by Phantiq
Jaime was peeved at this, “ With all the money in the world and beautiful toys this boy is more of a prisoner than I ever was”.
Feeling a bit depressed and lonely he went up to his room and lay down on the bed. He wished his parents were there with him; he missed his dog Roger and his own bed.
“Being a Prince is not all its made out to be” he thought to himself as he fell asleep.
The next morning he woke up in his own bed, he had never been so glad to see his room before with his familiar toys and the sounds of his parents talking downstairs.
He jumped out of bed, got dressed and ran down the stairs. Roger his dog was waiting for him at the foot of the stairs wagging his tail; Jaime hugged him in relief and then ran into the kitchen.
He saw his Mother making breakfast and gave her a big hug from behind.
She turned around in surprise but laughed and hugged him back
“Hi, would you like some breakfast?” she asked as she flipped pancakes.
“No thanks” he responded as he ran out the back door and into the yard. The birds were singing, the lake glistening and the sky so blue.
“Its good to be home” He said as he spun around in boundless joy.
Gold Fish.
One Afternoon Jaime was playing in the lake with his friend Alex. They were splashing around and having fun when Alex said, “ I just got a Goldfish as a pet”.
“That’s nice,” Jaime, responded, “Can I see it?” He asked.
“Sure, we can go and have a look at it now” Alex replied.
Quickly getting dressed they went to Alex’s house to look at the new pet. It was swimming gracefully round the fish bowl and looked so peaceful, they admired it for a little while then Jaime went home.
That night he thought about the Gold fish and whispered the magical words “ I wish I were a Gold fish”.
In a flash he was asleep and woke up, changed into the object of his desire. He swam round and wondered where he was. He seemed to be in a kind of pet shop.
“Can we get a squirrel” He heard a boy say behind him. He turned his little fish head and saw a boy come into the shop with a Young Woman.
“ We would see Dear” The Woman replied. The shopkeeper an elderly Man welcomed them by saying
“Good morning, may I help you?”
“ Yes, we need a pet” the woman responded.
“ We have a selection of pets from parrots to squirrels” he responded and showed them his pets.
The boy and his mother looked at the various pets they walked past where Jaime was swimming in his fish bowl and they boy asked, “What about the Gold fish?”
“How much is the gold fish?” The woman asked
The shopkeeper seemed surprised to see a gold fish there and responded
” Just three Dollars”
The woman looked crestfallen at the amount and the man glanced at the fish again and continued
”But its half price today”
She smiled in relief and the transaction was completed. The son and mother left the shop and walked home.
“ Pa, I have a pet,” he yelled happily once he was inside the small cottage.
A Big Man looked up from the newspaper that he was reading
“ Ha, he is a big one” He exclaimed admiring the Goldfish.
“ Quickly now lets get him a bowl,” The mother said. She got a big jar and filled it with some water from a pail.
Jaime was put in the jar; he swam round the jar and stared at the small family. The cottage seemed small and sparsely furnished but it was clean.
The mother prepared the meal for the family with loving care and as they sat down to dinner they said grace. After dinner the boy helped his mother with the dishes and went to his room.
“ Were you able to get some work in the mill today?” the Woman inquired of the man.
“They didn’t have any vacancies” he replied in despair.
“ I don’t know how we would make our mortgage payments this month” He continued, he sounded so worried and the woman held his hand in comfort.
“They seemed like a lovely family,” Jaime thought to himself he wished that he could do something to help them out.
“ I am sure you would get some carpentry work soon” his wife said and they both stood up and went to bed.
Jaime watched them go and quite tired from the day’s adventure he dozed off.
The next morning Jaime woke up and he was a bit sad when he thought about the family in the little cottage by the lake. He wondered how he could help them out but didn’t know how.
He decided to tell his mother about the family and see if she had any ideas, after describing the boy and his parents his mother said,
“ Oh you must be talking about the Johnson’s”.
Apparently the Johnsons had always lived by the lake and were known in the county as kind and caring people.
“ I am sad to hear they have fallen on hard times,” She continued.
“How did you hear about their problems?” She asked curiously.
“I kind of know their son” Jaime replied though he hated lying to his Parents it just erred on this side of the truth.
“I wonder how we can help them out?” His Mother said.
That night mom discussed the situation with his Dad and he was surprised that the Johnson was in such a bad way.
