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Our first place Middle School category winner was written by Madeline Thach, a homeschooled student from Colleyville, Texas. Ms. Thach also won this contest last year with her story A Hawaiian Halloween. |
HUH, WHOOO. HUH, WHOOO. The rhythmic breathing of iron lungs filled the hospital room.
“How is she doing, doctor?” Mrs. Fairchild asked, her eyes glued to the large cylindrical machine forcing air in and out of her daughter’s lungs. Dr. Rodriguez sighed.
“Not very well, I’m sorry to say,” he began. Mrs. Fairchild caught her breath sharply. “At this point, it’s unlikely that she’ll ever come out of the coma. The iron lung will force her to breathe, keeping her alive, but it’s highly improbable that she will ever regain consciousness.” Dr. Rodriguez did his best to speak calmly.
“You mean we’ll never see her awake again?” Mrs. Fairchild was already holding back tears.
“Unfortunately, it’s unlikely she will ever respond,” Dr. Rodriguez said solemnly.
“Oh, my poor girl!” Mrs. Fairchild impulsively reached out to touch the teenage girl lying in the iron lung.
“How long can we keep her on life support?” Mr. Fairchild asked quietly.
“We generally keep our patients on life support for 7 to 10 days, watching for any signs of responsiveness. If a patient doesn’t respond within that time, we usually suggest that families let nature take its course. Your daughter has already been in a coma for a week, so unless she shows any signs of improvement, it might make sense to prepare to turn the machine off in a few days,” Dr. Rodriguez said.
“Oh, we never should have travelled to this horrible country!” Mrs. Fairchild sobbed, her hands lashing out blindly.
“There, there, dear, we tried our best to watch out for her,” Mr. Fairchild comforted his wife, trying to restrain her. Regaining her composure, Mrs. Fairchild continued.
“But if we wouldn’t have let them borrow the rental car, they couldn’t have gone to that awful place, and she wouldn’t be...” Mrs. Fairchild’s voice choked back into tears as she gazed at her daughter’s head sticking out from one end of the machine.
“We’ll think about it, doctor.” Mr. Fairchild said. Dr. Rodriguez nodded understandingly as Mr. Fairchild led his sobbing wife out of the ward.
ONE WEEK EARLIER
“I’m so bored!” Kay exclaimed, sighing theatrically. “Going to Costa Rica for our vacation was such a dumb idea. I can’t think of anything fun to do - can you?”
“Not really, but just because we don’t know of anything fun to do doesn’t mean that Costa Rica is boring. We just need to talk to someone who knows this area better,” Kay’s best friend, Ruth, said.
“You mean we should ask a bunch of people on the street what they like to do? ‘Excuse me, random lady who probably doesn’t even speak English, have you done anything fun lately?’”
Ruth chuckled.
“No, silly! We’ll just ask the hotel concierge. He’s definitely old enough to have done something fun in his life.”
“He doesn’t exactly look like a barrel of laughs, but I guess we can give it a shot.”
***
Ruth and Kay found the concierge sitting at his desk with his eyes closed, humming to himself while rubbing something on a string around his neck.
“Good afternoon, sir. Are you busy?” Ruth asked, hoping they weren’t disturbing him. The old Costa Rican man immediately stopped humming, let go of the object, and quickly opened his eyes.
“Not at all!” He said cheerfully. “I’m Adolfo, your concierge here at El Hotel Del Sol. How may I help you?”
“Could you suggest an interesting place for us to visit?” Ruth requested.
“We’ve already been to the beach and the museum, but we can’t find anything else that’s fun to do,” Kay added.
“What kind of place?” The concierge asked.
“Maybe someplace quiet where we could take a nature hike? I read that there’s a stunning array of flora and fauna here,” Ruth recalled.
“I know just the place. It’s a beautiful rainforest, untouched by humans for hundreds of years. There are all kinds of rare plants and animals, and it’s big enough for a nice long hike,” Adolfo recommended. “It’s the last of an ancient city that my tribal ancestors built. Most of the ruins and jungle were bulldozed to make room for this hotel, but the sloped area was left intact because the heavy rainfall makes the land prone to landslides and rockslides.”
“How interesting!” Ruth said excitedly.
“When they dug to pour the foundation of this hotel, they found human remains buried alongside artifacts like jewelry and pottery. Hurrying to open the hotel, they continued work without excavating, so it’s thought that an ancient burial ground lies underneath the foundation. Some believe that a temple once stood on the hill, overlooking the graveyard, but the government’s unwillingness to permit an archeological excavation in this jungle makes proving the theory nearly impossible,” Adolfo added.
“That’s incredible!” Ruth exclaimed.
“Oh! And I almost forgot! Legend has it that an ancient tribal sorcerer cast a spell over a stack of glowing rocks placed somewhere in the jungle. If anyone knocks the tower of stones down, the sorcerer will bestow great powers upon them.” He finished with awe in his voice.
