Letters From the Future
It is August 21st, 2055; I’m still alive, keeping quite well and pretty healthy, given our circumstances.
I fucked up. I fucked up big. I was too greedy and too obsessed with having power, respect, admiration and money. I should have listened to the experts and people who were much more in sync with nature than I ever was, but I didn’t.
I know that pondering upon the past won’t bring the Old World back to what it was. But if by any chance this letter is going to travel back to 1990, as they say it will, please sit down, read it carefully and take notice of the story I’m about to tell you.
**MY CLEVERNESS**
I was educated in the most prestigious schools of my time. However, my expensive education didn’t help me develop abstractive and creative thinking and using imagination to solve problems. Nevertheless, when the time was right, I became the Prime Minister.
As a PM, I was a strong advocate of the power of mind and progress at all costs, regardless of the consequences on the human, emotional or environmental level.
It was never a secret that I took minimal notice of the dangers associated with climate change. In fact, I never acknowledged that climate change was a “real thing”. I always believed that life goes in cycles, and if Earth was running out of some natural resources, it was because we were nearing a turn and Earth would soon enough bounce back to provide people with more resources, or people would find some alternative to what was naturally drying out.
The government I created was careless, corrupt, and full of anger and hatred toward anyone who opposed us or disagreed with our way of thinking.
**OUR COUNTRY COMES FIRST**
Our political stance was always pretty straightforward, based on two main principles: bringing in the money and giving businesses opportunities to reach new financial heights. I believed that we had created heaven on Earth, making all the other nations envious of our social and corporate achievements. Together with my cabinet, we designed tax avoidance schemes to attract big, powerful corporations, while pushing smaller entities out.
We cut every government expense we could and sold everything that could be sold, including arts, parks, and green spaces, into private hands. We wanted to reduce responsibilities and spending, and that was always our political plan. I convinced myself that I was a minimalistic PM. In reality, I was willing to cash in on anything I could.
My primary objective as a PM was to bring in more business, regardless of the costs future generations would pay.
I was proud that so many thousands of people wanted to become part of our ever-growing, ever-evolving society. Any social group that didn’t want to conform to our way of living was heavily marginalised. My dream was to create a perfect society. Together with my government, I worked hard to price unworthy elements out, everyone who wasn’t on our desired list. We began in the capital before implementing that strategy in other parts of the country. Soon enough, our capital city was thriving with the financial and corporate sector, movie stars, property developers, but not artists, middle-income people, or anyone from poorer backgrounds, or from the working class. We couldn’t care less for people who had to travel for hours to get to work from outside of our magnificent city. We didn’t care that they had no family time. We didn’t care that family as an institution was nearly destroyed when we were in power. Besides, I always believed a family was a distraction, and since I didn’t have time for mine, I expected others to do without theirs, too. I was trying to make meaningful and significant changes to our world, and that was my priority.
Of course, I saw the red flags in our internal and international policies, including those of our environmental agency: heat waves, prolonged winters, lack of rain, and extreme weather. It was all happening in front of my very eyes. Together with my government and climate change deniers, we worked hard to convince the general public that all the global warming and climate change worries were merely unreal and the extreme weather conditions were just a phase. At some point, most of us even started to believe our lies. I laughed at the “hippy communities” that were trying to fight my decisions off or live according to the old-fashioned laws of farming, planning or living off the grid. I honestly believed that I was too sophisticated for that kind of backwards thinking. But it turned out that I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Back in 2016, the Organisation (made up of the greenies, hippies, hackers and other outcasts that were undesired in my perfect society) started releasing damaging information about our business, political and social dealings, including illegal water pollution and massive deforestation. I honestly thought that nobody cared what the Organisation had to say, and I dismissed them as soon as they appeared on our political scene.
However, the Organisation grew in strength and began to affect specific groups of people. For some reason, the people behind the Organization didn’t want to put profit before people. They had a purpose they believed in, something I never had myself. Soon enough, the Organisation became a massive problem for the people in both the political and business spheres. But I still dismissed the whole movement as a hysterical outcry for attention.
