace, the window, the roof of the shed, the side of the big tree in the backyard. A bit scared she touched the snow. It felt weird, but alright. She created a track on the garden table with her hand. Suddenly something hit her at her back. She jumped. She turned to see what hit her, and saw some chunks of snow falling from her coat. Susie looked up to see her father with a big smile on her face and a new snow ball in his hand. After a second he pulled back his hand, and the snow ball came flying at her. Luckily father threw it slowly and with an arch, so she could easily avoid it. Susie sat down and picked up some snow. She threw it as hard as she could towards her father, but the result was just a big fountain of snow. Her father showed her how to make a proper snow ball: use your both hands to pick up some snow, squeeze it together and then make it nice and round. Soon the backyard had turned into a war zone. Snow balls flew from one side to the other. Every hit was cheered by one, condemned by the other. After a while, they got tired of the fight. But then father had a great idea. They gathered all the snow in the garden and rolled two big balls from it. Father put the smaller one on top of the big one, while Susie looked for 2 same sized round pebbles and 2 small branches from the tree. The pebbles gave him eyes; the branches gave the snow man arms. But something was still missing. Suddenly father jumped up, and disappeared into the shed. He returned with a big orange carrot, that he planted firmly into the smaller ball just below the eyes. Now it was complete, now it was a true snow man.

Pleased with what they had achieved, father and daughter went inside. Only there they realized how cold they had gotten from playing in the snow all the time. Luckily mother had an answer. She told them to take off their wet clothes, and ordered them to sit near the fireplace. That gave a nice hot glow that soon entered their cold bodies. It didn’t take mother long to return with two big cups of hot steaming coco. Susie snuggled between her fathers leg and took a sip. It tasted delicious! When they had regained some body heat, father told his daughter a story.

“At Christmas day we celebrate the birth of the little baby Jesus. He was born two thousand years ago in a shed, because there was no more room in a normal house for him and his parents. They were surrounded by all kinds of animals. Can you imagine that my sweet child? Being born with a goat staring at you?”

Susie yawned. She didn’t think it was a very interesting story. Father continued.

“Then some shepherds came to give the baby presents and congratulate the parents.”

As she heard something about presents, Susie was suddenly full of attention. But that changed just as rapidly when she understood the presents weren’t for her. Father continued, about the name the parents gave the little baby, how they got back home again risking their own lives and about all the angels singing. But the story was lost to little Susie. Father wanted to tell more about how little baby Jesus grew up, but then he noticed how his daughter had fallen asleep in his arms. The morning had only just passed, but she was exhausted from the snowball fight.

Later that afternoon, after Susie had taken a little and reviving nap, she decided to play in the snow some more. Father and mother couldn’t join her, because he had gone to work and she had gone shopping. Enthusiastically she created a lot of brothers and sisters for the big snow man. Soon she had a whole family ready. Well, except for the noses they were ready. So little Susie went into the shed and looked around. At the top shelf she saw the box with the big carrots, but of course she couldn’t reach them. Fortunately there was also a box filled with smaller carrots, so she found her noses there. As she inserted the final nose into a small snow woman, she heard a lot of flapping behind her. Oh no! A big bird was eating the nose from the big snow man. She tried to scare it away, but the damage had been done. The snow man had lost his nose. With a sad face Susie took another little carrot from the box in the shed and put it where the big one had been. That didn’t look right. A big snow man needs a big nose. So she went into the shed again, stacked some blocks of wood under the top shelf and climbed up. She could just reach inside the box, and with the tip of her fingers she rolled a big carrot to the side. After a few attempts she finally succeeded in rolling it up the side of the box as well. When she had taken out the carrot, she looked around in pride. But of course no one was there to compliment her on it. But what she saw was way more interesting.

