by Nancy Widrew
“The dropline,” he repeated. “You’ll see in a minute.” Before Karen could press him further, Randy scampered up and away like a squirrel on a tree. Moments later the line appeared: a loose end of spider rope attached to the web above. Randy called out, “Just secure it around your waist, lean out, brace your feet against the wall, and pull with a hand-over-hand motion.”
Karen blanched.
“I’ll go first,” said Jeremy. Following the directions, he made it to the web without any problems. After linking his arms and legs inside the netting, he threw the line to Karen, who groaned with the effort, her muscles still sore from her exertion a mere day and a half earlier.
Both safely up, Karen and Jeremy paused to familiarize themselves with the zigzag pattern of the web as Randy continued the climb.
“We better get going,” said Karen, worried about the time.
Jeremy nodded and tucked the flashlight in his pocket for safekeeping. “Dammit,” he said. “Now I can barely see a thing.”
“Follow the glow from Randy’s body,” said Karen, “and I’ll guide you from here.” Click-clicking like a mechanical clock, she called out instructions. “Move your right foot to the left,” she said. “No, that’s too much. Okay, stop.” Then moments later: “Now move your right hand up a few inches. Good. Now take your left foot. Move it a little to the right. No left. Sorry …”
As Jeremy gained confidence he continued on, while Karen proceeded at a slower, more cautious speed, pausing to rest when muscles cramped or a moment of panic set in. Wiping her face, she reminded herself to keep it angled up, away from the ground below. Finally level with Jeremy, she patted his hand and the twosome pressed on, making it to the top, just past the hour mark. While Karen beamed, Jeremy, unable to believe their success, flung himself to the ground as if it were his lover. Randy, already up, had thoughtfully lit a match.
Karen stared at the boy’s face, admiration in her voice. “There’s no way, we could have done this without you, and I want you to know that I’m—I mean, Jeremy and I are both grateful.”
Randy flushed. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ve been climbing half my life. That’s why I’m good. I swear I don’t have any mutations. Anyway, we’re done with spider ropes and webs. You two ready to move on?”
Jeremy nodded yes. Karen did likewise, despite the pain in her joints.
“We’ll be maneuvering among ledges for a while,” Randy warned. To Karen he said, “Since we took a different route today we’re on the far side of the cave mountain. We need to head back toward the ladders.”
With Randy in the lead, Karen and Jeremy followed close behind, the flashlight playing a more pivotal role since the benefit from the mushrooms was wearing off. But working as a team, the threesome fashioned a system for long jumps. Before each hurdle, Jeremy gave Karen the flashlight so she could shine it across the abyss where Randy, already on the other side, stood candle in hand. This way Jeremy could gauge the distance between the two points.
Emboldened by their success, they continued full tilt until Karen, feeling her lungs on fire, called for a halt. Jeremy, too, welcomed the break, and the couple stood, gulping air. When Karen’s breathing slowed to normal, she reached for Jeremy to return the flashlight. Thinking it was already in his grip, she opened her fingers. It wasn’t until she heard a thump, followed by the disappearing light that she realized her mistake and gasped.
Karen’s brain scrambled, rendering her unable to speak. Jeremy, however, wasn’t. “You idiot!” he roared, raising his hand as if to smack her. Immediately, Randy stepped between them, allowing time for a question and an ugly image to form in Karen’s brain.
“You were going to hit me. You promised you’d never do it again.”
“I wasn’t. I swear!”
Karen’s eyes filled with tears, her chest heaved in and out.
“You don’t believe me?” asked Jeremy.
“It’s just that you looked so … no, never mind. I’ll take you at your word. “But what do we do now? Do we have to go back?”
“Never!” he bellowed. “I’d rather die.” Angry again, the veins in his temple bulged like knotted cords, and he reached into his pocket to take out a candle. “There” he said, lighting it, shoving it into her face. “This will have to do.” Karen hung her head.
