Christian and Corinne and the Magic Television

Christian, a handsome little boy, and Corinne, his pretty little sister, lived in Ottawa, not far from the Ottawa River.

One beautiful sunny day, the two children were playing ball in their backyard. While running to retrieve the ball which Corinne had thrown way over his head, Christian’s eye caught something reflecting in the bright sun under an immense maple located at the far end of the yard close to the swimming pool.

“Come Corinne, let’s go see what’s shining so brightly over there,” Christian said, pointing towards the tree.

What they saw there when they were close enough was a TELEVISION, a big TELEVISION almost completely hidden beneath the low branches of the maple. Their little hearts now beating a little faster with curiosity, and fear, the two children approached slowly, very slowly.

“Just another step Christian and we’ll be able to touch it….”

Suddenly, however, the TELEVISION started to shake and said, “WHOA BEC! Who are you, little children?

Holding Corinne’s hand Christian continued to advance, answering firmly, despite his timidity, “I am Christian and this is my sister Corinne.”

“Do you have a password,” asked the TELEVISION.

“Yes. We are home!” answered Christian emphatically. “That is the password!”

“And that is right”, said the TELEVISION. “Come closer my little friends.”

Always holding Corinne’s hand, Christian walked right up to the TELEVISION. All of a sudden, the screen raised itself up, like someone opening a window, giving the children a view of the interior.

“Look Christian,” said Corinne. “We can enter. Look inside. There are two chairs and a small steering wheel-just like in Papa’s car. I also see a lot of flashing buttons.”

Christian and Corinne entered and sat down. The screen closed behind them, and the TELEVISION said “I am a MAGIC TELEVISION. I can fly like a plane. Do you want to go on an adventure trip with me?”

“Yes! Yes” exclaimed the children.

“It’s very easy to take off. All you have to do is press the button with the arrow pointing up to go up and the one pointing down to go down. The steering wheel turned right guides me to the right, turned to the left guides me to the left. Simple enough, isn’t it? On the screen in front of you, you can see in all directions. Are you ready for some adventure my friends?”

“Oh Yes! cried Christian and Corinne. “Let’s go! Let’s Rock N’ Roll!

Christian pressed the button pointing up and like a plane the TELEVISION started to climb, high, high, high in the sky.

When they were quite a ways up, Corinne tugged Christian’s sleeve and pointed, “Look Christian, over there, it’s Parliament Hill, Strathcona Park, and right below us our house, Papa’s car. How everything is small…. Christian! Christian! Look it’s the Ottawa River! Let’s follow it and go visit Pépère and Mémère in Rockland.

“Good Idea Corinne.”

The children turned the steering wheel towards the left, and flew to the east, first over Orléans and Petrie Island, then over Cumberland. Finally they could see Rockland.

“Look Corinne! I can see the condo where Pépère and Mémère live. I see their gallery and, right below, the swings and slides and picnic tables in the Parc du Vieux Moulin. Wow! But what’s that- on the river? Looks like a whole bunch of big black spots.”

“Let’s go closer, Christian.”

Christian pressed the button to go down and they started to descend down to the river. Finally they could see that the big black spots were birds, big birds floating on the river. They looked at each other, and shook their heads. It was a mystery to them. They had never seen these birds on their visits to their grandparents.

They looked at the birds for several minutes and then, deciding that they’d been gone long enough, cancelled their plan to go visit their grandparents and, heading west, began the return trip home. They had a lot of things they wanted to tell their parents as well as several questions to ask so they were very anxious to arrive.

They flew the MAGIC TELEVISION to its parking spot beneath the maple tree next to the swimming pool at the far end of their back yard and rushed towards their house. They stumbled in, trembling with excitement, yelling, “Mama! Papa! We went on a visit over the Ottawa River all the way to Rockland. We saw Mémère’s and Pépère’s condo and many, many birds on the river. Why haven’t we seen these birds before?”

Later, while Maman Renée was talking on the phone to her parents in Rockland, telling them the tale her children had told her and her husband, Papa Steve, believing that his children both had a very active imagination and that somewhere, somehow, they had heard about the migration of the Canada Geese, sat down with them and explained in great detail the passing of these great birds along the Ottawa River every Spring and every Fall.