Ruby Rose

by
Rachel Egan
Spring 1994 (Age 6)

When I was at the circus I saw
this beautiful horse. It had a
beautiful rug with dots and
swirls on it. It had a big blue
mask and a sparkley tail of
blue. His hooves were
decorated with crystal colors
At the end of the show the
ringmaster said "You can talk
to any of the actors you like
unless they are getting
dressed."

I went with the ringmaster to
see the owner of the beautiful
horse. The owners name was
Crystal. Crystal said, "My
horse is a plain brown horse.
We always dress for the
parade. Why is his tail
sparkely you ask? I will tell
you. We had a light bulb. It
made little blue sparks you
can see in the snow. We put
them on the horse."
"Now you must tell me this"
said the ringmaster to me,
"Why did you want to ask
Crystal about the blue
sparkely horse tail?"

"Because it was so beautiful I
could not keep my eyes off it
for the whole parade." I said.
I went back to the stage and I
saw Crystal laughing. "It
really is a magic horse," she
said. "A witch put a spell on it
many years ago. Whatever
baby is born to this horse will
be turned to crystal stone.
The crystals on her tail are all
babies. They have been on
her tail for 100 years. I was
very upset, so I ran to the
beautiful horse, I collected all
the crystals and put them like
they should be for grown up
horses. The witch's spell was
broken.

I went home, went to bed and
dreamed about the crystal
horse.

* Author's note (Winter 2010) - searching for the laminated illustration that accompanies this original story. Will scan it A.S.A.P. I am fully convinced that my art & writing has been heading steeply downhill since Kindergarten. Picasso was onto something ("It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child" or "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up" or all those qt ancedotes). Y/N?