The Secret of the Dark

by Barbara Steiner

  From a stairway on the right, some people appeared, giggling and laughing. Rick was the last in line. He smiled and waved his flashlight at me.

  “Be with you in a minute.” He sold pop to two girls, who giggled every time they looked at him, and a tom-tom to a little boy. Then everyone left and I was the only tourist left.

  “You didn’t tell me I had to buy a ticket and a tom-tom to get in.”

  “Complimentary tour for pretty girls.” He turned a sign on the door so it read Closed and locked the front door.

  “Where’s your dad?” I asked. Rick had said he and his dad ran the business.

  “Who knows? He was here when I went down. I told him I was closing for the day. He probably went home,” Rick finished.

  “Where do you live?”

  “Cabin out back.”

  It was hard for me to imagine growing up here in the woods, so isolated. “Have you always lived here?” I was pretty sure he had.

  “Since my mom left. I was about ten, I guess.”

  “Who did you play with?” Maybe I was getting nosy, but I was very curious about Rick Biddleman.

  “Deer. Skunks. Possums.” He grinned.

  “Now you’re teasing me. Wasn’t it lonely here?”

  “I like to be alone. There’s lots to explore here. Bus took me to school. But it was usually boring. Not that I care, but where’s Neal?”

  “He had an emergency.”

  “So we’re all alone?” His smile held a sort of arrogance. I didn’t know whether to be uneasy or to think he was teasing me again. There was a wildness in him that I wasn’t sure I trusted. He was the kind of guy I’d have steered clear of in New York. Street smart, maybe a daredevil. Maybe it was that element of risk of being with him that appealed to me. I’d always led a super-safe life. I’d never considered it boring, but now I knew it was fairly uneventful.

  “Do I need a chaperone?” I flirted with him.

  “Too late if you do.” He headed for the stairway. “Come on. You’re going to get cold, though. Get that shirt over there.” He pointed to a flannel shirt on the back of a chair beside the cash register. Rick had on a cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled down.

  The shirt I grabbed smelled of cigarette smoke and perspiration. It was probably Rick’s dad’s, but I was glad to have it when we reached the bottom of the few steps where it was twenty degrees cooler.

  Rick’s flashlight spotted a switch, and he threw it on. A string of lights revealed a path into the cave.

  “There are limestone caves all over these mountains. This one isn’t much, but the tourists don’t know that unless they’ve already been over to Blanchard Springs before they stop here. This one opens up into a bigger cave, a wild cave, but there’s no way to get city people into it. You have to crawl about fifty feet before it opens out again.”

  The cave smelled earthy, and it felt damp and colder the farther we walked. The lights were placed so one could see rock formations. “Oh, this is beautiful, Rick.” The rock was slick and caramel colored. It was all rounded like mushroom tops.

  “That one’s nothing compared to what I could show you if you’re daring enough. It’s a flow-stone. Water washed over it for years to make it that smooth. Minerals make it that color. There’s a snow-white one overhead here.” He pointed with his light to show a rock that looked like scoops of ice cream piled up.

  “It’s an ice-cream sundae for giants,” I said.

  “The caramel syrup is iron deposits.”

  We walked around the cave wall. At one place I almost slipped and realized the path was wet. My sandals had smooth crepe on the bottom. Probably not the smartest thing to have worn, not to mention that my toes were cold.

  “Careful.” Rick grabbed my arm. “The floor’s wet here. It’s a live cave — still growing. Water seeps in especially when it’s as rainy as it’s been this spring and summer.”

  His hand was warm and I could feel the heat of his body close to mine. I stepped forward and kept walking, hugging the old shirt closer. My legs had goose bumps.

  Suddenly the lights went off and it was dark — darker than I’d ever known it to be. I blinked but nothing got lighter. My eyes couldn’t adjust since there was only darkness.

  “Rick? What happened to the lights?” No answer. I waited for a moment but all I could hear was a slight dripping sound. “Rick, stop that! I know you’re behind me.” No answer. I already knew him well enough to realize he was trying to scare me. I calmed down and tried to wait patiently, but it was an awful feeling — the total darkness and knowing I was underground. That there were tons of rock overhead.