When I finally woke up, the planet was divided into the Old World, governed by the New World, and us, backed by the Organisation. Even then, I still didn’t want to listen to any advice from people who knew better. At the end of the day, I was the leader, and leaders always know better.
**WHAT HAPPENED**
Even though the weather decline was becoming quite obvious, none of the “serious” politicians was taking the issue seriously. Opposite to the Organization that became known at first as a movement against human trafficking, but was quickly transformed into a movement towards total political change.
It didn’t take the Organisation long to divide Earth into two worlds. Our decline was their triumph. Millions of people joined the New World, but also many millions stayed behind in the Old World, believing that we could and would change what we fucked up so badly.
For us, the slippery slope began with food shortages caused by the extreme weather we naturally couldn’t control. Farmers tried almost everything to help grains and vegetables survive, but the rapid temperature changes and the climate’s unpredictability didn’t help. The bees proved to be excellent fighters, fighting until the very end. I, as the Prime Minister, allowed the use of pesticides on our soil even though I knew what the side effects were. I convinced myself, with significant help from corporations, that the population of bees could be recreated artificially at any time. Some people even build individual greenhouses to keep fruit trees and flowers alive for the bees. As natural resources dwindled, it became too expensive to keep the greenhouses warm on cold nights. In the long run, the cold became too hard to beat and soon even the best intentions couldn’t help to keep the food growing. Natural food production stopped on our side of the wall. Another obstacle was the water supply, which became difficult to obtain and control in any way. Whatever water we had left, we couldn’t have possibly been using it for farming.
Nevertheless, neither I nor any other leader on our side of the wall was ready or willing to admit defeat or give up our power; it was never an option. We needed to show the New World that the Old World was doing more than well. From what I have been told, there are many empty cities across the Old World reclaimed by nature.
At the moment of this writing, people in the Old World either gather around farms trying to survive or live in the tall buildings up in the skies, governed and run by the Corporation. I’m one of those people in the tall building.
**CORPORATIONS**
When the land stopped providing us with the essentials, I knew that the end was coming, but I was still too proud to reach out to the New World and just ask for help. Instead, under corporate pressure, I agreed to turn precious green areas into factories, once again convincing myself that I was on the right side of history.
We made work at these factories mandatory for everyone for at least a day a week, but the unemployed had to work forty hours a week. People who worked in the factories were given food in exchange for their time.
The rich were able to buy their turn out from the food factories, and most of them exercised that right. The factories looked like work camps: dirty, smelly, cold and full of hungry and angry people guarded by heavily armed army personnel.
The factories were built fast, but within a few years, there was hardly anyone working in them. People were dying from lack of nutrition (the artificial, plastic food couldn’t provide human bodies with the right nutrition), hunger, extreme weather and extreme temperatures.
**2016 AND BEYOND**
In 2016, a group of anarchists called the Organisation decided to take matters into their own hands and create a New World. The leader of the Organisation reached an arrangement with “poorer” and, in my eyes, less developed countries to build a utopian society. I was the non-believer until I climbed over the wall and saw it with my own eyes that the change was possible.
The reality on our side of the wall was very bleak. The food shortage drove some governments to drastic measures, which included killing “unwanted” and “undesired” people and keeping only the ones that somehow could contribute towards building a better future. They did save a lot of food this way, but not enough to keep the brilliant minds in the Old World.
A new group of people emerged from this devastation called The Travellers. The Travellers moved around the world on both sides of the wall, trying to bring in and distribute food from the New World.
With the help of the New World, some of the communities in the Old World were able to survive and help bees to reproduce, but I don’t know how much of this was true and where these communities were in the Old World. At least this is what some of the captured Travellers told us. My government banned Travellers, and if caught, they ended up in prisons just in case the New World was planning some revolution in the Old World. I had never requested anything formally from the New World’s government, so the Travellers in my eyes were the real threat to our way of living. I happily put my trust in corporations, armies and totalitarian policies just to hold on to the illusion of the power I once had.
