Little Boy, The

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once upon a time
once upon a time there was a little boy.
A little boy who knew many many things.
This little boy knew how to make pie and cake.
He knew how to make birdhouses and treehouses. He could catch
mice
with his bare hands and tame wild horses with his smile. This
little boy spent all his days running wild in the
country. He would spend hours watching the little
ants make their homes. They would sleep all winter
and then, when the tempature was just right they would
wake up and go to work. The boy would watch them form
straight little lines to move dirt and twigs. He
would gape and wonder at how they would climb trees in
search of food.
.:.
The little boy loved silence. But even silence is
not. He would sit for hours and listen to the trees
talk to each other in the wind. And if he listened
really really carefully, he could even hear the angels
telling the grass to grow.
.:.
There was only one thing that the boy loved more than
anything else. It was at night when he crawled into
his daddy's lap and fell asleep.
.:.
Once upon a time
Once upon a time there was a little boy who knew
everything. He knew how birds used their wings to
float on pockets of air. He knew how fish swam
andfrogs made ribbit sounds. But most of all, the
little boy knew the secret to life.
.:.
"What is the secret of life little boy?" Someone
would ask. The little boy would look at the person
and smile and smile.
"Isn't this nice?" The boy's answer would be. That
was all he ever said before running off to watch the
hummingbirds eat. "Isn't this nice?"
No one ever got an answer to their question when they
asked the little boy who knew everything. It was
always...
"Isn't this nice?"
.:.
"Time is a sneaky cat who is behind you, waiting to
pounce." Said a wise old man once. And true, so
true. Time followed the little boy and made him
become a big boy and a bigger boy until the boy was no
longer a boy but a man. A successful man. An
educated man.
.:.
One day the man who had been the boy who know
everything met a woman who had been the girl who knew
everything and he fell in love. He acted like time
and followed the woman like a sneaky cat, but when he
pounced it was to get a phone number. The phone
number turned into an address. And the address turned
into a romance. And the romance turned into a
marriage.
.:.
Once upon a time
Once upon a time there was a man who had been the
little boy who knew everything. The man lived in a
big house with a wife and son of his own. And the man
worked in a big building and told lots of other men
how to do things that would help even more men to
live.
"What's the secret to life?" Again someone asked the
man who had been the boy who knew everything.
"Being ready for anything is the secret to life!"
Said the man who had been the boy who knew everything.
"Being ready! ... For everything!"
.:.
And he was. The man who had been the boy who knew
everything was prepared for everything. But this was
not easy, and the man spent time getting ready. Every
day he found more things to get ready for and he spent
more time getting his wife ready and his child ready
and his friends ready and his workers ready and his
company ready and ... and ... and one day he came home
and found his wife crying. What do you think the man
who had been the boy who knew everything did? He got
mad!
.:.
"You are crying because you weren't ready for what
happened! Now stop! If you had been ready this
wouldn't have happend. Now what is it?" He demanded.
.:.
"I'm dying."
.:.
"No you're not. I'm not ready for that!" The man
stomped back to his big building where he told his men
how to do things that would help even more men live
life. The man began to help even more people get
ready for everything. In fact he began helping sooo
many people that he forgot about his wife and his
child and thought only of those people who needed to
be taught how to be ready for everything.
.:.
Until one day
.:.
"Your father is dying. Come home!"
.:.
The man who had once been the little boy who knew
everything crawled into the bed where his father lay
dying and curled up next to the feeble old man and
held him close.
"Where is your wife?" asked the father.
"I don't know." replied the son.
"Why not?" asked the father.
"I forgot her." replied the son.
"Oh."
"Please don't die! I'm not ready for this. Please
please don't die!" cried the son.
"Shh. It'll be ok. Now be quiet and listen." said
the father.
.:.
So they did. They listened so hard that they could
hear the trees talking in the wind. And the angels
telling the grass how to grow. And the ants preparing
to sleep in the winter. And the father's heart
beginning to slow down.
.:.
"Isn't this nice?" asked the father.
"Yes." replied the son.
.:.
The funeral was long and sad and everyone cried for
the father of the man who had once been the little boy
who knew everything was loved and respected and many
people were sad to see him leave.
"Goodbye, we loved you." They all said.
.:.
Once upon a time
Once upon a time there was a man who had been the boy
who knew everything. And the boy had even known the
secret to life but the man had forgotten. So one day
the man went to his home and picked up his son and
turned off the tv and held his son close to him and
said.
"Just listen."
.:.
So they did. They listened so hard that they could
hear the trees talking in the wind and the angels
telling the gras how to grow and the ants waking up
from their winter sleep. And then they could hear
their hearts beating so close together as they held
each other.
"Isn't this nice?" asked the father.
"Yes." replied the son.
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