The Box (part 1)

Timmy Shugger went missing the same day the cube appeared on the front lawn of Crumb Hill Elementary School. Well, technically, he never came home that night and the next morning the cube was discovered at the school.

His parents waited and waited for him to come home from his tutoring session, but he never did. Hours after darkness fell, his parents decided to call the police and enlist their help. Timmy had never been late before.

The hunt began and many of their friends and neighbors began wandering the streets of Crumb Hill with no success all night.

The next day, Principal Bearhair was the first to arrive at school and discover the box on the front lawn. It came up to about his chest and appeared to be a perfect cube. It was made of some rock hard, smooth black surface. There were no openings or cracks or creases. It looked like it was formed exactly as it sat there: seamless and solid.

He tapped on it and knocked and couldn’t find any clue as to what it was.

After a few minutes, he thought he heard a faint scratching from deep within the box. It was so faint and fast that he thought he had imagined it at first. Just a little clawing at the inside of the box.

Just after the sound, Miss Yarris the third grade teacher arrived and approached the box.

“What is it?” she asked, assuming it was part of some initiative the school was doing.

“I have no idea,” he replied, scratching his head. She had never seen Mr. Bearhair puzzled like this — he was normally so confident and assured.

She took her turn examining the box for a moment as more teachers and staff began to arrive. They each took turns walking around the mysterious cube as if they could unlock its secret appearance and purpose, but of course no one knew.

Several of them heard the faint scratching from the inside but it was so faint, and no one else reacted, so they didn’t bother to point it out.

Students began to arrive and play out the same dance of examination and hypothesizing. After the first few students had lapped the box, Mr. Hairbear called them away from it and decided to put a rope barrier around it just in case it was dangerous.

Very little learning happened that day, due to both events: the disappearance of Timmy and the appearance of the box. Students stared out at the box, trying to figure out what it was, what it meant. Others cried for Timmy. Others daydreamed about being the hero who would find him and bring him home to his grateful parents. Maybe there would even be a reward…

Around the middle of third period, some of the police left the search for Timmy and came to examine the box. They of course had the same response as everyone before them: Look at it, walk around it, knock on it, run their hands across its smooth surface.

One of the cops threw his shoulder into it, trying to move it but the impossibly heavy box didn’t budge. He slammed his body weight into it several times, but nothing happened. He heard some scratching from the inside, but looked around and apparently no one else had heard it, so he shook it off.

The police put the rope barrier back up once they determined they couldn’t figure out what the box was, and left.

School eventually let out and most families went to aid the search for little Timmy.

No one saw when one side of the box opened up that evening.

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Day 58 of 100 Days of Blog

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