Our moment of success was broken by the sound of yelling. Eyes wide, I gasped. “The water’s going to fill up fast. We need to get out of here.”
I threw the journal into my bag and picked up the lantern from the floor to blow out the candle. I shoved it into my backpack also, and we hurried onto the softly lit passage outside the room. We walked as quickly as we could back to the end of the trail where the pileup blockaded our way. I peered down at Pepper and Bardrick who were waving up at us.
“Hurry up!” Pepper yelled. “We need to get out of here!”
Kyrah looked at me and said, “Time to climb down. Be safe, but try to hurry.”
That had to be the best advice ever. No pressure.
I rolled my eyes before getting down on my hands and knees to slide my feet over the edge of the trail and down the rock face. I struggled to find a grip for my feet and finally found one. As I continued to descend the wall, the sharp edges of rock cut into my flesh. My fingers and toes hurt from the pressure, but after a painful few minutes, I splashed back onto the ground which was now wet with lake water.
“You did it!” Bardrick congratulated me with a clap on the shoulder.
I nodded and looked around. The floodgate was now fully open and whitewater was rushing out of the opening. The water level was rising pretty quickly. Just over the last few minutes since we’d flipped the switch, it had risen a few inches.
Pepper was fully dressed again, although her ponytail was still dripping. She and Bardrick both had their packs thrown over their shoulders, and they appeared to be ready to go. I asked, “How are we getting out of here?”
Bardrick offered Kyrah his hand as she jumped down beside us. He limped over. “I think we should walk down the stream to the other cave-in. The rope should still be there so we can pull ourselves out. But, we need to hurry before the current gets too rough.”
At the sight of the water spilling into the cavern, I didn’t have to be told twice. Kyrah offered her shoulder to Bardrick, and they hobbled along the growing shoreline. Pepper and I hurried ahead of them. When we ran out of shore, we were forced to wade through the lake to get to the mouth of the stream. Slick stones lined the waterway. Somehow, we made it to the channel carved into the rock where the flow increased noticeably. The width of the growing stream allowed all four of us to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with plenty of room. Rocky walls arched into a peaked ceiling.
The sound of rushing water echoed through the air. I could feel the ground slope slightly. Gravity was pulling the clear liquid downhill, creating a strong current that was rising above our knees. Pepper yelped, tipping backward and caught my arm. I reached out and helped her regain her balance.
Every passing minute the water rose higher, creating more pressure. It was hard walking without having my feet swept out from under me. The others seemed to be having a difficult time with it too, especially the girls, since they were lighter and shorter than Bardrick and myself. We held onto them, so they wouldn’t sail away.
“Where’s the rope?” Bardrick called out, as he looked wildly to our right where the rocky wall had begun to lower. “The trail has to be coming up, right?”
“You would think,” I answered, equally concerned about getting out of the rushing stream. It was quickly becoming a river and something that would have the power to create an overflowing waterfall.
We rounded a bend in the channel when the water had reached the zipper of my jeans. It was then I saw the wall to our right drop away, exposing another level above us. Just beyond the opening, a large piled section of boulders and stones blockaded the walkway. “There,” I called. “It’s the cave-in—the rope should be just past it.”
Although Bardrick’s ankle was injured, he was holding onto Kyrah with his arm around her waist, because she’d almost been swept downstream twice already. He grimaced with every step, but after another ten steps we saw it—the pale yellow rope getting pulled in the rushing water.
Bardrick placed himself beside it, then put it in Kyrah’s hands. “You go first.”
The corners of her mouth curled into a smile. She looked up at the lip of the trail which was at least five feet above us and pulled herself from the water. In moments she’d climbed to the top of the channel and was rolling over the top. Once she was on the pathway, she lay on the ground to hold her hand out to help the next person out. “Come on—who’s next?”
“Pepper,” I said and pushed her to the rope.
Bardrick grabbed her arm and put the cord in her hands. She looked over at me with a frown as if she were second guessing if she should go next. There wasn’t enough time to argue about it. “Hurry up,” I said.
