An Ordinary Day?

The writing prompt for this piece was Luck, Destiny, or Second Chances.

The book referred to in this piece is my favorite book of all time, both for adults and children. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend you do. Some parts of this writing are taken directly from the book.

An Ordinary Day?

It was an ordinary day. Marc woke up, got dressed, washed his face, brushed his teeth, and went downstairs for breakfast. 

It was a Wednesday, so that meant it was oatmeal day. He made a cup of tea and sat down for his breakfast. 

“Middle of the week,” he said to himself. “A hearty breakfast and it’s off to work I go.”

Making sure that the cats were fed, he headed off to work. Marc was a fifth-grade teacher at the local elementary school. Today was his favorite day. Today was the day he read to his class. He was to continue a new book that he had introduced to his students the previous week, his favorite book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. The story of Milo, a boy who is bored with his life, and receives a mysterious package of a tollbooth, which takes him to “The Lands Beyond,” where he experiences all kinds of adventures involving a lot of word play and learns that life is not as boring as he believed. 

Things did not go as expected when he got to school. Everyone was in a rush, for today was the day the President of the School Board was visiting his school. 

Everything had to be perfect. 

Marc didn’t care about the observer in the school. Board members had been there before, but in each case, the principal of his school was with them to mediate, explain, and defend what was going on, if a Board member didn’t understand something. 

On this day, the principal was out sick, and there was no one to mediate any observation or interpretation the Board president made. 

The president walked into Marc’s classroom while Marc was reading a chapter from The Phantom Tollbooth. It was the section where Milo and Tock (a watchdog) meet the Humbug and the Spelling Bee at the Word Marketplace. Humbug and Spelling Bee get into an argument, call each other names, and a scuffle breaks out, disrupting the whole market. Everything gets bollixed up, with carts, stalls, words, and letters all thrown in disarray. Officer Shrift, who is very short, arrived and decided that Milo was the cause of the disruption. “After all,” Short Shrift said, “Boys are the cause of everything.” Both Milo and Tock were arrested, found guilty, given a short sentence (‘I am.’  which was the shortest sentence the Judge, also Short Shrift, knew), and an additional 6 million years in prison. They were taken away to a dungeon to serve their sentence. 

That was all the president was willing to hear. He stopped Marc mid-sentence.  “Who allowed you to read this subversive political propaganda to these innocent children?”

”This is a very popular children’s book,” was Marc’s reply. “It was published in 1961. It’s about curiosity and understanding that there are so many things in this world to experience. Life doesn’t have to be boring.”

”That’s not what I heard,” the president shouted. “Policeman arresting a child and a dog, no real trial, a sentence of 6 million years. Who would ever do such a thing? We have laws, you know! This book should never be allowed in school. I’ll see that it and any other book that Justin Norter fellow wrote is banned. As for you, I’m sure the board and district will want you suspended or fired.”

With that said, the president grabbed the book and stormed out of the classroom. 

Marc turned to his class and quietly asked the students to take out their math books. 

At the end of the day, Marc received a call from the district office, informing him that he was being temporarily relieved of his classroom duties until the board and district could decide on a course of action. The district superintendent, although concerned, was fully supportive of Marc. The Phantom Tollbooth was also her favorite book.

Marc wondered on his way home.”I hope this works out for me. I wonder if I should have chosen another book to read, or just said something else to the Board President?” 

———

Meanwhile, when the Board President arrived home, he was greeted with a surprise upon entering his garage.  

There in front of him was an enormous package. Attached to one side was a bright-blue envelope which said simply: “FOR THE BOARD PRESIDENT WHO HAS PLENTY OF TIME”

In the package was “ONE GENUINE TURNPIKE TOLLBOOTH. EASILY ASSEMBLED IN YOUR GARAGE.  AND FOR USE BY THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER TRAVELED IN THE LANDS BEYOND.”

The president, though very opinionated, was very curious. He had already forgotten the day’s events. He had to go through this tollbooth and prove there was nothing beyond the tollgate.

It was easy to set up. He backed his car into the garage and set up the tollbooth in front of it. There were three signs, included in the package,  that he had also placed there.

SLOW DOWN APPROACHING TOLLBOOTH

PLEASE HAVE YOUR FARE READY (a coin had been included in the package)

HAVE YOUR DESTINATION IN MIND (a strange map showing all sorts of roads, towns, cities, etc., was also included in the package)

“Booksforallofus” read the President, “What a strange name for a place. I might as well go there as anywhere. It’ll only be to the end of the driveway, and then I’ll go after the one who is responsible for this charade.”

He drove slowly up to the tollbooth and deposited his coin. As he passed the tollbooth, he thought, “I’ll definitely find the person who wasted my time.”

But the end of his driveway was not where he found himself. After passing through the gate, he found himself speeding along an unfamiliar country highway. Looking in his rearview mirror, the tollbooth was nowhere to be seen.