“I would see what can be done” he reassured his wife.
The Stanley’s, as Jaime’s parents were known were an average hard working family; his father worked in the construction company, as the foreman and his mother worked in a greenhouse.
Mr. Stanley made some enquiries at his job and found out that there were in need of a good carpenter.
Mr. Johnson was quickly notified and offered the job, which he accepted.
The Johnson’s were able to pay their bills and when school started Jaime noticed that the Boy from the cottage was in his class.
At recess Jaime walked over to the young boy and introduced himself
“ Hi, am Jaime” Jaime said and smiled at the boy.
“I am Sam” Sam responded.
“Nice to meet you Sam, I think we are going to be good friends” Jaime said with a secret smile.
Explorer.
The rain was coming down hard and Jaime wished it would stop.
It had been raining all day and he was bored. He wanted to go out and play catch with his Dog Roger but he couldn’t.
He decided to play with his coloring books instead and while he was coloring the scene of a Jungle, he wondered how it would feel to live in the wilds of Africa.
“I wish I were an explorer,” He said whimsically and he must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew he woke up in a different place.
‘Another adventure” he thought as he quickly rolled over and stood up and walked around a tent- like enclosure. He peeped out of the opening and saw that he was in the desert.
“Andrew, good you are up” a woman said and approached him.
She was dressed in brown khakis with a baseball cap on her head.
She gave him a hug and grabbing his hand led him down up a sand dune hill.
They walked in the warm sand for about ten minutes before he saw a huge pyramid and a small crowd of people was working around it.
‘Wow,’ he thought ‘ A pyramid’
“Stop standing around” She said “Pick up your shovels we have to find the pharaoh’s tomb before tomorrow else, we would lose our grants for this dig”
He heard the woman say to the workers and they responded by digging, shoveling and picking up the work pace.
This is the best adventure ever, he thought to himself as he walked around the huge structure.
There were various artifacts displayed on the floor protected by plastic wrappings.
He saw broken clay pots and dishes and figurines. He was tempted to touch them but they looked so delicate that he resisted the temptation.
He wandered into an opening in the pyramid where some men where working and saw drawings on the wall, they looked so old he thought as he wandered further down into the amazing structure.
He must have drifted off into another section of the pyramid because suddenly the ground gave way beneath him and he fell into a dark room.
He stood up and patting his body for any broken bones he checked if he was hurt but luckily he was fine, so he brushed off the dust and then looked around the poorly lit enclosure that he had fallen into.
It seemed like a basement of some sort it had shelves built into the wall, and old wooden boxes were laid out on the shelves.
He walked over to the boxes and dusted off boxes they had some sort of inscriptions drawn on them. They were oddly shaped geometric patterns and designs.
As he gazed at these new discoveries he heard someone calling out
“Andrew, where are you?”
Then someone shone a light into the room where he was and exclaimed
” Good, you’re here”.
He recognized the voice of that of the woman from earlier on and replied,
“ Look, I have found something “
“What” She asked as she shone the torchlight around the room.
She saw the boxes and exclaimed,” You found it”
“Quickly bring a ladder,” She told someone standing behind her.
Jaime heard a bit of a commotion then a ladder was dropped and the woman climbed down into the room.
Soon the room was filled with people carefully touching the boxes and exclaiming at the various inscriptions drawn on them.
“ This is the pharaoh tomb” The woman said hugging him in excitement, “ We have been searching for it for two years now”.
Jaime smiled and watched her carefully document the discovery, by this time he was getting tired and decided to take a nap.
He sat down on a crate that someone had brought into the tomb and must have fallen asleep because he woke up sprawled over his drawing book.
The following week his dad was watching the evening news and there was a segment on the new discovery by the famous archaeologist Dr. Sarah Fleming, who had just found the tomb of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.
The woman was describing how her son Andrew had stumbled on the tomb and the significance of the discovery. It was the woman from his adventure, Jaime realized, her son Andrew, looked surprised at all the attention he was getting.
“He doesn’t remember discovering the tomb” Jaime realized and smiled at his African adventure.
Jaime had gone on so many adventures that year and looked forward to having some more in the years to come.
“Where would I go to next?” He said out loud as he lay in bed that night.
“Wherever it would be I am sure it would be magical,” He whispered just as a shooting star flew outside his window.
