The Fantastical Adventures Of Tommy Teal, The Little Boy Whose Dreams Are Real.

Adventure One

Tommy’s Sixth Birthday

 

Tommy Teal was half awake and half asleep when he heard his mum calling to him, telling him it was time to get his sleepy head out of bed and come down for breakfast. He yawned and stretched and then remembered today was Saturday, but it wasn’t just any old Saturday for Tommy, because this Saturday was his sixth birthday.

He jumped out of bed in his stripy blue pyjamas and zoomed into the bathroom where he had the fastest wash in the history of washes. He brushed his teeth in just ten seconds flat and ran downstairs into the living room to see five parcels wrapped in birthday paper, three small ones and two big ones. And there was also one middle-size parcel that had been wrapped in plain brown paper and tied with string.

          ‘Wow, look at all these presents,’ he said, feeling very excited. ‘Which one shall I open first, Mum?’

          ‘This one,’ she said, passing him one of the small parcels. ‘And I hope you have a very happy birthday, Tommy.’

          Tommy tore off the wrapping to find his mum had bought him a “Harry Potter” watch. ‘Brilliant,’ he shouted. ‘And it comes with a magic wand, too.  Thanks, Mum, they’re great.’

          Within three minutes, Tommy had opened all but one of his presents and ended up with a train set from his uncle Jimmy, two jigsaw puzzles from his aunt Mable, a skateboard from his older cousin Peter, and from his gran and granddad, he had a brand new bicycle.

          ‘And what about this one?’ his mum said, pointing to the brown paper parcel.

          Tommy looked at it. ‘Who’s it from?’ he said.

          ‘Well,’ she said. ‘We won’t know that until you open it.’

          So Tommy picked up the parcel and pulled on the string to undo the knots and then un-wrapped the paper from around it. Inside he found a rather fat book and a note from the person who sent it to him. “Happy birthday, Tommy, from your uncle Henry” the note said.

          Tommy looked at his mum. ‘Who’s Uncle Henry?’

          ‘He’s my oldest brother, and he’s also your Godfather, but I haven’t seen or heard from him since just after you were born. He told me he was going away on a fantastical adventure and wouldn’t be back for some time.’

          ‘Really, my uncle Henry’s an adventurer?’

          ‘Yes he is, but I don’t know if he’s any good at it or not.’

          ‘Who cares if he’s any good at it?’ said Tommy. ‘He’s an adventurer, that’s what matters.’

‘Well hadn’t you better open the book and look inside?’ his mum said.

So he did. ‘Wow, look at all these great pictures. There’s a space rocket, a submarine, a dinosaur, and loads of other pictures, too!’

          ‘That’s great, Tommy, but do you know which picture I haven’t seen this morning?’

          Tommy scratched his head. ‘Er ... no,’ he said.

          ‘I haven’t seen the picture of you sitting at the table eating your breakfast. Now go on, your cornflakes are getting soggy.’

          ‘But I love soggy cornflakes,’ said Tommy.

          ‘Yes, I know you do, and those are the soggiest cornflakes I have ever seen. So go and eat them and then get dressed, before I make you tidy up all this wrapping paper, too.’

          Tommy looked at the mess he’d made; it was all around him, and it would take ages to clean up. ‘Deal,’ he said, and then dashed into the kitchen.

         

After breakfast, Tommy got dressed and played with all his birthday presents. He put the train set together in his bedroom and played Stationmaster for a while. Then his mum helped him do one of the jigsaw puzzles, and before it got dark outside, he played in the garden on his bike and skateboard. And to keep away any nasty goblins or trolls, he swished spells with his wand and made sure he didn’t miss tea-time by checking his “Harry Potter” watch every two minutes. He’d forgotten about the picture book his uncle Henry had sent him, but it was there, in his bedroom, sitting on a chair beside his bed, just waiting for him to come and open it.

 

That night, after Tommy had tea, he went upstairs for a hot bath and put on some clean stripy blue pyjamas before he climbed into bed and let his mum tuck him in.

          ‘Did you have a wonderful birthday, Tommy?’ she said.

          Tommy reached over and picked up the picture book. ‘Yes, Mum, but do you know what the best bit was?’

          ‘No, Tommy. What was the best bit?’

‘Finding out that I have an uncle who’s an adventurer, that was the best bit.’

          His mum smiled and looked at the book. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘You can have the lamp on for ten minutes to look through it. But then you have to go to sleep, okay?’

          ‘Okay, Mum,’ said Tommy. ‘Goodnight.’

          ‘Goodnight,’ she said back, and then closed his bedroom door.

When Tommy opened the cover of the book the note from his uncle fell out. He picked it up and read it one more time.

