The Anything Box

forwardand tried to catch evasive eyes. 'With your hopeless, scalding tears at nightand your dry-eyed misery when you waken. Do you like it?
'What would you give to be able to walk once more into a morning that isa-tiptoe with expectancy, magical with possibilities, bright with a suredelight? Miss Ebo taught us how. She gave us the promise and hope. She taughtus all that everyone will finally live happily ever after because it iswritten that way. All we have to do is let loose long enough to turn the page.Why don't you?' They laughed politely when I finished. I was always the turnerof phrases. Wasn't that clever? Fairy tales! Well— The last car drove awayfrom the school. I stood by the fence in the dark schoolyard and let the nightwash over me.
Then I was a child again, crying against the cold mesh fence—hopeless,scalding tears in the night.
'Miss Ebo. Miss Ebo!' My words were only a twisted shaping of my mouth.'They have forgotten. Let me forget too. Surely it must be easier to forgetthat there is a page to be turned than to know it's there and not be able toturn it! How long? How long must I remember?'
A sudden little wind scooted a paper sibilantly across the sidewalk . . .forever after . . . forever after . ..
Stevie and The Dark
The Dark lived in a hole in the bank of the sand wash where Stevie liked to play. The Dark wanted to come out, but Stevie had fixed it so it couldn't Heput a row of special little magic rocks in front of the hole. Stevie knew theywere magic because he found them himself and they felt like magic. When youare as old as Stevie—five—a whole hand of years old—you know lots of thingsand you know what magic feels like.
Stevie had the rocks in his pocket when he first found The Dark. He hadbeen digging a garage in the side of the wash when a piece of the bank cameloose and slid down onto him. One rock hit him on the forehead hard enough tomake him cry—if he had been only four. But Stevie was five, so he wiped theblood with the back of his hand and scraped away the dirt to find the bigspoon Mommy let him take to dig with. Then he saw that the hole was great bigand his spoon was just inside it. So he reached in for it and The Dark cameout a little ways and touched Stevie. It covered up his hand clear to thewrist and when Stevie jerked away, his hand was cold and all skinned acrossthe back. For a minute it was white and stiff, then the blood came out and ithurt and Stevie got mad. So he took out the magic rocks and put the little redone down in front of the hole. The Dark came out again with just a littlefinger-piece and touched the red rock, but it didn't like the magic so itstarted to push around it. Stevie put down the other little rocks—the roundsmooth white ones and the smooth yellow ones.
The Dark made a lot of little fingers that were trying to get past themagic. There was just one hole left, so Stevie put down the black-see-throughrock he found that morning. Then The Dark pulled back all the little fingersand began to pour over the black rock. So, quick like a rabbit, Stevie drew amagic in the sand and The Dark pulled back into the hole again. Then Steviemarked King's X all around the hole and ran to get some more magic rocks. He
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found a white one with a band of blue around the middle and another yellowone. He went back and put the rocks in front of the hole and rubbed out theKing's X. The Dark got mad and piled up behind the rocks until it was higherthan Stevie's head.
Stevie was scared, but he stood still and held tight to his pocket piece.He knew that was the magicest of all. Juanito had told him so and Juanitoknew. He was ten years old and the one who told Stevie about magic in thefirst place. He had helped Stevie make the magic. He was the one who did thewriting on the pocket piece. Of course, Stevie would know how to write afterhe went to school, but that was a long time away.
The Dark couldn't ever hurt him while he held the magic, but it was kind ofscary to see The Dark standing up like that in the bright hot sunshine. TheDark didn't have any head or arms or legs or body. It didn't have any eyeseither, but it was looking at Stevie. It didn't have any mouth, but it wasmumbling at Stevie. He could hear it inside his head and the mumbles werehate, so Stevie squatted down in the sand and drew a magic again—a bigmagic—and The Dark jerked back into the hole. Stevie turned and ran as fast ashe could until the mumbles in his ears turned into fast wind and the sound of rattling rocks on the road.
Next day Arnold came with his mother to visit at Stevie's house. Steviedidn't like Arnold. He was a tattle- tale and a crybaby even if he was a wholehand and two more fingers old. Stevie took him down to the sand wash to play.They didn't go down where The Dark was, but while they were digging tunnelsaround the roots of the cottonwood tree, Stevie could feel The Dark, like along deep thunder that only your bones could hear—not your ears. He knew thebig magic he wrote in the sand was gone and The Dark was trying to get pastthe magic rocks.
Pretty soon Arnold began to brag.
'I got a space gun.'
Stevie threw some more sand backwards. 'So've I,' he said.
'I got a two-wheel bike.'
Stevie sat back on his heels. 'Honest?'
'Sure!' Arnold talked real smarty. 'You're too little to have a two-wheelbike. You couldn't ride it if you had one.'
'Could too.' Stevie went back to his digging, feeling bad inside. He hadfallen off Rusty's bike when he tried to ride it. Arnold didn't know itthough.
'Could not,' Arnold caved in his tunnel. 'I've got a BB gun and a real sawand a cat with three-and-a-half legs.'
Stevie sat down in the sand. What could you get better than a cat withthree-and-a-half legs? He traced a magic in the sand.
'I've got something you haven't.'
'Have not.' Arnold caved in Stevie's tunnel.
'Have too. It's a Dark.'
'A what?'
'A Dark. I've got it in a hole down there.' He jerked his head down thewash.
'Aw, you're crazy. There ain't no dark. You're just talking baby stuff.'
Stevie felt his face getting hot. 'I am not. You just come and see.'
He dragged Arnold by the hand down the wash with the sand crunching underfoot like spilled sugar and sifting in and out of their barefoot sandals. Theysquatted in front of the hole. The Dark had pulled way back in so theycouldn't see it.
'I don't see nothing.' Arnold leaned forward to look into the hole. 'Thereain't no dark. You're just silly.'
'I am not! And The Dark is so in that hole.'
'Sure it's dark in the hole, but that ain't nothing. You can't have a dark,silly.'
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'Can too.' Stevie reached in his pocket and took tight hold of his pocketpiece. 'You better cross your fingers. I'm going to let it out a little ways.'
'Aw!' Arnold didn't believe him, but he crossed his fingers anyway.
Stevie took two of the magic rocks away from in front of the hole and movedback. The Dark came pouring out like a flood. It poured in a thin streamthrough the open place in the magic and shot up like a tower of smoke. Arnoldwas so surprised that he uncrossed his fingers and The Dark wrapped around hishead and he began to scream and scream. The Dark sent a long arm out toStevie, but Stevie pulled out his pocket piece and hit The Dark. Stevie couldhear The Dark scream inside his head so he hit it again and The Dark fell alltogether and got littler so Stevie pushed it back into the hole with hispocket piece. He put the magic rocks back and wrote two big magics in the sandso that The Dark cried again and hid way back in the hole.
Arnold was lying on the sand with his face all white and stiff, so Stevieshook him and called him. Arnold opened his eyes and his face turned red andbegan to bleed. He started to bawl, 'Mama! Mama!' and ran for the house asfast as he could through the soft sand. Stevie followed him, yelling, 'Youuncrossed your fingers! It's your fault! You uncrossed your fingers!'
Arnold and his mother went home. Arnold was still bawling and his motherwas real red around the nose