She nodded, then tried to pull herself from the water. The current was against her, but Bardrick was there to steady her until she got a handhold on the rock wall. When she’d climbed high enough, Kyrah was there to grab her and help her onto the pathway. I took a deep sigh of relief, knowing she was safe.
“Your turn,” Bardrick called over the rushing sound of the river.
“No,” I answered. “You’re already holding the rope—you go.”
The water was up to my waist and threatening to sweep my feet out from under me, but I dug in my heels and hoped Bardrick would hurry up. I watched him struggle lifting himself from the river. Once he was high enough, I reached out to grab hold of the rope. It was out of hands reach, since the current was carrying it away, downstream. I lifted my foot, and before I knew it I was getting swept off by the rushing water.
My hands grasped wildly for the rope. They felt something and grabbed hold. Water sprayed over my head and shoulders while I clung to a rock that stuck out from the rocky channel. I heard my name called frantically, “Nim! Hold on!”
That was probably the most obvious advice I could have been offered. At no point did I think it would have been smart to let go. While I was swallowing my share of the water supply, something very snakelike slipped over my arms.
I tried to look up through the spraying water and saw Bardrick, Kyrah and Pepper’s frightened faces staring back at me. They were yelling something, but it was hard to hear with the river emptying itself into my ears. Then I understood.
“Grab the rope!”
The yellow cord was being dangled in front of me. All I had to do was reach out and grab it. I let go of the rock with my left hand to flail wildly for the rope. After a second of trying, I caught hold of it, and my upper body was pulled a foot or two out of the water. Dripping and disoriented, I searched for another handhold and found one. Determined to get out of the rushing river, I began to climb from the channel. Hands gripped my forearms as my friends pulled me free.
“Nim, I thought you were going to get swept away!” Pepper yelled and hit me in the shoulder. “Don’t make me worry like that!”
“Now you know what it’s like,” I muttered back, feeling droplets of water fall from my face and hair. “Have you had enough fun yet?”
Pepper laughed, and everyone else joined in. Our hoots and hollers echoed through the thundering caverns.
It was a slow and careful walk back to the city. Once we were out of the caverns and in daylight again, Bardrick found a branch to use as a crutch. Although, Kyrah hiked beside him, keeping an eye on him. We climbed down the barrier wall of the city in silence and walked toward Bardrick’s house.
“You didn’t have to help today, but you did. Thank you.” Kyrah turned her face to Pepper and myself.
“We had to,” Pepper answered, growing very serious. “It’s not right being forced from your home. I had to do something about it.”
I glanced at the sun dropping against the horizon. It had to be late afternoon, early evening. My body felt as if I’d just run a marathon and then got hit by a car. The food I’d eaten hours ago had long burned off. I felt starved, although I was too exhausted to care to eat.
“We should really head home, Pepper.”
“But what about finding the records about your grandpa?” she asked, her shoulders
slumped and her face drooping in exhaustion.
I appreciated the fact that she wanted to stick to the plan. It was important to me to find my grandpa, but after the day we’d had, we deserved a rest. There was a time for everything, and it was our time to go home and nap until our bodies didn’t hurt anymore. I could take a solid week the way I felt.
I shrugged. “It can wait. We’ll come back and check soon.”
“You’d better,” Bardrick said and combed his wavy blond hair from his face. “I want to be able to thank you both properly.”
“Yes, please say you will come back soon. You must.” Kyrah held Pepper’s hand and looked at the both of us.
“I may not be able to,” Pepper answered and her cheek quivered. “I’m moving away.”
Kyrah frowned. “But you just helped fix the problem. Why would you have to leave?”
“Opening the floodgate won’t fix my problem,” Pepper said, staring down the street.
Kyrah hugged her. “Well, I hope you find a way to stay. I want to show you the fountains at dark.”
Bardrick shook my hand and flashed a smile. “See you soon, then.”
