The Hole

“You will know what I’m made of when you see what I have done.”

John stares at the hole, two feet deep. A small brown satchel, lumpy and worn lays on top of the heap. Its contents poke through softly as light-colored dirt scatter on top of it.

“He will be back,” John thought to himself. “I am going to hide it here for now.”

John pats down the dirt pile he started half an hour ago and returns the shovel to the car. The bumper rusty with tiny specks of mud on the rim, he quickly wipes them down with his white tethered shirt.

As he opens the driver’s side door, the phone rings.

“Hello?” John answers.

“Where are you?” in a quiet voice.

“Who is this?” John asks.

“He knows.”

Silence.

The phone call lasts 8 seconds.

Panic begins to ensue as John shuts the door.

He drives vigorously through the dirt lanes; dark bushes swiftly dance along the sun-soaked earth. The light of dusk covers the desert haze he is in.

“He knows?” John whispered aloud.

John arrives at the silver hanger 20 minutes later. He slams the breaks as he sees Jack approach the location.

“I got to play it cool.” John thought as he walked toward the building.

“John? What are you doing here?” Jack questioned with suspicion.

“Hey, I needed to load up the docket.” John replied. “I forgot to pack the box in the storage room.”

“Oh, you just missed Sam. He took the flyer out.” Jack exclaimed.

“Okay. How is he doing?” John inquired nervously.

“Pretty good. Did you hear he got five loads from the boss? He is swimming in it.” Jack chuckled.

“Five! Wow, I can’t imagine. Good for him.” John smirked nervously.

“I got two loads. How about you?” Jack probed.

“Oh, I got one.” John said sheepishly.

“Are you going to invest it?” Jack asked.

John thought for a moment, as he knew Jack was trying to find out the total of the load.

“I’m not sure yet, we’ll see.” John replied dismissively.

“Well, I’ll catch you later. I got to run.” Jack said as he walked off the lot.

John watched Jack get into his black car and drive away amidst the pale night sky.

“Sam got five, Jack got two and I got one. What does the boss want us to do with these loads?” John pondered.

A few minutes later, John is in the storage room where he begins clearing some boxes. As he picked up the last box, a small black notebook fell to the ground.

John opened to the first page and saw a short inscription,

“If you find this, write down one wish.”

Curious, John continued reading the next page and saw that the notebook was empty. As he flipped through the notebook, blank lined pages stared back at him.

“I wonder who this belongs to?” John speculated.

Unsure of what to do, John placed the small black notebook in his back pocket and left.

Later that night, John couldn’t sleep.

He laid wide awake running through possible scenarios about getting caught with what he had hid in the desert.

“Will someone find it? Am I going to keep it buried?”

Since he couldn’t sleep, he decided to write down his wish in the notebook he found earlier.

As he gazed at the blank page, he sighed looking around his small studio apartment with a leaky faucet and busted AC unit.

“I wish I was rich.”

--

Six months later, John is at the hanger looking at the words he wrote a few months prior and breathed heavy.

“I am so tired. I am fed up with my current state of affairs.” John murmured aloud.

While finalizing some paperwork in the hanger office, he hears footsteps approaching.

“John!”

John looks up to see Sam standing next to five big black bags outside the hanger.

“What is going on?” John inquired.

“You hear the boss is coming back today, you ready?” Sam said as he pointed to the bags.

“Wait, what? Today!?” John gasps.

John’s mind races as he remembers his bag is in the desert.

As he mentally retraces his steps quietly, Jack pulls up and waves from the car.

“Hey guys, the boss arrives today! You ready?”

John was not ready. He jumped in his car and raced off the lot. He knew it was a matter of time before he was found out.

Twenty minutes of pure panic raced through his veins as he ran out of the car, desperately digging through the heap with his hands.

“Please be here. PLEASE be here!” John bellowed.

After fifteen minutes, sweat on his brow, and mud-covered fingers, John grabs the brown satchel bag. Worn from its time underneath the earth, John grips the bag against his chest and cries out, “WHAT AM I TO DO GOD?”

John wasn’t ready to face his boss.

John wasn’t ready to face his colleagues.

John wasn’t ready to face himself.

On the drive back to the hanger, John knew he would have to face his fear and fess up to what he had done.

John could see the hanger getting closer when suddenly his car spurts and slowly comes to a stop.

“What?” John looks at his dash in dismay.

“Great, now what?”

When he opens the door, his phone rings.

“Hello?” John answered.

“Where are you?”

“WHO IS THIS?” John demanded.

“He’s here.”

Silence.

John screams as he throws his phone to the ground.

“WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME GOD?!” John shouts out to the sky.

John knows he can’t wallow for too long as the boss is on his way to the hanger.

John grabs the satchel and jogs the rest of the way on the beaten dirt path.

Sun rays hot on his skin, sweat bleeds through his blue torn shirt as his heart beats out of his chest.

“I can’t face him. He will know what I did.” John feared.

“Ah, there you are! John, so happy to see you.” the boss smiles.

“I was just asking the guys about the profits they made. Join us.” The boss said, gesturing him over.

“Sam, what do you have?” the boss looks at him gleefully.

“I took the five loads you gave me and invested them all to get a total 10 loads altogether.” Sam replied.

“Yes! Well done. You have been faithful in handling the amount I originally gave you. Now, I will give you more responsibilities. I’m assigning you to run the downtown office. We are going to celebrate later.” The boss shook his hand with glee.

“Jack, what about you?” the boss asked, smirking.

“I took the two loads you gave me and invested them as well. So now I have 4 loads in total.” Jack replied happily.

“Awesome job Jack! I have seen you be faithful with the little amount that I gave you, so I will give you more responsibility as well. I will assign you to run the office uptown. Let’s all celebrate together later on.” The boss said cheerfully.

“John, what have you?” the boss asked with earnestness.

“Boss, I’m sorry.” John said sadly.

“I have known you to be a harsh man who took things from others that you did not earn. I was afraid to lose the one load you gave me, so I buried it in the desert. Take it back.” John said as he handed the satchel to the boss.

“John! You are so lazy. If you knew that I took what I never earned, why didn’t you deposit the money in the bank so at least it could collect interest?” the boss was hampered.

“I know what you wrote in that small black notebook?” the boss shared.

“Huh, what?” John asked.

“You want to be rich, right?. I gave you $20,000 in this satchel! And this is how you repay me?” the boss snared.

“Jack, take John’s money and give it to Sam.” The boss ordered.

The boss looked at John and ordered him to be gone.

“Take him out to the desert and leave him there, where he will be met with weeping and turmoil.” The boss ordered.

“When you invest well with what you are given, that much more will be given to you my friend. But if you have little and do nothing with it, even that can be taken away.” The boss declared.

“Boss, how did you know about my wish?” John asked in desperation.

“John. That was God.” The boss revealed.

John held back tears of sorrow and regret as Jack and Sam drug him off to the desert.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” John lamented.

John got quiet as they walked farther into the desert.

When the men began to walk away, John’s phone rings. This time, he doesn’t answer.

John looks up and whispers, “You will know what I’m made of when you see what I have done.”

-The End.