Sleep Travelers

The Story of Ning, Dog, and Boss Book 1

By Brenda Colbath

Hello, friends! Today I want to introduce you to my book titled

Sleep Travelers  Book 1 The story of Ning, Dog, and Boss

This book will be featured at the LA Times Book Festival on the campus of UCLA. On April 22-23. I plan to read one chapter daily of this book and when finished, a chapter a day of the sequel called Sleep Travelers Book 2, The Amusement Park.

A child’s imagination is a wonderful thing and must be encouraged. They vividly imagine being the Captain of their Pirate ship, the hero of their adventure, handsome, beautiful, brilliant, and strong. They conquer the world and do anything and everything. The lucky ones keep that childhood wonder! It is so sad many adults lose it on the long bumpy road to adulthood. This is the story of a young girl named Dawnie, who will never lose that childhood wonder. 

Chapter 5 Bears and Tigers Oh My! 

In the blink of an eye, all 5 of them stood in front of the mighty Bengal Tiger’s cage, which wasn’t a cage at all, but a large thick glass and bar enclosure. It was designed so the public could observe the Tigers in a more natural habitat. 

The group looked around in amazement seeing the many trees and the large pool in the middle and were excited to spot several colorful Bengal Tigers.  One was lying on a large low branch of the biggest tree.  He was snoring softly but feeling the whoosh of air when the group appeared, opened his eyes, looking surprised. His asleep-self jumped down from the tree branch and ambled towards the intruders.   

When he realized that his visitors were inside his cage, not outside like tourists should be, his eyes grew wide. He walked around the group licking his lips, looking them up and down.  It appeared he was sizing them up trying to decide which one he would eat first.  He didn’t want to eat them, he wanted to scare them away before anyone saw them in his cage.

Dawnie stepped forward and said, “Hello Mister Tiger, I am happy to meet you.  My name is Dawnie,” and pointing to each one of her friends gave their names.  To say he was startled to have a tiny girl child greet him unafraid would be an understatement. He stood still staring at this brave girl walking right up to him and talking to him like they were friends.  He looked around hoping none of the Rangers were near.  He decided he liked her.  

“My name is Tigger.” He said his eyes downcast.

At the giggle from Dawnie, he growled, “It is a name the keepers gave me, and it’s not funny.”

“Oh! But Mister Tiger, it’s a perfectly wonderful name, you share a name with a famous Tiger.  Books have been written about him. We are very pleased to meet you Tigger.”

“Yeah, thanks.”  He said, not sounding very happy about it. “By the way, what are you doing INSIDE my cage?” He growled the word “inside.”

“We came to visit and play with all the animals.”

“That’s nice, but how did you get inside?” And looking at Blackie, he said, “I heard that you Black Bears are strong, but, how did you get out of your cage? And what are you doing here? ”

“My friends took me with them.  Look, Tigger, all we have to do is “think, ”and we can go anywhere we want to.  Want to come with us to see the Elephants?”

“Can I?” His eyes grew wide, and a real smile replaced the hungry look as he glanced back at the tree and saw himself still sleeping. “I have been here forever, and many people pound on the glass or throw horrible food at me.  Without any of those awful people in the Zoo, present company not excluded, of course, it would be fun.”

“My life hasn’t been easy, a few months ago a naughty kid climbed over the old fence and wanted me to give him a ride on my back!  Can you imagine that? I tried to get away from the little bugger, but he was fast.  Before I could hide in the tree, three Rangers rushed in with guns, and they shot me! I slept for a whole day.  It was not my fault. Why didn’t they shoot him? I didn’t bother him, he was annoying me!”

At this statement, the others laughed but agreed with him.  This calmed him down a bit, and he said, “That won’t happen again, my cage is much taller now.  I feel safer from the gawking public, and most of the time I try to ignore them.”  He said with a big sigh, then pushed himself up to his full height, which made him larger than Dog but smaller than Blackie, said, “ Let’s go, I can’t wait to get out of here.”

They all closed their eyes and poof, they found themselves face to face with a sad looking elephant.

Published by Time Traveler of Life

Biography Creating worlds, characters, and wielding power like a madwoman, making my characters happy, sad, angry, and some of them with no redeeming qualities. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I sometimes laugh out loud when I am writing a scene, and I have been known to cry when one of my favorites has to die. I am a left-handed Gemini, what do you expect? Reading bedtime stories to my two children until they fell asleep or until they just told me to go away, was fun. Making up wild stories for my grandchild, and creating Halloween costumes from Cowboys to a Dragon, was another favorite thing to do. I missed that so much when they were grown, that I started writing. My yearly newsletters frequently were drafted third-person by my Love Birds, Miranda our motorhome, and by Sir Fit the White Knight, our faithful Honda. Throughout the years, some of my creative talents centered around writing letters of complaint expressing my displeasure with services or products. One crucial, at least to my Son, was a note to our local school bus driver petitioning her to allow him back on the bus. He was kicked off for making an obscene gesture at his buddy. I reminded her that it was not directed at her, and that “obscenity can be in the eye of the beholder,” kids use that gesture as a greeting. He rode the bus until he graduated. I loved driving my English teacher crazy. Leaving a “continued next week” at the end of my five handwritten pages required each week. He was one of many people that suggested I “do something about my writing.” I graduated from the School of Hard Knocks at the top of my class. After 30 years, in the trenches as a Real Estate Professional, I have found that truth is stranger than fiction. My books are filled with characters I met in that profession. Their names were changed to protect the guilty. Others were from people we met traveling around the country in Miranda, our Motorhome. I am married nearly 60 years to the love of my life, Shirl, and partner-produced two exceptionally talented children, and one grandchild who is our pride and joy.

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