In a city unknown to us lived a boy named Téma. He grew up in an ordinary family with parents, a grandfather, and a grandmother. Téma was no different from his peers—he loved to play and go for walks—but he fell asleep poorly and was fussy in the evenings. Because of this, the Dream Fairy had to wait for a long time for Téma to fall asleep so she could send the little boy a magical dream.
Many children don't know that in every city lives a Dream Fairy in a cosy little house. In the house there is a special room where silver bells are kept. For each child living in the city, there is their own special bell. As soon as a child falls into a deep sleep, the bell begins to ring loudly.
Hearing the melody, the Fairy takes a shimmering rainbow-coloured ball from a round-bellied pitcher and blows on it. The ball sets off on its journey, flying high above the houses to its little child, to bring a magical dream. When the balls arrive at the children, they sleep beautifully, because while dreaming and playing and having fun with friendly fairy-tale characters, little ones grow quickly. And while the children sleep soundly, adults restore their strength for the next day.
One evening, something went wrong. Téma didn't want to fall asleep again. Parents, tired from the whole day, couldn't get their son to bed. They read fairy tales, sang songs, but nothing helped. The Fairy stayed awake all night, waiting for the ring of Téma's bell, but it stubbornly remained silent.
The next evening the boy refused to sleep again, and this continued for several weeks: the Fairy waited for the bell's signal, the parents didn't sleep. One such evening, the exhausted Fairy could no longer stay awake and fell asleep without sending magical dreams to the little children lying in their beds. Not having seen sweet dreams, the children didn't want to sleep and wouldn't let their elders rest.
Mothers and fathers, not having slept at night, couldn't do their tasks and work; they lacked strength and fell asleep on their feet. Children slept little during the day or secretly, so no one would see. The Fairy, tired from this chaos and worry, fell into a deep sleep, continuing to sleep day and night. The adults were so exhausted that they stopped going to the shop, buying groceries, and preparing tasty breakfasts and nourishing lunches. The houses ran out of milk, bread, and the children's favourite sweets.
Tired and hungry, Téma wandered around the room and decided to pick up scattered toys. Slowly he began to stack blocks one on top of another, and a tall tower formed, which rested on the smallest unstable block. The tower began to tilt, and the blocks tumbled right onto the boy. He cried out. Hearing the noise, his parents ran into the room.
Mum and Dad saw their son's happy eyes, and he said to them:
I understand why the order in the city was disrupted! It's me—I'm that very block that broke everything!
For a long time afterwards, his parents talked with their son about understandable things and incomprehensible actions that Téma would learn about in the future when he grew up and became an adult. The conversation went on late into the evening. The boy wished his parents sweet dreams, lay down in bed, and dreaming about how he would grow up, he fell into a deep sleep without noticing.
That evening the Fairy woke to the insistent ringing of Téma's bell, which she hadn't heard in a long time. She was delighted and hurried to the precious pitcher to get a ball to send to the little boy. In his dream, Téma saw himself as an astronomer, talking with bright and mysterious stars, and remembered that he had once been a small child who didn't want to sleep in his cosy bed.
In the evening city it became quieter and quieter, the lights in the windows went out one by one, and from the Fairy's little house came the long-awaited little bells, and to all corners of the city, beautiful kind dreams flew to the little children.