Over there, in the corner, there was a big pile of presents. You could only see them from above. She climbed down, carrot in her hand, and ran over to the corner. She moved aside the board that covered the hiding place, and that revealed a huge treasure. Presents in all shapes and sizes where neatly stacked on three shelves at the back of the shed. She had never seen them before, because they were always covered one way or another. This was an amazing discovery! What were all these presents doing there? Her parents couldn’t know, because they wouldn’t have kept it a secret of course. Susie looked around. No one. She looked at the treasure again. A little hesitation. Then she picked up a little present that was at the side, covered a bit by a bigger one. She hid it under her coat and went back into the house. She silently passed her mother, who was decorating the Christmas tree. Christmas was now only four days away. Up in her room, Susie unpacked the present. It was a watch. And it looked like an expensive one too. She looked at the shiny dial for a while and then put in under her bed, where no one could see it. In the next three days Susie smuggled all the presents up to her room. At first she didn’t want to, but the presents just seemed to scream to her to be opened. So after three days the watch was accompanied by new clothes, tools and jewelry. So many nice presents. And they all belonged to Susie now. She was rich!

The night before Christmas Susie goes to bed early. Her parents told her that she would get presents if she was a good girl. Of course Susie already had a lot of presents, but she wouldn’t mind to get more. She slept like a baby, dreaming of all the new presents she would get the next day. Early that next morning she woke up. But not from excitement. She heard her parents talking loudly downstairs. They were arguing. Unfortunately she couldn’t hear what it was about. When Susie came down, her mother turned to her with tears in her eyes.

“My little Susie, all the Christmas presents have been stolen. Someone has taken them, so now we have nothing left.”

Mother’s voice broke, and she started crying. Father comforted her, but obviously he wasn’t in a much better mood either. Susie was in shock. The presents stolen? That was terrible. What mean thief would do such a thing? They all got to the kitchen table to eat the traditional Christmas breakfast. Normally this was a very happy feast, but this time nobody said a word. Everybody just chewed their food automatically and stared sadly in front of them.

            “I still can’t believe it. Who could know where we hid those presents?”

Father shook his head and answered:

“I know, I thought I hid them safely in the shed behind that old board. You’d have to be very close to it to be able to see it. It’s a mystery to me.”

Susie froze, and not from the cold outside. Because now she realized what she had done. She was the thief. She had stolen the presents from her parents. She was so shocked she couldn’t say a word. Tears fell down her face silently, as she bit her lip not to start crying out loud. Under the impression that she was sad about the stolen presents, father moved closer to his daughter and put his arm around her. Susie felt ashamed. She would have to tell them soon that it was her who had caused all this sadness. But she didn’t have the courage. She was so afraid of the consequences. But then she thought of Joseph and Mary, who had risked their own lives to get their new born baby safely back to their home town. They had shown what real family was about. It was about caring for each other, and doing things for the other even if you didn’t like doing it yourself.

“Mommy, daddy, please don’t be angry with me. I’m the thief. I found the presents the other day when I looking for a new nose for the big snow man, and I took them all. They are under my bed. I’m so very sorry!”

Father and mother looked at each other. The look started with anger, but soon a smile formed on both their faces, as they looked at their daughter. She looked terrible. They could see she really felt very sorry for what she had done. Father broke the silence.

“It’s ok, my love. Come on, we’ll go upstairs and get them all. After all, what is Christmas without presents?”

Relieved, Susie took her father’s hand and followed him upstairs. Mother came last. The three of them took the presents from under the little girl’s bed and brought them all down. With a big pile of presents in their arms, they came down the stairs again. Susie only took one present at a time, because she was still little. Finally all the present were down and under the Christmas tree. Happily they finished the Christmas breakfast, and now they were talking and laughing a lot. After they finished eating, they gathered around the tree. There they divided the presents. And even though they weren’t wrapped anymore, it was still very nice to receive them. Susie liked this so much better than sneaking up the presents and not being able to share them with others. She had learned her lesson. Christmas was about family and sharing. Happiness is only true happiness when you can share it with your loved ones.

Bald courage 1/2

Little Johnny is happily playing. As he usually is. One time he plays with his friends, the other time he plays alone with his toys. This was one of those other times. Without a care in the world Johnny was living all the adventures his imagination could provide for his plastic dinosaurs and other animals. Right now the dinosaurs were running for their lives because of a big flood. Mommy wouldn’t be happy with all that water on the carpet, but that was of later concern. When all dinosaurs had reached the top of the hill, which looked remarkably like daddy’s comfortable chair, Johnny panted. Understandable, since it isn’t nothing to lead all those animals to safety. Suddenly he felt a sting in his stomach. It really hurt! Au! Johnny sat down on the hill, which had now transformed into daddy’s chair again. His feet were dangling halfway down. Au! Another sting. His stomach now really hurt. Carefully he slid down from the chair and walked over to the stairs. His mother was upstairs doing laundry. The walking wasn’t easy because of the pain, so you can imagine the stairs were hell. After only five steps Johnny gave up. He sat down and cried to his mother:

            “Mommy, come here please! My stomach hurts. A lot.”

