Today The Crayons Are Going With Us

“Mom can we take the toaster a for a walk today?” Chestnut asked.

Her mom, a tall woman with soft features and straight long black hair replied, “Oh honey, I need to use them for breakfast. They will probably be tired after. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Oh, well what about some of the silverware? I love it when we bring the spoons and forks and they fight about who’s best at giving us food. But not the knives. They’re snobby.”

Her mom laughed and agreed or disagreed with just a humph and walked out of the room whistling and carrying chopsticks for some art project she was working on. She said they always had the best ideas. 

Chestnut was bored. She didn’t know what to do. She could talk to the wall. It always cheered her up. Or she could get make a bowl of cereal and use a spoon to really get the silverware riled up for later. 

Instead, she decided to just watch TV and hear it’s unnatural talking. The TV would turn itself off sometimes and request she tell it stories so she brought some crayons just in case.

When she got in the TV room, the pink crayon yelled out, “Forest green is being mean to me. Can you please put him back?”

Immediately the forest green crayon retorted, “Not likely, I’m in every picture.”

That started all the crayons in, arguing about who was used most until the black crayon which was only a nub at that point said, “Yeah but what until you are like me almost Used Up. And when you get to be almost all Used Up, you wish you hadn’t argued so much but enjoyed every time you made a mark on the paper, the fine conversations you had with construction paper and how tall you used to stand up in the box. Now Chestnut has to hunt for me, down at the bottom.”

Chestnut tried to say something but the white crayon cut her off. “It’s ok, black crayon. Look at me. I am brand new. My top is at a fine point and I have no marks on me yet from the other crayons. But I know that soon I will get smudged with every other color as I too begin to disappear and I’m not upset about it. Look forward to disappearing, because then you will be Everything and Everyone.”

Forest green began to laugh but when every other crayon was solemn, it stopped and no crayon replied because what could you say to that? Chestnut set them down on the table, which groaned because tables were always grumpy. She went searching for some paper in the cabinet  by the TV. It was sleeping so she had to be really careful. 

By the time she was sitting at the table, using the remote to find some cartoons, the crayons were back to bickering and laughing, acting like a bunch of kids that lived at an orphanage. She found a great old show, ‘Tom And Jerry’ about a talking cat and mouse which made her laugh because animals didn’t talk. 

For a while she just watched as Tom chased Jerry and the mouse always got away. She laughed so loudly the cabinet woke up and asked her what time it was. She looked at the clock and told it, “Almost noon, cabinet.”

“Oh, the sun will be nice and hot right now. Can you please move me near the window?”

Chestnut laughed. “Cabinet you are way too big for me to move you, only my dad and uncles can do that.” 

“Oh,” said cabinet sadly. “Could you at least try?”

“Ok,” she said but I don’t think I can. 

“Don’t say don’t,” yelled the purple crayon. 

The TV turned itself off and said, “I hope you can’t. I am already too hot as it is. These cartoons really warm me up.”

Chestnut smooshed herself behind the cabinet apologizing to the wall that she was up against and pushed with all her might. She could hear the crayons trying to motivate her by yelling out different encouragements. She pushed so hard she couldn’t help grunting with might but the cabinet didn’t move at all.

“Are you even trying?” The cabinet asked morosely. It was always a tad bit sad and hard to please.

“Yes!” Chestnut yelled out. “I told you I’m not strong enough. I still have the same bed and furniture in my room.”

“Oh well,” the cabinet said. “I will just think of cold things then since I can’t feel the warmth of the sun like ice and freezers and the North Pole. What else is cold?”

“Ice cream,” Chestnut said and then wanted some. It was always so happy to be eaten. It made her laugh each time with its giggles of excitement. 

She eased herself out from behind the cabinet and sat back down, trying to turn the TV back on. But now that it turned itself off, it refused to be turned back on. 

“What are you drawing?” it asked. “I would like to draw. If you need an idea, just ask me and I will come up with something for you.”

“Ok,” Chestnut said. “What should I draw?”

“Well I don’t know. I have to think about it. Give me time and keep me turned off so I can really think.”

“Ok,” she said. “I will just color something else until you come up with an idea.” 

And then Chestnut picked up the blue crayon which squealed; it was so excited. It said it always felt like a tickle when she drew. Chestnut began to make the waves of the ocean from a trip she had gone on long ago with her dad and mom and uncles to another country, She wished she had brought many other hues of blue because the water had been so pretty, see-through at one point and sparkled by the sun in others. 

