Donald Finding Johnny

The Boy Who Discovered Himself And Then His World
1. Auflage 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4835-1014-9
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 290 Seiten

To know your true potential you must first find and understand yourself. A once shy and reticent Johnny found himself with the help of a boy from his nightly dreams with whom he shared many dream adventures. Initially Johnny did not suspect his dream buddy was himself or his alter ego as he aspired to be. After he found himself and his true potential, his real life had significant meaning punctuated with dangerous adventures most kids only dream about.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Donald, Peter

Leseproben

Chapter Two Johnny felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing. Suddenly, all around him and yet seemingly very far away, he saw bright red, blue and green lights coming closer to him. He moved away just as fast as the lights came toward him. This is not the place he wished to go. He was scared. Falling, falling, falling he closed his eyes wishing it to end. He opened them and still felt and heard nothing. He closed them so tightly warm tears ran down his cheeks. He kept them closed and dared not move. It was perfectly still and quiet. His only sensation was his pounding heart. Then he felt a cool draft on his face, heard the shrill chirping of birds and smelled sweet flowers. He opened his eyes and found himself sitting in the middle of a dirt road. About twenty yards in front of him was a signpost with three crudely painted small signs, each pointing in a different direction toward narrow roads merging from the road he sat on, one to the left, one to the right and the third straight ahead. The sign pointing to the left read “JERICHO”. The sign pointing to the right read “GOLAN”. The sign pointing straight ahead read “BETHEL”. He started walking along the road to the left, but before he took more than ten steps he came to another sign: “WELCOME TO JERICHO”. Still looking at the sign, Johnny heard a voice, “ I have been waiting for you, Johnny. If you possess the ability and knowledge to enter Jericho you will then be welcomed and may discern, learn and find your way to Elysium.” Twenty feet ahead of Johnny on the road was a man who had spoken with a high squeaky voice. He was no taller than Johnny, was dressed in red, blue and green coveralls and had the head of a Pekinese dog. “My advice for you,” continued the greeting person, “is to be accompanied by one who knows all about you and the questions you have. Anticipating your arrival I have found that person. Come meet your guide. You and he will agree on his name as long as he is your guide. If you do not agree on a name, he shall remain nameless. But before you meet him, I should tell you some things you might wish to know about him. Where you see night he may see day. When you feel sad he may feel happy. When you are lost he may be found. When you are negative he may be positive. When you have difficulty talking to people he may not. Now where is that guide? He has work to do. Johnny, please close your eyes, a ritual must be followed, call your guide to come out and show himself. He certainly will not show himself unless you want to see him and the ritual is respected.” Nothing to lose and thinking this could be fun, Johnny did as he was told and called out, “My guide come out and meet me”. For no good reason Johnny counted to ten then opened his eyes and in front of him stood his guide. Johnny had expected his guide to look like a guide, even though he didn’t know what guides should look like. Instead, his guide was just a kid like himself, about the same age, height and size. But he certainly was different, wearing neat white pleaded pants, a puffy blue silk shirt, a bright red bandana around his neck and a gold earring in his left ear. What really hit Johnny more than anything was the gold earring in his left ear lobe. Johnny would never get his ear pierced and wear a gold earring. His dad would have a fit, if he ever noticed. He didn’t know if he should shake this strange kid’s hand or just say hi, or hello or hey. He sort of mumbled without shaking his hand, “ I guess you and I are going to see a lot of each other for a while. What do I call you? ” There was certainly no hesitation on the guide’s part. “ Hey, I’m just your guide. You call me anything you want, so let’s just get on with it. ” “But what if I don’t want to get on with it?” Johnny didn’t know why he just asked such a silly question that didn’t deserve an answer and thought he really did need the help of this guide kid and, even though he dressed like a crazy kid, he did look a little cool. Johnny was happy the kid seemed to ignore his question, so asked another one, “Have you been to any of these places before?” “Now that’s a stupid question. I will only guide you in what you might