**CONCLUSION**
Lack of cooperation among people, selfishness among many leaders, including myself, short-sighted decisions, extreme weather conditions, and the near-total extinction of bees caused by pollution and pesticides killed what we loved most.
Ego and pride are real threats to our way of living.
**THE LETTER**
I have no idea how this letter will get into your hands. I was asked to write something that could travel in time to give you a warning for the future. I sincerely hope whoever gets this letter is much smarter than I have ever been and listens to wiser people than the political class. If you listen and take appropriate action fast, you will be able to save Earth without having to divide us. Just pay attention and put aside differences. There is only one goal – to preserve planet Earth.
I beg you.
Yours Truly,
Jason Footknacker
PS.
Keep checking the box, I’m told more letters will come.
Scary
I hated it when people said, “You are young; you will make it.” But I didn’t feel young. I felt old, and I had been trying so hard to make it for the past years that I didn’t even know what it meant, “to make it” any longer.
I had a secret, though, which I never shared with those „cheer me up, people. It was so secret that I kept it for myself only. I discovered that everything I touch turns into some disaster. In no time at all, I became obsessed with this idea. To make sure I had my obsession under control, I was carefully monitoring my moves and thoughts. This constant observation let my brain go nuts with sick pleasure.
I couldn’t think clearly any longer, and I was losing the battle over my life to my mind.
When the battle was over, at first, I stopped smiling because I didn’t feel happy. Then I stopped eating; I didn’t feel hungry.
The psychiatrist was confident that I was only depressed. He prescribed me “magic pills” that were supposed to sort out my problems right away. The “magic pills” kept me going, but at the same time, I was so detached from any feelings and reality that I didn’t know if it was a good help or a lousy help.
I also started seeing a therapist. But nothing changed. I didn’t change. My brain was still in control of my life, and my body and I had nothing to do with whatever was happening to me.
I liked therapy better than the “magic pills” since I managed to come across certain questionable issues that I had never thought about before. The issues didn’t make me feel any better about myself, though. I was still nothing in my own eyes, and now I also had the “issues” to deal with.
Some of my boyfriend’s friends (I didn’t have any friends of my own since I found communicating with people the most challenging task of all. Besides, my brain didn’t like people, and we can’t forget that I was continually acting on behalf of my mind.) suggested aromatherapy as a way to calm me down, which I did on a regular basis. I also spent months doing homoeopathy as well as any other natural healing methods I could find. Nothing worked. Still, the same blank state and my mind was leading the way.
The only thing I was capable of doing was sleeping. I didn’t even have the strength to go to the kitchen and make myself a cup of tea. The strength abandoned me when I started being friends with the “magic pill”.
I believe that my “brain damage” started when I was a child. I didn’t fit into my family structure or the school’s narrow-mindedness. I was susceptible and much misunderstood by the grown-ups and my peers.
I started being naughty so people would pay attention to me. But I don’t think the naughtiness worked out as well as I had planned. The next step of my childhood master plan was to become self-sufficient, and soon I became so just to prove to my parents that I was lovable. I didn’t need anyone around me. I could do everything by myself, on my own: I could play with my imaginary friends, I could make myself breakfast or tea, go shopping and tidy up after myself. However, instead of paying more attention to what I was doing, my parents stopped paying attention to me altogether. So I decided I was going to become a boy because boys always had easier lives. As a kid, I had this impression that being a girl wasn’t good enough. I would have been more accepted by my parents or society if I were a boy. But I wasn’t a boy. Even though I tried hard, I could never have become one.
My childhood experiment didn’t help either. My parents still didn’t love me for who I was. In fact, the sex swap only created a detachment between me and my female body, which has carried on to my adult life.
The gender obsession lets me believe that I didn‘t like girls (girls have always been bitchy to me anyway). So my first choice was still to surround myself with boys since I was more like them, or at least I wanted to be like them. However, I couldn’t be one of the boys, which only increased my very low self-esteem. This left me ashamed of myself and of whatever I was doing. I also had this strong tendency to attract people who made sure I felt like shit, personally or on the work front.
