The Power of Words

Chapter 2

Mr. Craddy sat down beside Taylor and pulled one of the student desks so they were sitting side by side. “Would you like to begin?” he asked.

“Sure, That’s fine with me,” Taylor replied. Never had she felt so at peace. She picked up her pencil off her desk and put it to her lips thinking about what to write about. Her mind wandered back to the bunny she was thinking about not ten minutes ago. She pressed her pencil to the paper and the words just seemed to flow out like water out of a faucet. Her hand moved with the words just seeming to spill out onto the page. Till finally the words overflowed.  

Taylor stopped writing as if she had just realized what she was doing, but it was already too late. She looked over at Mr. Craddy only to see him staring at her paper, because on the top of the page on her desk sat a small fluffy brown bunny.

Taylor began to cry, she was terrified of what she had done. For the first time in almost 2 years she had used her powers, and this time it was much worse she had used them in front of her teacher! She opened her mouth to speak but Mr. Craddy cut her off, “You have a gift, its not something to be feared my child. Don’t cry things are okay.”

Taylor  couldn’t believe what she had just heard Mr. Craddy say. Why isn’t he afraid of me, even my own father is terrified of me, she thought to herself , “you’re not afraid of me?” Taylor could not believe it.

Mr. Craddy looked at Taylor with a curious expression on his face, “no, because it’s not something to be feared it is a gift to be cherished.” He stopped speaking realizing  Taylor was very afraid of what she had done. he reach over and picked up the piece of paper. He began reading what Taylor had written in awe, then he said breathlessly hardly above a whisper, “tons of people dream of bringing their words to life, but you are afraid, however I do understand, let us talk I have a story for you.”

Mr. Craddy got up from his seat and picked up the little bunny carefully. He turned his back from Taylor and slowly walked towards the window his mind was miles away. He opened the window and carefully sat the bunny out the window into the grass. Taylor began to wonder what type of story Mr. Craddy had in mind as he stared out the window. Mr. Craddy did not turn when he started his story, looking at the bunny hop into the grass and begin eating.

“I used to know a woman, her name was Tessa, she wrote everyday just like you, but she was not afraid of her power, she embraced it. Her hands would zipp across the words for hours without her thoughts catching up with her.” Mr Craddy turned to look at Taylor and walked back across the room to his seat beside her. “Tessa was a wonderful woman, I  should know I was married to her, but she became reckless with her words. She would forget at times that she had these powers and would pick up a pencil and write a story without ever thinking.”

Taylor was listening very intently to Mr. Craddy’s story as he continued, “Taylor what I’m trying to tell you is that you shouldn’t be afraid of your gifts. Also, I can help you and show you ways that will help you control it.”

Taylor looked at Mr. Craddy confused, “you...you mean you can teach me how to control it?” she stammered.

“Of course I can, and according to your future survey you filled out at the beginning of the year you want to be a writer, so what do you say you keep chasing that dream and I’ll help you learn to control your gifts?”

Taylor leapt out of her seat and hugged the very unsuspecting Mr. Craddy. She was basically jumping up and down, “Oh thank you Mr. Craddy thank you so much! When do we start?” she asked as she released him from the hug she had been giving him.

“How about Friday afternoon, because no one will be here to risk hurting, just as a precaution…”

“I don’t know sir, Can we talk about this tomorrow? I kinda have to walk home…”

Taylor trusted Mr. Craddy but she wasn’t ready to open up fully to him. Mr Craddy said, “yeah, sure, and Taylor…”

“Yes?” she replied.

“Don’t worry about the creative writing assignment. I understand why you didn’t do it, and I will be taking this paragraph you wrote just now as your grade.”

Without another word Taylor picked up her backpack and shouldered it. She headed to her locker to grab her math homework. Taylor was in for another grueling night of Algebra 2 homework.