Speaker 1: It was late afternoon, and the sky outside the window
Speaker 1: was turning pink. Ziggy, Lily, Sky, and Dash were all
Speaker 1: together in the living room building a little house with
Speaker 1: the sofa cushions one on top of another, then a
Speaker 1: blanket for a roof, and a flashlight inside to make
Speaker 1: it glow. This is our secret house, said Ziggy, hopping
Speaker 1: inside like a spring. Careful, it's going to fall, laughed Lily,
Speaker 1: tough as ever, pushing a cushion with her strong little hands, Sky,
Speaker 1: quiet as always, sat inside the little house and listened.
Speaker 1: She loved to stay silent and hear the sounds, the
Speaker 1: rustle of the blanket, the laughter of her friends, the
Speaker 1: soft patter of the light rain that had wet the
Speaker 1: windows a moment ago and was now stopping. Dash, quick
Speaker 1: as lightning, ran in and landed head first in a cushion. Ouch.
Speaker 1: But it's so soft, he said, laughing, and everyone laughed
Speaker 1: with him. And it was right at that moment that
Speaker 1: they heard a sound, a sound they knew very well, Chew, Chew.
Speaker 1: The four friends looked at each other with wide open eyes.
Speaker 1: They ran to the window and saw in the middle
Speaker 1: of the garden a little train sparkling with a thousand colors,
Speaker 1: its smoke smelling of sugar. It was Toby the magic Train. Hello,
Speaker 1: little friends, climb up, nice and slow on to my
Speaker 1: sweet little train. Away we go. We'll travel to a
Speaker 1: place that no one's ever seen, deep down in a
Speaker 1: sea that's warm and serene. Down in the deep, a
Speaker 1: little light went out. But with our hearts we'll fix
Speaker 1: it without a doubt. The children clapped their hands and
Speaker 1: climbed aboard. The little train whistled, spun around twice, and then,
Speaker 1: as if by magic, dove down, down, down into the water.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't a splashy kind of dive. It was
Speaker 1: a gentle dive, like sliding into a dream. And all
Speaker 1: around them the sea opened up. How wonderful the water
Speaker 1: was colored orange, pink, and purple, because above them the
Speaker 1: sun was setting and its colors were drifting all the
Speaker 1: way down. Silver little fish passed by like confetti, and
Speaker 1: ahead of them, far away, they could see a strange
Speaker 1: and beautiful house. It was made all of glass, shaped
Speaker 1: like a sh shell, with chimneys that puffed golden bubbles
Speaker 1: instead of smoke. But what is that place? Asked Ziggy,
Speaker 1: his eyes shining. No one answered, right away. Then from
Speaker 1: behind a tuft of seaweed, a tiny little head popped out.
Speaker 1: It was a sea horse with a little bag made
Speaker 1: of woven seaweed hanging from its neck. It was trembling
Speaker 1: just a bit. That that is the factory of glass dreams,
Speaker 1: it said, in a tiny voice. That's where the beautiful
Speaker 1: dreams are made. They knead them like sugar dough. They
Speaker 1: color them with the sunset, and they close them inside bubbles.
Speaker 1: Then the bubbles float up all the way to children's beds,
Speaker 1: and at night they make them dream of wonderful things.
Speaker 1: How lovely, whispered sky. The sea horse came closer, and
Speaker 1: the children smelled a lovely scent, like salt and fresh mint,
Speaker 1: like a candy from the sea. I am the postman's seahorse,
Speaker 1: it said, and I carry messages from one side of
Speaker 1: the sea to the other. But but now everything is broken,
Speaker 1: and it pointed to the sea bed with its little tail.
Speaker 1: The children looked. There was a path made of stones
Speaker 1: running from the factory out toward the open sea. But
Speaker 1: the stones were all gray, dull, dark. Though stones usually shine,
Speaker 1: the sea horse explained, trembling, they are the road the
Speaker 1: dreams travel to reach the children, but they've gone out,
Speaker 1: and without light, I'm afraid of the dark, and the
Speaker 1: dreams get lost along the way and don't reach anyone
Speaker 1: any more. A tiny tear rolled down its little face.
Speaker 1: Lily clenched her fists. Then we have to light them again.
Speaker 1: How do we do it? I don't know, said the
Speaker 1: sea horse. The stones light up with the light of
Speaker 1: the lantern fish, but the lantern fish have turned off
Speaker 1: their little lights, and I don't understand why. I don't
Speaker 1: speak their language very well. Dash tried to make a
Speaker 1: silly face at a fish swimming by. The fish gave
Speaker 1: him a funny look and swam away. Hum, that's not working,
Speaker 1: said Dash, scratching his head. Ziggy tried shouting loudly, hey, fish,
Speaker 1: turn on your lights, but in the water his voice
Speaker 1: only made bubbles, and no one understood him. Sky meanwhile
Speaker 1: said nothing. She had sat down on a smooth rock
Speaker 1: and watched. She just watched. She listened with her heart
Speaker 1: the way she always did, and little by little she
Speaker 1: began to understand. She saw, near a dark cave a
Speaker 1: big fish with a lantern on its head. The lantern
Speaker 1: was dark, the big fish had its face turned the
Speaker 1: other way, its long long snout drooping, and not far
Speaker 1: off behind a rock, she saw a tiny little fish,
Speaker 1: also with a lantern that was dark. It too had
Speaker 1: a sad little face and held a small piece of
Speaker 1: shell tight in its fins. Sky watched the little bubbles
Speaker 1: coming out of the little fish's mouth. They floated up,
Speaker 1: trembling like little sobs. The little fish glanced secretly at
Speaker 1: the big fish, then looked down. And then Sky understood.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about the dark, It was about the heart. Friends,
Speaker 1: She said gently, that is a family. There's the mommy
Speaker 1: fish far back there, the daddy fish near the cave,
Speaker 1: and the little one behind the rock. But the daddy
Speaker 1: and the little one had a fight, they said, crooked words.
