Summary: After sixteen-year-old Adam discovers a mysterious cave, disturbing events follow.<\/p>\n
5940 words\u00a0 Rating K<\/p>\n
Written for the 2017 BoNaNo.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Premonition<\/strong><\/p>\n It sure was hot!<\/p>\n Adam took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his face with his arm.\u00a0 Too hot to be riding around looking for strays. Too hot to do anything, except maybe lie by the lake with a fishing rod and a good book. \u00a0Why hadn\u2019t that been on Pa\u2019s list of chores for the day?<\/p>\n He straightened his back to ease out the kinks, ran his hand through his damp hair, and pushed his hat back down on his head with a sigh of resignation.\u00a0 Strays.\u00a0 That was what he was supposed to be doing.\u00a0 He scanned the area around him with an obligatory glance: grass, brush, rocks, but nothing moving.<\/p>\n A shadow among the rocks caught his eye.\u00a0 For a moment, the dust and heat and boredom of the day was forgotten.\u00a0 He had just turned sixteen and there was still enough of the boy in him to be excited by the prospect of a cave.<\/p>\n Leaving his horse to graze, he clambered up the rocky slope.\u00a0 The opening in the rocks was more visible now, bigger than he\u2019d thought, high and narrow.\u00a0 Cautiously, he examined the ground in front of the cave\u2014he had no desire to find himself face to face with a bear or a lion\u2014but there was no evidence of tracks of any kind.\u00a0 Loosening the gun in his holster, just in case, he slipped between the rocks.\u00a0 Instantly, the day became cooler.\u00a0 He paused just inside the entrance and cast his eyes around.<\/p>\n His excitement evaporated.\u00a0 The cave\u2019s interior was no more than a tall, shallow indentation in the rock, about eight feet deep.\u00a0 Never mind, he consoled himself, at least he was out of the glare of the midday sun, if only briefly.\u00a0 He leaned back against the stone wall, savoring the contrast between his shady refuge and the bleached brightness of the world beyond.\u00a0 Reluctant to head back into the relentless heat straight away, he let his eyes wander over the walls and ceiling of the little cave.\u00a0\u00a0 Rock.\u00a0 Just bare, gray rock.\u00a0 Except\u2026.<\/p>\n He pushed himself upright, peering hard into the rear of the cave.\u00a0 What was that, just up there?\u00a0 About three feet off the ground.\u00a0 A smudge of darkness in the shadow of the back wall.\u00a0 Was that another opening, leading deeper into the rock?<\/p>\n He moved closer.\u00a0 The wall was solid to the height of his waist; above that was a shelf and a vertical slot, not large, but plenty wide enough for a slim youth.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t hold out much hope that his discovery would yield any more than a narrow niche, but in the heat of the day, cave exploration was a more appealing occupation than riding around looking for strays, so he put his hands to the rock shelf and levered himself upwards till he was kneeling on the ledge.<\/p>\n In front of him was a passage with plenty of headroom, and just about wide enough that he could slide into it sideways.\u00a0 He\u2019d had the foresight to bring with him the matches from his saddlebag.\u00a0 He took one out now and struck it.\u00a0 The narrow passageway stretched away in front of him as far as the light of the match showed, which wasn\u2019t very far.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t a reckless boy, but the tunnel didn\u2019t look dangerous or particularly difficult, so he slid into the gap and inched his way along sideways, convinced that the passage would soon narrow down and become impassable.\u00a0 The match expired.\u00a0 He could still see the bright slit of the cave opening behind him, but in front was blackness.<\/p>\n With his left hand extended and his heart beating fast with excitement, he felt his careful way along the cold rock.\u00a0 After a few feet, the passage curved left and the ground went down beneath his feet.\u00a0 The reassuring slit of sunshine was lost to view.\u00a0 He took out the matches and struck another.<\/p>\n He was in a second cave, bigger than the first, but still small enough that his lighted match showed him walls all around.\u00a0 The floor was surprisingly even, although it sloped down towards the back of the cave, and in the limited light from the match, he spotted what looked like several clay pots lined up against one wall.<\/p>\n He took the few strides needed to cross the cave and dropped down on one knee, just as the match burned his fingers.<\/p>\n \u201cOuch!\u201d he muttered, but his mind was on the thrill of his discovery rather than his scorched thumb.\u00a0 He struck a third light, and there on the ground in front of him were half a dozen crude ceramic jars of different shapes and sizes.