Like couples who’ve become too familiar, Karen and Jeremy resumed their upward trek in silence. Randy pointed to the next challenge: jumping between ridges with narrow, level plateaus at their tops. Karen, immersed with guilt, grabbed the candle and bolted before anyone could stop her, displaying a reckless disregard for her safety. The rushing air snuffed out the flame as she soared in space. “Karen!” she heard Jeremy scream before landing safely. She relit the wick, clicked, and scoured his face now drained of color, causing her to wonder if he was more concerned for her or the possible loss of the candle.
In an attempt to heal the rift, Jeremy promptly jumped and went to her side. Tilting her head, he kissed her lips. “Don’t ever do that again. I thought you were gone for sure. And I’m sorry for blaming you for dropping the flashlight. It was my fault as much as yours. I love you, Karen.”
Karen choked back a cry. “Don’t lie to me, Jeremy. You love Mary. I heard you in the chapel.”
“No, I love you. Okay, so Mary too, but it’s the cave that changed everything. I swear. It does funny things to you.”
“Maybe it just caused us to be who we really are.”
“That’s crazy talk. Don’t say that.” He pulled her closer.
Karen looked into his eyes, searching for something to hold on to, but all she saw was a blank canvass and pulled away, despondent.
“Let’s finish this talk later,” said Jeremy. “What time is it?”
Karen looked at her watch. “Oh, my God! It’s just after four.”
“Jesus!” said Jeremy. “We’d better get going. Rahm and Norman are both early risers.”
The small group finished the scaling and jumping without any further mishaps thanks in part to Randy’s good judgment. Earlier he had the presence of mind to place extra mushrooms in his pockets, and the threesome passed them around, rubbing them on their hands and fingertips.
“That was smart of you,” said Karen, praising his foresight. “How much farther do we have to go?”
Randy pointed to a gray wall, which looked like so many others. “Don’t you know where you are?”
Karen looked around. “No. Should I?” Hearing a familiar clang, she turned her face to the ceiling and stared at the very hole where Randy had so recently flung a candle in disgust. “The ladders,” she said. “We’re close to the ladders. We’re near the end.”
Jeremy looked up, straining to see.
Randy explained there were four more levels connected with rope ladders having metal rungs. “Regular ladders not spidery ones,” he added. “A few of the steps are rusted and some are missing so you need to be extra careful, but Norman still comes this way often, and remember, I do, too, to gather the vegetables.”
Karen sighed while Jeremy stared in disbelief, the lines on the outer sides of his eyes wrinkling like tiny birds’ feet.
“It’s okay,” said Randy. “Really!”
“What’s holding the ladders up?” asked Jeremy.
“They’re bolted at the top of each level. You climb by straddling one edge of a ladder, locking your hands and feet into the rungs. That’s the best way. Oh … there’s that small vertical chasm to climb first, but it’s a piece of cake since Rahm left some spider glue inside. Ready?”
Karen and Jeremy nodded solemnly while Randy, teeming with youthful energy, bounded up the sticky wall. Minutes later he stood waiting, an archetype of vigor, as his compatriots emerged to join him on an even surface with a high ceiling. “See,” he said. “Like I told you. Piece of cake.”
Jeremy took a moment to stretch his back. Looking down at his hands, he was dismayed to find the final effect from the mushrooms gone. His mouth sagged, but hearing the iron r
ungs creak in their worn-out sockets, his face lit up and he began running in their direction as if angels were leading the way. “Hurry up,” he yelled to Karen. “You’re slowing us down.”
Karen steamed at the rebuke. She wanted to scream, I’m pregnant you idiot, but, as usual, shame held her back. Instead she yanked hard on Jeremy’s sweatshirt, still binding her middle, and barreled ahead.
Arriving at the first of the four ladders, she looked up, sending out her voice. She bit her lip at its flimsy construction, two vertical ropes about twenty-feet long with horizontal bars flapping in the wind. She didn’t like what she saw but kept it to herself.
“Here I go,” said Randy, after demonstrating the technique at the bottom. To ensure safety, they all understood that only one person would climb at a time. “Rungs five and seven are corroding,” he cautioned as he made his way up. “Don’t cut your fingers on them. And number twelve is completely missing,” he added moments later. Karen and Jeremy yelled back up, acknowledging that they had heard.