I was a mess, just like any other human being. There are so many contradicting feelings and emotions in one tiny person, and no one will even begin to understand any of them.
Luckily, today I found myself on our bed, looking at my hand hanging a few inches above the carpet. The blood was running from my brain through my neck, arm and my fingertips to drip slowly onto the carpet. I had a massive hole in my mind and the small gun in my left hand. I looked so peaceful. It‘s fortunate I decided to wear a red dress. The dress made the blood look much less scary.
After so many years of attempting suicide, I finally had enough strength to pull the trigger.
It takes guts to finish a known miserable life and venture into the unknown part of existence. I only hoped I would finally find the happiness I have been searching for and longing for all this time.
I know everyone would be surprised, and there will be loads of questions. But I had to do it. I couldn’t face another day in bed with my best friend, “magic pill”, which didn’t turn out to be as magical as it claimed.
My body hasn’t been found yet. I suppose they will find me tomorrow morning when my boyfriend comes back.
He is away on business or at least, so he says. I wouldn’t blame him if he were having an affair. It would do him good. Hanging around crazy people, like I am, isn’t so beneficial in the long run.
Since I no longer had a body, I started floating over towns and cities. It was fun at first, but I got bored very quickly. It was all the same, only buildings, lights and weird pollution smell. I couldn’t see people who were still alive; they didn’t exist to my dead soul.
So I decided to move to the forest. And I walked between dry branches of autumn trees. But this wasn’t exciting for too long either, and it didn’t give me the peace of mind I was looking for most of all. Besides, my brain still had ways of creeping into my dead soul.
Amongst empty, sleepy and dead fields, I met some other souls who did what I had done. We didn’t talk. There was no point. It was all over for us. However, one of the dead people, whose face was all eaten up by worms, told me that, “People who commit suicide are to hang around on earth for eternity until some other soul is willing to save them. We are to be neither living nor dead. He said.
I instantly started screaming, hoping that someone would hear me and save me from that. The others were laughing at my silent screams.
I didn’t know how long I had been screaming for, but my boyfriend was shaking my body for a long time before I woke up.
When I saw him holding my frail body in his arms, I cried until the sun rose. He didn’t ask any questions. He was there next to me.
I was still staying in bed all day long, but this time I was only praying for the state of mind to leave me and let me be. I didn’t want to kill myself anymore.
THE END
A Man Who Gives Happiness
A long, long time ago, there was a little girl called Angie who lived with her mother deep in the English countryside. Their house was small but comfortable, surrounded by the green forest and a stream that ran through the woods.
Angie had no brothers or sisters, but she never felt lonely. She had many friends among the forest creatures, such as elves, fairies, forest rabbits, and birds. The rabbits and birds weren’t ordinary; they were unique talking rabbits and birds that could only be spotted in particular parts of the country.
Her mum didn’t approve of „her imaginary friends“ since her mum couldn’t see them or talk to them; she didn’t think they were real, but at the same time, she didn’t have much time to play with Angie, so in a way, she had to approve of her unorthodox friends.
Every morning, as the sun rose, Angie’s mum had to leave Angie and go to the market, where she sold forest fruits and mushrooms. That was the only way the two of them had any income coming in. Besides, the fruits and mushrooms were very popular and always picked fresh the day before, mostly by the elves. Angie was too busy playing with the fairies to do it herself. In fact, it was Angie’s job to pick fresh fruits and mushrooms during the day when her mum was at the market.
When her mother wasn’t at home, Angie was always running around the forest with her friends, playing the most unusual games: hide-and-seek in the trees, who would climb the tallest tree the fastest, or who would eat the most berries.
Even though she was old enough to attend school, her mother didn’t want to send Angie.
Her mother told Angie she wouldn’t be accepted at school because she was a bit different from the other children. Angie didn’t insist on going to school; she preferred to stay in the forest with her beloved friends. Besides, her mother taught her to read and write, and to count.