“No way! We’ve got to go check this place out!” The idea of becoming powerful piqued Kay’s interest. “How do we get there?”
“Just drive a few miles further inland to the edge of the city. You’ll come upon a tall, old fence with a gate that separates the city from the forest. You can enter and exit the jungle from there.”
“Sounds fairly straightforward,” Ruth said.
“Hang on a second,” Kay said. “If this is such an amazing place, why wasn’t it featured in the tour guides we read?”
“Unfortunately, there have been several accidents in that area, so the city decided not to promote it in the official tour guides for legal reasons and wilderness safety,” Adolfo explained.
“Yikes! I hope we don’t wind up on the list of victims!” Ruth worried.
“Don’t worry - there hasn’t been an accident reported there in many years,” Adolfo said soothingly.
“I’m not going anywhere near there, no matter how great it is!” Ruth declared. “It’s not worth the risk of getting hurt - or worse!”
Adolfo lowered his voice.
“You know, I wouldn’t do this for just anyone, but...” Adolfo reached into a desk drawer and pulled out two pendants hanging on strings. “These are lucky charms passed down to me through many generations. I am giving them to you with certainty that they will protect you from the threats of man and nature.”
“They’re beautiful!” Ruth gushed, taking one and tying it around her neck. She noticed the pendant seemed to be made of clay and was shaped and painted to look like some type of bug. “Thank you so much - I feel safer already!”
“What are these pendants supposed to be?” Kay had to the courage to ask after putting hers on.
“They’re beetles,” Adolfo explained.
“I see! What’s yours?” Ruth asked.
“It’s a bird,” Adolfo replied, looking down at his pendant.
“I know you said beetles are lucky, but what do birds symbolize?” Kay asked.
“Historians aren’t sure. We know that different animals symbolized different things, but unfortunately, some of the meanings are lost to history,” Adolfo said sadly.
“That’s too bad,” Ruth agreed. “But enough about the past. Your adventure awaits!” Adolfo exclaimed.
***
“This is it!” Kay announced 30 minutes later, parking the rental car near a gravelly path branching off the main road at the edge of the city. In front of the car stood an eight-foot fence with peeling white paint and a rusty metal gate. Between the spindly bars, the girls could clearly view a wall of thick greenery.
“Are you sure? I feel like we’re not supposed to be here,” Ruth said, opening the car door and gingerly sliding off of the passenger’s seat. Kay was already out of the vehicle and strolling over to the fence.
“Of course I’m sure! This looks exactly like the place Adolfo described. Come on!” Kay pushed the gate open, the hinges protesting with a piercing creak as she stepped in and held the gate open for Ruth. Taking a deep breath, Ruth followed Kay through the gate. A lone bird squawked and flew away as Kay let the gate close with a BANG!, leaving the forest still and seemingly deserted. Enormous trees towered over their heads and lush green vines crawled up the other side of the fence, nearly obstructing their view of the outside. Shards of sunlight filtered through the tree canopy onto the mossy forest floor.
“I don’t know about this place, Kay. It’s giving me the creeps.” Ruth shivered despite the humid tropical weather as she looked around.
“Relax! It’s just a big, dark, unkept garden.”
“I guess.”
“Besides, don’t you want to see some ‘amazing flora and fauna’ before we go home? If we don’t take this hike, I think you’ll regret it.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.” Ruth’s desire for knowledge led her to give in. ***
After hiking for 30 minutes, the girls were still climbing up the gently sloping hill they had begun summiting at the gate.
“Check out this tree!” Ruth pointed to a looming, well-established tree with slashes in its trunk.
“What animal could have made those claw marks?” Kay wondered aloud.
“They don’t look like any animal scratches that I’ve seen. They’re too deliberate, almost like they make a shape.” Ruth turned her head sideways to look at the marks from a different perspective.
“Maybe they were made by a really smart Costa Rican animal trying to carve its likeness.”
“That sounds highly unlikely, but new animals are being discovered in places like this all the time, so I guess it’s possible.” Ruth paused. “Hey, I wonder if there are any other trees that have scratches like this. If an animal did make these marks, maybe other animals of the same species made similar scratches nearby.”
“Good idea! I’ll take a look and see what I can find. See you in a few minutes!”
Kay began examining the nearby trees while Ruth pondered the gashes they had discovered. There were two ovals on either side of a larger shape; could those be wings? That was it - the carving was of a bird! Maybe it was just Ruth’s imagination, but the bird she saw on the tree seemed to look a lot like Adolfo’s pendant...
Deep in her mysterious thoughts, Ruth didn’t notice the flash of lightning that lit up the dark forest or hear the thunder that rumbled in the distance less than a second later. She was finally startled out of her contemplation when a raindrop hit her nose. Soon, another hit her shoulder. Then, one splashed onto the ground.
