Story by Brooke

Matt couldn't wait to be a grown-up. Every night at nine when his mom turned off the TV (or X-Box, or whatever form of digital entertainment he was currently enjoying) and announced bedtime. He groaned and produced the standard fuss that was expected of a 10-year-old boy. So, now that he had realized that grown-ups didn't need to sleep, he was even more excited than ever about becoming an adult. He wondered why they kept it a secret, but wasn't extremely surprised. After all, grown-ups kept secrets about everything.

Matt had discovered the grown-ups lack of a need for sleep three weeks ago. He had been outside playing early one morning, before his parents were even up, when the neighbor lady, Harriet, called him from across the yard.

“Matthew, guess what I've got?”

Matt's mouth watered. “Blueberry muffins?”

“Fresh from the oven. Come have one.”

Matt crossed the grass, still wet with dew, and entered the back door, which led into Harriet's kitchen. He sat at the table and swung his legs, looking around at the cheerful yellow kitchen (Harvest Gold, his mom always called it with something like amusement and disdain in her voice) while Harriet fixed him a plate and glass of milk. After eating three muffins and drinking all his milk like Harriet told him to, he returned home and continued working on the obstacle course for his bike. Throughout the day, he noticed Harriet coming in and out of her house, gardening, taking a walk, emptying the trash, and performing other household chores.

That evening, he stayed with Harriet for an hour while his parents ran errands. He liked it when she was his babysitter. She always fed him good food and listened to his stories. When his parents picked him up, it was near the dreaded hour of nine, and he went to bed with the usual scene. Sometime during the night, he got up to use the bathroom, and as he was walking down the hall, he looked out the window and saw Harriet in her house across the yard. She was sitting at her sewing machine. Matt thought she must be tired, but she looked wide-awake.

When he got up the next morning, Matt's dad asked him to get the paper. He went outside, and there was Harriet, watering her flowers. It occurred to Matt that she couldn't have slept. He had seen his parents sleep plenty of times; quick snoozes on the couch, and of course, in bed at night when he had to get a drink of water or had a bad dream and climbed in with them. He wondered if they were faking the sleep so that he wouldn't catch on. He knew Harriet wouldn't need to fake sleep for his sake, though, so he retrieved his spy kit from the shelf in his bedroom, set up base by the air conditioning condenser on the side of the house, and embarked on covert operations. After two more days of close observation (including setting his alarm twice at night to see if she was up and about in her house), he concluded that she could not, in fact, be sleeping, and was overjoyed at the lack of bedtime this entailed when he became a grown-up. Having unraveled what must have been the greatest mystery child kind had ever known, he returned to the business of being a kid.

* * *

Matt was nearly finished with his obstacle course when he realized that it needed a bike ramp. He nosed around until he found a sheet of plywood that had been sitting in Harriet's driveway ever since he could remember. He reasoned that since he had never seen his neighbor use it, it would be okay for him to borrow it. As he hefted the end and began to push it onto the grass, he noticed a strange pinkish discoloration on the driveway under the plywood. At first, he thought it might be someone's squashed gum, or part of a candy wrapper. He dismissed it from his mind, but then it moved. This required further investigation. With some effort, he flipped the plywood onto the grass, and leaned over to look at the pink spot. He could see immediately that it wasn't someone's discarded chewing gum, but an actual hole in the driveway about the size of a quarter. Matt felt a surge of excitement. Maybe there was buried treasure here. He knelt down to look, but still couldn't seem to get a good grip on exactly what this was, so he lay down flat on his stomach and put his eye to the hole. All he could see was a dark pink murky substance, kind of like fog. When he poked his finger in, it didn't feel any different than the air outside. This was really strange.

He considered what to do next, but was suddenly distracted when a siren he had barely noticed began to get louder. Matt watched with growing alarm as an ambulance turned onto the street, raced past his house, and pulled into Harriet's driveway. Two men jumped out and ran to the porch. When no one answered their knock, they entered through the unlocked door. Matt's mom came out of the house, and then returned inside to get his Dad. Matt ran to them. They stood on the front porch, worrying about what was going on, and wondering aloud if they should go over to see if Harriet was OK. Matt usually didn't let his mom kiss or hug him -he felt he was way too old for that- but today he leaned against her and allowed her to put her arm around him. Hours later (at least, it seemed that long to Matt), the two men emerged with a long cot held between them. There was a lumpy looking sheet pulled over it. Matt's mom began to whimper when she saw this, and his Dad put his arms around them both.

* * *

Laura, the babysitter that Matt didn't like because she wasn“t nearly as nice as Harriet, came to watch him the day of the funeral. His Mom had explained to him that Harriet was in heaven now, because God loved her so much He had wanted her with him all the time. That didn't make sense to Matt, since his parents were always telling him that God was everywhere.

After being very sad over the loss of Harriet the last couple of days, Matt was ready to find out what had really happened. He had asked his mom, but she told him that she really didn't know what had caused Harriet to pass away, only that Harriet had called the ambulance saying she needed to sleep, right before God took her to be with Him.

Matt asked Laura if he could go outside and play, and she eagerly agreed, obviously relieved to be rid of him. He went outside and wandered around, trying to think of a plan of action. He was wandering aimlessly, moving to and fro toying with bits of wood, rocks, interesting plants or anything else that caught his fancy when he came across the hole in Harriet's driveway. He stopped and looked down, startled. In all the excitement, he had forgotten all about it. He lay down again and peered into the hole, but still couldn't see anything that would give him a clue as to what was going on. He got up and found a stick about as long as his arm and poked it into the hole, trying to see how deep it was. After it was nearly all the way in, the stick was pulled from his hands and disappeared. Matt put his eye to the hole again, wondering if he had accidentally dropped it, but the stick was not in sight. He found another stick and tried again, gripping it tightly this time, with the same outcome.

