Egg Carton

• Jackson McNamee, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2022

Every Sunday, Jim drives down to town from his farm on the hill to sell the crops. He gets out of his truck in the same spot each week with a strange egg box as always. He takes it everywhere he goes and no one knows why.

People say that a year ago, Jim and his family went to the east coast of Bulgaria, they found an underwater cave. He and his family went into the cave until they found a dead end. Jim s family headed back out of the cave but Jim stayed to find another way. Then Jim heard a loud echo, screams of horror, pain and despair. Then it stopped to a trickling sound, and a small stream of water appeared, and it was rising. The water rushed at him with such speed that he got knocked off balance and fell into the water. He struggled as the water covered his head and to the top of the cave. SMASH!! A hole in the roof crashed down on him, so he swam up to an air pocket at the top. He look around while gasping for air, he saw a strange animal in the water that looked like it wasn’t breathing. He swam over to it, it had no pulse. He thought to himself. “That animal saved me”. But sadly it was dead. A light came from behind him. An opening to the beach. In front of the cave, the exit was a group of eggs in an egg box. He took it and treasured it forever.

The story has been passed down by the town to every generation that lived here, yet no one knew why he cared for it that much but he did. So much to isolate himself for 50 years till he was suspected dead. His house on the farm fields was taped off by the local council but I and my friends were gonna jump it, tonight

We awoke at 3 am, we went to the roed to get our thoughts together. Here's the plan, we use bikes to ride to the church on top of the ridge, then walk the rest of the way to the fields where his house is. Something felt wrong but then again we want to know the secret of the man.

With the wind at our backs, we were zooming through the streets of the town the round-about till we made it to the hill. It was too steep to ride up so we walked our bikes there. It was pouring down last night so the grass was soggy and wet and it was hard to pull the bikes up. At the church, priests and helpers were getting ready for the Sunday service, we sneaked our bikes around the back and tied them up to a post. It was another 10 minutes till we were there. We jump the fence, and one of my friends fell and injured his ankle. Someone took him back to the church so it was just me and one other guy. He was too scared to go in first so I charged in. It was cold, somewhat damp and very dark, almost impossible to see. Then lights. I was blinded and never seen again.