The Mighty Epsilon
As a boy, dream is all I did.
Ms. Mayberry would often ask me why I wasn’t like the other children from the orphanage.
They would play baseball and hopscotch, but not me. I was different.
I loved to dream. I would dream that the night sky would fall like rain, so I could sail into my favorite galaxies. I would dream I was a bird so I could know once and for all, if clouds were actually just really big marshmallows. I would even dream sometimes of the way my mom and dad used to tuck me into bed and kiss me goodnight.
But more than anything, I would dream I had a dog. And every night I would dream of the day he would come to me and be my greatest friend.
I still remember when I told Ms. Mayberry that I wanted a puppy. “But not just any puppy,” I said with a smile, ”I want a white one with black spots and little floppy ears that bend over just right!”
She just looked down at me over her horn-rimmed glasses and said “You know animals aren’t allowed in the orphanage.” Puzzled, I asked myself what that had to do with black and white puppies with floppy ears.
“It’s alright”, I exclaimed, “If YOU won’t get me one, I’ll just wait until the day he comes to me and jumps right through my bedroom window!”
Then she tenderly stroked my cheek and said “Honey, that doesn’t even make sense. The windows are too high, and besides, dogs don’t jump through windows.”
I didn’t say anything so she simply sighed and left me there, but I didn’t mind that she didn’t understand. I knew he would come, but I just didn’t know that he would come that very night.
I was in my little room about to get under the covers when something dashed right through the open window. And I knew exactly who it was.
I crawled to the foot of my bed and there smiling back up at me was a little white dog with black spots and floppy ears that bent over just right.
“I knew you would come.” I said. “What took you so long?”
“What makes you think I’m late?” he asked, cocking his head to one side like most dogs do.
Then I jumped to the floor and gathered him in my arms. I had waited so long for him, and finally he was there beside me. I set him on my bed, looked deep into his eyes, and said “I always knew that you could talk.”
“Do you like to dream?” He asked me. “I LOVE to dream”, I said.
Then he laughed so hard, I think the room got brighter and he began to sing:
“I am the king of dreams and I’ll show you everything!
The autumn leaves and the summer rain,
The sweetest songs and the strangest games,
The burning dusk and the breaking dawn,
I am the mighty Epsilon.”
It was beautiful really the way he sang. I wondered to myself if I had heard it before, but I quickly shook the thought away. How could I have?
“So, you’ll help me dream of anything?” I asked
“Of course!” he cried out, “But just as long as you have a box.”
“A box?” I asked intrigued. “What kind of box?”
“Oh any box!” he said. “A small box, a big box, a tall box, a thin box, even greens ones with red polka dots. Any box will do.”
So I rummaged through my room, and quickly found a box about the size of my hand.
“Can we dream of oceans?” I begged. “I’ve never seen the ocean.”
“Just look.” He whispered. So I looked inside the box and there we were! Captains of the largest ship I‘d ever seen with masts that touched the clouds. We sailed all night across the oceans to the ends of the earth where the moon was so large and the water so clear, you could see the seashells and shipwrecks that dot the ocean floor. Then in an instant, that massive ship shrunk until it was a simple wooden raft, and there underneath the moonlight, I dipped my fingertips into the cool water while I watched the ripples catch the waves and disappear into the deep. I think it was right before sleep overcame me and the box slid from my hands that I heard him whisper, “All my life, boy, I’ve been waiting for you.”
Every night we dreamt together. I would find a box, and then we would look inside and dream of things that I had never dreamt I could dream of! We dreamt of dangerous jungles and fierce dragons, one-legged pirates and even castles with bathrooms larger than the orphanage itself! One night we even swam through space, past the moon and the stars, until we had found every planet in the universe. There’s about 3 gagillion. Believe me, we counted.
Then one night, I asked him a question that had been on my mind for some time.
“Epsilon, tonight can we dream of something special?”
“Like what?”he asked gently. A large box, almost larger than me, sat overturned on the foot of my bed. He rested his head on his spotted paws, and by the look in his eyes, I got the strange feeling that he already knew what I wanted to ask.
Unable to contain myself any longer, I blurted out, “Can we dream your favorite dream?”
He only laughed like he did the first day I met him and sang out his song.
“I am the king of dreams and I’ll show you everything!
The autumn leaves and the summer rain,
The sweetest songs and the strangest games,
The burning dusk and the breaking dawn,
I am the mighty Epsilon.”
Then he whispered, “Look”. So I looked inside and suddenly we were at the foot of a mountain on the edge of a plateau. As I craned my head upwards toward the heavens, it seemed to never end. It rose up higher and higher until it disappeared behind the clouds of a purple sky mixed with shades of blue I had never seen before. And as I walked to the side of the cliff, the sun came up and a sea of golden light splashed across my face. I marveled at the beauty of it all and wondered how and why it would travel so far just to warm the coldest parts of me.
For years we dreamt like that, imagining things I had never seen, creating the impossible. Sometimes we would even dream our favorite dream, that sunrise at the foot of the mountain, and we would watch it over and over again.
And I would ask him “Why a box?”, but Epsilon would never say.
Then one day when I was old enough, we left that orphanage and we never went back. We left to see the world and it wasn’t long until I found myself at the foot of that same mountain, only this time it wasn’t a dream. That day I saw a real sunrise, and as I fell to my knees, I realized that all the dreams that we had dreamed were not only possibilities, but realities.
“Epsilon, how come you never told me?” I said.
He simply cocked his head to one side like most dogs do, and said “You never asked.”
So I cried out, “Epsilon, show me true joy, show me true sorrow! I want to know the world!”
And he said, “My boy, I’ll show you everything!”
So we dreamt of a better world: a world without hunger, a world without war, a world where everyone dreamt like kings and anything was possible.
We travelled to cities and countries throughout the globe, and we showed people kindness. We taught them to care for one another, and stand up for the best and most beautiful things.
We showed the world our favorite dream, and it became a reality.
But one day, I came home and cried out his name, “Epsilon!”, and I waited for that song I had heard so many times before.
But it never came.
Epsilon, my greatest friend, was gone.
I cried that day. But I didn’t cry for long because I realized that he had taught me that I never needed a box to see and feel and make the most magnificent things. And I know now that there is no limit to the dreams that can come true.
Even today, he roams the world in search of other little girls and boys that are waiting for him to jump right through their bedroom window. They’ll gather him in their arms and they'll say “I knew that you would come! I always knew that you could talk!”
And sometimes if I try hard enough, I can still hear him sing.
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