From upstairs, he heard his mother put down the laundry and walk over to the hallway. His mother’s head appeared, she looked slightly annoyed. But that look changed into worry when she saw her little Johnny sitting there pale and sad on the stairs. She rushed down and sat besides him.

            “What’s wrong my love? Are you ok?”

Johnny replied that he wasn’t. Mother carried him down from the stairs and put him on the couch. She went to the kitchen and came back with a glass of water and an aspirin. Not a regular one, but one for children. They had flavors. This one tasted like orange. Mommy sat with Johnny a while, and later she let him help her folding the laundry. It made him feel a little bit better, but the stomach pain did not disappear. Helping his mother only took his mind off it. In the evening, when daddy had come home, Johnny still wasn’t feeling alright. By now he had eaten an entire array of fruit flavors next to the orange: cherry, lemon and pear. Unfortunately the stomach pain didn’t respond to any of the aspirins. Mother and father decide to see what the night would bring. If little Johnny was still in pain the next morning, they would take him to the doctor. Daddy brought Johnny to bed and read him a fairytale. The one about the dragon and the boy. It was his favorite. But less than half an hour after father had gone down again, Johnny called them back up. The pain got worse. In the end they put Johnny between them and comforted him all night long.

As soon as the sun came up, mother called the doctor. He could see them right away. So she dressed Johnny warmly and carried him to the car. During the ride all mother heard was Johnny’s moaning. It worried her, because Johnny normally talked constantly in the car. Luckily they didn’t have to wait for more than three minutes in the waiting room, before the nice doctor’s assistant asked them in. They entered the doctor’s office. It was a big, white room, with a lot of books on two of the walls. The other walls were filled with posters of different parts of the human body, and in one corner was a skeleton.

            “That is cool!”

Johnny thought, forgetting his stomach for just a second. But then it was back again, and he cried. They sat down on the two chairs in front of the doctor’s big wooden desk.

            “What seems to be the problem young man?” The man in the white coat asked.

Johnny didn’t answer, so his mother explained the situation.

            “Well my boy, let’s see what I can find. Take off your shirt please.”

Mother helped Johnny take it off, while the doctor got a stethoscope out of one of the desk drawers.

“I am going to listen to your stomach now with this special headset,” the doctor told Johnny, “it might feel a little cold.”

Putting his actions to his words, the doctor knelt in front of the child and placed his stethoscope on the boy’s stomach. The doctor had told the truth: it was very cold. Johnny shivered a bit. The doctor examined Johnny’s entire stomach: not a single space was left untouched by the cold piece of metal. He tapped it often while listening intently. He pushed the boy’s stomach first this way, then the other. And he hummed and puffed while doing so. After what seemed like forever, the doctor walked back around the desk, to his seat.

“And you say he hasn’t eaten anything weird? And he has had several aspirins? Hmmm, that’s strange. I can’t seem to find anything wrong. But there must be, because it really hurts Johnny when I touch his stomach there.”

That was true. Johnny had screamed with pain when the doctor had touched him at a specific place, but nothing there gave a clue to what could be wrong.

“I will send you to the hospital. They have better equipment to do some more tests. Here is a note that will get you in.”

With a polite nod the doctor closed the door behind them. Once again they were in the car, but this time on their way to the hospital at the other side of town.

