The Hole

The man started digging the hole when he was bored. He closed the television, took a shovel,went to the back yard, and started digging into the cold hard ground. At the end of the day there was a shallow dent in the ground, and chafing wounds on the mans' hands. Exhausted and aching, he dropped the shovel on to the ground and walked back into the warmth of the house. The next day it rained, and the hole filled up creating a little puddle. He went outside to retrieve the shovel, and left muddy footprints on the floor when he walked back in. The footprints remained on the floor a whole week until the day he was fired. He came home at noon that day and watched game show reruns until he fell asleep. The next morning he woke up and cleaned the muddy footprints and then the house. He sent out his resume to every job he could find and waited. He tried making small talk on two phone interviews. A week later he took the shovel and started digging again. He cleared the damp layer of mud left over from the rain and soon the ground was dense and rough again. He worked for hours, alternating between loosening the ground with a pick ax, and clearing the loosened dirt with a shovel. By night time the hole was deep enough to stand in. He climbed out and went back into the house and fell asleep in his clothes. The next morning he bought a ladder and placed it inside the hole. He worked the whole morning, coughing up the dust, feeling his hands cramp up. At noon the shovel broke. He climbed out of the hole, and fell asleep near the ledge, soaking the warm sun. When he woke up it was dark and he was shivering in the damp cold, his face masked in dust. The next morning he woke up with a fever. He spent three days on the couch, trembling in and out of sleep. He drank tea, until it ran out and ordered Chinese food but left it unopened on the kitchen counter. On the fourth day his fever broke. He got up slowly, took a shower and drove to the supermarket. He spent the morning eating bread and microwaved hotdogs. He felt his strength returning to his arms. In the afternoon he walked to the yard and climbed back down into the hole.

His beard was itching. He woke up at dawn and climbed down the four tiered ladders to the bottom of the hole. He had his breakfast sitting on the cool dirt. A hard boiled egg with bread and cheese. The hole was five times his height, shaded for most of the day, and cooler than above ground. A little before noon the shovel made a sharp metallic sound and water burst into the hole flooding it rapidly. He kicked off his shoes as the water covered his waist. A ladder that was leaning on the wall tilted and crashed into the water hitting the man on the head. He coughed violently as he broke through the water. There was blood all around him, and his head was pounding and dizzy. He threw up swallowing water and drowning. He opened his mouth in panic and inhaled even more water. His feet hit the bottom of the hole as the panic ebbed. He flung himself upwards but hit his head on the ladder blocking the way up. All the remaining air got knocked out of his lungs. Anxiety engulfed him completely. With his last gasps of clarity he slithered between two ladder steps and continued up. He broke through the water and inhaled thirstily. The air was cold and fresh, pulling him back to himself . The ledge of the hole was now just above him, nearing as the water rose. He reached up, pulled himself out and rolled in exhaustion onto the ground.

He found a job working in a large store. He arrived at work at 7:30, but started getting paid at 8:00. He stacked merchandise until 5:00 PM and then went home. When he got home he fell asleep. He waited for the weekend but spent the weekends sleeping. At work people would ask him questions like hows it going and he would answer “OK for a Monday”if it was Monday or “Friday, so pretty good.” if it was a Friday. He had lunch in the cafeteria and sometimes would get drive through on the way home. He gained weight. At work he would sometimes remember the day the water pipe broke. One weekend he went outside and looked at the hole. It seemed a lot shallower than he remembered. He climbed down and considered digging, but he didn't see the point. He stayed in the job a year before he quit. He deliberated long and hard about when and how to resign, and what he should say if the manager asked why he was leaving, but in the end the manager wasn't there and he resigned to the deputy manager.