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| Eyeless, albino cave fish. |
The next morning, we set out early and hiked back up
Gaillard Creek to the mysterious crack in the limestone bank. A stiff wind blew
between the high banks on both sides of the creek, and a steady fall of dying
leaves drifted down into its cold waters. Although the day was young, an
overcast sky set the scene with an air of ominous twilight that foreshadowed
what was to come.
Adam and I carried small flashlights, but Chuck had snagged
a large waterproof light from his dad’s fishing boat. I also brought a spool of
thick, white butcher’s thread that I’d found in the shed behind my house. Each
of us had a backpack that we hoped to fill with the treasure we expected to
find somewhere inside the black cave.
A clear stream of water flowed from the base of the crack
and across the fan of sand that led down to the edge of the creek. We searched
the sand closely for any sign that someone else had been there. The only tracks
we found had been left behind by a coyote sometime during the night.
We stepped to the opening in the limestone fissure and switched
on our lights. Chuck stuck his head inside and yelled “Hello!” In answer, a
brown bat flew out of the crack and passed a few inches from Chuck’s plump
face.
“Jeez, I didn’t know bats got that big,” Adam said. “Wonder
how many more are inside? You know they carry rabies.”
As Adam and Chuck pondered bat-borne diseases, I pulled out the
spool of string and tied the free end to a dirty root near the crack’s
entrance. I pulled on the string to make sure that it wouldn’t come loose and
explained to the others that I would unroll it as we went along so that we’d be
able to find our way back if our lights gave out.
“Sort of like Hansel and Gretel and their trail of bread
crumbs,” I said. “Come on, let’s go.”
Adam took the lead as we entered the crack, and, at first,
we could only walk in single file. Chuck was in the middle while I brought up
the rear. Not far from the entrance, we moved around a slight bend and lost
sight of the entrance.
All the while, the stream of water rushed cold at our feet
as it made its way towards the sunlight around the bend. The passage was still
narrow, and my mind conjured up images of hairy bats and spiders clinging to
the walls of the cave. The air was thick with a chalky smell that made me think
of grave dirt.
“Check this out!” Adam yelled. He was about 20 feet ahead,
and the tunnel there was about a yard across. Chuck and I made it to him a few
seconds later, and saw what he was pointing at. In the dim light of our
flashlights, we could see drawings on the side of the tunnel. One was an image
of a setting sun. Another resembled a bat and a number of others looked like
stick men with spears.
As I stood there, I thought about the time in school that we
read “Beowulf,” a story of an old hero who killed a monster named Grendel.
After killing the monster, Beowulf had to enter a cave where Grendel’s evil mother
lived. There was a big battle, and she nearly killed Beowulf, but he eventually
cut off her head.
“These are Indian drawings,” Chuck whispered. “Reckon how
old these are?”
“Don’t know,” I said. “It’s a wonder they’ve held up so well
with all this water around.”
“One thing’s for sure, people have been in here before,”
Adam said. “If this thing widens into a real cave ahead, there’s no telling
what we’ll find.”
We continued on for another 50 yards or so, and the feeling
that we were now deep within the earth took hold. It was in that moment that
Adam yelled, “What the heck is that!?!”
From out of the darkness ahead, a white object about the
size of my hand swam toward us in the water at our feet. Adam stood frozen with
fear as his flashlight beam shined down on the thing as it swam closer. Just
before it reached Adam’s feet, I stepped past him and snatched up the slimy
object and held it for my friends to see.
“It’s an albino fish,” Chuck said as he and Adam kept their
lights played on the squirming white thing in my hand. I’d never seen a fish
quite like this one. It was without scales, like a catfish, and its skin was so
white that it seemed to glow. Adam was the first to notice that this strange creature
had no eyes.
(All
rights reserved. This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and
incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or
dead is entirely coincidental.)
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