THE MAGIC CRYSTALAlyssa 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 from everyone , 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 . She really wished her baby brother wouldn ' t cry so much . She just wished her life could be different ! Suddenly her 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 pointy hat ! " Hello Alyssa " he said in a deep , gruff voice . " I am the Wizard of Wishes , and you seem to have 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 between your 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 in her room anymore . She was flying through a long dark tunnel with no end in sight ! She wondered what she had gotten herself into now ! 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 was nothing 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 so hot , 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 tall because she couldn ' t see the tops of them . 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 , at least Alyssa thought they were people . They were all hunched over , not really standing upright , and had very long arms and huge heads . Everyone was clothed in what looked like animal skins , and they all had long shaggy hair . The men carried clubs , and even the women and children had poles or sticks in their hands . And now they had noticed her ! Soon everyone was gathered around Alyssa , and it was getting mighty uncomfortable ! The men grunted and muttered at her . The women pulled at her long brown hair , and the children poked and prodded her with their sticks . This was much worse than any torment her brother had ever put her through ! Just when she thought she couldn ' t take any more of this , everyone stopped and turned their heads toward the forest . Something was coming , and it was making an awful lot of noise ! Alyssa could see trees being brushed aside and knocked over . Whatever this was , it was going to be big ! And then the last tree was pushed aside , and there it was . Standing at the edge of the clearing was a fifty foot tall dinosaur , and it looked hungry ! The villagers had started to scatter and Alyssa was left alone in the clearing . The beast was looking at her as if it were wondering if she would make a tasty snack , and Alyssa certainly didn ' t want to end up being a dino - treat , so she squeezed the crystal as hard as she could and wished she could get out of there in a hurry ! There was no spinning or dizzy feeling this time . Instead she found herself in a rocket ship hurtling away from the earth at a fantastic speed . She looked back and saw her home planet getting smaller and smaller . " Where in the world have I wished myself to now ? " she wondered . When she could no longer see the earth behind her she looked out the front of the ship as saw a strange planet with rings around it coming into view . The rocket seemed to be doing everything automatically , so she just sat back and waited for whatever was to come next . The ship landed on a platform in the middle of a city made of bright shiny metal . There were three suns in the sky , and a loud hum , like machinery , was coming from all the buildings . Alyssa climbed down the ladder from the ship and was met by a large robot who moved around on one wheel . " Welcome to the planet Noworkus . " said the robot in a buzzing sort of voice . " Here you will have no jobs to do and no responsibilities . " he said . " We robots do all the work . You may do whatever you wish , no one will ask anything of you . "" You are the only human to ever visit our planet . " Alyssa didn ' t think that sounded too bad , she could lay around all day and wouldn ' t have to take orders from anybody . " I ' ll give it a try ! " she said , and the robot left . Alyssa wandered through the cold metal streets , and looked in the cold metal buildings where all the cold metal robots were busy doing whatever it was they were doing . She began to get a little lonely and homesick , and she wondered if she ' d made a big mistake wishing for the things she had . She certainly wasn ' t any happier here . Then she heard something whirring and clacking and grinding behind her . She turned to see a crazy looking robot coming at her ! His arms were swinging and Alyssa felt one cold pincher grab her shoulder . She was trying to run but the robot had a firm grip on her arm , and she dropped the crystal ! She knew she was done for now , the crystal had shattered on the cold metal street , and the robot was shaking her and calling her name , " Alyssa , Alyssa , Alyssa ! " it kept saying . And then she woke up . She was in her big comfortable chair at home , and her mother was gently tapping her shoulder and saying " Alyssa , Alyssa , wake up , it ' s almost time for supper . " It had all been a dream ! She was safe and had never been so happy to see her mom . She hugged and kissed her mother , and then ran down the hall to the baby ' s room and kissed him too . Alyssa went running through the house looking for her brother , hopeing maybe she could get him to tease her or pick a fight with her . Anything at all , she was just so happy to be home ! Alyssa had learned a lot about herself today . She knew now that her life really wasn ' t so bad , that it was pretty good actually ! And there was no place she would rather be than home ! " That girl sure is happy now ! " thought Alyssa ' s mother as she straightened up the room . " But how on earth did her shoes get so full of sand ? " THE END ? © 1997 D . A . Tony Ciangomay not be used without permissionComments ?