I don't like to think about the hole at the end of the garden.

Growing up, there were very few topics I couldn't breach with my family, but that hole was one of them.

It is not an overly large hole around 1.5 to 2 meters across, not overly deep either, but just

darker than it should be. A dangerous trap only to a child, which, as I've experienced, is what makes the

whole so dangerous.

No doubt you've noticed it.

It has a presence to it. It draws the eye. Our family had a lot of rules that we followed

without much question. Normal ones like no sneaking out, no smoking, no junk food

after 8 PM.m.

But we had some weird ones too.

Like, never placed the beds facing the windows that looked out into the garden.

We were never allowed to play in the yard when supervised or allowed there after dark.

We had to wear earplugs from six to 12 years old where we slept. But the most

important one was to never, ever look into the whole.

I was embarrassingly old when I found out that not every household held these rules.

I asked both my parents and grandparents who lived with us once and only once about the whole.

Why not just cover it up or build a fence around it if they were so concerned?

They were quiet for a while and then my dad glanced out the window and said,

didn't work.

The words went as nearly as shocking as the fact that they came from him.

My dad, handyman extraordinary who never backed down from a challenge, never gave up on anything, but he gave up on this. Why?

I think that was the first time I began to realize there was something wrong with that whole.

...