Chapter 7: A Lost Secret
They had just finished eating dinner when Neil remembered something he had left in his car. He refused to say what it was.
“I’ll be right back,” he told Samantha, “but no peeking.”
Samantha sat on the living room couch, waiting for her Grandpa to come back inside. Thomas and Sandra were both on the love seat, Thomas drinking iced tea and Sandra eating a cookie. The front door opened and Neil staggered inside, holding a large chunk of rock. He walked over to the fireplace and put it down.
“Neil,” Sandra exclaimed, “Where in the world did you get that? You’re going to hurt yourself!”
“I was up in the mountains yesterday and spotted it. Sam has always loved rocks so I brought it back as a present.”
“You shouldn’t take things out of the national parks like that, Dad,” Thomas said.
“I know,” Neil said, a little shyly, “but I also carried out about five pounds of trash I collected on my hike so I figured it came out even. Hope you like it Sam.”
“It’s great!”
The rock was granite, huge and cold to the touch. She ran her finger over the rough surface and knew she would have to take it out to the clubhouse the next morning. She tried to lift it and the rock wouldn’t even budge. Thomas laughed.
“I wouldn’t try Samantha. It looks like that would have to weigh over a hundred pounds. You’re lucky you didn’t hurt yourself carrying it, old man.”
Samantha felt a brief stirring of anger but her Grandpa only laughed and said, “I suppose you’re right Thomas. I’ll leave all the heavy lifting to you from now on.” Then he half turned his head to Samantha and gave her a little wink. Instead of being upset, Samantha suddenly had to fake a cough to hide her laugh.
“Where did you hike Neil,” Sandra asked. Sandra loved hiking. Samantha would never go with her anymore because Sandra always wanted to know what was around the next corner and wouldn’t stop until it was almost dark. The hikes usually ended with a jog back to the car, trying to beat total darkness.
“I went up to Meadows and hiked around there for a couple of hours,” Neil said.
“Oh! I love that place. Especially those waterfalls when you get a little higher up. Was there any snow yet?”
“Not yet. This winter has been too dry I guess.”
“I should really get up there soon,” Sandra said. “Maybe we could even go tomorrow?” Sandra looked at Thomas, who tried to appear deeply immersed in a magazine. Sandra elbowed him in the side.
“You heard me,” she said. “Let’s go hiking tomorrow.”
“I don’t think Samantha should hike so soon after being sick.”
“Well, she doesn’t have to go, does she? She was already planning to have Becky and Marissa over tomorrow anyway, right dear?”
“Right,” Samantha said quickly, hopeful that her Mom would convince her Dad so she could have the house to herself the next day.
Thomas sighed and said, “But I was going to work in the backyard tomorrow.”
“The backyard will still be there on Sunday.”
“So will the mountains. They’ve been there forty million years. We can go anytime.”
“Not if it starts raining soon. This could be our last chance of the winter,” Sandra said.
Thomas sighed again and rested his head against the top of the love seat. “Alright. Sure. You think you can keep this place in order tomorrow kiddo?”
“Sure Dad,” Samantha said.
“Well,” Neil said, getting up and stretching his back, “I’m going for a quick walk. Anyone want to join me?”
“It’s my turn at dishes tonight Dad, sorry.”
“I’m going to watch the special on sharks,” Sandra said.
Neil turned to Samantha, who had already gotten up.
“Looks like you want to take a walk. Let’s get our jackets on and get going, so we can get back before eight.”
Samantha nodded and ran into her room for her jacket.
They walked almost to the park before they said anything. Samantha didn’t know how to begin, so she waited for her Grandpa to say something. However, she had the feeling he felt the same way, so she took in a breath to break the silence.
“Hey Grandpa, did you hear I had the same nurse this morning? The one I kicked?”
Neil turned to her, looking grateful. “No, I hadn’t heard that. How was she?”
“Her arm was in a cast and she didn’t like me very much. She was really weird.”
“It convinced your parents that you are healthy again at least. Fortunately the effects of the draining become a little weaker through time. Also, you learn to deal with them so you should be able to hide it better. The first one is definitely the worst.”
“When she was taking my blood pressure she made it so tight that it hurt. It made a bruise on my arm.”
