A Hiding Place (standard:other, 2090 words)
Author: the guitarist	Added: Feb 27 2007	Views/Reads: 2993/2053	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
"A Hiding Place is about a boy who has his own hiding place in the woods where he escapes the harsh realities of the cruel world that surrounds him.

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him that he fell down the bleachers in gym class.  His father didn't 
really believe her, but he really didn't care how it happened, and left 
it at that.  Time went on and the years went by, and as Leonard had 
always told him, he found real friends.  He started getting interested 
in girls, and would write letters to them, asking them if they wanted 
to go out.  It seemed like he was always rejected, and every time he 
got rejection in his letters, he went to his hiding place, and placed 
them in an old lunchbox he placed under the boulder.  Whenever he was 
depressed because of being rejected, he would talk to Leonard and ask 
for advice.  "You will find someone eventually" he said, "but when you 
do, they will break your heart ten times worse than any of these girls 
that have rejected you."  As Leonard had said, he finally did find a 
girlfriend, and he did so after taking Leonard's advice of going up to 
talk to them instead of leaving pathetic letters.  Jimmy went out with 
a beautiful girl named Susan.  She was his first love as he considered 
her.  He was very much different from her though.  He was always a 
gentleman, and was nice.  Susan, well, on the other hand was a bitch, 
and thought the world revolved around her.  She tried to change Jimmy 
into something he wasn't, and he would not be mean to anyone.  Finally, 
one day, she called him to come over to her house.  He had a rose in 
his hand that he intended to give her when he got there.  As he walked 
in, she told him that she wanted to end the relationship.  "Why" he 
asked in a puzzled manner.  "Things really aren't working out", she 
said, "and I just want to be single for a while."  He burst into tears, 
and instead of walking home, he walked down that old beaten path he 
always had and went to the boulder.  "I thought I found true love", 
Jimmy cried to Leonard.  "This is just your first love.  There will be 
others."  Leonard said in his soothing tone.  "How will I know when 
I've found the right one" Jimmy asked worriedly.  "You see where you 
are at now.  Your true love will find you here, in your hiding place." 
Leonard replied  Jimmy once again didn't understand what he was saying, 
but he cheered up and went out of the woods the same way he came in.  
So time went on, and as Leonard had said there were others.  Every time 
his heart was broken he came to the boulder and carved the name of the 
girl that had just broken his heart into the boulder.  Pretty soon, the 
boulder was covered with names, and the more names he saw, the more it 
depressed him.  It had been two weeks since the last heartbreak, and 
Jimmy once again decided to move on with his life.  He was walking 
through town one day, and he happened to come across a young lady 
stranded on the side of the street.  Jimmy knew a lot about how to fix 
cars, and went up to her and asked her the problem.  He quickly fixed 
the problem, and she was on her way.  "Would you mind giving me your 
number?", he asked her as she started the car.  "Not at all" she 
replied cheerfully.  She wrote her phone number on the back of a 
receipt, and then she drove off.  He looked down at the receipt and it 
had a name printed above the number:  Christy.  He called her the next 
day, and before he knew it they were going out.  He was worried at 
first that this one would be just like the others, but the longer they 
were together, the more confident he became.  He was very happy, and 
when their first year anniversary rolled around, he was excited.  He 
bought her a rose, and he went to her house.  That night they sat up 
talking for hours, and Jimmy asked her if she was interested in 
marriage.  "I would really like to, but I haven't gotten close enough 
to you to be ready for that kind of commitment", she said sadly.  Jimmy 
was devistated.  "I really love you, and I think I could spend the rest 
of my life with you." he said to her.  "Look, I'm not ready for 
commitment", she said to him.   More depressed than ever, Jimmy walked  
outside and down the street.  He found the old beaten path that he had 
taken many times before, and went to the boulder.  He opened the 
lunchbox that contained the rejection letters he received in the past, 
and pulled out a razorblade.  This was the first time Leonard wasn't 
there, and he was worried.  "Where are you" Jimmy yelled, but nobody 
answered.  Finally he decided it was useless to call for Leonard, and 
he proceeded to cut his wrists.  The blood began to pour out of him, 
and his body became weaker as the minutes passed.  Before he blacked 
out, he saw Christy coming down the beaten path towards the boulder.  
"How did you find me" he said in a weak dying voice.  "I ran into a 
bearded man in the street who told me you went down this path."  she 
said to him.  "What have you done?!"  she asked him frightenedly.  "I 
couldn't take the pain of heartbreak any longer, so I decided to put it 
to an end."  he said sadly.  He was close to dying, when he uttered his 
last words.  "So you saw a bearded man in the street?"  He then died, 
and suddenly his spirit rose out of his body.  She could see his 
spirit, and he said " Leonard was right.  He said my true love would 
find me here, but how was it you saw him?"  " I don't know what you're 
talking about" she replied.  "The bearded man you saw in the street was 
Leonard, but only I can hear or see him."  She looked at his rising 
spirit as it rose further over his dead body.  She was sad that it 
ended the way it did, but she realized that his spirit would always 
rest at this boulder.  Every day she follows the beaten path to come 
see Jimmy.   It turns out, Jimmy's old imaginary friend Leonard wasn't 
so imaginary after all.  He too, was an old spirit that lurked around 
the boulder.  With Jimmy's death, his spirit was set free, and he 
walked the earth again as a mortal.  It was a tragic way for it too end 
up, but Jimmy's soul will always rest in his hiding place.


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