It was a sound all too familiar when I heard my daughter Elsie playing in her room.
The rattle of plastic echoed through the house, and I already knew what she was playing with quietly in her room.
Peering into her room, Elsie was sprawled across her bed, shaking her new toy with such determination.
A Magic 8-Ball had found its way into the Patterson home. It was a toy that instantly took me back to my own childhood when I received one for making the honor roll at school.
The Magic 8-Ball toy actually made its first appearance in a Three Stooges skit. The fortune telling device would later become a popular toy for children in the 1950s.
Its popularity must have soared because the plastic toy found its way into my childhood home in the 1980s. Almost three decades later, it appeared again with my own children.
When I was a child, the Magic 8-Ball was solid in its predictions. Its answer was as good as gold in my mind.
The Magic 8-Ball confirmed that I would marry Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell. It validated my dream to become a famous actress and writer. It told me I would move to Paris when I grew up. And it also settled my desire to travel to Walt Disney World that summer.
Looking back, it was ridiculous how much stock I put in the plastic ball filled with blue dye and its geometrical floater.
Elsie noticed I was watching her that morning, and she quickly jumped off her to bed to my side.
“I can’t read this,” she said, carefully placing the ball with its answer displayed in my hands. “What does it say?”
“What did you ask it,” I asked.
“Am I going to get married one day,” she asked, with a sideways grin.
Glancing down at the ball, I knew she was going to be disappointed in the answer, but I decided to be honest with her.
“Outlook not so good,” I replied.
To my surprise, Elsie didn’t seem discouraged. With a quick stomp of her foot, she simply moved onto her next question.
“Am I gonna get a pony,” she asked.
Shaking the ball, I waited for the future to unfold in my hands.
“It is decidedly so,” I answered.
And that was it. In Elsie’s mind that pony was as good as hers.
A few days later, Elsie did get a pony. Only it was My Little Pony toy. But that counts, right?
Elsie remembered that she asked the Magic 8-Ball about her new pony.
“See, that ball thing was right,” she said, brushing the neon pink hair of her new pony toy.
That plastic toy sits atop her vanity dresser. And I can hear it shaking from time to time as it answers every question from a strong-willed five-year-old.
It interests me that all it takes with Elsie is a sign of hope from a small toy. In her mind, she becomes confident and determined that what she wants will come to reality.
I hope and pray that she keeps that mindset without the toy as she grows each day. I hope she keeps that mentality that she can achieve any dream or goal.
Just like her toy, she can hold her future in the palm of her hand. All it takes it a little reassurance. And even when those “negative” results pop up, I hope she will shake it off and find a better answer.
If it was only as easy as shaking an 8-Ball and starting over.
Sitting in my recliner, I noticed she left her Magic 8-Ball in the living room one night. Just for old time’s sake, I picked it up.
“Will I ever become a famous writer,” I asked.
Shaking, I grinned as I anticipated what the toy would say.
“Most likely,” I read aloud. “Well that settles it then.”
The Magic 8-Ball had spoken. Now, if Zack Morris calls me with a marriage proposal...I’ll have to decline.
Jason Patterson beat him to it.