“She really must not like you,” Neil said, smiling.
“No, I’m serious. Look.”
Samantha rolled up her shirtsleeve and the top of her left arm was a mottled blue-gray. Neil leaned in for a closer look in the feeble light of the streetlight. He held her arm gently and turned it from side to side for a moment. His eyes were squinted into little slits and his jaw was clenched tight. However, when he released her arm his voice was calm and measured, as it always was.
“Did she say anything to you?”
“No,” Samantha said. “She looked at me like she hated me. And she must, because I broke her arm. It was her fault though. She kept hitting me harder and harder with that hammer and my leg shot out on its own.”
“Why didn’t you say something while she was doing it? Didn’t the doctor notice?”
“Dr. Ginger and my Dad were talking while the nurse was checking me. She thought she could get away with it so she did.”
“Did she do anything that made you start to tingle again, like you might lose control?”
Samantha stopped walking and looked up at her Grandpa. He was looking down at her, but the streetlight was behind him in silhouette and it was difficult to see the expression on his face.
“My arm started to tingle when she was hurting it. But nothing happened. I think I’m getting a little better at keeping control.”
“Good.” Neil looked around. The night was warm but a breeze had started, rippling the few leaves that remained on the trees of the park. “Let’s head back Sam.”
They walked back to the house without saying anything more.
A couple mornings later, Samantha woke up stiff, as if she had been sleeping with her muscles tense. Her clock said eight in the morning but it seemed too dark. She looked outside and saw clouds had moved in overnight. She sighed and sat up, massaging her neck absently with her left hand.
She glanced at her diary and saw that it was the 7th. Fifty years ago her grandfather used her talent for the first time. She tried to picture what fifty years must feel like and gave up quickly.
She dressed and walked to the kitchen. A cereal bowl in the sink was a clear sign that her father had awoken early. Then she remembered her Mom wanted to go hiking. Sure enough, she saw a note from her mother pinned to the corkboard, explaining that they started early to beat the storm. The note also reminded her not to go outside if it got too cold or if it started raining, but Samantha wasn’t going to worry about the weather. She wanted to bring her new rock out to the clubhouse and she needed to put an awning over the couch so it wouldn’t get too wet if it rained. Although it was early she went to the phone and dialed Marissa’s number. Marissa had her own phone in her room.
“Hello,” a sleepy voice answered.
“Hey Marissa. This is Samantha. Did I wake you up?”
“Not really.”
“Hey, Becky and I were talking about playing in the clubhouse today. There’s a ton of stuff to do, especially since it’s supposed to rain later today….”
“I can’t. I’m not feeling well.”
“Oh, you’re sick?”
; “I guess. I just don’t feel good. Maybe tomorrow. I’m going back to sleep.”
“Oh,” Samantha said, disappointed. “I’ll call you tomorrow. I hope you feel better.”
“Bye.”
Marissa hung up the phone. Samantha paused before calling Becky because Marissa had made her uneasy. Sometimes Marissa got in bad moods and didn’t want to do anything, but she usually talked about what was bothering her in detail. Samantha decided to call her back later in the afternoon. She picked up the phone again and dialed Becky’s number.
“Hello?”
“Hi Mr. Jacobsen. Is Becky in?
“Hi Samantha. Actually, the question isn’t whether she’s in but if she’s up. Hold on for a minute and I’ll go check.”
“Thanks.”
Samantha leaned against the counter with the phone to her ear, looking out at the backyard. It was the first time she had seen the backyard under a cloudy sky in a long time and it looked different than she remembered. After a moment she heard Mr. Jacobsen yelling something in the background but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Then Becky came on the line.
“Hi Samantha.”
“I didn’t wake you up too, did I?”
“No, I was awake. I was painting. Do you want me to come over?”
“Yeah. It’s supposed to rain this afternoon and we have some stuff to get done in the clubhouse.”
“OK, great. I’ll be over in a few minutes?”
“Sure. See you soon.”
Samantha hung up the phone and realized she was extremely hungry. She poured a bowl of cereal so she could eat before Becky arrived.
Even with the two of them lifting together they could only move the rock from the fireplace to the floor. Samantha felt like she had broken her back and Becky, despite being in very good shape from gymnastics, was groaning.
