Julian could hardly believe his eyes, but there it was nonetheless--a tiny door at the base of a tree trunk. It looked as if it had been there for years, the tree growing around the door's arched outline. The knocker and hinges were no more than an inch wide, the door itself only six inches tall. Julian knelt down and gave the door a tug. It didn't budge.
"Julian!" his mother yelled from across the street. "Julian, dinner!"
He didn't want her to see. This was his secret, and he didn't want to share it with anyone. He ran home, bursting through the front door with the energy only twelve-year-old boys possess.
"Julian," his mother said, tousling his blonde hair. "Wash your hands and set the table, okay? You have any homework tonight?"
"Nope. It's a good thing, too. I'm kinda tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed after dinner."
"Your sister wants you to watch Alice in Wonderland with her. You promised."
"Mom, she watches it every day. Besides, why don't you buy it on DVD? All we have is that old VHS tape Grandma bought us, and the stupid VCR keeps eating it."
As his family ate dinner, Julian stared at the park across the street through the dining room window. He could see the tree from here. He'd seen it a hundred times, but he'd never noticed the door before. "I'm going to bed," he announced. "I'm not feelin' too good."
"You aren't, huh?" his mother asked, feeling his forehead with the back of her hand. "I hope you aren't getting sick, Julian."
When he was sure that everyone was asleep, Julian tiptoed downstairs as quietly as he could. It was 2:00 a.m., and he didn't want to wake his family. He snaked the longest shoelace he could find from the eyelets of his father's work boot and stuffed it in his coat pocket. He took the small flashlight from the kitchen drawer, gently unplugged his mother's cell phone from its charger, and crammed both into his pocket alongside the shoelace. Now I'm ready, he thought, and shut the front door behind him.
The park was very dark this time of night. Owls hooted from the treetops while a stray cat meowed from under a nearby shrub, but Julian wasn't afraid. He was on a mission, and nothing could stop him now.
He pulled the flashlight, shoelace, and cell phone from his pocket and tied them all together. He turned on the flashlight and set the phone to video record. Kneeling down on all fours, he took the tiny knocker between his thumb and forefinger and timidly rapped on the door.
The door popped open. Inside he could see a wee staircase spiraling down into darkness, each step no more than four inches wide and one inch tall. His heart skipped in his chest. He lowered the shoelace with the flashlight and cell phone attached down into the tree trunk.
Down, down, down ... the staircase must have gone down at least three feet. Finally, Julian felt the phone and flashlight come to rest on something solid. He waited. He wasn't sure what he was waiting for, exactly, but he thought he'd know it when it happened.
There! Was that a tug on the shoelace? he wondered. There it was again! "Holy mackerel!" Julian shouted, pulling on the shoelace as fast as he could. What would he see on the video? What had pulled on his string? What wonders awaited him just three feet below the surface of this tree? He could barely contain his excitement as the cell phone emerged from the darkness. "What the...." Julian whispered, for there attached to the cell phone was a tiny bottle with a label that read Drink Me.
Julian tried to watch the video he'd recorded, but there was nothing but scuffling sounds, blurred images, and darkness. Drink Me, he thought. He looked over his shoulder toward the safety of his house where his parents and little sister slept. He shone his flashlight into the darkness of the tree trunk, the miniature staircase spiraling into nothingness.
