Tim looked at the man, confused. He was right there, so close that Tim could grab his arm if he just reached out. For some reason, they just couldn’t see him. Tim slowly relaxed and stood up. There was no reaction from the men in the room. He moved a bit closer to the man. Nothing. Tim brought his hand up and reached out to touch the man’s arm. As his hand got closer, his hand and then his arm started to tingle, not unlike the feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. He pulled his hand back and the tingling stopped. He glanced at the men in the room. One of them was staring straight at the wall, eyes wide, pointing. The man closest turned around and looked right at Tim. Actually, he looked right through Tim. He turned back around. “Jerry, what are you pointing at?”
“Th- Th- There was a hand!” Jerry exclaimed.
Both of the other men looked at Jerry closely. “A hand?” the one nearest Tim said, “Where?”
“I- It came out of the wall,” Jerry said quietly, realizing they weren’t going to believe him.
The third man in the room came closer and pointed right at Tim and said, “This wall?”
Jerry nodded. The man stepped directly in front of Tim and stared at the wall closely. He was so close; Tim could see flecks of gold in the man’s brown eyes. He looked very familiar to Tim, but he couldn’t figure out why. Tim held his breath. The man stepped slightly back and brought his hand closer to Tim, until it flattened right in front of his face. “This is solid wall, man.”
To Tim, the man looked like he was a mime, trapped in an invisible box, flattening his hand back and forth in front of him. Tim was beginning to understand. Somehow, he had gone beyond the wall. He didn’t know how or why it had happened, but he was very grateful it had. The man stopped imitating a mime. “The Tollins kid ain’t here,” he said with a sigh, turning away from the wall.
The man turned back briefly, giving one last glance at where Tim stood, “Let’s go im stood,” he said, almost sadly, as he walked towards the door.
The others followed. Tim watched them go, then heard the click of the (not so) secret door shutting. He stood there, breathing a sigh of relief that he’d miraculously evaded discovery again.
CHAPTER TWO
Tim stood there, staring at the room for what seemed like hours. After the men had left, he had taken a moment to look around to see where he was. There was nothing there. Above him, below him, behind him, and on either side- there was actually nothing but blackness. He had reached out as far as he possibly could in all directions and there was nothing of substance to grab on to. Even below him, although it seemed as though he was standing on solid ground, when he tried to touch it, his hand kept going, past where his feet were planted. Tim knew he couldn’t stay in the emptiness forever. He had to go back to the room. He was afraid, however, that once he did, he would never know why or how he had gotten behind the wall. He was also thinking about his parents, wondering if they knew what this room seemed to be able to do- or what he seemed to be able to do. He didn’t know the answer to that either.
Deciding it was best to get on with things as quickly as possible, he lunged toward the wall and felt the falling sensation once again and before he could even question it, he was back in the room, in a heap in the middle of the floor. He picked himself up and turned around and looked at the wall. Slowly, he brought his hand up and his fingers felt the smooth plaster. It was solid. Disappointment rose. Tim ran around the perimeter of the room, pushing at different spots, hoping that maybe it was another secret door that had let him through. When he reached the corner he had been trying to hide in before, he stumbled and without even thinking reached out to grab onto something to stop himself from falling but nothing was there. Tim landed on his knees and pain shot through his legs. He slid onto his stomach and laid there, taking a few deep breaths. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing, then slowly became aware of the tingling feeling at his stomach. He realized he’d gone through the wall, at least halfway, again.
Tim’s excitement rose. He pulled himself back into the room and stared at the corner. It appeared to look like any corner where two walls and floor meet, but as Tim pushed his hand through what looked like solid wall and pulled it out again, he knew it wasn’t. After his hand could no longer take the tingling sensation, he stopped and stood up. He had decided this couldn’t be a coincidence. The strange feeling that he could not leave his house, no matter what, had to have something to do with the fact that he could go beyond the wall.
Tim decided that he needed to look for something, anything, in the main part of the house, that could possibly explain what was happening. He left the room and went through the secret door and found himself in front of the door to his dad’s office. He hadn’t come in here yet, since everything had happened, except to take
