In a city unknown to us lived a boy named Tyoma. He grew up in an ordinary family with his parents, grandfather and grandmother. Tyoma was no different from his peers, loved to play and go for walks, but fell asleep poorly and was fretful in the evenings. Because of this, the Dream Fairy had to wait for a long time for Tyoma 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 little 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 jug 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 whilst playing in their dreams and entertaining themselves with friendly fairy-tale characters, the little ones grow quickly. And whilst the children sleep soundly, adults restore their strength for the next day.
One evening, something went wrong. Tyoma didn't want to fall asleep again. Parents, exhausted from a 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 a signal from Tyoma'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 little ones didn't want to sleep and wouldn't let their elders rest.
Mums and dads, having not slept at night, couldn't go about their business and work, they lacked the strength, they fell asleep on their feet. Children slept little during the day or secretly, so no one would see. The Fairy, tired of 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, preparing tasty breakfasts and nourishing lunches. The houses ran out of milk, bread and the children's favourite sweets.
Tired and hungry, Tyoma wandered around the room and decided to collect the scattered toys. Unhurriedly he began stacking blocks one on top of another and created a tall tower, which rested on the smallest unstable block. The tower began to lean, 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 was me, that very block that destroyed everything!
For a long time afterwards, his parents talked with their son about understandable things and incomprehensible actions, which Tyoma 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 of what he would become when he grew up, fell into a deep sleep without noticing.
That evening the Fairy woke to the insistent ringing of Tyoma's bell, which she hadn't heard for such a long time. She was delighted and hurried to the cherished jug to fetch a ball to send to the little boy. Tyoma in his sleep saw himself as a stargazer, talking to bright and mysterious stars, and remembered that once he was 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 beautiful kind dreams flew to children in all corners of the city.
