Bertha the Bat was sitting with her mother in the kitchen.

“Mom, I have a tummy ache…!”
Mother looked at Bertha. “Are you nervous about the new flying class, honey?”, she asked. Bertha shook her head. “No… I’m not.”, she responded. Mother smiled a bit. She knew her daughter all too well. Bertha would not admit easily that she was nervous, but Mother could not think of any other reason tfoor a tummy ache during the holidays. The new flying class would be challenging, Mother knew that. There were Big Loopings in the programs, Three Double Screwdrivers and FlippingWingFlaps, and she knew that Bertha was not very good at flying upside down. This holidays she had been flying a lot, but only the way she felt comfortable. Sometimes Mother had tried to make her do new things, or even practice the moves she had learned the previous year, but Bertha often got a bit stroppy when Mother did that. Mother had noticed that Bertha was a lot more skillfull than last year, but Bertha did not seem to realise it herself!

Bertha and her family had moved to a new village, so in the new flying class there would be new children too. Bertha was happy to see new faces, but in a way she felt sad because she would not see her old friends anymore. In the old class, some kids would bully her and tease her, and she was really hoping that that would not happen this time. She had talked with Mother about ways of preventing it to happen, but she was not sure if she could actually change her own behaviour. What was for sure, is that she could not change her funny ears: The kids had really been teasing her about her ears, and she was scared that that would happen again.

Mother started to talk: “Bertha, you know what? I think we should go to see the Wise Owl, to ask him about your tummy ache, what do you think?” Bertha looked up. “OK, Mom..” she said. She knew that Mother would not be easily stopped!

Not long after, Mom and Bertha went on their way. It was quite long, so Bertha was sure that her little wings would get very tired. To her amazement, they arrived at Owl’s tree much sooner than she thought, and Mom smiled: “Your getting bigger and bigger, and that means that everything gets easier and easier”. Bertha gave Mom a big gron back: She knew that was true, why did it sometimes seem just the other way aroud then? She sometimes thougth that things were getting more and more complicated instead…

Owl welcomed them with a loud “So, there you are!”
Mom answered surprised: “Were you expecting us?”
“Well, I heard rumors that Bertha would go to a new flying class, so I thought that you could use some Wise Words.” Owl looked very serious now.
“Yes, Mister Owl” Mom said, and Owl started to talk.
“Bertha, let me tell you something. Did you know that you have little helpers in your tummy? They can help you with whatever you want. So when you are nervous about flying, you can help your little helpers to go to your wings and help you flying! And when the kids are teasing you because you cannot fly as well as they do, you just go inside and ask your helpers to help you: And you will feel better and fly better, and they will have no reason anymore to tease you.”

“You know why kids tease other kids? Because they feel bad about themselves. So if they tease you about your ears, it means that they themselves are not happy about their own body in one form or another! They then pick up the same feeling in you, and voilá, they have found something to pick on which hurts you. When you ask your secret helpers, you will feel better about your body, and the other kids will not pick up that unhappy feeling! So they will not pick on you. Strange isn’t it!”

Bertha looked with big eyes. She had never thought about it like this. Mother smiled, because she was happy that Owl had explained it so nicely.

Not long after they flew home. Bertha chatted with Mother happily, and the day the new flying class started she went to school cheerily. It went just as Owl said: As soon as Bertha felt insecure, she just asked her little helpers to help her, and she would feel better immediately. She flew as she had never flown, and she felt happy with herself, even with her ears!