by Moira Murphy
Speaking with pirates, I do not suggest
But speak we must, to finish the quest
The key is in the human hand
In the mirror made of sand
Captain the boats, no time for rest
Niko read it aloud while Tessa and Tuck struggled to find meaning. Tessa reread it aloud, hoping to find something significant. There was nothing. “The key is in the human hand?” Niko asked. “What does that mean?”
“It means Cami was smart enough to make this place only accessible to humans… us.” Tucker pointed out.
“And the ‘in the mirror made of sand’ part?” Niko asked.
“Well…” Tessa thought out loud, “that’s got to be the mirror.” She pointed back towards the entrance mirror.
“But, what does it mean IN the mirror made of sand? Is there some sort of key…” Tuck asked.
“For a boat?” Niko proposed.
“I don’t know.” Tuck said, as they walked back to the mirror. He bent over to look behind it, and then tried to pick it up again.
“It said ‘in’ the mirror.” Tessa pointed out.
“Okay. So what? I’m just supposed to…” Niko exaggerated punching a fist through the mirror. He squished his eyelids together, and his mouth opened. They all looked down, expecting to see shattered mirror and a bloody fist. Instead they found Niko’s arm partially enveloped by a silver metallic glob of jelly like liquid. He wrenched his hand out, horrified that his hand would have lost its attachment to its arm. Happily, he realized all was intact and unharmed. Tessa gazed at the mirror.
“Well, go back in!” Tucker yelled.
“No way!”
“The key is in there!”
“You do it!” Niko argued.
“What if you just got some terrible disease, we can’t have all of us dying.” Tucker retorted.
“Oh great, I’m already dead then. Might as well kick me, huh?” Niko shakily put his arm back into the mirror. All was silent. Nothing happened.
“Well, grab it.” Tessa urged.
“I’m feeling! There’s nothing in it.” Niko looked to the ceiling, feeling around inside the mirror. “It’s all gooey.” He said, disgusted. A loud click came from the ceiling. They looked up. A chain dropped to the floor.
Like snakes, they writhed and wriggled seductively toward the water. Upon closer inspection there were made of thick green vines. They plunged into the water aggressively. Their tails remained attached to the ceiling. Niko removed his hand from the mirror and shook it. Another click came from above, and the vines began reversing. It was peculiar that there were no spools of vine to retract onto. They just snaked into the rock of the roof. The vines, suddenly, became tight with weight on their ends.
“Something’s coming.” Tessa pointed toward the shore. Something very large and brown was being pulled to the surface. The head of an elephant emerged from the water; small and white. Its trunk hung down and its eyes were closed. It was soon followed by the stern of a large canoe. The green vines released the boat and flew quickly to the roof. The boat drained itself of water to reveal three seats between the large elephant adorned sterns.
All was quiet.
“Well, there ya go.” Niko gestured toward the boat. “I got a disease and you get a boat. All aboard.” He stepped into the boat with one foot. Tucker followed with the bag, tossing it onto the front of the boat and taking a seat.
“The hand was the key,” said Tuck.
“What about when the sun goes down? Or the suns all go down. There’ll be no light.” Tessa did not advance to the canoe, but stood back at the mirror.
“What do you mean?” Niko asked.
“The mirrors won’t work, if there is no sunlight.” She spoke quickly.
“Well, we could be out by night.”
“But, what if we aren’t?” She moved backward.
“Tessa, what is it?” Tuck stood up.
“I just don’t want to be here in the dark. What if something goes wrong? We don’t know where we are?” her breath quickened.
“Tessa?” Niko asked. She continued mumbling and backing up.
“It’ll be dark.” She was panicking.
“Calm down.” Tucker soothed her, stepping out of the boat.
“What’s going on?” Niko was confused.
“Halloween.” He whispered in reply. Tessa was now completely hyperventilating. Niko understood almost immediately.
