The little plane and Magic Pop

The plane saw Suraj in my dream and asked me, do you know Suraj?

I said, why, yes. Do you also know him?

The plane said, ah! Now I am a big plane. But once upon a time, before I grew up, I was a little plane. I used to play with Suraj.

And then the little plane told me a story about Suraj.

Once upon a time, in the land of Indo, there was a big city called Moonbay. It had a large bay; and when the moon shone at night, the large bay looked very beautiful. In this big city, there was a yellow house with one door and many windows. In it lived - with his Amma and Achchan - a little boy. His name was Suraj.

In the house, there were many rooms, but the room that was the nicest was the Toy Room. In this room, Suraj kept his toys. He had many many toys; he couldn't even count them - there were so many of them. Small and big, yellow and red, round and square, trains and planes, blue and green, cars and balls - oh! so many toys. Suraj also collected wrappers: his favourite was Magic Pop.

But Suraj did not take care of his toys. He would play with them, and leave them on the bed. He would throw them around the room and break them. He would drop them under the bed, on the floor, behind the table. He would leave Magic Pop in all the dirty corners. Amma and Achchan told him many times, but he did not listen.

One Saturday night, Suraj had left all the toys in the Toy Room and gone to sleep. At night, the moon shone over Moonbay; the moonlight came in through all the windows in the yellow house. Slowly, the toys came to life: the cars and trains moved, the plane started flying, the balls bounced, the toy soldiers marched. 

And they started talking to each other.

"Hi!" said the car to the train, "Don't go so fast. I can't keep up with you."

"Huff! Puff!" said the train to the plane "Don't go so fast. I can't keep up with you."

"Hello, plane", said the Red Ball to the plane, "Can I bounce on you?"

"No", said the little plane, "Didn't your Amma teach you anything? You can't bounce on a plane. If you sit quietly, I can carry you around."

"Where is Suraj? " said Magic Pop. "I want to play with him."

And all the toys became silent. Then they started talking - all at the same time.

"Suraj throws me," said the train.

"He broke my wheel," said the car.

"My friend - the Blue Ball - is lost," said the Big Red Ball.

" I was left in the dark under the bed," said the plane. "I was so scared, too scared even to fly out."

"Suraj hurts me. I don't like to play with him," said the toy soldier.

And then the small green ball said, "Suraj does not like us. Why do we have to stay here?"

All the other toys looked at the small green ball.

"What can we do? Where can we go?" asked the clay.

"Anywhere. Anywhere is better. We can go out of the window," said the small green ball.

"We can go to Toyland. It is such a nice place with so many toys." Said the Big Red Ball.

"How can we go so far? I can't walk that far." Said the toy soldier.

"We can go on the little plane", said the small green ball. "He can fly us to Toyland."

"What a good idea!" they all said. "Let's go. Let's go!" they cried. And all of them climbed on the plane and it flew out of the window into the moonlight...

All - did I say all? No, it wasn't all. Magic Pop stayed back. The car asked, "Magic Pop, Magic Pop, why don't you come with us?"

"Suraj will take care of me," said Magic Pop. "He will play with me. I will stay."

The other toys called him again and again, but Magic Pop would not go.

Next morning, on a Sunday, when Suraj woke up - did I tell you he was a sleepyhead and didn't like to wake up? - Suraj found all his toys were missing. He looked inside the cupboard, under the bed, on the floor, behind the table, but he couldn't find his toys. He cried, "My toys are gone! My toys are gone!"

Amma and Achchan rushed to him and checked inside the cupboard, under the bed, on the floor, behind the table, but they couldn't find the toys. Achchan found a small plastic wrapper with "Magic Pop" written on it. That's all. And all the time, as they looked, Suraj cried all the more.

"Boo Hoo! My toys are gone! Boo Hoo! My toys are gone!"

Achchan said, "Suraj, you must have thrown your toys away."

Amma said, "Suraj, you must have left them somewhere. Why don't you play with Magic Pop?"

"I don't want this dirty wrapper. I want my toys, all my toys." Suraj cried, and threw the wrapper away. But nobody could find his toys.

For two days, Suraj had no toys to play with! He cried and screamed, screamed and cried. Amma and Achchan thought he had kept the toys somewhere and forgotten where he had kept them, but they could not find the toys.

After two days, one afternoon, Suraj picked up Magic Pop from the floor of the Toy Room. It was very dirty from the dust behind the bed. But it was his only toy. He took Magic Pop to the washbasin and cleaned it. Then he dried Magic Pop with a towel and took it to his Toy Room.

That afternoon, Amma saw Suraj playing with Magic Pop. Sometimes, it was a plane, sometimes a horse, sometimes a snake, sometimes a magic box. Suraj was folding the plastic wrapper and it would become different shapes; it became Popeye's can, it became the plane in which Swat Cats flew, it became Donald Duck. And Suraj was talking to it and playing with Magic Pop. And he was happy. After he finished playing, Suraj took Magic Pop and put it carefully in the cupboard. It was his only toy now and he didn't want to lose Magic Pop.

That night, Magic Pop slept happily in the cupboard. He was happy that Suraj cared for him and loved him. He was happy that he had stayed back.

Late that night, while Magic Pop slept - and Suraj and Amma and Achchan slept - the little plane flew into the toy room through the window. It flew round and round, round and round looking for Magic Pop in all the dirty corners. But it could not find Magic Pop anywhere. The little plane thought Suraj must have thrown Magic Pop out. Poor Magic Pop. It was about to fly out of the room when it heard a tiny noise, like a deep breath, coming from inside the cupboard. What was that?

Through the keyhole, the little plane looked. And what did he see? Magic Pop was lying there, sleeping with a smile on his face. "Hello! Magic Pop! Wake up! I have come to help you", said the little plane. "Wake up! Wake up!" "Come out through the keyhole. Climb on my back. I will take you to Toyland. Away from Suraj."

"No! No! No!" said Magic Pop. "I am so happy here. Suraj is so nice to me. He plays with me, he keeps me nice and shiny. I don't want to go away." Then, Magic Pop told the little plane how sweet Suraj had become, how Magic Pop would become so many things - a plane, a duck, a kite, a snake, a horse, a box, a can, a man. This was what he had always wanted. So now, he was happy. He was happy he had stayed back.

The little plane heard the story, and flew out of the window, crying "Wait! Don't go to sleep! It is so difficult to wake you up. I will be back soon." He flew all the way to Toyland, where all the toys had gone. He told them about Magic Pop and Suraj and they said, "We must go to see Magic Pop."

In the middle of the night, under the moon, the toys climbed onto the little plane. The little plane flew back to Moonbay, to the yellow house where Suraj lived. Magic Pop told them how nice Suraj had become, how much fun they had playing, how Suraj kept him clean and shiny. "I am so happy," said Magic Pop. The toys looked at each other and said, "We also want to play with a nice boy. There are no boys to play with us in Toyland. It must be so much fun for you here."

Next morning, when Suraj woke up, he found all his toys were back in the Toy Room, sitting in the cupboard, waiting for him to play with them. He was very happy and gave his toys a big hug. Amma and Achchan told each other, "Didn't we say he had kept them somewhere and will find it himself?"

But, Suraj knew what had happened, because one night, while he was dreaming, the talkative little plane whispered the story to him into his ears.