The Sleepy Letter J
by Daniel Errico
Illustrated by Michiko Cayce
The Letter J lived in the Land of Words.
He was always tired.
When he was a lowercase j, he often fell asleep and daydreamed.
At the beach when everyone was building sand castles, he would build himself a sand bed.
For his birthdays, he always asked for the newest pillow on the market.
When his friends asked what game he wanted to play, he always picked hide-and-sleep.
When he was older, he decided to run for mayor.
He slept through most of the election and won by 20 votes.
As mayor, he took lots of naps inside his office, and nobody knew.
Everyone just thought he was really busy.
One day he was in his bed dreaming about a star coming down to earth and shining right on his front yard.
But then a woodpecker went KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on a tree and woke him up.
“Lousy woodpecker,” he thought.
He took two naps that day to make up for the sleep he had lost.
The next morning he was in bed dreaming about flying through the air.
But then the woodpecker went KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on a tree and woke him up.
“Lousy, loud woodpecker,” he thought.
He took four naps that day to make up for the sleep he had lost.
The next morning, while it was still dark out, he was dreaming about candy raining down from the sky. It was the best dream he’d ever had!
But then the woodpecker went KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK on a tree and woke him up.
“That does it,” he said, “I’m going to catch that lousy woodpecker!”
He grabbed a net and went chasing after the woodpecker.
The bird flew around his yard, and the Letter J couldn’t catch up.
While he ran, his net kept catching lightning bugs until his entire net was full!
They all lit up and sparkled so brightly together that it looked like there was a star on his front lawn.
“Just like in my dream…” thought the Letter J.
Then he followed the woodpecker as it flew into a tree.
He climbed up after it, higher and higher until he lost his balance and fell right into a rubber bush.
He bounced so high in the air that he felt like he was flying!
“Just like in my dream…” thought the Letter J.
When he came back down, he fell onto a cart that was sitting by the side of the road.
It was the cart that brought marshmallows to all the lowercase letters.
When he came crashing down, the marshmallows flew into the air and floated back down like they were raining from the sky.
“Just like my favorite dream ever!” said the Letter J.
From that day, on the Letter J woke up with the woodpecker and didn’t take naps.
He got so much done, and he did such a good job as mayor, that the letters made a statue of him in the center of town.
The statue became the woodpecker’s favorite place to perch. .. and sometimes you could hear him knocking.
In the Land of Words, your dreams can only come true if you are awake.
