The Secret Colour

Dear Auntie Becky,

We are doing a school project to write a letter to an adult we know in our life. I thought of you because you are my aunt and an adult too. My mum is making me write with a real pencil instead of the computer because we have to actually send the letter in the mailbox. But at least it is a yoda pencil who is my most favourite character because he is GREEN. After I write it out though then I can type it and use the spell checker. Did you know that if you put something in the mailbox and put the little flag up, the mailman will know to collect the letter? They even know where to send it to. But that is only in the county. Not where you live Aunt Becky, in the city you have to go find another mailbox. We just get to put it right in our own mailbox right on our own house.

Yesterday I was watching the ants outside and did you know that they can carry things up to 5,000 times their body weight? I left some crumbs for them and watched them go back and forth. So far. There is this one boy in my class that used to get in trouble for hurting the ants but Mrs. McGuire explained that you’re not supposed to hurt things, especially when they can’t defense themselves. So I try to remember that when the skeeters are biting me. I don’t always like the spiders that creep into my room either. So I ask my daddy to just move them back outside instead. They probably like it better there anyway. 

Daddy helped me make trails for the ants. I thought maybe we could help them. So we took some grass and pine cones and bark and even acorns too. But they didn’t like it too much. It seemed to confuse them because it was not what they were used to. Like did you see ants before that are confused? They just stop and lift up their front legs and seem so afeared. When I am afeared I like to cover my eyes and cuddle under my bear blanket. Because lots of things are scared of bears and so they would be scared right away from me.

Oh yeah, so when I was watching the ants, there was a big leaf that fell on them and I thought that if I was an ant I would be so scared. It would be like the sky falling, but only if the sky would be green. And then I thought if the sky was green what about the lakes? Do you think the lakes would be green too? It would be so hard to see the difference between the trees and the lake then. Maybe the trees would have to be blue.

In my imagination I can picture things with the green and the blue switched. Like the earth would be the different colours. And raindrops would be green and green goop would be blue goop. Maybe spinach would even taste like blueberries instead! Or maybe everything would be green because it is the bestest colour. The ants seem to like green too because they keep carrying around leaves. But maybe it would just be too confusing. 

Maybe not everything has to be green even though it would be nice for me. Like we should still have some yellow because of minions and cheese. But grandpa’s favourite colour is all of the colours so I guess we could still have them all.

Did you know that some people can’t even see the colours? It is called being colour blind. But now they have some glasses that you can wear and see all the colours. You should see the people’s faces when they try them on for the first time. I watched them on youtube. 

I wonder if they let dogs try the glasses too. Because dogs are colour blind and maybe the glasses would work really well for them too. It definitely explains why Jagger from my class would not pass me the green crayon when I asked him to. I thought he was being mean but maybe he was just colour blind! Did you know that sometimes he used to hide under the desk when we were learning our colours? But it isn’t even his fault, it is because of his jeans.

I almost didn’t even finish my letter! When I was writing the letter before, the lights went out because of the storm and I couldn’t even see. We got some candles and set them up around us. It was the perfect time to play hide and seek. Because you couldn’t even see without the candles, so you could just hide almost anywhere and no one could find you. Then I knew what it would be like to be invisible. You could do anything you wanted, even eat all the ice cream and no one would even know it was you. You could just go anywhere and it wouldn’t even matter. I think it would be so fun.

When the lights came back on I cheered so loud. Even though it was fun to be invisible I don’t think I would want to be invisible all of the time. Plus, I had to finish the letter. I wouldn’t want to be invisible all of the time because sometimes I want people to see me. Like when I’m doing a cool trick.

One time I saw my daddy writing with a special pen. Did you know that if you write really fancy with one of those feather pens in the old fashioned way that it is called calligraphy? I didn’t know how to spell calligraphy but I asked my phone and it told me how. Maybe if I keep writing you letters then I’ll be able to use the fancy pen soon. 

I just noticed that if there was only green you wouldn’t even be able to read my letter because the words would blend right in with the paper. And the mailman wouldn’t even know where to send the letter or if there was a stamp. It would kind of be like being invisible, but still green, so confusing.

I guess grandpa is right. We should keep all the colours. I’ll even tell you a secret. There is actually one colour that I like even better than green. But remember I still really like green, even though I noticed this secret. I figured it out while I was finishing this letter. When the lights went back on we went outside real quick because there was a rainbow! And that is the secret, bestest colour.

Sincerely, Your niece,

Lili Savannah Tough