Author’s note: This story was used to try to help 7 year old Joseph, who had been involved in a Road Traffic Accident some 6 months previously. Following this he had nightmares, disturbed sleep, bedwetting, wouldn’t sleep without the light on and also panic attacks in certain traffic situations. Following use of the stories, especially the one below, his sleeping returned to normal and he slept right through the night; not only did all his other symptoms disappear but he developed an interest in stories in general and the standard of his reading improved significantly.
In this case the character of Joseph in the story was identical with the real person, and if you wish to use this story to help your child recover from a bad experience, I’d suggest that you alter all the “Joseph” details to’ identifit’ your own child. Good Luck!
Joseph’s frightening experience
Although they were not a very wealthy family, Henry’s house was certainly large and his mother was very kind. She did quite a lot for local charities and when people were in trouble, it was often to Henry’s mother that they turned. So it happened that Mr and Mrs Rankin and their son Joseph came to stay at Henry’s house “for just a few weeks”.
Henry didn’t mind too much, as Joseph was a little older than him and knew lots of interesting things. He was especially interesting when he talked about dinosaurs, but he was also a very good singer and impersonator. He also loved to be outside with Henry in the garden, so life was a lot better when Joseph was around.
However today something was obviously quite wrong as Joseph did not seem like his old self at all; sometimes he would look into the distance and seem very sad, and he was far more nervous than usual.
Henry explained all this to Ho-Ho one morning while everyone was out shopping, “what can we do to help?” Said Henry.
Ho-Ho thought for a while; he had seen things like this before. Sometimes when a frightening thing happened to a person, it could leave them feeling very unhappy, even though the thing that caused it was well and truly over. Sometimes people didn’t sleep so well as before and sometimes didn’t like to go to bed on their own. Henry was sure that Ho-Ho was right about Joseph: “but how can we help?” He asked his wise old friend.
“Bring him along to meet me,” said Ho-Ho, “and perhaps an adventure will turn up; a good adventure can certainly take your mind off things.”
“Yes indeed!” Said Henry nodding enthusiastically; the two friends certainly knew all about that!
“You sure you can keep a secret?” Said Henry to Joseph as they sat together under the damson tree.
“Yes, of course; I do sincerely promise,” said Joseph, obviously not expecting anything special to keep a secret about.
“Okay, Ho-Ho, you can come down!” Called out Henry.
In no time at all, there sat a huge, smiling elephant, the biggest, happiest-looking elephant that Joseph had ever seen. Henry introduced them and Ho-Ho was obviously watching Joseph with great attention.
“Now we are friends – proper friends – you can call me Joe,” said Joseph.
“Well,” said Henry, electing himself as the leader, “what are we going to do today?” The three friends sat in silence, each with their own thoughts. Suddenly something dropped from high up in the damson tree onto the ground. Henry explained about the magic balloon and soon they were gathered around the small lid and balloon with their eyes shut. Joe was surprised in spite of Henry’s warnings about what was happening. First the sound of rushing air, like into a tyre, then the feeling of dizziness and floating.
“We’ll open our eyes after I’ve counted to three,” said the leader, “One… Two… Three!”
High up above the houses, Joseph felt a strange sense of unreality and soon he was drifting and dreaming with the balloon; like Henry he found words very difficult as the balloon floated higher, with just the wind gently whispering, just colours and feelings and the gentle sleepy voice of Ho-Ho in the background, saying things that he already knew, but didn’t know that he knew. Things like how to learn from things that happen, and we do try to learn everything we can from what happens to us…. But after we have learned all that we can, then we just save the memories in any way that we want to…. changing the colours until they don’t bother us any more…. The nicest thing we can do for everyone who cares about us is to be happy ourselves…. How our own happiness makes the whole world a better place…. Happiness spreads to other people….
How much time passed by, Joe had no idea, nor did he know whether he had dozed or dreamed, but he did feel better as the balloon, now over a clear blue sea, began its descent.
As Henry looked over the side, he could see that this was an island where they had never been before. Presently the balloon bumped to a halt. The place seemed deserted with just rocks and seaweed.
“Let’s explore” said Ho-Ho.
They began to walk along the rocky beach, or occasionally peeping into one of the many caves that the sea had gouged from the cliff face; there were all kinds of interesting seaweeds clinging to the rocks and strange gulls screeched and threatened as they wheeled in the wind. Perhaps several hours passed as the friends explored, but when they returned to the balloon, it had gone! Someone had taken their only means of escape from the island away. The friends were horrified and had no idea what could be done.
“There is someone around” said Ho-Ho, holding his trunk up and detecting something odd with his wonderful sense of smell. Sure enough, coming out of one of the caves, came an old man in a sailor’s uniform, walking very slowly towards them. The friends walked towards the old man; they certainly needed all the help they could get.
“So you’ll be wanting my help to get your balloon back?” The old man said, lighting a battered old pipe of tobacco.
“Well, Old Seth helps them as helps Old Seth” he added.
It seemed that the old sailor himself was a prisoner on the island too. He was accustomed to fishing in the waters around Petra as the island was called, when a huge devil gull had dived onto his ship and stolen his compass. Without the compass the old man would not dare to face the open sea.
