Singer (eBook)

Chapter 2

Winter had come and it was one of those cold, snowy ones with enough snow to make a snowman in the yard. It was always a challenge to put on the snow boots, coats and gloves and walk through the snow that was up to the knees. Snowball fights were fun and rolling little snowballs into big snowballs was amazing. The biggest snowball would end up as the body of the snowman. The snowball for the upper part of the snowman was always too heavy and Crystal would call her dad to come and help lift it in place. Then would come the head and finding an old hat, scarf and buttons for the eyes and mouth. What a wonderful snowman he was and the other kids in the neighborhood came to visit it. The parents would tell magic stories about how the snowman would come to life during the night. Crystal would believe it and stay up late watching him from her upstairs bedroom window to see if he would move.

One particular day it was too cold to go outside and Crystal was upstairs playing in the bedroom. Grace was asleep on the bed on the other side of the room. After playing with Jack-in-the-Box for awhile and stacking ABC blocks, something caught her eye. There against the wall was a red-hot electric heater. Crystal looked at it, felt the heat and was amazed at its presence. Crystal was mischievous, more curious than anything and could easily put things together in her mind wondering what would happen. She picked up a long thin stick lying on the floor and placed it the heater. It ignited with a orange-blue flame which fascinated her. She blew it out after it burned down close to her fingers. Crystal looked around for something else to put in the heater. She saw some paper on the floor and picked it up. She put it in the heater and it caught on fire. Burning a lot faster, she threw it down to the floor and watched it burn out. Crystal had discovered fire.

Grace was still sound asleep on the bed. Crystal looked up from the heater and noticed the closet door. She had never paid any attention to it before. She opened the door and looked in. It was dark and scary and a big hole was in the corner of the closet. She walked in a little ways and dropped an object in the hole and it was gone. Her logic was if you put things in that hole, it disappears. Crystal was infatuated with her new discoveries. She ran and picked up some paper and put it in the heater. It ignited. She walked into the closet and threw it down the hole. She found out that other things burned besides paper like cardboard and popsicle sticks. Down the hole they went. This went on about three or four times when suddenly Crystal notice that the hole was flickering with light and smoke began to fill the room. Something was happening and she didn’t quite understand it.

Crystal crawled into the bed with Grace. Grace did not wake up. The room was filling more with a thick white smoke. You could barely see through the room. Crystal thought to herself, “I’d better wake mom.” So she nudged her. Grace was in a deep sleep. Crystal called out, “Mom.”

Grace sleepily asked, “What’s the matter, Crystal?”

Crystal repeated, “Mom.”

Grace slowly opened her eyes, saw and smelled the smoke in the room. She jumped up in a panic shouting, “The house is on fire!”

“The house is on fire?” Crystal repeated with a question in her voice.

“Oh my God, we’ve got to get out of here,” Grace screamed.

Things begin to move fast like on one of those black and white movies at the theater. Grace grabbed Carmen and Candance out of the baby bed and told Crystal to hold on her. Out the bedroom they went, down the stairs into the kitchen. As they walked through the kitchen to the front door, Crystal looked and saw the flames coming from a hole where pipes ran next to the gas stove. So there was where the hole from the closet led, Crystal thought to herself. Out the door they went into the snow. Grace had not taken any time to put on shoes and Crystal could not bear the cold on her feet. She cried, “I cannot walk in the snow. It’s too cold.”

Grace said, “Crystal stay on the porch and I’ll will come right back for you.” She took Carmen and Candance across the driveway to a friend’s house and ran back and got Crystal. As her mother carried her across the driveway, Crystal looked back to see a small strip on the outside of the house burning. She thought to herself that she would never tell what she did.

The fire trucks and firemen arrived and began putting out the fire. Crystal watched the whole show from the neighbor’s window. It was her first time at the neighbor’s house and it was a strange feeling being there. Crystal did not like it and wanted to go home. Grace was talking to her friend about what had happened. She said, “I don’t know how the fire started.”