“You should have made your Grandpa carry this thing out there for you,” Becky complained.
Samantha nodded her head. Inside, however, she was debating whether or not she should use a little of her talent to move the rock. She knew Neil’s diary was clear today but she had never used her talent for anything other than jumping and accidentally kicking the nurse. Samantha was afraid if she tried to lift something heavy her talent might spin out of control. Also, Becky was present and she couldn’t think of a good way to get her to leave without making her feel bad.
Instead, Samantha went to get her father’s dolly from the shed. She verified the wheels were clean before bringing it inside because the living room was floored with white carpet. She and Becky rolled the rock onto the dolly and Samantha tried to lean the dolly back, but the rock was too heavy for her.
“Try pushing against it as hard as you can. Can you put your feet against the fireplace and push,” Samantha asked.
Becky nodded and started to push again. Samantha pulled back on the dolly and it slowly reclined so that all the weight of the rock was against the metal. Samantha braced the top of the dolly against her chest and transferred the weight to her arms. It was extremely heavy but she could move it through the house.
Samantha guided the dolly to the cement path leading to Thomas’s garden. The land sloped gently as it approached the culvert, stream, and pond. Samantha, with Becky’s help, lowered the dolly from the cement path to the pond edge.
“Can you go around to the back entrance and come back out in the boat,” Samantha asked. “I think that’s the only way we’ll get this thing back there.”
“Sure,” Becky said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
She ran around the edge of the garden and disappeared between the bamboo and Mr. Henson’s fence. Samantha verified no one was watching her from either Mr. Henson’s fence or the Wilson’s. She closed her eyes and concentrated entirely on lifting the rock, picturing it in her mind. Her arms started to tingle and for the first time Samantha perceived a connection between her tingling arms and her spine. In her spine was a sort of warmth, flowing towards her head. The feeling was pleasant and gave her confidence. She bent over and tried to pick the rock up with a single jerk. The rock came up like a balloon, escaping her grasp and soaring above her. It then reversed direction and came plummeting back to Earth. It splattered in the mud beside the pond, spraying mud all over the edge of the bamboo. The rock itself was buried a foot deep in the muck. Samantha stifled a laugh and made sure Becky had not yet arrived with the boat. She bent over and grabbed the rock, more gently this time, and found the tingling in her arms remained. The rock was so easy to lift that Samantha couldn’t reconcile her memory of trying to lift it before with the way it currently felt in her arms. She put it back on the dolly and waited. Becky paddled from under the bamboo and guided the boat the edge of the pond. Then she scampered out and helped Samantha do a quick lug of the rock into the boat. Samantha’s arms were still tingling a little and lifting the rock was much easier than it had been in the living room. Becky noticed.
“Wow, did this thing just get lighter?”
“I don’t know,” Samantha said. “Maybe you got warmed up from running back to the entrance.”
“Maybe. Why is it all covered in mud?”
“It rolled off the dolly while you were gone.”
“Oh.”
Becky pushed off from shore and Samantha paddled back under the bamboo. She followed a long slow curve that encircled the thick trunk of the tree house oak. Beyond the tree, the bamboo, which had been crowding close to the water’s edge, opened into a tunnel. Samantha paddled faster, trying to gain speed so the boat would wedge itself onto the shore. They landed and pulled the boat further up the bank, then struggled again to lift the rock. They finally got it out, only to realize they had left the dolly behind. Samantha felt a moment of frustration that made her want to simply pick the rock up with the talent and carry it in, but she restrained herself.
“I’ll go back and get the dolly,” Becky said.
“Nah. Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it later. I want to get started on fixing the clubhouse because it’s going to rain.”
“OK. What do you want to do first?”
Samantha walked to the clubhouse. She looked up through the opening and saw the clouds were still thick and that wind was rustling the top levels of the bamboo.
“Let’s cover the couch first.”
They lifted a large sheet of plywood wedged between the couch and the bamboo wall. Becky laid the plywood on the floor of the clubhouse, looking for splinters, worms, and old nails, while Samantha rummaged behind the couch again and pulled out three long two by fours. Becky had finished inspecting the plywood so she walked to the refrigerator. On top of the refrigerator sat a large cardboard box. From the box Becky retrieved a rusty hammer and, after a few seconds of searching, several nails.