  “Rick.” I steadied my voice. “The joke’s over. I’m not scared anymore. Turn the lights back on.” No answer.

  Then his laughter echoed against the walls and bounced down corridors around us. The lights flashed back on. I blinked now to adjust to the sudden light.

  “Gotcha.” He grabbed me.

  I shrugged away. “You aren’t funny, Rick.” I pretended to be mad, and I didn’t like the joke, but it was something he’d do. I should have expected it. I walked on as if it hadn’t happened.

  “Scary, wasn’t it? The total darkness. The tourists love it.”

  Yes, it was something he’d do to tourists. Part of the act. I could just see the two girls he’d sold pop to, grabbing him and snuggling close until he turned on the lights. Maybe he’d expected me to do that.

  “How does anyone manage to explore a cave in the first place?” I asked. “A flashlight wouldn’t be much help.”

  “Prehistoric people carried torches. We’ve found a few in here. People called the Bluff Dwellers lived in this area. We’ve found bones too. Occasionally some people fell in and died, or maybe they were thrown in for punishment and couldn’t find a way out.”

  I shivered at the idea. Then a patch of crystal-like formations distracted me. “Beautiful! What caused them to form that way?”

  “That’s calcite. All sorts of minerals leak out of the ground overhead. I’ll show you some incredible sights in the bigger cave if you’ve got the nerve to go in there.”

  Daring. Nerve. What would it be like? “Not today.” I wasn’t sure I had enough nerve to go into something wilder than this.

  “Of course not. You’re not dressed for it.”

  “I can’t remember the difference between stalactites and stalagmites.” At least I had remembered the terms from some distant geology lesson.

  “Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling. Mites are on the ground.”

  “Sure. That’s easy. Do you really like being in here?”

  “Yeah. I like exploring better. I’m so used to being in this cave, it’s not a question of like or dislike. Sometimes I get bored with tourists. But there’s big money for anyone who has a good cave. My daddy and I keep looking for a really big one. We’d get rich in a hurry.”

  It was hard to think of a cave as a way of making money. Suddenly I wanted to go back outside — into the sunshine — almost like I needed to make sure it was still there. I quickly followed the lighted pathway and practically ran up the stairs while Rick turned off the lights.

  He unlocked the door and followed me outside. “City girl,” he accused. “Nothing like that in New York, I’ll bet.”

  “Not unless you want to run around in the sewers, which I don’t do. And the subways aren’t that dark, even at night. I’m not very adventurous,” I added.

  “Time for you to change.” He handed me a Coke he’d brought from the store. “Go into the big cave with me tomorrow.”

  “I have to go to town for groceries.” Holding the Coke gave me a chill since I hadn’t warmed up from being underground. “And I can’t leave Granny alone, remember?”

  “What day then?” He wouldn’t give up the idea of getting me into the wilder cave to explore.

  “I might be too scared.” I could lie about my previous social life, but I might as well be honest about my sense of adventure.

  “I’ll take care o
f you. Don’t you trust me? There are parts of the big cave that I know like my own house. We’ll stay in those. I won’t make you explore, even if that’s what I like to do best.”

  “Let me think about it.” The sun felt so good. Why would anyone go into such a cold, damp, and scary place?

  “I’ll call you.”

  “Okay. But please say it’s you immediately. Someone has been playing jokes on us with the phone. Kids, I guess.” I told Rick about the funny phone calls.

  “Beware of the dark? Yeah, sounds like kids. The dark isn’t dangerous. But who you’re with might be.” He was flirting again.

  I flirted back. “Maybe that’s what scares me.” I had to look away first. I tipped the Coke can and finished it. Then I stood up. “I have to get back before Fleecy leaves. Thanks for the tour.”

  “Any time. I’ll promise a more spectacular trip next time.”

  “Keep telling me that. Maybe I’ll give in.” I left the shirt and the can and him sitting there on the front steps. I could feel his eyes following me down the trail, and I wanted to run, even knowing that would be silly. Finally I turned back and waved. He waved back.

