Lifting the Sky (28 page)

There were
teeth
over my head. No, not teeth—they were stars shining above me, a whole Milky Way of shimmering pale greenish crystals twinkling down from the roof of the cave. I seemed to be smack in the middle of a gigantic geode.

Beside me, all around me, fallen stars lay scattered about in the dirt. I picked up one and wiped off the dirt. It looked
like pale greenish light frozen in stone. I held it to my cheek and it felt like tingling ice on a sore spot.

I lay back with the fire flickering off the thousands of pale greenish crystals and called out Shawn's name once again. “Shawn! Shawn! Shawn!” the crystals sang back.

“Blue?”

Is it morning already? No, it can't be. It has to be the middle of night because it's so dark, but didn't I just hear my mom calling my name?

“Coming,” I moaned. Then, “Lemme sleep,” I muttered, snuggling back into my pillow.
Geez, but it's lumpy. And this bed is so hard….

My eyes popped wide open. It was pitch-black. Except for—except for the fire, which had burned low. My fire. I was on the cold, hard floor of the cave. I must have fallen asleep. My skin started crawling up inch by inch from my toes to my skull. I grew as still as a rock. Ages went by. I tried not to think of how my shoulders were cramping and my elbow was itching and how I really, really did have to sneeze.

“Ahhhhchoo!”
I muffled the sneeze with my hands.

From far, far away, as if coming up out of a deep hole, I heard it again. “Blue?”

I sucked in my breath. “Sha—Shawn?”

“Friend?” The voice floated up from somewhere deep down under the ground.

“Shawn, is that you?” My heart about leaped out of my chest. “You're here in the cave! But where are you?”

“I dreamed you. I'm a ghost. I'm dead,” rose a flat, deadly calm voice.

Ohmygod! Did that mean I was dead too? Goose bumps rose on top of goose bumps as I clutched at my shirt—it seemed real enough—and then felt behind me for my pack. It felt solid…. And for sure the crystal I still gripped in one hand was rock hard and solid. I tucked it into my pocket.

“Are you dead too?” rose the voice.

“Shawn, you stop that right this minute,” I shrieked. “I mean it. You're creeping me out!” I pinched the back of my hand. It hurt. There was no way I could be dead.

“Is this a dream?” the voice floated up dreamily.

“Wait a minute. Make a noise. Say something. I'm coming to find you,” I said, my voice calmer but still trembling.

“What are you doing here?” the dazed-sounding voice wondered.

“Looking for you, Shawn, that's what I'm doing. Been all over the mountain, almost. It's on fire, Shawn, you know that? No, of course you don't. Keep talking. I'm trying to figure out where you are.” With the way those crystals
seemed to pick up sounds and then fling them back, I couldn't tell where the voice came from.

“I'm down in the underworld,” growled the very low, grave, serious voice. “Don't come near me.”

“Okay, Shawn, I get that you're in this direction,” I called back almost as gravely. I staggered dizzily to my feet. “Cripes, it's pitch-black in here. Just a second while I get this fire going…. Keep talking.”

I fumbled about for the sticks I'd gathered—when? I had no idea what time it was, or even what day it was or how long I'd slept. I couldn't tell up from down or front from back. And I guessed it would stay that way because I'd already used up my stash of kindling. I blew on my almost-dead fire and stirred it with a stick, and then placed the stick on it. It flared up but didn't make a dent in the enormous black night of the cave.

“You sound awful real …,” rose the doubtful-sounding voice. “But watch out. Don't come near me, you'll fall.”

“I'm coming, Shawn, like it or not,” I said, muffling a big
ouch!
as I tripped, stubbing my toe. Holding my hands out, I blindly shuffled along the rough floor toward the place where the voice seemed to be coming from.

“Listen, I've got a flashlight.” The voice for the first time sounded hopeful. “It's really weak, the batteries are almost out, but I'll shine it up.”

A pale shaft of yellow light glimmered up.

