The Hidden Crystal

The kids moan and start chanting "book, book, book..."

The oldest child states, "Daddy, we claim right of book" and on cue one of the littlest ones runs up with a thick paperback. It is Arthur C. Clarke’s "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Oh, stalling for time. I’ll pretend to read and create my version of this story.

Everybody gets on their pajamas and brushes their teeth. Then when everybody is under the covers, I start flipping through the pages as if I were reading.

Once upon a time there were 10 college boys and girls who were out on a wilderness hike. Their camp was set up miles from anywhere. All you could hear was the birds and the bees. While they were out hiking, a clear light bending shape descended out of the sky and set down near the camp.

I grabbed one of the kids clear plastic toy cases and circled it around in the air.

When the kids returned from a day of exploring, they did not notice this strange box in the fading daylight. Was it going to eat them? Was it going to catch them? A campfire was lit and the kids told stories. As the night chill came on, the lads and lasses paired up to keep warm. Their eyes were full of wonder and excitement. Then the clear light bending shape started to glow.

I turned off my kids room light and pulled out my flashlight. I shined it through the clear plastic case. Lines of light started to move across its invisible surface. The lines moved faster and faster. Shapes and patterns were formed. Rainbows were prismed everywhere.

The light show caught the attention of the couples warming up by the fire. The clear light bending shape then began probing the kid's minds and knew they wanted to eat ice cream. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream smothered with whipcream. Then controlling their minds. It made them learn math and multi-dimensional shapes. It changed their brains so they could communicate over distance and time. It also gave them power to move objects without touching them. They were altered in ways that would pass these traits on to their descendants.

The next morning, the kids arose from their sleeping bags but did not remember going to sleep. Strange. One person said they had the weirdest dream about a glass block alien. Wait! Everybody in the camp had the same dream. They
had been given strange powers. They could read each other’s minds. They could now move objects with out touching them. They could see through time. The extent of their capabilities would not be apparent until technology could catch up centuries from now. For now, their abilities would be limited to party tricks like matching movies to music.

The first thing they tried was matching Ozric Tentacles "The Hidden Step" with the movie "The Dark Crystal." Just start "The Hidden Step" when "A Jim Henson Production" disappears from the screen at the beginning of the movie.

The end!

My kids groan "Daddy, we’re gonna tell Mommy that your talking about music movie madness again! We want a real story!"

Ok, Ok. How about "And to Think that I saw it on Mulberry Street" by Dr. Seuss. The kids burst out, "Yeay!"