\u00a0 A couple were empty but had obviously held liquid once from the stains and tide marks around the insides; one wide-necked jar held a collection of miniature bones and tiny skulls, seemingly those of small birds and rodents; another was half-full of ash; a fifth held an assortment of stones, all small and unremarkable except for the fact they all had holes through them; and in the final pot\u2014he had to light a fresh match for the last jar\u2014was a carved, cylindrical object, no more than four inches in length, and a pale ivory-white in color.\u00a0 He picked it up and turned it over in his hand.\u00a0 Not ivory; bone more like; and carved all the way around with an intricate coiled design.\u00a0 Just as his match burned out again, he realized the carving represented the skeleton of a snake.<\/p>\n Pocketing the little curiosity, he straightened up in the darkness, fishing for his remaining matches.\u00a0 There were only three left.\u00a0 He struck a light and jumped back, startled.\u00a0 There in front of him on the cave wall, at head height, was a strange image.<\/p>\n He\u2019d seen cave paintings before, mostly animals and hunting scenes, but this creature resembled a man, with a skull for a head.\u00a0 Its long white robe was painted white and there were black feathers at its waist.\u00a0 Empty sockets where eyes should have been gaped at him above the grim leer of a fleshless mouth.<\/p>\n It was only a crude painting, but as he stared at it, a gust of cold air passed by him, snuffing out his match.\u00a0 His heart froze.\u00a0 As blackness engulfed him, the image of the strange creature burned in his mind and came alive, so that he was certain he sensed its presence in the cave.\u00a0 A strange rattling sound filled the cavern, like hundreds of dry bones tapping one against the other.<\/p>\n The hairs rose on the back of his neck.\u00a0 Blind in the darkness, he stumbled back across the cave and collided with a wall. \u00a0Groping across the rough surface, irrational panic gripped him.\u00a0 Where was the passageway?\u00a0 Panting with fear, he almost sobbed with relief when his hands encountered empty space.\u00a0 Scrambling and stumbling in the narrow tunnel, he banged his head, elbows and knees, and scraped skin from both sets of knuckles, but he had no thought other than to get back into the light.<\/p>\n Ahead of him, a sliver of light grew wider.\u00a0 He all but fell out of the tunnel into the first chamber, scurrying like a hunted animal out of the mouth of the cave into the welcome warmth and brightness of the sunshine.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until he was back in his saddle that his racing heart began to slow.\u00a0 Reluctantly, he turned his head to look back at the cave entrance, but there was nothing there.\u00a0 In fact, it looked unremarkable, almost hidden from view unless he looked closely enough.<\/p>\n \u201cIdiot!\u201d he chided himself, and tried to make himself smile at his own foolishness, but that fool side of him still had the upper hand, and the terror had not yet departed.\u00a0 Not completely.<\/p>\n There was nothing to be frightened about, he told himself sternly.\u00a0 There was a logical explanation for everything.\u00a0 The cold draught that blew through the cave, there was probably an opening elsewhere in the rock and that gust of air had simply been a through-draft.\u00a0 And the rattling sound?\u00a0 He frowned to himself.\u00a0 Snakes maybe.\u00a0 The thought was disturbing, but at the same time unconvincing.\u00a0 He knew the sound of a rattlesnake.\u00a0 What he\u2019d heard in that cave was not that sound.<\/p>\n When he got home, he showed the carved stick to Pa and Marie.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s bone,\u201d said Pa, confirming what Adam had thought.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty.\u201d \u00a0Marie turned it over in her hand, admiring the snake design. \u201cWhere did you find it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA cave,\u201d he told her.\u00a0 \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a lot there.\u00a0 Just a few old pots with animal bones, stones, that kind of thing.\u00a0 And this.\u201d\u00a0 For some reason he couldn\u2019t explain, he didn\u2019t mention the painting.\u00a0 He\u2019d imagined he would, but when it came to it, just remembering made him shudder inside.\u00a0 Nor did he tell them of the childish terror that had driven him from the place.\u00a0 Embarrassed by his own foolish behavior, he had no intention of humiliating himself further by sharing it with anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s go back,\u201d begged Hoss, eyes shining with excitement.\u00a0 \u201cWe can take a lamp and a rope and explore it real good.\u00a0 There might be hidden treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe\u2019s eyes grew wide at the idea of treasure.\u00a0 \u201cI want to come,\u201d he insisted, scowling when his mother laughed at the absurdity of a four-year-old exploring hidden caves.