Why I Stay at Home

by Leo McMillan-Zilberman – Illustrated by Zohar & Tamar McMillan-Zilberman

Once there was a small village, the people in the village would always be told stories about a weird cave that was hidden super well in a forest outside the village. One day a village boy was playing tag with his friend when all of a sudden he tripped on a tree root. For some reason, the tree root was hard like metal and the village boy felt like he sprained his foot. He lifted himself off the ground and stumbled over to the tree root and knocked on it 3 times. Each time he banged on the strange tree root he heard a hollow sound echoing from it. He started to poke it cautiously and throw rocks at it. Soon he found a small hole that looked about the size of a pebble.

Curious about the hole he decided to fit a pebble in it. When nothing happened he was disappointed until suddenly he got zapped by lightning and instantly burned into ash. Meanwhile, the boy’s friend saw a flash of a lightning strike near a tree. realizing his friend was missing he went to look for him, but all he found was a small pile of ash. Stunned by his friend’s disappearance he also found the small hole and realized he had found a pebble a few weeks ago that had the same shape. He ran home as fast as he could and found it. The reason he had kept the pebble all this time was that he thought the colors of the stone were very cool.

The rock was green and blue and looked distorted. He ran back to the metal tree root and placed the rock in the hole. Once that happened the ground started shaking and the root opened into a small space just enough for him to fit inside. Excited about discovering a secret area, he instantly decided to check it out. Once inside the area he found a torch that, for some unknown reason, was still lit. The light guided him into a long cave. He kept walking for what felt like hours until he found a door. The door wasn’t locked, which was surprising to him. Even though his brain told him he shouldn’t go in, his curiosity overtook his body and he entered the room. It was very dark until all of a sudden a light turned on.

Everything around him looked abstract and weird. The room was bursting with every color you can imagine. Everything was all squiggly and wavy. The boy was scared and wanted to exit, but before he could leave the room the door slammed shut. Soon he noticed that his body was slowly starting to distort making him unable to move.

Panicking he looked everywhere but couldn’t find anything to help himself. He knew it was the end and it was, as he slowly became more and more abstract, he was too scared to even breathe. Eventually, his whole body disassembled into weird squiggles, and crooked lines with misplaced body parts and strange colors, like a cubist painting. Except that wasn’t the end because it turns out that everything was only a dream and he woke up in a terrible panic. For the next month, he stayed inside shivering in fear. That is why I stay home and play video games all day 😉

by Leo McMillan-Zilberman

Leo McMillan-Zilberman is a 7th student Grade at S.E.E.Q.S. (School of Examining the Essential Question of Sustainability) He wants to be a better writer, so he practices making articles about real-life problems. Leo will be very happy if you give him feedback.