By Aaron Alumbaugh, junior

Clouds, dark and gloomy, hover close to the ground over a poor shanty town by the sea. The air is warm and heavy. There is a young boy standing among the less than sturdy structures that make up the surrounding neighborhood. He begins walking down the dirty street in his bare feet towards the docks that line the shore. With eyes focused ahead he passes the people lining the sidewalks. He does not notice them. A bottle falls from the hand of a less than sober man sitting on a bench as he passes. The boy does not hear its crash. Further down the road, among the now somewhat visible docks, there is the faint shape of a boat. It seems enchanted in form and draws the boy forward. The boat is named Future.

 
The boy’s friends had told him how wonderful it would be to see the Future and get on it and sail. They had said the Future was a wonderful boat to sit in and steer over the bay. He had to experience that. Drawn by the mystery of the Future, the boy quickens his pace.

As the boy gets closer to the shore, he still notices nothing of the people about him, or of the little dog that has been chasing him. The dog’s name is Tod. The boy loves Tod, but the Future has stolen his affection recently. Tod is jealous and starts to bite at the boy’s heels. The boy winces from the pricks of Tod’s teeth, but continues his race towards the Future.

By now, the boy has reached the docks. But, the Future was not moored as it seemed from the top of the hill. The Future had been drifting slowly away towards the open sea as the boy ran toward it. It was now no closer than before.
As the boy stops at the end of the dock watching the Future drift away, a tear drops from his cheek. He had tried to get there in time. Now he wouldn’t get the chance to experience the Future’s mysteries, for the Future was now further away than it ever had been.

By now, Tod, who had been with the boy on the dock, was impatient for attention. So, desperately, Tod jumps on the boy and tries to lick his face. The boy, surprised, stumbles to the side and loses his footing on the slippery dock. He falls, hitting his head on the rough edge, and goes into the bay.

The water, dark and cold, swallows the boy up. Tod looks down with sad eyes, whimpering as the boy disappears.