The Boy and The Rabbit Hole, Chapter Three

The boy was confused. The ticket had been right on top of his small collection of receipts; just last night he had double checked before he went to sleep (which probably caused that nightmare of a dream). He rustled through all the small slips of paper, just to check and make sure it hadn't slipped down anywhere. Again he found nothing. He opened the money flap and only found a few solitary one dollar bills. No ticket.

"Sir, please step away from the desk. You're wasting my time" the turtle woman snapped at him. "You don't have any record of a ticket. Maybe it was just a warning."

The boy nodded, then slowly turned away from the desk and exited the building. He was not one to argue about a two hundred dollar ticket that apparently didn't exist, but he knew exactly what had happened. He had hardly slept for two days because of the stress and fear of his parents finding out. For something that serious, what was going on right then just seemed...off.

With that thought, the boy suddenly flashed back twelve hours to the letter. Tomorrow, go and talk to your teacher about the overdue homework and try and explain yourself. If something seems off, then flip this page over. Until then, DO NOT KEEP READING.
This was the epitome of something being "off."

The boy quickly got back in his car and drove towards the woods, silently dreading what was awaiting him.

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For only being there once before, and finding the hole when it was close to dark, the boy was surprised by how quickly he found the hole again. It looked exactly as he had left it the day before, and could make out the crumpled letter stuffed in the roots, right where he had left it. As he approached, he found himself thinking about Anthony. The boy was tired of Anthony winding up in his thoughts all the time. It was something that was foreign to him. Now, with the ticket, he didn't think it was going to be possible to forget.

Upon reaching the hole, the boy sighed, but he was confused. Why am I so concerned and nervous about something that is obviously a trick? However, as he bent down and grabbed the envelope, he couldn't help but think that it might not have been a trick at all. Still, trick or no trick, the boy wanted to read the rest of the letter. He opened the envelope, pulled out the wrinkled scrap of paper, and turned it over to discover that it was covered in small handwriting.

If you're reading this, then something happened. I bet whatever was causing you stress resolved itself, in some way. Now, it's time for me to explain the Rabbit Hole.

I'm not even sure what the actual name of this place is, but I dubbed it the Rabbit Hole, because whatever gets tossed into it seems to just vanish into Wonderland. It's a funny story how I discovered that strange ability.

During sophomore year, I found myself a little...over-extended. I was being pulled in so many different directions with school, and work, and hobbies, and parents, and all sorts of other things. One day I just finally cracked.

The boy stopped. Parents? Anthony was an orphan. He didn't have to worry about parents.

One day I just finally cracked. I needed to get away from it all for a little while. So, one weekend, I headed off into the woods not far from my house. These woods. As I walked, I had completely zoned out and soon discovered that I was in a section of the forest I had not been in before. I was unfortunate to figure this out because I found myself almost falling into a concealed hole by a tree. The Rabbit Hole.

Of course it didn't mean anything to me. It was just a stupid hole that I had almost fell down. So I kept walking. However, I somehow must have walked in a huge circle, because an hour later I was back at the hole. Not sure how it happened, but it did. At that point though, I was too tired to care that I might have been lost. So I just dropped to the ground and sat there.

I don't know how much time went by,  but it was getting dark when I finally realized that 1) I needed to get home and 2) my backpack was still on. Still, something about just sitting there away from all my problems sounded so...perfect. And that's exactly what I did. Well, sort of.

I figured that just sitting there wouldn't help anything. So, I pulled out a spiral and turned to a clean page. On that page I started listing all the things that had brought me up to this point. The first thing on the list? Too much school work. That was the brunt of my problems at the moment. But after writing that simple thing, I found myself just staring at the sheet. So, deciding that it was a stupid idea, I just ripped the sheet out, crumpled it up, and tossed it into the Hole. With that, I stood up, walked home, and collapsed. No homework, no dinner, not even saying hello to my parents. Completely wiped.

When I woke up in the morning, I didn't feel any different. If anything, my feet hurt from walking so much the night before. But I had almost completely forgotten about what had happened, and had DEFINITELY forgotten about the piece of paper. After realizing that I had, in fact, overslept, I grabbed my stuff and bolted to get to school.

Upon arriving to my first period, I remembered that I hadn't done my homework (honestly, not really a surprise). But, when the teacher came around to pick up the assignment, she just walked right past me. When I asked her about it, she told me that I had been excused from homework for her class. I laughed, telling her that I wasn't THAT lazy. She just kept on walking.

The same thing happened in the next class. And the following. By the end of the day, I was apparently no longer required to do any homework.

Needless to say, I was confused.

When I went home, I asked my parents if they knew anything about it, and they...

The boy again stopped reading. Seriously, what's up with the PARENT thing? ANTHONY WAS AN ORPHAN! Reluctantly, he continued.

When I went home, I asked my parents if they knew anything about it, and they said the strangest thing. "This isn't anything new Anthony. You've never had to do homework. You're teachers have said you don't need to." To this I laughed and went upstairs to show them the massive pile of unfinished (okay, who am I kidding, unSTARTED) homework.

There was nothing there.

So I left. I ran outside and into the forest. I needed to get away and clear my head. After running for a few minutes, I found myself, yet again, at the same freaking hole. The Rabbit Hole.

Suddenly, things started to click. It might have been from sleep deprivation, or too much stress, but it made sense to me that the Hole made things disappear. Then my interest grew. Just how much stuff could it make go away? Feeling my pockets, I found small scraps of paper and a pen that I had stowed there after class that day, and began scribbling. "College" got written, then thrown in. "Enemies" got written, then thrown in. "Traffic Tickets" got written, then thrown in.

And then I left, went home, apologized to my parents, and went to bed.

However, in the morning, nothing had changed. In fact, I had a message from the city saying that I still needed to pay my ticket. I didn't understand.

I went back that night with a single piece of paper. But before I could even begin writing, I saw that all three slips of paper sitting out in front of the Hole. It looked almost if the Hole had rejected them. I picked up the one that said "Traffic Tickets" and tossed that ONE paper in. I watched until it fluttered out of sight. Picking up the other two, I went home.

The next day, there was no record of a traffic ticket.

I went back after school and threw "College" down.

Every college I had applied to sent me a letter the next day saying I had been accepted with a full ride scholarship.

"Enemies" soon went down as well. This is where something went wrong.

When I went to school the next day, not worrying about homework, traffic tickets, or college, I noticed a distinct lack of

This was the end of the page, so the letter cut off there. It was obvious that this was not the end, so the boy looked in the envelope for the second sheet. He searched around the hole. He looked in the roots.

There was nothing there.

Oh well, he thought to himself, it can't have been THAT important. Let's take this time to get rid of some more stress.

So the boy, taking a leaf from Anthony's book, wrote "College" on a slip of paper and watched it fade into the darkness of the hole.

When he got home from school the next day, there were seven letters in his mailbox. Each one was from a different college that he had applied to. He smiled.

I'm pretty sure I just became the luckiest man alive.

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Sorry for not posting in a while. A combination of writer's block/starting senior year has prevented easy access to my creative juices. Don't worry though, I'm gonna make sure that I keep up with this!