They worked quickly, with Samantha holding the two by four at an angle so Becky could hammer the nails through the plywood. With two beams and a crossbar nailed in place, they stood the structure above the couch and leaned it against the bamboo. Both girls then collapsed on the couch and looked up at the new roof.
“I like it better without it,” Becky said.
“Better than sitting in the rain though.”
“Yeah.”
An interesting thought occurred to Samantha, so quickly that she wouldn’t admit it had been there at all. She realized everything had gone quickly because Marissa wasn’t there. Unless they were building tunnels, Marissa tended to tell people what to do and not do much herself.
The silence after the hammering seemed large and empty and Samantha found herself wanting to do some more work. She stood up, stretched, and started pacing around the clubhouse with Becky watching her.
“How about we start working on the new tunnel,” Samantha said, after a few moments pacing.
Becky got up without a word and Samantha retrieved the axe from the old, dented trash can next to the refrigerator. They walked out of the clubhouse. Samantha noticed two things as they walked through the main tunnel. One, the wind wa
s knocking bamboo leaves onto the path, which would require a thorough raking. Two, Becky was chewing on her lip, which meant she had something she wanted to talk about but she wasn’t sure how to start. They started the long, gentle turn to the left that took them towards the main entrance. However, instead of turning right at the next fork, they continued straight. The tunnel continued for fifteen feet and stopped at a dead end.
“Where was this one supposed to take us,” Becky asked.
“I want to get to the other oak tree. It is straight ahead from here, by the eucalyptus grove.”
Becky nodded and reached for a handful of bamboo. Samantha stood sideways and swung the axe at the bottom of the bamboo stalks on her side of the trail, breaking them. She pulled the stalks back and forth, trying to snap them away cleanly. Becky stopped pulling halfheartedly at the bamboo and looked at Samantha.
“I think Marissa is going to be mad at me.”
Samantha stopped as she broke off the first batch of bamboo and stood up straight, looking at Becky carefully.
“Why do you say that?”
“She saw me talking to Cliff the other day after school.”
“So what? We talk to those guys all the time.”
“I know. But Cliff was kind of talking strange. He was asking if I was going to go to the dance and I said I didn’t know yet. I didn’t want to tell him that nobody has asked me and I’ve been too scared to ask anybody myself. And Marissa overheard him and butted in and started talking about all kinds of stuff. Cliff ignored me after that and only talked to her.”
Samantha nodded.
“Well,” Becky asked. “What do you think?”
“I think that Marissa was going to ask Cliff to the dance.”
“I thought so too. I bet she’s mad at me. That’s why she didn’t want to come over today to help.”
“Did you want to go with Cliff,” Samantha asked.
Becky blushed and stopped looking directly at Samantha, her hands linking unconsciously together at her waist.
“I don’t know. I think he’s nice. Are you going with anyone yet?”
Samantha paused again, not sure if she should tell Becky that Mark had already asked her. As far as she knew she was the first girl in their entire class to have a date. What if Becky ended up not going at all? She would feel really bad about herself if she knew Samantha was going all along.
“No, not yet,” Samantha said finally. She started pulling at the bamboo again and the rest of the cracked stalks broke off. Samantha pulled them out slowly, careful not to get any painful splinters, and laid them along the trail. Each stalk was over thirty feet long.
“Maybe we shouldn’t go at all,” Becky said abruptly. “We’re all too young for dances anyway, that’s what my Mom said. Maybe she’s right.”
“It sounds like fun though, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, sort of. I haven’t really danced with a lot of other people around though. That might be kind of weird.”
Samantha thought she was right, although she hadn’t thought of it until Becky’s comment. There was another silence while they both thought about the unknown and potentially embarrassing parts of the dance. Then there was a loud crack to their right. There was a pause, another crack, and then the low sound of nervous laughter.
“What was that,” Becky whispered.
“Someone’s outside the bamboo.”
“Who?”
“Shh!”
Both of them stood quietly, listening hard. Samantha thought she heard low whispering but the wind was making too much noise as it blew through the bamboo to know for sure.
“Come on,” Samantha whispered.
She walked back to the fork and turned towards the main entrance. They both started tiptoeing towards the door. They could hear movement on the other side. Becky looked at Samantha, frightened.
