The Crystal Ball

“You’re the one,” said a scruffy, crazy-looking man who had come out of nowhere and walked right up to Derek. He was holding a small glass ball in his hands and he held it out to Derek.

“Thank you, no,” Derek said and tried to continue walking.

But the guy was persistent and pushed the ball at him. Reflexively Derek held up his hands and grabbed it. “No thank you,” he said. But it was too late, the ball was in Derek’s hands and the guy turned and run off. “Hey wait!” he shouted. But the guy was gone.

Derek was a bit of a nervous Nelly, and even though he lived in the city, this kind of thing always rattled him. He held up the glass ball, which was about one and a half inches in diameter and perfectly smooth and clear.  It was surprisingly heavy.  As he studied it, he started to see something changing inside. It was faint and murky, but it started to form into a picture.  He stood in the middle of the sidewalk, transfixed.   As he watched, it became clearer and clearer – but he couldn’t quite tell what it was.  He stared intensely at the faint image.

But suddenly a passerby on the sidewalk bumped his arm and the ball slipped out of his hands.  “Oh no!”  It flew a foot in the air and then fell to the sidewalk. He was expecting it to shatter into a million pieces when it hit the concrete –  but instead, it bounced!  Then it bounced again, and again, and eventually began rolling down the hill and away from him.  He ran after it but it was picking up speed fast.

Just then, a large, hulking man stepped into the sidewalk, put out his enormous foot, and caught the runaway glass ball under his huge shoe.  Derek stopped and looked up at the unearthly figure, who was staring at him.  Their eyes locked and the rest of the world seemed to fade into the background. Derek turned white as a ghost, and inexplicably, he forgot how to breathe.  The great being picked up the glass ball and held it up to Derek.

Looking deep into Derek’s eyes, and with a thunderous booming voice he said, “A great wind will blow . . .” He leaned forward towards Derek’s frightened face.  “You will see many things that you will not understand. And though your journey will be a difficult one, that which you seek…  will arrive in a beam of light…. when the murder of crows….  takes flight.”  And then, with a giant-sized exhale of the foulest, smelliest breath imaginable, he placed the ball back in Derek’s hands. Then the great orator turned dramatically and walked off.

Derek just stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, “What the fuck?” He was trembling, but eventually remembered how to breathe again.

He also remembered he was late picking up his daughter, and with the ball in his jacket pocket, he walked on to the school.

His daughter, Anna, was waiting for him, and while they walked home together, Derek showed her the glass ball and told her about the strange things that had happened.

“Weird,” she said. As she held the ball in her hands, a fuzzy image began to appear, but she couldn’t tell what it was.  Holding it up to the light, she could see that there was nothing inside, it was just a solid clear glass ball.  But when she held it down in her hands, a faint image emerged.

At home they set the ball on the table, pulled up a couple of chairs, and studied it.   It was completely clear.

“I know I saw something in it earlier.” Derek said.

“Yeah, me too,” said Anna.  “But now there’s nothing.”  They both stared at it. “It sure is a cool looking glass ball though – so smooth and so heavy.” She reached over and picked it up.  While she held it, an image again started to appear.  “Oh, look!” she said.

“It started when you picked it up.”

“Yeah!” Anna carefully cupped the ball in both of her hands.  “Look, it’s getting clearer!” Right before their eyes, what had been just vague and fuzzy, became a sharp clear image of a park bench.  “Wow, look at that!” she said.

“Cool!” Derek said.  “A park bench!  Here, let me try!” Anna gave him the ball.  He cupped in in his hands and they watched.  An image began to appear.  This time, instead of a park bench, it was a window.  “Cool!  I got a window!”

“Let me try again!” Anna said.  He gave it to her and she cupped it in her hands.  “I got a statue!” she said.

They passed it back and forth.  “I got a bush!” “I got a fountain!” “I got a gate!” “I got a door!”  They were amused all evening by their new little crystal ball. Every time they picked it up, they got a different random image.

Derek thought about the odd circumstances of how he got the ball, and the scary things that huge guy told him. And now the ball was showing them all of these random pictures. Being a nervous person, and being superstitious at the same time, was not a good combination, so Derek really tried to be as un-superstitious as he could. But there was something about this glass ball that worried him.

Outside a storm was blowing in and the wind picked up.  The lights flickered a little.  “We probably best be getting to bed,”  he said.  “Tomorrow’s Saturday and we’ll have all day to look at it more.”

“Ok dad,” she said.  Anna set the ball down on the dining table, then went in to brush her teeth and get ready for bed.

Derek collected the dishes and straightened up the apartment before turning off the lights and getting ready for bed himself.  As he turned off the lights the storm raged.  Outside his window the trees were bending and twisting in the wind and rain.

