by J. G. Kemp
I imagined Ms. Violet, and my mom and dad, and Hazel, yelling at me when they saw two Chippers. I had to get the new Chippers back in the coloring book, but how? There was no Chippers-shaped hole in this book. “But maybe I could make one?” I thought. And that’s the first time I did it. That’s the first time I made a black hole.
I colored in a black circle and thought, “this will be a hole that can make anything disappear.”
A hole appeared in the book, but it wasn’t like the usual holes. It was blacker. Emptier. I didn’t like it. In fact, I really didn’t like it. It felt… dangerous. And I promised myself it was the last thing I was going to draw. Period.

I didn’t want to wait till morning. I wanted to fix this problem tonight. So when everyone was asleep, I snuck out. I crawled out my window. I crept through my backyard. I tiptoed into the alley. I snuck into Spencer’s yard. And I took the old Chippers from the fort.
I held him tightly as I ran back to my house. He was much heavier than he looked, and he squirmed. I dumped him through my window before crawling through myself.

“Yip Yip Yip.”
“Shhhhhh, quiet boy,” I whispered. The old Chippers hopped up on my bed and bounced and wagged his tail. His paw already seemed much better, and Spencer had cleaned him really well. Ms. Violet would never know.
This was my brilliant plan: I was going to lure the new Chippers into my room, put him in the black hole, and then send the old Chippers into the kitchen. It would all work out, and I would never use the book again.
But before I had a chance to stop him, the old Chippers jumped up onto my desk.
“Chippers! Down boy!” I commanded. He put his nose into the open coloring book, sniffed, and he was gone!
“ARRRR!” I shouted. I stomped to the coloring book. Instead of the black hole was a drawing of chippers with his tongue out. I slammed the book closed.
I hated it.
Chapter 3
downward spiral
The next few months were the worst of my entire life. And after I tell you this, maybe you’ll understand. Maybe you’ll understand why I drew the black hole that swallowed Grayville.
The first terrible thing that happened was that my dad was in trouble with the law - because of the lottery ticket - because of me.
He had to get a lawyer. He told me he was in trouble for “counterfeit and fraud”. He looked sad all the time, and worried, and nervous.
Every time I asked him about it he would say, “Don’t you worry, Big Buddy, everything will be okay.” But he didn’t look like everything would be okay. He looked like every-thing would be the exact opposite of okay.
And he never wanted to play catch with me or watch baseball anymore.
The second terrible thing that happened was Ms. Violet moved away - because I destroyed her house - because of me.
She went to live with her family in a different city. And she wasn’t coming back to Smudge Street. She was moving away forever.
When I told her how much I would miss eating her breakfasts every morning, she said, “It’s for the best, Brandon. Change is good. And I’ll always remember you.” I didn’t like that. Change was not good. And remembering wasn’t the same as being together.
The third terrible thing that happened was my mom had to work more at the hospital - because of me - because my dad was ‘under investigation’ and got fired from his job.
She was hardly ever home. She looked so tired all the time.
And the last thing. The worst thing of all. Was that we were going to move too. My mom and dad said we couldn’t afford to live in Grayville anymore. We had to move to a smaller house, in Smogstown.
Can you believe that? They named the town Smogstown. When I asked my dad if there was smog there, he said, “They didn’t call it ‘Smogstown’ for no reason.”
Well, those were the worst things that happened in those three months. But there were a lot of other terrible things too.
Like Spencer broke his leg after falling from the tree in his yard. He couldn’t play catch with me, or run in circles in gym class. And he wanted to read a lot more. I didn’t want to watch him reading.
Also, my fort got mold in it, so we had to tear it down. I wondered if it was some mean trick from the quantum coloring book - maybe quantum forts turned moldy. I kept waiting for something bad to happen to my fingers. I knew it was coming. I knew it wouldn’t end happily.
And you’re probably wondering about the coloring book. Where was it? What did I do with it?
Well, I kept it. In my backpack, mostly. I took it everywhere. I never used it. But I thought about it. I thought about it all the time. And I had it with me on that day - the day I made the black hole. It was in my desk in Mr. Stale’s room.
It was my last day at Grayville Elementary. I was leaving my best friend. I was moving to Smogstown. So, forgive me, but I was in a bad mood…
Chapter 4
the terrible day
It started with cardboard cereal for breakfast, which I ate with my fingers. All of our spoons were packed away in boxes. And all my clothes were packed away too.
I had to wear one of Hazel’s old shirts to school - it was pink. It was a girl’s shirt. Hazel said it was red-ish and Spencer said it was magenta, but they were just trying to make me feel better. I knew it was pink.

