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.<