THE BOY AND THE STAR: A FAIRY TALE

Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived in the country in a very cold place. The little boy had very few other kids to play with so he spent a lot of time watching television to pass the time. His favorite thing to watch was football. He especially liked to watch his favorite team. Every Sunday he and his father would sit in front of their black and white TV and cheer on their team.

The team was very, very good. They won almost all of the games they played, and the best player on the team was the quarterback. He called all the plays and always seemed to be one step ahead of the other team. Though there were many good players on the team, there was no doubt he was the Star……a shining Star.

Yet the Star did not act like he felt he was important. He never bragged about how good he was. He always gave credit to everyone around him. For this he was much loved by everyone, especially the little boy, who thought of him as a hero. In fact the boy would imagine himself playing for the team, maybe even catching passes from the Star. It was an exciting thought, but alas, the boy knew it was just a fantasy, for he was very small in stature and not very athletic.

One night the boy had an incredible dream. In the dream he had grown up to be a man. He was still too small and still not athletic enough to play for his favorite team, but he had learned to do the next best thing….he dreamed he was a reporter covering the team! And sometimes he even got to be the announcer for the team! The Star was still on the team, except now he was the head coach. The boy got to meet the Star and talk to him after all the games and after practices during the week! The boy felt he shouldn’t let on how awestruck he was in the Star’s presence. He tried to stay calm and act in a professional manner, but inside he couldn’t believe all this was true.

The boy would find himself at all kinds of events with the Star outside of football games. They would talk about all kinds of things. They were actually………friends!!! The boy found the Star to be exactly the way he seemed to be, humble and kind and generous.

But in the dream the team was not the same. They did not win most all of their games. In fact they lost more games than they won. This made the fans of the team sad. Some of the fans were very angry and they blamed the Star. Newspapers wrote terrible things about him, many of which were out of context in an effort to mock him. The boy was afraid all of this adversity would change the Star and make him bitter and nasty. He watched as the Star kept his faith, kept picking himself up off the ground and keep trying. The Star never became mean and ugly. The boy learned much about courage, bravery and persistence. One day the team said they didn’t want the Star to be the coach any more. He said goodbye with courtesy and class and all the fans of the team loved him again…..

When the boy woke up from the dream he realized he must have been asleep for a very long time. The Star had grown old and gotten very sick and passed away. All the people were saying what a great man he was. They had gatherings to honor him. Because he was asleep for so long, the boy didn’t get to go to any of the gatherings to say goodbye to the Star. But he would never forget the dream. It seemed so real…..but it couldn’t be real, could it? Nobody would believe it.

The boy couldn’t even believe it himself.

The End