by Eva Pohler
Chapter Five: The Caves
At last Daphne and the rest of the group were in the water and paddling along the coastline toward the first cave. Prisoners Harbor was full of boats cruising in and out, but none docked at the pier. As they passed Pelican Bay, the squawking made it impossible for a while to hear anything else. The wind whipped Daphne’s ponytail against her shoulders and brought the fresh salt air all around her. Something rushed away from her kayak, causing her to jump in her seat, and when she realized it was an otter, she squealed, pointing and trying to get Cam’s attention. It had such a cute face and was so close. She could reach out and touch it, but didn’t dare. The otter looked at her as he swam away on his back.
When they finally passed the boisterous babble of the birds, she told Cam about the otter, nearly falling out of her kayak as she tried to demonstrate how close the otter had been to her. As she laughed, she was amazed by how easy it was to be happy here.
Larry shouted in a “tour-guide” voice, “Soon we’ll come upon the first sea cave, known as Twin Rocks Cave, because the entrance is flanked by two nearly identical rocks. My people, the Chumash, believed the twin rocks were at one time gods, Tumaiya and Mukata, sons of Hutash, or Mother Earth. Legend has it the two gods disagreed about whether humans should live forever. Tumaiya wanted humans to share eternal life with the gods, but Mukata felt immortality should be for gods only. They had a long battle but were equally matched, and the battle went on and on for years until Hutash took matters into her own hands. She turned her sons into the two rocks and compromised between their wishes. She made it so that humans would die, but their ghosts could come to dwell in this cave, and a few times a year, she allows them to wander the island for one full day. You see the twin rocks?”
They were as tall as a three story-building, but columnar. Daphne could see why a group of people would believe they were gods. At the very top, they rounded like a human head. Despite the tall rocks, the entrance to the cave was the size of an armchair. This made Daphne’s mouth go dry. She had not imagined she would be going inside so small an opening.
Larry said, “We’ll save that cave for our journey back. It’s best to go to the furthest one first, while the tide is low. Then we can ride the tide as it comes in. The paddling will be easier.”
As they passed the two columnar twin rocks, they saw a group of sea lions sunning on a rocky cliff. They were golden in color with dog-like faces, little flaps for ears, and long whiskers, white in the sunshine. They stared at the kayakers as they passed.
“We’ll also skip by this cave coming up, known as Falls Cave, and start with the one called Platts Cave.”
Daphne was glad when they came to the cave and could stop paddling. Being on the water in the kayak was pleasant with the waves rocking her to and fro, but her arms needed a break.
The mouth to the cave made a huge arch, like a tunnel for a train. Light shone in to the first part of the cave, revealing shiny, shimmering walls reflecting light off the water. Larry pointed his flashlight to shelves all along the side walls and explained they were used for storage by the Chumash. On the ceiling were carved figures of dolphins, sea lions, whales, pelicans, gulls, and foxes.
Cam splashed Daphne with his paddle, laughing. “Having fun yet?”
“Well, I was till you splashed me.” She splashed him back.
“Hey, echo!” Dave shouted, his voice emanating throughout the cave. He laughed. “Echo!”
This time a bat scurried past Daphne and out into the bright light.
“Way to go, Dave,” Cam said with sarcasm.
“Oops!” Dave laughed at himself. “Sorry little bat!”
They turned from the cave at Platts Harbor and headed back in the direction they came, toward the east. Larry had been right about paddling with the tide. It was much easier and faster going east.
Daphne had been ignoring the urge to use the restroom since they started, but now she could no longer hold it. Full of embarrassment, she told Larry.
“We’ll have to pull up onto the next bank. There aren’t restrooms. Just find a private place and go.”
She followed him to the next beach—rocky, unlike the sandy one by the resort. They stepped from the kayaks and pulled them ashore. The guys turned to the water and pissed.
There really was no good place for a girl to go. Everything here was rocky, without trees, and wide open. Daphne searched around, thinking she wouldn’t be able to go after all. Finally she found a grotto on the underside of a cliff. As she climbed down, she caught a glimpse of someone dodging by.
“Hello?” she called out.
No one answered. Daphne hiked beneath the cliff edge and around to the other side, in the direction of the other person. As she rounded the corner, she heard the shuffle of running footsteps against gravel. She raced up the hill only to catch the back of a girl with long red hair running away from her. Then the girl disappeared behind another boulder.
That was odd. Maybe she was seeing things. She didn’t believe in ghosts. Could it have been a mirage?