Kyrah and Bardrick watched us go. The noise of a busy street ahead drew my attention away from them. My legs could only work at a slow pace no matter how quickly I wanted to go. Pepper moved even slower than me, walking in my shadow.
We turned onto the main avenue, leading out of the city. Voices and shouts pierced the air. “The water! It’s flowing again!” I couldn’t keep the smile from spreading across my face.
The walk up the hill to the boundary wall was hard, but somehow, I didn’t feel my muscles. They were numb. We passed through the unattended gate and approached the bridge. The sound of rushing water grew louder the closer we got.
No longer was there a slow trickle. Beneath the bridge flowed a river filled to the brim. The guards from the gate stood with their arms braced on the rail, peering over the edge at the current. When Pepper and I passed by them, they grinned and asked, “Did you see? The river’s flowing again!”
All I could do was nod.
Our walk was nearly over when we climbed up the slope into the forest. We’d been so silent, I decided I needed to say something. “You might have been right about hard work getting things done, but I still think your drawings are magic.”
At first I didn’t think she’d heard me, because she didn’t respond. Her voice started as a whisper, “Are you trying to convince me to put my art in the gallery showing?”
“I wish I could draw like you can, but what I really want…” Maybe it was how ragged I felt, but I wasn’t afraid of how she’d react. I couldn’t believe that someone who was so relentless when it came to helping others wouldn’t help themselves. “I want you to work as hard as you did for these—strangers—to keep yourself from moving. How can the toughest person I know be afraid of talking to her own parents?”
I knew she’d be angry, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to lose my only friend. Who else would be there for me when I needed to get pulled from a raging river? She was the reason I’d been in the river to begin with, but maybe I liked that about her.
The glowing rectangular portal came into view above the shore of the lake. Before we walked through, Pepper adjusted her leather jacket and said, “Well, I might be willing to try if it means I get to go on a few more adventures with my bestie.”
Finding the Strength
I wove my way through the room searching for Aunt Holly’s curly halo and found her standing beside Pepper. The track lighting was pointed along the walls to spotlight the art, some of which I didn’t get, but Holly had told me I didn’t have to understand it to appreciate creativity. If you ask me, that was just her way of saying, “I don’t get it either.”
Pepper looked nervous which was a strange sight. She was the most confident person I knew, so it was odd seeing her pinch her lips together and frown from under her mane of black hair. Her eyes swept from one side of the room to the other. When I reached her side, she barely acknowledged me.
“They said they were coming, right?” I asked. “You asked them to come like you said you would?”
She nodded in response and adjusted the hem of her black top. “They had something else they had to do for Dad’s work, but they said they’d come after.”
“I’m just happy you decided to show your work in the art show,” Aunt Holly said. She waved at someone across the room and set her hand on Pepper’s shoulder. “Your illustration looks amazing under these lights—you should be proud. If you guys will excuse me, I need to go mingle, but I’ll check in with you later.”
Pepper took a shaky breath and glanced over her shoulder at her framed drawing. Like I’ve said many times before, I don’t know much about art, but I liked what she’d brought to display. She had an ability to sketch what was in her head, kind of like how I write what I imagine. Beside colorful paintings and pastels, Pepper’s work stood out. She may have only used black pen, but it was different from the rest. The label beside it read, Self Portrait.
It was unlike any portrait I’d ever seen. I could recognize my friend’s face, but it wasn’t entirely based in reality. In the strands of her hair, different things were tangled and hidden, like the aviator hat she’d been wearing lately, a familiar looking pen and the windows of her house among other things. I looked closer and noticed a locket sketched around her neck. A face was framed in the little oval.
“Who’s that?” I asked, pointing at it.
Pepper didn’t turn around to see what I was talking about. Her lips barely moved when she responded, “My sister.”
“Oh.”
