The Black Cylinder

       The drill had only gotten five feet into the ground when Henry heard this awful grinding noise.

           "Turn it off!" Max shouted from somewhere below him.

           Henry switched off the drill, killed the engine, and jumped from the cab.

           "What the hell was that?" Henry asked.

           "Dunno," Max responded. He called their supervisor over. While they were talking, Henry walked to the hole and peered in.

           "I wouldn't go anywhere near there right now until we get the okay," the supervisor said.

           Henry turned to see the two men staring at him.

           "How long is that going to take?" Henry asked.

           "About forty-five minutes."

           Henry sighed, grabbed his lunchbox, sat down at the edge of the hole, and dug in. Might as well take a break. There was nothing else to be done until the Dig Safe guy showed up anyway.

#

           Two hours later, Henry and Max were cleared to go into the hole. No lines ran underneath this side of the street. No structures existed below this bit of sidewalk. In fact, no one had any idea what might be under the drill bit. Nothing serious, they all hoped.

           Henry pulled the drill up and backed the truck away from the hole, parking it in a nearby alleyway. He offered to go into the hole to take a peek.

           It was clear right away what the problem was. A black, cylindrical-shaped object poked out of the hole. It was small, but large enough to stop the turning of the drill. Henry didn't know how he would extract it from the hole, until he wrapped his arms around it. Suddenly, he knew it would come out easily. In fact, he knew a lot of things. Like, it was important to take it home. And, it was important that no one else touch it, or even look at it.

           Getting no one to touch it was easy. He hugged it to his body as soon as it was out of the hole. Getting no one to look at it wasn't so easy. Max, their supervisor, and the Dig Safe guy stared at the object in Henry's hands with hungry eyes. He didn't like the looks of their eyes at all.

           "I don't feel so well," Henry said to them. In fact, he felt fine. He felt better than fine. He felt the best he'd ever felt.

           "Why don't you go home and get some rest?" the supervisor said. "I'll take that for now. Look it over. See what we have here." The supervisor's suggestions were innocent enough, but the undertones of the question came to Henry loud and clear. "Want me to keep that? Take it home? Reap the benefits of owning it?"

           "No, I'll hold onto it and bring it back tomorrow. Then maybe we can figure out what it is."

           Henry didn't wait for an answer. He drove home, already sure of what it was. It was a gift from Heaven. And it was now his.

#

When Henry arrived home, he swept everything off the mantle. Literally. All his wife's knickknacks she had collected over the fifteen years of their marriage tumbled onto the floor, where they crashed into hundreds of pieces. The little trinkets were annoying anyway. Ridiculous, expensive hobby. This was more important. He gingerly placed the black cylinder right in the center. Henry stood back from it, beaming.

           "Henry, what in the hell are you doing?" a voice called behind him.

           Henry jumped and spun around. Caroline, his wife, stood with her arms crossed, glaring at him.

           A cold crept into Henry's stomach. She was going to see it. She was going to want it. He moved to block it from her view.

           But he was right. She did see it. And she did want it. And she stepped around Henry and took it in her hands.

           A cloud came over Henry's mind. He stood in his living room, with no recollection of how he got there. The last thing he remembered was drilling at the work site. Max shouted at him to stop drilling, and then...

And then he was home.

           "Honey?" he said to his wife, but she walked out of the room, carrying something in her arms. He turned to the mantle and the now empty space. He stepped forward but jumped back when the crunch of porcelain startled him. He stood amidst the smashed knickknacks on the floor and frowned.

#

           Caroline didn't want the other women over for tea later. One of them – that nosy Wanda maybe – would find her special find. She couldn't quite remember where she had gotten it from, but she knew it was special. It was meant just for her. It was a gift.

           When the first of the women arrived for tea, she ran upstairs and hid it in the hallway closet across from the bathroom. No one would find it there.

           Halfway through tea, Caroline's mind began to feel light, like she had just gotten over a cold. She felt much better about the women being over, but she wondered if Wanda was coming down with something, because in the middle of the party, she left abruptly after returning from the bathroom.

           Caroline didn't notice the object Wanda had wrapped up in her coat, or how tightly she had it clasped to her chest.

#

           Wanda usually made the rounds of the neighborhood, spreading gossip as she went, but not today. Today, she raced home and hid her special find under the kitchen sink.

           When her husband Richard came home from work, he made a run for the bathroom. After he managed to clog the toilet, he went to find the plunger under the kitchen sink. He found the black cylinder instead.

           Not wanting Wanda to see it, he announced, "Honey, I'm heading out for bowling night." Then he ran from the house and stuffed it in the trunk of his car. By the time he reached the bowling alley, he had already forgotten about his cargo.

           While at the bowling alley, Richard's car was broken into by the troubled Jeremy Myers kid who lived down the road. Usually he showed off his wares to his thug buddies, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to show them his newest find. He hid it in the family's shed instead.

           Jeremy's father Greg was supposed to be out mowing the lawn, but those pesky woodchucks were out in his garden again. He opened the shed to retrieve his shotgun, but he went for the mysterious black object he found there instead. He brought it into the house. When his wife Marlena asked him why he hadn't started mowing the lawn yet, Greg panicked and hid the object under his five-year-old son Bryan's bed.

           Bryan didn't show up for dinner that night. Usually Bryan was pestering them for dinner an hour before Marlena even started cooking. Greg and Marlena called for him, but he never came to the table.

           "Jeremy, can you go get your brother and tell him it's time for dinner?" Marlena asked.

           Jeremy opened his mouth to protest, saw the look in his mother's eyes, and snapped it shut again. He tromped up the stairs to his brother's room and pounded on the door. "Hey, you little pain in the butt. Time for supper."

When there was no answer, he opened the door. Bryan turned to him and held out a strange black object in his hands. He had the biggest smile on his face.

           "Jemmy, look! It's a gift! Wanna see?"

           Jeremy did want to see, because the "gift" looked familiar somehow. And precious. And he had to have it.

           Jeremy took one step into the room. Bryan laughed – a big, happy, hearty laugh.

           Then Bryan and the black cylinder disappeared.

#

           Henry was busy drilling at the site when suddenly there was a grinding noise and the drill bit stopped.

           "Hold up, Henry," Max called below him. "I think you hit something!"

           Sighing, Henry turned off the drill and jumped down from the cab.

           "What it is?" Henry asked.

           "I dunno, but we're not doing anything until the boss gives us the all clear."

           Two and a half hours later, the supervisor and the representative from Dig Safe determined there were no lines of any kind under the sidewalk where they were digging.

           "We need to find out what's down there," Henry said as he stood at the edge of the hole.

           "Be careful," Max said.

           Henry almost reached the object when there was shouting above him.

           "Henry, stop what you're doing!" Max called. "Marlena Myers is here, and you might want to hear what she has to say!"

           Henry was close to stopping. He really was. But he had to touch the black cylinder sticking out of the hole. He put his hands on it, and he saw. And he knew. And he prepared to take it home with him.