HOLES

Jory loved to draw holes. He would sit on the window seal of his apartment, high up on the fourth floor and draw black circles all day. Sure he drew other things. Knights on their steeds trampling monsters under their large hooves. Beautiful maidens with monsters as pets. He even drew his mother's cat, Oscar, eating one of the bullies in his second grade class.

“Nasty,” His Mother would say. She would only glance at the drawing of Oscar. Continue to prepare dinner.

He showed it to his Father, who never looked up over his gardening magazine. “Well, Jory. You are becoming a wonderful artist, aren't you?” His Father would cough, then tap his pipe on the ashtray and return the pipe to his chapped lips.

Jory did not like not being tended to.

He went back to his bedroom, opened the window and climbed on to the window seal. He pushed out his bottom lip out, and began drawing holes again. He often wondered what would happen if he tossed down one of those drawings of holes while people walked up and down the busy street under his window.

Always, as he was about to do this, his Mother would call him.

This time it was for dinner. Yesterday, it was to go to school. Last week, it was his baby sitter was over. And the week before, he had to go to the park with his Grandpa. Dreadful situation. His curiosity had become so great, that it prevents his nights of restful sleep. In class, while the teacher tells the story of a fox and a turnip, Jory's thoughts turn to the holes.

Could it be, he often surmised, that the holes lead to other worlds? Maybe. But he really wanted to know if he were to drop a drawing of a hole under someones feet, would they fall in that black spot and disappear.

That thought always made Jory smile.

Of course, while he was smiling at lunch, that bully Martin Best, pushed Jory out of his seat at the lunch table. The boy was twice as tall as Jory, and twice as wide. He had a screwed down red square box for a haircut, small eyes and big wide mouth, which always sat open in a maniacal grin. Martin was forever wearing those horrible red and black striped tee shirts and shorts just past his knees.

Jory reached up to the table and snagged his notebook. He sat under the table and drew a hole. Using his 2b pencil he'd gotten from the art teacher's desk when she wasn't looking, he drew a large circle and shaded it black. He sat under there the whole time Martin ate his two hoagies and chip ahoys. In between eating, the boy would giggle in a husky voice, his whole body shaking the table above Jory.

When Martin rose from his chair to throw his bag lunch away, Jory placed the picture of the hole in front of Martin's high top sneakers. He took one step, and WHOOSH! He was gone in a flash. Jory crawled out from under the table. He inspected the black circle on the plain white paper. Turning it over and over. Holding it up in the sunlight.

Jory left the Lunchroom with a huge smile on his face.

Saturday came quickly, and the rest of the week was a piece of cake for Jorry since there were no bully at school. He even got to be the Teacher's helper the day after he made Martin Best disappear.

Saturday he and his Father went to the park and flew their remote control helicopters. Later, they ate at the corner Deli and went to the car wash. Jorry's Mother had peanut butter cookies she had baked waiting for them on the table. Jorry took his bath later that evening with no fuss. He went downstairs to watch the Game show network and discovered his parents were going out.

Sandy was over to watch him. She was the teenager next door and Jorry definitely did not like her at all. She was bossy, controlled the TV, never wanted to have fun. One of Jorry's recurring nightmare was he would go to bed one night, wake up in the morning only to discover his parents had given him to Sandy.

The first time she watched him, Jorry thought she was nice and very pretty. She played Madden with him, and made great nachos. She even let him stay up past nine o' clock. The next time Sandy watched Jorry, She barely paid any attention to him at all. She even made him go to bed too early so she could stay on the phone with a boy.

Now she was downstairs watching a boring reality show on his TV, waiting for him to come sit with her. His parents told him to be good as they went out the front door.

Jory wasn't interested in anything Sandy had for him. Snacks(Cheetos, root beer) Games(Uno,Madden) TV(Cartoon channel, Nickelodeon,) Books(Charlie and the chocolate factory)instead he wanted to throw fits, scream, kick and make faces at her. He was sent to his bed early.

Jory hated Sandy. He told his Batman action figure. He told his comics that he scattered around the room. He told the walls. He even told God and wished for him to turn Sandy into poop.

Jory sulked in his bed for an hour.

He nearly fell asleep. But a brilliant idea suddenly woke him. He sat straight up in bed and kicked off his blankets.

“The holes,” He said to himself.

First, he had to think of a plan. He couldn't get rid of her in the house. His parents would be suspicious, get the cops involved. Couldn't have that. He was too young to go to jail for letting people disappear in a hole.

Jory waited for Sandy to go to the kitchen during a commercial break of one of her boring reality shows and slipped outside.

It was slightly chilly outside. Actually it was very cold to be out there with no shoes and just in your pajamas. He had his drawing of a hole in his hands. Jory needed to find the right spot to place it. He remembered that over the summer, back when he liked Sandy, she never walked on the sidewalk. She always walked in the grass.

Perfect.

Jory placed the piece of paper with his drawing of a hole right between the two hedges to the left of his front door.

Just then, the front door opened. Sandy appeared, her hands on her hips and a very sour look on her face. “I thought I heard you talking to yourself. What are you doing out here? You'll catch your death?”

