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Content

About the Author………………………4

Characters…………………………......5

Chapter 1………………………………6

Chapter 2……………………………..14

Chapter 3……………………………..22

Chapter 4……………………………..27

Chapter 5……………………………..37

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About the Author

Ling-Yu Huang was born and

raised in small country off the coast

China called Taiwan. In her mid-teen

years she met a boy who took her to

and from the United States, namely to

the state of Michigan, which is the

setting of the story.

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Characters

John Ford — a dreamer, a dreamer

who can make dreams come true

Mr. Jones — John’s best friend back

in high school

Julia — John’s beautiful and

considerate wife

Lily — John’s lovely daughter

Pida — John’s fairy friend, always

helps John

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Chapter 1

Tell me about Mr. Ford

You’ve caught me, but don’t throw

me back yet! You look familiar, and I

have a story that just might be of

interest to you.

Not so long ago, in a small town

not unlike our small town, lived a boy

named John Ford. John Ford was a

good kid, but nobody can be perfect. In

his school age years, John Ford never

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seemed to care for homework. What

seemed like every day in class, a

teacher had to take the time to try to

regain the young Mr. Fords attention,

some going so far as to throw a marker

cap at his head to get him to pay

attention. Mr. Ford spent most of his

time staring out the window. You see,

Mr. Ford was a day dreamer.

Oh, and his favorite color was

green.

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Mr. Ford was a day dreamer.

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To everyone that knew him, it

seemed odd that John Ford was not

troubled by the simple things that

would trouble a child of his age. Never

cried over the loss of a beloved toy,

nor did he ever have to be punished at

home for being misbehaving. If Mr.

Ford was ever in trouble, it always

seemed everything worked out for the

better, or his problems just faded into

history. Even though the Fords did not

appear to be wealthy, it appeared that

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John Ford had it all; that John Ford

could change the world.

Every night, before he went to bed,

John Ford wrote a short something in

his journal. I had always wanted to

take a peek into that journal and see

what he was writing down.

Unfortunately for me, he kept it locked,

and locked tight.

He didn’t have very many other

friends, but Mr. Ford and I were good

friends back then. We shared similar

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interests, or rather, a similar disinterest

in school work. The only difference

was he never seemed to get punished

like I always did. I guess even then I

was jealous.

Where was I? Right. All children,

despite their parents’ wishes, grow up.

John Ford was no exception. Mr. John

Ford, a 45 year-old manager of a

local car dealership, in Kalamazoo,

Michigan. Mr. Ford was a happy

person with a happy family. Mr. Ford

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had a wonderful personality that made

everyone like him, and although he

was not the most handsome man, Mr.

Ford managed to marry a very

beautiful woman. Mr. Ford regularly

left for work at 8:30 a.m. and came

home by 5:30 p.m., and when he came

home, his wife, Julia, and his lovely

daughter, Lily, would be waiting for him

to have dinner together. To everyone

that knew him, it seemed strange that

John Ford was not troubled by the

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complex things that would trouble a

man his age. His stocks always

seemed to be going in the right

direction, and despite the occasional

economic trouble, Mr. Ford’s job was

always stable.

Everyone who thought it was

strange was right, for John Ford had a

very special secret.

Ah, did I mention he liked green?

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Chapter 2

What was Mr. Ford’s secret?

Right, right, about the secret. Mr.

Ford had a very special secret; a

secret that he kept from everyone,

including me, his only friend!

While I, who didn’t do very well in

school, and ended up in the car sales

industry; Mr. Ford, who didn’t do any

better than I, went to college and

became a business man. And, as if

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just to rub salt in my wounds, he was

hired by my car company to be the

dealership’s manager: my boss.

Things had changed since we

parted after high school. It seemed to

me that Mr. Ford’s life had always

gone right, but mine had always gone

wrong.

He moved in next door to my small

house, though we never talked. Mrs.

Ford mostly stayed at home, and the

smell of her cooking often found its

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way into my home. No one cooked for

me.

One day, Mr. Ford had a

celebration. It was his fifteenth

wedding anniversary. Mr. Ford was

taking his wife out to dinner. It was that

day that I decided to find out what was

his secret to happiness.

