distance and finally arrived to a palace, a shiny golden palace.
‘Wow! It is totally the same with a story, isn’t it?’ I whispered.
‘Be quiet. Go into it,’ it ordered me.
I walked near to the big door. While I was considering how I could open them, they opened
by themselves. That broke the Newton’s first law, isn’t it? However, after becoming a lizard from a
man, I was no longer fascinated by such things. I walked in, pretending to see some gold statues,
gold chairs and tables. However, inside, there was nothing. There was only a black room, filled
with space and silence. Quite surprising.
While I was thinking, a voice came to me suddenly. ‘Are you the man died after walking for
three days?’ a question was asked.
‘Yes, absolutely.’ I answered shortly.
‘Do you want to be a human again?’ another questioned come to me.
‘Of course. But can it really be true? And also, do you know anything about my friends? They
died in a helicopter accident.’ I responded.
‘I will grant you a wish here, for your effort paid and your contribution to the world. You can
use this wish for anything, including making you back to a man,’ the voice continued to talk,
ignoring my questions.
‘Change me and my friends back to living human and send us out of this desert,’ I wished quickly.
‘… No, your wish contained to much things that is more that your contributions,’ it disallowed me.
‘Then what is the amount I can wish?’ I asked angrily.
‘Change one person back to living human, or change your friends to animals,’ he answered.
I stopped talking. I knew that it was normal and reasonable for me to ignore my two friends
and go to life again. Everyone would do like that. However, another side of my heart told me that
I shouldn’t let my friends die. I had my wife, my children away from the desert. I should really
go back and take care of them. However, the two friends were my closest friends in my life. They
helped me a lot. Without their helps, I could never be as successful as now. I was totally stuck in
this dilemma.
Finally, I made up my mind. I remembered what I thought while I was still a human at last.
‘I had already died.’ I shouldn’t deserve for anything that I have lost already. There were no
advantages to be reluctant of the past things, including lives and human bodies. I should move
forward. In fact, it was not such bad to be a lizard, wasn’t it?
‘Please turn three of us to animals!’ I announced my decision, without any regrets.
‘You really get good personalities. Maybe it should also be counted. Well, I hope you will love
your own choice,’ the voice came to my mind the last time.
A bright light exploded in front of my eyes. My sight was gone and I was fainted.
My consciousness gradually recovered. The first thing I noticed was the extremely hot ground.
It was so intolerable that I jumped up at once. Wait a minute, why could I jump up? I looked at my
body again, weak arms and legs with serious sunburnt, sweatshirts that I had worn for my trip
and stomach feeling extremely hungry. I was back to human! However, I remembered that the
wish I said was not like this. What’s happened? Was it only a dream? Was I alive? Then how about
my friends? Were they safe? Without thinking anymore, I followed my footsteps and ran back to
my friends.
* * *
