For Advanced Creative Writing, we had to write a children’s story. I decided to go with a subtle allegory with this one, the Rubix cube representing life, and Ada (short for Adam) representing mankind. Mr. Joshua (derived from Yeshua) represents Jesus. Inspiration may or may not have come from Max Lucado’s You Are Special. At the end of the semester, our teacher is going to require us to submit this story to a publisher, so I guess I’ll see what happens!

Update 11/14/17: I received an A on this project.

Ada’s favorite teacher was Mr. Joshua. He was her only teacher, but that just made picking favorites even easier. Every day he would let her play with the toys on his desk, which were also favorites. Mr. Joshua let her swing the marbles on his Newton’s Cradle and press her hand in his pin art toy.

But Ada’s favorite favorite toy on Mr. Joshua’s desk was his Rubix cube. It had six colorful sides that could turn however Ada’s fingers wished them to go. She loved watching all the colors spin together into wonderful patterns and jumbles, and when she was finished, Mr. Joshua always knew how to put every color back in place.

She loved the Rubix cube so much that she hoped one day Mr. Joshua would let her keep it if she was good enough in school. She tried to follow all of Mr. Joshua’s rules. She folded her fingers quietly on her desk, she planted her feet flat on the ground, and she never cut her hair with her scissors.

“Mr. Joshua will have to give me the Rubix cube when he sees how obedient I am,” Ada told herself.

But Mr. Joshua never seemed to notice. Ada grew so impatient that she decided she couldn’t wait any longer. And so, when Mr. Joshua was cleaning the chalkboard after school, Ada slid the Rubix cube from his desk, stuffed it in her overalls, and sneaked across the room. She slipped out of the classroom door and sprinted away down the hall.

“He won’t even know it’s gone,” she whispered to herself.

Ada played with the Rubix cube all day by spinning and twisting the squares, and her favorite part was that she’d never have to give it back. But the more Ada spun the squares, the more confused and jumbled the colors became. No matter how hard she turned and cranked them, Ada couldn’t get the colors to line up again.

“I broke it,” she told her friends. “The colors are all supposed to match, but now it’s just a mess!”

“Twist the red square to the corner,” Chrissy demanded, “and the blue square to the side.” Even though Chrissy pretended she knew how to fix a Rubix cube, the colors just became even more jumbled. Eventually Chrissy gave up.

“Let me do it!” Katie snatched at the cube, but Ada gripped it tightly.

“No!” she shouted. “You’ll only break it even more!”

Ada pulled. Katie tugged. They yanked and twisted and jerked the Rubix cube between them so hard that a small corner square popped off and rolled on the ground.

“You DESTROYED IT!” Ada shrieked, gathering the Rubix cube and its broken part up in her arms. She looked down at the mangled toy in her hands.

“The only person who can fix it now is Mr. Joshua,” Chrissy said slowly.

“But Ada will get in trouble if Mr. Joshua finds out,” Katie said seriously.

“Mr. Joshua will hate me,” Ada said sadly.

Ada went home that night and lay in bed for a long time after her mother kissed her goodnight. She tossed and turned and twisted restlessly in her blankets, worried over what Mr. Joshua would say if he found out she’d stolen and broken his Rubix cube.

“He’ll yell at me,” she whispered. “He’ll hate me and make me sit in the back of the class, and I’ll never be able to play with his toys again. He might even throw me out of the room and make me sit in the hallway outside forever. Mr. Joshua might never want to see me again.”

The next day at school, guilt ached in Ada’s chest. She couldn’t fold her fingers on her desk, she couldn’t keep her feet flat on the floor, and she yanked and tugged on her hair. She hated hiding what she’d done from Mr. Joshua.

When her classmates left at the end of the day, Ada couldn’t move. She just watched Mr. Joshua clean the chalkboard.

I have to tell him, she thought. It’s the only way to fix everything.

She walked to his side and shamefully pulled out the Rubix cube. The guilt was just too strong. She swallowed loudly and took a big breath of air before speaking. “Mr. Joshua? I—I stole your Rubix cube…and now it’s broken.”

Mr. Joshua set aside his cleaning rag and knelt down in front of Ada. He looked at her with kind but firm eyes. “I know,” he said softly. “I watched you take it from my desk yesterday. I was hoping you would come back to apologize.”

Ada burst into tears. “I wanted to play with it, but all I did was break it! I’m so sorry!”

Ada expected to see Mr. Joshua’s face turn red with anger, but when she dared to look, Mr. Joshua seemed a little sad instead. It only made Ada feel worse. She’d never wanted to make a teacher sad.

“I wish you hadn’t taken it, Ada,” he said in a deep, strong voice, “but I’m glad you told me. It means you really are sorry.”

Ada handed Mr. Joshua the Rubix cube and wiped a hand across her nose. She watched closely as Mr. Joshua carefully popped the broken square back in place and spun the Rubix cube back and forth until all the colors were back in their perfect positions, slowly making it beautiful again.

“I wish I knew how to fix a Rubix cube,” Ada said softly, wiping her tears away.

“I can teach you,” Mr. Joshua suggested. “As long as I can trust you not to take things from my class.”

Ada sniffed once, the last of her tears drying away. “Okay,” she said meaningfully. “I promise never to steal ever again.”

Mr. Joshua broke into a great big smile, all signs of sadness gone. “That’s what I like to hear,” he said. “Now . . . let me show you how to fix a Rubix cube.”