planning a big surprise party for her. They felt that Mara needed a vacation from her dreams and from her visions. Scott and Betsy were in on the plans and they provided Mrs. Louis with a list of all Mara’s friends from Facebook.
Mrs. Louis knew that it would be hard to have a party without Betsy Morgan being there. When she talked with Mrs. Morgan, she discovered that that the National Governor’s Conference was going to be held in Denver the last week of July, and that she and Betsy would be going with the president to Denver. Therefore, Mrs. Louis selected Denver for the location of the party.
Mrs. Louis also called Mr. and Mrs. Mendoza in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After Mara had saved their daughter’s life the year before, they had promised to help Mara in any way they could. When Mrs. Louis spoke to Mr. Mendoza, her intention was to ask for his clout in reserving the banquet room of the Denver Ritz Carlton Hotel, but as soon as she mentioned that she was planning a surprise birthday party for Mara, he immediately volunteered to cover the cost of the entire party, including paying for transportation and hotel rooms of all Mara’s friends and their families, the catering, banquet room, etc.
Mrs. Louis tried to argue with Mr. Mendoza, but he would not take no for an answer. “Mara saved our daughter’s life,” said Mr. Mendoza. “Without her in our lives, nothing would matter to us. We are worth several billion dollars. What is a few hundred thousand? It is our pleasure to do this for you. Please let us pay for the party”.
Mr. and Mrs. Louis did not tell Mara about the party, but on July 15th, they told her that it was time that they picked the vacation spot. They told Mara that the three of them were going to Denver, Colorado the last week in July. “What about my birthday?” asked Mara.
“We can celebrate your birthday on July 31st” said Mrs. Louis. “We could only get reservations for the 26th through the 30th of July.”
When Mara later complained to Scott the next day, he told Mara what Mrs. Louis told them to say, “Don’t tell your mom that I told you, but your parents are throwing you a surprise party in the White House when you return.” Mara promised that she would not say a word. She felt a lot better, knowing that her parents had not blown off her sixteenth birthday.
On July 26th, Mara and her parents were on a plane bound for Denver International Airport. Mara fell asleep during the flight and woke up suddenly. She had her dream, or rather her nightmare, again. She remembered what Pastor Joe had told her; “unquestionable faith in God,He loves you unconditionally. He will watch over you.”
Mara and her parents were driven from the airport to the Ritz Carlton Hotel by an airport limo. After they checked in, they just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon in the room. That evening, after a late dinner, Mara took a nice long bubble bath and then went to bed.
During the night, Mara had a dream about five children who were in trouble on a mountain. Mara got flashes of names, including; Logan, Reeves, Adam, Patrick, Maureen, Eddie, Grant, Chris, Jeffrey, Ashley, Lizzie and Hannah. She saw a sign with the words; Prospector’s Cavern Mine. She saw the words Idaho and Colorado, and saw gold bars.
When Mara woke up, she secretly wrote the clues in her notebook. She did not tell her parents that she had a dream, because they wanted this vacation to be mystery-free.
After breakfast, Mara asked the front desk clerk what sights there were to see around Denver. The clerk listed several things. When he mentioned an old gold mining town named Idaho Springs, Mara asked for a brochure about it. Mara read the brochure and discovered that the town was about 30 miles from Denver.
Mara told her mom that she was interested in seeing Idaho Springs and said that the hotel limo could take her there, free of charge. Since Mrs. Louis needed to finalize some last minute plans for the party, she was glad that Mara found something interesting to occupy her time. She gave Mara permission to go to Idaho Springs. Mrs. Louis told her daughter to take her cell phone with her and call when she was on her way back to the hotel, so that they could make plans to go to dinner. The real reason, of course was that she did not want Mara walking in on any party planning.
Mara arrived in Idaho Springs at 9:30 a.m. She walked up and down Main Street, stopping to visit many of the shops and boutiques. Mara was hoping that a vision would come to her, while she ate lunch in a cute little café, but she saw nothing. After lunch, she went out for a leisurely stroll.