They were all there on the Halloween night of their sophomore year of high school. Cami, Niko, Tucker, Sullivan and Tessa had all decided to go as movie villains for Halloween: Freddy Kruger, Jason, etc. Tessa was Michael Myers, complete with a wig and a fake face mask. As every Halloween before they had gone trick-or-treating for hours; filling pillow cases with chocolates and candies. And as every Halloween before, they broke onto Mr. McConoley’s farm and gorged themselves on sweets in the corn silo at the back of the fields. It was filled within six feet of the ceiling. The boys had brought planks of wood to walk on, above the corn.
After they had seated themselves and propped their pillow cases up, Niko opened his backpack. Though none of them had ever tasted alcohol, Niko thought this night would be a fun night to try. He took two cans of off brand beer from his bag. He held them above his head as if he’d just won an Olympic medal. He cracked it open, foam spilling over its top, lifted his mask and took a swig. The warm liquid dripped down to the corn. He passed it to Cami, who took a slurp, then passed it to Tucker who finished it off. Niko tossed the unopened can to Tessa, who politely declined, and handed it to Sullivan, who also declined. Cami, Niko, and Tucker passed the last beer amongst themselves until it was empty.
“This is probably the last year we’ll go trick or treating huh?” Tessa said.
“Why?” Niko seemed heartbroken.
“Because we are getting too old.” Sully laughed.
“We already are.” Tucker stated.
“Nonsense. Young forever!” Cami squealed, thrusting a chocolate bar into the air. “Hizaa!?” she called, asking for a return.
“Hizaa!!” They all laughed. The air in the metal tube was heavy and muggy. Everyone had removed their villain costumes and conversation was becoming slow as they night grew on, familiar lulls in conversation poked in between laughs.
“He was crazy.” Niko shouted.
“He was misunderstood.” Cami retorted.
“Boo Radley was not a villain. End of story.” Tessa put an end to the argument.
“Truce. Truce. I gotta get going.” Cami stood and balanced on the two by four plank. She held a hand out to Niko. “We gotta get going.”
“I thought mom said 10:30?” he asked.
“No, she said 10:00.” Cami pulled him up.
“Ughhh.” Niko grabbed her hand. Everyone at school had their thoughts that the two were dating, but those closer to the pair knew otherwise. Ms. Ramirez adopted Niko shortly after his tenth birthday, and he and Cami were as close as every other pair of siblings.
“See you guys tomorrow.” Cami waved as she tip-toed to the hatch exit, Niko at her heels, carrying pillowcases of candy.
“Yeah. I better go, too.” Tessa stood up.
“Really?” Sullivan questioned. “I’m usually the first to go. What is going on tonight?”
“I have a test tomorrow,” she answered. “with Mrs. Mabie.” Tessa made a face implying her hatred for the Biology teacher. She pulled her Michael Myers mask over her face, and bent over to grab her candy. She lost her balance on the thin board. She dropped the bag of candy and swung her arms to find balance. She failed. She fell, feet first off the board. The corn kernels acted like water. They spread out, allowing her to simply slip through them. The only difference is one cannot swim in corn kernels. Tessa fell to a pocket in the silo. Billions of corn kernels fell on her body. They pushed on her ribs, through her shirt; they were in her hair and in her shoes. She could barely breathe, she could see nothing. She could hear nothing. All of her senses were completely muted
. The utter nothingness was horrifying. Absolute absence of everything. The only thing preventing Tessa from being suffocated was her Halloween mask. It took an hour and a half for emergency crew to find her. An hour and a half. She sat in complete stillness, complete silence, complete dark for an hour and a half. It seemed much longer. Ever since, Tessa could not be in the dark. She could barely go out at night. The idea of dark was unbearable.
“Tessa.” Tucker grabbed her shoulders, gently. “We can do this.” He forced her to look at his face. He took a deep breath, “You’re a logical person. Let’s be logical, okay?”
She nodded.
“We can’t go out that way, Crawford is out that way, yes?”
Again, she nodded.