“Old Seth knows where the Devil gull got all her treasures stored, but these old legs of mine can’t climb up the likes of that” He gestured at the cliffs in the distance.
“We’ll get your compass back for you” said Henry eagerly. He was a good climber and the cliffs held no terrors for him.
“Aye” smiled the old sailor, tapping his pipe out against the rocks, “Aye, it might be that you can, but beware that devil gull, you ain’t seen nothing like that evil creature. And you,” he said pointing at Ho-Ho, “you’ll be no good at the climb. Looks like you’ll be keeping old Seth company a while.” Ho-Ho nodded; in spite of everything, there was something quite nice and friendly about the gnarled old sailor.
Henry and Joe set off, armed only with a powerful torch that Old Seth had given them for the cave. The climb was hard with few handholds and lots of slippery areas where it would have been so easy to fall. Joe was also a superb climber and even helped Henry over the most difficult bits. The gulls continued to wheel and chide at the two friends as they neared their goal; it would have been so easy to give up and turn back.
Finally they arrived at the entrance to the devil gull’s cave. The friends squirmed inside and switched on their torch. An amazing sight met their eyes and in spite of their exhaustion they gasped with astonishment. There were all kinds of valuables littered around the cave – rings, trinkets, earrings, mixed in with bottle tops shells pieces of glass…… but no sign of the compass! They began their search.
Suddenly a piercing cry hit the air and turning to the entrance, Henry and Joe saw the most fearsome huge bird they could ever imagine; no wonder it was called the devil gull! The two friends moved quickly together and heaved a huge boulder over the entrance to the cave. Outside the devil gull screamed for revenge. At first the two friends were helpless and shaking with fear, but then, remembering their mission, resumed their search for the compass.
“Look at this” said Joe picking up a huge blue diamond, “surely this isn’t a real diamond or it would be worth a fortune!” As they shone the torch on the sparkling gem, they both became quite dazzled by it and had to look away, temporarily blinded by the bright light. Joe put it into his pocket along with an old pocket watch.
“Here it is!” Said Henry, finally pulling out the compass from under a pile of beads, “this is what Old Seth wants!”
The friends surveyed the situation. They had found the compass, and Seth would certainly let them have their balloon to get back home, but the cries of the devil gull were becoming louder and ever more angry. Even if they made it out of the cave they would surely be knocked from the cliff by the fury of that evil bird.
“I’ve got it” said Joe after a long pause, “the diamond – the diamond! Remember how it dazzled us in this torchlight…. We’ll use it on the devil gull! It may well work! If we can blind the devil gull just for a few seconds we can make our escape!”
“After three” Henry whispered as they prepared to roll away the boulder, “One… Two… Three!” They rolled the boulder away to reveal the screaming gull who plunged furiously into the cave – and the dazzling light. For maybe 10 seconds the bird was blinded – just 10 seconds – but it was enough to allow the friends to make good their escape and to heave the boulder back over the entrance, leaving the devil gull trapped to admire her hoard for ever. Slowly but surely with hearts light but with limbs heavy the weary brave boys descended the cliffs down to the beach. Their fatigue made the journey even more perilous than the climb up the cliffs, but they continually helped and encouraged each other until they arrived safely on the beach.
Old Seth was overjoyed to get his compass back and so proud of the boys to have done such an amazing deed.
“So now we are all free to leave?” asked Henry. Old Seth nodded almost sorrowfully. “Old Seth got to know this island pretty well these last years, and I can tell you there be some mighty, mighty caves along the shores.” Ho-Ho and Seth had been talking all the while the boys had been gone, and both had learnt a lot. Seth had told Ho-Ho about the powers of a particular cave and Ho-Ho knew precisely what he should do to help Joseph deal with his bad memory.
Joe stood outside the cave thinking for a while. He had learned so much in one day. He remembered Ho-Ho talking in the balloon. He knew how important your own happiness was and how you must learn from bad experiences. He knew that once you had learned from your bad experiences they needn’t bother you any more. Yes he could go into the cave and leave the pain behind; he stepped boldly in.
The journey back in the balloon was like a dream. Joe remembered the climbs, the devil gull and then going into Old Seth’s amazing cave where he and the cave seemed to be at one. He watched and heard his old memories playing through a dense sea-fog on the cave wall; he was sure there was nothing more to learn from the bad experience. He played the memories back many times, very fast, very slow, and in colour and in black and white until it was all like a crumpled old photograph which was no longer needed; the bad memory was completely spent. No longer need he be bothered by that bad memory; he had dealt with it and it was finally tucked away safe and secure. Finally he saw that hurt boy on the cave wall and reached out to him, hugged him with tears in his eyes until he knew, he knew with absolute certainty that that bad memory needn’t bother him again. It was all over; he walked out of the cave leaving all the pain behind.
He remembered saying goodbye to Old Seth and knew that someday they would come back to the island of Petra… Certainly there were a lot of wonderful memories there
Ho-Ho’s voice droned on helping and soothing, but the job had been done already and Joe knew that he could never be quite the same again.