prattle: gab; babble
We were all nervous. I only knew how to swim (barely) from before my dad ditched me. He once did a big window job at a hotel in Reno. We snuck in a few times to use the pool since he had access, even though he wasn’t supposed to do that. We ended up getting kicked out by security on our fourth trip, but I had learned to doggy-paddle by then. It had been a long time, though. “I guess you probably don’t forget how,” I said to Matthew. “You think?”
Matthew nodded. “Maybe it’s not even very deep. Maybe we can walk across.”
“Rossi?” I said.
“I’ll do it.”
“Have you ever been swimming?” I asked her, as she hadn’t actually answered the question.
She didn’t look at me. “I’ll make it across.”
I didn’t want to question her further. But I was scared. “What about your helmet? You can’t swim while holding your helmet.”
Rossi gripped it protectively to her chest. She shook her head. “I can’t leave it behind, Gus. I won’t be able to get another one.”
“I’ll swim with it,” I said. “I can hold it above the water.”
“What about the flashlight?” Jessie asked.
“I’ll hold them both. I’ll hold the flashlight in my mouth.”
“I’ll hold the flashlight,” Matthew said.
“You have to carry Jessie,” I said. “There’s no way.”
“For goodness sake,” Jessie cried. “I can at least carry the flashlight.”
“You have to hold on to Matthew.”
“Geez, Gus. You must think I’m totally incapable. I think I can hold on to Matthew and carry that tiny flashlight at the same time.”
I handed him the helmet. “Fine, then. Put this on your head. But I’m holding the flashlight so I can be out front. I want to make sure there’s nothing dangerous in the water.”
Jessie’s eyes became huge. “Like a crocodile,” he whispered.
“No, I was thinking more like a jagged rock. Here.” I handed him the pocket watch. “Try to keep this out of the water.”
“What about our shoes?” Matthew said. “It’s hard to swim with shoes.”
“How will we ever walk back to town without them?” I said. “The ground will burn the skin off the bottom of our feet after two steps.”
“Plus cactus,” Jessie said.
“Our feet will melt off before we ever feel any cactus.” I sighed. “Maybe we should go back and try to find the javelina way.”
Rossi shook her head. “We could get lost again and then not be able to find our way back here. And the flashlight doesn’t have much life left. We’d be lost in the dark.” I shivered. I couldn’t think of anything worse than being lost in the pitch blackness, having to feel our way through the cave, not knowing what kind of animals we might run into, Jessie unable to walk. “There’s an opening over there. We have to try.”
I took a deep breath. “No more time to stand around talking about it then.”
I pointed the flashlight straight ahead and stepped down into the inky water. I was surprised at how warm it was, but I shouldn’t have been—there was no cool water in Nowhere. I walked slowly, hoping it stayed as shallow as it was. My feet sunk in a little with each step, almost like I was walking in peanut butter, and I worried my shoes would get sucked off. Suddenly I stepped on some kind of stick. Odd. There weren’t any trees or bushes in the cave. I aimed the flashlight at it.
My hands trembled as I peered into the water. “What is it?” Matthew said, now standing beside me, the water already up to my knees but only midway up his shins. “It’s just a white stick, right?” His voice shook.
“It looks like a bone, man!” Jessie cried from underneath the helmet.
Rossi splashed through the water until she was beside us. She reached down and loosened the bone from the mud. She pulled it from the water. “It is.”
“Is it from an animal?” Matthew asked.
Rossi and I looked at each other—the only animal this bone came from was the kind that shot their partner, hid in mines, set off explosives, and never came back out.
I shined the flashlight into the water all around us—more bones. And then . . .
“No way,” Matthew whispered.
Once more Rossi reached down. “Don’t touch it!” Jessie cried.
She ignored him and lifted the skull out of the water. She raised it to the level of her face, like she was saying hello. Then she turned it around so it faced Matthew. “Say hello to your great-grandfather.”
