He awoke to loud squeaking and banging sounds and strange deep muffled voices coming from the kitchen. He looked around his bedroom. “How did I get here?” he questioned. He opened his eyes then squinted. There was no Pterodactyl to be found anywhere. He let out a big combination sigh and yawn. “It was a dream!” He said with relief. Still in bed, he could hear his mother exclaiming, “Oh, it looks so beautiful.” Then a moment later, “Now be careful, or you’ll hurt your back!”
“What looks beautiful?” Benjamin wondered to himself as he jumped from his bed right into his Cozy the Cow bed slippers. “Whose back is going to get hurt?” He just had to find out.
Wasting no time, he started to run down the hallway just outside his bedroom, when he suddenly remembered he was not supposed to run in the house. So he walked as quickly as he could through the living room which led to the dining room, which led to the kitchen. When he arrived at the kitchen door a few seconds later, he stopped suddenly and his face stretched wide open with amazement. Two of the biggest, meanest looking men he had ever seen were pushing a brand new, fancy, double-door refrigerator with an automatic ice dispenser into place next to the electric self-cleaning range. Benjamin was looking for the tiny old Frigidaire refrigerator that used to sit in the very same spot, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“There you are ma’am,” said the biggest man, his voice sounding a bit like an old farm tractor.
“We’ll plug ‘er in and be on our way,” said the other man who was shorter and skinnier and had a moustache that made him look like a walrus.
“What happened mom?” Benjamin asked, surprising his mother and the two men. “What happened to our refrigerator?”
“Oh my gosh Ben, you scared me!” his mother said with excitement. “I didn’t know you were there. Please announce yourself next time.”
“Yes mother,” Benjamin replied dutifully. “But mother what happened?”
“Your father surprised me with this anniversary present. What do you think?” his mother asked.
Benjamin watched the two delivery men to see if they were as mean as they looked. The skinny man grumbled then kept pushing the refrigerator. The biggest man looked up for a minute and smiled at Benjamin, making him a little less nervous.
“It’s neat!” Ben replied. Then addressing the big man he said, “Where’s our old refrigerator?” Benjamin had gotten used to the old refrigerator and knew this new one was going to take some getting used to.
“Well son...” he started. Benjamin didn’t like to be called son. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing to be called son if it weren’t for the way his father always called him “son” just before telling him to do something like, “Son, take out the trash” or “Son, do your homework. The big man continued. “We already put the old fridge out by our truck. Benjamin’s ears perked up. “Is it a big truck?” Benjamin asked. He liked trucks. “It’s pretty big,” replied the skinny walrus man.
“Can I see it?” Benjamin asked suddenly catching himself and looking at his mother as she looked sternly at him. He decided to rephrase the question. “I mean, MAY I see your truck?” Benjamin’s mother always corrected his poor grammar and he had developed the habit of catching and correcting his own mistakes before his mother had a chance to say anything or to get mad.
“What do you think Stan?” the biggest man asked his walrus partner.
“Sure, it looks like we’re done here,” the walrus man said with a big sigh. Both delivery men seemed to be much nicer now than they had appeared a few moments earlier.
The man with the walrus moustache handed a piece of paper to Benjamin’s mother saying, “Here’s your receipt ma’am. You’ve got yourself the best refrigerator money can buy. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!” He smiled at Benjamin’s mother then turned to Ben saying, “Now, let’s go take a look at that truck!”
“Can I mom? Can I?” Benjamin’s mom turned her head sideways as if she had water in her ears and it was giving her a headache and said, “What, may I ask, did you say?” Benjamin, looking a bit embarrassed rephrased his question. “I mean... MAY I?”
Benjamin’s mom rolled her eyes and said, “Oh alright. Just stay out of the way.”
“Oh boy!” Benjamin shouted, running out of the kitchen toward the front door. “No running in the house. You know the rules!” his mother shouted after him, adding, “Be careful.”
As Benjamin rushed carefully down the front porch steps, he stopped suddenly, as if frozen in time, to take notice of something sitting on the front lawn. Whatever he was looking at made him forget about the truck. He had never seen anything quite like this before.
