Magenta shook her head. “I’ve thought about that. I’m worried kids will use the tunnels to get in if the door is sealed. At least at this entrance you can’t get into trouble unless you go deep into the mine. Most of the stuff that’s dangerous has been removed, or blocked off.” She knew that as fact. She was the one who’d cleared the area. “I know this area is safe, but I can’t say the same for any of the other hidden entrances in these hills.”
“I’ll talk to the surveyor. See if we can’t come up with a better way to keep the entrance open.”
“I don’t think it will take much brain power to think of something better than holding the door open with a big rock.”
“Maybe we should look into blocking all the entrances and sealing the mine.”
“Good luck with finding them all.” Magenta shook her head. “No. It needs to be obvious, safe and policed. That’s the only way to stop the curious and the stupid from getting hurt.”
Matt opened his mouth to reply, but something behind her caught his attention. His shoulders slumped. “Hell no,” he muttered.
Magenta turned to find her twin best friends, Matt’s younger sisters, coming up the path. Megan was carrying two folding chairs and Claire held a large picnic basket.
“We brought snacks,” Claire called.
“This isn’t a party. Go home.” Matt glared at the twins.
“Don’t tell us what to do, Don Don,” Megan said.
“Don’t call me Don Don,” Matt said through clenched teeth.
Megan was unfazed. “It’s your name. Donald Matthew Donaldson. Suck it up.”
Matt muttered something that Magenta couldn’t quite catch, but was pretty sure was illegal.
Megan set the chairs up facing the entrance. “Who’s trapped, anyway? Anybody we know?”
Magenta took a deep breath. She knew exactly what reaction the news would get. “Harry,” she said on a sigh.
Two identical faces shared a secret look. Magenta was one of the few people who could tell the blondes apart. When she wanted to wind them up, she pretended she couldn’t. If she really wanted to annoy them, she called them Barbie One and Barbie Two. They gave her identical mischievous smiles.
“You’re going to rescue Harry? Now isn’t that interesting,” Claire said. “Especially seeing as he’s been so keen to get you alone since he came back to town.”
Magenta glared at them, wishing she had the armour of her usual black Goth outfits to hide behind. Unfortunately, there was no place for mini-dresses and platform boots in the mine.
“Mmm, Harry and Magenta locked together in a tight, dark place,” Megan said. “I wonder what could happen?” She turned to her sister. “Bodies rubbing against each other. Whispers in the dark. Good job Magenta is immune to Harry’s charms, isn’t it?” She turned back to Magenta. “You are immune, aren’t you?” She sat back in her chair and opened a bag of freshly made popcorn.
“You”—Magenta pointed at her—“are supposed to be my friend.”
“And you”—Megan pointed back—“need to wake up to what’s under your nose. He might be our annoying cousin, but even we can see that he’s prime man meat. And he’s been following you around with his tongue hanging out. Maybe if you put him out of his misery and did the dirty deed, you’d both be in a much better mood.”
“Yuck!” Matt covered his ears. “Don’t talk like that. It gives me nightmares. He’s your cousin and she’s your best friend. You shouldn’t be encouraging them. You shouldn’t know about anything even remotely connected to dirty deeds. You’re both too young to know these things. If I had my way, you two would never go near a man. Ever.”
“Yeah, you made that clear when we were growing up,” Megan said. “But we’re twenty-one, and trust me, we know all about dirty deeds.”
“La, la, la,” Matt sang as he covered his ears. “I can’t hear you. I don’t want to hear you. You’re making me want to run away screaming.”
“Oh, get a grip,” Megan said. “You should be thankful we’re so normal. After dealing with you, Harry and Flynn, it’s a miracle we’re still attracted to the opposite sex.”
“Exactly.” Claire flicked a piece of popcorn at him. “I’m still traumatised over the magazines you kept under your bed.”
Matt’s head went so red that Magenta thought it might explode. She smothered a grin as she picked up her backpack. “I need to get going. Harry is reciting the periodic table.”
