Once upon a time there was a train called Pete that had a snotty nose and steam coming out of its ears. This train was conducted by John Paintstheworld, a small and chubby boy who could always get anywhere where he was needed. Pete was known everywhere as the train of colours, and boys and girls awaited its arrival like Christmas day, because among its carriages, Pete was carrying all the colours ...of the world.
One grey and sleepy day, Pete and John reached an empty station, so they decided to take a rest. John Paintstheworld was very very calm, opening with his closed eyes the door to the land of dreams where he recognised the first car of his dear friend the Great train of colours.
The first carriage was blue's carriage. Blue to paint the sea and the sky, smurfs, John's winter jacket, aunt Nuria's scooter and the blue eyes of those who have blue eyes.
The second carriage was carrying the colour red, to paint the red traffic lights, clown's noses, tomatoes, fire and the blood that pours out our nose when we hit it. Red is the colour of dad's car, like the red stickers the teacher gives us and our cheeks when we feel shy.
The third carriage was hiding the colour yellow, one the most shy colours there are, which we use to paint lemons or those bananas that Joan likes so much.
Yellow is also the colour of the sun when it's daytime, and the colour of our favourite sweet that mum gives us if we have been good, at bedtime.
The next carriage, the forth, carries the colour green, that paints grass with hope and people with envy, apparently.
We use colour green to paint the leaves of the trees, the shrubs in the mountains, the apples on the trees
And now, the fifth carriage of the train of colours. If we look carefully we will find colour white, that paints silence and the sea foam . The cream in grandma's cake on sunday is also painted white, as well as the ceiling and the walls.
Grandpa's hair is also as white as a sheet of paper, and “Milu” the dog is white too.
We also use white to paint people's white teeth, the moon and the stars that shine in the sky.
John carried on walking along the land of dreams and found the sixth carriage, the sixth carriage of the train of colours, known to his friends as Pete, carrying colour brown.
Brown paints the horse's tails and the hair of his older brother that cries when he has them cut, house roofs and also, he thought with a smile, the poo of cows and geese that go kwak kwak.
John looked ahead and kept seeing more and more carriages with loads and loads of colours, endless colours, wonderful colours coming from all around, like the black carriage that paints the night, the flies and the wheels on the car of godmother and godfather
There was also the pink carriage that paints the tongue, the cousin's pink dresses and the hands of arty auntie.
The grey carriage was pretty far but was very necessary to paint the roads and the pavements, and the sky those days when it really wants to rain.
The last carriage was empty, used to store all the other carriages leftovers. There was always a new colour coming out from that carriage
Pete really enjoyed reaching every station, discover the children's excitement when they knew that, time permitting, it could stay for a while so the children could tickle him, laugh and play together, all happy
John was on the contrary very busy because here and there, villagers kept asking for a jug of red, a bucket of yellow, two ounces of orange, three hundred grams of green, but what he liked best was to help them choose new colours. That's right, new colours for every single thing so they would never be bored, and thanks to them we have green, yellow and red peppers, small things with plenty of colours like clothes pegs, snooker balls, the pieces of a puzzle, platic balls, shoes, sweets and socks.
But John couldn’t invent a new colour if he had painted things back, and that's why the most permanent things are painted black, and never change because everybody agrees and nobody wants to change them.
John still remembers the time when people from a very far away land surrounded by the sea used to hang black ribbons from doors and windows and nobody wanted to change the colour, everybody agreed. It was their way of remembering. It was their way of stopping for a while to start to paint again.
To paint more and better, learn to collaborate, live in peace and carry on loving with the heart all and every single one of the colours of the world.
Now John sleeps peacefully because since then, those few days that are more grey than filled with colours, that place that was fora a few days more grey than colourful nobody asks for black for ribbons, neither to paint clothes nor the smoke of the candles.
Now the world wakes up every day with different lively colours.
Now John knows, and shares with everyone that wants to know, that the colours, although they appear to be very different to each other, deeply, they are all the same, because all of them fill our lives and the little univers of this great world.
We all AGREE, don't we?
The bells of the church of Vallvidrera said good bye to John Paintstheworld from the land of dreams, and Pete started to warm up its wheels to carry on with its way and reach destination on time.
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