<\/p>\n Adam shrugged the idea aside.\u00a0 \u201cNot sure I can even remember where it was,\u201d he said, although he remembered perfectly well.\u00a0 \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t very exciting, really.\u00a0 Apart from this bone, there was nothing else particularly interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He was barely sixteen, yet he\u2019d been grown up for a long time.\u00a0 He\u2019d had to be.\u00a0 His early years, traveling west with his father, had exposed him to hardships and experiences most children never had to face.\u00a0 And when Inger died, there had been a baby to care for too.\u00a0 Then a home to build in the wilderness, food to be found, money to be earned.\u00a0 It had made him into a tough, pragmatic, sensible young man, not one prone to flights of fancy or fits of hysteria, so why that night was he visited by a dream so vivid he woke in a cold sweat, trembling with fear?<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t recall most of the dream; just the last part, where he was in the yard, unloading supplies from the wagon.\u00a0 Pa was there, and Hoss and Hop Sing.\u00a0 First, he had heard the strange rattling noise, and then, just as in the cave earlier that day, a cold breath of wind stirred the dust at his feet and seemed to penetrate straight into his belly.\u00a0 He turned his head, and there in front of the corral stood the creature from the painting.\u00a0 Long robe of dirty white, belt adorned with black feathers, and a necklace of small bones around its neck.\u00a0 On its head was a mask, fringed with more black feathers, and painted in the crude representation of a skull.\u00a0 In its left hand it cradled a human skull, and in its right, a wooden rattle.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t speak or move, yet all happiness evaporated from Adam\u2019s soul and he was filled instead with dread and desolation.\u00a0 That was when he awoke, distraught, bedewed with the cold sweat of terror.\u00a0 And even after he had reminded himself repeatedly that it had been just a dream, it was a long time before the panic abated and his heart ceased to pound like a frightened child\u2019s, and he dared risk closing his eyes again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The hot weather continued.\u00a0 If anything, it grew warmer.\u00a0 The heat made even the simplest jobs twice as tiring.\u00a0 The ranch had expanded rapidly the last few years, and even though they had taken on more hired hands to help with the workload, they were still busy from dawn to dusk.\u00a0 He was used to hard work, but still Adam found his gaze lingering longingly over the small pile of new books that had arrived for him weeks before and still lay unread on his desk.\u00a0 He had long harbored a secret hope that one day he might go to college, but with the ranch growing the way it was, he could only sigh regretfully as his dream slipped like sand from his grasp.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t complain.\u00a0 They lived comfortably.\u00a0 The ranch thrived, and in spite of his young age, he was his father\u2019s right-hand man, with a special bond between.\u00a0 They had endured so much together in their years of traveling, and they had worked shoulder to shoulder to build what they now had.\u00a0 Adam was proud of that.\u00a0 Proud of his father.\u00a0 Proud of himself too, for what they had achieved.\u00a0 And now his father had Marie, and there was Little Joe to tie them all together; life should have been complete.\u00a0 But for that unfulfilled dream.<\/p>\n He was fixing the wagon bed in the yard.\u00a0 It was as if Pa read his thoughts because he came out of the barn and clapped his arm around Adam\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n \u201cGood job, son.\u201d\u00a0 He released his hold and leaned over to inspect Adam\u2019s handiwork, testing the boards with his hands.\u00a0 \u201cThat should do the job.\u201d\u00a0 Looking back at his son, he smiled.\u00a0 \u201cYou look hot.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam shook drops of perspiration from his hair and grinned, as if to prove the point.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t you take your brothers down to the lake and cool off for an hour or two?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam thought about the list of chores he still had to tackle.\u00a0 Once again, it was as if Pa saw what he was thinking.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing here that can\u2019t wait.\u00a0 You\u2019ve been working flat out these last few days, you deserve some time off.\u00a0 And Hoss and Little Joe will be over the moon if you take them with you.\u00a0 Go on, have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n He needed no second telling.