However, the truth was that nobody knew that Angie existed. If people found out about Angie, they would start asking questions to which Angie’s mother couldn’t give any logical answers. People wouldn’t believe it if she told them that one day, Angie had just appeared at her doorstep.
Angie’s mother couldn’t have children; her husband had died many years before, and it was too late to remarry. Without hesitation, she “adopted” Angie and always believed Angie was the greatest blessing of all.
For all those years, the two of them lived happily and in harmony. Angie was a good girl most of the time and tried not to cause any trouble, or at least as little as possible. Angie’s mother loved her so deeply that she couldn’t imagine life without Angie.
One day, when Angie’s mother was at the market, and Angie was running around the house chasing fairies, a strange-looking man appeared. He was short with pointy ears and a long grey beard. He didn’t say anything or ask Angie any questions. He just sat on the bench, watching Angie play with the fairies.
When Angie’s mother got back from the market, she was stunned to see him since they never had any visitors to their house. Besides, this visitor didn’t look like anyone she had ever seen before.
Of course, Angie’s mother invited the stranger for a cup of tea and cake, and while they were sipping tea and eating cake, he told Angie’s mother the girl’s story.
It turned out that Angie was a fairy princess who had been very naughty, and her father, the Great King of the Fairies, ordered her to leave the kingdom and come back when she was ready to behave like a real princess. However, the years went by, and nobody had heard from Angie. The whole kingdom was worried that there would be no one to take over after the old king died. So the massive search for Angie began, but after many months, there were still no signs of Angie’s whereabouts. Until one day, the forest fairies started talking about this little girl who speaks their language and lives with her mother in the forest.
Without further delay, the King sent him, the man who gives happiness, to find out if it was Angie and, if so, to bring her back home. He was the best possible choice for the job, since the man who brings happiness always brings good news.
But Angie’s mother loved Angie so profoundly that she didn’t want to part with her. The man who gives happiness wasn’t allowed to take Angie away if her mother didn’t want to let her go. One of the rules in the fairy kingdom is not do anything against somebody else’s wishes and desires.
The man who gives happiness kept thinking and thinking until he came up with an idea. He would give Angie’s mother her youth back so she could have the chance to do things differently. In exchange, she would have to let Angie go.
Angie and her mum spoke for a very long time trying to find the best solution for them, and they both decided that Angie could go if she wanted to.
Angie went back to her father, but she was a frequent visitor to her mother’s house.
The man who gives happiness did as he promised: he restored Angie’s mother’s youth so she could change everything she wanted in her life.
The mother’s new life looked entirely unlike the old one. She married the man she had always loved most, and they had five children and many more grandchildren as they grew older.
Angie was around a lot, at first playing with the children, later on playing with the grandchildren.
The man who gives happiness still travels the world, seeking the people who need him most. It’s enough to ask for his help, and sooner or later, he will appear at your door.
THE END
The Man and His Dragon
Since Pat was a small child, he knew he was going to be a writer. So he hosted “tell a story” parties regularly. Everyone who came to the party had to bring a story to tell. His friends just loved it.
Until he was 12, Pat lived with his parents in London, his favourite place on earth.
Unfortunately for Pat, his parents didn’t think so, and one day, completely out of the blue, they decided to leave London and seek their happiness in the countryside.
Pat’s life changed utterly. There was no more going to the cinema or the theatre whenever he wanted, no more “tell a story” parties. But the worst thing of all was to change schools. His new school turned out to be terrifying in every possible way.
His narrow-minded teachers couldn’t understand his commitment to writing. He was never encouraged to pursue his passion.
Often, he was put down or humiliated by his teachers because of the rigid hierarchy that was entrenched at this particular school. The most important pupils were the teachers’ children, then the children of so-called “important people” in the village, then the children of wealthy parents, and, at the very end, Pat, who belonged to none of the above.
He was often bullied by his new schoolmates because of how he looked. They called him fat, laughed at his surname or his cheap clothes.
His parents turned out to be anything but supportive, and, sadly, they thought he was just a spoiled brat who couldn’t appreciate what they were doing for him. But according to Pat, his parents weren’t kind or sweet; they were trying to ruin his life.
