Crisscross Moon - 27. Chapter 27

27.

"How much air do we have?" I asked.

"Plenty for what we need... And I'm not letting you out of my reach."

"What if I want to be? To see how far I can go?"

"Come out first, and we'll talk."

I put on my mask again, put the breathing piece in my mouth, held the tank a little below me, and eased into the hole. Then I came right out.

"What?" Cory asked.

"I need to attach the tank to something. I need both hands free."

"Why?"

"'Cause I need to pull myself along the walls and hold the light at the same time. I'm not really swimming. My feet don't seem to help."

"There's not enough room for the tank on your back."

"Even though I'm smaller than you?"

"Even then."

"What if I tie it to my waist? Will it stay?"

"Probably for a while... Which is probably all you'll need..."

My friends had given us some nylon rope, but we'd forgotten to bring something to cut it with. Instead, I used one end to fasten the tank to my waist and let the other end drag behind me.

"Something else you can tug at," I told Cory.

"I'm not letting go of your feet."

And he didn't. I could always feel his hands on my ankles. But I know I went further into the passage than my body length, so he must have had his arms fully extended.

When he pulled me out, he said, "My face was right against the rock. I had to set down the flashlight, so I couldn't really see. But my head was always out of the water."

I nodded, but I wasn't sure he saw that. We were holding our flashlights under our chins and looked like ghouls.

"What did you see?" he asked. It was becoming our favorite question.

"More of what I did before."

"Did you reach the end of the passage?"

"No. Though when you started to pull me back, I stretched out my arm as far as I could. But I never touched rock."

"Wish I could go in there."

"You probably can. I'm sure the passage gets wider."

"I can't take the chance."

"'Specially when you have a guinea pig?"

"A volunteer," he corrected, and I knew he was kidding.

"It's fun," I admitted.

"Ready to go again?"

"Tell me what I should be looking for? What's most important?"

"The end of the passage... we've got to know how far that is. You have the rope around your waist... I'll let you go on your own. But if you need me to pull you back before I realize it, just tug."

"You think that'll work?"

"Yeah. I'm only gonna be focused on you. But before I let go of your feet... try turning on your back. See if you can get your face out of the water."

"How will I know? My face feels pretty numb."

"I'll bet you'll know."

"That's a hell of a bet."

"Then don't take out the regulator till you're ready."

"The what?"

"The mouthpiece... breathing piece... That's technically what it's called..."

"OK."

I put my face mask on, put the mouthpiece in, and eased under the water. Cory said he'd tug on my feet when I was fully in the passage, and that's when I should try to turn. If I did, he'd pull me out.

We did what we planned, and it worked more smoothly than I thought. Still, I didn't try to breathe without the mouthpiece, and I'm not sure Cory could have turned as easily as I did. My biggest problem was that the air tank got in my way as I turned. But the passage really did get wider, and I told Cory that.

"This has to be it," he said. "We're not gonna get a better chance."

"What if it just dead ends the way the pool did in the other cave? Just 'cause there's one opening doesn't mean there are two."

"I know that," he admitted.

"And I'm gonna stay face down as long as I can. You're right... it's much easier to see. On my back, I strain my neck."

"You need to see."

"Absolutely."

"Ready, then?"

"Yeah."

And I went into the passage. This time I felt Cory's hands leave my ankles, and for a moment, I was scared. Then I saw something that I thought was the end of the passage, and I pulled myself ahead. I wasn't swimming, and I wasn't entirely tugging along the walls. I was kind of kicking my feet, but not just as reflex from being underwater. More, I was moving myself along the passage by pushing with my feet against the rocks. Still, what I thought was the end of the passage wasn't. It was just a slight bend. But when I tried to push past it, I hit rock.

I didn't see it coming. I needed more hands. I was holding the flashlight and guiding myself along the walls, and I really needed a third hand to reach out in front of me. Actually, four hands would have been great. Two to move me, one to hold my light, and one to stretch out ahead. I wished I had a waterproof mining helmet.

But when my head hit the rock, I reflexively looked up, and my face came completely out of the water. Cory was right. I could feel that. I also knew it because my hair went flat. It had been floating. Next, I pushed my hand - the one that was holding the light - out above me, and both it and my arm went out of the water. When I pointed the beam up, I realized the ceiling was several feet above me. So I stood.

That wasn't easy because the floor was as uneven as the walls. Mainly, I worried what Cory was thinking. I'd stopped moving forward, and I was sure he realized that. But he hadn't tugged at the rope, and neither had I. Since I didn't want to panic him, I quickly went back underwater. But I completely turned around, so I'd be facing him, and I really wished I could have seen his face when I came out.

"How'd you do that?" he asked.

"I could stand in there. Just at the end... maybe a bit sooner. I didn't try till my head hit the rock."

"Hit?"

"Bumped... at the end of the passage. I didn't hurt myself... I bumped gently. You can't move very fast."

"What did you see?"

"Not a lot... I didn't take much time because I thought you'd be worried. I just turned and came right out. I figured coming back head first would be enough of a surprise."

"No kidding."

And then he said nothing. We were holding our flashlights, looking like ghouls again, so I could kind of see his face.

"I really want to go," he said.

"Then go... I think you can... even without the tank. The passage doesn't seem long, and it's high enough to stand at the end. But let me do one more try with the tank... to see everything I can. There's no point in you getting stuck..."

"OK," he said. He didn't even think about it. And this time I tried to see exactly where the ceiling started to separate from the water. I kept my beam tilted up, and the point seemed about two of my body lengths from the opening - maybe 10 or 12 feet. It was another body length before I bumped into the wall. At that point, I stood, took out my mouthpiece, pushed up my mask, and breathed comfortably.

The air smelled about the same as it did in the cave where Cory was - fresh - so there might have been another opening. Or maybe there was just a crevice above this passageway, and I was breathing the same air as Cory..

I started to walk back, to see how far I could go before I needed to go underwater. It was just a few steps. And before I left the passage, I went to the far end again and aimed my beam around. There was no room behind me. I was pressed against rock. But in front of me, the passage seemed to open into a cave, and my beam vanished before it hit anything. It was a strong flashlight, powered by 4 or 5 batteries, with a tight beam that could probably reach 30 feet. But there was nothing.

If I aimed up though, I quickly hit ceiling. And if I held my arm fully above me and angled the beam down, I could see rocky floor. It was at eye level because I was standing fairly deep in the stream. The floor had continued to slope downward from the opening. To my left, I could hit the cave wall maybe 15 feet away. The beam was strong enough to make a clear circle. To my right, the wall was further away, and a hard circle never formed. I was just realizing that I'd have to climb up, out of the water in the passageway, to get into the cave. There was a kind of chest-high ledge in front of me. I was trying to pull all this together, so I could clearly explain it to Cory, when he was suddenly beside me.

"You just couldn't wait," I told him, almost laughing. "I was trying to figure this out..."

All he said was, "Bears."

(continued)