Hope
A small short story
By
Jespersen
Jack is in bed. It is early morning and the first
light is appearing.
The birds are singing, the dew is dropping from the trees.
Jack is dreaming. He throws himself to and fro in bed, wailing
and weeping. Then he gets up with his face in pain. A minute
later he lies down again, smiling and relaxing. Jack dreams on
while the birds are singing and the day is getting lighter.
An hour later he wakes up, rubbing his eyes and saying, "Why do
people dream?" Is it to get scared? To get happy? To find out who
you are? Or to get cleverer about one's own thoughts and
emotions?
Jack dreams every night, but this night it was rather bad. He
cannot forget it. Often you cannot recall your dreams, but this
time the dream is quite clear to him. That is the reason why he
takes out paper from his cupboard. He finds his pencils and starts
to draw.
Jack is drawing his dream: A man is walking in a street in a town
Jack does not know. All the houses are yellow, and there is a tree
at each house. All the houses are alike with the same number of
windows and doors. All the trees are alike -- equally tall and
equally old. The same number of leaves and the same number of
twigs.
The man looks around and cannot find his way. There is nobody
to ask. Therefore, he shouts, "Where is the hospital? I have to get
to the hospital!"
One window in each house get up, and he hears voices shouting,
"Go straight ahead. 300 meters. Just go straight ahead!"
The man walks and finds the hospital. This is the only house in
town which is different. But it is yellow, and the tree in front of
the building is quite unlike the other trees in town. He walks
slowly to the gateway and presses the button to the bell to get in.
A moment later the gate opens by itself. The man hurries inside
and is received by a man in a long black robe. "What do you
want?" His voice sounds as if it is coming from very far away.
"I am ill. It's my heart. It is so hot today, and I am very weak. Can
you help me?"
The black man says, "Can I see your card?"
The man finds a small plastic card and gives it to him. "I hope it's
all right," he says.
"We'll see." The black man takes the card and puts it into a
computer. The whole wall is illuminated: the man's gene-card is
to be seen very clearly on the screen. One pair of genes after the
other is shown, but suddenly the picture stops. The black man is
searching. A small green arrow shows up on the screen --
pointing towards a pair of genes, which seem to be out of order.
"We can't help," the black man says.
"Why not?"
"I guess that's clear enough," he replies angrily. "You have no
future. You have to leave as fast as possible!"
"Sir, couldn't you make an exception?"
"There are no exceptions any longer!" The man gets up, pointing
towards the door. "You have to leave now, you are not supposed
to be here. I am supposed to put you in the register. Get out!!"
The man hurries to the door, unhappily. Jack draws his face so
that it looks like his own. "It might be me," he thinks.
The man is standing in the street for a moment. Then he turns
towards the gate, shouting, "Why are there no exceptions any
longer? Why can't you be different? Why has everything to be
alike?"
No answer!! He sits down on the street, gazing at all the trees and
houses. "If this is supposed to be beauty, I don't like beauty," he
whispers. He can feel his heart beat irregularly. He really wanted
a doctor to help, because he knows that you have medicine for
that. But his gene-card showed something that was different.
Therefore, he cannot get any help.
The man is thinking of his wife and his children. Are they
different, too? He had never thought about this in this new way.
He is afraid that it is his fault if they cannot get the help they will
need some day.
It is almost dark, and the man lies down to try to sleep. The street
is cold as ice, but he feels the coldness as a sort of peacefulness.
The cold is creeping into his entire body, and he is almost falling
asleep.
Now a small boy comes running down the street. He runs directly
up to the man, saying, "Why do you sleep here?"
The man does not answer, so the boy tries again, "Are you afraid
of being different?!"
No answer!!! The little boy gets up, tears in his eyes. He really
wished to talk to the man. Instead he draws with his finger in the
dust of the street -- a pattern -- notes perhaps. Suddenly Jack
cannot recall what it was. Then the boy runs away, and the street
is empty.
A moment later the man raises his head in surprise. For there --
where the boy drew the pattern -- exactly there flowers are
growing up. And: they are all different! Not even two are the
same!!!
"Oh," the man sighs. "There is hope anyway!"
Hope, Jack thinks. Was that what he said? What is hope? What
does it mean to hope? Jack finishes his drawing very quickly. He
is happy that he decided to draw his dream -- for now he all of a
sudden understands the whole thing. Except the hoping. What
does it mean to hope, he thinks again. I wish I knew!!"
Hope
Engelsk for 7. klasse
Skole-forum.dk
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Write the answers in your exercise book:
1) Is it possible that we all one day have a gene card?
2) Are our genes a private matter or do they belong to the state?
3) Is it a good thing that we are all different? Try to explain.
4) Where do dream come from?
5) Try to tell about a dream you have had.
6) The discovery of the genes is a revolution. Is there
responsibility to it as well?
7) How can the knowledge about the genes be misused?
8) Would you like to know about your genes and the diseases
you may get in the future. Explain!
Opgaver til "Hope"
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