In the old planetarium, where stars painted on the great dome slept quietly during the day, miracles happened every night. As soon as the last person outside the windows turned off their light, the great projector in the center of the room awakened. But it wasn't an ordinary device. From its glass eyes, three inseparable friends always emerged: rays of light.
The first was Red, full of energy and courage. He always wanted to be first everywhere and loved to race. The second was Blue, calm and thoughtful. He always looked everything over carefully first and searched for the best path. And the third was Green, cheerful and playful. He giggled when he bounced off the walls and made merry somersaults on the dome.
But most of all, they loved playing their shared game. Red would run from one end, Blue from the other, and Green would jump right into the middle. When their lights met at the very top of the dome, magic happened. All three colors merged into one dazzling point of pure, radiant white light. It was so bright and beautiful that even the painted stars looked upon it with wonder.
"Again!" Red would always shout enthusiastically. And so they danced and merged all night long, until the morning sun announced it was time to sleep.
But one night, everything was different.
"Ready?" called Red and was already rushing to his place at the top of the dome. "Of course," mumbled Blue and followed him with a slow, elegant arc.
Both arrived at the meeting place and waited. But Green was nowhere to be found. The white light didn't appear. Instead, where Red and Blue touched, a strange but beautiful purple color emerged. Both looked at it in surprise.
"Where is Green?" asked Blue and looked around the dark room.
Then they spotted him. Near the ground crawled only a weak, tired, yellowish beam of light. This wasn't the cheerful, bright green ray they knew. This one was dull and barely moving.
"Green! What happened to you?" cried Red and ran down to him with concern.
"I... I don't know," whispered Green in a weak voice. "I feel so weak. And... I'm not green. I'm... strange."
Blue slowly made his way over to them. "You look like dust and sadness have settled on you. We must find out what's happening. We can't create white light without you. And most importantly, you're our friend and we won't leave you like this."
Red shone determinedly. "You're right! Let's go on a search mission! We'll go back to the source, to the great eye of the projector. The answer must be there!"
And so the two brave rays, Red and Blue, set out on a journey through the dark room. Green remained lying sadly on the ground, too weak to follow them.
The journey to the projector wasn't easy. In the darkness hid the shadows of chairs and old instruments. Red and Blue lit their way, and when their lights accidentally crossed on the wall, that beautiful purple color always appeared there.
"Look," said Blue quietly. "When we're together, we create something new. But it's still not white. We're missing Green."
Finally they reached the enormous machine in the center of the room. From several glass lenses that looked like large eyes, their light streamed. One eye glowed red, another blue. And the third...
"Aha!" pointed Blue. "That's the eye from which Green comes. But there's something on it!"
They approached and saw it. On the glass lens from which the bright green ray should have been streaming, lay a small, translucent piece of old paper. It was yellowed and wrinkled, probably forgotten here long ago by some child who was eating candy. This very piece of paper was preventing Green from shining with his full strength and proper color.
"We must remove it!" decided Red.
But how? They were only rays of light, they had no hands. They tried bumping into the paper, but their light only shone through it. They were at a loss.
Then Blue noticed something. Against the wall leaned a long metal rod that was used for pointing at stars. "What if we tried to move that stick?" he suggested.
It was a brilliant idea. Red and Blue combined their forces. Carefully they directed their lights at one end of the rod and slowly, millimeter by millimeter, pushed it toward the projector. It was demanding work that required patience. Finally they managed to touch the small piece of paper with the tip of the rod. They gently nudged it.
The paper trembled and... slid off the lens to the ground!
In that second, a dazzling, cheerful, and strong Green ray shot out from the projector's eye!
"Hurray! I'm back!" he cried joyfully and spun in a merry pirouette. He immediately ran after his friends and embraced them tightly with his light.
"We did it!" rejoiced Red.
"Let's celebrate with our game!" suggested Blue.
All three ran without hesitation to the top of the dome. Red, Blue, and Green met exactly in the center and... BOOM! The room was flooded with the most beautiful, purest white light they had ever seen. It was even more radiant than before, because now it was full of joy from their reunion and shared victory.
They danced the entire rest of the night. They mixed their colors and created new shades on the dome. When Red joined with Green, yellow appeared like sunshine. When Blue joined Green, turquoise emerged like the ocean surface. And when all three were together, they shone like the brightest star.
They understood that each of them was important. And that together they were strongest and most beautiful.
And perhaps, when you look at the white light of a lamp sometime, you'll remember how many cheerful colored rays are probably hiding and dancing within it.