by Rada, J. R.
John took a deep breath before he spoke again. “If you can’t remember any of the time you spent in the cave, how can you be sure you wanted out?”
David rested his face in his hand. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if you have amnesia, maybe it did more to you than just cause you to forget,” John suggested.
David looked up. His full attention was focused on John. “What else could have happened?”
John took a step to the side and ran his hand through his hair. “I’m no psychiatrist. I just know what I’ve learned at college. There are different ways amnesia could affect you. The one way you always seem to hear about is simply forgetting who you are because of some sort of head trauma, but amnesia can also be self-induced. The body can react to extreme fear by throwing up a mental block so that you can’t remember anything. It’s the mind’s way of protecting itself from a breakdown.”
David leaned back in his chair and considered what the officer was saying. It was much the same thing he had thought about why he had forgotten about the first time he was lost in a cave. Could he have blocked out the second experience too? Or did his mind simply block out any memories he might have of caves no matter how far apart they were.
“So you think I was so afraid of the time I spent in the cave that my mind created a mental block to make me forget what happened, and that same fear is also what made me run from you when you shined your flashlight on me?” David asked.
John shrugged, “I’m not saying that’s what I think. It’s just a possibility to explain what happened to you.”
“I can accept that as a possible reason, but what did you mean when you said I glowed?”
John was obviously embarrassed about the comment. His face flushed and he looked at his feet again. “I was walking through chamber four on my way out. I had my flashlight shining on the floor of the cave so I wouldn’t fall into a hole like Brian. I heard something moving off to my right so I stopped and shined my flashlight in that direction. I certainly didn’t think I would find you, but I did. I saw a man, a very pale man, run out of the circle of light. His entire body seemed to glow in the light, like cat’s eyes do.”
“Why did you call me a man? Why don’t you just say you saw me?” David asked.
“Because if I had to swear to it, I couldn’t be sure it was you. I assumed it was you because I didn’t know who else it might have been. But there were a few seconds when the glowing man was outside my flashlight beam before I shined it on you. The second time I was sure it was you I saw, but it wasn’t until the day after we got you out of the cave that I thought you looked more normal the second time I saw you. You still looked sick, but at least I hadn’t thought you glowed the second time I saw you.”
“Did I say anything to you?” David asked remembering what his father had said he had mumbled in the cave when he was younger.
John shook his head. “Not a word. I walked up to you and said your name. Your eyes were open, but they were blank. You didn’t even blink when I shined the flashlight directly into your eyes. I reached out and touched your shoulder and you collapsed into my arms.”
“Then you brought me out of the cave,” David added.
“Then I brought you out. I’m sorry I can’t tell you anymore to fill in that missing gap.”
“While you were looking around down there, did you see any water or food that I might have drank or eaten to stay alive?”
“No. There was nothing. From what I was told, there had to be water down there at some time to form the cave, but it’s not down there now. At least not where we looked. It’s a dry cave system.”
David held out his right hand. John lightly shook David’s hand. He still seemed a little afraid of David.
“Thank you for your time, Officer Peterson, and thank you for taking me out of the cave.” David thanked Sheriff Harding for allowing him to take up his time as well.
David stood and started out of the office. He paused at the door and said, “I have one more question, if you don’t mind. Did you see anything else down there? Any life?”
“Only you and the other searchers,” Officer Peterson replied.
“What about the first time you saw me? What did that ‘man’ look like? Why did you think he might not be me?”
John looked at Sheriff Harding with a pleading look in his eyes, then back to David. “Have you seen the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind?” David nodded. “At the end of the movie, when the alien ship has lands, everyone finally sees the alien. He’s human shaped, but just barely. He’s very white and has long fingers and very large eyes. The lights from the ship are backlighting him so that he seems to glow. That’s what I thought of when I saw you the first time in the cave.”
David suppressed a shudder. The Bow Clan had nearly killed him in the cave before he had even been rescued.
CHAPTER 22
David slowed his Camaro when the green light switched to yellow instead of flooring the gas pedal and shooting through the traffic light, which he would have done six weeks ago. When he looked in his rear-view mirror, he could see the teenager in the pickup truck behind him angrily gesturing about having to wait the thirty seconds for the light to change back to green.
Unconcerned, David settled into the seat and waited. Why should he rush through the light? What was thirty seconds of waiting to a man who couldn’t remember five weeks of his life? For once, he wasn’t hurrying to meet a client or to see Terrie. He just wanted to get the car home before it broke down again.
Besides, it would take him a little time to get used to driving again. It had been over a month since he had driven, and the last time had not been the best experience for him.
Five minutes ago, he had driven away from the sheriff’s office delighted that someone in the department had replaced the split radiator hose for him. At least something good had come out of the trip. The information Officer Peterson had been able to give him certainly was not comforting. How long had the Bow Clan been after him? A week? Two? Five? How long would his luck hold out before they were finally successful?