“Ruth! A huge storm’s coming! We have to get to higher ground in case this whole place starts to flood!” Kay ran up to Ruth and paused for breath before they both began racing up the hill. The rain began pouring down in torrents, splashing onto the huge tree leaves and spilling onto the increasingly spongy, muddy ground.
“Did you ever find any more trees with scratches?” Ruth yelled so that Kay could hear her over the pounding rain and rumbling thunder.
“No!” “I think the scratches we found were a bird, like Adolfo’s pendant!” “No way! You’re probably just imagining things!”
“I’m telling you, the carving is a bird!” Completely drenched, the girls stumbled up the last few yards of the hill. As they climbed, a grey stone cave with a large opening came into view. “Look, shelter!”
“Good, because I can’t stand this rain a second longer!”
“Then you go first!” Kay made it to the top and ducked in the cave with Ruth cautiously following, holding her arms in front of her hoping to appear fierce to anyone inside. In the nearly pitch-black cave, the sound of the storm continued to beat in their ears, though softly enough to allow them to speak at a normal volume.
“I can’t see a thing!”
“True, but at least now we’re not getting wet.” Ruth thought for a moment. “I know! My mini flashlight!” She pulled a flashlight smaller than her hand out of her pocket.
“Wait, you carry a flashlight around?”
“Why not? You never know when you might need some extra light. It’s pretty old, and I haven’t changed the batteries in ages, but I think it still works...there we go!” A feeble, flickering circle of light appeared on the cave wall.
“Gee, it’s a lot smaller in here than I thought it would be.” Kay looked around as Ruth shined the flashlight on the rough, grey stone walls. When she shone the flashlight away from the opening, they could see the back of the cave was less than 10 yards away. “Can I borrow the flashlight for a second?”
“Sure!” Ruth passed the flashlight to Kay, then stood watching the rain fall in sheets outside of the cave mouth while Kay walked to the back of the cave.
“No way! I think I found a secret passage! I’m going to check it out - AAH!” Ruth turned around in time to see the light from the flashlight disappear from the corner of the cave.
“Kay?!” Panicked, Ruth ran over to where her friend had been standing. Without the light of the flashlight, it was completely dark. “What happened - AAH!” In seconds, Ruth fell through a gap in the floor and landed on a pile of large, dry, crunchy leaves.
“Ruth, are you okay?!” Ruth opened her eyes to see the flickering light of the flashlight hovering over her, leaving Kay’s face half shadowed.
“I think so.” Ruth pressed her hands against the ground and stood up shakily. “What is this place?” She brushed the leaves off of her clothes and looked around.
“No clue, but check out all of the paintings on the walls!” Kay shined the flashlight on ancient-looking images of stick figures painted in bright red that covered the underground room. Ruth noticed a painting of a bird that looked similar to the tree carving and Adolfo’s necklace.
“Look! It’s one of those birds again! I’m telling you, there’s something going on here!”
“Not necessarily. Maybe the cave painters just got bored and doodled a bird for no reason.”
“A bird that just happened to look extremely similar to the bird on the tree, which also happened to look a lot like Adolfo’s pendant? Yeah, right.”
“Anything’s possible! I mean, look at that guy who discovered King Tut’s tomb! Everybody was sure that all the pyramids had been ransacked, but he-”
“Shh! I think the storm stopped!” Ruth held up a finger to silence Kay. As both girls listened, they realized the sounds of rain and thunder had ceased. “We should probably leave now so we can get back to the hotel before dark. Our parents will be upset if we’re not back for dinner.”
“Aw, come on! It’s not every day you end up in a cave with ancient paintings all over the walls! Can’t we explore for just a few minutes?”
“Okay, but let’s try to make it quick. I really don’t want Mom and Dad to worry.”
“We’ll be back before they know it!” Kay led the way through the room, the flashlight casting haunting shadows on the painted walls. Goosebumps crept up Ruth’s arms as she studied the strange figures.
“Seriously, Kay. This place is weird.”
“So is your room. Who puts stuffed animals on literally every surface?”
“I do!” Ruth was getting defensive. As they talked, the large room began to narrow into a long hallway.
“I’m sorry, but that’s just bizarre. I mean, a couple of stuffed animals are okay, but you have enough to supply the children of an entire town! Half that many would still be too much. Have you ever thought about putting up some rock band posters or something? That would look way more-”
“Shh!” Ruth silenced Kay for the second time. “What now?” Kay whispered somewhat agitatedly. “I think I hear humming.”
“Like a bee, or like a person?”
“Neither. It’s actually more like...chanting.” “Chanting? Like priests?”
“Exactly! It’s really creepy. Listen!” When Kay concentrated, she could hear a cacophony of voices half-speaking, half-singing mystical-sounding words in a language she couldn’t understand. Listening even more carefully, she could hear hollow drumbeats and the wild, high-pitched melody of a flute.
“Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm,” the voices chanted.
“That is creepy. I wonder who’s chanting and playing those weird instruments? We should try to find them!” Kay suggested.
“No! Obviously someone else is here, and they seem a lot more at home than we are. We should leave so we don’t disturb them,” Ruth protested.
“Yeah, but we could also say that their chanting and instrument-playing is disturbing us, and they should stop.”
“But it isn’t disturbing us! It’s kind of creepy, but not necessarily disturbing.”
“Then don’t you want to know who’s chanting and playing the instruments?” Ruth sighed.
“Fine. We’ll just walk a little farther and see if we can see anything.” As they walked, the chanting, drums, and flute seemed to become louder. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Looking ahead, Ruth noticed something in the distance. “Look! There’s something glowing over there!” She pointed to a strange shape that faintly glowed bright red in the darkness ahead.
“Wow! I wonder what it is?”
“I don’t. Let’s get out of here before something bad happens.”
“I doubt that’s a glowing monster out to get us, Ruth. What’s the harm in checking it out?”
“I’m telling you, something isn’t right.” Ruth’s sense of doom was strengthening as they approached the object.
“But Ruth, what about the pursuit of knowledge?” Kay pulled her ace card.
“Well...” Ruth thought for a moment. “I guess we can keep going for a little longer.” She tried to push her worries aside and focus on the promise of discovery.
The chanting continued to grow louder and the object began to glow brighter as they moved ahead. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Finally, they reached the end of the hallway, which opened into a small room. In the center stood the glowing object beside something tall. The glowing item appeared to be a stack of glowing stones, each rock smaller than the one underneath it.
“Look! These must be the glowing rocks Adolfo told us about! I can’t wait to knock them over and receive the sorcerer’s powers!” Kay exclaimed delightedly.
“No!” Ruth almost screamed.
“What’s your problem?”
“You shouldn’t knock them down! They don’t belong to you!” “A lot of things don’t belong to me, but I use them anyway.” “That’s not right, either!”
“But Adolfo didn’t say we couldn’t.”
“He didn’t say we could, either! It’s never okay to mess with something that doesn’t belong to you without asking first.”
“Honestly, nobody does that but you, Ruth. You can be so uptight sometimes.” Kay rolled her eyes and focused the beam of the flashlight on the object beside the rocks. “Anyway, check out this pedestal thing!”
“That’s odd. It reminds me of the pedestals they have in temples.”
“Yeah, I see what you mean.” Kay held the flashlight closer. “Hey, it looks like there’s something carved on the front of it.”
Ruth leaned in to examine the pedestal. “No way.”
“What?”
“It’s another bird! Why do we keep seeing them everywhere?”
“Maybe it’s another lucky symbol.”
“If it is, then we’re in serious trouble. The bird in this carving has a beetle in its mouth that looks just like the necklaces Adolfo gave us!”
“So?”
“Why would they make a carving of a luck symbol eating another luck symbol? You would make a carving of your luck symbol eating your enemy or something.”
“Wait, so you’re saying that whoever carved this pedestal didn’t like beetles?”
“No, I’m guessing they disliked the people who used beetles as their tribal symbol. Haven’t you been paying attention in world history class? Mrs. Evans was just talking about the symbols that ancient tribes used to represent themselves, like mascots for sports teams today. Based on the symbols, warring tribes could tell who to attack and who was on their side.”
“Okay, but what does that have to do with anything?”
“We’re standing in the bird tribe’s territory wearing beetle pendants! It’s like walking around America wearing a shirt that says ‘I Love Communism’! You’d be a target for attack, and you could easily get hurt or even killed! I’m taking this off now.” Ruth untied her necklace and threw it to the ground.
“Uh, Ruth?”
“What? I don’t want to get injur-”
“There’s a skull on top of this pedestal!” Kay blurted out, pointing almost excitedly.
“What?! Eww!” Ruth took her eyes off the bird carving and found herself staring into the empty eye sockets of a human skull sitting on top of the pedestal. As the chanting echoed through the cave, the drums pounded in her ears, and the flute’s piercing, eerie melody split the air, Ruth rubbed her aching head and tried to think. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Finally, she cleared her head. “Do you know what this means?! Somebody died here!”
“I get that, but what’s the big deal? Death is just part of nature. Besides, it’s kind of cool! It’s not every day you get to see a real human skull. Check out this guy’s amazing jaw structure!”
“That’s not the point, Kay. It’s not right for us to be here. I think we should go.”
“It’s just a skull and some rocks. What’s your problem?”
“There’s a human skull on top of a pedestal made by people who might hate us, and next to it are creepy glowing rocks. Plus, there are weird cave paintings on the walls, and a bunch of invisible people are chanting in a strange language. I think we’re in some kind of terrifying, ancient, underground temple!” Ruth paced as her worst fears unraveled aloud.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. We need to leave. Now.” Ruth spoke much more firmly than she had before.
