The Wonderful World of Om

By Desmond E. Berghofer

The Wonderful World of Om takes the young reader to an imaginary parallel world where the difficulties of our own world just do not exist, because no one ever created them by making bad choices. However, things are not perfect in Om, and the young hero of the story, Sam Warner (aged eleven) is called upon to use his skills as a champion bowler to save the land from serious danger. Sam has suffered the disillusionment of seeing his bowling alley in Vancouver demolished without any serious effort by those in authority to save it. It is never quite clear whether his journey to Om is no more than a dream or whether it arises from a mysterious combination of cosmic forces that have been set in motion to right the wrong that he has experienced. Guaranteed to touch the heart strings and bring smiles and many moments of laugh-out-loud enjoyment to readers of every age, but especially to those willing to travel in imagination to places of wonder where everyone is encouraged to be the best that they can be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jun 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490782348

Desmond E. Berghofer

Desmond Berghofer is the author of four novels as well as works of non-fiction including a memoir of his early childhood growing up on a farm in Queensland, Australia. Desmond lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife, Gerri. Together, they have 12 grandchildren. The Wonderful World of Om is Desmond’s first book directed at a juvenile readership in which he elaborates similar themes of high order values as in his other novels for an adult audience. By anchoring the story in a real life situation of injustice and using a magical leap to another reality, he seeks to capture the imagination of his young readers while inspiring them to hold fast to the ideals of justice, truth and honesty. He never speaks down to his readers, but asks them to come along with him to that place in literature where heart and mind fuse in the wonder of adventure, love, and achievement.

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Copyright 2017 Desmond E. Berghofer.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8235-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-8234-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017907152

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Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword

Introduction for Young Readers

Part 1: Delight and Disillusionment

Chapter 1:   Sam Sets Things Up

Chapter 2:   A Wonderful World of Its Own

Chapter 3:   Grandpa Goes Bowling

Chapter 4:   Sam Learns a Lesson about Life

Chapter 5:   The Campaign Begins

Chapter 6:   Gathering the Troops

Chapter 7:   The March on City Hall

Chapter 8:   Sam Learns How the System Works

Chapter 9:   Sam Learns about Money

Chapter 10:   Something Extraordinary Turns up

Part 2: Adventures in Om

Chapter 11:   Arrival in Om

Chapter 12:   Life with a New Family

Chapter 13:   The Food Factorium

Chapter 14:   The Most Amazing Feast

Chapter 15:   Sam Has a Lot of Questions and Gets Some Surprising Answers

Chapter 16:   More Splendid Things and Another Surprise Encounter

Chapter 17:   Grandom

Chapter 18:   Holographic Adventure

Chapter 19:   The Pearl Bowling Balls

Chapter 20:   Sam Saves the Day

Chapter 21:   Celebration and Farewell

Part 3: Resolution and Reward

Chapter 22:   Home Again

Chapter 23:   Sam’s Story Starts to Come Out

Chapter 24:   Sam’s Fame Spreads

Chapter 25:   Justice for the Bowlers

Chapter 26:   Truth and Honesty

List of Illustrations

Semiahmoo Resort

Grandpa Goes Bowling

The March of the Bowlers

Sam Falls down the Hole at the Construction Site

Sam’s Arrival in Om

A Fantastic Meal

Sam Meets Grandom in the Assembly Hall

Adventure with the Explorers’ Club

Riding in the Ommobile

Bowling out Snadia

Sam in Hospital

Sam Tells His Story to the Vancouver Sun Reporter

Foreword

Some Important Words for the Reader

The book you have in your hands does not fit easily into any category of literature, either of fiction or reality based, that you have likely ever read before.

In The Wonderful World of Om, the author creates a Disneyesque world so visually real that you see it as a film in your mind’s eye. You travel the crystal highways in driverless vehicles of various grand designs, which you summon and direct with your mind and which take you to your destination then drive off until needed again. You arrive at incredible buildings like the Assembly Hall shaped like a giant conch shell … floodlit in shimmering splendor, highlighting its delicate shades of soft pastel colors against soaring white walls of crystal.

Written almost as a film script, The Wonderful World of Om is adult fiction for children and youth. It is a graphic novel in words instead of cartoon images. The setting is not the fantasy world of Oz or Wonderland but rather a futuristic world of science and technology that extends the best of what we already know how to do today in our world. It shows us a holographic television where the viewer can step into the action for a time to participate and then take a mighty leap back into the knowledge room. We are taken to the Food Factorium that provides the most delicious protein in food without the need to slaughter animals.

Moving in delightful images that will capture the imagination of the child in any reader, the book shows with simple clarity important truths that even children can understand. Truths about how the societies that we humans have created did not just happen but are the result of choices, random discoveries, and inventions we have made over millennia about how to feed and clothe ourselves, how to power our industries and transport ourselves, and how to build institutions that heal, educate, entertain, and govern us. All these choices have had consequences, many of which were likely not considered at the outset. Some of these consequences have been good and have led to universal well-being. Others have been neutral or seriously detrimental.

But what if we could start over with deliberation, keep the best parts, and not choose those that have been bad for us? This is the what-if question the story of Om asks us. It illustrates what an alternative society, community, and world could look like and shows a path to transformation that makes us think about possibilities for our own situations and our own communities.

