the story of john ford
Post on 23-Mar-2016
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2
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.
4
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.
8
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
10
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.
22
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
Cover Page
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es/boy_fishing.jpg
Page 8
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ark-angel-fairy-wings.jpg
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g?size=572&uid={D45ABB94-9C90-4416-A6
4F-29109CA36DE3}
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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?
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