After half an hour and a lot of traffic, they arrived at the hospital. It was a huge old building, made from brown-orange bricks. And it had windows. A lot of windows. Johnny had never seen so many windows in his entire life! The main entrance led them to a maze of sterile white corridors. Mother checked at the information desk where they had to be, and off they went. Down the long corridor, second one on the left, and then up the stairs two floors. But Johnny couldn’t go up the stairs because of the pain. So they went right, following the elevator signs. Luckily they were down that corridor. In the big elevator, next to a mobile hospital bed, they rose to the third floor. Johnny tried to see who was on the bed, but he couldn’t. He was too small. A loud ping informed them that they were on the right floor. They got out and then they got lost. Because they didn’t take the stairs, the route description was no longer useful. But with the help of a nice young black haired nurse, they finally found the right department. Here they had to wait a bit longer. Just when the waiting got too boring, a nurse called Johnny’s name. An older doctor in a long white coat and a pair of glasses at the tip of his nose introduced himself and they started. Mother told the story again, and the doctor repeated his colleague’s tests. This doctor came to the same conclusion, although his stethoscope was less cold.

“Luckily these aren’t the only tests we can do here. Follow me Johnny, we will go for a walk.”

Johnny followed the man in the white coat, holding his mother’s hand. They exited the examination room, turned right and then right into the first corridor. The doctor opened the third door on the left and let them in first. In the middle of the room was a big machine. It had a bed in the middle. The bed was in a tunnel. At the side of the room there was a small office behind glass. It had a lot of computers on the desk. The doctor helped Johnny on the bed, and told him to lie very still.

“Lie very still Johnny. This big machine will take a lot of pictures of you for 10 minutes. It can see inside your stomach. That way we will know what’s wrong with you. You might want to put on these headphones, because it is a very noisy machine.”

The doctor handed the boy the headphones and strapped him to the bed. Then he went into the glass office with Johnny’s mother and his assistant. The assistant pushed a big red button, and that made the machine come alive. It started to hum, and suddenly a lot of noise came out. It sounded like that power drill daddy sometimes used on Saturdays, when he was working in the garage. Although the sound was very loud, and it hurt his ears a bit, he kept as still as he could. He wanted to get out of the machine as soon as possible. And the doctor had said he could get out sooner if he remained perfectly still. In just under ten minutes, which must seem like forever for a young boy to lie still, the machine finally stopped. Everybody came out of the glass office again and his mother helped him to get dressed. The assistant led them back to the waiting room, and told them she would get them when the results were in. But that could take a few hours, she warned them. So the waiting started again. And it was a long wait. Johnny started to get bored, and annoyed. Luckily mommy had the answer. From her bag she took his plastic animals and gave them to Johnny:

“Here my love, play with these. Just make sure they don’t have to escape a big flood this time.”

That kept Johnny busy for a while. Just when the Tyrannosaurus Rex was face to face with the saber tooth tiger, the nurse brought him back to reality:

            “The doctor will see you now.”

Soon they were in the doctor’s office again. But the doctor looked much less happy than when they had last seen him.

            “I’m afraid I have bad news.”

He didn’t stall, and immediately told them the bad news.

“Johnny has cancer. He has a big tumor in his stomach. If we do not operate on him immediately, we can’t be sure he will survive.”

Silence.

            “…”

The doctor and mother looked at each other in silence. There was a lot of tension in the room. It was broken by Johnny, who had first looked at his mother and then at the doctor, a puzzled look on his face.

            “Mommy, I’m not a dancer. I don’t even like dancing…”

The doctor then explained to Johnny what was wrong.

“No Johnny, you have cancer. That means that a little part of your stomach is not growing like it should. It’s growing out of control. If we don’t do surgery on you and take it out of your body, your stomach pain will only get worse.”

Johnny got it, it was something bad! He started crying. His mother comforted him. After a while, the doctor called in a nurse, and she brought Johnny to a room. It was a big room, with four beds in it. But he was the only one there. He chose the bed near the window. From there he could see one side of the hospital, with a lot of windows. He decided to start counting the windows. Meanwhile his mother called her husband, and told him the bad news. He told her he would leave work immediately and pick up clothes for Johnny on the way over to the hospital. The time came for the surgery. Johnny was now dressed in a green hospital gown, and the nurses came in to roll him away in his big bed. Mommy and daddy said goodbye, and promised him they would be there as soon as he wakes up. They try to hide their tears as they see their son’s sad face disappear through the door. Johnny is wheeled off to the operating room. In it there are a lot of doctors and nurses. They all wear a white mask before their mouth, and plastic gloves. One nurse says from behind her mask:

“I am going to put this on you. It smells of peppermint. Just breathe deep, while I count to ten.”

