Timmy and Tommy and the Magical Blue Box

Tommy and Timmy and the Magical Blue Box           

One day a boy named Tommy was playing ball in his front yard. Tommy was a good hearted boy, but sometimes he could be very selfish and become very angry.
"I'm tired of playing with this old ball," he thought to himself. Going inside to play was never fun; his Dad always sent him back outside anyways. So he tossed the ball aside and went across the street to see if his friend Timmy wanted to play.
As he walked into Timmy's back yard, he spotted his friend sitting in the grass as he usually always was, but this time he had a mysterious blue box in front of him.
"Hi, Timmy," Tommy greeted his friend.
"Hey, Tommy," said Timmy.
         The two boys had been friends for a couple years and always found time to play together, especially when things were loud inside their houses. They'd play soldiers and see who could be the loudest. It was really fun, but today would be different.
"Do you want to play soldiers?" Tommy asked.
"Not right now, maybe tomorrow," replied his friend.
"Why not?" asked Tommy.
"I just don't want to." Timmy said.
This upset Tommy. The two boys usually always got along fine and he wanted to play soldiers! They always played soldiers!
"Well then what do you want to do? Just sit here and play with your blue doll house?!" said Tommy meanly.
He was so upset that he kicked the side of the blue box. For a moment he felt bad for kicking the box, but he was so upset that Timmy didn't want to play soldiers with him.
"Tommy, stop!" said Timmy.
He grabbed for the box, but it was too late and the box fell on its side with a loud CLUNK!
Out tumbled a bunch of colorful crayons: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
"Why are you playing with those?" asked Tommy meanly. "They're for babies."
Timmy gently picked up each crayon and carefully stacked them together.
"They aren't for babies," he said. "They're special."
"No, they're for babies!"
"Here! I'll show you!" said Timmy.
The boy selected a blue crayon and set the box upright again. Then he slowly began to write on the lid until the word FRIEND stood out in light blue.
Then he watched and waited.
"This box is magical," he said, "And so are the crayons. All you have to do is write FRIEND on the box with one of the crayons and then the magic happens." Timmy explained.
Tommy didn't believe him; he thought Timmy was making it up. But then suddenly the box began to rattle and shake! With a loud SNAP! the lid popped open and a furry animal came leaping out of the box!
"Ah!" exclaimed Tommy. It was a big fluffy raccoon. It had a black and white striped tail, wide brown eyes and black whiskers.
"Hey there, Timmy boy," greeted the raccoon.
"It can talk!" yelped Tommy.
"Well of course I can talk," replied the raccoon. "What is so difficult about talking?"
Timmy laughed. "Hi, Rudy." he said, "This is my friend Tommy."
Rudy sniffed at Tommy's shoes and wrinkled his nose. "Well, he smells a little funny, but he seems human enough." Rudy said, making Timmy laugh some more.
         "Guess what I happened to discover today? Well, let me tell you." Chattered the raccoon, not seeming to care if anyone was listening to him. "I was walking in the forest, minding my own business..."
And he talked on and on. The raccoon was very cheerful, as well as a ball of energy. He was always moving and talking, stroking his big fluffy tail with his paws, and making Timmy laugh.
Tommy was shocked that the box was actually magical and that the raccoon could talk. But the more he listened to Rudy, the more he liked the raccoon and wanted to be friends. He was a very silly raccoon.
"Hey, why don't we play a game!" Rudy suddenly suggested.
"Ok!" the boys agreed, "What should we play?"
"Let's play hide and go seek!" Rudy said.
So they did just that. And it wasn't long before they were all laughing and out of breath, and the sun was low on the horizon.
They had so much fun that Timmy was no longer upset that they didn't get to play soldiers and was disappointed when Rudy announced it was time for him to go.
"Well, I'll see you fellas tomorrow," he promised them cheerfully.
The boys sadly said goodbye, and watched as the raccoon hopped back into the box and waved at them once more before disappearing.
"We can do this again tomorrow right? And maybe play soldiers?" Tommy asked Timmy.
"Sure," he replied, "But Tommy, you can't tell anyone about the box, ok?" He told his friend, glancing at his house.
