Creation

It was the last gift in the pile, small and wrapped neatly in brown paper with a neat bow made of twine. Chelsea's mother handed it to her.

"It's from Grandpa Gary."

Chelsea had opened many great gifts before this: a bike, her very first computer, tickets to the taping of her favorite show on Disney. There was little chance that this small modestly packaged present could top anything that came before it.

She pulled apart the packaging to find a small box inside. Opening that, she found the strangest gift that she had ever received in her nine years. It was a red crayon, under which was a small card that said, "Use with care. It will open up new worlds for you. Love, Grandpa."

"What is that honey?" asked Chelsea's father, who had been recording the unwrapping for posterity.

"I dunno." She gave the crayon to him to inspect.

He furrowed his brow, examining the ordinary-looking red stick.

"Why did your dad give her a crayon?" he asked his wife.

"Beats me. You know how eccentric he is."

He handed the crayon back to Chelsea who shrugged and put it into her pocket before rushing to her room to use her new laptop to chat with friends. She played around with the computer for a little while and then heard her mother call from downstairs.

"Chelsea?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you make a thank you card for Grandpa? I think he would really like that."

"Okay," Chelsea called back.

"Why don't you use that crayon he gave you?" her father chimed in.

Chelsea took out a piece of construction paper from her drawer, folded it in half into a rudimentary card, and thought of what to draw on the cover. She decided on drawing a picture of a crayon.

She started outlining the picture of a crayon with the one she received. When she was done, she sat back and held the card in front of her, scrutinizing her artistic talents. It was red crayon on green paper, and it was a slightly squiggly, but it wasn't half bad.

Then, to her shock, the drawing started to glimmer. Her eyes went wide and she rubbed them to make sure she wasn't seeing things. A spark of light appeared on the crayon drawing and it traced the outline she drew like a fuse on a wick of dynamite. When the tracing completed, a quick flash of light emanated from the page that blinded her momentarily.

When she opened her eyes, the red crayon was on the paper, but the drawing itself was gone. But then she noticed the crayon was still gripped in her fist. But that meant now there were two. Two crayons! She looked at the tip of the crayon she had used. The tip was rounded from drawing the picture, but before her very eyes, it reformed into a perfect point.

"Mom!"

"What?" she called from downstairs.

"This crayon just appeared out of nowhere and--"

Then she remembered the card that came with the present. She ran back downstairs into the living room and pulled it out of the mess of wrapping paper and empty boxes. She read it over and over.

Chelsea's mom came into the living room.

"Chelsea? Everything okay?"

She looked up from the card. "Uh. Yeah. Nevermind."

Chelsea looked at the card again after she left the room. She said the words out loud. "It will open up new worlds for you."

She stared at the crayon, her mind racing with a hundred images a second. What else should she draw?