“Okay, but first, I’ve got to knock the stones down like Adolfo said. When I gain the sorcerer’s power, I’ll rule the world with my magical abilities!”
“Definitely not! The last thing we should do is disturb those stones. Someone put them here for a reason, and I don’t want to know what will happen if we destroy their monument. We don’t want to end up like Mr. Great Jaw Structure!” She gestured to the skull.
“I doubt someone’s going to kill us just for moving their rocks. And besides, if somebody wants to, they can always just restack them.”
“I know, but it’s just not right to do something to an object that you know nothing about and isn’t even yours.”
“Right, wrong, what’s the difference? No one told me I couldn’t knock them down, and Adolfo practically told me I should knock them down. It makes all the sense in the world!” Ruth sighed and closed her eyes, struggling to think of a suitable response as the chanting echoed around them. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. “That’s it. I’m knocking them down.” Kay turned to the stones.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ruth hoped Kay would reconsider. “I’m sure.” Kay stood her ground.
“I still think it’s a terrible idea.”
“The terrible ideas are also the fun ones!” Kay slashed her hand through the air, sending the pile of stones clattering onto the cave floor. The chanting, drums, and flute stopped abruptly, and all was silent. “See? Nothing happened. No lighting bolts. No hoard of monsters. You were scared for no reason!”
“I guess so.” Ruth’s sense of impending doom seemed to wane. “Hang on - what happened to the chanting and the instruments?” Her worry spiked again.
“No idea. I was getting kind of sick of it, though.”
“Yeah, me too. Although it’s weird that it just stopped like that.” “Oh well.” Kay paused. “Want to head back now?”
“Good idea.”
***
Back in the cave painting room, the girls carefully climbed their way out of the hole into the upper cave using regular bumps in the wall they theorized were once a flight of stairs. As they had observed earlier, the rain had stopped, making the walk back down the hill considerably better than their trek up. After a while, Ruth broke the silence.
“You know what’s weird?”
“What?”
“I haven’t seen a single regular rock in that cave or this jungle, let alone any that glowed.”
“Come on, Ruth! You’re still thinking about those stones?”
“I am. Seriously, where did those come from? And why do they glow?”
“I have no idea. For all we know, the sorcerer could have conjured them up out of thin air. All that matters is that we found them and I’m going to get magical powers any minute now. Just forget about everything else.”
“How?”
“Try thinking about something else instead. Have you seen the new Robin Hood movie?”
“No, why?”
“It’s fabulous! You’ve got to see it. The Sheriff of Nottingham...” Kay began to describe the plot to Ruth, her loud, animated interpretation drowning out the gentle sounds of leftover rainwater dripping off the tree leaves. Over Kay’s voice, Ruth detected a faint sound in the distance.
“Shh! I hear something.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure, but it kind of sounds like thunder.”
“But that’s not possible; the storm is over.” Kay glanced at the sky through a gap in the canopy and confirmed it was clear blue.
“It’s getting louder! I think it’s coming from behind us!” Ruth turned around. “Holy cow! Rockslide!” Hundreds of boulders were clattering out of the mouth of the cave and down the incline.
“Run!” The two girls began running blindly through the forest with the rocks in rapid pursuit.
Kay could feel her heart pounding furiously and her beetle necklace slapping her chest as she ran, fervently hoping the rental car was nearby.
Ruth struggled to draw in enough breath to keep running, almost slipping on wet, fallen leaves.
Despite being the more athletic girl of the two, Kay’s stamina was starting to run low. She worried she wouldn’t be able to outrun the rocks, but she pushed on.
Exhausted and terrified, Ruth ran until her legs ached and her forehead was dripping with perspiration. She knew she couldn’t do this for much longer.
Quickly glancing behind her, Kay spotted the rocks rolling down the incline after her, rapidly gaining ground. Then, she realized Ruth was no longer running behind her. Had she fallen? There was no time to help her now. Looking ahead, Kay sighted the fence and caught a glimpse of the rental car’s red paint between the rusty gate spindles. She knew she was going to make it.
ONE WEEK LATER
Dr. Rodriguez mechanically walked down another white hallway, mentally overcome with sympathy after breaking the tragic news to the Fairchilds that morning. Deep in his thoughts, he almost bumped into a nurse.
“Doctor!” Nurse Francisca exclaimed. “Miss Fairchild seems to be coming out of her coma!”
“Are you sure?” Dr. Rodriguez desperately wanted to believe that the girl was awake, but he didn’t want to latch onto a false hope.
“I understand that, sir, but she’s clearly responding!” Nurse Francisca was adamant and began to walk in the direction of the pediatric iron lung ward. Dr. Rodriguez tried to keep a cool head as he hurriedly followed Nurse Francisca.
