Adventures in Reading
Page 6
Chapter 1
The key. It was suddenly very clear that the key in Missy’s back pocket wasn’t an ordinary key. The rock ledge that she and Jessica were on, wide enough for several more people but still high enough to make their stomachs jittery, wasn’t an ordinary ledge either. The rock ledge seemed artificially formed, although from a distance it would be impossible to detect that. All of the gouges and pockmarks were actually impressions of different keys: large, small, thin, thick. Some indentations were deep, some were shallow, and all were spaced unevenly over the entire false rock face.
“Give me the key, Missy,” Jessica panted, still out of breath from their climb, “this has to be the way in. We’ll be able to save Kevin and get out of here before they know we’re missing.”
Missy carefully took the key out of her pocket, this was not the place to be accidentally dropping things, and handed it to Jessica who reached as high as she could to compare the key to the top left impression.
“What do you think will happen if it fits?” Missy whispered. “Think it will just automatically open?”
“It’s worth a try.” Jessica had dismissed the first several impressions and was slowly moving her hand down the rock, comparing the tiny indentations with the strange pattern of the key. She held it between her thumb and first finger so she could find the match just as if she were doing another 500-piece puzzle, looking for the partner to the piece in her hand. “This is going to take a while. There must be a thousand possibilities here.”
Suddenly both girls froze as they heard a rustling in the underbrush twenty or thirty feet below them. Missy needed to swat a mosquito but was afraid to move. Perched where they were they knew that from below they were invisible, but their voices would give them away. Had they been whispering too loudly? The mosquito that had been buzzing Missy’s face had now moved to her knee and landed. She glanced down and saw the tiny insect glistening gold in the afternoon sunlight. She stared. The mosquito really was golden and it was not about to bite her, but instead it seemed to be leading her to look to the last key mark near her foot.
“Pssssst,” Missy motioned to Jessica and pointed out the key mark where the false rock met the ground. Jessica passed her the key and held her breath. There was another sound below, a sort of “humph”, like someone clearing his throat. Missy bent down, crossed her fingers on her left hand and pressed the key hard into the rock outline with her right hand.
There was a whooshy sound, an inhuman sigh, and the false rock started to slowly open. But it was pushing outward and Missy had nowhere to step to from her crouching position. She started to stand and move toward Jessica who was stretching out her hand. The rock door was pushing out and slowly upwards, too, but she wasn’t sure if she could reach Jessica or duck under the opening before it pushed her off the ledge. What a stupid place to put the keyhole, she thought, there should be a better entrance! She decided to try to cling to the bottom of the rock door as it swung out and up. She grabbed at the indentations; some were deep enough to provide a handhold. Her left hand seemed to have a good hold but her right hand scraped down and dislodged the key. Instinct made her grab for it before it fell forever lost below.
Jessica gasped, “Look out, Missy!” Missy was losing her balance even though the door was no longer pushing outward only upward.
There was a loud mechanical grumble below them in the underbrush as well as a hoarse voice, definitely human, rasping: “Gotcha!”
Missy had heard stories about people whose whole lives flashed before their eyes when they thought they were about to die. Time seemed to slow way down but it wasn’t her whole life that flashed before her. She thought of March. Last March, when this unbelievable adventure had begun…