  I had started up the mountain again when I decided he’d followed me. I stopped to listen. Looked back. All around. I swore I’d heard the crunch of footsteps behind me. “Rick. Is that you?” No answer. “This isn’t funny anymore.” No answer.

  I moved as quickly and quietly as possible, my heart pounding up in my throat, making it difficult to breathe. Then I stopped abruptly. Could my steps echo? All I could hear was my heavy breathing. You’re getting paranoid, Valerie, I scolded. I thought of the horror movies Pam and I had loved. Every time someone was alone, the creature appeared. I’d felt safe, huddling in the dark theater, clutching Pam’s sweaty hand. Scared but safe. Now I felt scared but not safe. I really was alone. Very much alone.

  “Rick,” I called out again, partly to break the silence.

  It was the day’s events. The phone call, then the darkness of the cave, and Rick’s joke. Plus this silent, silent world.

  What cheer? What cheer? What cheer? The bird call was welcome and made things seem more normal. I went on. But I’d never known a mile to be so far.

  Even though the path got steeper I started to run. “City girl, city girl, city girl,” I said to the rhythm of my pounding feet. When I could see the cabin from the top of the mountain path, I slowed but was still puffing when I went inside.

  “Did you run in this heat, Valerie?” Fleecy looked at me. “Lordy, your face is red. You’ll have a heat stroke.” She got up and fixed me an iced tea while I sat in Granny’s rocker and breathed deeply.

  I said it out loud. “I can’t get used to it being so quiet outside, Fleecy. I got scared and ran. Isn’t that silly?” I tried to laugh.

  Fleecy laughed a lot. “My niece came once from Cleveland. She hated it here. Said she wanted to go home to her busy street and TV and normal noise. It was so quiet to her she couldn’t sleep.”

  “I thought I’d like it.”

  “You will, once you get used to it.”

  I wasn’t so sure. But one thing I decided. I wasn’t going to wander around by myself very much.

  CHAPTER

  7

  I DREAMED I was in the darkness and couldn’t wake up, couldn’t see, was smothering. Something heavy held me down and I couldn’t see it. When I got myself awake, I found Mrs. Butterworth sleeping across my neck.

  “Hey, give me a break.” I shoved her away. She squeaked a little and then curled up in the curve of my body as I lay on my side. No way was she going to leave. Even though she’d caused the dream, I was glad to have her there. From my bed I could see a sliver of moon, and I lay there thinking that a darkness filled with moon and pinpricks of stars was comfortable. The total darkness of the cave was scary.

  Mrs. B. purred loudly when I rested my hand on her soft fur, and I felt safe and cozy here in my bed. I drifted back to sleep.

  In the morning, we had oatmeal again, since we were out of everything. I ate, cleaned up, and helped Granny get ready. After choosing a dress myself, I hurriedly put it on. I was barely ready when Neal appeared at the door.

  “Did you go in the cave?” he asked when we had Granny settled in the back seat of the van, which had a bed in the far back. I sat in front, turned so I could see him. He looked cute in jeans and a western shirt that was mostly blue with a strip of blue gingham checks. His dark hair waved just enough to shape around his ears and sweep his forehead.

  “Yes. I’m not sure I liked it, though.”

  “My dad and I go caving — spelunking — as often as he can get away. It’s the one sport I enjoy. There’s an eerie beauty to seeing what nature has created under the ground like that.”

  “Eerie. That’s the part I don’t like. The darkness. The idea of being under tons of rock with only the one way out.”

  “There are usually several ways out. I guess it’s a risky sport, but we’ve never gotten into any trouble. I hear that Rick’s father has a wild cave behind that dinky tourist trap. Sure would like to see that”

  “He wants me to go there. But there’s no way to get tourists in it. He and his dad are looking for another cave.”

  “A good cave could mean big money. I wouldn’t mind discovering one.”

  “Would you open it to tourists?”

  “No, I don’t think I’d enjoy that. It’s like being a glorified tour leader. I’d get bored in a hurry. The state runs lots of the caves in Arkansas for recreation. They’re protected that way.”