“She’s definitely awake, but she hasn’t said anything coherent yet,” The nurse on call informed Dr. Rodriguez and Nurse Francisca.
“Understood,” Dr. Rodriguez said briskly, eager to see the patient. He quickly approached Miss Fairchild’s huge machine. “Hello?” The girl’s eyes fluttered open, and Dr. Rodriguez swallowed a gasp. She really was awake!
“Where...am...I?” She asked drowsily, speaking each word separately on the machine’s exhale. Dr. Rodriguez was shocked that she was beginning to form recognizable words and sentences.
“You are in a hospital in Costa Rica.” To avoid confusing her, he answered plainly.
“Who...are...you?” “I am Dr. Rodriguez.” “What...happened...to...me?”
“We aren’t sure. You were found in an abandoned nature preserve, lying near the bottom of a hill. You were already in a coma when our medical team arrived.”
“You mean I...wasn’t floating...among the...clouds with the...ancient Bird Gods?” Desperate to communicate, the girl crammed several words into one exhale.
“No, you were not.” Clearly the girl had endured mental trauma and experienced hallucinations. “Tell me, Miss Fairchild, what is your last memory?”
“The last...thing I did...was run...run away...from a rockslide...and get buried... alive.”
“That sounds very scary.” Dr. Rodriguez decided to postpone any additional examination so Miss Fairchild could sleep and regain her strength. “Would you like to rest now?”
“Yes, please.” The girl sighed and closed her eyes. ***
MEANWHILE, NEARBY
“Excuse me, could you help us?” A blonde woman asked the hotel concierge.
“Of course. I’m Adolfo, your concierge here at El Hotel Del Sol. How may I help you?” The concierge asked.
“My son Danny and I are looking for a nature preserve to visit. He’s working on a report about animals in Costa Rica and would like to know where he can see some birds,” the woman requested, touching the head of her young son.
“And it has to be someplace secret! I don’t want anybody to mess up my exploration,” the boy asserted.
“I know just the place. It’s a beautiful nature preserve just outside the city with lots of wildlife. It’s the last of an ancient city my ancestors built, and some say there’s a temple at the top of the hill. Just drive a few miles inland and you’ll come to a tall fence with a gate that separates the city from the preserve. The preserve isn’t in any of the tour guides, so you’ll likely have a quiet, uncrowded visit. It’s great for photography, too!” Adolfo recommended.
“That sounds great! Please, please, please can we go?” Danny pleaded. “Sure.” His mother smiled gratefully at Adolfo.
“Yay!” The boy nearly shouted. Lowering his voice, Adolfo spoke again.
“Before you go, I’d like to give you something.” He pulled two beetle-shaped pendants on strings out of his desk and handed them to the boy and his mother. “Since you’re such nice people, I think you should have these. They’re ancient good luck charms passed down to me through many generations. I guarantee they will protect you from harm and help you find some amazing birds.”
“Goodie, goodie! I can’t wait to tell my whole class about the birds I saw!” Danny exclaimed, tying the beetle pendant around his neck in a clumsy knot.
“Oh, and if you see a stack of glowing rocks, make sure you knock them over - legend says that anyone who does will inherit the powers of an ancient tribal sorcerer!” Adolfo added.
“Wow! Thank you, sir!” Danny exclaimed as his mother took his hand and led him away.
“Good luck on your exploration!” Adolfo waved goodbye to the happy hotel guests.
2022 A.D. - 70 YEARS LATER
Every year on a certain day, an old woman drives to a small nature preserve in Costa Rica to place flowers where the gravel path and the fence converge. She would place the flowers on a grave, but there isn’t one; her friend’s body was never found. This year, she again stopped her rickety car and got out with a heavy heart. Grasping her large tripod cane in one hand and clutching a bouquet in the other, she slowly began walking the few steps needed to reach the gate, trying not to lose her balance. As she walked, a charcoal grey car caked with dirt pulled up with a screech, sending dust flying into the air. As the old woman coughed a few times from the dust-up, a man in his late 70s stepped out.
“Good afternoon, ma’am. How are you today?” The man greeted her with a facade-like cheeriness. “Sorry about the dust, by the way.” He began walking slightly faster than she had toward the fence.
“Not very well, to be honest.” The man’s eyes fell to her cane, and the woman realized he was concerned for her physical health. “Oh, I’m not ill, I’m just a little depressed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Would you like to talk about what’s troubling you?”
“I would - perhaps it will ease my heart. You see, my best friend passed away nearby 70 years ago today, and I’ve come to place these flowers in her memory.”
“Oh my. I’m sorry for your loss.”
“What brings you here?” The old woman asked lightly, trying to change the subject. Studying him, she noticed the flowers in his hand.
“I’m also mourning a loss. Next week, it will have been 70 years since my mother passed away near here. I came early this year because my daughter is moving in with me soon and I know I’ll be too busy to come next week.”