Therein lies the grand adventure in what you are about to read. It begins with a problem a young child faces that appears to have no just solution. It shows us the unfortunate consequences on this child’s world of decisions made by people in authority that go against the common good, even when good people try to stand up against them. It seems that the values of truth, honesty, and fair play don’t count.

As a parent and grandparent, one always wonders how to explain such things to children—how to teach them about life and how to make a stand for good choices even when such choices are hard and may not win the day immediately. We try to explain that good eventually triumphs, sometimes in mysterious ways, and that eventually, good people show up and make it right.

In today’s world, where negative news floods into our minds from countless sources, such teaching is a hard sell to the children who are watching and listening. And therein lies the genius of the Om story. It follows the tradition of five millennia of human experience that the way to influence and teach human beings is through stories that touch us deeply.

The narrative you are about to read begins in reality, creates a crisis of potential tragedy, transports us into a parallel world to show the way to solve the problem, and then returns us to reality where the solutions emerge as if fueled by the world of Om in mysterious ways. It proclaims the triumph of goodness and decency in simple, logical ways with the charm and magic of the best fiction.

The books Desmond Berghofer writes do not fit neatly into any category, yet just as the world of Om embraces the best of our future possibilities, so the writing in this story illustrates the best experience literature has to offer. The story is well crafted with ingenious twists and turns to delight any child. The visual imagery engages the imagination in spectacular ways. The rhythm of the action rises and falls in a way that keeps us reading. The values expressed touch and inform with honesty and authenticity. And most important of all, we emerge not only entertained but uplifted.

Regardless of your age and who you are, I know you will enjoy this experience. For the very young, a short introduction is provided, and you may choose to begin there for them. To everyone, just read on.

Geraldine Schwartz, PhD

Introduction for Young Readers

Sam is a young boy aged eleven. He lives in Vancouver, Canada, with his mommy and daddy and younger brother, Tim (aged eight), and sister, Jenny (aged six).

Sam is not very good at most sports, but the one sport he is really good at is bowling. Every Sunday, he bowls with his family at the Good Times Bowling Club, which is right across the street from where his grandpa and grandma live. Grandpa does not bowl, but Sam thinks he would like it if he tried; so as a special present for Grandpa’s seventieth birthday, Sam invites him to go bowling with the family.

Grandpa loves it and scores a strike with his first bowl.

While in the bowling alley, Grandpa learns from the owner, Mr. Ruffles, that maybe the bowling alley will have to close because the building it is in is going to be knocked down and replaced with a new building. It will be too expensive for Mr. Ruffles to run the bowling alley in a new building, so if this happens, he will have to close the bowling alley.

Sam is very worried about this, so Grandpa promises to help save the bowling alley if he can. He finds out that Mr. Ruffles’s business partner, a young woman about the same age as Sam’s mother, has done a bad thing. She told the city planner who is working on the plans for the new building that Mr. Ruffles does not want to continue to run the bowling alley in a new building. That was a lie, and she should not have done that. When Mr. Ruffles hears about it, he is very upset.

All the bowlers come out to a special meeting in the bowling alley to decide what to do. Sam speaks to them and tells them they should try to save the bowling alley. They decide to have a big march to the meeting at city hall where the decision on the future of the bowling alley will be made.

It is a big fun parade, led by marching bands of school children. Sam’s father, Arthur, puts on a big bowling pin costume called Percy Pin, and he marches in the parade right behind the bands. Grandpa and Sam march beside Percy Pin, each holding one of his hands so that he doesn’t fall over. All the other bowlers, children and old people, march along behind. As they march through the city streets, a lot of people come out to cheer them on.

At the meeting, Grandpa and Sam and a lot of other bowlers speak up to try to save the bowling alley. But they do not succeed, and the decision is made to knock the old building down, which means the bowling alley will have to close.

Sam is very unhappy about this. He tells Grandpa it is not fair, and Grandpa says Sam should hope for a miracle to save the bowling alley. He tells him to meditate by saying Ommmm! because this is a good way to get in the right mood. Sam does as his grandpa says, but nothing happens. Soon Mr. Ruffles has to pack up all his bowling equipment and leave the bowling alley. Then the big machines come along and knock the old building down and dig a great big hole for parking under the new building.

By now, it is Christmastime, and the workers shut down their work for the holidays. Before leaving, they string Christmas lights up on the big machines so that it looks really pretty right across the street from Grandpa’s house. It also snows a little to make things look like a winter wonderland.

A few days before Christmas, Sam comes to visit his Grandpa. Sam is crying because the bowling alley is gone. Grandpa says he should not give up hope because maybe something will still happen to help. Sam asks if he can go out and look at the Christmas lights. His mother says, All right, but don’t go across the street.

But Sam does not listen to his mother, and he crosses the street to get a closer look at the lights. He thinks he sees the entrance to the old bowling alley all lit up with lights, and he pushes through a gap in the fence that has been put up to stop people from getting too close to the construction site. He thinks he can see bowlers inside the bowling alley, and he steps forward to join them and falls down into the big hole in the ground.

Grandpa has rushed over in his slippers to try to