Daphne climbed back down beneath the cliff edge, her heart hammering in her chest. Her shorts were wet and hard to pull down. Plus, her hands were shaking. This island gave her the creeps. Why would a girl be running around by herself out here? She finished her business and made her way back to shore, and they waded out from the shallows and helped one another into their kayaks. She decided not to mention what she thought she saw. She’d say something later to Cam when they were alone.
The middle cave also had carvings along the ceiling, but even more spectacular was the waterfall spilling down from a hole in the center. The rushing water roared and created an echo effect in the cave, making it difficult to communicate inside. They each paddled around the falling water, allowing it to splash icily on a hand or a foot. Daphne held out her hand and shivered from the cold. Although water had gotten into the bottom of her kayak, it wasn’t nearly as cold as the falling water in the middle of the dim, sparkly cave.
Larry led them from Falls Cave back to the first, Twin Rocks Cave.
The opening seemed even smaller than it had on the first pass.
Although the mouth was narrow, the cave itself curved high overhead. Carvings in the ceiling of dolphins and pelicans sparkled in the dim light. Larry took out his flashlight and shone it on the more visible carvings.
A shaft of light shone in from a crack above and bore down on a rocky ledge of figures toward the back of the cave. These weren't carved or painted, but sculpted objects made of bone and shiny shells. The shells of their eyes sparkled in the light.
“The Chumash believe those figures were made by our ancestors a long time ago to represent our forefathers,” Larry explained. “They may look scary, but the Chumash see them as guardians of the dead, like the animals carved above us, and the twin gods at the mouth.”
They hovered together in their kayaks with their backs to the mouth of the cave, staring at the strange figures on the back wall above them. The figure in the middle stared directly at Daphne, and she had the strange sensation of rising up toward it and of the walls closing in on her, the cave getting smaller by the minute. Then a flutter near her kayak caused her to jump and squeal.
“A school of stingrays,” Larry said.
“Cool!” Cam said.
“They have stingers,” Larry warned. “You can touch the very tops of them, but watch out for their tails.”
Dave burst out laughing, but Daphne had no idea why. Maybe he was delighted by the stingrays.
Phillip leaned over and used his fingertips to brush the top of one swimming by him. “Do they tend to frequent these caves?” Phillip asked.
“They usually come in with the tide,” Larry said, turning. “Oh no.”
The others turned toward the cave entrance. The tide had completely blocked it. They might have seen it coming if the shaft of light coming in from above hadn’t kept the cave awash with light.
A wave of panic overtook Daphne. She couldn’t speak,
could barely breathe. The walls of the cave closed in on her, trapping her, taking away her control. She looked at Cam, tears pouring from her eyes, waiting for him to say something.
Instead, Cam turned to Larry and said, “How long?”
“Well, there’s roughly six hours between high and low tide, but within two, three tops, we should have a big enough hole to get back out.”
“Can we abandon the kayaks and swim for it?” Phillip asked.
“These rocks have sharp edges. The tide coming in can really throw you into them. I think it’s too dangerous. We’re better off waiting it out.”
“Dang, Larry,” Dave said. “I thought you knew what you were doing, hombre.”
Cam asked, “What if we swim out towing the kayak behind us?”
“It’ll be impossible to get the kayaks out of the cave. They can’t be submerged easily. It’s too risky, both for us and the boats.”
Daphne could tell the blood had drained from her cheeks. She might be sick. “Hold my hand?” she said softly to Cam.
He maneuvered himself closer to her and took her outstretched hand. But even with the warmth of his hand in hers, she was going to scream and kick if she did not get out of the cave soon.
Then a thought occurred to Daphne. Was this a therapeutic game? Had she been led to this cave and trapped in here on purpose? An experienced guide would not have let a tide trap them in a cave. She narrowed her eyes at Cam.
“What?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“I can tell stories while we’re waiting,” Larry offered. “Stories of my people.”
Larry then told them the same story Hortense Gray had told Daphne on the jeep ride into the resort, about Hutash sending Misink, the guardian of nature, to come down and control the population of people, turning some of the men into dolphins and taking some of the young women on his rainbow bridge to be his brides.
