The Big Dream

Here is a short story I wrote, to use in my classes at the Buddhist University.  I built into the story a great deal of repetition, since this is a way to assist my ELL learners with their listening comprehension skills, as well as their speaking skills.  The repetion of key words will help my students when I ask them retell the story to each other.

The Big Dream

Once upon a time, there was a little elephant. The little elephant's home was next to a slow moving river deep in the jungles of northern Thailand. The little elephant lived with his mother and four other elephants.

The little elephant had:

• a long trunk like all the other elephants
• two little eyes like all the other elephants
• four legs like all the other elephants
• a short tail like all the other elephants

But the little elephant was different from all the other elephants in two ways.

First the little elephant had very, very, very big ears! Bigger than any of the other elephants.

Second, the little elephant had a very, very, very big dream! Bigger than any of the other elephants.

You know what the little elephant's dream was? It wanted to fly!

Every day, the little elephant would look up to see butterflies and birds flying in the sky. The little elephant wanted to fly high in the sky like a bird. The little elephant wanted to fly around flowers like a butterfly. The little elephant wanted to to be able to fly! That was the little elephant's big dream.

“Who can help me learn how to fly? Who can I talk with?” The little elephant asked.

First the little elephant went into the jungle in search of the long green snake. The little elephant walked and walked untl he saw the long green snake hanging from a tree.

“Hello little elephant,” hissed the long green snake. “ How are those big ears?” The little elephant hated it when any of the animals commented on his big ears. “I am fine,” answered the little elephant, “and my ears are fine too!”

“Why little elephant, are you walking all alone in my jungle?” hissed the long green snake. “My dream is to fly like a bird or a butterfly. Can you tell me how I can fly like a bird or butterfly?” asked the little elephant. “ Oh yes!” hissed the long green snake. “Just follow me to my home in the jungle and I will show you how you can fly like a bird or a butterfly!”

The long green snake spoke so sweetly. So nicely. So convincingly. But... the little elephant did not trust the long green snake. In fact, the little elephant was afraid of the long green snake. The little elephant did not like the long green snake.

“Oh,” cried the little elephant, “I can not possibly come to your home today. Maybe  tomorrow!” As the little elephant ran off, the long green snake hissed to himself...  “Oh my, the little elephant would have made such a nice dinner!”

Next the elephant decided to talk with the brown faced monkey. The little elephant knew the brown faced monkey  lived in tall trees. The little elephant liked the brown faced monkey because the long tailed monkey was always smiling or laughing. The little elephant liked to spend his afternoons playing with the brown faced monkey. They were good friends.

Swing his head back and forth, the little elephant searched the trees for the brown faced monkey. It did not take long before the little elephant saw the brown faced monkey sitting in a tree, eating bananas.

“Hi my friend,” chattered the brown faced  monkey. “Would you like a banana?” “No thank you,” replied the little elephant. “Do you want to run through the trees and frighten the other animals like we did yesterday?” chattered the brown faced monkey? “No” replied the little elephant. The little elephant was not interesting in scaring anyone today.  The little elephant only wanted his friend to help with his big dream.

Sometimes his friend, the brown faced monkey chattered too much and did not listen to his friend the little elephant.  All that chatter made the little elephant's big ears hurt!

“I want to fly,” said the little elephant. “I want to fly like a bird or butterfly. Can you tell me how I can fly?” The brown faced monkey looked at his friend and started to laugh! The brown faced  monkey laughed and laughed and laughed until he fell out of the tree. When the brown faced  monkey landed on the jungle floor he grabbed his belly and kept on laughing. The little elephant slowly walked away from his friend. The brown faced  monkey was still laughing when the little monkey reached his home near the river.

Finally, the little elephant thought. “I need to talk with the wise old owl. I know the wise old owl sleeps all day, so I will need to wait until the sun goes down before I can talk with him.”

The little elephant decided to talk about his dream with his big beautiful mother. “Mother,” said the little elephant, “I have a big dream. I want to fly like the birds and the butterflies. I've talked to some of the animals, but no one was able to help me.”

“Who did you talk with?” asked the little elephant's big beautiful mother. “First I talked with the long green snake, but I don't trust the long green snake. I think the long green snake wanted to eat me for dinner!”

“You were wise not to trust the long green snake,” said the little elephant's big beautiful mother.

“Next I went and talked my good friend the brown faced monkey.  But all the brown faced monkey did was laugh at me so I walked away,” said the little elephant. “You were wise to walk away from your friend, the long brown faced monkey,” said the little elephant's big beautiful mother.

“ Who will you talk with next?” asked the little elephant's big beautiful mother. “I want to talk with the wise old owl,” said the little elephant. “It will be good for you to talk with the wise old owl,” said the little elephant's big beautiful mother. “The wise old owl is a good listener and gives good advise.”

The sun was setting as the little elephant left his big beautiful mother in search of the wise old owl. Sitting on top of the temple, the wise old owl hooted.... “Hello little elephant. You look like you have a problem. Can I help you?”

“Yes,” replied the little elephant. “I have a big dream. I want to fly like the birds and the butterflies! Can you help me, wise old owl?”

 

“That's a big dream little elephant,” the wise old owl hooted. “But I know just how you can fly. Tonight when you go to sleep, I want you to dream about flying wherever you want! Come back tomorrow and tell me!”

The next night, the little elephant ran back to the temple to tell the wise old owl his good news. “Wise old owl,” exclaimed the little elephant, “last night in my dream, I flew like a bird all the way to Africa. Tonight when I go to sleep, I will fly like a butterfly all the way to America!

The wise old owl just nodded its head and hooted.... “very good little elephant!  You have learned that your big dream is in your dreams.”