\u00a0 Within an hour, the three of them were up to their necks in the deliciously cool waters of the lake.\u00a0 On a hot day, there was no better place to be, for sure, even if there was no peace because Hoss and Little Joe enjoyed no game so much as trying to sink their older brother under the surface.<\/p>\n \u201cRight!\u201d he hollered, emerging from the depths after Hoss had sprung out of the water beneath him and tugged him down.\u00a0 \u201cMy turn to duck you now!\u201d<\/p>\n The watery battle that ensued wasn\u2019t as one-sided as it might have been considering the differences in their ages and relative sizes.\u00a0 In these contests, it was always two against one:\u00a0 Hoss, stocky and strong for his ten years, and Little Joe, small but agile, and a master at the art of squirming, especially when wet. \u00a0United against their wily older brother, they were a formidable team, and by the time he\u2019d succeeded in submerging them both, they were all out of breath and weak from shouting and laughing.<\/p>\n They flopped in the shallows to recover their breath, then Adam stretched out on the beach, the sun on his chilled skin no longer a trial but a pleasure, while Hoss entertained Little Joe by dipping his face in the water and gurgling songs.<\/p>\n He must have dozed.\u00a0 He had no idea for how long, but he was jolted back to wakefulness by a sudden awareness of a faint, clacking rattle.\u00a0 He jerked upright to a sitting position.\u00a0 There on a boulder, twenty feet away, stood a figure masked and gowned, arms raised, eyes blank and staring in its painted skull of a face.\u00a0 Eyes as empty as death.<\/p>\n His skin prickled, despite the heat.\u00a0 He sprang to his feet.\u00a0 The scorching sun was still high overhead.\u00a0 In the lake, back to the shore, stood Hoss, waist-deep and still, absorbed by something only he could see.\u00a0 A few feet behind him, face down in the shallows, floated the motionless body of Little Joe.<\/p>\n He plunged into the lake, seized the unresisting child around his middle and hauled him, limp and dripping, clear of the water. \u00a0Joe\u2019s body slumped in his arms, a deadweight, as lifeless as a sack of grain.<\/p>\n He thought of Marie.\u00a0 He thought of Pa.\u00a0 Despair, like grief, rose in his throat.<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, don\u2019t you be dead!\u201d he cried aloud, thumping his brother hard between the shoulder blades as if to reprimand him for being drowned.<\/p>\n Water spurted from Joe\u2019s nose and mouth.\u00a0 To Adam\u2019s surprise and eternal relief, he took a gulp of air and sprang back to life.\u00a0 The world that had closed in around them, once more expanded, and Adam saw the lake again, the mountains, the pine trees.\u00a0 Once again, he felt the heat of the sun on his back.\u00a0 And there was Hoss, white-faced and frozen in horror.<\/p>\n It was a few seconds before Adam could speak, and when he did, relief exploded out of him in an outburst of vitriol.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was right behind you, Hoss.\u00a0 Why weren\u2019t you watching him?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t you see him?\u00a0 He could have drowned!\u201d<\/p>\n He set Joe down on the beach, took him by the shoulders and shook him, so that droplets of water flew out in a small shower around him. \u00a0\u201cWhat were you doing, you idiot?\u00a0 You can swim.\u00a0 Why were you just lying there?\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe rubbed water from his eyes and stared mutely.<\/p>\n Hoss, who\u2019d followed them to shore, said in a shaky voice, \u201cI was looking after him, Adam.\u00a0 I was.\u00a0 I promise.\u00a0 I was just watching the fish, that\u2019s all.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know he was under the water.\u201d\u00a0 His mouth trembled, tears brimmed in his frightened eyes.<\/p>\n Adam looked at them both and saw their misery.\u00a0 He rubbed at his own face and realized his hands were shaking.\u00a0 Lifting his eyes, he looked behind his brothers to the boulder where he\u2019d seen the masked creature, but the rocks were empty.\u00a0 For a few moments, no one said anything, then Hoss\u2019s small voice said, \u201cSorry, Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n He looked down at his ten-year-old brother and the anger evaporated.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all right,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cIt wasn\u2019t your fault.\u00a0 I should have been watching him too.\u201d\u00a0 He turned his gaze on the youngest member of the family.\u00a0 Shoulders drooped, hair dripping, Little Joe eyed him warily, no doubt braced for further reprimand.\u00a0 Adam dropped down on his haunches in front of the boy.\u00a0 \u201cCome here, Little Joe.\u00a0 Are you all right?\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe gave a nod and let himself be embraced.