Resting on the lawn, standing on end, was the tallest, you could even say giant, widest, you could even say jumbo sized, most incredibly wonderful cardboard box imaginable. Benjamin stared at it dreaming. He walked around the box slowly, examining it carefully. To Ben, it seemed as big as a building.
The delivery men, following right behind Benjamin, could see how excited he was about his discovery. The man with the walrus moustache said, “That’s the box the new refrigerator came in.” Benjamin must have been thinking about something else because he did not hear the man speaking to him. But as soon as the big man with the tractor voice said, “You can have it if you want it,” Benjamin woke up from his daydream and shouted, “Yes! I want it. Please... I want it!”
“It’s all yours,” said the walrus man.
“Wow!“ shouted Benjamin as he pushed the box over and climbed inside.
With that, the two delivery men secured the old Frigidaire refrigerator in the back of their truck and drove away waving goodbye. Benjamin had hardly noticed their truck and had hardly waved goodbye. He was in a world of his own playing with his beautiful new box.
“What a terrific day this is!” exclaimed Benjamin, hurrying out of the box and quickly into the house so he could put on his play clothes. His mother never let him play outside unless he was wearing play clothes. She seemed to have rules for everything, like no reading under the covers with a flashlight after lights out and keep your elbows off the table. Benjamin’s father had his own set of rules too. Benjamin had learned it was best to follow the rules if he wanted to stay out of trouble.
Once dressed, Benjamin returned to the kitchen to tell his mother about the giant box. He excitedly started talking about it when she interrupted him and insisted he eat some breakfast before playing. His mother was known to say, “You’re not going anywhere until you’ve had a good square meal.” His mother was constantly feeding him. And although Benjamin wasn’t very hungry at all, he knew if he didn’t eat breakfast his mother would never let him go outside to play.
After eating rather hurriedly, Benjamin rushed outside straight to his new cardboard box. He circled the box slowly imagining what he could do with it. He started to see that it was more than a regular old box. He imagined the box could become whatever he wanted it to be. It was magic.
He crawled slowly inside the box make believing it was his very own castle with a giant cardboard drawbridge that lowered over a moat made of grass and a cardboard tower that reached to the sky. Being that he was the king of his castle, he decided to make up his own set of rules for life in his kingdom. His first rule was he could go to bed whenever he pleased and could read all night long under the covers with a flashlight if he felt like it. His second rule was that he could skip a meal if he wanted. His third rule was that in his castle, he didn’t have to follow anyone else’s rules. Imagining this made King Benjamin smile.
The king then gathered his gallant knights inside his beautiful new castle and proclaimed before them, “Hear ye, hear ye... I can watch T.V. all day long if I choose to because this is my castle.” He continued, “Because this is MY castle, I will have dessert before I eat dinner and broccoli will be taken off the menu immediately!” King Benjamin could hear the knights lending their support by cheering, “Hail King Benjamin! Hail King Benjamin.” “Last,” he said softly but with the utmost confidence, “I will drink as much chocolate milk as I can... because I love chocolate milk!” King Benjamin could hear the knights cheering even louder. “In my castle, I can have a birthday party every day and invite all my friends who will bring me great presents!“ he announced with a grin.
“But most important of all, because this is MY castle, I can go barefoot anytime I want.” And with that, King Benjamin kicked off his shoes with a squeal of delight. The knights each went his or her separate way which allowed King Benjamin to be alone. Benjamin enjoyed being by himself.
At that moment, King Benjamin noticed the Black Knight riding up the hill toward his castle and knew this meant trouble was just outside the protective walls of his fortress. He stood strong and confident, preparing himself for battle as the Black Knight rode over the drawbridge and stopped just short of the castle door. As the Black Knight approached the castle, King Benjamin shouted out, “Go no further evil knight.” The knight continued to move in the King’s direction and he held out what appeared to be a sealed parchment or envelope. When the Black Knight spoke, King Benjamin guessed he was up to his old trickery. “It’s me, Charlie the postman!” the Black Knight said. King Benjamin was not fooled. There were no knights named Charlie in his kingdom. The king then said, “Leave your parcels and be off with you. You have no business here.” The Black Knight laughed, handed Benjamin an envelope, and continued on his way. “No one is allowed in my castle unless I say so!” King Benjamin uttered fiercely. “Make sure you tell your mother this junk mail is all that came today!” shouted the Black Knight as he rode off into the distance. Benjamin thought, “How does the Black Knight know my mother?”
