Read The Amazing Adventures of Toby the Trilby Page 6

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  The grambles finally agreed Toby could go as long as Gramble Howard accompanied him, but this plan hit a snag when Gramble Howard admitted he couldn’t remember the location of the main exit.

  For days, Gramble Howard scanned cavern blueprints and maps to find the large service elevator built to bring down crowds of a hundred or more, but in the end all he found was a small porthole. This exit could only be accessed by ladder.

  The grambles pondered this announcement, each one considering their own gnarled limbs. None of them could make that climb, not even Howard. The boy must go alone.

  “I have to go,” Toby begged. “Please. I’ll only be gone for a few days. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  Gramble Colleen placed her hand on his shoulder, a rare gesture of affection. “Let the boy go,” she said. “We have taught him everything we could about the world above, some things must be experienced for ones’ self.”

  The other grambles admitted Gramble Colleen was right. They made preparations and set off for the porthole.

  Toby skipped ahead in excitement, map in hand, while the six grambles crept along the rocky floor, eyes peeled for loose stones and small holes. A twisted ankle or broken hip would be devastating. Lenora’s heavy breathing mixed with the men’s muttered oaths when rough spots were encountered.

  After many twists and turns Toby stopped. His lantern cast strange shadows against the wall as he swung around. “How do we get through?”

  A metal gate stood before them. In the light a ladder gleamed through the bars. A giant, rusted padlock prevented further progress.

  Toby sighed. “So close!”

  Everyone looked at Gramble Howard.

  “I have no idea where the key is.” He rattled the lock. “It’s been twenty years since I locked this gate.”

  “Good thing we never needed to leave in a hurry,” Gramble Lenora’s multi-colored dress billowed out from her bulky form as she leaned against the gate, fanning herself with a clipboard.

  “I was worried about bears.” Gramble Howard reached into his tool bag and pulled out a small hacksaw. “Don’t worry, Toby.” He set the saw against the lock. “We’ll have this gate open in a few minutes.”

  The tool rasped through the cavern, like an old crone’s cackles. The men took turns sawing through the metal. Toby found it hard to keep from pulling the tool out of their hands every few minutes to check for progress.

  Finally the saw, shaky and erratic in Gramble Edward’s hands, bit through the last section of metal with a loud CHINK. Gramble Edward pulled the lock free and swung the gate open.

  Every face but Toby’s fell. This was really happening. He was leaving.

  Gramble Howard walked to the ladder and peered up into the darkness. “From what I remember, the door at the top is much easier to manage.”

  “Yes, you shouldn’t have a problem.” Gramble Edward gripped the rungs and shook them. The ladder stayed firm. “I’d come up and open it for you, but my knees…”

  Gramble Howard lifted a small pack and hung it on Toby’s shoulders. Inside were “travel garments” stitched by Gramble Shana’s careful hands and food to last several days.

  Gramble Edward strapped a toddler-sized gas mask, one of thousands in storage, to Toby’s face. “Just in case. We don’t know what’s up there.”

  “I understand.” Toby peered up through the mask. “I’ll be fine.” He clutched the straps of his pack, as though someone might think of another excuse and take it from him.

  “You stay warm, Boy.” Gramble Howard patted Toby’s head. “Don’t take off that mask until you see other creatures breathing in the air.”

  Gramble Gregory added, “Maybe you should leave it on at all times. Some creatures can adjust to anything. Why, in Antarctica… “

  “I’m sure it will be all right.” Toby’s skin was already clammy beneath the mask and this sort of lecture could last for hours. “You have taught me the skills I need and I promise I’ll be careful.”

  Gramble Shana’s tears ran in crooked rivulets through the wrinkles on her cheeks. “My darling Toby.” She embraced him.

  He turned to Gramble Lenora. “Take care of Polly. She likes a tomato or two now and then.”

  “Of course, my child.” The scent of her perfume enveloped him along with her hug. ‘She’ll be wondering where you are, so hurry back.”

  Gramble Colleen came last, and took Toby’s small hand in her wrinkled one. “You come back to us, Son.”

  Toby nodded. “Of course I will.”

  “We know.” Gramble Shana stared at the ladder. “It’s just… such a big world.”

  Toby suddenly felt dwarfed by his pack and mask. How could he even consider a venture out into the open without a protector?

  For the first time in days, the Voice came to him. “You can do this, Toby. I will be with you.”

  Had anyone else heard the Voice? But the elderly people’s expressions hadn’t changed from the brave smiles plastered there while they waited for Toby’s dreaded steps of departure.

  He grasped the smooth metal rungs and began to climb.

  In Toby’s younger days he drove the grambles frantic when he climbed to various high perches on the hundreds of machines that lined the cavern walls. This ladder was a simple task. Bar by bar he ascended, calls of “We love you!” and “Be careful!” echoing behind him.