Sammy and Alice

 

Sammy and Alice

Sammy was a thirteen-year-old boy.

Alice was a thirteen-year-old girl.

Have you seen the cartoon of Aladdin? Sammy looked almost exactly like Aladdin from the famous cartoon, but Sammy was still more handsome. Have you seen the cartoon of Snow White and the seven dwarfs? Alice looked almost exactly like Snow White from the famous cartoon but Alice was still more beautiful.

Sammy and Alice were neighbours. They were living in a lovely neighbourhood, where most people had a station wagon for their family car, and had a modest but substantial earning to live really comfortably. Sammy and Alice went to the same school. They were in the best class and they were doing really well in terms of school results. Every other month one of them was the first in the top class and the other one was second, while for the months in between they seemed to have changed places. One would suspect it was orchestrated by them or by a teacher, but it was not. It just happened like that.

Even though they seemed to be competing in the class forever, they were very close friends. They had been going to the same school since they were three years old. Already as a toddler, Sammy had noticed the extreme beauty of Alice and he liked her very much. Alice liked Sammy too, and they played together very often. Sammy would go out first and call Alice to go and play in the nearby forest. Next to their living area there was indeed a big forest, where they would play almost every day. The other children, living in the same street quite often joined them to play hide and seek or tag, or any other game. But almost every day Sammy and Alice were the first to arrive and the last to go back.

On a wonderful Wednesday morning, they had arrived in the woods and were awaiting some of their friends. The schools were closed because of a pandemic, but their province and village had up to now been free of the virus that caused the pandemic. However, the government of the country had made a decree that all schools would be closed for at least a month.

After more than half an hour, none of their friends had come and the two friends were sitting in the grass in an open space in the forest, discussing what they would do. Sammy shared with Alice the dream, he had been dreaming since more than a week, almost every night. He had been dreaming that deep in the forest, there was a wisdom tree. The tree could talk and knew where a treasure, ten times bigger than the biggest treasure ever found by humans could be discovered. When in his dream, he wanted to set out to hike a bit deeper in the forest, he always abruptly woke up and was sweating profusely.

Alice was excited by the story and it took very little effort to convince her to go and find the tree deeper in the forest. They walked straight, deeper and deeper in the forest, following the same path, so they would be able to get back. After more than one hour of walking, Alice felt like sitting down for a while and when Sammy heard that, he was so happy because he wanted to sit down for awhile as well as his legs had grown tired, but he had been afraid to tell this to Alice.

They passed a log that was looking much like the perfect bench to sit on during a break from a long walk in the woods. They sat on the log and as Sammy put his right foot on the root of a tree, he heard a loud: “Ouch!”. With a bit of shock, he looked at Alice and asked: “did you just say with a strange and deep voice, Ouch!”. “No”, said Alice but she had heard the Ouch! as well. They looked around but saw nobody and when Sammy looked up, he got the surprise of his life as he saw that the tree, they were sitting under was exactly the same tree he had seen talking in his dreams. He felt a bit foolish, but still he asked the tree: “was this you saying, Ouch?”

The tree responded that the way Sammy had put his foot on the root had really hurt. Sammy was still feeling awkward to talk to a tree but he profusely apologised. Then he told the tree that he had been dreaming about a tree, looking exactly the same, and that in the dream, the tree knew the exact location of a giant treasure, 10 times bigger than the largest treasure ever found by any human.

The tree confirmed that it was himself that had appeared in Sammy’s dream. He seemed to know the name of both children and talked in a deep but very sweet voice. He told them that the location of the treasure was one of the biggest secrets of the forest and that he was only allowed to tell the location to any one who had found the keys to the door that was in front of the treasure.

In order to find the key to the door, both children had to be extremely well behaved for three days and to help every day someone they rarely helped before. If they had lived up to the expectations of the forest in being really good and helpful, a clue to find the key to the door of the treasure would appear in their dreams each night.

When Sammy had come home, his mom was a bit upset. He had come home much later than usual and she had been very worried. She had rushed to the place where they were playing usually but she had found nobody to be there. When asked to explain, Sammy was thinking quickly of the best lie he could find to tell his mom, but no suitable falsehood came immediately to mind. Then he remembered the tree and the demand that he ‘d be a really good boy, so he decided to tell his mom the truth. His mom could not believe the story and punished him by not letting him play outside of the house for at least two days.

Sammy was worried. He had been just telling the truth about nothing especially naughty and his mother did not believe it and punished him. Before, when he had been coming up with some falsehoods to hide some of his naughty acts, his mother had taken his words for truth and he had escaped punishment. However, a few times, it had happened that his mom found out about the lies he had been telling and that made him feel bad as he could see how sad it had made his mom that she as his very closest ally, his most caring mom could not fully trust her son.