\u00a0 He seemed oblivious to the drama that had caused his big brother\u2019s outburst, but cowed by Adam\u2019s anger.\u00a0 Holding the child made Adam feel better.\u00a0 Over Joe\u2019s shoulder, he addressed Hoss.<\/p>\n \u201cDid you\u2026did you see anyone?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss looked blank.<\/p>\n Adam gestured with his head. \u201cOver there, by those rocks.\u00a0 Did you see\u2026anyone\u2026over there?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss brushed the tears from his face and shook his head.\u00a0 Adam breathed in deeply and gave a little nod.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s all right,\u201d he told him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry I was angry.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mean to be.\u00a0 I was just worried, that\u2019s all.\u00a0 Don\u2019t cry; it wasn\u2019t your fault.\u00a0 Come on, let\u2019s get dressed.\u00a0 Time to head back.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss and Joe bounced back from their fright with remarkable resilience.\u00a0 Adam couldn\u2019t quite shake off the shock as quickly, but it was comforting to see the younger boys returning to their normal selves, Hoss laughing when Joe buttoned his shirt all wrong.\u00a0 The shirt was a hand-me-down and way too large, and even Adam had to smile at the copious fabric draped crookedly around Joe\u2019s small frame.<\/p>\n By the time they were mounted on their horses and heading away from the lake, it seemed to Adam only he was still troubled by what had happened.\u00a0 Even for him, relief was fast overtaking horror, and he could laugh again and join in the silly banter of his brothers.\u00a0 But always, at the edge of his mind was a shadow, shrouded and masked.\u00a0 And when he thought about that shadow, he shivered.\u00a0 Had the dread he felt been a premonition of Joe\u2019s death?\u00a0 Was that creature there to warn him of his brother\u2019s doom, or had it come to claim the small boy?\u00a0 Adam looked over at the child, giggling now at one of Hoss\u2019s jokes, as full of bubbling energy as he had ever been.\u00a0 Whatever that figure had meant as it stood on the shore of the lake, Little Joe was alive and well, and for that he had to be thankful.\u00a0 A small surge of jubilation warmed his middle, and for a moment the lingering fear was banished.\u00a0 Maybe he had overreacted, after all.\u00a0 Joe hadn\u2019t drowned.\u00a0 Maybe he hadn\u2019t even been close to drowning.\u00a0 Maybe he\u2019d only gone under the water seconds before Adam awoke, and there had never really been any crisis, except in Adam\u2019s mind.\u00a0 The kid had offered no sensible explanation.\u00a0 Once he\u2019d gotten over the immediate trauma, he\u2019d shrugged off any further probing, as though he genuinely had no understanding that he\u2019d been in any danger.<\/p>\n He wouldn\u2019t mention the incident to Pa, decided Adam as they neared home.\u00a0 Pa would only be worried, and maybe cross, and if the incident had been more in Adam\u2019s imagination than for real, what was the point?\u00a0 He\u2019d allowed that apparition to unnerve him, back at the lake, and maybe that had been no more than the tail end of a dream after all.\u00a0 It was time to take control of his imagination.\u00a0 His brothers were just fine.\u00a0 There was nothing to worry about; there never had been.<\/p>\n There was a rig in the yard.\u00a0 Hoss looked round at Adam, a little frown of curiosity on his face.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone\u2019s here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Cold fingers clawed again at Adam\u2019s insides.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss was old enough to understand the significance of the doctor\u2019s presence.\u00a0 \u201cSomeone must be sick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Little Joe, not yet old enough to appreciate the implication, slid down from his pony, and said, \u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n For some reason he didn\u2019t fully understand himself, Adam took the small boy by the hand.\u00a0 Joe didn\u2019t seem to mind.\u00a0 He was singing a nonsensical song he\u2019d made up on the way back from the lake about what he\u2019d like for dinner.\u00a0 Later, Adam remembered that, but at the time, it was as if he were walking into a tunnel, and the bright sunshine, and the yard, and Little Joe\u2019s childish trilling were all part of a distant memory.\u00a0 A grayness closed around him and the air grew thin, tight and hard to breathe.<\/p>\n The front door was propped open.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s feet felt oddly heavy, as if they didn\u2019t want to take him over the threshold.\u00a0 Inside, the great room was empty.\u00a0 Upstairs, a door opened and shut again, and beside Adam, Joe\u2019s voice called, \u201cMama?