As she looked up at the mountains that rose up behind the town, she realized how much she took for granted the beauty of God’s artwork. As Mara admired beauty of the landscape, she suddenly had a vision of five children, all under the age of twelve. They were standing near the entrance of an abandoned gold mine in the mountains. She also saw two older boys who Mara sensed were older cousins to the five younger children.
Mara remembered the name of the mine from her dream was called; ‘Prospector’s Cavern Mine’. Mara knew that the five children would be in extreme danger if they entered the mine. Mara asked a shopkeeper for directions to the mine. Since it would be a good twenty-minute walk, Mara decided to jog instead.
As Mara jogged, she had another vision. She saw the two older boys dare their younger cousins to go into the mine. The older boys told their cousins that according to legend, there was a pile of gold deep inside the mine. It was as if Mara was eavesdropping in on their conversation. The older boy, Eddie told his eleven-year-old cousin, Chris that if he did not go in, it meant he was a chicken. Chris did not want to be called a chicken, so he accepted the dare.
Mara ran faster. As she got near the cave, she saw Eddie and his brother, Grant running away from the mine, laughing.
When Mara reached the mine, it looked vaguely familiar to her, but she did not know where she had seen it before. From the outside, it did not look like a mine, but a natural cave in the side of a mountain. As Mara entered the mine, she suddenly knew where she had seen it before. She had seen it dozens of times in her dreams. This was the cave where the ceiling would cave-in on her. Mara did not hesitate for a second. She knew that there were five children who were in danger. She had to find them and get them out of there immediately. She could have walked away and changed the future, but the thought never crossed her mind.
Mara was shaking with fear, as she entered the cave. She started calling out to the children. After she had gone in a couple hundred feet, she located them. They had gotten lost with all the turns in the mine and could not find their way back out. Mara started leading them back towards the entrance.
They were within forty feet of the entrance, when they heard a rumbling throughout the mine. Mara told the children to get back. In the mine tunnel where they had been standing minutes earlier, rocks were falling, blocking the tunnel. The falling rocks would have killed them all, if Mara had not remembered the cave-in from her dreams. When the dust settled, Mara and Chris started moving rocks and after thirty minutes, they had made an opening big enough for the smaller children to crawl through.
The four youngest children crawled through and Mara widened the hole enough for Chris to crawl through. Mara could not fit through the opening, but she sensed that the mine was very unstable. She told Chris to take his brother and sisters and get out of the mine as fast as they could.
Just as the five children made it safely out of the cave, the mine tunnel started to collapse even more. The tunnel behind Mara collapsed and the tunnel in front of her collapsed as well. Mara was trapped in a section of tunnel about ten feet long. She prayed that the children made it out safe. Mara knew that there were over forty feet of rock-filled tunnel that separated her from the tunnel entrance. Mara was very scared, but, then she remembered what Pastor Joe had told her; “unquestionable faith in God”. Suddenly, Mara felt a peaceful feeling fill her body as she began to pray to God, asking for strength to endure. Then she asked him to watch over her parents.
Mara began picking up rocks and moving them. She noticed that some of th
e rocks were very heavy, for as small as they were. She looked at one of them with her flashlight and saw why. She put one of the larger rocks into her backpack, and then she began moving rocks that blocked her way out.
Meanwhile, Chris and his siblings had reached their aunt’s house where they were staying. Their parents, their uncle, aunt, and two cousins; Eddie and Grant were all there. Grant and Eddie started laughing at them, saying, “What took you so long?”
Chris was so scared, angry and exhausted, that his adrenaline was really pumping. He did not care that he was a foot shorter and five years younger than Eddie was. He walked over to him and began pummeling him with his fists as hard as he could. If Chris’s parents had not pulled him off his cousin, Eddie would have been seriously hurt.
“What’s gotten into you Chris?” asked his mother.
“Eddie and Grant tricked us into going into Prospector’s Cavern Mine. They told us that there was a pile of gold in the mine. When we went in, it was dark and we got lost. Eddie and Grant ran off and left us. If it wasn’t for Mara, we would still be in the mine.”
“Who’s Mara?” asked Chris’s dad.
“She was a girl who came looking for us,”
Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery Page 55
