Appel, Liz

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24 MANUSCRIPTSUsed by permission ofIndianapolis Magazine 1981The·Crayon,_/Bee:tle .IMANUSCRIPTS 25Liz AppelI was a very shy child. There were no other children on my block toplay with, and my sister was too young to be of any. use as a playmate.For a long time, .the only people I came in contact with were adults, sowhen I started school I really didn't know how to act around the otherkids. Boys were the hardest to handle. They were noisy, and dirty, andthey scared me to death. I don't think that I got up the nerve to eventalk to one until I was eight or nine years old. Of course, in school Ialways had to sit next to a boy, and I would spend most of the dayworrying about what he was going to do next. I don't think I learnedvery much, and I certainly suffered through some needless traumas.In first grade I sat next to Billy, who had a passion for drawingrace cars while making the appropriate sound effects. He also had ahabit of borrowing my crayons and then breaking them. Because ofBilly, art was not my favorite subject. One day, we were handed bigsheets of manila paper and told to draw pictures of boats. Although Iknew that Billy would probably break some of my crayons, he didn'tknow what kind of noises boats made, so at least there would be a littlesilence. I began to poke around in my desk looking for my crayons. Ifound them at the back, but then my eye caught something else. There,in the very darkest corner, was a big, black beetle.I froze. I didn't know what to do. If I left the beetle in my desk itmight crawl out and bite me. Or, worse than that, it might stay where itwas and have baby beetles! Of course I certainly wasn'tgoing.to reachin there and get it out, either. Maybe it was just my imagination, Ithought. "Maybe if! wait a minute and then look again, it'll be gone."I waited, and then I looked again, and the beetle hadn't moved at all. Itwas still there, shining blackly. That bug absolutely terrified me, but Iwas also worried that a bug in my desk might mean that it wasn't cleanor that I had germs. I sat glued to the chair while these thoughtswhirled through my mind. Finally, I remembered our teacher. Shecould take care of it for me! It seemed to take forever to get to her desk,and then, when I reached it, I didn't quite know what to say. "Mrs.Baker," I whispered into her ear, "Mrs. Baker, there's a beetle in mydesk!"//~.26 MANUSCRIPTSMrs. Baker seemed to take it very well. She just said, "William;Elizabeth says that there is a bug in her desk-would you remove it,please?"I stood at the front of the room while the whole class watched Billypaw around looking: for my beetle. I thought .that he must be thebravest boy in the world. At last he stood up and, with a wide grin.onhis face, announced loudly, "It's just a piece of black crayon paper!"I don't remember how I got back to my seat-I think that Imusthave blacked out, because the next thing that I remember is medrawing boats with a very red face, while the entire class giggled. Billykind of took a fancy to me after that-I think he thought that someoneought to look after me. And, the next time-that he borrowed my blackcrayon, I let him keep it.Dan LillardBALLOONSShimmering globs ofsuns,sunrises, sunsets;Even rainbows, really.Yes. '"Sweet, wet, laughing rainbows.

The Crayon Beetle

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The Crayon Beetle

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