‘“Happy birthday, Tommy, from your uncle Henry”.’

Then something really strange happened; Tommy began to see different words appear on the note and watched as they disappeared again just as quickly. He turned it over to check the other side but there wasn’t anything written there. And when he turned it back again the moonlight coming through his window shone on the note and the new words appeared once more. Tommy reached over to turn off his lamp, he climbed out of bed to go to the window and held out the note so he could read it, but it no longer said, “Happy birthday, Tommy, from your uncle Henry” because now it said,

 

You’ll discover this book holds more than it seems

It’s a place where wishes come true

So close your eyes and think of your dreams

For they are here just waiting for you

 

Tommy opened his bedroom door and ran along the landing. ‘Mum, Mum,’ he shouted. ‘Come and look at this.’

          Tommy had never seen his mum move so fast, she ran up the stairs like an angry elephant was chasing her.

‘What, what is it?’ she said.

          Tommy ran straight back to his bedroom to hold the note in the moonlight. ‘Look,’ he said. ‘It’s changed.’

          ‘What’s changed?’

          ‘The note, the words are different now.’

          His mum looked at it and read the words out loud. ‘“Happy birthday, Tommy, from your uncle Henry”.’

          ‘What?’ he said. ‘Read it again, Mum, read it again.’

          Tommy’s mum looked at him. ‘I think you’ve had a very long and tiring day, Tommy,’ she said. ‘And now it’s time to get to bed and go to sleep.’

          Tommy checked the note to find the poem was still there, but his mum just couldn’t see it.

‘But ... but.’

          ‘No buts, young man, it’s bedtime.’

          ‘But, Mu-u-um.’

          ‘I said no buts.’

          Tommy sighed. ‘Okay,’ he said.

          His mum put the picture book back on the chair and placed the note on top of it, and then once again tucked Tommy in and kissed him goodnight.

‘Now you go straight to sleep,’ she said, and closed his bedroom door.

          Tommy didn’t think he’d be able to sleep after seeing what happened to his Uncle Henry’s note. And he couldn’t understand why his mum didn’t see how the words had changed. At first he thought he was going crazy, or maybe she was right when she said he’d had a long day and was tired. But then he realised something else, he realised that grown-ups can’t see magic because they don’t believe it’s real. Only those who believe in magic can see it. So he picked up the book and the note and read it one more time:

 

You’ll discover this book holds more than it seems

It’s a place where wishes come true

So close your eyes and think of your dreams

For they are here just waiting for you

 

He opened the first page of the book to find a picture of a small submarine in the brightest green he’d ever seen, but that wasn’t all he saw. Tommy rubbed his eyes and looked again to see the submarine bobbing up and down on the water, and he felt sure he could smell the seaside and strawberry ice cream and candyfloss. And then two seagulls flew across the page, yakking to each other. “Keeyah-keeyah-keeyah” they squawked.

          Tommy turned to the next page to see a space rocket lifting off, and the loud roar of its engines almost shook him out of bed. The next page he turned had dinosaurs running through trees, and the next had dozens of colourful hot-air balloons being blown along on the wind, and he even felt the wind blowing through his hair. He thought this book just had to be the best birthday present he ever had, except for the one he got from his mum of course, hers was just as good.   

          He read his uncle’s poem one more time, and then said, ‘Okay, because I just can’t wait to see what happens next, I’m going to lie down and close my eyes and think about the picture of that bright-green submarine.’

So he closed the book and closed his eyes and laid his head on his pillow, and then, as he thought about the picture, he drifted off to sleep.

Hardly a moment later, Tommy found himself spinning through a twirling tunnel of bright flashing colours. Down and down he went, twisting this way and that until all of a sudden he was there, standing in his stripy blue pyjamas right beside a bright-green submarine. And next to the submarine he saw a man with a white beard and the word “Captain” written across his hat. The man was taking boxes on board the submarine.

          ‘Hello, young man,’ said the captain. ‘Would you like to help me get my supplies into my submarine? I’m running a little late and I must set off before the tide goes out.’

          Tommy nodded. ‘Yes, of course I’ll help you,’ he said.

Tommy had never been on a submarine before, so he picked up a small box with “Pepper” written on the side and carried it into the submarine. It wasn’t a huge submarine, just big enough for two people, but it was everything he dreamed a submarine would look like on the inside. There were lots of dials and switches and levers that made it go up and down and forward and backward through the water, and it had a big glass window for watching all the colourful fish as they swam by.

          ‘Thanks for your help, young man,’ said the captain. ‘Say, would you like to join me? I’m going to look for the big Blue Whale today; it’s actually the biggest animal that ever lived.’

