The Device
Teka and Juanita, two friends from kindergarten, spent the day in a garage. They were building something.
The neighbors could hear pounding and drilling and ratcheting all afternoon. At last, the garage door opened. They had built...a device!
The device was an empty metal box with stuff on all sides. It had buttons. It had dials. It had switches. It had toggles and levers. It had a crank that could turn in both directions. It had knobs.
Teka’s father asked, “What does it do?” They answered, “We don’t know yet.”
Teka and Juanita walked to the park to try it out. Teka put on safety goggles and Juanita took notes on a clipboard. Teka pushed the buttons. Nothing happened. Juanita wrote that down on the clipboard.
Teka turned the dials. Nothing happened. Juanita wrote that down as well.
Teka flipped the toggles and levers. Nothing again.
Teka turned the crank. Nothing. Juanita said, “Try turning it the other way.” Still nothing. Juanita wrote down these results with a big fat zero.
Teka turned the knobs. Nothing happened. Juanita sighed and chewed on the end of her pen. They walked home with the device.
The next day, Juanita had an idea. “What if we do two things at once?”
They rushed back to the park with the device. Teka put on the safety goggles, Juanita took notes. Teka pushed the buttons and turned the crank. A gust of wind blew a man’s hat off. Juanita cheered and wrote down “Buttons plus crank makes wind.”
Teka twisted the dials and flipped the switches. Rain started to fall. Juanita wrote down “Dials plus switches makes rain.”
Teka turned the knobs and flipped the toggles and levers. There was a bright zap of lightning followed by a huge clap of thunder. Juanita wrote down, “Knobs plus toggles and levers makes thunder and lightning.”
Teka said, “That’s all we should do for today, the device will rust out in this rain.” Juanita agreed. “Yeah, my notes are getting wet.” They ran home wondering how to stop the weather they had made. Once at Teka’s home, they set the device on the couch and drank some juice boxes in the kitchen. “What do we do?” asked Juanita. “What if it never stops?” As they ate some string cheese, the storm got farther and farther away. Teka said, “I think it’s over. Let’s go back to the park and experiment some more.”
They went into the living room and Teka’s baby brother Malcolm had the device and was pushing buttons, flipping switches, turning dials, turning the crank both ways, and getting drool all over the top of it. “No!” they both shouted and took it away from him. They were scared of what might happen. That night, on the news a newslady talked about how there was an earthquake in California. Teka and Juanita looked at each other.
The next day, Teka and Juanita decided to bury the device in the backyard. It was too powerful for humans or baby brothers to use.
The end