The Globe

“Look at you, Susan Blakely; it’s nice to see you this morning. What are you now, eight years old?” Mr. Martens smiled at Susan as she entered his Pawn Shop. 

“Hi Mr. Martens, I’ve come for a snowglobe, please. All the girls are getting together for a party, and we’re supposed to bring a snow globe with us. Do you have anything like that?"  

”Well, I don’t have a real snow globe, but what would you say if I told you I had something better?” 

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I mean, what is it?” 

“Why, it’s right over here. It doesn’t look like much, but there’s magic in this globe. You’ll have to hold it to see what I mean. Then you’ll have to take it home and play with it. I’m sure you’ll find what I’m talking about to be true.”

“Oh, thank you, Mr. Martens. Thank you so much. It’s perfect. How much do I owe you?”

“It’s $5.00. Great!”

As Susan left the store, she had time to go back home and look over the globe in fine detail. 

She discovered a trap door after various turns, twists, and polishings of this globe. 

The young women at the globe party all had beautiful globes and had nothing good to say about them. They laughed at it. She realized the mistake she had made listening to Mr. Martens. There was nothing magical about the globe.

She lay across her bed and examined the globe more closely. She found a trap door. It opened, and she was pulled down into the real world and blacked out. When she awoke, she found herself on a wooden floor inside a warehouse. The globe was still in her hand.

“Hey, what are you doing back here? Where did you come from?”

“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.” 

Inside the globe, Brian and his friends are staring at the eye "Look at the eye; there it is again," Brian said as he looked up from his math books.

"I know," Mark said. "It gives me the creeps."

"Yeah, it's always watching us," stated Wilbur. 

"We have to be sure if the eye belongs to a giant man who lives outside of our world. Is it man-made, or is it our God watching over us?" Bobby said.

It was the winter season, and snow globes abounded. Susan Blakely had one such globe, and it was displayed in her home. She had a special connection to the globe. Every day she would shake it, look at it up close, and laugh, watching the gravel fall like snow. It was an enjoyable act for her each day. 

The townspeople wondered about the eye. Was it God? 

Accidents and celebrations were the norm. People were frightened when the gravel fell, and they scrambled into their homes, where they waited for the tremor to end.

Brian and his friends noticed that while the eye kept looking at them, another tremor would occur. 

“What should we do to stop this?” Brian asked.

They thought about this as they left school. They resolved to meet at the Gravel Pits on the outskirts of town. The boys rode their bikes to the pits except for Brian; he didn’t own a bike.”

Brian walked to the pawn shop on Mill and Sheppard to buy a bike to join his friends.  

Mr. Martens has owned the pawn shop for the last fifteen years. He was a good businessman, willing to deal with anyone interested in his wares. He didn’t want anyone who entered his pawn shop to go away empty-handed. Some say each item in the shop had some kind of magic to it.

Mr. Martens certainly wasn’t aware of any curses or magic, but he heard others in town talk about some of his goods that way. 

The bike looked fantastic through the pawnshop window. Brian went inside to get a better look.  

Mr. Martens said, “Hey, Brian, it’s nice to see you again. I noticed you looking at the bike in the window.”

“I’m hoping you can sell me a bike today; does the helmet come with it?” 

Mr. Martens said, “Let’s see how you look on the bike. It may need to have a seat adjusted for your height.”

Brian said, “I have $100.00 to spend, but I would like some money left over for the movies and to go to the Diner for a float.”  

Mr. Martens asks Brian, “Are you still working at the potato pool on weekends?” 

“Yes, sir, my parents say It keeps me out of trouble.” 

“Mr. Martens, how much for the bike in the window? There’s no price on it,” which worried Brian. 

Mr. Martens senses Brian is nervous and asks, “Brian, how much can you afford?”

Brian befuddledly replies, “I’m not sure, but I think I do?”

Mr. Martens, with his glasses down on his nose, looks at Brian and says, “For you, Brian, this bike is $25.00.” 

Brian’s face breaks into a huge smile, “I. I’ll take it!”

He counts out the money and hands it over to Mr. Martens. 

“Thanks, Mr. Martens,” Brian says energetically with the largest grin possible. 