With the candle in his pocket, Jeremy started his ascent, mumbling a prayer of thanks for his enhanced sense of touch.
Karen, clicking feverously, offered valuable tips from below, while she waited for her turn. “Watch out for the protruding rock above your head,” she warned, “and slow down. Remember what you told me: ‘three limbs on the ladder at all times.’”
Karen wiped her sweaty palms on her pants before beginning her turn. She ran her voice over an area of rope beginning to fray, holding her breath until she passed it by. Farther up, she stopped to push an annoying hair out of her eye. Forcing herself, she moved along at a steady pace, conquering one ladder then another, until arms trembling, she called for a break at the midpoint level before collapsing like a broken folding chair.
Jeremy nervously twisted his hands together, repeatedly inquiring about the time since being caught and brought back to enemy territory would be tantamount to a death sentence.
Karen, in turn, forced herself to put aside her anxiety and exhaustion, knowing the dangerousness of her surroundings required total concentration, with no room for mistakes. She signaled she was ready to continue. They moved on.
“One more ladder and we’re there,” yelled Randy, now waiting at the third level with Jeremy beside him. They stepped aside to allow enough space for Karen to join them in the wall’s recess. “Oh, my God,” she said, barely believing how their luck was holding out.
Jeremy planted a kiss on his wife’s face and, laughing playfully, placed one on Randy’s too. The boy, subsequently, held out his right hand to be shaken like a man’s before heading up.
As Jeremy waited below with one foot on the bottom rung for the okay to proceed, he turned toward Karen. The glint in his eyes shifted to a serious one. “I didn’t know we could do this,” he confessed. “To tell you the truth, I’ve had my doubts, about me, you, Randy.” Karen stared back, too dazed and stunned to speak, knowing she had had her doubts too.
Karen, clicking continuously, observed as Jeremy made his way to the very top of the last ladder and stepped onto solid, sacred ground. Having arrived at this longed-for destination, a place he wasn’t sure he’d ever see again, he kissed the brown earth and called to his wife below. “Karen,” he cried, tears streaming his face, “I’m sitting next to Randy. Hurry! I think I see some light.”
“I’m coming,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion. Randy had already yelled down about the two broken rungs, numbers eight and ten. Karen, now on heightened alert, took the necessary precautions. Flexing her biceps and quads, she grunted from the physical and mental strain as she successfully maneuvered past both problems, but as she placed her heel on rung thirteen, the step gave way without any warning, sending her foot down to twelve which also gave way from the force of the impact. Her leg hit a jagged edge of metal, slicing through her pants into her ankle. She shrieked in pain, but managed to hang on to the frame of the ladder and drag herself up while she felt for a new foothold. The ladder twisted in the breeze and the uneven stress loosened one of its two anchors at the top.
Still, she held on despite the shooting, knifelike sensation now running along her calf. She found the next rung and continued to climb. Then disaster hit as the final anchor gave way.
Instinctively, with no time to panic, her arms shot out, searching for a protruding rock, a tree root, or anything to grab on to, but all she found was smooth earth. Yet somehow her body stuck to the wall as the ladder crashed below with a sickening boom. She remained still, hugging the flat surface for dear life, afraid to move, afraid to die. Something unfathomable was holding her up, and while grateful for this unexplained lifeline, her mind remained blank, unable to grasp what it was, until moments later, she opened her mouth in a silent scream as the truth sunk in with a knockout punch. Although she had lived underground for less than a year, her body now betrayed her thanks to a syrupy liquid seeping from her pores, its concentrated adhesive bursting with enough strength to support her weight.
“K-Karen,” Jeremy called from above, frantic, his pitch rising to a sickening squeal.
The alarm in his voice zapped her back. “I’m here,” she said, slowly moving one sticky hand then the other and finally her knees, the glue coming right through the material of her pants.
Like links in a chain, Jeremy seized Randy’s legs while the boy reached down and grabbed Karen by the wrists. Together they hauled her the final few feet to the tippy top where she slumped, physically safe but broken in spirit.