Crystal knew but she was not going to say anything. All Grace knew was that she was awaken by Crystal in the bed next to her. Grace said, “If it hadn’t been for Crystal, we probably would have burned up.” Crystal was made the hero.

Raymond came home from work after getting the news about the fire. Once the fire was put out, the firemen left. Luckily the fire burned up through the closet and through the wall to the outside of the house. The rest of the house was spared from being burned. Smoke and water damage was minimal. The Starks were able to return to their home that evening after letting the house air out and the water was mopped up. Crystal at age four had no idea of what could have happened if the fire had been worse than what it was.

Christmas was always a fun time for the Starks. Raymond brought home a tall beautiful pine tree that was so tall Crystal could not see the top of it. Grace was busy baking sweet-potatoe pies, cakes and home-made rolls. Oranges, apples and a mixed variety of nuts filled several trays around the house. Candy canes laid on the table waiting to be placed on the Christmas tree. On the door hung a big wreath with a big red bow and inside the house had the look and all the smells of Christmas. It was indeed a wonderful time of the year.

Putting up the tree and decorating it was a task that Raymond and Grace enjoyed doing together. Grace had bought some fancy liquid-lights that bubbled when they were turned on. Crystal got a big kick out of watching the bubbles go up and down. The unique selection of bulbs and decorations made the tree looked like something out of one of Crystal’s fantasy books. It was magical. Christmas was indeed a very special time of the year.

Christmas Day came and Crystal went downstairs to the living room. “Wow, where did all of the toys come from,” she wondered. There was a little kitchen set—stove, refrigerator and sink, little dishes, pot and pans, spoons and folks, and a tea kettle. A Raggedy Ann doll taller than Crystal sat in the corner. Crystal thought that doll was the ugliest doll she had ever laid eyes on. Her hair was reddish-orange made out of yarn. There were freckles on her cheeks and her body was made out of cloth. On the bottom of her shoes were loops where you could stick your feet in and dance with the doll. It looked real funny watching Grace take the doll and dance around the floor with it standing on top of her feet. There were clothes and other toys under the tree. A Viewmaster was one, Little Golden books, a kaleidoscope, little plastic horses, cowboys and Indians. Some of the toys were specifically for Carmen and Candance to play with but all three shared the kitchen set. Crystal loved the Viewmaster and the horses. She was amazed at how the picture disks you put in it would look so real. The closer you got to a light, the brighter it would become. It was all so amazing and new.

Horses were Crystal’s favorite animal. White, brown, black or spotted, she was fascinated with them. The Indians and cowboys, she could take them or leave them and in most of her playing they were left. She would gallop the horses across the table to the floor, line them up for a race or just to look at. Those were her horses and she wasn’t sharing them with anyone. Raymond was good at drawing and would draw pictures of horses while Crystal watched. She liked to watch the cowboys and Indians on TV ride the horses but never had seen a horse up close.

Crystal did not relate the toys to Christmas Day, the Christmas tree, Santa Claus or even her dad buying them. She just figured it was something that just happened. She had no concept of what this day was about. It was day that was different and pretty neat. In fact, the day that Grace took Crystal to the department store to see Santa, Crystal decided that she was not going to have any part of this man in the red suit with the white beard. No way. Grace begged Crystal, “Go say hi to Santa and sit on his lap. Tell him what you want for Christmas.”

Crystal did not know what Christmas was really about nor who Santa was. She definitely did not want him to come to her house bringing toys. No thank you. She pulled back on Grace’s hand ready to scream as Grace tried to force the issue for her to visit with Santa. “No,” said Crystal.

On the way back home from the department store, Crystal and Grace had to walk across a huge bridge that crossed a river. This was frightening to Crystal because of the size of the bridge and the distance it was above the water. As they were walking, Grace noticed that Crystal’s sweater was missing. They both turned around to see the sweater hanging halfway off the bridge. Grace walked back to get the sweater. Crystal looked...