The pink chalk’s tale

Pink Chalk

Everything was quiet in the playroom. Mark and Kaylee were supposed to be tidying up the toys ready for bed. But Pink Chalk knew they were not!

That was because Pink Chalk was not in the chalk basket. He was in Mark’s hand, and he was drawing pink lines on Kaylee’s face.

Mark pressed the chalk on her cheeks and said, “I’m making you look like a cat. A big scary wild cat. These are your long spiky whiskers that will scratch any giraffe who tries to eat you!”

Kaylee kept her face straight. “And when you’re finished,” she said, “I shall make your face look like a giraffe. And you can try to catch me.”

Mark looked excited, even though he should have been putting the chalks away. Pink Chalk was excited too, because this was much better than drawing pink flowers on the small blackboard in the corner. That was squeaky and boring. This was brilliant. He didn’t feel a bit like going to sleep.

Mark added some green chalk on Kaylee’s forehead and then let Kaylee colour his own nose with black chalk. She put giraffe blotches in yellow and brown on his cheeks, and some long pretend eyelashes in bright blue above his eyes. Then she put the chalks on the floor and said, “Done! Let’s get wild!”

Pink Chalk lay on the carpet and watched in amazement as Mark snarled and jumped at Kaylee. Kaylee bounced out of Mark’s way every time he sprang at her. They made so much noise that Pink Chalk was frightened someone would come and stop them having fun.

Just then, Monkey flopped off the shelf behind them and shouted, “Stop! I’ve got an idea.”

Mark and Kaylee turned round. Mark said, “We don’t want puppets playing with us. We’re real jungle animals.”

Pink Chalk thought that was a horrid thing to say. But Monkey just said, “You’ll like this idea. Let’s open a safari park. The puppets can sit around on hills and in fields, and you two can be the ones that all the visitors come to see.”

Kaylee looked at Mark, and Mark looked at Kaylee. Pink Chalk thought they were speaking to each other without saying anything. A bit like the real animals!

“Good idea,” said Mark. “But we’ll need a notice telling people how much it costs to come in and watch us.”

“Well I can’t write. I’m just a puppet,” said Monkey. “And you two can’t, because you’re a giraffe and a wild cat. So we’ll have to do without a notice.”

But Pink Chalk knew exactly how to solve the problem. He looked over at the magician, lying quietly on his tray, trying to get to sleep. “Psst!” he said.

The magician opened one eye and glared at Pink Chalk.

Pink Chalk said, “Can you help me speak to Mark and Kaylee? I won’t take long. I know you’re tired.”

The magician sighed, but touched his magic staff so that Mark would be able to hear Pink Chalk.

“Mark!” called Pink Chalk. “Shall I write you a notice on the blackboard?”

Mark picked up Pink Chalk. “You’re brilliant,” he said.

Suddenly, writing on the blackboard was no longer just a squeaky and boring job. Pink Chalk made beautiful letters and coloured them in with twirls and swirls until he’d made the most wonderful notice in the whole world. Mark and Kaylee loved it.

And they put Pink Chalk carefully back into the duck-shaped basket, where he fell asleep dreaming of safari parks and wild cats with pink whiskers.

The moral of this tale is that boring tasks can be very interesting if they’re done to help someone else.