The Hole Where The Sun Goes

Mummy wouldn't talk to her, so Katie went to play in her sandpit with her toys. There was a digger and a car. The car used to live inside, then it got too sandy.

Katie played with the digger and the sand for a while. Then she got bored. She looked up in the sky and saw the moon. Mummy said the moon only shone after Katie went to bed, but sometimes Katie could see it during the day. Katie loved the moon. Daddy used to love it too.

It was getting a bit dark. Katie thought it might be going to rain. She didn't want to go inside and play with her toys. She went and sat on the porch with her cuddly and sucked her thumb. She wished Mummy would talk to her.

Katie was hungry, and she wanted to go pee-pee. She couldn't go to the bathroom because Mummy had locked the door, so she found another place. Then she climbed up on her chair and got the food Mummy had left her. There was an apple and some crackers and some juice and a cookie. Davy was sleeping under the table. When Katie was eating, she dropped one of the crackers, and before she could pick it up, Davy came and ate it. She told Davy he was a bad dog. He looked sad, so she patted him and gave him some special Davy food.

When she had eaten all her food, she was still hungry, so she climbed up on a big chair and got some more cookies from the jar. The lid was tight and hurt her hand. Then she put on her jacket and went back outside.

It was now getting very dark, but there weren't many clouds. The sun was just about to fall out of the sky. Katie knew where the sun went when it fell out of the sky. It went in a hole.

After the sun went in the hole, the moon started shining more bright. It was all dark except for the moon and the stars. Katie was a bit scared. She called Davy to come outside, but he wouldn't. He never did what she told him to. He was a bad dog.

Katie wanted to be with Mummy. She went and banged on the bathroom door, but it was still locked, and Mummy didn't answer no matter how loud she shouted. It was sort of scary in the house without Mummy, even though Davy was there, so she sat down in the porch with her back against the wall, wrapped her jacket around her, and cuddled her cuddly.

In the night, Katie felt cold. She woke up and saw Mummy. Mummy was cold too. Davy came outside and did a funny bark at her, then ran away. Mummy took Katie's hand, and together they went to find the hole where the sun goes.

"The Hole Where The Sun Goes" was published in Home: New Short Short Stories By New Zealand Writers (Random House, 2005) and is so far uncollected.