On a white saucer, next to a large ceramic cup, sat a proud sugar cube. His name was Crystal the Sugar Cube, and he was very proud of himself. Each of his edges was perfectly straight, and every corner was as sharp as a needle. He glistened in the morning sun and felt very important.
Fragrant steam rose from the cup. It held freshly brewed mint tea, the colour of liquid gold. "Hmm, what a warm and pleasant little lake," Crystal thought. "I am a brave cube. I'll jump in and show everyone what a courageous swimmer I am!"
And so, with one determined "hop!", Crystal tumbled from the saucer and, with a cheerful "splash!", landed in the middle of the warm tea. The first sensation was wonderful. The warm water caressed him pleasantly on all sides. He felt as if he were on vacation in a hot spring.
After a moment, however, he noticed something strange. His beautiful, sharp corners began to round off. And his perfectly straight edges were shrinking. "Help! What is happening to me?" he cried in surprise, but his voice was only a faint fizz. "I'm vanishing! I'm disappearing!"
Just then, thousands of tiny, invisible figures began to hop and dance around him. They looked like minuscule, transparent spheres full of energy. They giggled and swarmed around him like curious little bees. "Who are you? And why are you tickling me so?" Crystal asked worriedly.
"We are the Water Sprites!" answered one of the spheres, whose name was Hannah. "Or, if you want to be scientific, we're water molecules." "And we like you very much!" added another Water Sprite, Philip. "You're made of thousands and thousands of tiny, sweet crystals. And this warm water has made us all giddy and full of energy."
Crystal stopped panicking and began to listen. "Giddy? What do you mean?" "Look," Hannah explained, bumping into him cheerfully. "When we're in the warmth, we dance and run around very fast. And when we bump into you like this, we take a tiny, invisible little piece from you and carry it with us on a journey all over the cup."
And it was true. Crystal felt tiny particles separating from him, carried away by the Water Sprites. But it wasn't painful at all. Quite the opposite. He felt lighter and freer. He was no longer in just one place, and suddenly he felt as if he were everywhere at once. One part of him danced with the Water Sprites at the surface, smelling the mint. Another sank to the bottom, where it sensed the sweet taste of the spoonful of honey that had settled there.
"I... I'm not falling apart," whispered an astonished Crystal. "I'm spreading out!" "Exactly!" Philip laughed. "This is called dissolving. You don't cease to exist. You just spread evenly throughout the tea. You become a part of it."
Crystal stopped resisting. He let the cheerful Water Sprites take him completely apart, into invisible, sweet particles. He felt his final piece detach, and he became one with the entire golden lake. He was no longer a cube; now he was flavour. He was sweetness itself.
Just then, the cup was lifted. A little girl named Adela raised it to her lips. "Mommy, this tea is delicious today!" she said contentedly. "It's sweet, just the way I like it."
And Crystal, now invisible but present in every drop of tea, smiled. He understood that he had not vanished. He had simply found his new, wonderful purpose. He had made something ordinary extraordinary.
What do you think, children? The next time you sweeten your tea or lemonade, will you remember brave Crystal the Sugar Cube? Try an experiment with your parents: see how fast sugar dissolves in cold water versus warm water. Which Water Sprites do you suppose will be dancing faster?