LULU MILLER: Welcome to Celestials, bedtime stories from Terrestrials.

LULU: Hey friends, during these dog days of summer, we wanted to roll out a sleepy little experiment. We have heard that sometimes some of you have trouble falling asleep. So we've created a special bedtime story for you. Let us know if you'd like us to make more of these. And if it's not your thing, let us know that, too. We've put a little survey in the show notes. And either way, don't worry, your regularly-scheduled Terrestrials episode will be dropping right here next week!

LULU: Now to have this bedtime story work its magic, all you need to do is get somewhere very cozy, get all tucked in and comfy. Stretch your body out. Reach until you find that hidden, cool side of the pillow. Touch it for a little extra calm, and take a deep breath and close your eyes.

LULU: Oh, well look at that: there is a friendly little snail wearing a beret inching our way with a story to tell.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: Bonjour, mon amis! Hello to you. My name is François Tranquille, and this is not a bedtime story.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: I am a normal-sized snail. This is just my pace. This, in actuality, is very, very fast for me. For you and to you, my voice may sound very, very slow and sleepy like I am sharing a bedtime story. But I must insist, I have never talked so loud and so fast as this before. This is just who I am and how I am and how I talk, and it is very normal to me, and for me, and to other snails, and for other snails and generally for the speaking and listening pace of other slow and small creatures like worms and slugs and roly-poly bugs, and even bigger slow little creatures like turtles and sloths.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: I have to tell you something I saw today, a curious, dare I say, peculiar thing I saw, but only briefly, as I slipped, wiggled and slid my snail body in my hard snail shell out from under a medium-sized rock and past the patch of thorny thistle, towards the medium-sized willow tree with the normal sized hole near the bottom. It was there I saw one single, beautiful three-leaf clover.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: Now this may not seem remarkable to you. Perhaps you've seen one before. Perhaps you've seen many three-leaf clovers. Perhaps to you, a three-leaf clover seems to be a very normal clover with a very normal amount of leaves. I do not know. I do not know, nor shall I assume or presume to know how many leaves are on the majority of clovers you have ever seen over the course of your comparatively long life.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: But for me, François Tranquille, who lives a much smaller and shorter, small, short little life, I would say to you, I have not traveled very far and wide. We snails live smaller and shorter lives. So small that in one day we may only travel one or two or three square meters, or maybe four or five square meters of this planet's presumably much larger area. Though i will say mon frère Pierre once traveled much further the time he mistakenly crawled upon the wheel of a bicycle. It was a wild ride!

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: But this? This is rare, uncommon, and it has not ever happened to me or for me. Here in this much smaller area where I live my short and small snail life, there is a patch of four-leaf clovers. These are the only ones I know except for the three-leaf clover I saw today while walking from under my normal-sized rock, past the patch of thorny thistle, towards the medium-sized willow tree with the normal-sized hole near the bottom.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: It was nice to see. It was, as I say, curious, even, dare I say, peculiar. In a way, it seemed very lucky to see something like this so out of the ordinary. You see, this number of leaves, three is one less than four, meaning it is one less than what is the normal number of leaves for me to see on a clover. I do take particular pleasure in the joy of seeing something so novel as this. To think, even in this small area of the planet I have seen and explored, I could still see something so new and so surprising for me. Maybe not for you, I do not know. But for me, wow! I must say, how curious and even, dare I say, peculiar.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: This for me was a big moment. And now that i have seen such a thing so curious and dare I say peculiar, I very much think I would appreciate a little rest. Reflecting upon what I have seen, and how pleased I have been to see, surely I will drift soundly to sleep now having returned and slipped, wiggled and slid my snail body back to the cool coziness under my normal-sized rock near the patch of thorny thistle and the medium-sized willow tree with the normal-sized hole near the bottom.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: And in my slumber, do I know what I will dream about? I do not know what I will dream about. With dreams, more often than not, there is no way of knowing what will come. This is just the nature of sleep and of dreams. The journey of dreaming is a mystery. What will I do? What will I see? Where will I go? And even one more question: What will I be? This is not for me to know until I am asleep and dreaming.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: Perhaps I will dream I am a normal-sized snail. Perhaps I will dream that I slip, wiggle and slid my snail body in my hard snail shell out from under my medium-sized rock and past the patch of thorny thistle, towards the medium-sized willow tree with the normal-sized hole near the bottom. Perhaps in this dream, I will not find one single beautiful three-leaf clover. Perhaps in this dream, instead I will see a whole patch of beautiful three-leaf clovers. Perhaps in this dream, I will glance once more to find a whole field of beautiful three-leaf clovers. Perhaps I will pluck the luckiest, beautiful three-leaf clover from the beautiful field of beautiful three-leaf clovers, and this one will be my propeller, a little helicopter propeller. The luckiest, beautiful three-leaf clover will twirl, spin and lift me from the ground. This is a dream, remember. It can happen in a dream. Perhaps this luckiest, beautiful three-leaf clover will take me to a cloud.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: I often, here and there, from time to time, think about clouds. They are very far away. I would like to touch a cloud, even if just in a dream. I wonder is a cloud soft and cool and pleasantly damp like the soft, cool damp soil here under my normal-sized rock? As I tuck myself into my cozy shell, all soft, cool and damp, I wonder if I will soon, with my luckiest, beautiful three-leaf clover, touch a cloud, even if just in a dream.

FRANÇOIS TRANQUILLE: And also, sweet dreams to you, Bonne nuit, mon ami.

LULU: And merci, François. Merci, mon amis. We hope most of you are asleep by now, but if anyone is still listening we would love for you to take a little survey and let us know if you want more of these. If you don't want any more, if you want more François, if you want other animals, tell us all your thoughts. There's a little survey in the show notes. You could just click and let us know. And thank you! Bye bye bye bye bye!

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