All these unpleasant experiences he had while living in the countryside scarred him for life and took most of his confidence, which he has never been able to rebuild entirely afterwards.
After five years of living “in hell,” he finally managed to leave his parents’ house and begin a new chapter of his life.
Since leaving home at 18, he has managed to put himself through university and, according to everyone, find a fantastic job in advertising.
Because of his insecurity, he wanted people to admire him, and he needed to prove to everyone that he was talented and capable of doing great things in life. That is why he worked hard and long hours.
He never cared much for his private life and found it difficult to sustain any lasting relationship. He just couldn’t commit the way women wanted him to.
Of course, he has managed to prove himself on countless occasions, has had plenty of money and a very comfortable life.
But deep down in his heart, he knew it wasn’t what he wanted. All the money and extravagant lifestyle had nothing to do with his dreams.
Each day, he grew increasingly disappointed with his life choices. But the thought that he would have to change his life terrified him more than anything else. Somehow, he just couldn’t imagine dropping everything and starting all over again.
The lowest he felt was at weddings, and this year he seemed to be attending more than any previous year. The next wedding, which, of course, he was dreading, was taking place in North Yorkshire.
The journey up north was far too long, even though his mind kept him occupied for most of the trip, coming up with ridiculous excuses and ideas to justify his stagnation. When Pat finally got to the hotel where the wedding was taking place, he couldn’t believe how beautiful and magical the surrounding area was.
The wedding ceremony and reception were set on the hills overlooking the North Yorkshire Moors.
Instead of concentrating on the ceremony, Pat was admiring the breathtaking views, and, magically, even his brain began to calm.
Pat politely sat through the whole reception and even managed to have a brief conversation with a woman his friends were trying to set him up with.
When the dinner was finally over, and people started dancing and drinking a lot, Pat disappeared into the wilderness of the North Yorkshire Moors. He walked and walked for ages, admiring the setting sun, the moors, the flowers and the stars. He felt great.
Since his mind stopped talking, he could finally see how sad his life was. At that moment, he decided to change his life and fight for his dreams. To complete the deal he made with himself, he picked up a perfectly rounded brown pebble. The stone was meant to remind him of the promise he made to himself.
At work on Monday, Pat was told that a very important client from a very important international corporation specifically asked for him to work on his new advertising campaign. Pat believed that he had no other choice agreed to do the job.
Once again, Pat’s life became joyless, and the dreams his heart had set on began to fade.
Of course, Pat was busy with the project and failed to notice that the stone he had brought back from the moors had grown unnaturally large.
One evening, when he got back home exhausted from yet another long day at the office, all the lights in his flat were on, and some horrible noise seemed to be coming from inside.
Pat instantly thought someone must have broken in, but there were no signs of a break-in anywhere. The only unusual thing he noticed was bits of eggshell scattered across the living room.
Pat followed the horrible noise to the kitchen, where he found an orange creature with green spots all over its skin, sitting in front of the fridge and eating loudly.
Pat, thinking he was going crazy, slowly retreated to the living room, hoping that the monster would disappear. However, after a very long time, the beast emerged from the kitchen, picking his teeth and burping.
„You need to get some more food, mate. The fridge is empty, “ said the creature, almost giving Pat a heart attack. It’s not only that Pat had a monster in his flat. The monster was talking as well.
„Don’t tell me you‘ve never seen a dragon before,” continued the dragon.
„No“, replied Pat.
„Well“, carried on the dragon while making himself comfortable on one of the armchairs, which was way too small for his huge tail and fat bum.“Why I’m not surprised, you don’t know who I am. It seems that over the years, you humans have lost the ability to see many things and talk to many creatures, such as dragons and other beings that are much less significant than we are, of course.“
„What are you?“ Pat stumbled out.
„I‘ve already told you. I’m your dragon! You need to listen more carefully, mate, “ said the dragon.
„My dragon?“ asked Pat, sounding flabbergasted.