She knew for a fact that he only did that when he was really nervous. She started to walk up the path to where the tunnel entrances were hidden.
“Good luck,” Megan called after her. “Don’t forget to kiss his boo-boos better.”
Magenta shook her head and kept on walking.
5
Being underground was something Harry’s brain couldn’t comprehend. Sure, he’d known he was going into the old tin mine to see Magenta, but he’d figured it would be like visiting a cave. A nice, open-plan cave. One that had been there for millions of years. A perfectly safe natural occurrence. The reality was far from the fantasy. He was trapped in a space the size of his bedroom, with very little natural light and evidence all around that this was far from nature’s doing. Someone had hacked this mine out of the hill. They’d shored it up with timber. Old timber. Timber that was probably rotting, or being eroded by mites. He was stuck in an old, badly made hole in the ground. Just the thought of it made his palms clammy and his throat close.
“Magenta’s on her way.” Matt’s voice cut through his rising panic. “Couple of hours and she’ll get to you. She’ll lead you back out through the mine. Don’t worry. You’re in good hands.”
All Harry heard were the words back through the mine. No. No way. Not going to happen. “Call her back. She’s wasting her time.” His voice sounded kind of tinny. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m walking out of that door.”
“Don’t be a drama queen.” His cousin sounded tense. “Magenta knows this mine like the back of her hand.”
Harry looked at his hand. How well did anyone know the back of their hand? If he closed his eyes he couldn’t bring up an accurate image of his, and he saw it millions of times a day. Matt’s words were not reassuring.
“I’ve done the calculations,” he told his cousin. “If this comes down on me, there won’t be a body for you to recover. I’ll be pulverised.”
There was a pause. He could almost see Matt rubbing his jaw and muttering for extra strength. “You got any alcohol in that picnic basket Betty made you pack?”
“Wine.” Red, white and sparkling. He didn’t know what Magenta drank, so he’d covered the bases. He also had bottled water and a set of miniature cans of juice and soda. The damn basket was almost as big as a car. Harry had been pleased that years of workouts meant he could carry the thing.
“Good,” Matt said. “Pop the cork on a bottle and start drinking. It would make us all a lot more comfortable if your super brain was fuzzy.”
“You’re worried what I might do in here, aren’t you?”
“Harry.” Matt sounded resigned. “You reprogrammed a car when you were six years old. We didn’t even know a car could be programmed.”
If Harry had been outside the mine, he would have smacked his cousin upside his head. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Matt, but there are no cars in here.”
“Yeah, I know that, moron, but I’m worried you’ll hatch a plan to dig your way out. Or set about reorganising your surroundings to make escape more efficient. I don’t want you involved. I want you to let the problem go. We’re dealing with it. Your job is to be the damsel in distress. Sit back, look pretty and wait to be rescued.”
Harry decided he’d deal with the “damsel in distress” dig when he didn’t have a hill hanging over his head. “I’m not drinking the wine. I read up on caving before I came in here. It said don’t go caving while drunk.”
He could practically hear Matt roll his eyes. “You’re not caving. You’re stuck behind a door, in a room, in a
hill. Think of it as a Hobbit house. Imagine you’re visiting with Bilbo. Hanging out, having a glass of wine. See? Easy. The Hobbits live in hills, and they’re fine.”
“You know Hobbits aren’t real, right?”
“You’re forgetting about Betty.” There was a thud, then a yelp. “You hit me again, old woman, and I’m arresting you for assaulting an officer.”
Betty’s cackle was loud and clear.
“Drink the wine,” Matt said. “One glass won’t hurt.”
Harry thought about it. “Okay. Maybe one glass. But you need to keep me informed about what’s happening out there. I don’t even have cell phone coverage in here. I can’t get internet access to do any research.”
“I swear your mother plugged your toes into a socket when you were born. It’s the only reason I can come up with for your obsession with all things electrical. Your head won’t explode if you don’t have access to a computer for a few hours. Drink your wine and wait for Magenta to get you out.”