As soon as we got to school, Isaac Crumb laughed at me and said, “Hey, Brandon Pink.” I guess he had run out of words that rhymed with “Black”.
“Congratulations, you’re not color blind,” I replied.
When we sat down for class, he kicked the back of my chair extra hard. I turned around and shouted, “Leave me alone!” And Mr. Stale sent me to the principal’s office.

He didn’t send Isaac Crumb to the principal’s office.
Principal Snort told me that he was going to call my mom. He said, “Now young man, I know you’re leaving Grayville Elementary tomorrow, but if you have one more… outburst, you will come back here and clean the cafeteria every day for a year.” He stared at me. His eyes looked like bugs’ eyes. I looked at my feet.

“Do you understand?” he snipped.
I nodded.
“You may leave. It is almost lunch time. Go to the cafeteria and tell Mrs. Goop that I sent you.”
I left Principal Snort’s office and walked with my head down to the cafeteria.
“Oh, the Principal sent you, did he?” Mrs. Goop’s eyes lit up when I arrived. She made me wipe down the tables with the burning cleaner. The tables were so gross - plastered in sticky spilled milk with dried rice that was almost impossible to scrape off.
Mrs. Goop didn’t let me eat lunch with Spencer. I had to eat in the kitchen. And after lunch, I couldn’t go to recess. I couldn’t play with my best friend on our last day at school together. I had to wipe spilled milk off the tables again.
After lunch, back in Mr. Stale’s room, Olive turned around and asked, “Where were you at lunch, Brandon Black?”
“Nowhere, Olive,” I said. “Leave me alone.”
“Well, do you want to color?” She asked. “I have an extra book. Maybe you’d be in a better mood if you colored?”
And that’s what pushed me over the edge. I glared at Olive. She didn’t know the first thing about anything. I repeated, in a mean, sarcastic voice, “Maybe you’d be in a better mood if you colored.”
Olive’s smile turned into a frown.
“That fixes everything, doesn’t it Olive?” I snapped. “Just color your problems away. Huh?” I reached into my desk, grabbed the quantum coloring book, and slammed it down in front of me. “Do you want to see me color, Olive? Huh?”
Olive sat taller and said proudly, “Do you know why I color, Brandon Black? Because I like it. What do you like to do? Complain? My life isn’t perfect either, but at least I try. At least
I try to be positive. You’re just mean, Brandon Black. Grumpy and mean.”
“Mean, huh? Is that what you think? I’ll show you mean!” I flung open the quantum coloring book and started scribbling as hard as I could. Just big ugly black scribbles, and I stared at Olive and shouted, “I wish you all would just go away! I wish EVERYONE ELSE and EVERYTHING ELSE would just GO AWAY!!!!”
And that was it.
The black scribbles grew, and the book was sucked into itself, and my pencil was sucked out of my hand, and Olive screamed, and her hair, and her head, and her body, and my desk, just disappeared into blackness.
I heard more screaming and shouting and watched in horror as Spencer and Isaac Crumb were sucked into the black hole.
Posters ripped of the wall. Pencils and erasers and books and chalk and chairs and kids hurled and spun through the air.
Mr. Stale held onto his desk for dear life. His brown tie and mustache tore off. And then he was gone. The whole classroom was gone, and the next classroom, and the next, and all of Grayville Elementary!
It happened so fast. And I just stood there and watched. The black hole didn’t work on me. It didn’t suck me in. Everyone and everything else was going away - just like I wanted.
* * *
And now here I am. Wherever here is. Sitting on the edge of this black hole as it swallows the entire universe.
But enough talk. I’m ready now. Telling you this story has given me courage. And I know more than ever that I need to destroy this book. Once and for all. Goodbye.
I’m returning to the alley behind my house, on the day I discovered the coloring book —
Chapter 5
in the woodpile
You might think that traveling through time feels strange, but it doesn’t. It doesn’t feel like anything. One second you are in one place, and the next second you are in a different place. That is all. There is no whirring or spinning or noise or bright lights. It’s as easy as blinking your eyes.
That is, if you’ve used a quantum coloring book to make a time-machine that takes you wherever you want just by thinking, and blinking. Mine looks like a watch.
And there I was. Back in time. Standing in the alley behind my house. Beside the woodpile where I found the coloring book.
And I was going to destroy it: rip it up, burn the shreds, and bury the ashes!
I searched through the woodpile - under the planks and rotten boards. I searched behind it and around it. I found spider webs, and dead beetles, and rusty nails. But there was no book. Where was it? It was supposed to be here!