He said, “Here’s another legend: Although humans were not given immortality as Tumaiya wished, one person was brought back from the dead by Hutash’s orders, a young woman named Limuw, the same name they gave the island. Limuw means ‘in the sea.’ The young woman, Limuw, was very sad for many days, and one day, she ate a poisonous herb to kill herself so she could leave the sadness. But Hutash was not yet ready for Limuw to die, so she came to the leaders of the tribe in dreams and instructed them to take Limuw’s body and shave off all the hair. They were then to wrap her body in cloth dipped in the oil of a native herb called Joitsa. Hutash gave the people words to use while they waited for the oil to soak into the body. After the words were repeated three times, Limuw opened her eyes, at first angry for what they had done. She had wanted to die. But after some time, she was grateful for another chance at life.”
Then, without warning, the light from the top of the cave went dark. Pitch black surrounded them.
“Don’t panic,” Larry said. “Let me find my flashlight.”
“This is ridiculous,” Phillip said.
Cam squeezed Daphne’s hand. “It’s going to be okay.”
“The sun must have moved behind a cloud,” Larry said. “It will come back. Be patient. I’ll find my light. Where did it go? I can’t even see right in front of my face.”
Someone—Dave, she soon realized, said, “It’s kind of spooky.” Then he added, “Bwahahaha!”
Daphne wanted to scream. She hyperventilated. She felt something slimy touch her leg. “Ah!”
Cam massaged her hand. “It’s okay. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
If she could speak, she would say it already had.
“I’m right here,” Cam said. “Talk to me.”
She could not catch her breath.
“Daphne, talk to me.”
“I’m okay.” It was just a game. She could endure this.
Cam said, “If you think about it, it’s kind of cool being in a dark sea cave.”
Someone, probably Phillip, snorted.
Cam added, “If nothing else, being frightened makes you appreciate life. Don’t you agree?”
“No.” She could hear the others whispering about her, but she didn’t care. Let them laugh. She wanted out.
“If you didn’t appreciate life, you wouldn’t be afraid. You wouldn’t care what happened to you,” Cam reasoned.
“You could still fear pain.” The slimy thing touched her again. “Eeeehhh!”
“But you aren’t in pain, are you?”
“You’re not helping.”
Cam squeezed Daphne’s hand and asked again, “Are you okay?”
Stupid, stupid question. She refused to answer it.
The light moved back through the crack in the ceiling, allowing the stifling darkness to dissipate. She searched her kayak near her legs and found a strand of seaweed. Sighing, she concentrated again on her breathing exercises.
“Ah, here it is,” Larry said, turning on his light.
“How much longer?” Daphne asked.
“Miss, we haven’t even been in here an hour. At least one more hour must pass before we can get the kayaks through.”
“What if we sing?” Cam asked. Then, he broke out in song: “Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer, take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall.”
Soon all the guys were singing the song loudly and cheerfully—even Vince, who rarely seemed to speak. Daphne had to admit this helped. She gave Cam a smile of gratitude in the dim light of Larry’s flashlight as he continued singing in his boisterous voice.
They took turns singing other songs. Cam started humming the Imperial March from Star Wars. And the others joined in.
Except for Daphne. She focused on her breathing and fixed her eyes on the mouth of the cave. After what seemed like an eternity, the tide moved down, and they were able to crouch into their kayaks and maneuver safely out.
In the sunshine and the fresh air, Daphne shouted hooray. She felt joyful to be out and free. When they passed the sea lions basking in the sun, she shouted hello to them. She shouted hello to the sun. She shouted hello to the sky and the kelp and everything she saw.
As if it weren’t already obvious to the others in her group she shouted, “I’m so glad to be out of that cave!”
Back in her room, alone, in the warm and pleasant jet streams of the shower, Daphne knew it had all been a game. She had wanted to call Cam out on it, but hadn’t. Why hadn’t she?
Because she already knew what he would say: He would deny it just as he had denied his knowledge of the elevator getting stuck. She couldn’t trust him. He was part of the mysterious nature of this strange therapy of Dr. Gray’s. This thought made her sad, and her eyes filled with tears. Cam was her only friend and she couldn’t trust him. Not for the first time, she wondered if she had it in her to continue. What other exercises did the game makers have in store for her?
Luckily, the stairs were dry Sunday night when Cam escorted Daphne up to the dining hall. Stan was not at dinner but was camped on the west end of the island by the Chumash ruins. Daphne found herself missing his company, feeling like he was the only person who was normal and trustworthy on the entire island.
After dinner, she told Cam she wasn’t going on anymore outings and that she planned to stay in her room until they left in the morning. He continued to act like the incident in the cave had been nothing but an accident, but he didn’t push her to leave the room. Instead, they watched a movie together—The Amazing Spiderman— (one of their favorites). Afterward, she asked him to stay the night.