          Tommy just couldn’t believe his luck. ‘Yes please,’ he said. ‘I’d like that very much.’

          ‘Okay then, let’s get strapped in,’ said the captain as he showed Tommy to a seat that faced the big window. He made sure Tommy was fastened in good and safe before he closed the submarine’s door and sat next to him ready to set off.

          Tommy saw a tube sticking out from the front of the submarine. ‘What’s that for?’ he said.

          ‘I use that to feed the fish,’ said the captain. ‘It makes them come closer to the window so I can get a good look at them. I put food in this side and press that red button so it shoots down the tube and out the other side. Now then, shall we get going, Matey?’

          ‘Aye-aye, Captain,’ replied Tommy.

The captain turned some dials, pulled some levers, pushed some knobs, and then the submarine slowly began to sink into the deep blue sea with hardly any noise at all. Tommy looked out of the window to see fish of every kind. He saw fat fish, thin fish, stripy fish, red fish, yellow fish, and orange fish, and even some fish that could change into any colour they wanted. He was amazed at just how many different kinds of fish lived in the sea. Even an octopus swam by and waved all its eight arms at him. So Tommy waved back to the octopus, eight times.

          ‘Will we really see a big Blue Whale, Captain?’ said Tommy.

          ‘Oh yes,’ said the captain. ‘I know a place where a huge one likes to swim around. And we’ll be there in just a few minutes.’

Tommy and the captain watched the wonderful undersea world pass them by until they arrived at the spot where the big Blue Whale likes to swim. When they got there, the captain turned off the engine so they could wait in silence until the whale came along. A minute later they saw a dark shadow appear far away in the distance. And the closer the shadow got to them, the bigger it became. And then it was there, right in front of the window.

          ‘Wow,’ said Tommy. ‘It’s bigger than a bus, and it’s humming.’

          ‘It’s not humming,’ said the captain. ‘It’s singing. That’s how whales talk to each other.’

Just then the big Blue Whale opened its gigantic mouth and gave a huge yawn which made the little submarine rumble and shake, and when the whale closed his mouth again, the submarine had been sucked inside.

          ‘Oh my,’ said the captain. ‘How will we ever get out of this?’

The big Blue Whale had no idea he’d swallowed the tiny submarine, so he just carried on swimming and singing, and because they were now inside the whale, the singing sounded much, much louder.

          Tommy covered his ears. ‘Wow,’ he shouted. ‘If we don’t get out of here soon, Captain, we’ll both go deaf.’

‘I know,’ the captain shouted back. ‘But what can we do?’

Tommy scratched his head and thought for a moment. Then he unfastened his seatbelt and went to the back of the submarine where he picked up the small box he carried inside earlier.

          The captain looked at him. ‘What are you doing with that?’ he said.

          ‘Trust me,’ said Tommy. ‘I have an idea. And if it works it will get us out of the whale’s mouth.’

Tommy opened the box and took the lid off one pepper pot and poured it into the feeding tube on the inside of the submarine. Then he fastened himself back in his seat and told the captain to press the red button.

          ‘But Blue Whales don’t like pepper,’ he shouted.

          ‘That’s what I’m counting on,’ said Tommy. ‘Just press the button, Captain, and then we’ll get out of here.’

The captain gave Tommy a funny look. ‘Well I hope you know what you’re doing, young man,’ he said, and then pressed the red button.

The pepper shot out of the tube and into the whale’s mouth, but some of it went inside the hole the whale breathed through, and that’s when the singing stopped and a different noise started.

          ‘AHH-AHHHHH-AHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOO!’ went the whale, and the bright-green submarine shot from his mouth and back into the deep blue sea.

          ‘Well done, young man,’ shouted the captain. ‘You’ve saved us.’

          ‘Well,’ said Tommy, ‘whenever I sniff the pepper pot at home, I always sneeze, so I guess it works on big Blue Whales, too.’ And he and the captain laughed and laughed.

Just then, Tommy heard his mum calling to him, telling him it was time to get his sleepy head out of bed and come down for breakfast. So Tommy thanked the captain for allowing him to ride in his bright-green submarine and waved and said goodbye to him.

After he closed his eyes, Tommy slipped back into the twirling tunnel with its bright flashing colours, and, before he knew it, he was lying on his bed in his stripy blue pyjamas.

‘Wow,’ he said. ‘That book really is magical. And now I can’t wait to go to bed again tonight.’

          After a yawn and a stretch he sat up and got out of bed and went over to his window, and that’s when he noticed something in his hand. He opened his fingers and found the empty pepper pot from the captain’s submarine.

Tommy smiled and placed the pepper pot on his windowsill and said, ‘This is going to be the place where I will keep all my memories, from all my adventures.’