Johnny inhales deeply. It does smell like peppermint.

            “One, two, thr…”

Before the nurse reaches three, Johnny is out. 

Bald courage 2/2

Slowly, Johnny wakes up. He feels woozy. He opens his eyes and sees a big white ceiling. That isn’t the ceiling from his room. He looks around. He is in a big room. Some big beds, curtains in the middle, a big window. At the end of his circle are his parents. His father and his mother smiling at him. Now he remembers! He’s in the hospital, and he’s had surgery. He wants to touch his stomach, but there is something tied to his hand. He looks and sees a tube attached to his hand. His parents take his hand and put it back to bed.

“My son, don’t worry. You just had surgery on your stomach. So don’t try to sit up straight, OK?”

Stubborn as he is, Johnny of course tries to sit up, but immediately has to agree with his parents. His stomach still hurts. But it’s another kind of pain than before. Johnny wants to see the scar. But unfortunately that isn’t possible. Because there is a big white bandage over his belly. Once every hour a nurse steps in to check on little Johnny. And every time he asks her when the bandage can come of. He really wants to see the scar! Finally, the last nurse to come in before bedtime, tells him:

“Tomorrow I will come back with the doctor, and then we will take off the bandage. The doctor will then look at the wound, and after that, I will put on a new bandage. When we do that, you can look at the scar.”

Satisfied Johnny falls asleep shortly after. His dreams are about – what else could it be – dinosaurs. In the morning the dinosaurs are replaced by the doctor and the nurse. She folds open the sheet and carefully takes off the bandage. It reveals a big red scar, all across his belly.

            “Cool!”

The doctor smiles as he examines the wound.

            “It looks clean. I’m sure this wound will heal nicely.”

The nice nurse puts on a fresh bandage, and winks at Johnny as she leaves. She tells him that his parents can pick him up at the end of the day.

After a week, the bandage is reduced to a band aid, they go back to the hospital for a check up. Again, Johnny has to go into the big noisy machine. But this time it doesn’t bother him that much. He’s already getting used to the loudness. While waiting for the result, father takes his sun by the hand and together they walk across the hospital. They stop at the hospital shop to buy ice cream. Johnny gets a big one with lots of colors.

            “Ninety-four.” Johnny suddenly says.

That’s how many windows he counted when he was in the hospital bed last week, Johnny explains to his puzzled father. A few minutes after they get back to mother, the nurse comes and asks them into the doctor’s office. Again it‘s bad news.

“We got most of the tumor with the surgery, but some bits remained. We can’t reach them or remove them, I’m afraid. All we can do now is try to treat with chemo therapy, but that is very risky.”

That is a big shock to the family! Finally father asks:

            “What are his chances? And please be honest.”

The doctor shakes his head, and then tells the parents in a sad tone that it’s probably a matter of a few months, before little Johnny will die. There’s nothing more he can do but hope. One Friday, two weeks after that horrible day, poor little Johnny is back in the hospital for another session of chemo therapy. It always makes him feel ill, like he has to throw up. His candy doesn’t taste that well anymore after a session, and his hair is falling out. And that is terrible to him. He had a lot of beautiful blond hair, and now most of it is gone. And what is left, is hanging from his head in small bundles. When the session is over, his mother always comes to pick him up. She rides him down to the parking lot in a wheelchair. This time Johnny feels particularly bad. He throws up a lot, and he’s constantly coughing. Before they go out, Johnny has to go to the bathroom. His mother waits outside, while he carefully enters the door. The first three boots are taken, so he has to go all the way to the back to the last one. While walking there, Johnny looks in the mirror. His own face frightens him. Pale, thin, with terrible hair. It makes him sad. He stops and turns towards the mirror. He stares into it. The world around him disappears. It’s just him and his mirror image now. And then he decides.

“I don’t want to be sad anymore. I’ll be happy and positive! And I will hope for a miracle. After all, it’s almost Christmas.”

With new energy Johnny goes to the toilet, and with a smile on his face he joins his mother again. She doesn’t know what happened of course, but she is thrilled that her little boy is smiling again. She hadn’t seen that for weeks now. From that moment on, Johnny is very positive and happy.

