Chapter
11 ‘So Long And Thanks For All The Berries’ Page 42
They traveled for a day and night
pushing through into clearing after clearing, and this was just one more. Tommy looked around.
“This is it!” he exclaimed.
Jason didn’t recognize a thing.
“Are you sure?” he said
“Of course I’m sure,” said
Tommy. “There’s the log I hid
behind.” He pointed to a fallen tree.
He walked further into the clearing
and saw a large group of thick plant stems and droopy leaves. Excitement welled up inside him.
“This is it!” he said again. “This is really it!” He pushed the stems apart and peered
inside. It was very dark. Jason pushed his head in beside Tommy’s.
“I don’t see a door,” he said. “It’s the wrong clearing. Let’s keep looking.”
Then a thought occurred to Tommy.
“Hey,” he said. “I closed the door behind us. That’s way we can’t see it.” He stepped into the darkness. “Come on.
Let’s take a closer look.”
“I don’t know,” said Jason with
uncertainly. “There could be anything
lurking in there. With our luck we
could be walking right into the mouth of a Saber Tooth Tiger.”
Tommy gave his brother a funny look.
“This is the wrong time in history
for Saber Tooth Tigers,” he said.
Jason sighed. “You know what I mean Tommy. What if,” he said. “What if the closet isn’t there anymore. What do we do then?”
Tommy didn’t answer. He took off his backpack and found his
flashlight.
“That’s something we’ll have to deal
with when we have to, but we won’t know unless we look,” he said.
Jason threw his hands in the air.
“Alright. Alright,” he said giving up.
“If it’ll make you happy.” Jason
joined Tommy in the darkness.
Tommy turned on his flashlight and shone it around
them. Walking cautiously on into the
dark, the light caught something up ahead. As they got closer, the boys could see something large and brown
looming in front of them. Tommy used
the flashlight to inspect the object.
Jason was behind him ready to flee at the slightest hint of danger. The beam of light bounced off something small
and shiny. They went in for a closer
look and found that the object could only be one thing... a door handle!
Happiness and relief bubbled up
inside Tommy. He punched his brother in
the arm.
“See I told you this was the right
place,” he said with delight. “We’re
home!”
Tommy reached out for the door
handle and was about to turn it when Jason clamped a hand on his. Tommy looked up through the glow of the
flashlight at Jason’s face.
“What if your room isn’t on the
other side?” said Jason the eternal skeptic.
“What are you talking about?”
replied Tommy. “Of course it’s there.”
Jason stared at the door.
“What if the closet just keeps
opening up into different worlds?” he said quietly not taking his eyes off the
door. “We would never get home.”
Tommy thought about this for a
moment. It was an option that had never
occurred to him before. Knowing that
home was on the other side was the only thing that had kept him going all this
time. What if Jason said was
right? What then? Neither of them spoke. Jason dropped his hand away from the door
knob. Tommy slowly turned the handle
and the door swung open.