"Ok," agreed Tommy, and quickly went home, excited for when he would get to play soldiers with Timmy and Rudy.
The next day Tommy found Timmy already sitting in his backyard with the blue box in front of him again. Rudy was sitting in Timmy's lap with his big fluffy tail coiled around him.
"Hi, Tommy," Timmy said to his friend.
"Hey, guys," replied Tommy. "Want to play soldiers now?"
"Not right now...Maybe later," Timmy said, "We were thinking about building a fort."
Tommy pouted. "But you said yesterday that we would. We never play soldiers anymore."
Timmy scratched Rudy behind the ear and simply repeated, "Maybe later."
Timmy usually always did as he said he would, but lately he just didn't feel like playing soldiers, his mother would be upset. He didn't like upsetting his friend either, but he really didn't want to upset his mother. Tommy wouldn't understand.
Tommy thought Timmy was being very unfair and failed to see how melancholy his friend was. All they did now days was play Timmy's games. Why couldn't they play soldiers this time?
As they began to collect things to use for the fort, Tommy grew more and more upset. Rudy seemed to be focused completely on Timmy: always trying to make him laugh, bringing him stuff for the fort to get his opinion, and chattering on and on about this and that.
No one was paying attention to Tommy. Rudy wasn't asking him for his opinion, or climbing into his lap.
And so Tommy allowed his jealousy and selfishness to control him so much that when Timmy wasn't watching he stole a red crayon and slipped it into his pocket.
"If Timmy won't play soldiers with me, then I'll just get someone else who will." Tommy thought.
They finished with the fort right when the sun was sinking down again. Rudy seemed reluctant to leave, but he eventually said goodbye to the two boys and climbed back into the box.
Tommy waited until after he said goodbye to Timmy, and watched until the boy disappeared inside the house before he ran over to the fort and grabbed the box. Then he ran home as quickly as he could and hid the box in his room.
Morning came, and Tommy took the box outside into his own backyard where he pulled out the red crayon.
He hesitated, "Is this really a good idea?" he thought to himself. But then he remembered how Timmy wouldn't play soldiers with him even though he had said he would.
He didn't feel so badly. This was what Timmy deserved.
So he quickly began to write the word FRIEND in red on the box lid and waited. And for a moment nothing happened and all was quiet. Maybe it wasn't going to work...
But then the letters slowly began to disappear and WHAM! out popped Rudy? Wait, that wasn't Rudy...What was it? Why---it was a fox! A fox with fur nearly as red as the crayon itself.
"Hmm," muttered the fox, blinking and clearing his eyes. "Well now," he said, looking around and finally up at Tommy. "What do we have here?"
"You're not Rudy!" said Tommy to the fox.
The fox calmly licked his paw and said, "No, I am most certainly not Rudy." He looked up at Tommy. "And neither are you Timmy."
Red-faced the boy asked, "Where's Rudy?"
"Causing trouble and mischief somewhere, I can imagine," replied the fox. "You used only a red crayon, I'm assuming, correct?" he said.
"How did you know that?" Tommy asked.
"Why, because the red crayon summons me, myself and I, while the blue one summons that crazy raccoon," answered the fox. "And the same goes for every other color. Different color, different animal," he explained.
Tommy frowned. He didn't want this fox, he wanted Rudy. This fox wouldn't play soldiers well at all. He was too boring. And smart.
And indeed he was. The fox's name was Rusty, and he was one of the smartest foxes alive. He could see things that most people couldn't. And if he was correct, he could see that this boy was getting himself into a bundle of trouble.
"Seems to me that Rudy isn't the only one probably causing trouble and mischief," Rusty pointed out. The smart fox sat down in front of the boy and looked up at him long and hard.
"What do you know?" said the boy, upset. "Timmy doesn't deserve the magical box."
"Hmm, and you think that you do...?" Rusty asked him.
"More than he does!" Tommy insisted.
"Timmy isn't usually the type to make his friends so upset," the fox said pointedly. "What did he do to cause you to be so resentful?"
