The tidiness

Quite a while past, soon after he made the world, God chose to take a vacation day. As every one of the creatures were recently made and didn't have a clue what they ought to do, God couldn't leave them all alone so he went looking for a heavenly messenger to care for them. Despite the fact that he was somewhat pointless, Perico the darling so needed to be with the creatures and argued such a great amount to be permitted to deal with them that God gave him the work. 

'Ensure they rest before dull and are alert before first light. We can't leave the Earth unfilled!' was the solitary guidance God gave him. 

Loaded up with energy, Perico went sensible and went through the day playing with the creatures. He was glad to such an extent that it was almost evening when he recollected that he expected to send the creatures to bed. 

'Please everybody, rapidly! Off to rest.' 

'Where do we leave the entirety of our parts?' asked the creatures. They hadn't had them for long and weren't accustomed to laying down with their ears, bills, hooks, noses and feet, which they took off to head to sleep. 

'I'm not very sure: simply leave them there in a heap. Please fast, time's slipping away', Perico answered fretfully. 

Not long before the last beam of sun vanished, every one of the creatures were sleeping. 

'Goodness, that was close. I pulled off it' thought the darling. And afterward, extremely drained, he hit the hay. 

He woke up not long before first light and rushed to wake the creatures. 

'Please! Get up! You need to put every one of your parts on and be conscious before sunrise'.

Once upon a time, a boy moved houses. On entering his new bedroom he saw that it was full of toys, storybooks, pens, pencils... and all of it was perfectly tidy.

That day he played all he liked, but went to bed without having tidied up.

Mysteriously, the next morning all the toys had been put back in their proper place. He was sure that no one had entered his bedroom, but the boy didn't pay it much mind. The exact same thing happened that day, and the next, but when the fourth day arrived and he went to get his first toy of the day, the toy jumped out of his hands and said, "I don't want to play with you!"

The boy thought he was seeing things, but the same happened with every toy he touched. Finally, an old teddy bear said to him: "Why are you surprised that we don't want to play with you? You always leave us so far from our proper place, the place we feel most comfortable and happy. Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the books to climb back up onto their shelves, or for the pens to jump into their tin? You haven't a clue how uncomfortable and cold the floor is! We won't play with you any more until you promise to leave us in our little houses before you go off to bed."

The boy remembered how comfy and content he felt in his bed, and how bad he felt when he had once slept in a chair. He realised how badly he had treated his friends, the toys. He asked their forgiveness, and from that day he always put his toys nicely in their special places before he got into bed.

“Oh, Great Wizard! A great tragedy has occurred! Little Manu has stolen the magic potion with the ‘Word Thrower’ spell”.

“Manu? But that’s the bad-mannered child who insults everyone! How awful. We have to stop him before he drinks it!”

But it was already too late. Manu ran around the city insulting anyone he came across just to see the effect of his words and their letters. It was as if these were ghosts that, when hurled at people, passed straight through them and turned them into whatever Manu had said.

“Manu, stop doing that! You’re hurting everybody. Quick, please drink this oth“I don’t want to! This is too much fun! And I am the only one who has the power to do it. Ha, ha, ha, ha! Idiots! Stupid! Baldy! Oldie!” He launched into a tirade of insults.

I have an idea, master,” said one of the wizard helpers as they escaped from Manu’s words. “We could give the potion to everyone”.

“Are you crazy? That would be a terrible idea. If this is the result of just one child hurling insults, imagine what it would be like if everyone did it! I have to think of something.”

In the seven days it took for the wizard to come up with something, Manu took charge of the city. Everyone served and obeyed him out of fear. Luckily, the wizard was able to use his magic to reach Manu during the night and give him a few drops of the new potion while he was sleeping. Manu woke up ready to have fun at the expense of others. But as soon as the butler entered, carrying his breakfast, hundreds of letters flew towards Manu, forming many words, among which he could only make out “bully”, “tormentor” and “rude”. On coming into contact with his skin, the letters dissolved, stinging him very badly.

The boy shouted, threatened and used terrible words, but soon realised that the butler had seen nothing.

Nor had anyone from whom further bursts of horrible letters were uttered in his direction. In one single day, the spells made of words had gone from being the most fun in the world to the worst.

But as much as he cried and asked for forgiveness, it was too late for the antidote.

“You will have to learn to live with both spells: ‘word throwing’ and ‘thought receiving’. Used correctly, they could be useful…

Manu could barely go outside his house. He had behaved so badly towards everyone that, even if they were too afraid to tell him to his face, they thought horrible things of him, and when these thoughts touched him they burned like fire. He started to stay in alone all the time.

One day, a little girl saw his sad face and felt sorry for him. She thought she might like to be friends with him and when this thought touched Manu’s skin, instead of pain he felt something lovely. Manu had an idea.

“What if I were to use the ‘Word Thrower’ spell with good words? Would it work the other way round?” Manu wondered.

He tested it by telling the young girl how lovely and clever she was. And, sure enough, his words flew towards her, transforming her appearance incredibly. The girl didn’t say anything, but her appreciative thoughts made Manu feel the best he had ever felt.

xcited, Manu walked the streets using his gift to help and improve the people he met. In the process, he managed to change people’s bad opinions of him and he soon realised that he could have done this from the outset. If he had been kind and polite, everyone would have been a winner.

The effect of the potions eventually disappeared but Manu didn’t go back to his old ways. He had learnt that it was much better to feel everyone’s affection and friendship