Chalk Dreams - February 9, 2004

 

Far, far East of here there is a town, and everyone in that town is happy. The townspeople wake up and feel the warm sun on their face; they fall asleep wishing on the stars.

It wasn’t always this way though. Years ago, before my Grandparents were born, even before my Grandparents Grandparents were born, the town was not so happy as it is now. It never was a sad town, but the people who lived there never felt the sun warm their faces or wished on the stars back then.

That’s because the sun never felt warm and the stars were few and dull. Most everyone in the town didn’t know that the sun could be warm, or the stars could shine brightly, so they didn’t care and were solemn.

Only the children thought differently. They would imagine the town with warm sunlight, cool twinkling stars, perfumed flowers, singing birds, buzzing insects, and all the things that make up towns and villages now. 

One day a traveler came through. No one knew where he came from, or even where he went afterwards. He never said a word to all the people who lived there, but as he went through the town he gave every child a piece of chalk. Some chalk was bright blue, other pieces red or gray or yellow and every other color one could possibly imagine. 

There was one child who always dreamed about the flowers. So he drew flowers everywhere: on the streets, on the sidewalk, on the wooden doors to the school. Whenever he thought up a new kind of flower he would stop to draw it. A little girl in the town loved big rocks to sit and think on. She went to her favorite thinking spot and drew a big rock. It was so big, three people could sit on it and not fall off.

All of the children drew their favorite things with the chalk. They drew colorful birds singing, rivers that would roar or whisper and insects that would buzz and flowers that would smell good.

By the end of the day the town was covered in colorful drawings. It looked so pretty that even the grownups who never noticed such things would stop just to look around.

By the time the sun was beginning to set, the children had almost used up all of their chalk. The children decided that with their last bits of chalk each would draw a star. That way even at night the town would look pretty.

That night it rained and rained and rained. The children were sad because they knew that their drawings would be washed away.

The next morning the children woke up to the sounds of laughter and singing. This was different! All the grownups never sang and laughed unless it was a special occasion.

The children ran outside because they hoped that if they looked hard enough, they might find some drawings that weren’t washed away by the rain.

When they went outside, what a glorious surprise! The chalk drawings were gone, but in their place were sweet flowers, singing birds, even a big rock perfect for sitting on and thinking. The sun was warm and bright and the whole town felt so happy that the wind carried the laughter through the town like ribbons of song. Everything that the children had drawn became real! That day all the adults and all the children stopped working to swim in the river or eat the fruit off the trees or just stopped to sit and think. 

That night when the children went to bed there were so many stars in the sky that no one could count them all.

Ever since that one day a long time ago, the flowers bloom in that town and the sun shines brightly and the adults laugh and sing every day. And in that town the children are the most special of all, because they are the ones that made the whole town happy.