At home he collects his toys, and gives them away to his friends who don’t have many toys. When his mother asks him if he’s sure, he answers

            “Yes, I’m sure. Just wait and see.”

And she sees. Those friends all come over to play with Johnny, and they bring the toys he gave them. So instead of losing toys, he has gained company. Together they play and have fun, and mother and father hear laughter coming from Johnny’s room all the time. Also, when they walk on the street, with Johnny in the wheelchair, he calls out to the homeless people who are forced to live on the street in this cold weather. Every one of them gets a nice talk and a toy from the boy, and some money and a hot coffee from his parents. Now, whenever they are outside, all the homeless people greet Johnny enthusiastically. One night, father has a great idea.

“It’s great that you give them your toys. They have company now. But wouldn’t it be even better if we give them some warm clothes? They can really use it with the winter coming.”

Johnny immediately agrees that it is a fantastic idea. Of course Johnny can’t make it happen, because of the cancer and the chemo therapy. His health is actually getting worse. But his father goes at it with energy for two. At all the neighbors and with his colleagues at work he asks for clothes they no longer wear. Soon the whole house is full of boxes. Together with his mother, Johnny sorts the clothes on sort and size. Every day they go out and give a full set of clothes to a very happy homeless man or woman. Even the newspapers write about it. Lots of people think this is a great idea, so within a week so many clothes are delivered, that they have to use the garage as well to store them. All Johnny’s friends help whenever they can to sort them all, and to hand them out. Besides clothes they also receive other handy things, like shoes and toiletry.

Christmas is approaching, it’s only a day away. Johnny has to leave his new career for a few hours to go back to the hospital. He has another session of chemo therapy. Once every two weeks Johnny has to go into the machine first, to see if the sessions have any effect. So far, the results have been negative. As if he’s home, he takes off his shirt and gets up onto the bed. By now he isn’t afraid of the machine anymore, and he’s used to the noise too. After seven and a half minutes the machine is ready. Johnny says goodbye to it. He waits in one of the corridors, on the middle of five chairs. His feet dangle just off the floor. He whistles a happy tune over and over again. After a period of time longer than normal a nurse picks him up. She smiles a sad smile at the boy. She admires his courage. The cold hospital lights reflect of his bald head, as he follows her into the doctor’s office. Inside, the doctor is sitting in his big chair, turned towards the window. Johnny sits down, waiting. For a while, nothing happens. But just when Johnny wants to say something, the chair turns around. In the middle is the doctor of course, and with him comes a very big smile. He looks at Johnny and says:

“Well my boy, I have good news for you! Your tumor seems to be shrinking. In fact, I didn’t believe it at first. So I called my fellow doctors, and they didn’t believe it at first either. But it is true Johnny: you will get better!”

Johnny couldn’t believe his ears! He beat the cancer!

            “So does this mean I never have to get chemo therapy again?”

Before the doctor could answer, the boy cried out again.

            “And does this mean my hair will grow back again?”

The doctor confirmed both questions.

“With a small procedure we can take out the remaining bits of the tumor now, and after that you will be completely cured.”

This time the nurse doesn’t even reach three. Halfway on two Johnny is out again. With this surgery, that only lasts an hour, the surgeons take out whatever was left of the tumor, and now he is completely clean again!

The next morning, when he wakes up, Johnny sees the Christmas tree near the window of his room. It is richly decorated with balls, little angels and spray on snow. Next to his bed are his parents. His mother is crying, but there is also a big smile on her face. His father looks silly, with a red Santa hat on his head. Johnny laughs. And he has every reason to laugh, because he is cured. It’s a miracle. A Christmas miracle!

The fantastic voyage of young Miss Shirley 1/3

“Butler! I have told you again and again that I want my tea with three lumps of sugar, and not two. Come over here right now.”