“I’m so sorry.” The two seniors contemplated each other in silence for a moment. Suddenly, a rumble of thunder sounded, and a multitude of large raindrops began to fall on the dirt road, swiftly turning it to mud. “Heavens!” The old woman nearly lost her balance on the slippery muck underfoot.
“Don’t worry, we can sit in my car until the storm passes.” The man helped her walk a few yards to his car and held the passenger door open. Once she was inside, he walked to the other side of the car and slid into the driver’s seat.
“Thank you. Without your kindness, I would surely have gotten drenched and might have even fallen!”
“No problem. I have to admit, I love to look at rain, but I don’t like to be in it.”
“Honestly, I don’t like being in it or looking at it.” The old woman shuddered.
“Why is that? Rain is a miracle of nature, you know.”
“True, but it still reminds me of the day my friend died. It poured that day when we were in this jungle.”
“That must have been scary.”
“It was, and extremely sudden, like this storm. We found a cave to take shelter in, though.”
“Where was it?” The man suddenly seemed particularly interested.
“At the top of the hill.” She gestured to the patch of jungle visible through the rain-spattered windshield.
“My mother and I went in that cave the day she passed away.”
“Really? Were you trying to stay out of the rain, too?”
“No, we were actually following a bird. I was trying to take a picture of it for my school project when it flew into the cave. We went inside to look for it, but we wound up falling through a hole in the floor.”
“So did we! Did you see the room with the cave paintings and hear the chanting?”
“I think so. I was only eight years old at the time, so I don’t remember everything we did. I do remember that we found a pile of rocks at the back of the cave, though.”
The woman’s mouth tightened. She hated that word. Rocks. Rocks. Rocks. The horror echoed through her.
“I knocked them over, and the next thing I knew, we were being chased by giant boulders down the hill,” the man continued his story, not noticing the woman’s distress.
There was another word that she couldn’t stand. Boulders. Boulders. Boulders. The terror was inescapable.
“Somehow I managed to outrun them, but...Mom didn’t. We never found her body.” The man finished his story, gazing sadly out the windshield.
Shifting his eyes to his companion, he realized she wasn’t listening. Her eyes were glazed over as she recalled flashes of her experience. Finally, she blinked a few times and spoke.
“That’s exactly what happened to us. My friend and I found the rocks and knocked them over, and I escaped the rockslide and she didn’t.” The old woman paused, processing the information. “Where did you hear about the jungle?”
“From our hotel concierge.” The pieces were beginning to fall into place in the old woman’s mind.
“What was his name?” She probed.
“I’m not sure - I don’t really remember. I think it started with A - maybe it was Alfonzo or Albert?” The man replied.
“Could it have been Adolfo?” Surely it wasn’t. “Yes, I think that might have been it!” The man’s face lit up with recognition. “It can’t be.”
“What can’t be?”
“Where did you stay on your vacation?”
“I don’t know the name of the place, but I remember the hotel sign had a sun on it.”
“Might it have been El Hotel Del Sol? I think ‘sol’ is Spanish for ‘sun’.”
“Could have been.” The old man nodded, satisfied until he saw the woman’s stormy, worried expression.
“We met that man,” she began slowly yet darkly. “He told us to go to the jungle too, and he gave us lucky beetle necklaces he said were passed down from his ancestors.”
“But he gave those to us!” The man’s eyes widened and his brow furrowed into a suddenly defensive expression.
“I guess he had more than two. That doesn’t mean anything, really.” The woman backed away from the theory she was alluding to in an attempt to calm him.
“But he said they were just for us! That made me feel so special, and now you’re telling me one of the last happy memories I have with my mother doesn’t matter!” The man was clearly upset as his head fell to his hands.
“I’m sorry.” The woman patted him on the back, feeling guilty for upsetting him. A moment later, he lifted his head and let his hands fall back to his sides.
“I’m all right now. I’m just particularly upset because I lost my necklace while we were running to escape the rocks.”
The woman took a sharp breath at the word rocks before responding. Somehow hearing the word spoken aloud triggered her more than if she said it herself.
“That’s too bad. Those necklaces were rather pretty.”
“You know, it’s funny. On my way here, I saw a necklace that I thought looked just like the one Adolfo gave me at the dime store.”
“What a coincidence that the dime store would have a beetle necklace just like Adolfo’s rare artifacts,” the old woman murmured. Perhaps Adolfo’s claim that the pendants were priceless specimens wasn’t so true after all. “Did he tell you about a legend surrounding the rocks?”
“You mean the story that if you knock the stones down, you get magical powers?
“That’s the one.” The woman found that if she focused on the man’s warm personality, she overlooked his constant mentioning of rocks, boulders, and stones.