“I see it. I see it,” I called back excitedly. I groped my way toward it, my eyes stretching for things beyond what
they could see, and bumping smack into what felt like a big slab of rock. I walked my hands up the smooth vertical wall of the slab. Now, with my heart actually pumping again and my energy suddenly pepped up to the max, I could see the faint glow of my hands and the blue-white light streaming out of my fingers. “I'm alive,” I whispered, and for some strange reason I almost burst into tears.

And then there it was right in front of me. The yellow light. It shone up from the depths of the earth.

“Geez, Shawn,” I managed to say. “How'd you get down there?”

“There's a rope. It's hanging down from the other side of this hole. At least I think it is. … I'm a bit … dizzy. …” The beam of light swayed back and forth as it searched across the walls for the rope and finally found it. The light suddenly went out. “Don't try to come down here,” Shawn said. “Please.”

“This may sound stupid, but if you got down the rope, why can't you climb back up it?”

“Right. I fell. I think I broke my arm. I can't climb back out. I tried, but one-armed…” Even from high above I could hear him let out his breath. “It was real dumb to come to this cave and not tell anyone where I was going….”

“You're not kidding. Double dumb, because I just did the same thing.”

The light flicked back on. “You're kidding,” Shawn said.

“I wish I were. But listen, Shawn. Don't move. Just
keep the light on while I go around to the side of the hole where the rope is. I'm coming down.” The light wavered, found me, and then slowly moved toward the rope. I followed, crawling carefully forward on hands and knees. I was on a shelf of sorts. A shelf that dropped down—I stared at the point of light—maybe twenty feet. I couldn't see Shawn at all, just the bright spot of his flashlight.

“I heard the spirits singing my name,” Shawn said, back in his dreamy voice. “I thought I'd gone to the spirit world.”

“Always sneaking up when I don't know you're around, Shawn. Just like you,” I said as I reached the place where the rope was attached. “You climbed down
that
?” I said, then quickly, “Not that I can't do it too….”

It wasn't a ladder, but just a rope with big knots tied into it for footholds. I knew I could do it. I mean, after all, hadn't I just climbed down a cliff with a raging fire at my back? This would be a piece of cake. Nothing to it.

“Don't come down. If you fall, we'll both be stuck in this hole….”

He had a point. Who would come find us? Thanks to our combined brilliance, no one even knew where we were. But what choice did I have?

“I can't leave you, Shawn,” I called down. “It would take me forever to get back to the ranch and then back up here. And besides, I don't know that I could even get there right now. There's a huge wildfire burning outside. It's maybe even worse now—the whole range is probably blazing.”

I slid over the ledge. Clung for dear life to the rope …

“I'll sit here below you and try to soften your fall, if you do fall, that is. But try not to,” Shawn called up, and below me I could hear him moving around.

At least he could move. And actually, with the big knots tied in the rope, it really was a piece of cake climbing down.
“Oops,”
I said. “Did I kick you?”

“
Ni hinch.
My friend,” Shawn whispered. “It's really you.”

Now that my feet had touched bottom again (how many levels did the underworld have?), I felt like falling to pieces and crying my heart out and even telling him what a dumb klutz he was and that I was thrilled to the bones to have found him and that even if he didn't like me, well, I loved him, I really did love him, so there. And I almost did that. But what I did instead was lean dizzily over him, feel down his arm, swallow, and say, “Wow, Shawn. You really got yourself into a pickle.”

“Arm doesn't hurt much anymore,” Shawn said, and he put his good hand on top of mine and held it against his hurt arm. “Did at first, and it felt a lot worse after I tried to climb back out. But I made this sling out of my T-shirt, and it's much better now.”

Which made me close my eyes and say a quick prayer for my hero dog Stew Pot.

The light suddenly sputtered and dimmed.

“Better turn off the flashlight,” I said, although really
I just wanted to look him over real good and make sure there was nothing worse wrong with him.

“Yeah, I've been trying to make it last,” Shawn said, switching it off. “I turned it on every once in a while just to see light. Just thinkin' about how it would be when it went totally out … Oh man. Keep touching my hand,” he said, and his hand clamped down harder on mine. “I can't tell up from down in this black hole.”