\u201d<\/p>\n Then Pa was coming down the stairs.\u00a0 The look on his face made Adam\u2019s insides shrink into a cold, hard ball.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, Pa,\u201d said Joe, \u201cwe went swimming in the lake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDid you?\u201d said Pa, in a voice oddly bereft of interest.<\/p>\n The doctor came down the stairs, bag in hand, face grim.<\/p>\n \u201cBoys,\u201d said Pa, \u201cthere\u2019s something I have to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n Afterwards, Adam realized he had known.\u00a0 Ever since the moment he had seen the masked figure on the lake shore, he had known; he just had not allowed that knowledge to take on form in his consciousness.\u00a0 Not Little Joe drowning in the lake, but Marie, thrown from her horse.<\/p>\n Hoss cried, silent, inconsolable tears.\u00a0 Joe cried too, tears of bewilderment, then stubborn denial.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere\u2019s Mama?\u201d he would ask, over and over, dissolving into petulant tantrums when she refused to appear.<\/p>\n Even Pa cried.\u00a0 Not openly, but Adam, sleepless in his own bed, would hear Pa\u2019s choked sobs in the loneliest hours of the night.<\/p>\n Only Adam did not cry.\u00a0 The fear in his heart would not let him grieve.\u00a0 Instead, he struggled manfully to lessen the burden of grief weighing down Pa\u2019s hunched shoulders, to distract Hoss from his misery, all the time bearing patiently with Little Joe\u2019s defiant peevishness.<\/p>\n They buried Marie in a grave beside the lake, and Adam wondered how any of them would survive a sadness that seemed too great to bear. \u00a0Friends had been calling by the Ponderosa in the three days since Marie\u2019s death, and before they went to the lake for the burial, everyone had gathered at the house to eat and drink and share condolences. \u00a0Once it was all finally over, they were tired, Pa especially. \u00a0He didn\u2019t argue when Adam told him to go to bed and get some rest.\u00a0 Even Little Joe had finally succumbed to exhaustion and ceased his relentless demands for his mama.\u00a0 Hoss, somber and suddenly very grown-up for his ten years, put his little brother to bed and climbed in beside him.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll stay with him tonight,\u201d he told Adam, \u201cjust in case he wakes up, upset.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam felt a pang of envy as he watched Hoss and Joe snuggle down together, for an instant half-tempted to clamber under the quilt with the two of them, just to feel that touch of human comfort.\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t.\u00a0 He went instead to his own room and sat down at his desk, numb of mind and soul.<\/p>\n His eye rested on a small object at the back of the desk, like the stub of a stick, pale in the gathering dusk.\u00a0 He reached out and picked it up, his face contorting as he did so.\u00a0 His fingers tightened around the object and he saw that his hand was shaking.\u00a0 A strange sound emerged from his throat, a cross between a grunt and a whimper.\u00a0 He rose from his chair, ran out of his room and down the stairs.<\/p>\n There was no fire in the grate.\u00a0 He\u2019d forgotten that.\u00a0 The day had been warm and once they\u2019d got back from the lake, no one had bothered to light a fire.\u00a0 He bit back a cry of frustration and teetered there, next to the empty grate, for several long moments, before making for the front door.<\/p>\n Outside, it was all but dark, no more than a hint of residual light in the sky to the west.\u00a0 He stopped on the front porch, the bone-stick still clutched in his fingers, fighting back the panic that gripped his chest and made his breath come in shuddering grunts.\u00a0 The ball of grief that had been swelling inside him for the last three days suddenly became too much to suppress.\u00a0 He sank down on the porch step, dropping his head onto his knees.\u00a0 Tears finally spilled over.\u00a0 Deep, painful sobs racked his body.<\/p>\n \u201cMistah Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n Hop Sing\u2019s voice so close surprised him.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t been aware of anyone approaching.<\/p>\n \u201cSorry,\u201d he gulped, trying to swallow his grief.\u00a0 Still the tears came.<\/p>\n Hop Sing sat down on the step beside him.\u00a0 The cook\u2019s hand touched his arm.\u00a0 \u201cNo need for you to say sorry.\u00a0 We all sad about Missis Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam kept his head pressed to his knees.\u00a0 The hand on his arm remained steady.\u00a0 It was surprisingly comforting to feel it there, as though its touch gave him strength to manage his grief.\u00a0 Finally, he could lift his head, but it was a few minutes more before he could trust himself to look at the man who sat beside him on the step.