“That was a little odd. His whole story about that was obviously a lie - I have no magical powers except the ability to repeatedly forget simple things, like the last time I mowed the lawn or the three things I need from the grocery store.” He chuckled.
“It’s almost like he was trying to get people to wear the beetle pendants, come to the jungle, and knock the rocks down.” The woman didn’t elaborate on her theory; she had a feeling the man had already come to the same conclusion. She had dedicated her life to studying and teaching world history and archeology in hopes of better understanding the events of that traumatic day. Still, the thought that her friend had died due to an accidental violation of an ancient ritual continued to torture the old woman, and she guessed that this man felt the same about his mother. She suspected that Adolfo’s beetle-pendant-giving and legend-telling both had a hand in causing the disasters, but she could tell the old man held on to hope that the deaths were simply accidents. Looking up from her melancholy thoughts, she realized the rain had stopped. “The storm seems to have passed. Would you like to place your flowers with me?”
The old man sighed.
“I would.” He helped her out of the car and down the still-muddy path to the gate. Together, they bent down and placed their bouquets by the entrance. After a moment of thoughtful silence, they both nodded and the man helped the woman get back into her car before sliding into his own. As the woman was about to shut her car door, the man called out to her.
“I’m sorry - I don’t think I ever introduced myself! I’m Danny Knox.”
“Nice to meet you, Danny!” The old woman called back. “My name is Ruth Fairchild.”
She gently shut the car door and turned her key in the ignition, sending her old vehicle sputtering to life. Carefully turning the steering wheel, Ruth pulled her car onto the main road and putt-putted it out of sight.
Danny smiled and pressed the power button on his car. It didn’t start. He pushed it once, twice, three times more. Still nothing. He couldn’t check the gasoline gauge, but it couldn’t be empty since he had just filled his tank earlier that morning.
Feeling somewhat spooked, Danny opened his glove compartment, removed the beetle pendant he’d purchased from the dime store, and hung it around his neck. A tiny sigh of regret escaped his lips as he realized he forgot to show his amazing find to Ruth. He thought for sure it might have lifted her spirits.
Stepping out of his vehicle, Danny noticed it had started drizzling again. He opened the front hood and began examining the engine. It couldn’t have overheated, since the rain had cooled the weather down substantially. A part might have jiggled loose, although everything seemed to be fitted snugly in place.
Peering into the depths of the engine, Danny heard a low rumbling. He hoped his engine was starting, but realized it was still silent. The sound was getting louder now. It couldn’t be thunder, since there was no lightening and he’d never heard a clap of thunder reverberate this much.
The sound continued to intensify. Something stirred in the back of Danny’s mind; he had heard this sound before. He racked his brain, but he couldn’t remember. All he knew was that the rumbling filled him with dread. The sound seemed to be almost surrounding him now.
Trembling, Danny turned around to face the gate and the jungle beyond. He could see a flood of boulders rushing towards him, down the same incline he’d desperately run down almost 70 years ago. The rockslide was moments away from breaking the fence and gate. He willed his body to run away, but his old bones were paralyzed with fear. He watched in horror as the stones brought down entire trees in their wake, rolling faster and faster. There was a deafening sound of splintering wood and wrenching rusty metal. A single cry rang out, and a scraping crunch followed.
A drum began to pound. A wild, eerie melody streamed from a faraway flute. A chorus of unseen voices chanted in a strange rhythm, saying Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm. Oohm-badda-oohm. Baddobada oohm.
Then, there was silence.
A FEW HOURS LATER
The sun shone brightly in the sky as a black pickup truck pulled off of the main road onto a gravelly path. Ahead stood an abandoned nature preserve closed in by a warped wooden fence with traces of white paint and a rusty metal gate. It was an untamed yet peaceful place. There wasn’t a rock, broken fence post, piece of metal shrapnel, or human remain in sight, so no one would ever know that a major rockslide had just occurred.
The vehicle parked and powered off, then a young Costa Rican man wearing a JORGE & SONS DIME STORE tee shirt stepped out holding an old wooden box with a crackled, yellowed label on the lid. He immediately set the box on the ground and knelt, bowing and waving his hands three times toward the jungle while chanting in a mystical language. Standing up, he took a necklace from his pocket and held its pendant, a recently polished stone bird, up to the sun. Again, he mumbled in a strange language before tying the string around his neck. Finally, he closed his eyes and recited more words while rubbing the bird pendant between his fingers.
A lone bird called out as he picked up his wooden box and began walking down the path toward the fence, his eyes scanning the ground. After a moment of searching, he spotted a beetle-shaped pendant tied to a string lying on the ground. Declaring a few words in his native language, he stomped on the beetle before picking it up, opening the box, and tossing it inside. As he turned to walk back to his truck, the bright sunlight made the lettering on the box’s label clear: PROPERTY OF THE SOOTB, and in smaller letters underneath, Secret Order Of The Bird.
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