Matthew took a step back in the water. “We don’t know that’s my great-grandfather.”
I walked around, kicking at the muddy ground, loosening more bones. Something hard and shiny emerged from the mud. I rinsed it off and lifted it out of the water. It was a metal flask with something engraved on it.
“W.A.D.,” Rossi whispered. She looked at Matthew. “I guess we do know.”
“Your great-grandfather sure liked to put his name on stuff,” I told Matthew.
“Yeah, he was probably worried about people stealing his things,” he retorted.
I ignored Matthew as I continued kicking at the mud. And then my foot hit a soft, dark clump of something. I lifted it and held it out, mud dripping into the water.
“Great,” Jessie said. “Now Gus found a big clump of mud. Can we please stop wasting time and get out of here before I get gangrene or something?”
“Hold on,” I whispered. It wasn’t just a clump of mud. I rinsed it off as well as I could in the water and then held it back up. “It’s a leather pouch.” I felt around it until I found two strings.
“Open it, Gus,” Rossi said.
I loosened the tie and pulled it open. The three of them huddled around me in the water as I shined the dimming flashlight inside.
“It’s filled with mud,” Matthew said.
Shaking my head, I reached in and felt around. I pulled out a small pebble. I rinsed if off in the water then held it back up. It flashed yellow in the light of the flashlight. “It’s gold.”
The three of them gasped. “How much is in there?” Matthew asked.
“I can’t tell since it’s all filled with mud,” I said.
We made our way back to the dry ground where we’d entered the lake, and I dumped the bag out. We sifted through the mud, rinsing the pieces of gold off in the water and laying them out.
I looked at Rossi. “I can’t believe it.”
Rossi pursed her lips. “I guess that settles the question once and for all of who stole the gold. But why did your great-grandfather have that pocket watch, Gus?”
“Maybe William Dufort dropped it,” Jessie said. “And when he couldn’t find it, he thought José had taken it, and he stole the gold as revenge.”
“So this means my great-grandfather really was a backstabbing thief?” Matthew said. He glowered at the gold. “That sucks.”
“Who cares?” I said to Matthew. “What he did way back then has nothing to do with who you are now.”
“No,” Rossi said, staring at me. “It doesn’t.” She smiled. “That’s good advice, Gus.”
I felt my cheeks grow hot, and I was glad for once that it was so dark in the cave.
“So why was that other stuff in Abraham Lincoln’s nose?” Jessie asked.
I thought about this a moment. “How about this?” I said.
hypothesis: a proposed explanation based on limited evidence
“William Dufort knew all about the cave, even made that map. He probably used A.L.’s nose as a hiding place for things. He must have scratched that arrow onto the rock so he would be able to find his way back there. But that night, or maybe even some time before, he dropped his watch and lost the map, which my great-grandpa found. Without it, and with being shot and all, maybe he couldn’t find his way around and ended up here, where he tried to cross the lake.”
“And he drowned,” Rossi said. “He probably couldn’t swim.”
“Or he just fell ove
r dead from blood loss,” I said.
“Then your drunk grandfather got bitten by a rattlesnake on his way home and died in the desert,” Matthew added.
“Pretty much,” I agreed.
“Interesting theory,” Rossi said.
“So whose is it?” Jessie asked. “Who does the gold belong to then?”
We were all quiet for a moment.
“I don’t want the gold,” Rossi spoke up. “Just a piece for Bo if that’s okay.”
“I don’t want any, either,” Matthew said. “I shouldn’t get any.”
“Don’t say that,” Jessie said. “We’re all in this together. We’ll split it up evenly.”
Matthew stared at Jessie. “Are you sure?”
Jessie nodded. “We found it together. Like Gus said, what happened back then has nothing to do with us now.”
Matthew beamed at Jessie. “Thanks, man.”
We all stared down at the gold pieces. “So how much do you think it’s worth?” Jessie asked.