“How long have you been down here? Have you had anything to eat? Drink? Geez, Shawn,” I sputtered, rearing my head back and studying his lights. I shuddered at the thought that he might've died in this hole if I hadn't found him.

“Came here two days after you told me about those lines. I told my grandma I was going to go help my uncle with the haying. It was a lie. I couldn't tell her I was going to this cave—it's not a place where she'd allow me to go. I thought if I was lucky I'd have myself a vision. But I should've done it the right way, with an elder to guide me.” Shawn stopped, out of breath.

With my hand, the one that wasn't still gripped tightly in his, I brushed back the hair on his forehead. Somehow I could tell that he smiled.

“I wasn't going to be gone long,” he continued. “Day or so, maybe. Now I've lost track of time. I had an apple and two baloney sandwiches in my pack. But there's plenty of water. It trickles down over the wall and then disappears into a hole. Don't go near it. It's slippery over there….”

“The entrance to the underworld,” I breathed.

“Shhhh!”
Shawn said, his hand suddenly holding mine like a fist. “It's a spirit thing. Our lower world is a place of dreaming and visions. I can't talk about this, Friend. You shouldn't be here.” A long pause. “And neither should I.”

“I understand, Shawn. Don't worry, you don't have to say any more. I've got some trail mix in my pack, but I left it up in the cave. Saved it for you, though. Just in case…”

“I'm not very hungry. My stomach must've shrunk.” Shawn grunted. “Funny way to lose weight, no?”

“Well, we've got to get you out of here. This may be a sacred hole, but it's clammy as all get-out. It's a wonder you haven't turned into a mushroom.” I reached down and felt the ground. “Here, stretch out on the dirt,” I said, kneeling and holding my hand behind him and gently pushing him backward. “Let's see what's going on.”

“How can you see? All I see is black, black, and more black.”

“I see your lights, which are pretty darn bright considering what you've been through. And I see my own lights shining out. I could hardly see them at all when I first got to the cave, I was so totally pooped.” I waved my fingers and watched my own blue-white lights flash into the darkness. I'd have to pump up my lights, bring into myself all the light I possibly could if I was going to be able to help him.

“This dark's like a sponge absorbing the light,” I added. “I've never seen anything like it. It must've been awful….”

“I did a whole lot of praying,” Shawn said, sucking his breath in as he tried moving his arm. “But you know what? I knew you'd come.”

“You did?” I reared back in surprise.

“Yeah. I had this strong feeling that things were going to turn out the way they were meant to.”

“If I told you how close I came to not making it …,” I said, my stomach clenching into a knot just thinking about the fire and my mad dash toward the invisible cave. I swallowed, trying to gather myself together again. Now wasn't the time to fall apart.

“Okay, listen,” I said, bending over him. “I'm gonna run my hands over you, above your body, to check things out. I'm feeling something like an electric spike coming out of your arm and I see a spear of light where the bone's probably fractured. Not a bad break. At least it didn't cut through your skin, thank goodness. You know, Shawn, I might be able to help it a little…. Want me to try?”

“Wrap it again, you mean?” Shawn asked, surprised.

“Well, you already did that and it seems to have helped. But no. I'd like to use light.”

“Do it. Please. Friend? You know what? When I heard my name being called out of the darkness the sound seemed to be everywhere. I could've sworn I even saw stars shining above me. I was sure I'd died and flown up to the Milky Way.”

This cave. The world was so full of mystery. Here I was, in a place that I'd spotted because of some glowing lines I'd noticed one morning. And then there'd been that
strange feeling I'd gotten right when I'd almost totally given up hope—the feeling that I'd been put through some sort of test and that I'd passed it with flying colors.

So really, why should I be surprised that the cave might actually,
really
be special? And that the crystals might have their own energy? I pulled the crystal out of my pocket. Maybe there was some way I could use it. In the darkness I swept the crystal over Shawn's body as he lay stretched out on the ground.

“Feel's like I'm being feathered,” Shawn said dreamily. “My uncle uses eagle feathers, and this feels the same way. What are you doing?”