Anna was asleep in her bedroom, but Derek lay awake in his. As he lay in bed, he had nothing but questions. Why had he been given the ball by that crazy guy? What exactly was this little ball? Why was it showing all these random images? There was no technology that could make a ball like that – how did it work? Was it actually magic?  Were those two guys from another dimension? Was he having some sort of visitation from aliens?  Were he and Anna in danger?

He tossed and turned all night long and barely slept a wink. By the time morning came around, he was a bundle of nerves. At first light he got up and went to the kitchen to make some coffee. But Anna was already there, with the ball in her hands.

“I couldn’t sleep any more, dad,” she said.

“I had a hard time too,” he replied.

Then Anna looked at him with a very serious expression. “Dad, I don’t think these are random images,” she said.  “I recognize some of these pictures from around here.”

“What? You’re kidding!?” he said, and sat down looking very worried.

“Yeah, one of the pictures is a statue over in Grant’s Park. Another one is an old house across the street from the park, I think.”

“Oh wow.” Derek said.  “Anna, you know, I don’t know about this ball.  I think it might be dangerous for us to have it. I think it’s some kind of secret government thing – and they’re going to be looking for it.”

“Oh dad…” she said. “But I do want to go over to Grant’s Park and see if I can find any of these other pictures.”

Derek resisted and elaborated on the dangerous unknowns of going there, but as always, Anna won out, and convinced him to go along with her to the park.

After breakfast they headed out, and Anna carefully carried the ball in her hands.  Grant’s Park was only a few blocks away, and as they walked, Anna started to recognize some of the things in the pictures. “There’s the gate, and there’s the old house,” she said.

Derek got a sudden rush of chills.  They reached the park and walked across the central plaza.

“There’s the statue!” she said.  “And look over here, it’s the fountain!”  They walked on, and eventually came to an area where crows had gathered.

Derek leaned over and whispered, “Creepy.” They walked on slowly, and the crows, like reluctant security guards, moved out of their way.

Anna stopped and cupped the glass ball.  As they peered into it, the image of a park bench appeared in the ball. Anna looked up, and the park bench was right there! “Wow!” Anna gasped.  “Here’s the bench!”  she shouted.

But her shouting startled the crows, who launched simultaneously. With the turbulence and thunder of a thousand wings, Derek and Anna were overwhelmed –  it was like being caught in the devastating surprise of a tidal wave crashing through a seaside village. The air filled with a cacophony of fury and sound, and they stood in the middle of it all in absolute wonderment.  Eventually, the crows settled back down and landed in the trees all around.

“That’s it, we’re out of here.”  Derek said.  This was really not his cup of tea.

“No, no, no!” Anna said, and walked over to the bench and sat down.  Derek stood nervously looking around at the crows.  Anna cupped the ball in her hands and watched. Now, for the first time, the ball showed her a picture of a person. It was fuzzy at first, but as it got clearer, she saw that it was a picture of someone from her school.  It was a girl named Charlie, who was in her class but Anna didn’t know her very well.  Anna stared at the ball. In a few seconds, she realized someone was standing right in front of her.  She looked up and it was Charlie, the girl in the glass ball.

“Anna!” She said. “You found my glass ball!”

“Charlie?” Anna replied. “This is your ball?”

“Yes! Some crazy guy stole it from me yesterday, and ran off with it.  But I’m SO glad you found it!”  Charlie sat next to Anna and they talked about how much they loved the magical glass ball.

Derek watched in amazement.  Even though Charlie and Anna barely knew each other, they sat talking as if they had been best friends their whole lives.

“Watch this.” Charlie said. She took the ball and held it up so the sun shone on it.  When the sunshine landed on it, a magnificent beam of light rose from the ball and spread into a glorious rainbow overhead.

“Cool!”  Anna said with a huge smile.

Out of nowhere, a woman walked over to Derek and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Sue, Charlie’s mom.  You must be Anna’s dad?”

Derek held out his hand. He could barely speak. “Yes, I’m Derek. ...that’s quite an interesting glass ball.”

“My grandmother brought that back from Africa in the 1920’s, and it’s been handed down to the daughters ever since. It was mine until Charlie was born, and now it’s Charlie’s, and she loves it. Thank you so much for finding it.”

While they talked, Derek, who was usually too nervous to talk to strangers, found that not only had he settled down, he was actually enjoying talking with Sue. He thought she was about the most charming woman he’d ever met, and felt totally relaxed talking with her.  It occurred to him that he was smitten.

Sue was smitten with Derek too, and the four of them ended up having a wonderful day together.

Anna and Charlie became best friends, and Derek and Sue, both single parents, fell in love and got married a year later.  They all look back on that day as the luckiest day of their lives.