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Ling

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It was a cold winter night. I woke up from a deep sleep to the sound of crying. I was confused and half asleep.
I could hear the blizzard continuing outside.
I wondered if the crying came from my dream or reality when Sandy woke up and asked me, “Do you hear crying?” 
“I thought it was my dream,” I replied.
We both heard crying again. So we got up and followed the sound. 
It was coming from Bailey. 
Bailey was still asleep, but she was crying like a baby. 
As we watched her, her crying grew louder and more intense, and her legs moved as if she were running.
We thought it best to wake her from the nightmare. 
“Bailey!” we called, “wake up! Bailey, wake up!” 
We shook and patted her.
Bailey woke up and watched us in a daze of sadness. 
I hugged her tightly.”  That’s okay, that’s okay,” I said.
Her paw touched her eyes, ears, and nose. “You are still here,” she said, relieved.
We looked at her, not understanding.
She saw we were confused and said, “I had a terrible dream.”
Sandy and I couldn’t imagine what kind of nightmare could make Bailey so scared and sad. We hoped she could tell us.
So we sat on the rug around Bailey. We watched and waited for her to tell us more.
Bailey saw our concerned looks and said, “My eyes, mouth, nose, and ears were arguing. They all thought they were the most important to me.”


“Interesting!” Sandy said.
“That’s ridiculous!” I said.
“My eyes said they were the most important because if I didn’t have them, I could not look, watch, and see everything.” 
“That’s true,” I said, “your world would be dark. You wouldn’t see any beautiful colors. You wouldn’t be able to see all the pictures and flowers. 
“But my mouth disagreed. It said, ‘I assumed I was the most important one. If Bailey didn’t have me, she could not eat. How could she stay alive?'”
“It makes sense!” Sandy said. 
I rolled my eyes at him. I asked, “Then!?”
“Then my ears said if I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t hear anything, even when Mom calls me to eat. My ears even imagined how ugly I would be without them. But then my nose jumped in and said, ‘I cannot listen anymore. I have lost patience. I, nose, am the most important one! Master, could you be without me for one minute? Ten minutes?’ the nose asked me.
‘No! No! No! It would be horrible if I didn’t have you,’ I answered,”
“I agree!” I nodded. 
“My nose also said that I was unfair to it.”
“What!?” Sandy almost jumped up from the rug.
“The nose said he always stands in front of my face, whether hot or cold outside. When there is delicious food, the mouth eats, but he can only smell it; if there is something stinky, it only comes into him. He said he deserved to be at the top of my head!”
“If the nose stands up at the head top, what does the nose do when it rains? And how could the nose taste delicious food? Would we put food in it?” I asked
“Would we put a piece of cake up there for the nose to taste?” Sandy laughed out loud.
I rolled my eyes at Sandy again.
“My mouth said the same words to the nose,” Bailey said. “My mouth also asked the nose, ‘You saw me eat delicious food, but did you see me eat those bitter medicines when you were sick?’
But the nose yelled, ‘When Bailey has a cold and runny nose, she always grabs me. It hurts!'” Bailey continued. “Then my ears also started to blame me. They said, ‘Bailey, you are unfair to us. You put masks and glasses on us, and when you wanted to be beautiful, you even made a hole to hang your earrings. Even worse, we ears are a couple, and you separate us on either side of your head, so we never see each other.'”
When I heard the ears’ words, I couldn’t help laughing out loud because I pictured two ears on the same side of my head.
Now Sandy rolled his eyes at me because Bailey was about to cry. 
Sandy padded Bailey to comfort her, saying, “So they fought each other.”
“They fought with me. They all said I was unfair to them and were unhappy with me. They wanted me to point out which of them was the most important one,” Bailey cried. 
“What did you say?” I asked. 
“What could I say?” she murmured.
Then Bailey opened her scared eyes and said, “Finally, all of them ran away from my head, and my head looked like an egg with nothing on it! I felt terrible.”
It was a terrible dream! I thought. 
So I hugged Bailey tightly and softly said, “It was only a dream. It is okay!”
Sandy also padded her lightly.
Eventually, Bailey calmed down.
We comforted her. “Everything’s okay,” we said, “we are always here to protect you.”
Bailey fell asleep in peace.
Then Sandy and I went back to bed in silence for a while. I asked Sandy, “Who do you think is the most important?”
“Who!?” Sandy asked in a bit of a daze. He had fallen into his train of thought.
“Bailey’s nightmare, our organs; which is the most important?” I added.
“This is a world-class problem! Our organs are working for us every moment. We never think of them unless one of them is sick.” Sandy still needed to answer my question.
“All of them are important to us. We’d be miserable, maybe even die without them,” I said.
“Do you know what I thought after I heard Bailey’s nightmare?” He said excitedly.
“What do you think?”
“I should tell this story to the teams I work for.”
“How!?” I understood what he said, but I didn’t know what he could do
“You know those teams I am working for, they are the brightest scientists and engineers,” Sandy said. “My job is to help them work more efficiently together and to strengthen their creativity. They are important to the company and the world, but they should also realize that they could create the greatest value for the world when they are working together.” 
“Good idea!” I said.

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