How could he still live up to the expectations of the forest while not being allowed to go out. He was also reflecting on the unfairness of his mom not believing him, while he had told her the truth. But then, it occurred to him, that trust was something one had to build up by being truthful all the time. He had been cheating his own mom far too much in the past for having her trust. And the truth of his story, meeting the talking tree, sounded even to himself so strange, that he completely understood why his mom could not believe it. He regretted having lied so many times to his closest caregiver who cared so very much for him.

It was late in the afternoon, while he was still sitting in his room reflecting on everything, when he heard his brother, Tommy throw something on the ground in the adjacent room. His younger brother was not doing as well in school as Sammy and his parents were very concerned about his performance. That was the reason that even when the schools were closed, the parents had asked Tommy to make some mathematical and grammatical exercises on a daily basis. Tommy had gotten quite frustrated about the difficulty of the exercises and had thrown his pencil case on the ground in a bout of bad temper.

Sammy saw immediately an opportunity to help someone he rarely helped and sat down with Tommy. He consoled his little brother for a while and then he sat down, helping him performing the tasks at hand. Tommy ran down to his mom to show proudly the solutions to the homework. When mom checked the answers, she grew visibly frustrated as all answers seem to be wrong. In his hurry to help Tommy, Sammy had failed to read the instructions properly and had with the best of intentions, helped his brother but in the wrong way. He was shy to admit that the wrong results were his fault, but remembering his regrets of untruthfulness before, he told mom what had really happened. He thought that it might result in another few days not playing outside, but he preferred perfect honesty this time above all.

His mom understood how he had misread the instructions and praised him for his good intentions in helping his brother. She explained the next piece of homework to both boys and this time Sammy went on to help Tommy and taught him the right way to solve the problems which Tommy understood quite well.

That night Sammy was dreaming a wonderful dream. The talking tree was in his dreams and the treasure and Alice. When he woke up, he could not remember his whole dream, but all he could remember was that there was a sculpture of a huge letter H in the place where the dream had occurred. He was puzzled, what could this H mean, would that be any help to find the key to the door of the treasure. He was curious and called Alice

Alice had experienced something very similar to Sammy. She had been punished, because also her mom did not believe the unusual story. She had helped her younger brother with his homework but she had not messed up as Sammy had. She had helped him from the start in the right way and the results of the task at hand were all OK. Then at night she had dreamed a very different dream but upon waking up she remembered also only a sculpture of the letter H. Both children were happy and were convinced that the letter H must be the first clue to getting the key of the door to the treasure.

Alice was also worried about how to help others while she could not go to school and on top of that, she was grounded for two days for coming home late the other day. It happened that a good friend of her mother, came on a visit that afternoon. Bernice, the daughter of that friend of her mom went to the same school as Alice and had come along with her mom. In school Alice had never befriended Bernice since her nose looked a bit strange and her two front teeth looked really big. She even had been calling Bernice ‘rabbit’ in front of the other students in her school, which made everyone laugh, except for Bernice who felt very sad.

That afternoon she felt like just staying her room and rather not meet Bernice and her mom, but when she remembered the tree and the task to be nice and helpful to someone she rarely helped before, she decided to go and have tea together with Bernice and her mom after which she showed Bernice some of her toys and they were playing together for more almost two hours. Alice was surprised at how much she had enjoyed the whole afternoon. She had discovered that if she ignored the nose and teeth of her new friend, that Bernice was a very nice, kind and intelligent girl. Alice had regretted to ever have called her nasty names, but had not been able gather the courage to formally apologise about that. Anyhow, when Bernice was called by her mom when it was time to leave, both felt a warm friendship and made plans to play together again.

That night Alice had another dream. And while upon waking up she forgot most of the dream, she did remember seeing her dreams repeated the image of huge letter U. She was sure that was a part of the solution to find the key to the treasure.

The next day Alice was still grounded but she had managed to put a small note on her Facebook account about the wonderful time she had with Bernice. The other girls were amazed but surely that message would help Bernice to become less unpopular in school. On normal days, Alice was using Facebook and Instagram to share selfies, showing of how beautiful she was or some wonderful stories evidencing her wit and cleverness. It had felt so good to post something wonderful about someone else this time and be silent about her own brightness. And that must have been the right thing to do because the next night she dreamed again and remembered another big letter in the morning. This time it was an M.

The next day, both she and Sammy could go out and play again outside. They met in the usual place in the forest. Alice could not wait to hear from Sammy whether he had also dreamed about the letters U and M. Sammy had also managed to help others, including his grandmother who had come for a visit and had dreamed each night, remembering letters in the morning. But Sammy’s letters, this time, were different from Alice’s. Sammy’s letters were O and N. Both of them grew a bit worried and feared that the other one had been more successful in obtaining the key to the treasure. They had a small quarrel about who had the right letters but decided to go and ask the tree.

They had no trouble finding the tree and it was Sammy who started to talk. He was talking about how he had helped his brother and his grandmother and how he had been truthful to his mom and to everyone he met. He was a little bit proud of himself and then shared with the tree about the letters he had dreamed about and how they differed from Alice’s letters. When it was Alice’s turn to talk, she talked about her own achievements and ended by stating she was worried that she was receiving in her dreams the wrong letters.