While Mr. Ford was away, I broke

into his home. There didn’t appear to

be anything special. But when I broke

into his bedroom, I saw an old, green

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box that reminded me of my childhood,

but I just couldn’t remember what it

was. I was very disappointed with my

findings. Maybe luck was all he had

better than me? As I was about to

leave his house, it came to me like a

dream. That was where Mr. Ford kept

his journal when we were young. I

thought, perhaps that could give me

some information about his life.

I hatched a plan. I could use this

book to have him write anything he

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wanted, just as long as I had

something he wanted.

It took me awhile to open his many,

many locks. What I read shocked me.

He had written every dream he had

ever had down inside these dozen

notebooks. As I knew him best when

we were in high school, that’s where I

started to read.

They all seemed very specific. Mr.

Ford had written one dream that even I

remembered. One day, we had a final

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exam in our math class, and the day

before John Ford convinced me not to

go to study, but rather come out and

have fun. In his journal, he wrote that

on the day of the test, his friend, Pida,

would tell John Ford all the answers to

all the problems, and John Ford would

ace the test gracefully.

Well, well, well, who was Pida, I

wondered. Angel? Ghost? Ah! Pida

was a lovely fairy, that John Ford

described in the next few lines.

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So this is it, I thought, this is his

secret to happiness. He could write

anything he wanted to dream in his

notebook, and those dreams became

real. I began to wonder, perhaps

anything I wrote he would dream too?

I hatched a plan. I could use this

book to have him write anything I

wanted, just as long as I had

something he wanted.

A sound from one of the rooms

had startled me. It was Mr. Ford’s

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young daughter, no more than 8 or 9

years old. She was fast asleep in her

bed, moving around in a dream. I

decided that she would be the perfect

bargaining chip. I slowly lifted her out

of her bed and took her back to my

home.

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Chapter 3

What did you do?

I was so furious! How could a

friend do this to another? Why would

John be so selfish as to leave his only

friend out? Where did he get all these

special books? And who was Pida?

Well, these questions would have to

wait. For once, the ball was in my

court.

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The next day, Mr. Ford came to

work. He seemed very frantic, as if he

had lost something very dear to him,

though, what he was looking for wasn’t

his daughter, but rather his journal.

I wanted to have a talk with my

old friend. I told him what had

happened. I told him how I found his

books, and how I found his daughter

fast asleep. I told him that I wasn’t sure

why he’d keep something so special

from a friend. I decided, since he was

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a good friend, that I would make him a

deal. I wanted not to have anymore

troubles in my life. If he agreed not to

bother me and do exactly what I say,

then I agreed that he wouldn’t have

any living nightmares to deal with.

He reluctantly agreed.

I decided to test this new power

once before I went all out. I forced Mr.

Ford to dream that I would sell 10 cars

the next day. And sell 10 cars I did.

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After that, I slowly went mad with

power! Dreaming of money, women,

and more money, I didn’t care what

damage I was doing to anyone. I didn’t

care what I had to do to get what I

wanted. It felt good.

I became so careless, that one day

I didn’t even check whether or not Mr.

Ford wrote what and only what I

wanted in the book. That night, it

appeared that for Mr. Ford, help came

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in his dream. I guess all good things

come to an end.

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Chapter 4

Who helped Mr. Ford?

At the time, I did not know that Mr.

Ford could change his dreams after

they started. All he had to do was ask

his little friend, Pida, a fairy of dreams.

If Mr. Ford made a mistake in his

dream, Pida could help him get it right.

Mr. Ford was waiting every night

for me to make a mistake. Mr. Ford

finally found his mistake and took

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advantage of it. Mr. Ford saw how

distracted I was by the things I had

gotten at Mr. Ford’s expense, and

decided to write an invitation to his

friend Pida to come save his daughter.

Pida, like all dream fairies, controls

peoples sleep. Dream fairies decide

who gets dreams, and who gets

nightmares. Mr. Ford had a similar

power to the fairies. Maybe by just a

stroke of luck, Mr. Ford had control

over his own dreams.

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Pida, like all dream fairies, controls

people’s sleep.

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Without having to write anything

other than the name Pida, Mr. Ford

was able to get his little friend into his

dreams and change it.

