Vogel Crystal: Suburbia/Scarecrow

Two American boys living in the suburbs of New Jersey discover a buried valuable 13-sided 'Vogel crystal' and embark on a time-travel adventure involving the eerie Scarecrow.

Jerry and Alan were happily enjoying summer in southern New Jersey in the summer of 2020, riding their bikes and playing stickball every afternoon. They were after all young (11 years-old!) and living affably. Jerry and Alan wanted to add some spice to their summer, however, and decided to go to a local cemetery in search of something 'unusual.'

JERRY: Maybe we'll find something strange in the cemetery!
ALAN: Yeah, we might discover something to die for...

Well, Jerry and Alan did find something unusual, but was this thing something to die for? While running around the cemetery, the two American boys came across something near the tombstone of a deceased famous resident, Mr. David Parks (co-founder of the popular Parks American Toy Company!). Jerry and Alan found a strange glass-like 'shard' poking out of the sandy and muddy ground behind Mr. Parks' cemetery-tombstone. They decided to dig out the object.

The object turned out to be a 13-sided shiny and amazing-looking crystal. The two amazed boys decided to run to the public library to ask someone educated (a librarian-executive!) what the 13- sided crystal was or symbolized. The librarian explained that what the two boys possessed in their hands was the somewhat rare 13-sided 'Vogel crystal' (a valuable and unusual gem said to have mystical history in North American folklore). The librarian suggested the two boys take the crystal to the museum!

The boys didn't reveal where they procured the Vogel crystal and instead told everyone they found it in the forest. Their parents recommended they sell it to the museum for $5000, but the two boys insisted they 'study' the crystal on their own first (and with the public library librarian's help!) before simply 'handing it over' to a museum. Jerry and Alan's parents agreed to let the boys indulge their temporary curiosity, still unaware the boys procured the Vogel crystal near Mr. David Parks' tombstone in the cemetery.

Jerry and Alan took their 'Vogel crystal' to the forest and polished it to a shine with tree-leaves and held it up to the sunlight and watched the rays of sunshine pass through it. Just then, the Vogel crystal began to glow and a giant oval-shaped portal opened up right beside the two boys! Jerry and Alan decided to walk through the portal, and when they did, they miraculously ended up in 1800 California, in a frontier-town filled with gold-seeking cowboys, voluptuous saloon-wenches, and drunken musicians!

The two boys were completely amazed. They thanked God for this strange adventure and wondered how they should spend their time in the 'Old West.' The Vogel crystal obviously enabled them to somehow travel through time! Jerry and Alan managed to convince a saloon-keeper to give them a summer job, working as messengers and food-carriers. They slept in a room the saloon-keeper happily provided. The two boys resolved to spend three weeks there before returning to their own time/place in 2020 New Jersey suburbia by rubbing their magical Vogel crystal and holding it up to the sun and walking through the time-portal again! No one would even know they were ever gone, since they'd simply return to the precise time/place the time-portal opened up in the forest near their homes in Jersey!

Well, Jerry and Alan were having a 'grand old time' playing and meeting all sorts of people in that California gold-digger town. The two enthusiastic boys decided to dance and play one night by the saloon where they worked and lived, under the moonlight. It was on that night of joyous summer play that the two boys saw something terrifying. It was a large and sinister living scarecrow. At first, the two boys simply thought it was a field scarecrow someone dumped near the saloon as a joke and was now 'moving around' in the wind but they noticed this Scarecrow' was suddenly walking around...and had glowing red eyes!

JERRY/ALAN: What do you want, Mr. Scarecrow?
SCARECROW: You boys are foolish time-travelers!
JERRY/ALAN: My God, we promise to return home tomorrow!
SCARECROW: Yes, return home...and return the crystal.
JERRY/ALAN: We promise, we promise, Mr. Scarecrow.

The next morning, Jerry and Alan retuned to the spot where the time-portal opened up and brough them originally to 1800 California and rubbed the Vogel crystal again and held it up to the sunlight! The time-portal promptly opened up, and the two boys walked through it. They ended up magically in their own time/place in the summer of 2020 in suburbia New Jersey, in the forest where the time-portal had first opened! They decided to return the crystal to the spot they discovered it --- near the tombstone of Mr. David Parks in the cemetery. They told their parents they simply lost the crystal and feigned themselves weeping immensely. Their parents forgave them and assured them that the proper archaeologist or geologist or gemologist would someday find it again and take it to a museum!

Jerry and Alan never found out why the magical/mystical 13-sided Vogel crystal was buried next to the tombstone of Mr. David Parks (co-founder of the Parks American Toy Company!), and they never questioned why the bizarre 'Scarecrow' admonished them to return the crystal to the spot they found it and return to their own time/place. The two boys simply concluded that they had an unbelievable adventure and learned the ultimate value of humility. As they grew up as best friends, Jerry and Alan never ever forgot the strange 'Scarecrow' they encountered in 1800 California.



*The End*