“So what are our options then? We have to go the other way. This way.” He pointed at the boat. “We will figure out what happens after dark , when it happens. There’s nothing else we can do. Even if we stay here, it’s going to be dark here, too.” Tessa looked around the room. “We can try to get out before dark, but we have to go now. Yes?” Tessa inhaled and breathed out heavily.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Niko and I are here. We will be with you the whole time. Let’s do this.” Tucker released her shoulders and gently smiled.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
Chapter 9
The river went on for miles, no end in sight. Tessa sat in the middle of the canoe, with Tuck at the front, and Niko at the rear. The river slowly guided them with little assistance. Niko had fallen asleep in the second hour of their venture. Tessa sat up rigidly, eyes alert, keeping her eyes on the mirrors for any sight of a cloud or sunset. Every few minutes, Tucker would turn around and nod his head, as if to imply all was well.
Tucker remembered the night Tessa fell beneath the corn vividly. He and Sullivan tried to dig down to Tessa on that Halloween night, but the corn just refilled their advancements. After the police arrived, they revved their saws to cut openings in the base of the silo to drain the corn. The dry feed poured out like water. Tuck had come to the worst conclusion when the police arrived; Tessa was dead and he missed his chance. He quickly shoved that thought from his mind when he saw Tessa’s parents clutching to one another outside the silo. Their loss would be greater than his. Mr. Cunningham, although normally stoic with a military background, was visibly shaken. He had one arm around his wife, and the other clenched on his knee so tightly that his fingertips were an unearthly white. Mrs. Cunningham, who had matching red hair to her daughter, was on the phone with Curtis, Tessa’s brother.
“She’s breathing!” An officer yelled from within the silo. Mrs. Cunningham burst into joyful tears, Mr. Cunningham hugged her. Tucker’s stomach fell when he saw Tessa’s lifeless body carried out by two officers into an ambulance. Three agonizing days later, she woke up with three broken ribs and a bit of memory loss. Her friends visited her daily, as she was not allowed to leave the house. Tucker even had Cami teach him how to help dye Tessa’s hair.
“Do you think Cami is alive?” Tessa whispered, as not to wake Niko on such a sensitive subject. Tucker raised his eyebrows; she always had a knack for reading his mind.
“I don’t know.” Tessa looked at her hands, and picked off the last bit of blue nail polish from her thumb.
“Can you say something to get my mind away from here?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know.” She suddenly felt as if her ribs were being squeezed by an anaconda. She inhaled sharply, Tuck took notice and turned around in his seat. Tessa’s eyes were squeezed shut, all she could see was dark.
“Hey, I found something out in the forest.” He stood up and reached into his back pocket, pulling out the green jeweled necklace.
“Where did you get that?” She opened her eyes
“I just found it when Niko and I first got here. Just sitting there waiting.”
“It’s beautiful.” She said eyeing the jewel, making an effort to control her breathing.
“Well, it’s for you.” Tucker held it out to her.
“Are you sure?” She was taken aback.
“Well, it doesn’t really go with my eyes.” Tuck smiled as he put it around her neck, she turned and allowed him to fasten it.
“Thank you.” She said touching the jewel that lay in the middle of her chest. “It’s beautiful.” She was calm.
“I dropped out of school.”
“What?”
“Yeah. One semester and I’m already out. What a guy, huh?” Tucker huffed.
“Why?” She asked, concerned.
“I don’t know… I got good grades. I just don’t think it’s… for me.”
“What have you been doing, then?”
“Nothing, really. I’ve been coaching a few boxers at the gym I go to. But, uhh… nothing really.”
“Wow.” Tessa relaxed. “Does your family know?”
“Just Sully.” Tucker’s eyes drifted off in thoughts of his brother. Tessa wanted to comfort him, but wasn’t sure how.
“Well, maybe you can come to Boston with me. We can live off of our crafts and be poor forever.” Tessa smiled.
“Perfect.”
The suns were going down, and it was noticeably becoming dimmer in the cave, but Tessa was distracted by the gap between herself and Tucker. Niko stirred at the back of the boat, and they turned their heads. He shifted to his side, and continued sleeping. They looked back at one another.
“Do you remember what you said to me after the silo?” Tessa asked. Tucker didn’t have to search his mind, he knew exactly what she was referring to. He remembered looking at her lying on the yellowing couch in the Cunningham home; her hair streaked purple, and a quilt covering her bandaged ribs. She was on a few pain killers, so he assumed she’d not remember his next words. He repeated them to her now,
“I knew you wouldn’t die because I haven’t kissed you yet.” Tessa’s cheeks felt hot, and her ears burned. “I didn’t think you were coherent,” he smiled.