She lay immobile, like a torn rag doll tossed to the floor amidst broken bric-a-brac. Looking at Randy, lips pinched together in a seal, Karen suspected he knew something was amiss. In contrast, Jeremy’s face lit up like Christmas lights as he scooped her in his arms, hugging her wet, sticky body, oblivious to its sweeping changes.
“We did it,” he cried, fists pumping the air. “We’re free!”
Karen sat up and tried to speak, to confess her ugly transformation, but Jeremy rushed on. “Look,” he said, pointing. “Can you see the light?”
She tilted her head, squinted her eyes, and, yes, she could make out a trace of sunrise down the passageway.
“Go on,” she said, panting, too exhausted to move. “I’ll be right there.”
Jeremy protested, but barely. “You sure? I shouldn’t leave you like this.”
“It’s okay. I just need another minute.”
Seizing the sacrifice, he let go of her hand, ran a finger along her cheek before beginning to walk. Within moments, he switched to a run when just ahead lay his salvation, and now no one, not Karen, not Mary, not the devil or God himself, would stand in his way.
Rousing herself, Karen got to her knees then stood erect, using the wall for support. She walked like a drunkard, lurching from side to side. The mud seeped into her shoes, caked her clothes, chafing like cardboard against her skin. She stumbled, caught herself, and continued on. A stone’s throw away, she saw Jeremy, standing tall and strong like a god, staring up at the sky before pulling himself through the hole.
“Karen,” he yelled. “I’m up. Randy’s up too. We did it!”
“I’m coming,” she whispered, speaking so feebly she barely heard herself. The narrowness of the tunnel precluded any echoes, but the cave’s silence, a sham, fought back when just a shiver away, the sound of a steady, distinctive gait—one short step followed by a longer, heavier one—increased into a crescendo and proceeded with the determination of a healthy heartbeat. Karen’s eyes opened with fear and she moved on, staggering toward the light. She was almost there when a sharp pain in her lower region caused her to double over, her elbows pressing against her knees, her hands against her ears.
She had been expecting this. Mary had called it “engagement,” where the baby’s head drops low into its mother’s pelvis a few weeks before delivery in first-time pregnancies. Good, she thought, eager to get the birth experience over with, but as she pressed down on her abdomen, more pasty goo seeped out. The near-term fe
tus kicked back in response and Karen shuddered with the sudden and overwhelming knowledge of the father’s true identity. Looking down and in, with a skill similar to Mary’s, one she didn’t know she possessed until this very moment, she saw the startling image of her little one, a far cry from the perfect babies pictured in magazines. Karen, horrified, bit down on her fist as tiny, budlike wings scraped the lining of the cocoon growing inside her.
“Oh, God,” she moaned. “My poor little baby. My poor little baby.”
“Karen,” Jeremy repeated from above. “What’s going on?”
Blinking through tear-streaked eyes, she looked up to see him, waiting for her in the mouth of the cave.
“Karen,” she heard again, this time coming from a different person, one with a country drawl, and, as Karen surmised, the bearer of the distinctive gait. Wheeling around toward the hidden figure, standing behind a bend, she wondered, Why isn’t he coming for me? Why is he waiting so patiently? Then she understood. He was presenting her with a choice: the worst possible scenario. And why? Was he acknowledging he had made a mistake with the abduction or did he just realize he could no longer hold her against her will? And what was he offering? It didn’t matter. She already knew—had known for some time that she was one of life’s losers, a reject, a mistake, and now her baby too.
Protectively, she ran her hand across her swollen belly, cooing, “I’ll never let anyone hurt you. Mommy loves you.”
Rahm emerged from the shadows, moving closer, clicking, listening.
Karen screamed at Him. “You stay away! The baby’s mine! Mine!”
“Come back with me, Karen. For the baby’s sake. Our baby. You know it’s for the best. Here. Take this. It’s for you.”
Instinctively, Karen reached out and took hold of the offering: a stone, similar to those worn by the women below. “What the …?”
“Look carefully. It’s finer than all the other stones in the cave. I found it recently near the pearls you so admired on the day you let me love you; it has a slight blemish, but that’s what makes it unique. And just as important, it doesn’t fall apart when it’s not in the water. Come back with me, Karen. I promise to treasure you and the baby, always.”