“It’s here. I know it,” said a low voice.
“We’ve looked here before.”
Samantha suddenly clamped a hand to her mouth to stop a laugh that would give away where they were, because she recognized Cliff’s voice.
“I told you, this is where she went in. I saw her do it yesterday.”
The fence behind the bamboo suddenly rattled as one of the boys thumped it with their fist, causing Becky to jump. Samantha heard the loose board fall off.
“Hey, look at this,” Mark said.
“So this is where they get in. And look at the bamboo. It’s too thick. They made a door!”
“Pretty smart,” Samantha heard Mark say.
The bamboo door rattled and Becky groaned lightly, not able to help herself. After another shake, the door was lifted and Mark’s face appeared underneath it. Feeling both mad that the secret door had finally been discovered and at the same time happy because Mark and Cliff were fun to play with, Samantha jumped at him and yelled, “Aaargghhh!”
Frightened, Mark jumped back but the bamboo door fell, pinning him underneath it. Samantha started laughing and Becky joined in. Mark recognized who it was and started laughing himself.
“We found it. We finally found it!”
Samantha walked forward and lifted the bamboo door so Mark could come inside. Cliff was right behind him, a large grin on his face.
“You scared the hell out of me,” he said.
“That was a good secret entrance,” Mark said. “I can’t believe we didn’t find it before now though. We just never tried down far enough. And we always ran into your booby traps.”
“Like the strings,” Samantha said.
“Yeah, or the holes covered with bamboo sticks. I fell into two of those.”
“Why’d you always try to hide this from us,” Cliff asked. “You know we wanted to play in here all summer.”
“Because it’s ours,” Becky said. “We built it. And it’s still ours whether you found out how to get in or not.”
“Yeah, well. I knew we’d get in sooner or later,” Cliff said.
Mark was standing up, looking at the door, watching as Samantha lowered it back down. He noticed the string attached to the pulley above it and laughed.
“What,” Samantha asked.
“You’ve got it on a pulley. That’s great,” said Mark.
“Samantha, you forgot to pull the fence board back in place,” Becky said quickly.
Samantha shrugged. “It was to keep these guys from finding it but now that they know there really is no point in hiding it anymore.”
Mark started walking down the tunnel and Cliff followed. Becky looked at Samantha indecisively.
“Watch out for the booby traps,” Samantha said.
Both boys stopped as if they were frozen. Samantha laughed, looked over at Becky, and walked past them.
“Just kidding! Come on, I’ll show you around. I’m actually kind of glad you guys finally found out how to get in here. It’ll be fun having all of us playing here together. Plus, you can help us build even more tunnels.”
“Cool,” Mark said. “Show it to us.”
Samantha walked to the first fork and turned right. They followed her and Samantha showed them the tunnel they were working on and where they wanted it to go. Mark and Cliff started nodding and went to the bamboo and started pulling at it, but Samantha told them to follow her so she could show them the rest of the area.
They walked to the back entrance and Samantha opened the trapdoor.
“Neat,” Cliff said. “How far down does that go?”
“Only a couple of feet, but the pipe is like twenty feet long. You come out on the other side of the fence and crawl out under the bamboo.”
“I knew you guys had a back entrance,” Mark said, “but I had no idea where it was. Every time we started spying you never seemed to come out!”
“Then how did you find it today,” Becky asked.
‘Well…” Mark said. He trailed off and looked embarrassed. Nobody said anything for a moment and Samantha knew he had spied on her the day before, when he had stayed home, supposedly sick.
They looked at each other and smiled, while Becky coughed nervously.
“I’ll take you through that entrance later on,” Samantha said, finally. “But I want to show you the clubhouse first.”
They walked down the tunnel and into the clubhouse. Mark and Cliff were very impressed, especially at the fridge.
“If you had a bathroom you could live out here,” Cliff said seriously, and they all started laughing.
Becky seemed to be feeling less nervous and showed the boys the pond.
“The boat is the third entrance,” Becky said. “You can paddle up the pond and come out by the garden.”
“Wow. This place is great,” Mark said. “You’re lucky you have this in your backyard Samantha.”
“I know,” she said.