I heard the back door of my house open and saw myself, the other Brandon, the Brandon from the past, walk out. He was scowling. He did look grumpy, I thought.
I hid behind the thick bushes in the alley. The other Brandon crawled into his fort - just like I remember. Across the street Ms. Violet was walking Chippers - just like I remember. But the quantum coloring book wasn’t there. Why wasn’t it there?
Any minute Spencer would call from over the fence. But where was the book?
And then it hurt! No, I mean it - it really hurt! All of a sudden, my entire body felt like it was being torn apart. I felt like I was going to explode. I felt like I was ripping in half. I was dying!
“aaaahhhhhhoooowwwww,” I groaned and writhed on the ground. It felt like burning and freezing at the same time. It was agony! What was happening? I felt like… like I was being erased!
And then a light bulb turned on in my head. Everything suddenly made sense!
Through the blinding pain, I knew what to do. I flung open the quantum coloring book I’d brought from the future, and colored, as fast as I could, “This is going to be a new quantum coloring book, and it’s going to appear in the woodpile behind my house.” And the instant I finished coloring, the pain disappeared.
The new book was there - fluttering in the wind.
I watched the other Brandon sneak out of the gate, grab the book, and run back to the fort. A few seconds later Spencer came into the alley. “Hey Brandon, you in there?” he called. Just like he had done before. It was all the same.
And the pain was gone. Oh, thank goodness the pain was gone. I lay there in the bushes, stunned. It was me. I put the book in the woodpile.
And the pain? The pain was me being erased. Me, the Brandon that traveled back in time, the one telling you this story. If I hadn’t found the book, I wouldn’t exist. If I hadn’t found the book, I would never have traveled in time, and I would be gone.
My mind whirred. What was I going to do? Could I change the past - without dying? I hadn’t thought about what would happen to me if I changed the past. I didn’t want to die.
But NO! I had to destroy the book.
Spencer and the other Brandon were still playing catch in the backyard. “I’ll just tell them not to use the book. I’ll tell them this story,” I thought. But the second I moved, the pain began again.
“AAAAWWWWW.” I collapsed back in the bushes and the pain stopped. I couldn’t change anything without that terrible pain. And then another lightbulb turned on in my head.
Spencer had seen me in the gym the day of the thing with fangs, and on Smudge Street running after the Bigfoots.
And I had seen myself crawl through my window the night of the robot attack.
I made the thing with fangs disappear. I made the Bigfoots disappear. I drew my fingers in the coloring book.
All this had already happened! And if I tried to change it - it would hurt - I would be erased from the future. I would die!
I sat there for a long time. Confused. Worried. I didn’t know what would happen anymore - but I did know that terrible pain. I couldn’t forget that!
I couldn’t never discover the quantum coloring book, but maybe I could stop the black hole.
I had to try, and there was only one way to find out.
But first I had a few stops to make…
Chapter 6
fangs, notes, bigfoots
I traveled to Grayville Elementary, right as the thing with fangs was splashing in the jello, right as the fire alarm turned on.
ERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
I was in the gym. I was alone. In the hall I heard Mrs. Sullen, “Move quickly, children, if you want to live.” And through the gym doors I saw a group of kids pushing towards the exit. Spencer was with them. He saw me before I ducked behind one of the big gym mats in the corner.
I waited a few minutes and then crept towards the hallway.
ERRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! went the fire alarm.
I peeked around the corner - no one was there. I ran to the cafeteria and ducked into the kitchen. The thing with fangs was bathing in the pot of jello.
“screeeeeeeee,” it sighed as it sank deeper into the red goop. It looked content. It looked happy.
And there was jello everywhere! I remembered Mrs. Goop standing on the soccer field, miserable, covered in jello. This mess would take her hours to clean. I felt bad about it, and then I remembered how the whole school had been fixed the next day.
So I colored an invisible clean-the-kitchen-and-fix-Grayville-Elementary robot in the coloring book. I ordered it to self-destruct when it was finished.
Then I drew a black hole in the book and approached the thing. It had fallen asleep, floating on its back, with a smile on its face. I touched the quantum coloring book to its head and it disappeared.
Before I left, I had one more thing to do. I ran from the cafeteria to Mr. Stale’s room. It was weird being in the school by myself. I didn’t have to be quiet in the halls. And as I ran I held my arms out, like airplane wings, and shouted, “ERRRRRR,” along with the fire alarm.
Back in Mr. Stale’s room I wrote a note which said: “Don’t make Brandon read aloud and stand on one foot for 5 minutes.” But immediately the pain started - the pain of me being erased.
I sighed. I couldn’t change the past. And then I chuckled and added the word
s “forget to”, so the note read: “Don’t forget to make Brandon read aloud and stand on one foot for 5 minutes.”
I left the note on his desk and traveled through time - just as the Bigfoots exploded my fort…
KABOOM!! A large plank of wood flew inches from my face. I ducked just in time. I was in the alley.
“GRRRrrrrr.” The Bigfoots grunted. My yard was crawling with them. But this time I wasn’t afraid at all. I didn’t panic. I watched them. They blundered around and bumped into each other stupidly.