I gathered the gold up and stuck it back in the leather pouch, feeling its weight. “I don’t know. This is maybe a pound. Maybe more. Hard to say. Mayor Handsome said an ounce goes for a few hundred dollars. So multiply that by sixteen.”
“Why sixteen?” Matthew asked.
We all looked at him. “Because there are sixteen ounces in a pound,” I said.
He nodded. “Oh. Good call.”
“We need to decide which piece we’ll give to Bo before we can split it up,” I said. “And it shouldn’t be anything too small or he might not agree to trade.”
“Or too big,” said Matthew.
“Something sort of medium then,” said Jessie.
I pulled a piece out of the pouch, but they all mumbled that it was too big. Then I pulled another piece out, and they all agreed it was too big again. No one seemed to think any piece I pulled out was too small.
“I’m just going to give him the next piece I pull out,” I told them. They all grumbled when they saw the size of it. “Too late,” I said, sticking it into my pocket. “That one’s for Bo.” I tied up the bag as well as I could and put it in my backpack.
“How will we divide it up?” Matthew asked.
“We’ll have to go into the city and sell it somehow,” I said. “Then we can split the money. But we have to promise right now. We have to promise we won’t tell anyone about what we found. If Bo finds out, he’ll take it from us.” I stared at Matthew.
“I promise,” Matthew said, clearly annoyed I was singling him out. Then in a less annoyed tone: “Gus, really, I promise.”
“I promise,” said Jessie.
“Me, too,” said Rossi.
“I do, too,” I said. “And we can’t tell anyone about the cave, either.”
“Why?” Matthew asked.
I looked at Rossi. “To protect it. If people find out about it, what do you think they’ll do?”
“Trash it,” said Rossi.
“Right,” I said. “Dump their trash, graffiti the walls, steal whatever they can bust out of here. This place is special. The only way to keep it like that is to keep it secret.”
The others nodded in agreement. “Okay,” Matthew said. “No telling about the cave.” His eyes twinkled in the dim light. “Do you think there will be enough gold to go to Disneyland?”
“Well,” I said. “At a pound, that’s maybe five thousand dollars. That would be over a thousand dollars apiece. So yeah, I think so.”
“A thousand dollars,” Matthew whispered. “I’ll be rich.”
“Yeah, maybe you can finally ride Pirates of the Caribbean” I told him. Then I looked at Rossi. “And maybe you can visit home now. See your friends.”
She nodded and smiled. “I see one right now.”
My cheeks burned as I smiled back at her. The flashlight flickered. “We’d really better get moving.”
The four of us stepped back into the water and started making our way across the lake. Suddenly Rossi jumped and gave a small shriek, splashing water around her.
“What?” I asked.
She grabbed the flashlight from me and aimed it into the water. “It felt like something touched my leg.”
“There’s creatures in here!” Jessie screamed. He climbed up on Matthew’s back so his feet were out of the water.
“Geez. You’re heavy, man.” But Matthew let him stay up there.
“Calm down,” I said, though I was feeling on the verge of panic myself. I stared into the water until I saw them.
“What are they?” Jessie’s voice quaked.
“Crawdads?” I asked Rossi.
She nodded. “I think so. Or some strange mutant albino shrimp of some kind.”
“They’re mutants!” Jessie cried. “Will they pinch us?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we need to get moving. This flashlight is almost dead.”
I turned and trudged through the water—ancient cave water filled with mutant albino shrimp and the bones of a nearly one-hundred-year-old dead French guy. The situation could have been creepier, though. There could have been, like, clowns in the water.
I walked slowly, feeling each step carefully, shining the flashlight all around. Every now and then I would step on something I didn’t even want to know about. When the water reached my neck and the ceiling was low enough that I could touch it, I nervously started calling out, “Marco.”
The three of them behind me would respond, “Polo.” I always made sure I heard three voices.
When we were about thirty feet from the other side, I could barely touch the bottom on tip-toe and still keep my face above water. “It’s too deep,” I called to them, straining to keep my mouth out of the water. I turned around—they were all pretty close behind me, Rossi trailing the two guys. “We’ll have to swim, but only for a little while, I think.”
