Editor’s note: This article was submitted for publication Fall 2018. This is a late upload.
By: Joseph Rich
Once upon a time, there was a boy born into this world. He looked like an average child, appearing as any other in a large group, seemingly without any magical powers.
He enjoyed spending his day with his toys, imaginary friends, real friends, and of course mom and dad. When he was four months old, he began to point with his right hand in circles, as people would pass by and smile, as if he could see something others could not see. His mom and dad realized he was always entertained by seeing something new and someone new, but most of all by seeing the world in a new way. Day after day, hours after hour, minute by minute the little boy would point towards everyone he saw—his smile lighting both his face and the morning sky.
When visitors came over, he would often walk behind them, touch their shoulders, and make what looked to be like some rearranging or fluffing of the air above their upper backs and almost always seemed very pleased with himself. He would step around to the visitor’s front side, to a comfortable place where they could look directly into his eyes, then he would look intently in the visitor’s eyes and not as if all his steps and rearranging were very important. The small boy was far too little to talk just yet, to communicate as adults communicate, to be too serious and day by day people began to feel like they could hear him speaking gentle words to them even while his little mouth remained closed.
People would ask his mom, “does he say the same thing to you that I am hearing?” His mom asked the neighbor one morning as if she did not believe it, “what did you hear him say?” The neighbor smiled, raised her eyebrows and replied, “He tells me, ‘You are loved more than you know.” It wasn’t a loud voice the neighbors and visitors heard nor even an outside voice, but the kind of inside voice moms and dads tell children to learn how to use. This little boy had been using it from the day he was born without anyone telling him how or why, without any coaching, without anyone knowing how he could do this so naturally.
One spring morning when the air was blowing softly, when the birds were singing sweetly, when he was feeling wonderful, he opened the back door to look outside for a moment. As he looked down towards his feet, he noticed the old piece of carpet that always rested just outside the door waiting for people to clean their feet or shoes was gone and in its place was a new piece of carpet.
He then picked up the carpet; he heard a noise, a whisper-like noise, a voice he seemed to recognize. “Hello, little friend do you remember me? I am your magic carpet, your imagination, and your inner voice that can take you anywhere you can imagine. You will heal many now. Let’s get busy learning more. Together, let’s share our secret.
