Chapter 8: Freedom

  The path they had been inching along soon came to a dead end at the back wall, opposite where the entrance had been.

  “Great!” Andrew said, a little frustrated.

  “What are we going to do now?” May tried not to look down into the precipice below, as she clung to the wall.

  “I don't know...wait! There's a ledge straight ahead,” he leaned out a bit to see how close it was. “Maybe...yes!” 

  Pointing his flashlight lower than the ledge he brought to light another ledge just below the first, that jutted out a little more than halfway across the opening between their ledge, and the other.

  “May, I'm going to try and jump down to that one. You hold on, and follow my lead.” he turned his head to see her face.

  She was white with fear, and whimpered a little. 

  “It's okay, May. We're going to make it.” Andrew tried to console her before he moved forward.

  Readying himself he positioned himself to jump, although he really didn't have much room to do that, much less to get a good foothold on the edge before he jumped.

  Just as he was about to jump across, he felt something touch his arm.

  It was May. “Be careful, Andrew.” she told him.

  “I will.” he replied, and looking back, he pushed off the ledge, and landed on the edge of the lower ledge.

  May screamed in terror as she saw him fall past the ledge into the darkness.

  Then she saw a hand gripping the edge, then another, as Andrew pulled himself up.

  With all his might, he pushed himself up to where he could swing his leg over onto the flat surface, and soon was standing, unharmed, on the top of the ledge. 

  From there he could almost reach the upper ledge, but decided to tell May to jump too.

  Her body was shaking, and sweat dripped down her back.

  “Ready?” Andrew called.

  May nodded, although she wasn't at all ready, for fear gripped her legs and they were like iron. She couldn't jump, when she was about to do it her legs locked down, and she couldn't move.

  “Come on!” Andrew held out his arms as if he would catch her. “I won't let you miss the ledge. Just jump.”

  “I can't do it!” wailed May. She burst into tears, and moved back, trying to wipe away the waterfall of tears that blurred her eyes.

  “You've got to! Don't you want to see Mother and Father again?” Andrew called.

  May nodded, and trying to ignore her fear she wiped the tears away and moved towards the edge again.

  “Okay. Now, just push off. Jump straight forward towards me.” Andrew instructed.

  May nodded again, and counted in her head to three.

  1...2...3 she felt like a heavy weight as gravity pulled her down, down, down towards the ledge where Andrew stood.

  Everything was blurry. A voice was calling to her, it sounded awfully far away.

  “May! May!” it was Andrew.

  May rubbed her eyes, and looked up into the face of her brother.

  “Wha...what happened?” she asked, looking around and trying to figure out where she was.

  “You're okay, you just hit your head when you landed.” Andrew encouraged.

  “You mean I'm not dead?” May asked innocently, and still not quite sure if she was dreaming or not.

  “No, of course you aren't dead, otherwise you wouldn't be talking to me!” laughed Andrew.

  “You're right.” May sat up and looked around. She was suddenly dizzy, and she put her hand up to her head to rub a rather large bump that was there.

  “You okay?” Andrew looked at her funny.

  “Uh...I guess so.” she replied as things started to clear up again. “Yeah, I'm okay now.”

  “Good. I was worried there for a second that you wouldn't wake up.” he craned his neck to look at the bump on her head. “That's a bad lump you have there. Does it hurt real bad?”

  “Yeah.” she replied.

  Just then a faint beeping sound reached their ears.

  “Oh, I think our time is up now.” Andrew clicked the button on his stop-watch to turn off the timer.

  “Are we still gonna make it?” May asked.

  “Well, if we can get to that ledge, then maybe we'll find a way out.” he looked up at the ledge looming eight feet above them.

  Then his face lit up, and he stood up quickly and walked over to the wall.

  “How tall are you, May?” he reached out to help her up.

  “Uh, I think I'm 4' 4''.” she replied. “Why?”

  Andrew was thinking about something, and muttering to himself. “And I'm about 4 and a half feet...”

  “What are you thinking?” May asked again.

  “Well, if you stand on my shoulders you might be able to reach, and maybe even see, over the ledge. See, it's almost eight feet high-if I'm right-and together we are 8 feet and...and 9 inches high, if you stand on my   shoulders that is.” he paused.