\u00a0 When he did, he saw there were tears on Hop Sing\u2019s cheeks too.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all miss her very much,\u201d said Hop Sing.<\/p>\n Adam nodded, still not trusting himself to speak.<\/p>\n The light was all gone from the sky.\u00a0 A rectangle of lamplight spilled out from the kitchen door.\u00a0 Adam swallowed hard and rubbed at his face with his left sleeve.<\/p>\n \u201cI think\u2026\u201d he began, his voice wobbling dangerously.\u00a0 He swallowed again and made a fresh attempt.\u00a0 \u201cI think\u2026it might have been my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n He couldn\u2019t bring himself to look at Hop Sing, yet he sensed the Chinaman\u2019s eyes boring into him.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy you think that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis.\u201d Adam held out his hand and uncoiled his fingers, revealing the bone-stick, small and pale in his hand.<\/p>\n It was too dark to see details.\u00a0 Hop Sing hesitated, then reached out for the object.\u00a0 He got up from the step and crossed to where the light shone out from the kitchen door.\u00a0 Adam watched him examine the small stick, turning it over in his hands and frowning.\u00a0 Finally, he returned to the step and sat down, once again shoulder to shoulder with Adam.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere you find this?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a cave,\u201d said Adam.\u00a0 \u201cThere were a few things there, stones and pots.\u00a0 And a painting of a figure with a skull head.\u00a0 This is all I took with me, but ever since I did, I\u2019ve had this weird feeling at the back of my mind, as if something bad was about to happen.\u00a0 Then, the other day, the day Marie\u2026\u201d\u00a0 He paused, took a deep breath and tried again.\u00a0 \u201cHoss, Joe and I were at the lake and I saw\u2026I saw the figure from the painting in that cave, and I knew\u2014I just knew\u2014something bad was going to happen.\u201d\u00a0 He hesitated again.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t mentioned the incident with Little Joe at the lake to Pa or anyone else.\u00a0 Now, unbidden, he told Hop Sing all that had happened that fateful day, and Hop Sing listened silently and made no judgement.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought that was why it was there,\u201d he finished, \u201cthe figure in the mask.\u00a0 I thought it was there\u2026for Joe.\u00a0 But then, we came back here and\u2026well, you know the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n Hop Sing held up the bone stick.\u00a0 \u201cAnd you think you responsible for Missis Cartwright’ accident, because of this<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n It should have sounded ridiculous, Adam knew that, yet he found himself nodding, and his throat tightening dangerously.<\/p>\n Hop Sing was quiet for a moment, then he shook his head and sighed.\u00a0 \u201cMissis Cartwright, she ride too fast.\u00a0 She always<\/em> ride too fast.\u00a0 I tell her that, Mister Cartwright tell her that, you tell her that.\u00a0 We all tell her, but Missis Cartwright, she stubborn lady.\u201d\u00a0 He took Adam\u2019s hand and put the bone stick back in his palm.\u00a0 \u201cThat is why Missis Cartwright fall from horse.\u00a0 Not Mistah Adam’s fault, not Hop Sing’s fault, not Mister Cartwright\u2019s fault.\u00a0 Just accident.\u00a0 Sad, sad accident.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s eyes burned.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t sure if it was thinking about Marie that caused the tears to well again, or simple relief at Hop Sing\u2019s good old common sense.<\/p>\n \u201cSo,\u201d he said, still troubled by uncertainty, \u201cdo you think I imagined the figure at the lake?\u201d<\/p>\n Hop Sing snorted.\u00a0 \u201cYou not imagining kind of boy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen,\u201d Adam frowned, \u201cyou think the figure in the mask is real?\u201d<\/p>\n Hop Sing considered the question.\u00a0 \u201cHop Sing think,\u201d he said at last, \u201cyou have\u2026premonition.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAbout Marie?\u00a0 But what could I have done?\u00a0 I was too far away.\u00a0 I\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot Missis Cartwright,\u201d said Hop Sing, interrupting his wail of despair.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you saw man in mask, you save Little Joe in lake.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, but\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Adam\u2019s protest faltered.<\/p>\n \u201cBad thing happen that day,\u201d went on Hop Sing, \u201cbut good thing happen too.\u00a0 You pull Little Joe from water.\u00a0 You save brother\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam stared through the gloom at Hop Sing.