He reasoned that this hole must be very deep, and must lead to something. Since he obviously couldn't enter here, he needed to find another way in. He walked around , searching for other holes, when he passed the storm drain at the corner of Harriet's property. He had never paid much attention to this before. He knelt down and peered through the small hole designed to leave room for a pry bar. Could this be a way in? He had barely formed the question in his mind when he noticed the faint pink glow in the near darkness. So faint, you might not notice it unless you knew what to look for. The round lid was very heavy, so he ran back to get the crowbar out of the garage to lever it up. He saw as soon as the lid moved that this was what he had been looking for. He put his hand in cautiously, scared but determined to find out what this was. He advanced to his elbow, and beyond, and was suddenly sucked into the hole. Fear crashed through him as everything went black.

* * *

Matt woke in a small cave-like room. There was a door in the corner. This appeared to be the only way out, so he got up and walked to it. Beyond the door was a stone staircase. He began to climb. There were no windows, only the stairs winding up through the pink light, and after a while, he began to grow tired. Just when he was starting to wonder if they would ever come to an end, he reached a wooden door at the top. He pulled on the rusty metal loop that served as a handle, and the door creaked open slowly. Matt entered a room that looked like something out of a fairy tale. There was a window cut into the stone wall, but all was inky black on the outside. Under the window sat a large canopy bed surrounded by filmy material. Two familiar sticks lay on the floor. The only exit was the door behind Matt. Deciding he needed to rest his legs and think for a moment, he crossed to the bed and sat down next to an embroidered golden pillow. A feeling of sleepiness suddenly overpowered him, and for the first time in his memory, Matt lay down without being told, and closed his eyes. He was instantly asleep.

He woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. How long had it been? It felt like hours, maybe even days. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

Laura.

She had probably called the police by now, wondering where he was. He raced across the room and down the stairs, and when he started to wonder again if they were ever going to end, he felt a sudden jolt, everything went black for a moment, and he found himself sprawled on top of the plywood in Harriet's yard. He stood and raced to the house, expecting to encounter his frantic parents, police and search dogs any moment, but all was quiet. Where was everyone? He slammed into the house, and found Laura sitting on the couch, eating potato chips and watching Oprah, just like he had left her. She turned to look at him.

“What's wrong with you?” she asked disinterestedly.

“Um...nothing.”

“Ok, then.” She appraised him for a moment, and then turned back to her show.

Matt couldn't figure out what had just happened. Had he fallen asleep by the storm drain and had a dream? He went outside, but the drain cover was still off, and the pink light was still there. Just seeing it scared him, and he ran into the house and sat with Laura until his parents got home, deciding he would take Laura and Oprah over whatever might be in that hole.

He didn't know how to describe to his parents what had just happened, so he didn't try. He just stayed close to them all evening, and even asked to sleep with them, saying he didn't feel good. The only problem with this was that Matt didn't sleep. He tossed and turned all night, while his parents snored like freight trains, occasionally waking and telling him to be still. This pretty much blew Matt's theory about adults not sleeping, and he lay awake the rest of the night, staring at the ceiling and trying not to move.

* * *

Matt didn't sleep for a week. He was starting to wonder if he was going crazy. It occurred to him one afternoon that he had found the hole in the driveway at about the same time that Harriet had stopped sleeping. Then he went into the mysterious bedchamber, taken a nap in the magical bed, and hadn't needed to sleep for a week. Now, Harriet was dead, and Matt could only conclude that she had found the bedchamber, and using it had ultimately killed her.

He finally decided it was time to go to his parents, but when he tried to explain it to his mom, she just wrote it off as one of his stories. He tried to be serious, even crying in frustration, but she wouldn't listen. He heard her telling his Dad later that his behavior was probably just strange because of Harriet's death, and that he would settle down in time.

A few weeks came and went, and still Matt didn't sleep. He lived in constant terror that he would drop dead any moment, like Harriet. After some time passed, he concluded that the bedchamber must not affect children the same as adults. He resolved never to go down there again.

In a few weeks, Matt was sleeping normally again. With all of his recent sleepless nights, he had had plenty of time to reflect on the hole, the bedchamber, and what it meant. Little things that hadn't seemed out of the ordinary at the time came back to haunt him. One of those things was the fact that he had frequently seen Harriet walking to her house from the general vicinity of the storm drain in the weeks before her death. He had just assumed that she was fighting “the battle of the bulge,” as his mother assured him all grownups were doing all the time. Now he realized it's significance, and was sad that he hadn't been able to stop Harriet before it was too late. He also wondered if the fact that she had gone into the bedchamber more than once had been what killed her. Maybe he hadn't escaped because he was a child, but because he hadn't had as much exposure.

So, life became somewhat normal again. Matt resumed work on his obstacle course, which he wanted to finish before school started in September. One afternoon, he looked up from the mud pit he was digging and saw his father walking towards him from Harriet's drive way. This was not surprising, since his father had been tending her house from time to time since her death, but today he looked disoriented and wished Matt “Good Morning”, though it was nearly suppertime. Matt put two and two together and ran after him, hoping against hope that his father would listen, and that he wasn t too late.