“Let’s do it,” Matthew said, Jessie clinging to his back.
I turned around, lifted my feet, held the flashlight in the air, and kicked with all my might. It’s tough to swim with shoes on. Even tougher when you can’t use both hands. Even tougher when there’s a ceiling right over your head, making you feel closet-tropic. “Marco,” I called out breathlessly.
“Polo,” I heard the three call.
When the effort became too much, I had to stick the flashlight in my mouth so I could use both hands to doggy paddle. I was completely focused on making it to the other side at this point. I wasn’t thinking about anything, or anyone, else. It was all I could do to muster the strength to make it across.
I finally reached the dry ledge and threw the flashlight on it. I pulled myself up, using every last bit of strength in me, and rolled onto the dry floor of the cave. I took a couple of deep breaths then jumped up and grabbed the flashlight, which was barely functioning at this point. I looked for the others.
Matthew was almost to the ledge—still carrying Jessie—his face contorted into a grimace from the effort. I crouched down so I could see under the ceiling. But there was no one behind them.
“Rossi!” I screamed. My voice echoed through the cave, saying her name a hundred times.
Matthew helped Jessie to the ledge and the two of them turned their heads sharply, searching for her. “Rossi!” I screamed again. No answer.
In this type of situation, a person often dives into the water dramatically to save someone. However, I wasn’t much for theatrics. I also wasn’t much for killing myself by smashing my head into some hidden boulder or stalagmite under the water. That wouldn’t help Rossi at all.
So I did the sensible and unimpressive thing and jumped into the water feet first. I swam back the way we’d come, ducking under the dark water and feeling everywhere. I had been completely spent just seconds ago, feeling like I couldn’t possibly swim another inch. Now I felt like I could cross an ocean if I needed to.
Matthew was up on the ledge, shining the flashlight into the water for me. Still, I could barely see.
There was only one thought in my head
—find her. I dove over and over again, spinning my hands around, feeling the water.
Then I grasped it—hair. It tangled in my fingers. I gripped it as hard as I could and yanked. When I felt her arm, I pulled her up with all my might. I found strength I didn’t know I had as I lifted her face out of the water and swam back to the ledge.
Jessie was still clinging to the side, whimpering, “Rossi, please be okay. Please be okay.”
Matthew reached out both hands and dragged her onto the ledge. Then I pulled myself up and fell to my knees over her. She wasn’t breathing.
Nowhere Elementary sucked. That was for sure. And our health class was just as pathetic as everything else. We had exactly one ancient, creepy, dirty dummy that had tasted the chapped lips of a thousand scruffy Nowhere children for the whole school to practice CPR on. That meant a lot of waiting around while kids pretended to French kiss it, lick its nose, poke its rubber breasts, massage its head—pretty much everything you can imagine except give it CPR.
When it was my one-and-only turn, being the total geek that I am, I actually performed CPR on the dummy. This was met with cries of “Teacher’s pet!” and “Goody-goody!”
I felt for the end of Rossi’s breastbone. I placed two fingers at the tip and pressed the heel of my hand above that. I remembered Mr. Johnson telling us to use a lot of pressure and to not worry about breaking the person’s ribs. Better to break her ribs than for her to . . .
As I pressed into her chest with all the strength in me, I heard Jessie crying from the water, “Don’t die, Rossi. Don’t die.”
Die. Rossi could die.
My world sucked pretty bad. Take Rossi out of it, and the level of suckness was unimaginable.
Matthew hovered over me as the flashlight burned out in his hands. I tilted Rossi’s head back and pinched her nose with my fingers. I placed my mouth over hers and blew into it. I watched her chest in the faint light of the nearby opening. It rose and fell with every breath. Then I did more chest compressions. I tilted her head back once more, pinched her nose, and breathed into her.
24 Hours in Nowhere Page 12
