Original Piece

Writer’s Dilemma

            I sat writing.  My teacher wanted me to finish this essay by tomorrow.  Now was not the time to zone out.  The blank piece of paper sat on my task, its white face taunting my attempts to write.  My pen dripped a black dot of ink onto the paper.

            “Ah, man,” I hissed.  I tried to scrub it off, only to create a black smear in its place.  Of course.  I sighed and put my head in my hands, but quickly jerked back when I remembered I had just wiped ink off the page.  I snatched a mirror from my desk and stared resignedly at the new black mark on my nose.

            “I’m not going to finish this, am I?”  I said to myself.  The face in the mirror blinked back with cold, discouraged eyes.  Then the eyes widened in alarm as my paper started shining a bright, blue color.  I set down the mirror and slid my chair back.  What was I supposed to do?

            Suddenly, the light vanished and left the paper a spotless white.  I reached out a tentative hand and touched a corner of the now normal sheet.  It rippled with a blue energy as if I had disturbed the top of a still body of water.  Then it didn’t move.

            I shrugged and with a slight frown, grasped my pen.  Its cold plastic surface was reassuring, and I was relieved it didn’t morph into something else as well.  Raising an eyebrow I scratched a line on the paper.

            An explosion of light caused me to yelp and I dropped the pen on the desk.  A new line of bright blue light shone on the paper.  I waited for several seconds, but it didn’t vanish.  Soon I took my pen up again and scribbled something next to the line.  Another flash of light; another line.

Grinning at my new discovery, I began etching lines and shapes all over my page.  On impulse, I drew a large swirling circle, filling the entire page with blue light.  I laughed cheerfully at all the designs on the once blank sheet, but quickly stopped when the page grew brighter and brighter.  I backed away, suddenly wondering if the sheet could explode.

With a pop, the circle seemed to fall out of the paper.

            I edged forward slowly, surprised to find a new hole in the page.  Unlike I expected, however, the hole wasn’t filled with the yellow wood of my desk.  It was filled with grass.

            I stared in horror and wonder at the world just beyond the edges of the hole.  I shifted the paper with my finger and watched the hole to the world move slightly.  Picking up the sheet, I quickly looked behind it and found only my desk.  Finally, I stuck an arm through the hole.

            A sucking sensation pulled at my skin.  Gentle and pulsing at first, then stronger and more demanding.  Before I could pull my arm out, I found myself being dragged into the hole.  I cried out for help just as I vanished into the world.

            Where was I?  I got off the ground where I had landed and turned slowly.  A grassy field had replaced my bedroom entirely.  Glancing down, I noticed my plastic pen lying on the ground.  I quickly picked it up and studied it for some sign of irregularity.  To my disappointment, it continued to be an average pen.

            Footsteps behind me caused me to turn and for the second time today, my eyes went wide.  Standing behind me was a large chestnut horse with a rider clad in armor on top.

            “Mr. Ralley, you are under arrest for the crime of procrastination,” the rider said.