“I’m not going back through the mine. I’m waiting here until that door opens.”
“Whatever,” Matt said. “You can work that out with Magenta. I’m sure she’ll be very understanding.”
Harry thumped back onto the dusty floor, pulled the basket towards him and uncorked a bottle of white wine. He didn’t care what kind or colour it was. It all tasted the same to him anyway. Like alcoholic fruit juice, or worse, vinegar. He didn’t bother with a glass; instead he brought the bottle to his lips and wished he’d thought to bring beer. In between mouthfuls he recited the periodic table, then rattled off his favourite equations. It didn’t help. So he worked on his latest programming code instead—speaking it out into the silence. Hoping the noise would fight back the anxiety he knew waited for him in the dark spaces his eyes couldn’t penetrate.
Magenta felt the calming peace of darkness enfold her as she entered the old mine. She loved everything about it, from the musty smell of untouched years to the close intimacy of the spaces she had to shimmy through. The silence of the place was an embrace for her senses, soothing her tension and easing her fears. Here, in this private world, she could relax completely. There was no one watching her. No standards to fall short of. There was no pressure to perform, or conform, or reform her personality. She could just be.
She heard Harry before she saw him. He was speaking code. Something he’d always done, his own private language. When she was a child, his soft chatter would make her feel secure, the meaningless words kind of like the babble of a brook that washed over her. Now it had the opposite effect. Harry’s deep, husky tones made her insides tingle and her skin vibrate. A disconcerting effect he’d had since he’d ridden back into town. And one she tried to ignore.
He was concentrating so hard that it took him a minute to realise the light from her hardhat had landed on him. The silence was suddenly deafening as he blinked in her direction. Magenta knew better than to shine her light in someone’s eyes, but she couldn’t move from the sight of him.
He sat propped against the wall, all lean muscle and long limbs. He wore his usual faded jeans and geek T-shirt. This one said: Physicists do it at the speed of light. She gnawed her bottom lip to stop from telling him that doing “it” at the speed of light was not an attractive prospect for most women.
“Magenta?” He sounded unsure.
“Who else would it be, Harry?” She pulled a bottle of water from her pack and gulped down half of it. “Were you expecting the dwarves? Thinking they’d come back to reclaim their mine?”
He gave her a dazzling smile. “Lord of the Rings reference. I’m impressed.”
Magenta smiled back, because she knew that Harry couldn’t see her. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the light.
“Think you can stop blinding me now?”
She switched off the light. It took a minute for her eyes to get used to the darkness. There was a faint glow coming in from a couple of cracks beside the door. It gave off enough illumination to make out shapes.
“Get on your feet,” she ordered, hoping that the faster she could get him out of there, the faster she could escape him. “We need to get going.”
He smiled, and her stomach fluttered. Harry’s smile was devastating. Sweet and sexily confident at the same time. He’d lost the guileless look of youth. Now he seemed to know things. Secret things that only a man would know.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here until they open that door.” He pointed at the door, in case she was confused.
Magenta worked to ignore the power of his smile. She folded her arms over her black T-shirt and black hooded jacket. “Stop messing around, Harry. Get up. We need to go.”
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head, his floppy honey-brown hair falling into his eyes.
“I’m getting annoyed.” She tapped the toe of her black hiking boot. “I came in here to get you out. To do that, you need to come with me.”
Even in the dim light she could see Harry’s penetrating stare. His pale grey eyes were like a beacon in the darkness. “I’m sorry you made a wasted trip. I’m not going through the mine.”
She glared at him, even though she was sure he couldn’t see it. “Why the hell not?” She infused the words with every bit of aggravation she felt.
“Because”—Harry lowered his voice, making it rumble through her body—“I’ve done the calculations and there isn’t enough air in the mine. There’s more air here.” He pointed at the cracks where light seeped in. “See, you can see it getting in. I’m staying where the air is.”
