THE HOLE OF BLOOM

                       The sinkhole separated the Crane’s and Satchfield’s front yards.  It was like having a celebrity in the neighborhood.  Reporters and their photographers swarmed the place, setting up the neighborhood kids to pose near it.

            During the Halloween in which it first appeared, it ate part of my costume – a black, Lone Ranger-style mask and hat.  We tried to retrieve the costume pieces, but the wind was too strong and the sinkhole too deep.  I had to go as a partially disguised crimefighter that night.

            It took them more than two years to fill it up and make sure it had been sturdy enough from its earthy foundation.  After it was gone, we started to miss it.  We missed the notoriety it gave Bloom Street.  We missed watching the water collect in its gaping mouth.  We missed it so much.

            Once they’d filled it, we were just an ordinary neighborhood again.

            The hole of Bloom should be reopened, we thought.

-SLL