  “Okay, I see what you mean!” it was all coming through now. She would stand on his shoulders and get over the ledge, then she could reach down and help him up.

  “Wait. How can I reach you from up there?” May was confused now.

  “Oh, you don't have to.” Andrew replied.

  “What?”

  “Just lower this rope to me, and I'll climb it.” he said, pulling a thick rope out of her backpack.

  “Hey! I forgot about that!” she laughed, feeling quite brainless.

  Once on Andrew's shoulders, May slowly stood up. She could see well over the top edge, and reached as far across the platform as she could. 

  Her arms were not long enough to grab anything. Then she thought of something. Pulling out her rope, she held onto one end as she threw the other end, which she had made into a loop, at a huge stalagmite that stuck up like a construction workers cone.

  Her first attempt to lasso it was a failure, but a few more tries brought her loop right over it, and she pulled it tight.

  Tugging on the rope to make sure it was secure, she reached out farther up to pull herself up.

  “Push me up!” she called back down to Andrew, and he used his hands to boost her up.

  May scrambled up onto the rocky ledge, holding tight to her rope.

  Andrew called up to her once she had brushed herself off and was standing on solid ground again. “Now throw me the rope!” he stood below, arms outstretched.

  “Okay.” May tossed the free end down to him, while she made sure the other end was secure around the stalagmite. 

  Soon they were standing together on the rocky ledge. They untied the rope, packed it into May's backpack and Andrew led the way down the wider path which they were now on.

  In the house, Mary was just getting the fire lit and there was movement in the upstairs bedrooms.

  “Ahhh.” Amelia yawned, stretching her arms. Then, realizing that she must have fallen asleep reading, she moved the book from her lap to the lamp stand next to their bed.

  George was just waking up too, and he got out of bed and splashed his face in the basin by the door.

  “I'm going to check on Andrew. He should be feeling better today. Maybe he'll come shopping with us today.” Amelia put on her white cotton robe and headed for the door.

  Andrew had stuffed some pillows and clothes under his quilt to give the impression of a sleeping person in the bed. 

  Amelia knocked on his door and received no answer, so she peeked in to see a soft lump sleeping silently in his bed.

  Maybe I should let him rest longer, it is only 7am, and besides he's got a long busy day ahead of him. She thought. And with that she closed the door again.

  Andrew reached out to help May as they skipped across a small crack in the cave floor. 

  They were now more than halfway across the back end of the cave, and Andrew was beginning to wonder if he was right in thinking there might be another entrance.

  Suddenly a dark shadow passed over them and May looked up to see a group of bats flying around the cave.

  “Can bats hurt us?” she asked, moving closer to Andrew.

  “I don't think so.” Andrew replied. “I've read about them in school, and so far I think they're harmless.”

  “They're so ugly. Why do you think they live in dark caves?”

  “Well, bats are nocturnal, which means they hunt for food all night and sleep all day. They're also blind so they like to be somewhere safe and dark. And besides, temperatures in a cave are always perfect no matter what time of the year it is.” Andrew stooped to avoid some stalactites that were hanging low as they passed by. “Caves are the perfect environment to raise families...that is, if you're a bat.” he chuckled.

  May giggled. “Hey I see some light!” 

  “It's just my flashlight.” Andrew moved the beam around.

  “No, I mean that!” she pointed at a pile of rocks a little to the left, up ahead.

  “Hey, you're right.” Andrew rushed forward to see it better.

  The pile of rocks looked like they had come from some other rock slide. Maybe there was an opening behind them.

  “Looks like you might have found our way out, May!” grabbing some of the rocks, Andrew began digging.

  May held his flashlight as he moved the rocks, and more and more light came through the hole he was making.

  Soon Andrew had uncovered another passageway which had a steady beam of light shining down it.

  May shielded her eyes and turned off the flashlight, as she followed Andrew and climbed through the opening in the rocks.

  “Come on, let's go home!” Andrew grinned, and grabbing May's hand they dashed down the passageway toward the light that promised, freedom.