“I heard it.” She grinned.
Again, Niko readjusted his position in the canoe, neither looked his direction. Tessa closed her eyes as Tuck leaned in. The suns went down just as their lips met. And yet, the cave did not become dark. Tuck’s right hand came to cup Tessa’s jaw line. She leaned into it. The cave became completely silent. This was a kiss ten years in the making, and it was quickly becoming everything they’d been waiting for. She put her arms around his neck and pulled her chest into his. He moved his hands to her waist, and pulled her even closer. Everything about his mouth felt comfortable, like they knew one another so well that they had done this a thousand times before. And at the same time it was intense and surprising. The pressure he put against her lips caused air to pass over her vocal chords. She sighed, breathily, waking Niko. He had no time to comprehend their kiss, for he was startled by the water.
“What is that?” he gawked.
“Nothing!” Tessa pulled away from Tuck. She noticed that Niko was pointing to the water, and it was at this point she realized the mirrors were dark. She mildly panicked, but realized the cave was not dark.
In the water were millions of small one inch fish that were glowing magnificent colors; blue, purple, green, pink. The masses of fish in the water gave illumination to the cave. It bounced from stone to stone in the ceiling and all around. Their canoe was floating on a Monet painting.
“They’re fish.” Niko leaned over the side of the canoe. He lowered his hand into the water. The incandescent fish moved away from his hand, leaving it in a dark hole. “They don’t like us.” He laughed and wiggled his fingers. Sitting up straight he looked at Tucker and Tessa, “What? Why do you guys look like that?” he squinted.
“We should go swimming!” Tucker suggested, and Tessa nodded quickly in agreement.
“Uh… Is it safe?” Niko asked
“Who cares? We’ve been in a dessert sweating for two days. And it’s water.” Tucker replied.
“I’m in.” Tessa unbuttoned her jea
n jacket and her shorts. Tessa’s eyes glazed over as she stared out over the edge of the canoe. Something felt odd and yet, familiar. This is what she had been trying to paint. It was beautiful and scary; like a kaleidoscope without sunlight. The underwater stars she couldn’t remove from her mind were real. She became eager to be a part of the masterpiece.
She jumped.
The fish darted out in all directions, resembling a firework with a red haired girl at its center. The streaks of color in her hair matched the fish, allowing her to meld into the canvas. Pure joy welled up, starting in her stomach and shooting straight from her mouth. Her belly laughs echoed down the sides of the cave. Niko and Tuck looked at one another astounded and confused.
Tuck cracked a smile, “What are you laughing at?
“This is it!” she kicked her legs to stay afloat, and spread her arms wide. “This is my painting!”
She lay back and floated on her back. Her hair splayed out. Tucker and Niko shed their shirts and cannon balled into her jubilance. This was the first time they had felt at ease since arriving in Wiklow. It was amazing to feel like they didn’t need to be on alert for the first time in two days. They floated alongside the canoe; bathing in the strange river, in a strange world.
***
“Light!” Tessa shouted and pointed down the cave. They had spent all night on the canoe in the cave, falling in and out of sleep. Morning sunlight was now peeking through a far away opening at the end of the cave.
“Light!” she repeated, excitedly. She stood up, rocking the boat slightly. Niko and Tucker startled awake. “Sweet Lord, we made it!” she picked up an oar and began to paddle swiftly. The canoe spun to the left, “Come on!” she paddled faster.
Niko took a paddle from her, while Tucker picked up another. Together they helped the canoe travel further down the stream. Tessa could feel her heart pounding in anticipation, as she gathered their things into the backpack. She buttoned up her jacket. She looked out over the stern. She was anxious to see what the next step in their adventure would be. All that could be heard was the heavy breathing of the inhabitants of the boat. As they came closer to the end of the tunnel, they noticed that at the mouth of the exit was a swift drop off. The water poured down into a deep black cavern; bottomless.