Pepper and I couldn’t have been more different from each other. One thing we had in common was loss. When I’d moved here after my mom passed away, I’d found out that Pepper had lost her older sister too. It wasn’t something we sat around and talked about. In fact, after it’d come up, we never spoke of it again. Even though I didn’t want to discuss just how bad it felt, like all the time, I knew she could relate. It was an unspoken understanding.
She cleared her throat and swept her hair over her ear. Pepper stared at the floor and whispered, “They came.”
I looked across the room to the front door of the gallery. There, a man stood with his wife, both staring wide eyed at the walls of art. When they saw Pepper, they gave a smile and walked over to us. Her mother, Ruth, recognized me and said, “Oh, hello, Nim. It was nice of you to come to Pepper’s event too.”
“Hi,” I said, not knowing what else to say. I stepped back, so I wouldn’t get pulled into more conversation. It was best Pepper take it from here anyway.
She clasped her hands together and took a deep breath. “I’m glad you came.”
“Of course we came,” her dad answered. “It’s not every day you invite us to something you’re up to.”
They tried smiling at their daughter, but Pepper was unmoved. She blinked back at them.
“Would you show us your art, sweetie? Which one of these is yours?” Ruth asked. Her eyes scanned across the walls.
Pepper stepped aside, revealing her illustration. Her parent’s faces went from surprise to sadness as they studied it in detail. Their smiles fell away and Jim softly muttered, “Oh.”
“Sweetie.” Her mother sighed and said, “It’s beautiful.”
Pepper’s expression showed her own surprise at their reaction. Maybe she’d been prepared that they wouldn’t like or understand it. Her cheek began to quiver and her voice was filled with emotion. “I didn’t think you’d care.”
I watched her parents step into her, wrap their arms around her shaking body and hold her. The rest of their conversation was spoken in undertones, although I heard her mother respond, “There’s nothing we care about more than you.”
“Then, why are you taking me away from everything I love?” Pepper’s voice broke.
Jim and Ruth frowned at each other. It was her father who spoke next. “We thought you’ve been unhappy. Y
ou’ve been so sad, changed so much since your sister died…we thought it would be good for you to have a new beginning somewhere else.” His voice shook as he said, “We don’t want to lose you too.”
Have you ever been a witness to a private moment you wished you could disappear from? I should have walked away minutes ago, so I wasn’t standing there awkwardly, observing their family therapy session. So, I spun around to leave.
As I walked off, looking for Aunt Holly and the table covered in tiny finger foods, I heard Pepper’s voice behind me. “This is me happy. I don’t want to leave my home, or my friend. My best friend.”
***
Weeks passed since we’d left Grandpa’s story. Parts of me were nervous about going back in. What if there wasn’t any information about him ever visiting there? I’d agreed to go through all of our adventures for a chance to find a trace of him.
Pepper walked beside me along the moonlit road and gave me a thumbs up sign. She’d been in the best mood I’d ever seen her in since the art show. A hole was left in her yard where the For Sale sign had been, and she’d visited my house on a nearly daily basis, talking my ear off. Things were practically back to normal. No matter how much she fought against it—normal, that is.
“What do you think we’ll find?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Probably nothing.”
“Whatever, Mr. Negative,” she answered.
I heard rushing water before I saw the bridge. It was a nice thing to hear, and it actually brought a smile to my lips. We walked over the river toward the boundary wall. The guards gave us a nod as we passed through the gate.
From the top of the hill, we looked down on the city of Crystal Springs. Different areas glowed in the dark, casting a soft aqua light into the air. Pepper had begged me to go back at nighttime to see the sights. I can’t lie, it was something I’d looked forward to.
The last time we’d approached the city I was running after Pepper, losing my breath and patience. It was much different tonight, casually strolling into town without feeling as if I was going to have a heart attack. As we reached the outskirts, things felt different. At first I didn’t know what had changed, but then I realized more people were out, and the stores were open. Nowhere did I see carts filled with villagers’ belongings.
The Stone Key (The Novel Adventures of Nimrod Vale Book 2) Page 13