“I don’t want to be alone,” she said. She didn’t think she could go through with her plan if she were by herself.
They were sitting in the striped chairs with their feet on the coffee table. He said, “I usually don’t just sleep when I stay the night with girls, Daphne Janus.”
“Well I’m not any ol’ girl, Cameron Turner.”
“Do you talk to Brock?”
Daphne closed her eyes and sighed. “You know I don
’t.”
“So it’s safe to say it’s been a while since you…” he whistled.
She glared at him. “Shut up! You think…”
His eyes widened. “What, never?”
“Would you stop?” She kicked him, but not hard.
“Maybe you need a friend with benefits. That’s all I’m saying.”
He was too cute to be mad at. “You lost that chance when you brought me to this creepy island under false pretenses.”
“So there was a chance?”
She shook her head and smirked. “You’re my best friend. I never want to screw that up.” A lump rose to her throat as she considered the possibility of having sex before she died. Perhaps it was an experience no one should live without. She studied his golden blue eyes, his thin lips, the sweet curve of his neck. She wouldn’t mind pressing herself against his solid chest and losing herself in his arms. It could truly be her last hurrah. Her only one of that kind.
No, that would only make what she was about to do to Cam that much crueler. “Seriously, please stop.”
“I’m sorry. Really.” He gave her a penitent smile. “I’ll stay. And I’ll be good.”
“Why did you bring me here? It’s not what I was expecting.”
“I wish you would trust me, Daph.” He reached for her hand. “I had the most amazing experience here last summer. Life-changing. Dr. Gray is the best. Just give it a chance.”
She narrowed her eyes, but didn’t say anything.
“How about a game of chess?”
“Like the old days?” She brightened.
“Yeah. What do you say? I’ve got a board back in my room. I’ll be right back.”
“Promise?” She didn’t want him to go. “Nothing weird’s gonna happen?”
“I promise.”
She was uneasy until he returned with the chess board.
When she was about to beat him for the second time, she said, “You better not be letting me win.”
“How insulting. Quit rubbing it in.” He gave her a hurt look.
“Just checking.”
“I haven’t played in like forever.”
“Neither have I.”
She felt awkward, after what he had said earlier, when they decided to call it quits and go to sleep. She left the TV on, needing the background noise. Although she was conscious of Cam lying in the bed beside her, it took less than sixty seconds for her thoughts to wander to Brock.
As soon as Cam’s breathing became shallow and regular, she slipped from the covers and crept to the kitchenette. She took one of the knives and went to the bathroom, where she closed and locked the door and turned on the light.
It was no kind of life having to face the ones you hurt day in and day out. She couldn’t stand to look her parents in the eye and see their pain reflecting back at her. They blamed her. Her mother had even said so.
That terrible morning when Daphne had realized what had happened to Kara, she had screamed and fallen in a heap on the floor.
“It was Joey!” Daphne had said. “I heard him go in Kara’s room. I heard banging.”
Her mother’s face had stretched into almost comical proportions, her eyes wide as she had asked, “You mean you heard and did nothing?” Daphne just now had this thought: Extreme responses to comedy and tragedy look the same.
Daphne had fallen in a heap on the floor and had wanted to curl up and die, too.
“You mean you heard and did nothing?” her mother had said. The words played over and over in Daphne’s mind. “You mean you heard and did nothing?”
Kara would be alive if Daphne had gotten out of bed that night. And Joey probably wouldn’t have gotten so sick. Everyone’s lives were ruined because she had done nothing to save them.
But she’d been happy for the first time in two years here on the island. She thought the happiness came from knowing she would finally leave behind her miserable life and spare herself the pain of looking into her parents’ eyes, and yet, now she wondered if there had been something more to it than that.
She saw her mother’s wide mouth and her wide eyes, looking at Daphne with utter disbelief. “You mean you heard and did nothing?”
Her mother blamed her for Kara’s death, even if she tried to pretend otherwise later. Kara was gone because Daphne had been too lazy to get out of bed. A silent scream pressed against the walls of Daphne’s skull. She was the scream, and she wanted out.
She took the steel blade of the knife and held it to her wrist. From her internet research, she knew the jugular would be quicker, but she’d have to look in the mirror to get it right, and she was afraid to see her own face looking back at her. This way, she could lie on the floor and not have to fall and hurt herself. The pain would be brief, according to the research.
Soon she’d go into shock and feel nothing.