THE PORTAL – Courtney Webb
Jeremy Beans, age ten, lived in an ordinary house on an ordinary street. He had a mom, a dad, a younger brother,
Samuel, age six and an older brother, Tyler, age twelve. His friends at school
just called him Bean for short.
Samuel was kind of fun because he could be talked into playing games. Tyler was no fun because he was always gone Doing Things.
One day, on a Saturday, Tyler was gone with Dad, working on his school science project. Jeremy was home with Mom, Samuel and Beamer, their dog. His job was to get his room cleaned up. Probably the worst job in the world and the one he hated the most. He and Sam were in the living room and they still had fifteen more minutes TV time.
The doorbell rang, and he could hear his mom.
“I’ll get it.”
The door opened, and mom had a short conversation with the UPS man and brought in a brown paper package.
“Hum,” she said, walking to the kitchen table.
“Who’s it from?” Jeremy asked. He followed his mother. Samuel was crowding his elbow, looking too.
“Your uncle Al.” She frowned
looking at the package. “You know, the scientist.” She went to get a pair of
scissors. “It’s not Christmas or anyone’s birthday, I don’t…”
She opened the package and a brownish square fell out. She picked it up and looked at it, frown lines creased her brow.
“I don’t know…” She turned it over
and over. “I can’t see what it is supposed to be. A picture…? It seems kind of
heavy…”
Sighing she put the brown square down on the dining room table. Jeremy looked at it.
“Look, Mom. There’s a kind of design on this side,” Jeremy peered at the square.
“Maybe he is trying out some new art design or something. I don’t know, he always was a little weird,” she replied.
The telephone rang, and his mother turned her head.
“Can I have it, Mom?” Jeremy asked.
Distracted, his mother was walking to the kitchen. “Ah, sure. I guess.”
She disappeared into the kitchen and Jeremy could hear her talking to someone.
“What is it, Jeremy?” Samuel asked.
“It’s a…it’s a…hum. A kind of picture.”
“Let me hold it.”
“No, you’ll just break it.”
“No, I won’t!”
“Yes, you will, you break everything.”
“Aw…”
“And don’t start crying either,”
Jeremy commanded. “Come on, we’ll put it up in our room and I’ll let you help.”
They both walked the picture back to their bedroom. There was a little hook on the back of the picture.
“Sam, go get the small hammer and a
couple of nails from the drawer in the kitchen. Can you do that?”
Samuel nodded and ran for the kitchen. Jeremy walked around their room trying to figure out the best spot for the picture. He finally decided to put it across from his bed, so he could see it. Then, maybe he could figure out what it was supposed to be.
Samuel came running back in with the hammer and two nails.
“Mom got them for me.” He held them out for Jeremy.
Jeremy placed the picture, the
hammer and the nails on the dresser. He pulled out a short pencil, made a
little X on the wall and hammered in one nail. He didn’t like the way it
looked, pulled it out and hammered in another one.
Samuel leaned on the dresser, breathless. Carefully, Jeremy picked up the picture, looked at the little hook on the back and pushed the picture over the nail. They both backed up and looked at it.
“Now what?” Samuel asked.
“Now…I don’t know. It’s just a picture. It doesn’t do anything.” They stood back and stared at the picture a moment.
“I think Mom is making some cookies,” Samuel said.
“What kind?” Jeremy asked.
“Chocolate chip.”
Jeremy put down the hammer and they
both made a beeline for the kitchen.
Later that afternoon, Jeremy was taking a light nap and heard a humming sound. He opened his eyes and looked around. What? He looked over and saw the picture was humming and glowing. He got up and went over to it. It started to turn different glowing colors. The colors were neon like and reminded Jeremy of glow magic markers; hot pink, vivid yellow, acid green, red-orange and a bit of navy blue. They swirled around each other.
He put his finger on the surface.
It was warm. With a zap! and pop! Jeremy was sucked into the picture. He fell
on a soft surface. Shocked and scared, he got up and saw he was on some green
grass in a misty clearing. Looking around it looked like the mist was beginning
to clear.
This is some kind of small forest. But where? Curiosity overtook him.
Walking through the forest he came upon a large lake. It was very blue. Large, fluffy clouds filled the sky. In the middle of the lake a huge water fountain sprayed water in every direction.
Jeremy gazed around himself in amazement.
Where the heck?
Then, slowly from around the other side of the fountain, through the water mist, he saw the outline of a large, masted ship. It was moving his way.
He realized his mouth was hanging open and shut it when, faintly, in a distance, he could hear Samuel calling his name.
I should get back to my room, Jeremy thought.
The next moment he was standing in his room. He turned around and around. The lake was gone, the ship was gone, the forest was gone.
He stared at his hands and then the picture and shook his head. Wow! This is something! The first instinct was to run to mother and tell her about the picture.
No, she’ll just take it down and give it to dad and then he will send it back to
Uncle Al. Maybe, not just yet.
Continued Part II
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