„I hate this part, every time, every single time. I have to explain myself and justify my existence. So please listen carefully. I’m not going to repeat myself. Each person has a dragon that helps them fulfil their dreams. Would you mind if I had a glass of wine? I haven‘t had any alcohol for ages. I was stuck in this bloody stone for ages.“
„Red wine?“
„Red, white, pink, green, blue, any wine would do.“
Pat poured himself one glass and was about to pour another glass when the dragon snatched the bottle from Pat’s hand and… the rest of the wine was gone in no time at all.
„As I was saying“ the dragon paused to burp loudly „oh I’m sorry, as I was saying I’m going to help you.“
„How did you even get here?“ asked Pat, who started coming around to the idea that he was overworked and tired and, as a result, was going crazy.
„You brought me here, “ answered the dragon.
„But how?“ asked Pat.
„Don’t you remember. At the moors, you made a promise. And you picked up a stone to remind you about that promise. The promise that you were going to follow your dreams, Blah Blah Blah.“
Pat shook his head in denial.
„Well, you people are unbelievable. Anyway, it was me that you picked up. I was in that perfectly rounded stone. From now on, I’ll keep an eye or even two on you. In other words, I’m going to make sure that you fulfil the promise you made, “ said the dragon. Pat looked away, trying to remember how he felt that beautiful evening.
„I’m giving you an opportunity to follow your dreams, man. Don’t waste it, “ finished the dragon.
By now, the dragon was a little bit bored with sitting down and decided to stroll around the living room. He kept touching and picking up everything that was electrical, which, in his large and clumsy claws, kept breaking into pieces. Pat didn’t pay much attention to what the dragon was doing. His mind was hard at work imagining life without the corporation.
„Well, are you ready?“ asked the dragon after breaking almost everything he could find on his way.
„Ready for what?“ asked Pat.
„Oh, don’t tell me you are one of those people who need to be told everything and walked through every single step. I thought that you were more clever, “ teased the dragon.
„I am clever.“ Pat got a bit offended by the dragon‘s suggestion that he wasn’t. His intelligence was all he had.
„If you were clever, you would be packing your stuff up and getting ready to go and fulfil your dreams, “ said the dragon.
„I’m not going anywhere. I’m too busy. I’ve got this huge project I’m working on. I’ve got deadlines, I can’t drop my life just like that, “ protested Pat.
„Well, that is your choice, but as far as I’m concerned, things aren’t that pretty for you. You are stuck in a job that isn’t much fun and isn’t challenging for you any longer. You keep yourself busy, so you don’t think about the miserable life you have. And most of all, you are lonely since you have no girlfriend or boyfriend to share your life with.“
„Girlfriend,“ emphasised Pat.
„Well, to sum up, your life is already terrible. So just imagine how bad it can get. If I were you, I would take my help free of charge, “ said the dragon.
„How are you planning on helping me then?“ asked Pat.
„I have my ways. I am a dragon after all, “ said the dragon, smiling.
„But how? “ Pat thought to himself.
„Make you realise that happiness is what you have been looking for, “ answered the dragon and started looking for something else to do since he was already bored silly.
Pat was awake all night long, thinking about his life, about the dragon, about his friends, about money, and about the dreams he never had time to follow.
In the morning, he called in to work, taking all his outstanding annual leave at once, and emailed his boss, handing in his notice. He promised to finish the advertising campaign he was working on, but was only working from home. His boss agreed to everything Pat wanted, hoping that once the tiredness wore off, Pat would be willing to rejoin the company.
Of course, Pat had no intention of returning anywhere. He packed his bags and many, many boxes of stuff, rented his beautiful flat in Central London and bought a house in Richmond.
The dragon lives in Pat’s basement and has a considerable fridge, always stuffed with lots and lots of food, and a few TVs that he keeps breaking from time to time. He still keeps his huge eyes on Pat just in case Pat isn‘t putting enough work into his new life.
But Pat wouldn’t change his life for anything else now. His new life is just like a dream. It‘s everything he could have wanted it to be.
THE END
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