The Hole in the Wall - Lisa Rowe Fraustino [41]
The Shish chased after us with the dim flashlight bobbing. “Sebby, slow down. What are you seeing with those glasses? I want a turn!”
I would have been happy to slow down if I could. It was like the bird on my belly was flying me, even though she had rocks for wings, and the rock in my sock was helping. I’d forgotten it was there before, but now all of a sudden it was making me feel like that mythology dude with wings on his ankles. The feeling reminded me of that dream I’d had, being sucked off Pa’s shoulders onto an invisible carnival ride. My sister wouldn’t react well to hearing that I was being propelled by a force beyond my control, so I just ignored her.
“Argh! You are such a pain, Sebastian Alfred Daniels!” Her feet pounded faster and the next thing I knew, she’d ripped my ear off. Well, that’s what it felt like when she grabbed the glasses.
Without them, the walls fell into dark shadow, all normal in the bouncing halo of the flashlight. Barbie looked comical with those pearly glasses perched at a cockamamy angle with no dahlia bulb to hold them up. Her nose is more like a clothespin. She used her free hand to prop up the side with no arm, and then she started oh-my-godding at the colors, too.
The tunnel twisted like a giant wormhole through the same kind of stone as the Hole in the Wall. Water streamed along the lowest curves in the floor. In some places it collected in pools that we had to pick our way around or jump over. Jed’s Stupid Cat was great at avoiding the water. I just followed him.
“Where do you think this tunnel ends?” Barbie asked.
“Only one way to find out.” And my two flying escorts weren’t about to let me turn back, anyway. But I didn’t tell my sister that.
The tunnel stretched really tall in some places and almost narrowed shut in other places. We had to climb over a few boulders. Occasionally another tunnel would branch off, but there was only one vein of curlicue colors, and we all wanted to go that way. Especially Celery.
Every time it was my turn to have the glasses, the deposits of color seemed thicker and brighter. The air smelled more and more of that sweet aroma, too. But it was so quiet inside the tunnel, it seemed the world outside had vanished. All we could hear besides ourselves was water dripping. Until a rumbling noise came out of nowhere, and just as suddenly was gone. And then it came and went again.
Dynamite! Odum’s goons were mining here! Suddenly the tunnel crackled overhead. Dust fell in my eyes. Some small rocks thunked down around us. In my final thoughts I begged God to hurry up and forgive me for lying to Ma and let me get into heaven.
“Did you hear that, Seb?” Barbie said. “Sounds like cars whooshing by. I think we’re crossing under the road.”
Phew, reality.
In my head I drew a map of where we’d started and where we’d twisted and turned. “If there’s a road going over us, we must have gone past the gore.”
“Right,” said Barbie. “Otherwise there’d be no tunnel. ORC mined all the rocks.”
And then suddenly the tunnel branched again. This time the colors went both ways, according to Barbie (she had on the glasses). “Which way should we go?” She stopped at the Y to ponder, but Celery and the pebble didn’t need to think about it. They lurched to the right and sped me up as if we were going downhill, even though we were slanting upward.
At that I knew exactly where we must be. “We just rounded the pointy end of the gore!” I called over my shoulder. Barbie was pretty far back.
And then my sock gave up its heroic effort. The pebble burst out and did that spin-around ringing thing on the floor, like on the asphalt up at Kettle Ridge. Except this time it didn’t stop and sit still. It kept spinning in loops down the tunnel like it wanted to chase Jed’s Stupid Cat, and it was making that wind-chime noise! I tried to follow, but I felt like I’d just gotten off a carnival ride and was tripping over my own feet. The pebble