El Cristal Magico

THE MAGIC CRYSTAL

Alyssa was not having a good day! Her older brother had been fighting with her all afternoon. Her mom kept giving her jobs to do, like feed the baby, change the baby, give the baby his bath. And her baby brother just didn't seem to want to stop crying. It was almost more than a seven year old girl could bear! All she wanted to do was to go to her room and get away fromeveryone, and so that's just what she did.

The chair in Alyssa's room was large and comfortable, and as she curled up in it, she began to think about the days events. She wished her big brother wouldn't pick on her so much. And she wished that her mother wouldn't give her so many jobs to do. And she wished her baby brother wouldn't cry so much. She just wished her life could be different! Suddenlyher bedroom window blew open, the room got very dark, and she heard a loud bang and saw a puff of white smoke. When the smoke cleared she saw the strangest sight she had ever seen!

There, standing in the middle of the room, was a funny little man with a long white beard, a blue robe and a blue pointy hat! "Hello Alyssa" he said in a deep, gruff voice. "I am the Wizard of Wishes, and you seem tohave to have been wishing for a lot of things today! You seem like a nice young lady, and so I will show you how to make your wishes come true." Then he reached inside his robe and pulled out a beautiful spinning crystal. As it spun it reflected every color of the rainbow, and the colors sparkled and danced. "When you want to make a wish," he said, "you must squeeze the crystal very tightly betweenyour hands, so that it stops spinning. Then your wish will be granted." And in an even deeper and gruffer voice he said, "But you must never let go of the crystal, for if you drop it or lose it, well, I'm afraid even I don't know what will happen to you." And then there was another puff of smoke, and the Wizard vanished, but before the smoke cleared she heard his deep voice say "Goodbye Alyssa,good luck!"

While the crystal spun in her hands Alyssa wondered what she should do. Could the Wizard have been telling the truth? There was only one way to find out! She squeezed the crystal tightly in her hands and thought about her rotten day and wished she could just get away from everyone for awhile. Suddenly she felt quite dizzy, and the room seemed to be spinning. And then she wasn't inher room anymore, she didn't know what was happening, so she closed her eyes and waited.

When the dizziness passed, and she didn't feel like she was spinning anymore, Alysssa opened her eyes and found herself in the middle of a desert. The sun was awfully hot, and the sand was even hotter! There were a few palm trees and a small pond of water in front of her, but other than that, there wasnothing but sand for as far as she could see. She walked to the top of a sand dune and looked in every direction, but there was nothing to be seen but more sand. She was truly away from everything here! She went back to the trees and sat near the water hoping someone would come along. Alyssa sat there for what seemed like forever, but no one came. This was certainly not what she had wanted. It was sohot, she wished she were somewhere cool, with at least some people around! She didn't realize it, but she had been holding the crystal very tightly as she thought about where she would like to be, and all at once the dizziness and spinning feeling came back, and she wasn't in the desert anymore.

She was standing by a stream in a cool damp forest. The trees must have been hundreds of feet tallbecause she couldn't see the tops of them. And there were strange ferns and plants that she had never seen before. And there, on the muddy bank of the stream, were footprints! Thank goodness, at least there was someone here! She started to follow the tracks in the mud, and soon she came to a clearing with a very strange little village in the center. There were mud huts, and open fires, and people,...