Tommy felt very angry towards the fox, but he sat down anyways and grudgingly admitted to him what had happened. Rusty was patient with the boy, and listened quietly to all he had to say.
And when he finished his story, Tommy somehow felt less angry towards his friend. In fact, he felt bad for having stolen the crayon and the box in the first place.
He wanted to be friends with Timmy again, he just didn't know how to make things better.
So Rusty suggested that he go and give both the crayon and the box back to Timmy, and apologize for having taken them.
"I'm certain Timmy will forgive you," Rusty reassured him. "But Tommy, do try and control your anger next time, and don't steal anything again." He also warned him. "Other people aren't as forgiving as your friend."
Tommy nodded, and worked up the courage to go apologize to Timmy. Even as he did so, he felt better knowing that he would soon have his friend back.
And so the boy stood up to go and make things better, but as he took a step towards the box there was a loud SNAP!!
He looked down at where he had just stepped. The red crayon had snapped in two beneath his foot and just as suddenly Rusty vanished!
"Hey, wait!" Tommy cried. But the fox was gone!
"Oh, no!" Tommy thought, panicked. "What if he can never come back?! What should I do?!"
He picked up the broken crayon and tried writing on the box, but nothing happened and Rusty didn't come out.
So he did the only other thing he could think of: he grabbed the box and the crayon and ran to Timmy.
But Timmy wasn't in the back yard! Instead, he found his friend sitting solemnly on the steps of his house.
"Timmy!" he gasped. "I need your help!"
Timmy looked different though. He was wearing a dark fancy shirt and his hair was combed.
"What is it, Tommy?" Timmy asked, alarmed.
"The red crayon broke, and Rusty won't come back!"
Instead of being angry with his friend, Timmy jumped up and ran into the house. "Stay there!" he said. "I'll be right back!"
Tommy was very relieved that Timmy was going to help him even though he'd taken the box from him. But why did his friend look so different?
Timmy quickly returned with two crayons, a blue crayon and another red crayon.
"If Rusty doesn't show up using this crayon, then we'll see if Rudy can find him," explained Timmy.
"How many red crayons do you have left?" Tommy asked him as he wrote FRIEND in red on the lid of the box.
"Just this one," he replied.
He sat back, and they both watched the magical blue box anxiously. And for the longest moment nothing happened, and everything was quite.
"He's never coming back," though Tommy, feeling sick.
The boys waited and waited. And right when they were about to give up, all of the sudden the letters began to disappear, the box began to rattle and the lid snapped open!
They stared wide-eyes at the blue box, hearts racing. And then much to their delight, two red furry ears popped up! Then two black eyes, a black nose and whiskers.
"Rusty!" cried the boys, and crowded in to see if their friend was alright. And indeed he was. They explained to the fox what had happened and how they had been so worried about him.                    
"I'm alright," Rusty told the boys.
"The magic will be only a little weaker for me now is all. You must be very careful with the last crayon." He advised them.          
"I'm sorry, Rusty." Tommy said quietly. "I'm sorry to you as well, Timmy. I shouldn't have taken the box or the crayon from you like that...I was just really mad."
"That's ok, Tommy---I probably shouldn't have told you we would play soldiers when I didn't want to." Timmy said and hesitated before continuing. "The truth is that my Mom doesn't want me playing soldiers anymore..."
Tommy frowned. "But why not?"
Timmy looked at the ground. "Because my Dad isn't coming back home from playing soldiers." He said quietly.
Tommy felt horrible for his friend.
"I'm sorry, Timmy...We don't ever have to play soldiers again." He promised him.
"It's ok, Tommy. I probably should have told you, so then you'd understand."
The two boys forgave each other and learned to be more understanding.
"I know, why don't we get Rudy and then we can all play in the fort?" suggested Tommy.
Timmy grinned. "Ok, let's get Rudy."
So they did just that. They summoned Rudy and played around the fort. Even Rusty joined them for a little while.
Everyone was happy for the moment. And Tommy wished it could be like that all of the time.          
Because even though they might not ever play soldiers again, they all knew that today wouldn't be the last day the magical blue box would bring them all together. And because of the best reason of all: Timmy was laughing.

                                           The End