Marytale
Lila Brings Back the Colors
- 6-8 min read
- 18 pages
- 6+
In the little town of Kaleidos, every house is a different color and the neighbors all get along. Only grumpy Gregor likes everything gray, and when he talks everyone into painting their houses gray, the town turns quiet and sad. Can little Lila bring the colors back with her friends and a few cans of paint, and will grumpy Gregor ever change his mind?
Once there was a little town called Kaleidos. It sat snug between green hills and thick, leafy forests. And every house in Kaleidos was a different color—red, orange, blue, purple, and more!
Walking down the street was like opening a brand-new box of crayons. People wore bright scarves and polka-dot hats. Everyone had a favorite color, a favorite song, and a favorite holiday pie. And everyone loved all the colors.
Well—almost everyone. In the middle of all those colors lived a man named Gregor. His house was gray, gray, gray. Gregor didn’t like anything that wasn’t just like his. And he frowned from morning till night.
All that color made Gregor squint. “Too red,” he grumbled. “Too yellow. Too purple! Why can’t everything be nice and gray, just like me?”
One morning, Gregor had had enough. He marched up and down the streets. “Gray is the best color!” he called. “Gray is calm. Gray is quiet. Gray never shouts at you! All these colors make my eyes go wobbly. Paint your houses gray!” And people stopped to listen.
Some people thought maybe Gregor was right. Out came the cans of gray paint. Swish! The blue house turned gray. Swish! So did the orange one. One by one, the bright colors disappeared, and the street looked grayer and gloomier every day.
But when the colors went away, the fun went away too. Nobody sang on the porches. Nobody baked holiday pies. Nobody told stories under the big oak trees. Neighbors passed each other without a word. Kaleidos grew very quiet, and very sad.
Lila loved colors more than anything. She had watched her town turn gray, one house at a time. Today the quiet street felt grayer than ever. She missed the laughing. She missed the music. She missed the holidays. “I’ll ask my neighbors,” she decided. “Maybe they’re sad too.”
First, Lila knocked on Miss Rosa’s door. Her house used to be as pink as a rose.
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