The next day Pepe woke up very early. Grandpa Rudi was snoring in his rocking chair, that easily swayed back and forth. He looked so happy that Pepe did not wanted to interrupt his sleep. So he went on with his Grandma’s carpet ready for a journey.
Pepe looked back once more on the wide surface of the yellow banana planet, waved to the sleeping Grandpa Rudi and took off on Grandma's carpet.
He flew through space. It was far and wide, and there was still no green button to see. Pepe flew for hours until he saw a red dot. Far on the horizon there was something red to see and he definitely wanted to find out what could that be. He headed for the red dot.
As he got closer, he could admire a beautiful planet. The planet was a huge strawberry. Pepe was very happy because he could also detect green dots on the strawberry planet. Maybe the green button is among them?
It took several minutes before Pepe landed with Grandma’s carpet on the strawberry planet. It was late afternoon, but the sun was still very strong. Pepe decided to run up the strawberry and rest in the shade of green leaves.
He lay under a sheet and slumbered for a while until he heard a soft sob.
He looked around but could not see anyone for miles around. He looked under the leaves - nothing. No one was to be seen. But he was sure that someone or something was crying softly. What was it?
Pepe walked around the leaves. Now the sobs grew louder. Pepe went on gently. Suddenly, it looked like a leaf moved. He approached the leaf and suddenly stood in front of a man who was very small, even smaller than Pepe. The little man stopped crying and looked at Pepe.
"Who are you?" asked the little man.
"I am Pepe. And you?" asked Pepe.
"I am Sven," replied the little man.
"Why have you been crying, Sven?" said Pepe.
"I want to know how many nutlets my planet has," Sven whispered sadly.
"What is a nutlet?" Pepe wondered.
"Those are the little green dots on my strawberry planet. There are very, very many, and I would love so much to know how many there are."
"You could simply count them," suggested Pepe.
"I've already tried several times. But every time I get around the whole planet, I do not remember where I started. The green nutlets unfortunately look all he same," regretted Sven.
"I think I have an idea how I can help you!" shouted Pepe.
"Can you really help me?!" asked Sven, who was looking forward to his advice.
"I can certainly help you," Pepe replied and was also quite excited.
"And how?" asked Sven and jumped three times high with joy.
"Very easily. You start at this point to count the nutlets and go right to the west, or left, to the east. You will count while walking until you get here again," said Pepe.
"But I have tried it several times..." interrupted Sven.
"But now you're not alone. Now you have a friend," Pepe said. "I'll be waiting at the first nutlet for you to complete the round. So you will know exactly where you have started."
"You will wait until I have counted all nutlets and not go away?" Sven wanted to be really sure.
"Precisely. I will not move from the spot until you come back. You can bet the whole strawberry planet on it," laughed Pepe. Sven laughed, too.
"Soon, I will know exactly how many green nutlets there are on my planet," Sven rejoiced.
"Exactly!" assured Pepe.
"Which nutlet shall we start at?" Sven asked.
"That's a good question," agreed Pepe. "You decide! Find yourself a nice little number one nutlet."
"I like this one very much.", said Sven, pointing to a nutlet right next to Pepe.
"Good choice!" Pepe agreed.
"Then let us begin." Sven could hardly wait to count the nutlets.
"I will sit down here, next to nutlet number one and wait until you come back. But don’t miscount, I beg you, otherwise we have to start all over again!" laughed Pepe.
As Pepe was still laughing, Sven was already counting,
"One, two, three, four, five..." he went on from nutlet to nutlet and counted, "... six, seven, eight, nine, ten..."
Sven’s voice grew fainter and fainter until it disappeared behind the horizon of the strawberry planet.
Time passed.
"... One hundred seventy-seven, one hundred seventy-eight..."
Pepe heard Sven count, very softly, while he was still far away. He still could not see him.
"... One hundred ninety-eight, one hundred ninety-nine..."
Sven came nearer and nearer to the nutlet, where Pepe was waiting.
"There are exactly two hundred seventeen nutlets on my planet!" Sven said proudly, when he had arrived back at the first nutlet.
"Ohohoho! That's a lot," said Pepe happily.
"Oh yeah. That's more than I thought," said Sven. "I'm going to think about all my two hundred seventeen nutlets before going to sleep."
"Exactly!" Pepe added. "The others are counting sheep and you are counting the nutlets."
They both laughed until they were tired. They fell asleep and dreamed - of course, about nutlets.
My key takeaways:
1. FRIENDS MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
2. COUNTING THINGS MAKES YOU A SLAVE. BEING ABLE TO COUNT ON SOMEBODY MAKES YOU FREE.
3. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A STRAWBERRY.
Based on this book: https://amzn.eu/d/57vZQsU
How to lead now…
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