With a sigh Butler got up from the kitchen table and hurried to the room of little Miss Shirley. In his one hand a bowl of sugar cubes, in the other hand a pair of tweezers. Outside her door he stopped, adjusted his clothes and politely knocked two times before entering the room. Miss Shirley was sitting at the edge of her big old iron bed, near the coffee table. It had a porcelain tea cup on it; you could see the heat coming off. With the tweezers in his gloved hand Butler took a sugar cube from the bowl, and carefully let it fall in his mistress’s hot drink. With a small bow he excused himself and left the room, silently closing the door behind him. The young girl took a sip from her cup. Her pink held up high, as is the custom for the noble. And that’s what she was. She came from a very old and rich family, and they lived on a vast estate in the family mansion. It had been in the family since forever. While drinking, she looked around her room. She had everything a kid could imagine. Stuffed toys, princess dolls, a wooden pony, puppets. You name it, and she had it. And she liked them all too. Well, most of the times. The problem was that she would always have to play alone with them. She had no brothers or sisters. Thinking of this, she looked outside her window. In the distance, behind the high fence, she saw some children playing. Miss Shirley put down her cup of tea, and walked over to the window. She pressed her nose to the glass, and stared. Her breath condensed, because it was cold outside. But that didn’t seem to harm the kids there. They were shouting and running, and chasing a ball.

“How is it possible that those children there are not affected by the coldness of the weather?” She pondered aloud.

And she seemed right in asking that question, because the kids weren’t dressed very warm. Some of them didn’t even have proper shoes; they had bags tied around their feet. Sometimes she desired to play outside with those children, and this was such a time. She stepped back, wiped the glass clean with her handkerchief and went to look for her parents. After a while – it was a big house after all – she found them in the study. They were reading.

“No, we will not allow you to play outside. Especially not with that street scum over there. They are not worthy to play with you, young Shirley. They are poor and common, and you are a lady. Go play with your toys.”

Essentially the same answer she had gotten several times before. Still disappointed she headed back for her room and played. She sat on her wooden pony and imagined riding with him through endless fields and jumping over bushes or streams. That kept her busy till diner time. After dinner she kissed her parents goodnight, and went to bed. At first she couldn’t sleep, and she stared at the fluorescent moon and star stickers that were attached to the ceiling. But then, suddenly, sleep started to come, and she dozed off into a dream world.

As calmly and gently as she dozed off, as suddenly was she woken up, into that dream world. She was in the middle of a dark forest, and around her she heard all kinds of weird noises: cracking, whistling, sudden bangs. In fear Shirley looked around her. She could hardly see anything, it was very dark. What was that? Over there in the distance? It looked like a light that was going on and off. She decided to check it out. Slowly, with her hands in front of her to feel where she was going, Shirley headed over to the light.

            “Iiiiiiieee!”

Suddenly she screamed, because she felt something touching her right foot. Very short, but nonetheless something had touched her! She jumped up and ran a few meters, before bumping into a big tree. She looked back, but of course couldn’t see anything. When nothing happened for a few minutes, she moved on. But now she looked up scared whenever she heard a sound. And unfortunately there were many sounds in the forest. She steadily approached the light, and felt more comfortable now. By now she was very close to the light, but she still couldn’t see what it was. Suddenly she tripped. An aboveground root she had missed with her eyes, but not with her feet. She fell over, and immediately felt something around her ankles. It kind of felt like hands grabbing her, but also very rough and stiff. She bent down to see what was holding her, and she touched wood. Roots came from the ground and wound themselves around her tiny legs.

“Help. Someone help me. I’m being attacked by trees. Mommy, Butler, where are you?”

She screamed in panic. Shirley tried to loosen the roots, but they held on to her very tight. When the roots had a good grip on her, they started pulling her away. Quickly she grabbed the tree she was sitting against. Because it was a big tree, she couldn’t really get a tight grip. So the roots dragged her with them further and further. Still screaming loudly the little Miss tried to find something to hold on to. But every time she found a root, it tried to grab her too, so she had to let go. Shirley felt herself being dragged downhill, and there was nothing she could do about it. Her screams had stopped because her voice just couldn’t take it anymore. All that was left for her to do was cry. So she cried. Streams of teardrops followed the terrified young girl. You could see them glisten by the occasional beam of sunlight that found its way down between the high and full trees. When Shirley finally gave up hope and stopped resisting the relentless roots, she suddenly heard something in the distance. What was it? She listened carefully, hope rising in her little heart.

“It sounds a bit like a horse galloping.” Miss Shirley thought.