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re saying that\u2019s what it came for, that creature?\u00a0 To warn me the Little Joe was in trouble?\u201d<\/p>\n Hop Sing shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cMistah Adam always ready to blame himself.\u00a0 Maybe you have good premonition.\u00a0 If you not save Little Joe\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n He left the sentence unfinished.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t need to say more.\u00a0 A chill went through Adam just contemplating the other tragedy that might have happened that day.\u00a0 If they\u2019d lost Little Joe as well as Marie\u2026.<\/p>\n They sat for a while longer, shoulder to shoulder, then Adam rose from the step.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you, Hop Sing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Hop Sing got up too and brushed his tunic straight.\u00a0 \u201cGood night, Mistah Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dismounting from his horse, he looked up at the rocks above him.\u00a0 Now that he knew where to look for it, the cave entrance was easy to spot.\u00a0 The day was hot again, the sun still climbing to its midday peak.\u00a0 Everything around him looked the same as it had a week earlier, when he had first come by this place \u2014hazy sky, dusty earth, sun-baked rocks\u2014yet it was not the same.\u00a0 He<\/em> was not the same.\u00a0 At sixteen, he had rubbed shoulders with death too many times, and each time something inside him hardened.\u00a0 When he had fled this place only days before, his heart had been weak with fear, and he had not dreamed he would ever return to face the nameless horror that lurked in the blackness of that cave.\u00a0 Yet here he was, and though cold claws clutched at his entrails, tragedy had steeled him.\u00a0 He set off quickly up the rocks, allowing himself no time for hesitation.<\/p>\n Once again, he entered the cool dimness of the cave entrance and made his way to the back where the darkness brushed his warm skin with chilled fingers.\u00a0 Once again, he clambered onto the shelf and edged his way along the narrow tunnel till he reached the blackness of the cavern beyond.\u00a0 There he paused.\u00a0 This time he was prepared.\u00a0 From his pocket he took out the stub of a candle and struck a match to light it.<\/p>\n Everything was as he recalled.\u00a0 The clay jars were still there, undisturbed on the ground, and there on the wall the painting of the masked creature stared at him from its hollow eye sockets.\u00a0 But, this time his heart didn\u2019t jump into his mouth when he saw it, even if it did pound a little harder.\u00a0 He took a deep breath and crossed the cave swiftly, pulling from his pocket the snake bone.\u00a0 Crouching down, he placed it carefully back into the pot in which he had first discovered it.<\/p>\n The air stirred around him.\u00a0 A coldness seeped through his skin and seemed to permeate his very bones. \u00a0He cupped his hand around the candle flame but it sputtered and died in spite of his efforts.\u00a0 He stood up, neck pricking, heart racing.\u00a0 He had determined he would not succumb to childish panic, but it took all his strength of mind not to cry out and stumble blindly backwards.\u00a0 Light the candle<\/em>, he told himself, yet he found he did not want to see what else waited in that place with him.<\/p>\n In the cold darkness, something rattled, like wooden beads\u2014or bones\u2014in a jar.\u00a0 His breath caught in his throat.\u00a0 Swallowing his fear, he moved cautiously back the way he had come, hands outstretched, feeling his way through the inky blackness to the tunnel.\u00a0 Behind him, the rattling grew louder.\u00a0 In spite of all his brave intentions, he found himself scrabbling to get out of the tunnel and through the cave to the welcome light of day, bruising his knees and losing his candle stub in the process.<\/p>\n It was done.\u00a0 A sense of relief surged through him as he scrambled down to his waiting horse, like the touch of the sun as it warmed his chilled blood.\u00a0 He paused only briefly before he climbed into his saddle, glancing back at the rocks behind him, half in defiance, half in dread, but there was nothing to be seen.\u00a0 From this angle, even the mouth of the cave was hidden.<\/p>\n He climbed onto his horse and turned its head homewards.\u00a0 Behind him, the faint rattling of bone on bone grew ever fainter, and finally faded into nothingness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags:\u00a0 Adam Cartwright, ESA, Grief, Hop Sing, Hoss Cartwright, Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright, Marie Cartwright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: After sixteen-year-old Adam discovers a mysterious cave, disturbing events follow.<\/p>\n 5940 words\u00a0 Rating 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