They all walked past the pond and down the last tunnel, which stopped at the oak tree. Mark and Cliff scampered up and started laughing about the firecrackers they threw on Samantha’s birthday. Becky followed but Samantha stayed on the trail, wanting to return to work on the new tunnel. Once she started on a tunnel she hated to stop because she never knew exactly where it would end up. Samantha leaned against the tree and saw that Cliff was holding onto one of the tree branches and leaning out over the pond, holding on with one hand. Mark was climbing one of the limbs that went beyond the boards they had nailed across the tree as a floor. Becky was standing on the floorboards, watching Cliff nervously.
“Hey,” Samantha said. All of them looked down at her. “I’m going back to work on the tunnel.”
She walked through the clubhouse, pausing to grab an old rake from the tool box. She dragged the rake behind her as she walked, scrapping up loose bamboo leaves that fluttered off the stalks. The wind was freshening and Samantha could even feel it on the path. The feel of the wind was wet and smelled of rain. When she got to the new tunnel she placed the rake on the ground next to the long bamboo stalks she had already pulled out.
She swung the axe low and hard so it cut the bamboo stalks close to the dirt. Then she pulled them down carefully. She had just finished pulling her fourth batch when Mark arrived, his eyes excited.
“I can’t believe how great it is in here. I don’t think I’m ever going to leave,” he said.
“Where are Becky and Cliff?”
“They’re still up the tree, talking about something.” He coughed. “Actually, I think Cliff is going to ask Becky to the dance and he’s trying to get his courage up.”
Samantha nearly dropped the axe on her own toe.
“Cliff is going to ask Becky to the dance!”
“Yeah, at least he was talking about doing it last night. He said that he’s kind of liked her for a long time.”
Samantha thought about this, trying to guess Marissa’s reaction to the news. Then she decided not to worry about it.
“Here,” Samantha said, handing the axe to Mark. “You can help me with this.”
“Sure, what do you want me to do? Whack at those things and cut them down?”
“That’s all it takes. Once they are cut off you can drag them out by the end and put them on the path. I’m going to take the ones I’ve already pulled out and go dump them.”
“This looks like fun. Stand back.”
Samantha backed up a few steps and Mark unleashed a ferocious swing at the bamboo that sliced off about ten bamboo stalks at their base.
“Cliff and I sometimes help my Uncle cut his firewood,” he said proudly. “We have another axe at home too. Maybe that would make things go faster?”
“Maybe later,” Samantha said.
She collected several of the long bamboo stalks lying on the tunnel floor and walked up the trail with them. Reaching the trash area, Samantha started pushing the cut bamboo through the gaps. Then she squeezed through the individual live bamboo stalks herself and came out, after about fifteen feet, into the trash area where she discarded all the old bamboo.
She made three trips back and forth but Mark was cutting faster than she could haul the bamboo, so when she went back for the fourth time she asked if he could stop chopping and help her carry.
“Sure,” he said, placing the axe on the ground next to the stubs of chopped bamboo sticking out of the dirt. Samantha looked over the advancing tunnel carefully.
“Good job,” she said, nodding toward the dead end. “We’ll have to start curving it towards the left soon though.”
“Where’s it supposed to end up?”
“I want this one to go to the other oak tree. It’s across the pond from the one where Becky and Cliff are.”
“Cool.”
Mark collected a large number of bamboo stalks and Samantha grabbed the rest. They carted them off to the dumping grounds, then saw Becky and Cliff coming to find them as they re-entered the trail. Becky looked happy enough to be skipping and Cliff’s face was a little red, but neither of them said anything about the dance and they both started helping with the new tunnel. Cliff ran back to their house to get their axe, and when he brought it back they started chopping at twice the rate.
“I can’t believe how fast this goes with them,” Becky said, as she and Samantha hauled more armfuls of cut bamboo.
Samantha nodded in agreement, some part of her not wanting to admit the boys were faster at it than she was. If I could just use my talent in front of them, Samantha thought, they wouldn’t be so cocky. The thought, however impractical, helped squash her annoyance at Cliff and Mark’s occasional comments about how fast they were.
The first raindrops fell at noon. They had advanced the new tunnel twenty feet. At Samantha’s direction Cliff and Mark were angling the tunnel to the left each cutting.
