h Chapter Two g
“The Wooden Door”
Alaysia and her brother Izayah were playing in their grandfather’s back yard when, in the far most corner, hidden beneath the grass, they found a piece of wood. “Let’s get this wood up so grandpops doesn’t run over it with the lawn mower next time he cuts the grass,” said Alaysia.
They both started pulling on the piece of wood. Trying as hard as they could, they just couldn’t seem to pull the piece of wood more than a couple of inches up off the ground. “Must be a long piece of wood,” said Izayah. “I’m going to get a shovel from grandpops shed so we can get it out.” He ran off to get the shovel.
While waiting for Izayah, Alaysia, using her hands, started pulling on the grass, tugging, tearing back the sod from around the edges of the wood they had found. Doing this allowed Alaysia to find out that the piece of wood her and her brother had found was much more than just a piece of wood, but was actually a corner section of an entire wooden door under all the grass and dirt. She could tell it was a door because she had found part of the hinge and a door handle that she had uncovered while pulling more sod and grass away from it.
When Izayah came back with a spade, Alaysia showed him what she had found.
“I bet grandpops doesn’t even know this door is here,” said Izayah. “Come on; let’s get all this dirt and grass off of it.”
Both of them worked together. Izayah with the spade and Alaysia using her hands, pulling the grass and sod away to reveal more and more of the large wooden door. As he was digging, Izayah struck something metal with the spade. Alaysia came around and cleared away the grass and sod, which finally revealed a very old and rusty hasp and lock. The back of the hasp showed rusty bolt heads where the hasp was fastened into some rock, which, after they cleared more dirt from around it, showed that what they had originally thought was rock turned out to actually be remnants of old crumbled concrete from an old foundation that ran all the way around the door. “It’s like an old cellar door or something,” said Izayah.
“How are we going to get the lock off?” his sister asked.
Izayah dropped the spade and sprinted off to the tool shed. Minutes later he returned with a claw hammer that he’d found in his grandpops tool box.
“What are you going to do with that old hammer?” asked Alaysia. “That’s not going to be enough to do anything with that big old lock! Maybe grandpops put that lock on the door and wouldn’t want us breaking it off.”
“That lock is too old and rusty, Alaysia!” said Izayah. “There’s no way grandpops put it there because he hasn’t lived here that long.” “Plus, he said; I bet grandpops doesn’t even know it’s even here with all that grass and dirt that was grown on top of it.”
“Yeah, said Alaysia, I think you’re right.” “Come on, let’s get the lock off and see where the door goes to.”
Alaysia was having a weird feeling, though she didn’t mention it to her brother because he would just call her a fraidy cat, and also, because her own curiosity of what the door led to overpowered the weird feelings she was having.
It took Izayah quite a few swings with the hammer, hitting the lock over, and over, and over, until suddenly the lock broke and fell away. They both just stood there looking at the broken lock, beads of sweat on Izayah’s face from the hard work it took to finally get that old rusty lock to break away.
“Come on!” exclaimed Izayah, as he dropped the hammer to the ground. “Help me to pull open the door!”
Both kids bent down and got hold of the edge of the door. Together they pulled and pulled, straining every muscle they had, but the door was much too heavy for them and it would still not budge more than a couple of inches. They tried again, and again, until they grew so tired from pulling that they both just fell back onto the grass, both children breathing hard from their efforts.
“What are you guys doing? What’s that door doing there?” asked Shaylah as her brother and sister laid there in the grass.
“We don’t know what the door is to,” answered Alaysia. “We just found it here, buried under the grass.”
Izayah and Alaysia rolled themselves over and got up from the grass.
“Hey, maybe all three of us can get that door open?” said Izayah.
“Come on Shaylah, help us!” he said excitedly to his sister.
Now- all three children got themselves a strong grip on the door and pulled with all their might. All of their muscles were straining from the weight of the door. Suddenly, just when it seemed that they wouldn’t be able to open it, the door gave way. Hanging on to the door, the children guided it back until it fell back onto the grass- leaving only a gaping dark hole where the door had been before. All three children lost their grips on the door as it fell back, the door thumping loudly as it fell onto the grass. The children tumbled back onto the grass- their hearts pounding in their chests as they laid there staring up at the blue sky, catching their breaths.
“Whew- that was hard!” sighed Alaysia. “I thought we would never get that door open.”