do and say. That doesn’t mean I’ve been to places you haven’t. Let’s get going and get this over with.” “Before you enter Jericho”, said the greeter guy “ I shall give you both two important things to remember. Learn and abide by the rules of Jericho or you will not remain welcomed and you could be asked to leave. Johnny, if you and your guide ever agree on a significant matter, and I do mean significant, your guide will be gone from your life forever.” “But what are the rules of Jericho?” “Although I know not the rules, I can only tell you that there are many of them and they are important to the inhabitants of Jericho.” “About this other thing, you know losing my guide forever, what’s a significant matter”? “Only you will know the answer to that question.” “Why are three cities? Why not just one big city?” “I can tell you,” answered the greeter guy, “many years ago, before memory, there was only one city, but three powerful men related by a distant common forefather, each thought his rules for governing the city were best. Since the city could only have one leader, two of the men moved away and founded their own cities. The third remained in the old city as its leader. Even to this day the enmity they then shared remains. If you value your life, when in any city never be seen to favor the rules of another city. Battles between cities continue to be raged. Many have died in battle.” “What I really want to know is what’s in Elysium? Do you know what’s in Elysium?” “Beauty, truth and love await all in Elysium.” “I thought all the stuff I like was there, like good books and dogs and other neat stuff.” “There are no tangible things in Elysium, only that which benefits the spirit.” “And how do you know that? Did you read it or talk to people from there?” “Neither. It must be true because it has been known for many generations.” Johnny soon saw the city of Jericho, which was nothing like he would have imagined even if he had tried, which he hadn’t. The road was higher than the city and he was looking down on it. Jericho looked like a big square box with a stone wall surrounding it. All the houses were small, square and the same size, in neat rows. The houses had identical drab grey flat roofs. He had not forgotten the advice of the greeter guy to ask about the rules. What could they be? “Hey, guide guy are you coming?” “Oh please don’t call me that. Give me a real name.” “Why don’t I just call you John? That’s my real or given name. ” “That’s confusing. John is another name for Johnny, but if that’s what you want, John is my name. Let me ask you a question. Why are we going into Jericho? ” Johnny thought if he could answer that question, he might know himself. He answered, “I think we should try to find a place called Elysium because it sounds real neat and there could be an Elysium guru in Jericho to tell us what train to take to get there.” “Not good enough. Just because a place is neat doesn’t mean we should visit it. Come on Johnny, I know you think this Elysium place will give you answers to your questions. Right?” Johnny didn’t know how John knew this but answered, “Okay, so you’re right. So what?” “Nothing, just as long as I know.” As soon as they started walking again they came to the eight-foot high stone wall seen from the road. Some kind of creatures, for it would be wrong to say they were people, were sitting on the top of the wall. There were about twenty of them. Johnny stopped and stared at probably the most grotesque things he’d ever seen. He thought they might be gargoyles he had read about and seen pictures of in the library. Gargoyles are made of stone and are not alive, but these things were moving. They were about three feet tall with necks like big snakes, long bony arms and wings like eagles. Some of them were exhaling smoke and fire. The largest and most ferocious one standing in the middle of the pack extended his large wings and with fire coming from his lion like mouth growled in a deep voice, “Do not come closer. Identify yourselves. Only those with proper identification, good intentions and friends of the residents of Jericho may enter. I know from your immense size you could be enemy warriors. If you be not friends with proper identification you both will be devoured, for it is that time of year when an offering must be made.” Before Johnny could think of something to say, John spoke up, “We’re John and Johnny with good intentions, not enemies, but friends. We’re sorry we carry no identification. We only seek information from someone in Jericho.” Johnny thought this guy John was good and was glad to have him as his guide. “I am Gargouille the leader of the protectors and do accept you are not enemies of Jericho and come with good intentions since you only seek information, bear no weapons and appear incapable of ferocity, despite your great size. However, without proper identification we are instructed not to allow entry. You...