The Little Prince

As a child I read a book, my first real book, everybody must know that was my first real book since I always say it, it was the Little Prince. I was 7 and I loved it. I can almost say that it is my happiest memory. It was so vivid for me, I read it again and again, everytime I got to the end, though it left me with a tinge of sadness it also gave me a tinge of hope, because the author implies it´s possible for the little prince to come back, he also implies anyone can find him. I was so fond of that little child the author describes that I wanted to find him -or to be found by him-, I wanted to write to the author and say I´d met the little fellow. I was a "serious" kind of child, very "mature" as people often said but I still had that little fantasy in me. As I grew older I dropped it, I became "serious" I was on the proccess of becoming an adult and though I still cherished the story I knew it was of not use to have that little silly fantasy in me anymore, so I dropped it or maybe I just left it there, on the back of my mind, sleeping.

 I, just like the man on the Little Prince book, had have a plane crash, I had also fallen from the sky probably not on the literal meaning of the words but there´s more than one way to fall from the sky, in earth you see all sort of things as the fox says. My water supply was running out and I was bussy with "serious" things, things that seemed a matter of life or death. My little silly fantasy was sound asleep, unlike Antoine the Little Prince´s voice didnt wake it up but his laugh is the first thing I remember. "If a child comes to you. He laughs[...] if he doesnt answers your questions you´ll know who he is [...] Send word that he´s come back." He laughed during a "serious" talk, it startled me a little but it was non of my business.

In his little planet he had it all figured out but he had fallen from the sky too. So typical of the little prince, he sunk on his reveries yet talked a lot at his own pace. He came to me while I was trying to fix my "plane" not really a plane but the thing that I thought was going to make me fly again and go back home before my water supply ended, I wished it ended faster sometimes tough, my sense of survival is so bad sometimes. He hated that of me and as honest as he is and as serious as he takes invisible, esential things, he declared it. Princesses can be hard sometimes, they´re so noble too. "If a child comes to you. He laughs[...] if he doesnt answers your questions you´ll know who he is [...] Send word that he´s come back." He certainly didnt have the figure of a child, maybe that´s why I didnt know as I saw him that he was the Little Prince or maybe I just had thought impossible to find him, maybe the little silly fantasy was dying in that never-ending sleep. He didnt have the figure of a child but he came to me. He came to me with all that was important in his own world. He was so strange to me, to me and all of my "serious business" and my crashed plane. I want to laugh now at how little serious it all seems now. I think I was strange to him too. Was he looking for a friend this time too? like in the book had he come from the sky looking for a friend? I certainly wasnt looking for one, in fact I was a little annoyed that he interrrupted me from my "serious business" I was a little upset at not understanding how so many unserious things were declared by him as a high priority, he even had a graphic for it.

He didnt have the figure of a child but he was one, and he laughed, he laughed a happy laugh, a contagious laugh that now lingers in my memory. Antoine was right, Im sure of that, he said that the Little Prince had told him that when he looked at the stars they were going to be a laugh and that he was going to know somewhere the Little Prince was laughing and he was going to want to laugh with him. I look at the shiny objects and I know the Little Prince must be laughing somewhere and it makes me want to smile too.

The first time the little prince came to earth, the fox showed him how to tame something or someone in order to know that something or someone. Probably this time the little prince dont remember that encounter with the fox but he did remember how to become unique for someone. He tamed me despite all the "seriousness" that was going on in my life. "If a child comes to you. He laughs[...] if he doesnt answers your questions you´ll know who he is [...] Send word that he´s come back." The little prince came to me. The little prince laughed and made me smile, of course he also did the third thing: he didnt answer my questions and never dropped one, he was kind enought to let go of some, though, but basically that´s why I recognized him. He didnt give me answers, not when he didnt want to. The little silly fantasy of mine was still sleeping, dry, dying but in it´s dreams it told to the child-me this child that had come to me was, indeed, the Little Prince, stubborn as he was, kind as he was, wise as he was.

Days passed, like Antoine, I met a little more about his life and his planet, and his sadness and his joy, one day a little, other day a little more, all thanks not to a sheep but thanks to a box, a shiny box, full of sheeps and sounds, and stars and voices and colors. I wasnt good at drawing either but I got used to it after a while. I got fond of it.

Because I knew all about the story I was well aware of the fox´s advice to the prince "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what´s essential is invisible to the eye" I loved that advice, not that I followed it anyways, the Little Prince scolded me for that, but it didnt really had a meaning for me, not for the grown up me at least. I had to wait for the child me to wake up after it´s long time slumber but it did, it did in a silent way, I guess I didnt remember how quiet of a child I was until I realized the child me had been awake for longer than I had thought and it was taking the fox´s advice. "A different way of seeing life" at those words the child me laughed along with the little prince and I found out the little silly fantasy in me was still there, it made the grown up me feel embarrased. It flushed, but blushes are just fine when you are a child, the child me was awake and the Little Prince was a child that had come to me with his gentle laugh and his prince-like manners so it was ok because children can learn together.


I want to close my eyes at the snake, I dont want to remember about that sleepery thing, I want to pretend it does not exist but I know, the child me and the grown up me, both know that the golden, sand-like snake must come and it´s probably bitten him already, I can see him walking slow towards the place where he landed. I stay quiet, I stay in silence. There´s always the shiny memories that provoke a smile. We stay in silence.

I got to meet the Little Prince, I never knew the child me would come back after that much time. "I look up at the sky and then I wonder what´s happened there at his planet [...] and I see how everything changes and no grown up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important."

It´s too bad that Antoine it´s not around anymore because I wont be able to tell him how I´ve found -or have been found by- the little prince. Im happy that I got to meet him, it´s another story that I´ll cherish, just like the story on the book, only this time unequely to myself.

The child me wake up thanks to the little prince, I see stars and flowers and butterflies that had been invisible for quite sometime, thanks for everything little prince.

***
mmm I think I should write a disclaimer too, idk, I think so because I´ve use some quotes and ofc the name of Antoine de Saint Exupery book and his name too, I´ve used it because he´s story has always inspired me and it´s just a way to call someone that comes to one´s life and changes one´s perspective for the better, nothing more.Anyways the names belong only to the author.

>> I guess this is more like a story to myself since I remember my writing teachers telling me to always think about the reader when writing a story but only someone that has read  the book will get it I guess, but then it´s quite a popular book so probably it wont be so hard if anybody reads it.
I have to say I love when the book/author says that the Little Prince laughs b/c it seems to me that he´s truly happy when he does so. Anyone can tell that book is my favorite right? haha