When she picked up the orange crayon to work on the sun, it cried out, “No. No. Put me down. I don’t want to be a nub or become Everything and Everyone. I like how I am right now!”

Chestnut almost dropped it, the little crayon was so loud and upset. She looked at it and said, “You are almost brand new. Don’t worry so much about it.”

“Yes but last time you used me, you made oranges and took so much of me. I’m worried what a big sun will do. What’s a sun by the way?”

The other crayons now wanted to know as well. They hadn’t been outside yet or by the window or the big open doors like the cabinet. “Well,” began Chestnut, “It’s a big ball in the sky that makes us warm during the day and gives us light. Then it goes away and the moon comes out and there’s no light.”

Pink crayon said, “Like when you close the box on us and we can’t see anything.”

“Yes, exactly although if it is a full moon, it can be bright enough to see a little,” she said.

“That sounds neat,” said the purple crayon. “What color is the moon?”

“It’s white,” Chestnut said. “And can be just a sliver to a big round circle.”

The crayons wanted to know if they would see the sun or moon and if they could go to it and ask questions about how it lit things up or made things brighter or darker. Chestnut decided she would take the crayons with her when she went on a walk with her mom that afternoon. When she told them, they said what’s a walk. 

And the cabinet moaned and said, “I hate new things. They don’t know anything.”

“That’s not true is it?” asked the crayons. I mean we know about boxes and nubs and paper. 

“And now I kind of now what a sun is!” Orange crayon exclaimed because Chestnut had used it to draw the sun above the waves in her picture.  

The cabinet sighed and said, “See. That’s what I mean. They hardly know anything. I know what the sun is. It’s light on my wood. It’s warmth that makes me change color over time and it’s seeing outside into the yard where there are trees and animals and flowers.”

“The sun lets you see trees and animals and flowers?” Forest green crayon exclaimed. “I want to see the sun and trees and animals and flowers. I’ve been a tree! Or made into a tree. Oh, can we Chestnut, can we see the sun please?”

Chestnut laughed and said, “Yes and it was just outside, the sun was part of outside.”

“We are inside,” she said. “Inside is where the lights give us light and dark. Outside the sun gives light but there is so much to do and see. Not just animals and trees and flowers but other people and cars and stores and well, just everything.”

“I want to see Everythjng,” the black crayon said. “See it before I become Everything and Everyone. Can I please go with you too on The Walk and see Everything? I might not be so apprehensive about disappearing if I knew what it was before it happened. 

Chestnut didn’t know what to say because  she didn’t want to tell the black crayon it would soon go in the garbage when she couldn’t use it anymore, when it became too small for her hand. Even the crayons didn’t like garbage and heard it smelled. She thought of what she could tell it and remembered what her dad told her when she was very young and didn’t want to go to preschool. 

“New things are always hard at first,” he said. “And then after we do them, they become easy because we’ve done them before. So you just have to go this first time and then you will have done it and it won’t be scary.”

“But how do I make the scary feeling go away?” She asked him. 

He said, “Well when I get scared, I always try to look for something in the room that I know that makes me feel good. And if there’s isn’t something, I think of putting it in there like the bed which I’ve known for so long and is so comfortable. I imagine it’s there in the room with me and I can feel the soft pillows and talk to it if I get scared.”

She had been surprised her dad could still get scared. He didn’t seem scared of anything so she thought she would try it. She took a big breath and grabbed his hand reaching out, saying, “Ok, I will try.”

She remembered getting to preschool, seeing a new room and how bright and colorful it was. There were small chairs and tables just for kids her size and how she could see paints and blocks and all sorts of games and things to do. She didn’t even have to put anything in the room because she was so excited for what was there already. 

Chestnut told the story to the black crayon and said “So, when you think of Everything  and Everyone just imagine that you know something there.”

“Like me,” said forest green crayon.

“Or me”, said pink crayon quietly because it was shy.

Or me, or me, or me said all them crayons making everything in the room chime in even grumpy old cabinet. 

“Ok,” said black crayon. “That makes me feel better. I’ll do that. I think I feel better already.”

Just then her mom came back in the room and asked her if she was ready. She asked the crayons if they were and got squeals of excitement.

“Should I grab the spoons and forks,” her mom asked?

“No.” Chestnut replied, “Today the crayons are going with us.”