“How do you know where you’re going in all this crap,” Cliff asked, trying to pull bamboo leaves out of his hair.
“Lots of practice,” Samantha said.
The rain started to fall harder and water dripped onto their heads through the bamboo. Samantha was about to say they should head to her house when Becky did it for her.
“It’s really starting to rain,” Becky said, “Let’s head to Samantha’s until it stops.”
“Afraid of getting wet,” Mark asked sarcastically. “Why, you take a shower every day, right?”
“I’m not afraid of the water Mark. I just don’t want to get in trouble. Samantha’s Mom and Dad won’t want us out here if it’s raining.”
“Why not,” Mark asked Samantha, “I thought your parents were the coolest?”
“They are,” Samantha said, “but they’re worried that if we’re ever out here when it’s raining hard then the creek and pond could rise.”
“So, we’ll climb the bamboo or the tree.”
Samantha frowned because she had said the same thing to her parents. She found herself in the unenviable position of defending something she didn’t believe in.
“It’s the way my parents are,” she said finally. “It isn’t that big a deal anyway. As soon as the rain stops we can come back out and keep working.”
Mark shrugged and put his axe down, but Cliff was frustrated and took another swipe at the bamboo. He cut through the first few stalks but then his axe hit something hard and it bounced away with a loud metal clang. Cliff dropped the axe and started jumping around, holding his hands out and shouting in pain.
“Are you alright Cliff,” Becky asked, her hands linked together at her waist again.
Cliff started shaking his hands out in front of him violently, trying to get rid of the sting.
“Damn that hurt! It was like having a baseball bat sting your hands on a cold day.”
“But what did you hit,” Samantha asked. “It sounded like metal.”
“I don’t know,” Cliff said, sucking on the fingers of his right hand.
Mark started yanking away the bamboo Cliff had cut, passing it back to Samantha to lay on the trail. When he got it clear he said excitedly, “Look at this!”
Samantha squatted next to him and saw a thick metal plate with a large indention on the near edge where
Cliff’s axe had struck. Samantha pointed this out to Cliff, whose fingers seemed to have stopped hurting the moment Mark found the plate.
“You hit that hard,” Samantha said.
“Yeah.”
“What is this,” Mark asked, more to himself than anyone else.
He cleared away the bamboo leaves littering the top of the metal. Doing this revealed a metal square about two and a half feet on a side. The surface was rough, covered with small, elongated metal bumps, with no handle. The surface was flush with ground level.
“It looks like another trap door,” Samantha said, “like the one over the second entrance.”
Mark and Cliff looked at each other closely, and then looked back down at the trapdoor. The sound of the rain drops hitting the bamboo was quite loud. Becky, intrigued by the door but nervous about being caught out in the rain by Samantha’s parents, started idling from side to side. She said, “It’s raining even harder. Don’t you think that…?"
“It looks like there is rotted wood all around it in a square,” Mark said, digging around the base of the metal. “Help me clear it off Cliff.”
Cliff squeezed past Samantha and Mark and stepped carefully over the trapdoor. He removed the bamboo leaves, dirt, and rotted wood from the far side. Soon they had it clear, exposing slim handholds along the metal edges. The twin boys seemed to communicate without words because both stood up simultaneously to get in lifting position. They wedged their fingers under the metal and pulled.
The metal came up slowly. It was much heavier than it looked. Mark and Cliff struggled with it and Samantha started to help. They managed to get it clear and dumped it onto the small bamboo stumps sticking up from the ground. A square hole was revealed, small and dark. The rain blocked much of the light from above and the bamboo blocked the rest so it was difficult to see inside. There was no ladder.
“We’ve got to go in and see what it’s like in there,” Cliff said, abruptly.
Everyone looked at him.
“I mean, we have to,” he said again. “Who knows where that thing goes. This could be the best thing you have discovered yet, Samantha. Maybe there’s an old vault under there, with sacks of gold or something.”
“It’s probably another old irrigation pipe,” Samantha said slowly, “my Dad said that they were all over this area.”
“So you don’t want to go in it,” Cliff asked, almost angrily.
“She didn’t say that,” Mark snapped.