When David drove his car off the sheriff’s department lot, he realized he had nothing to do for the rest of the day. His parents had brought him three bags of groceries before they left yesterday. He was on short-term disability with Hayden Laboratories until the end of the month so he didn’t have to make appointments and pitch scientists for their business. Of course, he could start calling them again just to reopen the lines of communication so he didn’t have to start from scratch when he went back to work.
The light turned green and David started down Center Street at a leisurely twenty-five miles per hour. Barely through the intersection, the pickup truck came up behind him and roared past him. David shrugged and kept right on driving the speed limit.
At the corner of 400 East, he pulled his car into the parking lot of the Dairy Queen and climbed out. He walked up to the carry-out window and ordered a chocolate-dipped cone, one of his favorite sweet indulgences. The teenage cashier stared at him from behind the Dairy Queen carry-out window, and David tried not to meet her stare. He wouldn’t have minded her staring at him so much if her gaze had been a What-a-hunk! stare, but it was more of a There’s-something-weird-about-you stare.
When she returned to the window to hand David his cone, she said, “Are you David Purcell?” When David nodded, she said, “I saw you on the news a couple of nights ago. I hope you get better. You look better.”
David took a bite out of his cone, and then wiped his mouth with a napkin. “You saw me on the news?”
“Yeah, the woman reporter, Brenda...somebody. I don’t remember her last name. Anyway, she showed a tape of you in the hospital. You look a lot better now, though.”
He remembered talking with Brenda Jennings in the hospital. She had been the sexy one in the form-fitting red dress.
David pocketed his change and walked back to his car. Suddenly, the Camaro no longer looked like a fancy sports car, as it had a
year ago. It looked like a death trap. He was tempted to kick it, but with his luck with the car, he would probably break his toe. At least now he knew what he could do this afternoon.
He drove up to the corner of 300 East and 500 North and parked the Camaro in Framer’s Toyota parking lot. By the time he left the dealership three hours later, he was driving a new Corolla. It wasn’t as sporty as the Camaro, but it was dependable. And new. Hopefully, those two facts would mean he wouldn’t find himself hitchhiking on the highway anymore or signing over his paycheck to the repair shop. His mother would certainly be pleased, but David had no doubt she would still worry about him.
The Corolla was navy blue and got ten more miles to the gallon than the Camaro had. The salesman had even given him $1,500 as his trade-in for the Camaro. That, with the factory rebates and a single-digit finance rate, put the monthly payments right in his price range.
David’s first thought when he drove off the lot was to ride down to Blanding to see Terrie, but she would still be working. She never spent much time talking to anyone when she was working. Her belief was that if she wasn’t working, she wasn’t earning any tips. Besides, David wondered if he really wanted to see her. Their last meeting hadn’t been the romantic reunion he had hoped for. She had acted like she hadn’t even wanted to see him. If he saw her today, they would probably get into a fight over something petty because neither of them wanted to talk about the real problem in their relationship. David didn’t want to get married right now, and Terrie did.
Maybe it was time for him to step back and see the forest without the interference of the trees. Sure, he and Terrie had shared some wonderful, loving moments, but the important word in that thought was “had.” Those times were in the past, and the wonderful times they shared nowadays were few and far between.
Terrie was one of those people who was born, lived, and died in the same town. She would have been happy never setting foot outside of Blanding or at least San Juan County.
David could trace the problems between Terrie and him back to his job with Hayden Laboratories. His travelling had taken him out of Terrie’s small world more and more often, and she simply couldn’t handle the change. At first, she had gone with him on his trips around the region, and she had enjoyed travelling. Then he had taken her with him on an overnight trip to Denver. She had awakened him at three in the morning crying and asking to go home. That was the last time she had travelled with him out of state.
Maybe it was time he and Terrie sat down and hashed out their problems to see if any part of their relationship was left when it was over. It certainly wouldn’t be a pleasant conversation, but not many of their conversations nowadays were. At least there was a chance that they could salvage their relationship. Maybe if they could start over, things would be better.
With an afternoon to kill before Terrie would be home from work, he decided he might as well visit the cave and get it over with. Hopefully, a few more bits of memory would return to him if he actually set foot in the place again. He wondered if Adam and Sarah would want to visit the cave with him. He hoped they would. He didn’t want to go out there alone, and he couldn’t put it off. That would only make it harder to go.
If he went, he would be in a place that the Bow Clan knew. They would have the home-field advantage. He didn’t want to give them anymore of an advantage than they already had since he couldn’t remember what he had done to anger the Bow Clan and the dark kachinas in the first place.
He drove back down Center Street and headed for the highway.
CHAPTER 23
David pulled his new car off the side of the road and reread the directions Adam had given him two days ago. The directions said to turn off the road at this point, but there was no road to turn onto. David checked the trip odometer and saw that he was at the correct point so he drove off the highway into the desert. The car pulled to the right slightly when the right front tire slid off the asphalt into the dirt and grass.