And if you believe it or not, it was actually a horse, running towards her. In the dark she could see a white shadow coming near very fast. Before she realized what was happening, a big and strong white horse had arrived at the scene. With its mighty hooves it banged down on the roots, and Shirley actually felt their grip on her legs loosen. With some final well aimed bangs, the powerful animal had defeated the tough roots. The horse got down on his front legs and said

“Get up on my back, young human daughter. I will take you away to a safe place, far away from here.”

Shirley was surprised that the horse could talk, but she decided to ask questions later, and first get out of here to safety. As soon as the little girl was safely on the horses back, he rose up and ran off. Shirley really had to hold on tight, because the horse was running like the wind. It seemed to know exactly where to go without bumping into the trees. After about half an hour, the animal slowed down. Eventually it stopped. Shirley looked up, because out of fear for the speed she had hidden her head in the white manes of the horse. They had arrived at the edge of the forest, where the sun brightly lit endless fields. Just like in her dream, she thought.

“Thank you so much for saving me, my dear animal. You have my gratitude. May I ask your name and also why you can talk? Because as far as I know, animals don’t talk.”

The horse threw his manes back and answered with a horselike voice.

“In this world every animal can understand each other. So if you don’t know that, you must not be from around here. By the way, my name is Frank.”

Shirley properly greeted Frank, and replied

“It is true, I am not from around here. I fell asleep at home in my bed, and when I woke up, I was suddenly here. Do you know where my mommy is?”

The horse had to admit he didn’t. But he agreed to help her, because he liked human children and he didn’t want to see her sad. Shirley got on the horse again, and there they went. Over the fields, past the bushes and through the streams. This wasn’t completely like her dreams.

“Frank, do you think you can jump over the bushes and the streams? I dream about it a lot and I would really appreciate it if you would do so.”

Frank didn’t have to be told twice, he immediately picked up speed and told Miss Shirley to hold on tight. She did, and that’s why she didn’t fall off his back when he lifted off for his first jump, over some prickly bushes. She loved it, it felt great! And from the happy neighs coming from below her, she could see the horse liked it too.

After a while, Frank had reduced to walking speed, they came close to a big road. It crossed the fields from left to right as far as the eye could see. Alternately on this side or the other side were straight hedges. From behind the hedges, on their left, they heard arguing.

“Bob, I keep saying it brother. You should stop eating all that unhealthy stuff. It will only make you fatter. You can’t even run 10 meters without having to rest for an hour.”

The other one had hardly finished when they heard Bob – apparently – come back with an immediate reply.

“I am not fat, I just have a refined taste, and a very demanding stomach. And besides, I don’t need to run. What’s running good for anyway? It will only make you tired, my dear brother Billy.”

            “If you run, you will get somewhere faster.” Came Billy’s defense.

The two arguing voices came closer to the edge of the hedge, and both Frank and Shirley were curious to see who the voices belonged to. And there they were, the twin brothers Billy and Bob. Billy the thinnest boy you have ever seen. Long, skinny, with a high but small face. And next to him Bob. A big chunky kid that was as wide as he was deep, with a completely round face that contained a porky nose. You could see they were related because of the similar features, but besides from that they couldn’t have been more different. They kept arguing, even when they saw the horse with the little girl on top. The thin one suddenly changed course towards the horse, and asked

“Great white one, can you settle an argument for us. Is it better to be healthy and thin like me or fat and unhealthy like my brother Bob here?”

Before Frank could answer, Bob intervened.

“That is an unfair question Billy, and you know that. Besides, the horse is grey, not white.”

Shirley looked down. And actually she started doubting herself. She had also thought the horse was white, but now it did look a bit grey. Oh well, that wasn’t important right now. She was fascinated by the twins. They seemed to disagree on everything. For every question they had opposite answers, and couldn’t believe the other one didn’t see it his way. Finally Miss Shirley managed to get their attention.

“Excuse me young boys, I was wondering if you could tell me how I can get home. I seem to be lost.”

The boys considered the question. And as to be expected, they both came up with different answers. In the end Billy suggested her to go left, where they had come from. But of course Bob suggested they go straight ahead to where the horse and the girl were already heading.

            “What kind of house do you live in?”