“You’re lucky, Brian.” Mr. Martens said as Brian climbed on the bike. “It fits you perfectly. No adjustments need to be made. I’ll even throw in a helmet.”

“Now, remember Brian. With this bike comes a huge responsibility. You need to know the safety rules of bike riding.”  

“Be safe,” Mr. Martens said as Brian walked the bike out of the store. He puts on his helmet and pedals towards his house. 

After Brian left the pawn shop and was down the road for only two minutes, the bicycle directed him to the gravel pits. Along his way, he caught a glimpse of the big eye watching him. Only this time there wasn’t a tremor, just the eye looking and staring at him.  

Brian had never been to the pits before, but he heard about guys playing there on their bikes. 

When he reached the pits, he saw other kids riding their bikes up one side and down the other. Brian joins in on the action and feels confident attempting some of the tricks the older boys did while his friends watched. 

Brian’s initial fear has all but vanished, and he is compelled to ride down the side of the gravel into the pit. Some of the older kids tried to discourage Brian.

“Brian, you’re too small for that kind of trick.” 

“He’ll never make it with that bike,” said another.

“It’s not safe,” said a third boy.

Brian figured out that if he turned his front wheel sideways when he hit the soft gravel, his bike might have enough momentum to spin the back tyre around. That repetitive motion could move him down the pit wall. He was ready to tackle the gravel with confidence.

After completing the runs down the pit wall what seemed like twenty times, Brian became more adept at his descents each time. He attempted a trick, this time on the hill, because he heard other boys talking about a move he thought he could pull off accurately and skillfully. 

In his mind, Brian thought he would make it, and would be the biggest badass around. It was just one more trick, and he would be the Gravel Pit King. 

He started beautifully, and his movements were flawless as he spun his bike around. It looked like he was going to make it! Until a big patch of the pit gave way.

When they found Brian’s body, he was still on his bike in the rider’s position and buried in gravel. 

His parents were inconsolable, and his sister was distraught. Mr. Martens heard the news and absolutely could not believe it. He was sad and felt sort of responsible. Brian was just too young for that kind of power. Something nobody could have known.

After the slide, the town put a fence around the gravel pits and hired security to be stationed there full-time. 

Mr. Martens was in the back doing some inventory of what to move out on the floor when he heard a clunk in his Pawn Shop. He rushed to the front of his closed shop, and he found Susan Blakely lying there. 

“Susan? Are you okay? How did you get in here?” 

“Ugh, I’m not sure. I just really want to go home.”

“Of course. Do you want me to call your mom? She could be here in a jiffy,” Mr. Martens assured her. 

“No thanks, Mr. Martens. I think I’ll walk.

As she turned to walk home, Mr. Martens said, “Don’t forget your magic globe, Susan.”

But Susan knew she couldn’t stay any longer, so on her way home, she went through the park, opened the trap door, and returned to the house she had rented. Her globe is in her hand.

“We need to decide today if the eyeball we see is part of our

real-world or a manmade world,” Bobby said.

“I simply don’t know what to think,” Mark said.  

“But with that big eye always coming around, it makes me wonder if there isn't some form of a Big Something watching,” Wilbur stated.  

“Yeah. I wonder about why that eye is always looking into our world, I never get the feeling that we are entirely free.” Mark admitted.

“What about if we wrote a note to the giant eye? Surely it can read?” Wilbur suggested. 

“That’s a splendid idea. Let’s do that.” Bobby was super excited. 

The boys got busy with their sign. 

That was about the same time Susan Blakely put the old and peculiar snowglobe in the rummage sale because she had grown tired of the ugly globe. The church bazaar was asking for items people were willing to part with for their rummage sale.

Nothing looked familiar to the boys anymore beyond their horizon, and they realized they were living inside a man-made domed structure. Throughout the day, they saw a multitude of giant eyes looking at them, and they experienced numerous tremors.

But at the end of the day, they were shocked to see the same original eye looking at them once again. Since the globe didn’t sell Susan took it back into her possession. 

Maybe we’re mistaken? thought Bobby. I’m just so confused. But it does speak to whether or not our world is man-made or something natural, doesn't it?