King Benjamin looked at the envelope then sniffed it suspiciously. He could not smell any poison so he decided to open it. The letter was addressed to someone named OCCUPANT. “This OCCUPANT must have been a king that lived in the castle before me,” the boy king thought to himself. Upon opening the envelope, King Benjamin discovered that inside was actually a letter stating he was a winner. “I am a winner!” he shouted with glee. He became very excited and called a meeting of the rectangular table, a sacred place where his knights gathered to hear important news. The table was long and seemed to be made of cardboard. Once the knights had gathered at the rectangular table, King Benjamin let them know he had received word that he was a winner. The knights assured him it was true, that he was indeed a winner, and they were happy for their king.
“It must be my lucky day!” King Benjamin thought to himself. Having his own castle made Benjamin feel grown up.
King Benjamin decided the excitement over being a winner had worn him out, so he lay down in his king-sized bed, which was made of cardboard, and took a nap. Once asleep, Benjamin began dreaming of being a pirate. A roaring wind startled Benjamin from his slumber and as he awoke, he discovered he was riding the crest of a wave in a very large pirate ship made of cardboard. Sure the mast and sails and even the cannons were made of cardboard, but it was the best quality cardboard in the entire world.
In one great big breath it became apparent to Benjamin he was traveling the high seas in search of treasures. But Pirate Benny, as he was known around the world, was no ordinary pirate. In fact he officially held the distinction of being the world’s nicest pirate. Sure Pirate Benny had heard he was supposed to be mean if he was going to be a pirate, but Pirate Benny just didn’t have it in him to do horrible things to other people. In fact, whenever Pirate Benny had treasure, which by the way he never stole, but found, he would give all but a little bit away. He only needed a little bit to keep himself and his fellow friendly pirates fed and their pirate ship afloat.
In one seaside village, Pirate Benny met a poor hungry woman who had no husband and several children. Benny gave her nearly half of his latest haul which was a pile of treasure he had found on a sunken ship. Benny the pirate once went hungry when his scallywag dad was late coming home from work and his mother waited to put dinner on the table. His dad was always at work it seemed. Benny knew what it was like to be a little bit hungry and he knew what it was like to be lonely. The poor woman thanked Pirate Benny over and over again, telling him he was “the nicest pirate in the world.”
This made Pirate Benny feel good about being generous.
Benny was such a nice pirate that he never fought with other pirates. He knew that hurting people was not the way to solve problems. His own feelings had been hurt a few times and it made him feel sad.
So, instead of hitting or yelling at the other pirates, Pirate Benny would invite any pirate he met to come aboard his ship for dinner. Dinner usually consisted of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peanut butter and smelly sandwiches as Pirate Benny liked to call them. Unfortunately, Benny’s mom didn’t like it when he used the word smelly and forbade him to do so. But he was out on the sea right now and could do whatever he pleased. After serving his pirate friends a meal of peanut butter and smelly sandwiches, Pirate would sing old pirate sandwich songs like, “Pass me the peanuts, pass me the jam, leave off the crust and cut them in half. Use lots of jelly. Make them smellllyyyy... it’s only a joke so go on and laugh!” All the pirates loved it when Benny sang! They enjoyed his company.
Once while sailing in his cardboard vessel with cardboard sails and a cardboard crow’s nest, Pirate Benny noticed a giant blue whale as he approached Spider Island. Spider Island was one of the best places to search for buried treasure. The giant blue whale was swimming straight for Pirate Benny’s ship which was making his crew very nervous. “Do something Benny,” they called out in unison. Pirate Benny wasn’t afraid of giant mammals. “Big whales are really nice once you get to know them,” Pirate Benny said with a smile. “He’s probably hungry!” Then Benny waved at the whale yelling, “Hey Blue... how would you like a delicious peanut butter and smelly sandwich?”