It was very obvious to the tree that both children were quite a bit in distress about dreaming about different letters. He quickly reassured them in his own deep and lovely voice that both of them had received the right message in their dreams. The key to door of the treasure required not one but more than one word. He then challenged Sammy and Alice to find each their own words starting with the letters they had dreamed about. Sammy had no problem to find a word starting with H, O and N. He was sure it was honesty, one of the things he really had been not good at in the past but something that had given him a lot of real good feelings while practicing it in the last few days. Alice found it also easy to come up with her word. H, U and M, must have been the beginning of the word, humility and also, she felt great about being much more humble than before.

The tree was happy that the children had managed to live up to the expectations of the forest and had found two words that were part of the three-word key to the treasure. When he told them that there was a third word, starting with the letter, H, needed to discover the whole key of the door to the treasure Sammy and Alice almost simultaneously shouted out it must helpfulness. The tree was again extremely pleased. Helpfulness was indeed the third key-word to open the door.

Since the tree knew how worried and upset their mothers had been when they came home late the other day, he asked them to go back home now and he promised them that each of them would have a dream during the upcoming night showing them the exact place of the treasure. Since the place of the treasure was still deeper in the forest the tree reminded them to ask the permission of their moms to come home a bit later that day.

The next morning both remembered very clearly their dream of the past night and the were very clear about the exact place of the treasure, which was quite deep in the forest. They asked their moms to come back a bit late and both moms were quite happy to give them permission since they had behaved so wonderfully in the past few days.

While walking towards to the place of the treasure, they did not talk a lot. Each of them was filled with thoughts of all the gold and diamonds they would find deep in the forest. They agreed that they would keep the place a solid secret between the two of them. They would leave most of the valuables in that place but would at regular intervals take out small pieces of gold or gems to use if they needed it or if they wanted share something with the poor.

As they got nearer to the place, they got more and more excited. The last one kilometre to the place, they started to walk faster and faster and they ended up running as they were really near. Exactly as they had seen in their dream of the last night there was an enormous door, hidden behind some bushes and some trees that stood close to each other. It was almost impossible to find the door if they would not have had the dream.

Just next to the door there was a box that contained blocks with letters, almost looking like those in a game of scrabble, but about quadruple the size of those. There were many, perhaps a thousand, letters. A small instruction was written on the box. They had to put with the right letters, the first key word in the panel on the right of the gate, the second word in the panel on the left side of the gate and the third word had to be put in a panel that was attached to the gate itself. Sammy sought the letters of ‘honesty’, Alice the letters of humility and each put them at one side of the gate. Then they worked together, helped each other to form the word, helpfulness, on the panel attach to the gate itself. As soon as the last letter, S was put in place the majestic gate made a sound and slowly opened. Shivers were on the spines of each, Sammy and Alice.

As they entered the place of the treasure, they saw magnificent flowers and a small path leading to another tree that looked a bit like the talking tree, but was much bigger and still more beautiful. That tree could indeed talk as well and told them the secret of the treasure. The big tree’s name was Nestor and he talked in a very warm voice:

“Dear Sammy and Alice. I am so happy that after truly thousands of years, finally you two are the first ones to discover this extremely big treasure. The biggest treasure in the world lies not in material wealth and in owning all the gold and diamond and gems on earth but in practicing the three main pillars of happiness on a daily basis.” Sammy and Alice seemed a bit disappointed as it seemed the treasure was not made of gold or diamonds, but they listened carefully to what the treasure tree, Nestor was saying.

For each of the three main pillars of happiness, a giant book lay near the roots of the tree. The titles of the books were:

“A million ways to become more aware of Peace and beauty”

“A million random kind acts and let the love from your heart flow”

“A million ways to be as creative as you can”

 

While the books were so big that it was truly impossible to take them home, the books were there exclusively for Sammy and Alice. They were invited to come and read a few pages regularly and the big treasure tree, Nestor would always be ready to assist them and to guide them on their path through their life. It was their purpose to share the huge wisdom contained in the biggest treasure of the world with all people living on earth. The more they ‘d manage to share the messages, the wealthier they would become, not only in terms of material wealth but also in all other types of wealth.

The initial disappointment about not seeing gold or diamonds ebbed and they soon understood that indeed the biggest treasure one can possess in this world is the wisdom that helps people to be happy and feel good about themselves.

 

They went on to be the most sweet and successful teenagers one could ever imagine. They went back regularly to consult the giant treasure books and to listen to golden advice from the big treasure tree, Nestor.

The big difference with other fairy tales, is that this tale is not playing off somewhere, once upon a time in the distant past, but really in the here and now and the very near future. Sammy and Alice are now about twenty years old and are sharing the wisdom of the treasure with the rest of the world. Will you help them to share a bit of it too?