“I want to go in it too,” Samantha said, “but like Becky said. It’s raining and I don’t want to get in trouble and we don’t have a flashlight or a ladder. Let’s go inside tomorrow when it isn’t raining.”
Becky looked relieved but Cliff started pacing up and down the path, seething with impatience.
“Your parents aren’t back yet,” he said. “Let’s go get the stuff we need and come back out. You can leave a note for your parents that you went over to our house and they won’t even know that you’re out here.”
“I’m not going to lie,” Samantha said.
There was a pause. Mark seemed torn by the same impatience filling his brother, but he also had it under better control. He looked longingly at the hole and shrugged.
“It’ll still be here tomorrow Cliff,” he said.
“Aaargghhh!”
Cliff stomped off down the tunnel. Mark looked at Samantha and Becky, appearing embarrassed.
“Samantha!”
Samantha jumped and turned towards the sound, but of course she couldn’t see anything through the bamboo.
“Yes Mom,” she yelled back.
“Are you in the clubhouse?”
“Yes. We’re just leaving.”
“Good. Get up here to the house and out of the rain. Your Dad and I are back from the hike.”
“OK.”
Samantha looked at everyone, including Cliff, who had walked back towards them at the sound of Sandra’s voice.
“Nobody say anything about the trapdoor to my parents if you still want to be playing out here. I know my Dad is nervous about these irrigation pipes.”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to lie,” Mark said slyly.
Taken aback, Samantha said, “We just won’t tell them.”
Mark laughed and started walking to the exit. Becky followed immediately but Samantha remained for a moment, watching Mark until he made the turn and disappeared from view, feeling angry but not understanding why.
Mark and Cliff headed home immediately after leaving the bamboo, likely worried they would get in trouble if they went to Samantha’s house with the girls. Samantha didn’t get in trouble, but she and Becky had to listen to her Mom talk about their hike for twenty minutes. Samantha didn’t even see her Dad and Sandra told her that he had gone back to bed.
“The hike tired him out too much,” Sandra said, laughing. “All that means is that we need to get out more often.”
When they finally escaped they headed into Samantha’s room. Samantha collapsed on the bed and Becky sat on the edge of it, looking at the walls.
“We should repaint your room this winter.”
“Why?”
“Because it was fun. I bet we could make an even better picture this time. I mean, I like the eagles I painted, but the left one is a little better than the right one and I’d like them both to be the same. I’ve gotten better too, because I have been practicing. I set up our basement as a studio so I can paint down there without my parents or brother bothering me.”
Samantha wasn’t really paying attention, still feeling grumpy, and not knowing why. She started to get annoyed with Becky’s constant talking so she said, abruptly, “So did he ask you to the dance or what?”
“Huh,” Becky asked, startled.
“Did Cliff ask you to the dance?”
Becky’s face turned bright red, which always looked even more alarming because it was framed by her whitish-blond hair.
“Um, yeah. He did.”
“What did you say?”
“I said yes, what do you think I said?”
Samantha put her arm over her eyes, wondering how she was going to smooth things over with Marissa. Becky giggled nervously. Without taking her arm from her eyes, Samantha asked what was so funny.
“Cliff also told me about you.”
Samantha sat up in one movement, looking at Becky carefully.
“What did he say?”
Becky looked surprised by Samantha’s reaction. “He told me that Mark and you were going to the dance too. I think that will be fun, don’t you.”
“Oh no,” Samantha said.
“What?”
“Whatever you do, you can’t tell Marissa that either of us is going until she has her own date and tells us about it. We have to pretend that she got her date first.”
Becky looked a little hurt.
“Why do we need to do that? I’m actually glad she hasn’t been asked yet. She always pretends like she knows exactly what to do around guys and stuff, trying to make me feel bad about myself. Now we even got dates before her! And she wanted to go with Cliff herself.”
There was an alarming note of victory to Becky’s comments and Samantha got nervous.
“You won’t tell her though, will you?”
“No. Fine, I won’t.”
“You promise?”
“Samantha, this isn’t that big a deal. I don’t see why you are in such a bad mood. You’ve been like that since we found the trap door.”
Samantha stared at Becky in surprise and felt ashamed at her own bad mood. She lay down on the bed and put her arm back over her eyes and started listening to Becky talk at length about the kind of dress she wanted to wear to the dance.