With that, the whale suddenly stopped, spraying a big blast of water from his blow hole which rained down on Pirate Benny’s ship and crew. Pirate Benny just laughed as the giant blue whale opened her mouth as wide as the cave Benny often took naps in on Spider Island. The pirate crew worked very hard to make the biggest peanut butter and smelly sandwich the world had ever seen. They hoisted the sandwich over the whale which Benny had nicknamed Matilda, then lowered it directly into her mouth. And even though they had to use up their supply of Peanut Butter that day, everyone on board the ship was smiling and singing... including the whale. Pirate Benny and his friends sailed on toward Spider Island with Matilda at their side blowing water onto them all along the way.
Being captain of a Pirate ship made Benjamin feel brave.
As he traveled around the world in his box full of dreams, Benjamin imagined he was a hero. He imagined he was capable of doing anything he wanted to do. He then remembered something he had always wanted to do more than anything else. His mind and heart were powerful. In a flash he was in a cardboard space ship on a cardboard launch pad waiting to zoom into space.
“Five, four, three, two, one... BLAST OFF!” he said excitedly, knowing he was in for the adventure of his life. He flew faster and faster toward the moon and Mars, nearly scraping the side of the Big Dipper.
This was the fastest, biggest and most beautiful cardboard rocket ship he had ever been in. This one had state-of-the-art computers and communications systems, a CD player and windshield wipers made of titanium just in case he ran into a meteor shower. But he wouldn’t need the windshield wipers after all as it was a beautiful day to fly in space. Astronaut Benjamin decided to land his dream ship on the planet Grizzle, home of the Fripps. Fripps were friendly space creatures who always had time for a visit and some Kronk (which were a lot like cookies). The reason Astronaut Benjamin called the inhabitants of Grizzle Fripps was every time they opened their snoots, they made a “fripp, fripp” noise. It turns out the Fripp’s language was known as Wooz, and even though the sounds were similar, every “fripp” noise had a different meaning. Astronaut Benjamin knew how to speak Wooz and enjoyed communicating with the Fripps. He also knew how to speak other space creature languages like Kraggle, Splot and Drone. He loved talking with space creatures in general.
After landing and putting on his oxygen filled spacesuit and helmet, Astronaut Benjamin got out of his spacecraft and looked all around the planet. “Something seems odd about this place today.” he noticed. “Grizzle is never this quiet.” It reminded him of the time he visited his grandmother in the hospital and she was so sick she just lied in her bed quietly without moving. It had frightened him. He was scared now too. He tried to not think about it. His mother always told him when he was scared to “just pretend you’re not scared,” but somehow that never worked.
“I wonder where the Fripps have gone?” he asked himself as there was no one else to ask. He couldn’t find anyone. He walked a while longer and became more and more frightened. The truth was Ben didn’t like to be alone. He often felt alone. He wanted nothing more than to have a brother... or even a sister, but his parents had decided they didn’t want to have any more children. He wanted someone who would listen to him tell all about his adventures. He couldn’t find anyone on planet Grizzle to talk with.
He even used his cardboard laser lenses and sonar device to search for them. He couldn’t find any of the Fripps, and just when he started to think the worst, that some disaster must have happened, Woozen shouts of “SURPRISE” could be heard as all the Fripps emerged from behind huge cardboard space rocks. Astronaut Benjamin practically jumped out of his space shoes with excitement. It was a surprise party... for him! The Fripps wanted to honor Benjamin for his recent heroism, when he had helped over two hundred Fripps find their way home after they had gotten lost in the tail of a comet while on a sightseeing tour of the stars homes. The creatures of Grizzle wanted to show their deeply felt appreciation for his courageously good deed.
