Town Of Dreaming

Translator: Nefise Karaduman (11 years old)

Author: Naile Nur Ceylan (13 years old) Illustrator: Neval Ece Çank (12 years old)

 Yekta woke up. It was an ordinary day like every other day. His dad was gone off to work, his mom was cleaning the house, cooking (etc.). Just like every day, he didn’t even saw a single dream.  But Yekta was living in Town of Dreaming! Everyone at this town would see at least one dream a day, except for Yekta. This situation always make Yekta feel sad and alone. Every single time he goes out, for school or for going to market, he sees people talking about their dreams. And that was so annoying for him. Only his family knew he doesn’t see any dreams. He did everything for dreaming; he drank those strange smelling, icky, like slurry (And countless other things) syrup medicines his mom gave him, he did some sleeping meditations, he even did a handstand before sleeping! But nothing worked. Neither this nor that, Yekta can’t see dreams!

 Yekta was so sad again someday. He had a secret place that he goes there when he’s sad. He didn’t have to listen others talking about their dreams at there. Yekta left the house, he walked, walked and walked. He was in front of the wall of a yellow house now, he jumped over a stinky trash can and sat on a wooden plank. He founds peace in here. When he was watching the birds, he saw the window of a house. It was open, Yekta overheard the chat coming from the window.

 -I told you, this dream means abundance and…

 Yekta couldn’t listen anymore, he ran off to his home, crying. He couldn’t run away from the word dream, not even here.

 Few hours later Yekta was sitting on a chair, watching the sunset.  He wasn’t sad anymore, he was angry. He was jealous of everyone seeing dreams. He was being jealous when he can’t talk with others about dreams. He was feeling alone mentally in the whole town. He didn’t want to endure to these feeling anymore. When he was playing with the straw of the orange juice her mom gave her, he got a bright idea! A straw, yes of course! A straw! Why didn’t he think this before?  İf he couldn’t dream, no one can!

 Yekta get her money from her cow bank.

 He entered the market; he bought a lot of (a LOT) straws. He went home with a bright idea in his mind.

 It was night, just the time to implement his plan. Beforehand, he got sure everyone was sleeping, he got out of her room, tiptoeing. He quietly opened the door, then he got out of the house. He thought that this is not right for a second, but he decided to do it. He was blinded by her jealousy. Yekta secretly entered the other houses, well, almost all of the windows where open. He took a straw, then he drained their dreams with the straw.

 SSLLLUUUURRRPP…

 Then he filled jars with dreams of people. While doing this, Yekta saw other things in those. There were feelings, thoughts, imagination. Dreams weren’t just dreams. They were wonders, wonders that shape us. Yekta didn’t have any wonders, so he didn’t want anyone to have wonders. In a few days, he took everyone’s dream. Then he put those precious dreams in a secret locker in his wardrobe.

 For that few days, no one saw a dream. Everyone was shocked. Why we don’t saw dreams in Town of Dreaming, they thought. But for Yekta, these where the happiest days in his life! But when these few days, turned into a few weeks, people started to forget who they were. Cause in those jars, there were personalities too. Our thoughts, our feelings... Actually, all of these are our personality and our personality, is our core. If a dream is an apple, people and their thoughts are the seeds. No seeds mean no apples. People were frowning, they don’t even remember what happiness is. Even Yekta was frowning. When he saw his family, his loved ones like that, he was sad. Town was out of control and only Yekta could stop this.

 At some night, Yekta got out those jars from his wardrobe, he took the straws, and he blew those dreams to people. He was thinking he did the right thing. He did indeed.

 PPFFFFFF…

 After two days, everyone was normal like the good old days. No one was unhappy, no one was trying to pretend somebody. But Yekta indeed got a liability to tell what happened. He told what he did and his feelings. Townsperson forgave him, but curiosity killed the cat in one of them:

 -But we don’t see dreams every day, do you think we did, he said.

 Other agreed to:

 -Yup. Thats right.

 - Yeah, ı don’t see any dreams too.

 -When i last dreamed, it was April. Long time ain’t it?

 Yekta was shocked. When he was trying to understand all of these conversations when someone said:

 -We can share some of our dreams if you want.

 When Yekta heard this, he was overjoyed! He drew some of the dreams with permission of them, put those in a glass and drank it before sleeping. He doesn’t need to do a handstand or a meditation just for dreaming now.

 He just enjoys dreaming and sleeping.