The boy lay in the darkness, blacker than the darkest night. He had no concept of how long he had been there, only that the end was near. His arms were folded tightly against his chest and the walls of the narrow passage pressed against him like the weight of a whole mountain was upon him.

The panic had long since gone and he had resigned himself to his fate. He knew he would probably not survive. He thought of what had brought him here. It had been a bright sunny weekend. He was alone with nothing to do. All of his friends were away doing family things. His parents were out shopping or something. He had wandered into the woods where he had played with his friends as they grew up.

He had stopped at a small rocky hill where they had played such games as "King of the hill", army and just hung out and enjoyed themselves. He walked around the back side. They had not played here much as it was steep, rocky and overgrown with thorny brush. As he walked around a rabbit ran ahead of him and disappeared into the brush at the base of the hill. He picked up some stones and started throwing them into the brush where the rabbit had vanished, hoping to scare it out.

He was surprised when one rock swished through the brush and could be heard as it continued to click and rattle. He found a sturdy stick and started poking it into the heavy brush.and against the hillside behind it. At one particularly hard thrust he met no resistance and his arm plunged into the thorns. He started hacking and thrashing the brush away until he had it cleared away. There he saw a small opening among the rocks. He dug at it with the stick and managed to pry away some rocks and dirt until he had enlarged the opening. He threw in several stones and they just seemed to skip along sending back echoes. He managed to squeeze into the opening and found it opened up to where he could crawl on his hands and knees.

Now excited, he backed out and ran home. He found a flashlight, and tried to find some of his friends to tell them about his discovery. No one was to be found so he returned to the little cave and entered it again. As he crawled along it seemed to slope downward and opened up enough so he could stand and walk hunched over. He was getting very excited thinking what he might find. Hidden treasure? Old Indian artifacts? Maybe it could be a gold mine!

Eventually the passage opened up into a small room. There was nothing there, but he thought it would still be a cool place for him and his buddies to hand out. Then he spied a small passageway at the base of one wall. He shined his light into it, but the darkness seemed to swallow up the beam. He threw several stones into it and from the echo it seemed to open up into another room. the passage was small and from what he could tell was short. He squeezed in and tried to wiggle through. That was what got him into his present dilemma.

He was wedged in so tightly he could not take a full breath. He was becoming oxygen deprived and was having trouble keeping clear thoughts. The flashlight had burned down to a feeble glow and now that was gone. He knew he could not last much longer. He thought of his family franticly searching for him. How they would wonder about him. No one would know what had happened to him. Maybe a hundred years from now someone digging a basement would find his bones, but no one would remember the boy who disappeared so long ago.

It was becoming too much of an effort to breathe now, he could only gulp in a small amount of air at a time. He felt like he was sinking into a deep dark pool. Deeper, deeper. Random thoughts and pictures floated through his mind. Faces of his friends. a long ago birthday party, a far away voice calling, a new bike for Christmas, a far away voice calling, a trip to the zoo, the time he broke his arm, a far away voice...WAIT! Did he hear a voice? He struggled to suck in more air. He fought to clear his brain and listen. He could feel his pulse pounding in his ears as he tried desperately to focus his thoughts. His brain seemed to clear with the little more air he could force into his lungs.

There! He heard it again! A voice calling out, a female voice. Was it calling his name? It was! It was Mom! Good old Mom. He sucked in as much air as he could and managed to call out a feeble "Ma, I'm here". She must have sensed that he was in trouble and found him! The voice called out again, much closer now. He sensed light on his eye lids. He had been in the darkness so long he hadn't realized his eyes were even shut. He forced them open against the bright burning light. She must have found another way into the cave and was in front of him and was shining the light in his face. He managed to focus his eyes against the light . He saw...his bed side table, the bedroom window with the morning sun peeking through.

His mother called out again "Get out of that bed, you'll be late for school!" He struggled free of the covers that had become tightly wrapped around him during the night. "I'm up!" he called out. He swung his feet to the floor and sat on the bed rubbing the sleep from his face. He was not looking forward to school today. That short story for English class was due in today and he still had no idea what to write about.