Astronaut Benjamin stood looking at the cardboard table covered with Fripp food including Kronk, Splat, and Fuddle. Benjamin stood behind the cardboard podium and made a speech. “Thank you, each and everyone!” our hero said in Wooz. “I will always help my friends when they need me... and you are some of my dearest friends!” he said trying to clear the lump in his throat.
The party lasted for hours, which in Fripp time was about seventeen minutes. Astronaut Benjamin climbed into his spaceship and waved goodbye to his friends. There were tears in his eyes which caused his oxygen mask to fog up. Within seconds, he was thundering back into space.
Being an astronaut made Benjamin feel special.
Benjamin switched on his cardboard communicator. “Mission Control, this is Astronaut Benjamin,“ he said calmly into his radio. “I’ll be staying in space for a while. I love it up here! My next stop will be planet Zoltar where I plan to collect all that space stuff you asked for!” The adventure it seemed was just beginning.
Benjamin felt he was dreaming - floating past stars and planets in is big beautiful machine, flying toward the Milky Way and looking deep into the black hole, hoping he could just keep going when suddenly... SPLASH DOWN. He was back on Earth. “No,” he cried. “What’s happening?” He could hear a faint voice that seemed strangely familiar.
“Ben, it’s getting dark. I’ve been calling you for nearly an hour. What’s gotten into you?”
“Was that my mother?” he asked himself, still somewhat confused.
“It’s time to come in for dinner,” she said. “Your father’s going to be home late and I’m watching the Wheel of Prizes show, so you’re going to have to eat by yourself.” That wasn’t all. “And put on your shoes, it’s getting cold and I don’t want you catching pneumonia. Doctors are expensive!”
After another moment he realized it had indeed been his mother’s voice he had heard. The day had come and gone. He sat for a few seconds more in his very special box, remembering what a terrific day it had been. Benjamin couldn’t wait for tomorrow. That night, he dreamed of cardboard box race cars, cardboard battleships and cardboard Volcanoes.
When he awoke the next morning, he jumped from his bed right into his play clothes, and headed straight for the front door. At the bottom of the front porch steps leading to the front lawn where he had played the day before he suddenly stopped. A look of panic crossed his face. The box was gone. He couldn’t believe it was true, and he looked everywhere, but could not find his big beautiful cardboard box.
His mother, who was carrying the plastic garbage cans up the driveway from the curb asked, “What’s wrong with you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” Ben did not stop to talk. He kept looking over hedges and behind gates. “What on earth are you looking for?” his mother cackled.
“My box!” he cried in anguish.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake you crazy kid... your father put it out with the trash last night. We thought you were done with it. It looked pretty beat up.” she reasoned. “Why don’t you just play with some of your toys?” You never play with your toys and they aren’t cheap you know?” Then she carried the garbage cans the rest of the way up the driveway.
“They don’t understand.” Benjamin said softly to himself as he sat in a lump on the lawn. “That was my box full of dreams!”
Losing the magic box left Benjamin feeling sad.
A few weeks later, Benjamin was dreaming he was trapped in his grandmother’s old house and he could smell smoke. His grandmother had passed away recently and she wasn’t there to help him. He was screaming for her, and then for anyone who would come, but no one could hear him. Just as Benjamin was about to break the window so he could climb out of the burning building... he awoke to loud banging sounds and strange grumbling voices coming from the basement. The sounds were familiar and caused Benjamin to spring awake. An excited look crossed his face. He jumped from his bed straight into his Cozy the Cow bed slippers and rushed carefully downstairs so that his mother wouldn’t hear him running. When he arrived at the basement door, he stopped suddenly, his face stretched wide with astonishment. Standing in front of him were the same two men who had delivered the refrigerator, the big man with the farm tractor voice and the skinny man that looked like a walrus. This time, they were putting a new washing machine and dryer in place.
Without a word, Benjamin zipped carefully up the basement stairs and headed straight to the front yard. As he reached the front porch steps, he saw exactly what he had been hoping for. Resting on the lawn, standing on end, were TWO of the most wonderfully magical boxes a person could dream in. The sight of the boxes was enough to make Benjamin squeal, “What a terrific day this is!”
And it was!