Jack in the Box Read Free Page A

at the pad. There was no way of figuring out what else to put on the paper. This was hopeless. I put the pad away. “All I can do now is guess.”
                  I walked for a little while. No matter which door I went through, the next room was always the same. I changed directions every now and then. Sometimes I went back through a door I had just closed to see if anything had changed. Everything that happened was the same as the day before, except this time I didn’t freak out about it. I knew that the rooms were like this. I might as well have been in a box. Nowhere to go. No one to talk to. Except Brian. But I never saw him, which bothered me. Not because the game of tag was intriguing to me, but because I wanted to escape the place. As I went from door to door, I wondered if Brian were always one room away from me. Leaving a room right as I entered it. Dodging me just by a little bit every time I opened a door. The thought irritated me, and made me go through each room more quickly. But I didn’t go for very long. The feeling hit me again. The feeling of imminent collapse. I was losing consciousness. With no idea why. I tried to push myself. Tried to keep going. The last thing I remember seeing was the floor.
     
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                  “Good morning!”
                  I opened my eyes. I was in bed again. And there was Brian, with his happy face, which was already starting to irritate me.
                  “Better get eatin’. You slept longer than usual.”
                  “You’re always the one who wakes me up.”
                  He opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, then paused. “. . . Oh yeah. Well, either way, you’re awake now. Eat up.”
                  I went to the table. My mind said I shouldn't be hungry. But my body begged to differ. It seemed like I had just eaten. But it was morning again. It was the next day. Had I really slept all day?
                  Several pancakes were stacked on a plate. Maple syrup ran down the tower of goodness and a square of butter rested at the top. A glass of milk sat next to the plate. I couldn't ignore it; I was hungry. Again. Even though I did not like it there, I had to admit that the food was awesome. Or at least the breakfast. I didn’t know about the other meals.
                  Brian sat down in the chair across from me. He didn’t have any food in front of him, but he did have an empty plate. I figured that he had  eaten already. "Enjoying it?" he said.
                  “You know it,” I said with my mouth full.
                  “What?”
                  I swallowed and took a sip of milk. “Yeah, I'm enjoying it."
                  “Oh. Good! Well, in a few minutes. . .”
                  “You said I slept longer than usual.”
                  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Yeah. . .”
                  “I’ve only slept here two times. Maybe three, but I’m still confused about the day I woke up in this place.”
                  “Okay. . .” He looked down at his fingernails as if something were on them.
                  “You said ‘more than usual.’ Like I’d slept here several times or something.” I leaned forward.
                  “An d yo u say this like it’s some sort of a surprise to you.” He raised his head and looked at me. His eyebrow was still up. Suddenly Brian was the one quizzing me.
                  Our eyes locked. Mine were wide open, staring straight into his. His stared back, but while I felt like I knew nothing about this man, he seemed to know everything about me. “What do you mean?”
                  He smirked. It wasn’t an obnoxious smirk, though. He raised his lip just a bit, and had an honest look of care. Amused at the question, but