The Man Who Could Do Everything

Inés Anguiano

Primer premio ex aequo 6º Primaria, Concurso Literario Ventanal de la Sierra 2013

In a very far place from here, there was a man who thought that he could do everything. The people from his village started telling him about things which were impossible for them.Once, his neighbour told him:

–If you are so incredible, you must know how to repare my house's roof.

–Of course I do. I just need some tools.

So this man, who was called John, climbed to his neighbour's roof. He worked all afternoon. It was already dark at night and he was still working. The sun was rising and he kept working. At midday of the next day, he finished repairing his neighbour's roof, and, when he was just going to climb down, he heard his neighbour talking to his wife.

–I think John doesn't have any special abilities. If he did, he wouldn't have wasted so much time in repairing a roof.

–You're right –his wife answered. –He can't do lots of things, like...

–Like surviving for a year in the dark forest without any water or food.

The dark forest was a place near the village in which lots of strange monsters lived. Anybody had never gone inside that forest since a child went there playing with a ball and never returned to the village. Everybody was afraid of that forest. Everybody unless John.

That evening, John announced something.

–Today, I'll start a trip to the dark forest. There are people who think that I'm not able to do everything. I will make them realise that living a year in the dark forest won't be any problem for me.

–Please, stay with us –some people said.

But John didn't listen them. He went into the dark forest, made a house near a river and slept all night. He didn't want to think about everything he had left because of the silly idea of becoming the first man who could do everything. The next days were hard, hiding of any strange noise that he heard. But he survived. That was a very big achievement.

On the tenth or eleventh month, John noticed that there weren't any fruits or vegetables to collect. He was hungry and thought that he was going to die when only a few months were missing for returning home.But he wasn't going to fail. He took some water from the river and went walking through the forest.

–I need to find the reason by which all those fruits have disappeared — thought John. — I would never have thought that I would have had to resort to chasing monsters.

So, John travelled for days and, at least, heard a strange noise. He waited for something to happen and saw a little animal, with the shape of a mouse. He sat down slowly and told the mouse:

–Hello. I won't harm you.

He tried to touch the animal, but it started making those strange noises that everybody was afraid from.

–You are the one who makes all those noises! Let me see something.

He offered the little animal one of the last fruits that he had and saw what happened. In one second the fruit wasn't there.The animal had eaten it.

–You eat really fast. Are you the one who is eating all the fruits in the forest?

The animal went running and John followed him. It showed John that there were lots of animals from its specie and that they didn't have enough food to eat. John thought that he had to help them. If they learned to cultivate their own food, they wouldn't be hungry any more.

Since then, John lived with the animals and teached them how to create their fruits and vegetables.But he missed living in the village, so one day he left the forest and returned to his home. Everybody in the village thought he was a hero, because after he explained what the strange noises were, nobody was scared, and they could go inside the forest without any danger.