In the mind of a little boy named Jacob, in a land full of ideas and thoughts, something quite extraordinary happened. Just at the moment when Jacob was thinking about the bubbles in raspberry soda and at the same time about how soap foams in the bathtub, a completely new word was born from the pure magic of imagination.
It was called Bubblefoam.
It was light, cheerful, and sparkled with curiosity. When it looked around, it saw a wonderful world around itself. The other words arranged themselves in long, solid rows called sentences. Sentences were like trains – they had their locomotive, their carriages, and each part had its precise place.
"I want to belong in a sentence too!" said Bubblefoam determinedly and eagerly set off on its journey.
First, it arrived at a large, peaceful meadow where all the important and solid words gathered. These were words like HOUSE, TREE, BALL, and CAR. They stood proudly and knew exactly who they were.
"Good day," Bubblefoam greeted them politely. "I'm new here. Could I join you and be with you in a sentence?"
The mighty word HOUSE looked it up and down. "And what are you? Are you something we can catch? Or an animal? Or a person?"
"I... I don't know exactly," admitted Bubblefoam a little shamefully.
"We are nouns," explained the round BALL. "We are the foundation of every sentence. We tell who or what is being talked about. You don't look like anything we know. You can't be among us if we don't know what you are."
And so they wouldn't let it join them.
A little sad, Bubblefoam walked on. Suddenly a group of incredibly fast and energetic words flew around it. These were RUNS, JUMPS, FLIES, and DRAWS. They never stopped for a moment, always in motion.
"Wait for me!" cried Bubblefoam and tried to catch up with them. "Can I join you?"
The word RUNS stopped beside it for a moment, but still impatiently shifted from foot to foot. "And what do you actually do? Can you perform some action? Movement?"
"I... I just am," whispered Bubblefoam.
"We are verbs!" laughed the word JUMPS and did a cheerful somersault in the air. "We move the whole sentence! We act! You don't move, you just exist here. You don't belong here!" And with the wind they disappeared beyond the horizon.
Bubblefoam sat down under the large, thoughtful word THOUGHT and almost started crying. It felt so lonely. Then it noticed a colorful group of words cheerfully walking nearby. These were words like BIG, RED, SOFT, GREEN, and FAST. They always stayed close to some noun, as if they were its best friends.
"Hello," chirped Bubblefoam and came closer. "You are so beautiful and colorful. What is your job?"
"We are adjectives," said BIG proudly and stood next to the word HOUSE. "We describe what things and people are like. What is the house like? BIG. What is the ball like? RED. What is the pillow like? SOFT."
Bubblefoam's eyes lit up. "Maybe this is my place! Try me! Maybe I can describe something too!"
With hope, it positioned itself right next to the word CAR. This created a strange combination: "Bubblefoam car." All the adjectives looked at each other in confusion.
"That doesn't make any sense," FAST shook its head. "That doesn't tell us what color the car is, or how fast it is, or how big it is. We're sorry, but you're not like us."
That was too much for Bubblefoam. It was desperate. All the words had their place, their important role, only it was extra. Useless. It belonged nowhere. It curled up in a ball in the darkest corner of Jacob's mind and quietly waited there to see what would happen.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Jacob sat in the kitchen watching his mother. She poured raspberry water into a tall glass and then carefully dropped a white fizzy vitamin tablet into it.
And then the magic began.
The water in the glass came alive. It started dancing. Hundreds of tiny, silver bubbles were released from the tablet, racing to see which would reach the surface first. When they got there, they cheerfully popped and made a gentle, whispering sound. Beautiful pink foam formed there.
Jacob watched this with his mouth open. It was such a beautiful sight and pleasant sound! He searched his mind for the right word to describe that cheerful, bubbly foam that whispered so pleasantly.
And then he remembered. He remembered his new, abandoned word. The lonely Bubblefoam that was trembling in the corner of his mind.
A huge light turned on in his head! Suddenly everything fell into place.
"Aha!" Jacob exclaimed aloud and pointed his finger at the glass. "Mommy, look! The raspberry drink is making such beautiful... bubblefoam in the glass!"
At that moment, Bubblefoam in Jacob's mind felt warmth and happiness wash over it. Suddenly it knew who it was! It was exactly that! It was that cheerful, bubbly foam in the raspberry drink! It was a mixture of whisper and gentle foam. It was... Bubblefoam!
With pride and joy, it took its place in its very first sentence:
"The raspberry drink is making such beautiful bubblefoam in the glass."
The sentence was perfect.
The solid nouns looked at it with recognition. "Aha," said HOUSE. "So you are a noun after all! You describe this amazing thing!"
The fast verbs cheerfully waved at it. "Welcome to the world of sentences!"
And the adjective BEAUTIFUL pressed against it joyfully and hugged it. "Now we're friends. Together it sounds even better!"
Bubblefoam finally found its place. It understood that even though it was new and unknown, it wasn't useless. It was just patiently waiting for the right moment and for the boy who would give it meaning.
And Jacob? He was proud of himself for inventing a word that so precisely described something so beautiful and cheerful. From then on, he used the word Bubblefoam whenever he saw something gently foaming and whispering.
And maybe you too will someday invent your own, completely new word. And who knows, maybe it too will experience a great adventure before it finds its proper place in a sentence.