Short Story

The Daydreamer
By: Nicholas Pavanel
It was the crack of dawn on a frosty, February morning and the teacher said he needed a volunteer. The young student who sat at the front of the class instantly threw his hand high in the air. He was an average student, with dark brown hair and blue eyes like fresh ice in the winter. The student was prone to daydreaming and had an imagination that could take him anywhere. As the student was walking up to the front of the class he noticed a large rectangular box. The teacher instructed him to stand in front of the box and stay there, which was very easy for him to do. The teacher started explaining why he had called the student up but the student pushed out his voice. It seemed that today the foot locker laying silently at his feet had been caught in the snare of his imagination. The mysterious trunk had the colour of deep green like moss set deep in the shade, it had gold siding that shone like the sun and most importantly the trunk was polkoea doted with exotic stickers from around the world. The box itself was in almost brand new condition. It had the scratches and marks of being forgotten in a downstairs basement but the stickers told a different story. Then suddenly the student snapped back to reality when the teacher shooed him back to his seat. The students mind kept drifting off topic and back to the mystifying case. The young scholar's imagination could think of so many tales, stories and legends about the box! All the places it could have gone but always being cared for, one thing now ruled his mind. What was in that box. The teacher had said that the box couldn't open, which just meant that he didn't want anyone finding the secrets inside. The student would have to find a way to get the teacher out of the room so he could look at the case more closely. What were his options. A fake phone call, no, a call to the office, no, photocopying a paper, yes. The young man threw his hand high in the air and at once the teacher sauntered over to his side. "Yes?" the teacher asked. "Could I trouble you to photocopy this for me?" The student responded. The teacher replayed happily "Sure, I'll be back in a few minutes." The student watched the teacher walk out of the room just like a hawk would watch his prey. As soon as the teacher's figure disappeared through the portal to the hallway, the student pushed himself to his feet. He took eleven long strides to the box and put his hands on the latches. *Click* One latch open. *Click* Both latches were now open. The student threw open the lid with a crack like thunder and was shocked into utter and complete disbelief at what it contained. A swirling mass of brilliant, ever-moving colours that collided and morphed around each other occupied the trunk. The young scholar took a tentative first step and dipped his trembling toes into what felt like nothing, but was really the mass of flowing colours. With persistently growing curiosity, the student pushed his foot deeper into the foot locker. Suddenly it hit him like a splash of ice water, he was down do his knee in the box and should have felt his foot scrape the bottom long before. Without any thought for what lay deeper inside, the student pulled his leg all the way out of the box and its mysterious content, jumped high into the air above the rectangular case and dove head first into the churning batch of colours. What turned out to be inside was straight out of a hardworking imagination. A shifting world of intense color, always changing. A thought formed deep inside the students mind, one of his favourite places in the world. When the student was seven years old he remembered visiting the great pyramids of Egypt. Suddenly it seemed as if he was back to that time and place. It seemed that the world he was in was somehow linked to the students thoughts. Whatever he thought appeared around him. If this was true the young man could create his own world! Suddenly and without warning, there came a sound that seemed to resonate from all around. It was a sharp and loud sound, almost like the ringing of a bell. *Snap* It took a split second for the world around him to dissipate and for the young student to be teleported back into the familiar classroom in which he started the day. The student thought "Yet another class thrown away to daydreaming" as he stood up from his chair. As the young man was walking out of the class he could only dream of where his next mind
trip would take him.