  “If I tell Rick I’ll explore the big cave, will you go with us?” I didn’t want to tell him I didn’t want to go alone with Rick, but since he wanted to go anyway, I’d invite him.

  “I’m sure Rick didn’t invite me.”

  “I’m inviting you. In fact, I’d like a crowd along.” I thought of Rick’s trick of leaving me in the dark and knew he’d enjoy doing it again. And I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it. “Rick thinks it scares me just because I’m from the city. It’s just all so new.”

  “Downtown New York City might be just as scary to me.”

  I was glad Neal said that. I knew the big city was scary to lots of people. I’d lived there all my life and I found it wonderfully exciting. But anything that was different could be scary at first.

  It was silly, but going to the store felt like an event. All that food after our bare cupboards, all the things that reminded me that civilization existed. Granny didn’t have a TV or get a newspaper. Anything could have happened while we lived up there, isolated.

  The little store didn’t have a New York paper, but I bought the Arkansas Gazette, two magazines — one gossipy and one a women’s magazine with fashion and beauty tips. Then I piled in some candy bars and a bag of potato chips, Cokes, and ice cream.

  Neal laughed. “Feeling the effects of junk deprivation?”

  “Enough of pioneer living.” I had the basket full to the top. It would take all of one month’s household allowance to bail me out.

  At the last minute I grabbed a big flashlight from a display and added it to my collection.

  “If you’re getting that for the cave, it won’t work. You have to have your hands free. I’ll bring you dad’s hard hat and headlamp. I think my mom has an old pair of rubber boots too. You should wear your oldest clothes. It might be muddy.”

  Again the thought of crawling around in the mud underground gave me goose bumps, but if both Neal and Rick were along, I’d be all right. And I hated being chicken.

  “Look how Granny’s enjoying herself,” I said to Neal while we checked out. She had moved to a wooden bench outside the market and spoke to everyone who passed by. Granny hadn’t paid much attention to the shopping except at the produce where she said she wanted garden sass. I learned that was salad with no dressing, preferably fresh from a garden. Then when I looked over the jams and jellies she told me we didn’t need any. I knew we did so I slipped a jar of peach and one of strawberry in the cart
.

  While Neal loaded groceries into the van, I walked over to the post office. Granny had a box there. I twisted the dial on the combination lock, got it wrong, and tried again. Seven to the left, four right.… Someone was looking at me. I could feel it. Sure enough, across the room a youngish man leaned against the wall and watched. He grinned and I could see that although he was about thirty, his mind wasn’t that far along. He had shaggy hair and a cigarette dangled from his mouth. I looked back at the lock and had to start over. Even then my hand shook.

  “Oh, Valerie. Thought I’d see you today. I come to town every day for my mail. Where’s Annie?” Fleecy came round the corner from the walk-up window.

  “Hi, Fleecy. Granny’s talking to everyone who will listen. I guess she’s been lonesome and is catching up.”

  “Did you meet Cedrick?” She motioned the man over. “This is my nephew, Cedrick.”

  “Howdy, Valerie,” he said and grinned again. His teeth were stained with tobacco juice and a dribble of brown ran down his unshaven chin. His clothes, big to start with, were rumpled and dirty as if he hadn’t changed in days.

  “Hello, Cedrick.” I was ashamed of my feelings but I didn’t want to shake hands or even be near him. I put my mind totally on the post office box. This time it popped open. There were several letters. I was supposed to watch for Granny’s Social Security check, but I didn’t think it was time.

  “Looks like foreign postage.” Fleecy leaned over my shoulder. I didn’t like her being so nosy but knew she meant no harm.

  “Yes, letters from my dad and Rue.” I put all the mail in my tote bag without looking at the rest of it. “Fleecy, do you know someone who could granny-sit?”

  “I’d be glad to, child. I kin always bring my piecing. I like to get over as often as I can anyway. You just call me any time. Cedrick can bring me over. He’s a little slow so he don’t hold no steady job. I got him two jobs lately, but he didn’t stay with either one till it was finished. But he drives real good. Fletcher don’t like to drive no more.” Fleecy’s husband, Fletcher, was retired and Fleecy said he spent most of his time fishing.