Sandy stepped outside and reach out to take hold of Jory. He was quick. He sidestepped towards the drawing, slipped. As he was falling, Sandy caught the collar of Jory's pajamas.

Jory's arms fell on the black hole he'd drawn hours ago. It was like some imaginary force was pulling him inside. His head, his shoulders, and arms slipped in. Mere seconds, Jory was falling into a spiral of light and darkness, Sandy clinging to him. In the spiral were many other black holes of various sizes. What felt like hours of free falling, was actually seconds.

Jory found himself laying on a pile of hay in a barn inhabited by chickens and cows and horses. Jory had the biggest headache ever in his life. Similar to the ones he'd get when the seasons changed and loads of pollen were floating in the air. He noticed he was still in his pajamas, though they were torn and frayed at the bottom of the legs.

Jory didn't feel quite himself. He felt itchy and something kept swatting himself in the face. He scratched his arm, noticing that it was very hairy. What kept swatting him in the face was a long, thin tail. Jory touched two fangs on each corner of his mouth. He moved a hands to touch shaggy hair on his head and two pointy ears.

That monster�"in his drawings�"he'd turned into that monster he drew several times.

“That can't be good,” He tried to say, but it came out in gurgles and snorts.

Oh great, Jory thought. Now no one will understand me.

The barn door creaked open and a bit of sunlight appeared, as did a woman in a long flowing silver gown and a pink pointed hat on her blond hair.

She had the ends of her gown in her hands as she stepped toward Jory. He was baffled. The woman not only resembled the princess in his drawings, but she was definitely Sandy. He tried ease himself up to greet her, only there chains attached to his arms and legs.

“I'm very angry with you,” Sandy said. “You ate three of my best chickens---while they were alive.”

“Let me go, please, Sandy,” Jory snorted and his throat gurgled.

“No way, you wretched little monster.” She pushed Jory back on the pile of hay with her foot.

“You will stay here until you learn to be a better pet.” With that statement, Sandy turned on her heels and marched out of the barn with her nose in the air.

Jory laid on the pile of hay and cried for hours.

During the night, Jory discovered something.

The chains that bound him, were attached to a very loose piece of wood in the stable. He realized this as he was trying to stop his tail from smacking him in the face, catching his tail above his head. The chain on his left wrist ripped away from that stable shutter immediately. Jory looked at it in amazement. He knew exactly what to do next. He pulled his right arm and the slender column holding up the rest of the stable shutter fell to the pile of hay.

Overjoyed, Jory made loud grunting from his diaphragm. He got to his feet in one bound, scurried toward the barn door in a crouching position. He pushed open the barn door, his long yellow nails scraping the weather rot wood. Again, loud grunting noises came from his throat.

The moonlight was bright, burning away most of the darkness in the tiny kingdom. It was Jory's chance to flee. So he ran as far his little hooves could carry him.

From the top of her tower window, Sandy screamed for the guard to catch Jory. A knight on a huge black and white steed was soon on Jory's heels. The knight removed his helmet to reveal he was Martin. Sandy wasn't too far behind. She was waving her arms and calling out all kinds of threats to Jory. Behind her was a giant cat that resembled Oscar trailing her.

They reached the forest where trees lined up like gates to hide the kingdom. Just as Jory entered the forest, a black spiral opened up and swallowed him. It grew larger, tearing the forest apart, swallowing up the knight and his steed. Sandy, the knight, the cat, Jory, all of them swirled inside the spiral. Finally, it expanded and the whole kingdom was engulfed in complete darkness.

Jory found himself being placed in his bed by Sandy. Her eyes were screwed in to show confusion, anger at Jory. She pulled his covers over top of him. They heard voices downstairs. It was jory's parents. They seemed in a good spirits, laughing, whispering as they came upstairs. Jory saw a body sprawled out on the floor in a sleeping bag beside his bed. It was Martin fast asleep, snoring.

Sandy sighed, looked at Jory. She placed a finger on her lips and shook her head. Which meant tell no one of what happened.

His parents entered the bedroom and Jory bounced out of bed, hugged and kissed them both. They placed him back in bed. Jory's Sandy explained Martin's presence, which was fine with Jory's parents. Father thanked Sandy as she went out the front door. He turned to Jory's Mother, perplexed.

“I must be tired,” He said as he took Jory's Mother by the arm up the stairs. “I could have sworn Jory had tail when he jumped out of bed to greet us.”

Reviews

[roarke]

The old cartoon hole trick. Might want to change the title, Lewis Sachar might want to pick a bone with you....
Two things, the front half when very fast, then the second half slowed up, on account of much more detail. Balance those two out, a simple fix in a rewrite.
Second, and I hope it was intentional, the tone of the narration was child like simple, to reflect Jory's age and mentality, I liked how that stayed consistent and it help to put the reader into a different world while reading it. The concept, as always with your pieces is the clincher, simple or complex, childlike or gruesome, your concepts are fresh and original and creative. And there's ALWAYS something about a tail at the end of a tale....lol.

[Nimbus Thread]

Even in a hole it all comes around full circle. Liked the dimensionality and imaginative touches of detail. It's always a treat to read your writing.