One night while I slept, I was

visited in my dream by a little girl who

flew about around me. She introduced

herself as Pida, and scolded me for all

the things I had done and taken, and

the people I stepped on to get them.

Pida explained to me that Mr. Ford and

Pida had been talking, and Mr. Ford

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asked that Pida make it so he could

get his little girl back. Pida told me I

would not wake up for three days, and

during those three days I would be in

the worst nightmare imaginable.

For the next few days, I dreamed

of monsters and demons, fire and

devastation. Pida gave me only one

spot to be safe, a cave deep

underwater. When the worst of my

nightmares came, I could swim down

and hide, but only for a few moments

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before I needed to come back for air.

I wanted nothing more than to be able

to breathe like a fish so that I could

stay there forever and never have to

see the nightmares again.

When I finally woke up in my bed,

sweating from being chased by ghouls

of all sorts, I ran to see what had

happened while I had been sleeping.

Lily, Mr. Ford’s daughter was gone.

Mr. Ford’s notebook was gone. There

was one thing in the house that hadn’t

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been there before... A letter from Mr.

Ford with a return addresses from the

car dealership. It read:

Mr. Jones,

I’m sorry to say that the time has

come to reduce the number of

employees employed here at this

dealership. I hope you understand why

you had to be let go.

Good luck,

Mr. Ford

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Everything I had was gone. I knew

that he had done this because of what

I had done to him. This was his form of

revenge. I had nothing now, no book,

no dreams, not even my real job. The

only thing I could do was beg Mr. Ford

for mercy.

When I was at Mr. Ford’s door, his

daughter Lily opened it up and shouted

“Dad, the neighbor is here!” and Mr.

Ford came to see me. His greeting put

me off a bit, as it was more than polite,

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almost happy to see me. Mr. Ford

informed me that I was let go because

of a policy at work that said if a worker

did not show up to work for more than

two days without a valid explanation or

reason, that they had to be let go.

Confused, I thanked him for his

honesty, and left his home. It was as if

all the things I did had never

happened.

That night I went to sleep. Worried

about what I would do for money,

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worried about what and where I would

go.

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Chapter 5

Was there a happy ending?

Well the ending was good enough

for me. When I woke up I was in a pool

of water. The water was very deep,

and I couldn’t see the top or the bottom.

I thought I was going to drown. After I

couldn’t hold my breath any longer, I

took in a great big breath of water and

realized, I could breathe down here.

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That’s when I realized that Mr.

Ford had helped me at last. He heard

my last dream and made it come true.

He turned me into a fish, and now I

don’t need to worry about the

nightmares that people have, or worry

about a job or anything like that. Being

a fish is very nice, you know? It just

hurts when kids trick you with worms

and things.

But anyway, every so often when I

fall asleep, I am visited by old Mr. Ford,

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and his little friend Pida. He often talks

of his family and how much they have

grown, and how much he loves them.

He’s even showed me pictures of his

grandchild.

He tells me that I was right and

that he was being greedy with his

powers and he only used them only for

him. Now when Mr. Ford dreams, he

dreams for other people, so that they

can be happy too, and I am quite

happy too.

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Mr. Ford dreamed that his

daughter Lily would grow up beautiful

and she would marry a good,

handsome man. Mr. Ford dreamed

that his daughter would have good

children so that Mr. Ford could be

Grandpa Ford.

You know, it’s quite dry out here

and I’d love to be put back into the

water now as it’s my bed time, and

young kid, go sleep and have sweet

dreams.

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But just one more thing before you

go.

You look quite a lot like Mr. Ford,

and a lot like the picture of Mr. Ford’s

grandchild. Maybe you should ask

your grandpa about how to make

dreams come true, and maybe he will

let you inherit his magic power.

By the way, it’s been very nice

talking to you.

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Acknowledgements

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John Ford looks just like an ordinary person

on the street; however, he is anything but

ordinary. Everything is perfect in his life. Mr.

Jones, a friend and also a neighbor next door,

eagerly wants to know what the secret behind

John’s wonderful life is and found John’s secret

in a notebook. Oh, no! Will Pida, John’s friend,

help John out of trouble this time?