A Matter of Impact.

It was a pretty picture. Pink and blue flowers, and the girl holding them wearing a nice colourful dress. At least, that's what the picture would look like after I finished colouring it. For now it was just a picture outlined in black- thick black lines to help four-year-old children colour within the lines.

The Nursery classroom at my kindergarten was really interesting, but I loved colouring above anything else. We were sitting in groups, and we had a box of crayons per group, to share. Red used to be my favourite colour. But just as I reached out to take the bright red crayon, they snatched the box away. "We want the bright colours," one of them said. "You can only take the brown and the black, because you're so dark," said another, laughing as she pushed the broken black and brown and grey crayons towards me.

Blinking furiously to keep the tears at bay, I reached for the dark brown crayon and started to colour the girl in the picture brown, too hurt to say anything.

"I have a very nice secret," said the assistant teacher, as she came and stood by me. "And I'm only going to tell you," she said, smiling at me. The others at my table looked on jealously as she bent down and whispered "The teacher says that your colouring is the best in the class!" Then, straightening up, she added loudly, "Don't tell the others." I managed a smile as she handed me a whole box of crayons for myself.

My family members say that I was notorious for spinning stories. Each night, I would come up with a story and make the rest believe it was real. That night, I was telling them another story I made up. "Today, a fairy appeared behind my school. She was the tooth fairy's sister. She was so tall that even my teacher couldn't reach her shoulder. She'd come to give everyone presents." "Where's your present?" my sister asked.

"She didn't give me one, because she said I was dark."




Happy Holidays, y'all. I'm off to India this Saturday and won't be back till the end of the month. Email me if there's anything you need to tell me. Seeya next year!