In his rear-view mirror, David could see a large, brown dust cloud obscuring the pickup truck that had been tailgating him since he had crossed the median to turn around. He hoped that the redneck driver choked on the dust especially if it was the same guy who could have picked David up five weeks ago and hadn’t.
David stopped beside the beat-up, white pickup that he assumed was Adam’s. Who else would be camped out in the desert? Climbing out of his car, David stared at the tent Adam and Sarah had set up. Adam was sitting in the open under the sun. Sarah stepped out of the tent when she heard David turn off his engine.
“I thought Indians lived in tepees,” David joked.
Neither Adam or Sarah laughed. David held up his hands. “I’m sorry. I’ve just never seen an Indian sleeping in a tent. Do you have something against hotel rooms?”
“We can’t afford them. We’re not rich,” Sarah said.
“Well, don’t look at me like I’m a long, lost Rockefeller. I’m not rich myself.”
“By comparison you are,” Adam said. “What brings you out here? Have you remembered something else?”
David shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve been talking to the man who found me in the cave. He said a couple of interesting things. I was thinking about driving out to the cave where I fell in. If you and Sarah want to come along, I’ll tell you all about my conversation with Officer Peterson.”
Adam nodded. “Yes, I would like to see this cave. It is a true sipapu. We thought there was only one, but we were mistaken.”
Ten minutes later, Adam, Sarah, and David were standing outside an RV as David knocked on the door. Adam had listened to his story without comment. Sarah had said the police officer must have been blind to think that a Bow Clansman and David looked alike.
A tall, black man in dirty overalls opened the door to the RV.
“Are you in charge of the caving team?” David asked as he felt a rush of cool air from inside. He lifted his chin slightly to catch some of the cool air on the underside of his chin.
The man laughed. “Not quite. I’m Jared Chapman. Gary Morse is the group leader. He’s not around right now, though. Can I help you? You don’t look like a reporter.”
David hesitated. “I’m not. My name is David Purcell, and I...”
The man’s eyes widened slightly. “You’re the one who was lost down in the caves for all that time, aren’t you?”
David blushed. “Well, yes...”
The man grabbed his hand and shook it as he pulled David inside the RV. “Come in, David. Come in.”
Jared ushered David, Adam, and Sarah into the RV. The three of them sat down on the bench seats around the table in the RV. Jared went to the front of the RV and came back with another man. This man was young and he had his hair tied in a ponytail.
“This is Alex Parton,” Jared said as an introduction.
“What brings you back here, David?” Alex asked.
David shrugged. “I’m not sure. I guess I wanted to find out what it was like down there.”
Alex glanced at Jared then back to David. “You mean you don’t remember?”
David glanced at the floor as he blushed again. “Actually, no. Before I woke up in the hospital, the last thing I remember is falling into the hole. After that, I draw a blank.”
“You’re one lucky man, David, in more ways than one,” Jared added.
David doubted the truth of that statement. What would they say if David told them he was being pursued by hit men from the underworld?
“How so?” he asked.
“Well, there aren’t many people who could fall twenty-three feet without breaking any bones, and since you aren’t wearing a cast, I guess you’re one of them. Also, you’ve discovered what may be the largest cave system in the United States, even bigger than the Mammoth Caves in Kentucky. It should be commercially profitable, too. These caves are filled with unusual formations that people love to see, and we’ve been having a ball naming them. We’ve also found a number of unique features that will attract geologists and
cavers as well as tourists,” Alex said.
“In other words, it’s a gold mine,” Jared added.
“So you’ve explored most of the caverns?” Sarah asked.
Jared arched his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side. “Well, that’s hard to say. We’ve mapped about two miles of passages, but we have yet to find the natural entrance. In fact, we seem to be going deeper.”
“Have you ... I mean is there anything alive down there?” David asked.
Jared paused for a moment. He looked back at David and said, “There are various cave insects. Because of the absence of light and lack of food, nothing too large could live in the deepest portions of the cavern, especially not at the point we’re at.”
“So men can’t live in the caves?” David proposed hopefully. He didn’t want to believe in the Bow Clan even though he had seen him with his own eyes.
Jared nodded his head. “Impossible. Not even animals can live that deep in a cave. There’s not enough food to support large life. Because there is absolutely no light down there, no plants will grow.”
“There’s no light at the bottom of the ocean, but there are plants there...and fish, too,” David countered.
“That’s different. The oceans are still vastly unexplored so anything could happen down there. But most of the world’s caves have been explored at many different sizes and depths. If there was life, animal or plant, we would have seen the signs. Even when man was called a cave man, he only lived in the openings of the caves. Some Indian tribes used to bury their dead further back in the caves, but not miles from the entrances.”
David glanced at Adam as if to say, “See, there is no underworld. Men can’t live down there.” Adam seemed undisturbed by the conversation.
“You said there were insects in the cave,” David said.
Jared nodded. “Very small insects. They have adapted to life in the caves. They don’t need much food. They are blind, and their skins lack any pigments because none are needed in complete darkness.”