The Musical Pencils: a Children’s Story

Once upon a time, two pencils lived on the top of a piano in a music room. Their names were Peanut Butter and Jelly.

Now, you may think those are very odd names.

But these pencils were colored pencils, and they were named after the colors they made when they drew on paper.

One day, to their great dismay, the two pencils fell out of their pencil case and rolled into the piano!

Peanut Butter and Jelly were trapped inside the piano! They could not get out! They began to talk about what to do.

“Maybe someone will find us,” said Jelly.

“I don’t think so,” said Peanut Butter. “They cannot see us in here.”

Peanut Butter and Jelly waited for a long time, but no one came to get them.

Then a little girl came to play the piano. She sat on the bench and pressed the piano keys with her fingers.

The piano keys went up and down. They made pretty sounds.

The pencils sat on the wood parts of the keys inside the piano. They went up and down too.

“Look! I am dancing!” said Jelly.

“Me too!” said Peanut Butter. “It is fun!”

Tap. Tap. Tap. The pencils jumped and hopped across the piano keys inside the piano.

The little girl said, “I hear something tapping. What is it?”

Her piano teacher said, “I think it is some pencils that got stuck in the piano.”

“Can we get them out?” asked the girl.

“I do not know,” said the teacher. “I want to get them, but I cannot reach them.”

The pencils heard the girl and the teacher talking. They heard the teacher say she could not get them. Peanut Butter and Jelly were a little bit sad.

“What can we do now?” they wondered.

“We could live in the piano instead of on top of it,” said Peanut Butter.

“That’s true,” said Jelly. “Then we can play music often.”

So Peanut Butter and Jelly made a home in the piano. They danced and played songs when the children came to the music room. They were very happy.

Then one day, lots of people began to get sick. Peanut Butter and Jelly heard people in the music school talking. The people said there was a virus.

Everyone went home. The little girl did not come to play the piano anymore. The pencils were lonely and sad.

For a long time, no one came to the music rooms. The little girl did not come to play the piano.

“We have to wait,” Jelly said. “What shall we do?”

“I will play the piano myself,” Peanut Butter decided. “You can play piano with me too.”

So Peanut Butter and Jelly began to dance on the wood keys inside the piano. The keys went up and down and made sounds.

Peanut Butter and Jelly tried to play the songs that the little girl once played. They made up their own songs too.

The pencils were glad that they lived in the piano. Now they wanted to live there for a long time.

One day the teachers and students came back to the music rooms. They heard Peanut Butter and Jelly playing the piano, but they could not see anyone at the piano.

“Who is playing that piano?” they asked?

No one seemed to know who was playing the songs. Some people said it was a ghost who was playing the piano. Some people said that was all nonsense.

Only the little girl and her teacher knew that it was Peanut Butter and Jelly. They thought it was a lovely secret to know.

Peanut Butter and Jelly lived inside the piano for a long, long time. They played songs every day. But sometimes the notes did not sound as pretty as before.

“What is wrong?” asked Peanut Butter.

“The notes are out of tune,” said Jelly. “They sound lower. Sometimes they do not play well.”

One day a man came to the music room. The pencils knew lots of people who came there, but they did not know this man at all. They wondered who he was.

The man looked at the piano. He opened the piano with his tools. He began to play notes.

“This must be the piano tuner,” said Jelly. “I heard about him before. Someone said he was coming.”

“What does he do?” asked Peanut Butter.

“He makes the notes sound pretty again,” said Jelly. “Maybe he will get us out too!”

The pencils hopped on the piano keys inside the piano. The man heard the sounds. He saw the pencils in the piano.

“How did you get in there?” he asked.

The man got his tools and reached into the piano. He took the pencils out of the piano. He set them in the pencil case on top the piano.

“Yay! We are home at last!” said Peanut Butter and Jelly happily. The pencils listened to the piano man play notes on the piano. He made them sound pretty again.

“I am glad I live in a music room with a piano,” said Peanut Butter.

“Me too,” said Jelly. “But I am sad we cannot play songs inside the piano anymore.”

“But we could fall into the piano again,” suggested Peanut Butter.

“That’s true!” replied Jelly, with a mischievous smile.