Speaker 1: They turned their backs on each other. And when there
Speaker 1: is sadness in the heart, the little light won't shine
Speaker 1: any more. And how do you know, asked Lily. I
Speaker 1: felt it, said Sky, putting a hand on her chest.
Speaker 1: You just have to look closely and stay quiet. The
Speaker 1: postman seahorse came closer, trembling. Wait, wait, there's still a
Speaker 1: message in my little bag. One last message I could
Speaker 1: never deliver because the path was dark and I was
Speaker 1: too afraid. It opened the seaweed bag and pulled out
Speaker 1: a small sheet made from a thin leaf of the sea.
Speaker 1: On it there was a drawing. The little fish had
Speaker 1: drawn it. There was him and his daddy close together,
Speaker 1: and underneath, in wobbly letters two words. What does it say,
Speaker 1: asked Ziggy softly. Sky read it gently. It says I
Speaker 1: miss you. There was a silence. We have to take
Speaker 1: it to the daddy, Fish, said Sky. Seahorse. This this
Speaker 1: is your job. It's the most important message of all.
Speaker 1: The seahorse made itself very very small. But I'm scared.
Speaker 1: It's dark. What if I get lost? What if I
Speaker 1: make a mistake? Sky came close and gently touched its
Speaker 1: little head. You won't be alone. We're here. Look at me.
Speaker 1: I'm a little afraid of the dark, but when I
Speaker 1: do something kind, the fear becomes very very small. Try.
Speaker 1: Being brave doesn't mean having no fear. Being brave means
Speaker 1: doing it anyway with your heart. The seahorse looked at her.
Speaker 1: It took a breath, which under water has a little bubble.
Speaker 1: It took the message into its bag and it swam.
Speaker 1: It swam along the dark path, trembling, but never stopping,
Speaker 1: with Sky and her friends cheering it on. From afar.
Speaker 1: It reached the daddy fish, who still had his snout drooping.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, said the seahorse. I have a message for you.
Speaker 1: It's from your child. The daddy fish turned surprised. He
Speaker 1: took the leaf with his fins. He looked at it.
Speaker 1: He saw the drawing the two fish close together, and
Speaker 1: those two words, I miss you. And then the Daddyfish's
Speaker 1: eyes filled with water, which is hard to see under water,
Speaker 1: but the children saw it anyway, because some things you
Speaker 1: see with your heart. I miss you too, whispered the
Speaker 1: daddy fish. He turned toward the rock where the little
Speaker 1: fish was peeking out. He opened his fins, and the
Speaker 1: little fish darted to him and hugged him tight, and
Speaker 1: the daddy held him and said, I'm sorry. Crooked words
Speaker 1: mean nothing. You mean everything. And in that moment, as
Speaker 1: if by magic, the daddy's lantern lit up. Then the
Speaker 1: little ones lit up, and then far back the mommy
Speaker 1: fishes lit up too, as she came rushing to hold
Speaker 1: them close. A warm golden light, and that light touched
Speaker 1: the first stone on the path, and it lit up,
Speaker 1: and then the second, and the third, one after another,
Speaker 1: All the stones on the path began to shine again,
Speaker 1: like a necklace of stars on the bottom of the sea.
Speaker 1: The dreams, which had been stuck in the dark, set
Speaker 1: off again. The golden bubbles floated out of the factory
Speaker 1: and began to rise toward the surface, toward the beds
Speaker 1: of children all over the world. Sky had shiny eyes,
Speaker 1: but she was smiling. Ziggy Lily and Dash ran to
Speaker 1: her and hugged her. The postman sea horse, who wasn't
Speaker 1: trembling any more, did a happy twirl in the water.
Speaker 1: I did it, it said. I was scared, but I
Speaker 1: did it anyway. You were brave, said Sky, the bravest
Speaker 1: of all. Above them, among the colors of the sunset,
Speaker 1: they heard a familiar sound, chew, chew. It was Toby,
Speaker 1: the magic train, waiting for them. The children said good
Speaker 1: bye to the family of lantern fish, all hugging and glowing,
Speaker 1: and climbed aboard. Well done, little ones. What a special
Speaker 1: light borne from a heart that is gentle and bright.
Speaker 1: In a family we love each other. It's true, even
Speaker 1: if sometimes we squabble, we do Just one kind word
Speaker 1: spoken straight from the heart, and the darkness fades and
Speaker 1: falls apart. Now let's go home. Up high, we fly
Speaker 1: with a lovely dream, a soft lullaby. The train rose
Speaker 1: up among the golden bubbles and carried the children home
Speaker 1: to their little house of cushions. Just as the last
Speaker 1: ray of sun faded gently behind the hills. Sky snuggled up,
Speaker 1: tired and happy and smiled because she had understood something
Speaker 1: beautiful that sometimes to help someone you don't need shouted words.
Speaker 1: You just need to listen with your heart.