Sanctuary

Bradbury Week 3

Cave

          I got into the condo and set the box down. “You think we’ll have time to go exploring this weekend?”
          “We should train. Never know when the next marathon will come up.” She sighed heavily. She was looking at a picture of us standing outside the orphanage.
          I stepped behind her and hugged her about the waist. “Did anyone think we would ever make something of ourselves?”
          “We didn’t even think so. We wouldn’t have tried at all without Ms. Flenchal egging us on.”
          “She said we should try anything that interested us.” Jules set the picture on a shelf and picked up an envelope with a gold seal. “Where did this come from?” She opened the seal and glitter dust poofed out. She removed the card and more glitter dropped to the floor.
          The card had gold stars with blue writing.
          “It’s an invitation to a marathon at someplace called Adam’s Enclave.” Jules held up the card and admired the shimmery texture of it. “I feel like this is important; like it is going to change our lives.”
          That night I slept on Jules floor . Neither of us could sleep, but we didn’t want to talk either. We were lost in our own thoughts about this marathon. The next morning, we ate breakfast in silence. Things just seemed surreal. It was even more weird when we found the packed bags by the door. There was a note with them that was blue with silver stars and moons. There was a map to the ferry line.
          The Notgonie Ferry was blue with silver decorations. When we boarded there was a light mist falling. We were surrounded by fog. I took out my compass but the needle spun like a top.
          “Giloy’s Key,” announced the speakers.
          It seemed like we were on the water for hours that were quickly turning into days. Jules and I napped in deck chairs and wandered empty platforms. The island loomed up out of the fog. The ferry dropped us off on the dock and disappeared.
          “Somehow I feel like I should be scared,” said Jules.
          “I know, but at the same time it all feels familiar.”
          There was a path in the woods. We followed it to a clearing with a small village. We were immediately greeted by a cheery woman in a Hawaiian print muumuu.
          “You are here for the run? Yes? Yes?”
          Jules just nodded slightly.
         ”Wonderful! Come, come. I take you to the Inn.”
          The room was sparsely furnished and decorated in yellows with matching bathroom accessories.
          “We passed some interesting shops on the way here,” said Jules.
          “I take it you want to go shopping.”
          “We could stay here and stare at the ceiling.”
          “You have a point.”

          The first place we went inside lived up to its name: Curiosity Shop. There were dried animal parts, herbs, and spices in jars on the shelves. On the counter were displays of homemade jewelry and natural crystals, ornate pipes and intricately decorated wands.
          “Hello, hello. Please. Look. Buy.” He was a scrunched face little Asian man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and torn jean shorts. He had a patch over one eye.
          Jules picked up a necklace with Mother of Pearl inlay on the amulet.
          “No pretty lady, not for one so young with such beautiful skin. Besides, very expensive. This suits you more.” He picked up a delicate pooca shell necklace and laid it against Jules arm. “Ah, see, makes your skin shimmer. I throw in ankle bracelet. No charge.”
          “I do like it better,” said Jules, ”It isn’t so gaudy. Carlos, will you help me?”
          “I took the jewelry from the man and fastened it to Jules neck and ankle.”
          I stopped on the way out to admire some unusual geodes.
          “Those come from JyCe cave just east of village. Very dangerous. Very valuable.”
          “That means expensive,” giggled Jules.
          I touched the edge of one of the geodes and it shimmered and changed colors like it was reacting to my touch.
          Jules grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the shop. Once we were on the street, I stopped and pulled my arm away. “I have to own one of those geodes.”
          They are expensive, Carlos. With us moving and all we don’t have much money left.”
         ”Who said I was going to buy one? We’re splunkers. He said the cave was just east of the village.”
         ”Let’s go get changed and wait until dark.”
         When we got back to the room, the packs we had found at the apartment had been opened on our beds. Laid out and organized was all the equipment we would need to explore the cave. There were even black clothes for us to wear over the wetsuits. We got dressed and repacked the rest of the equipment.
         ”Carlos, is all these weird things pointing us toward something or warning us to stay away?”
         ”Why would it give us equipment if it was warning us away from the cave?”
         ”I suppose you’re right.” Jules laid on her bed and closed her eyes.
          I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax. I sat in a chair and checked the drawer under the table. There was a crude map of the island. The cave was not marked. I took a pencil and pointed an arrow east of town. The line continued itself east of town in a curved route until it stopped in a grove of trees. It drew an X there, then the whole line vanished.
          I sat back and rubbed my temples.. Jules and I should be almost freaking out but were just going with the flow like it all was commonplace. I decide to lay on the bed after all to reset my mind.
(indent}”Carlos. Carlos wake up. It’s evening,” said Jules.
          I got myself up and raised the blind just enough to see outside. “They’re lighting torches to illuminate the streets.”
          “We should sneak around to the woods and make our way through them to the east,” said Jules.
          We gathered our packs and slipped silently out the door, skirting our way around the left corner and into the woods.
          We saw people with torches and spears pointing our way and yelling. We began running through the brambles and underbrush scraping arms and legs and tearing the clothes over our wetsuits. Jules stumbled but I caught her and drug her along behind me.
         When we got close to the cave, our pursuers slowed and finally turned away. We peered inside, turning on our flashlights.
         We could see the light shimmer off of water; it fell down the wall from above and created a pool below. I stepped in as far as I could and shone my light around.
         “There’s an opening at the top of the wall at the other end,” I said.
         Jules started striping off the clothes over her wetsuit. So did I. We slipped into the cool pool and carefully made our way up to the opening. We had to crawl through dragging our packs to the next opening. We used ropes to propel down to the floor.
         We could see light coming from the next chamber through the opening a short climb above. I couldn’t contain my excitement. I climbed up and shimmied my way through the short tunnel. After Jules came through the tunnel there was a tremor and the tunnel collapsed.
         ”Looks like we aren’t going back that way,” said Jules.
          There were geodes all around us. I had already chipped a few pieces storing them in my pack. “There’s another opening up there. We’ll find another way out.”
          Jules threw her hook and it caught just inside the opening. This time the narrow tunnel went upwards with a couple of corners we had to wiggle around; a small tunnel off to the left before we came up into a large chamber. We had to skirt on a ledge off to the right and through another crawling tunnel.
         The large chamber was magnificent. Geodes filled it with light from the ceiling reflecting a myriad of colors off the swirling pool below.
         ”I have to go through there,” said Jules pointing reverently at the opening across the chamber.
          “Looks like a funnel in the water below. No telling where we would come up.”
         ”It’s dangerous but that is the way out.” Jules said hypnotically.
          Jules threw her hook upward and she swung her way over to the other opening. She let go of the rope and walked down the tunnel without a thought of me.
          I don’t know why but I leapt for Jules’ rope. My hands slipped and I was pulled down in the funnel of water. I came to the surface and was pulled along a current until I slid down a waterfall. I was conscious but completely exhausted.
          I was surrounded by flashlights and arms lifting me out of the water.
         The next time I was conscious of things it was about two weeks later. An island police officer was trying to explain to me how Jules was still missing and it was feared she had drowned in the cave waters…
          Somehow I knew that Jules was okay and was where she was meant to be.

          I decided to stay on the island to feel close to Jules. I opened a shop where I sold souvenirs and offered tours of the caves. I wasn’t going to get rich but it kept me going.
I still had the geodes I collected the day Jules disappeared and every once in while I thought of going back there…..maybe I will some day.

Word count 1654