CAVE INN

-CAVE INN-

Eduardo hadn’t noticed the trickle of water entering the cave earlier this morning when he had started his new quest.  

He had been spelunking since he was in sixth grade, with his father first.  Then his best friend Melos.  Melos usually accompanied him on his hikes to the limestone pits outside their village.

The biggest find they had made was a backpack left behind by a soldier.  It had some coins, a large machete, foods ravaged by the cave rats; and a letter in English that was well preserved in plastic.

Melos had made some excuse about having to walk into town to get groceries.  His mom had insisted, he said.  Eduardo could tell when Melos wasn’t telling the whole story; Melos had this nervous twitch where he’d cock his head to one side when concocting a story.

“Hey, ese; you know I’d be right with you like we had planned…but Madre said I needed to get the cereal for my baby brother.”

Eduardo shook his head and replied: “I’m still going.”

Now he sat in darkness, some faint glowing crystals that leaked off the beam of his torch.  A small pocket light that was growing weaker every time he turned it on.  His watch face glowed its green face, the hands showing 10:30.

So far all he had found was some plastic bottles and one lone beer in a sixpack that some other cave scavenger had left behind. “Tecate” he mouthed, then thought yuk…can’t even score a good cerveza!

He thought he was out of luck when after a short walk and constant ducking under the cave’s ceiling, that it was a dead end.  They had experienced just such frustration the last time they were together.  He felt Melos was outgrowing their boyhood expeditions, spending more time in his room looking at those girly magazines.

There was enough light in the first chamber that he could make out his surroundings…some large rocks made good resting spots.  A large layer of the wall had broken away, appeared to be a cot.  It was in front of that cot shaped layer of rock that he had found the beer sitting upright in its sixpack.

Had he not dropped his torch behind the cot; he would never have noticed the small opening behind it.  

It was a tight fit behind the cot, but after moving the rocks behind and around the opening, there was just enough space for him to lay curled in between the cot and the wall to push his head and shoulder in.  The faint light of his torch was no help, but the distinct difference in the temperature gave way to a larger room.

He pushed his way in, wriggling like a caterpillar.  The floor was damp, and he slid through several puddles before he could stand upright.

Squinting as he pointed his torch around the walls of the cave, the first he noticed was a chalk wall writing “Veta a casa, idioto.”  Go home, idiot!

He felt his way along the wall, it was relatively smooth and the floor, although muddy…had a series of deeper puddles that saturated his tennis shoes.  He estimated that the room was about eight feet, almost circular and the ceiling…also very smooth as far as he could tell…was eight feet above him.  

As he held up his torch continuing to survey in the deepening darkness, he noticed it was 10:40.  The green of the numbers eerily more visible in this part of the cave.

Looking back to the floor his torch captured two shiny objects, round like coins…he dropped to his knees and grabbed them from the mud.

His excitement made his heart pound in this chest, he felt he could hear it in the closeness of this room.

Just as he looked at his find, rubbing the coins together and feeling their weight…a crack of thunder so loud it echoed around him.  At that same instant a flash of light from the lightning slipped through the entrance he had crawled through to get access to this room…and with that glimpse of light he could see water rushing into the cavern.

The exuberance of finding his treasure was quickly replaced by panic.  He knew if he didn’t act quickly he’d be trapped in this cavern.

“Veta a casa, idioto.” Repeated over and over in his head.

As he knelt in front of the small entrance to the cave, water was already covering his feet as he struggled to get into position to worm his way back out.

The water had a different idea!  It was now a torrent pushing into the cavern.  As he pulled his hand away, the watch intensified his fear:  10:45.

“I’m still going.” He wished he would have followed his friend’s lead and go into town with him.  Not that Melos had invited him.

He wished he hadn’t come alone.

Not that two spelunkers in a flooding cavern would be any better than one!

Eduardo scanned the walls once again as the water poured in around his ankles.  

“There has to be another way out, another higher chamber.” He thought.

His search finding no other options for escape, he returned to the entrance, kneeling the water was up touching his butt as he squatted.

It was now or never.  He took several deep breaths and then ducked his head underwater and pushed his head into the torrent.  He was able to extend his arms through the pressure of the water rushing in and get his shoulders through.  He reached up into the other chamber and couldn’t feel anything but water.

He was never able to hold his breath for long.  He remembered his father dunking him in the local swimming pool: “Edditto, you have to hold your breath!”  Instead, he would come up, swallowing water on the way, coughing and gagging as he cried for his father not to do it again.  His father’s kind voice echoed into his memory “You can do this, I believe in you Eduardo!”

Opening his eyes to the rush of the current, only darkness prevailed.

Frightened, out of air, gagging, he pulled back into the cavern and gasped for breath.  For a moment, in the darkness, he thought he could see his father’s face, his hand gesturing to him to ‘come.’

10:47

The water was between his knees and his waste.  A quick calculation, Eduardo estimated he had six minutes to find a way out.

Amazingly, his torch still supplied light after being in the water.  He retraced his steps around the walls of the cavern.

Where previously there had been only the sound of the water rushing into the cavern, now just an isolating silence as the water rose, lapping at the sidewalls. 

Eduardo’s mother had left his father as he finished eighth grade…his last year in school.  His mother was abusive to his father, always complaining that he was ‘no good’, a ‘looser’, and didn’t know how to keep a job.  To Eduardo’s memory, he never saw his father take a drink.  Instead he would tinker in the small shack behind their even smaller signal bedroom house.

10:50

His father had given him this watch, a waterproof, black face and black band that Eduardo treasured.

It now counted the minutes to his impending death.

10:51

Eduardo couldn’t stand anymore and was doing a dog paddle to remain afloat.

Where Eduardo had to work to help his father so they could remain in their house after his mother had left, Melos had both parents, one older brother, his two sisters and the baby brother…and he always seemed to have money (especially for the magazine he hid under his bed).

Eduardo wasn’t jealous, in fact they were very good friends.

“Veta a casa, idioto.”  Oh how he now wished he would’ve heeded the warning.

The water continued to churn, swirling him at times around the cavern.  As the ceiling loomed closer he used the swirling water to help him survey the top of the cavern.  Hand over hand as he kicked his way to remain afloat he traced wall tops and the ceiling.  On one wall, directly opposite of the opening that he crawled through only moments ago to seal his fate, was an elevated area of the ceiling, about a foot higher than the rest of the smooth top of the cavern.

10:53

He stopped his worthless search for finding a way out and remained there as the water level inched further upward.

His head touched the top of the cavern, centered in the only remaining air pocket.  He closed his eyes and prayed: “Dear Heavenly Father, I know I’m not the best of your children, but please bring me to your everlasting light.  Amen.”

He took another breath and held it in.

“Eduardo! EDUARDO!!”

Eduardo awoke with his father shaking him, “Eduardo! What are you still doing in bed?  Why are your clothes wet?  Why are you in bed, Eduardo, he repeated.”

Eduardo let out his breath, the largest amount of air he had ever had.

“Oh, Papa…you’ll never believe this!”

He looked at his watch, it was 10:54!