Bedtime Story

You’d wandered into the desert!

After a while you started to feel really thirsty.

You thought about all that water that drained out of the stream’s plug hole. You wished you could have some of that water now.

“Sand sand all around and not a drop to drink,” you thought.

After a while you saw lots of spacemen riding on camels.

“Hello!” you shouted. “Hellooooooooooooooooooooooo! Over here!”

You ran over to the spacemen, but when you got closer, you saw that they weren’t spacemen at all. They were fish in spacesuits, and the spacesuits weren’t full of air, they were full of water!

“Blinkin’ Nora!” you said. “What a strange sight! Fish dressed in spacesuits riding camels in the desert!”

“We are exploring, searching for a new home,” said the fish captain. “A bad person pulled out the plug from our stream and let all our water down the plug hole, so now we are homeless and we wander over the desert looking for a new stream, wondering if we will ever find a new home. And so we wander and we wonder, wandering and wondering, wandering wonderingly.”

“That wasn’t a bad person,” you started to say. “That was …” Then you stopped.

“Yes?” asked the fish captain. “What were you going to say? Do you know who drained our stream?”

“Oh, er, no,” you said, because you felt ashamed that you’d done it and you didn’t want them to know.

“What brings you to this desert, stranger?” asked the fish captain.

“I’m looking for a banana,” you said. “Do you know where I can find a banana?”

“We know nothing of bananas,” said the fish captain. “We seek a new home.”

So you changed the subject. “Excuse me, I’m very thirsty. Do you have any water for me to drink?”

“I can give you a little,” said the fish captain, and he opened a tap on his spacesuit and some water came out.

You drank the water, though it tasted a little fishy, and then you thanked the fish and said goodbye.

“Good luck on your quest, child,” said the fish captain, and they disappeared across the sand dunes.

Those fish were really nice to you and you felt really bad for draining their stream.

You walked on through the desert and the sun shone down, hot hot hot. Eventually you came to a small clump of trees, and in the trees there were some rocks, and in the rocks there was a cave, and in the cave there was a lamp. It was a dirty-looking lamp so you gave it a rub with your sleeve.

Suddenly a puff of smoke came out of the lamp and a woman was standing there.

“Hi sweetheart,” said the woman. “My name’s Jeanie, and you just freed me from this magic lamp. So to show my gratitude, I’m going to grant you three wishes. Anything your heart desires, just wish for it.”

You thought about it for a moment and then made your wish.

“I wish I had a banana,” you said.

“Your wish is my command,” said Jeanie, and she waved her hand.

You looked around, but you couldn’t see a banana.

“What happened to my wish?” you asked.

“It came true,” said Jeanie.