Pen to Paper

Sentenced to live as one, each with a purpose conflicting with the other's. Lead and eraser were tied together from the beginning of time. Lead dreamed of creation, gifted with the ability of expression. From sketches drawn for movie protagonists to literary scribbles that would lead to books that lit up the creases of brains. Lead was a leader, a doer with an established habit of bringing the mind's eye to life. However, inches away on the other side of this HB #2 pencil sat eraser. Lead saw eraser as a pink poisonous entity. Eraser was comfortable and cushy with ideals far from its own, made to conceal mistakes, remove the mind’s brilliant madness, and mislead readers away from an author's unedited truth. One lived in a lead-filled world of black and white while the other resided in a forgiving princess pink palace. Lead and eraser were polarized by nature, and their relationship seemed set until one June morning when HB #2 pencil found itself in the sturdy right hand of Payton Armstrong.

 Born on the sixth sun of Mars, raised by books and the push for broader horizons, Payton was a fiery, fearless thinker who refused to own a linear imagination. Armstrong gave the pencil a twirl as she picked it up and began to write. She wrote for hours, she wrote for days, she wrote for months. The moon saw her articulate her thoughts onto paper, and the sun saw her read her words aloud to anyone who would listen. Payton Armstrong landed light years ago in history while staying right in her bedroom. She sailed across time and crossed the caverns of space. HB pencil #2 had never known such a skilled master. However, major embarrassment filled this pencil to the top of its kettle (ruining grandmother's tea party) when Payton began to write a narrative on lead and eraser. Becoming self-aware is not for the weak. Yet, the connecting fibers of wood and words that had once been seen as an utter nuisance to lead and eraser became a splintery handshake. It was agreed, anything for this woman and her entertaining string of consciousness. Together the two became Payton’s most powerful weapon, the window into her mind.