Magenta took a deep breath of Harry’s precious air and crouched down in front of him. “Harry, that isn’t your brain talking. It’s fear. You’re not being rational. The mine is full of air vents. We won’t be going too deep; there will be plenty of air. I’ve done this a lot. I know what I’m talking about. You don’t have to worry.”
He stared at her for a moment. Magenta found herself leaning towards him, as though he somehow magically pulled her closer. “It’s more logical to stay here.”
“That’s great, Mr. Spock, but we’re heading out. I’m telling you, Harry, there’s plenty of air in the tunnels and I’ll make sure you get out safely. I’ve checked these tunnels myself. They aren’t in any danger of collapse. Have I ever lied to you?”
His silver eyes met hers in a challenge. “Yeah, you lied to me. You told me I could always count on you. What was that if it wasn’t a lie?”
6
Magenta knelt on the floor beside Harry. Making sure they didn’t touch. His words had felt like a knife slicing into her. The cut cold and clean. The pain precise.
“I was thirteen,” she said. “Nobody means what they say when they’re thirteen.”
“I did. I meant everything I said to you when we were kids.”
She almost reached for him then. “You’re special, Harry. You’ve always been special. The rest of us will never meet your standards.” She took a deep breath and, without thinking, put a hand on his knee. He stilled at her touch, as though the complete focus of his super brain was suddenly on her. She snatched her hand away. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
“I can’t. It doesn’t make any sense to move from this spot. The tonnage of rock and dirt increases as you go deeper into the mine. Abandoned mines are notoriously dangerous. Without regular maintenance they’re prone to collapse, or flooding, or a build-up in dangerous gasses. The people who made this mine didn’t have equipment to survey the hill to make structurally sound decisions. The reinforcements here alone are enough to give an engineer nightmares. I can’t go further without a proper assessment. And I can’t do that without the correct equipment. I’ve made a visual survey of this area. I don’t like some of the things I see. But I figure my best chance of surviving a cave-in is here, near the entrance, so people can get to me fast to dig me out. Unless, of course, there is a massive sudden collapse, in which case I estimate I’ll be pancaked before I can worry about rescue.”
Magenta felt he
r heart sink. “You researched this before you came in here, didn’t you?”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
“Please tell me you didn’t read Wikipedia and believe everything in it.”
“Do I look like an idiot? I checked the NSS website.”
“The American caving group.” She hung her head. “You prepared for this, didn’t you? Where’s your backpack?”
He pointed to the corner. She didn’t even have to look in it to know that the contents would be the recommended list he’d found on the website.
“You do know we’re not actually caving, right? We’re in a mine. The entrance of a mine.”
He folded his arms over his broad chest, making his shoulders bulge. For a second she had an urge to bite them. Hard. She shook it off.
“Mines are worse than caves. Solution caves are the safest caves by far. The water cuts through the limestone so slowly that they are really stable. Old and stable. They hardly ever collapse. Do you have any idea how often old mines collapse?”
She didn’t, but she was pretty sure Harry did. “Get a grip, Harry. You’re being irrational. This mine is safe. I’ve been coming here for years. I wouldn’t lead you into danger. Stop being a wimp and get your backside in gear. I’ve got better things to do than coax you into leaving.”
He folded his arms and gave her that same stubborn look he’d given her when they were kids. “You go. I’ll stay.” He gestured to the basket. “I have food. Water. More than enough for two days.”
Magenta dug her fingers into her hair and tugged it. “I can’t leave you here. I’m the rescue. I came in here to get you.”
“Thanks. I mean it. I appreciate the effort. But I’m staying right here.”
Magenta shot to her feet. The urge to kick him was strong. “You have got to be the most infuriating man on the planet. You’ve been harassing me to talk to you for weeks, and here I am. All you have to do is walk out with me and we can talk all the way back through the mine.” She snatched her bag up from the ground. “This is your last chance. You need to get up and follow me or I’m leaving without you. And you can kiss goodbye to any chat we might have.”
Magenta Mine: An Invertary Novella Page 3