What's Going On?

Luke woke up in a room he didn’t know. A place not like where he was. His room, that was where he was. He had just gone to bed when he woke up here. The room was dark but light at the same time. It was black and white. It had no windows, no door, and no lamp or anything that gave light. After a while, he had decided to look around. Nothing. He looked up. Nothing. Luke thought he was dreaming so he did that thing where you pinch yourself. If it hurts, you're awake. If it doesn’t, you're asleep.

It hurt. Luke was awake!

He didn’t know what to do. He thought this whole time he was dreaming. (He had been in the room for about an hour.) Then he had a thought, “What if I went back to bed? Will that magically transport me back?” So he laid down on the ground. Luke wasn’t a germaphobe, but this was a stretch even for him. He closed his eyes, and he asked himself, “What should I do while I go to sleep?” So he decided to think about the day before. All that had happened. He had gotten up out of his bed with a galaxy comforter on it and got ready for school. Luke had a hard time at school for many reasons. One, he had a learning disability, so math, spelling, history, and/or anything except reading was hard to him. And two, he had this thing that his mom called his “gift.” But what it really was, was an instinct feeling type thing that he had. So some of the kids thought he was lying until one time when he told everyone there was a pop quiz in math, and later that day there was. Now everyone makes fun of him as the school “know it all.” So as you can see, Luke did really have a hard time. After he got out of the car at school and said goodbye to his dad, he went to the front door and, weirdly enough, got this feeling that something really big was about to change.

After school he went to his grandma’s house. He always did that on Fridays. They would play board games together, watch an old black and white movie from the 30’s. Today they decided to go on a picnic in the old town park. It wasn't open for everyone, but the police in the area had an exception for the townspeople who had been there since it opened. They didn’t go on picnics that much, Luke thought. He liked it when they did, that meant nobody was talking to him except his favorite person in the world, his grandma. When they got there, the police were there too, but Luke didn’t know why. He thought his grandma might know because of the way she told him to get behind her, and how she grabbed his wrist not hard but not soft. After they walked up to them, his grandma asked them “What are you doing here? Something wrong with the park?”

“Oh no ma’am,” one of the policemen said. “We are just checking the pipes under it.”

After he said that, Luke’s grandma let go of his wrist. “Oh, well me and my grandson were going to have a picnic. That ok?”

“Yes,” assured the policeman.

“Well let’s go in!” grandma said to Luke.

After that whole thing with the policemen they went into the park. Even though not everyone was allowed in, there was not really anyone there, except an older man with his dog. They finished their food after about an hour.

Later, while his grandma packed the food up, Luke decided to look around. He went into the old woods behind the park. There were tons of old paths back there, and Luke loved exploring them. As he was walking, he looked down in a ditch and found this box on the ground. It was rusted shut, and when he saw that he heard his mom’s voice in his head. “Don’t touch it!” his mom’s voice said. This made him want to take it even more. His mom would not like him “playing” with it, but his dad would be fine with it. He didn't really care what Luke did since his dad wasn't home very often. Luke still loved him though.

Since the box was rusted shut, he couldn't open it, so he decided to take it back to his house. When they got back to his grandma's house, he said goodbye to his grandma and grandpa and rode his bike home. As soon as he got there, he put his jacket on the coat rack, but it fell right off. He rushed up to his room and as quick as possible he put the box on his desk, rushed back down stairs to get his dad’s old tools in his garage, and rushed back up stairs to open the box. He opened the door to his room and the window was broken. He looked at his desk. The box was gone.

“Whoooo” Luke woke up with a big breath. He looked around. He was back in his room. He didn’t remember going to sleep, but he did and woke up here. As he looked at his desk he remembered today was Saturday. No school. He didn’t need to worry about that. Naturally, Luke started thinking about who would take his box. So first, he thought about who was in the house at the time. His mom, probably not. His dad, maybe? No. Baxter (that was his dog), definitely not. That's everyone, who else would have done it? He didn’t know so he decided to go down stairs and eat breakfast. “Guess that Guide to Sleuthing book that his aunt gave him is about to pay off,” Luke thought.

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