forward and looked into the camera.
“Welcome to Athens, Sophie,” he said in a gentle voice. He spoke with an
accent. “My name is Plato and I am going to give you four tasks. First you must think
over how a baker can bake fifty absolutely identical cookies. Then you can ask
yourself why all horses are the same. Next you must decide whether you think that
man has an immortal soul. And finally you must say whether men and women are
equally sensible. Good luck!”
Then the picture on the TV screen disappeared. Sophie wound and rewound the
tape but she had seen all there was.
Sophie tried to think things through clearly. But as soon as she thought one
thought, another one crowded in before she had thought the first one to its end.
She had known from the start that her philosophy teacher was eccentric. But
when he started to use teaching methods that defied all the laws of nature, Sophie
thought he was going too far.
Had she really seen Socrates and Plato on TV? Of course not, that was
impossible. But it definitely wasn’t a cartoon.
Sophie took the cassette out of the video recorder and ran up to her room with
it. She put it on the top shelf with all the Lego blocks. Then she sank onto the bed,
exhausted, and fell asleep.
Some hours later her mother came into the room. She shook Sophie gently and
said:
“What’s the matter, Sophie?”
“Mmmm?”
“You’ve gone to sleep with all your clothes on!”
Sophie blinked her eyes sleepily.
“I’ve been to Athens,” she mumbled. That was all she could manage to say as
she turned over and went back to sleep.
Plato
… a longing to return to the realm of the soul…
Sophie woke with a start early the next morning. She glanced at the clock. It
was only a little after five but she was so wide awake that she sat up in bed. Why was
she wearing a dress? Then she remembered everything.
She climbed onto a stool and looked on the top shelf of the closet. Yes—there,
at the back, was the video cassette. It hadn’t been a dream after all; at least, not all of
it.
But she couldn’t really have seen Plato and Socrates ... oh, never mind! She
didn’t have the energy to think about it any more. Perhaps her mother was right,
perhaps she was acting a bit nuts these days.
Anyway, she couldn’t go back to sleep. Perhaps she ought to go down to the
den and see if the dog had left another letter. Sophie crept downstairs, put on a pair of
jogging shoes, and went out.
In the garden everything was wonderfully clear and still. The birds were
chirping so energetically that Sophie could hardly keep from laughing. The morning
dew twinkled in the grass like drops of crystal. Once again she was struck by the
incredible wonder of the world.
Inside the old hedge it was also very damp. Sophie saw no new letter from the
philosopher, but nevertheless she wiped off one of the thick roots and sat down.
She recalled that the video-Plato had given her some questions to answer. The