They flip open the hatch and descend the stairs, The steps are an untreated, roughly hewn wood, though appearing surprisingly solid and unblemished considered they must have sat here for years in the dark, unused. At the bottom lies a solid concrete landing area roughly fifteen by fifteen feet, leading up to the water. A short tunnel section extends behind the stairwell, though the passage ends in that direction just behind the stairs, allowing only enough room for those.
A handful of residents are already hanging out down here, marveling over this sight. A few hardy souls have disappeared down the tunnel, following this natural spring, though nobody has yet reached the end of it. It’s just a wide, eerily still channel carved into the concrete, with paths along both sides wide enough to easily walk. The ceiling is a curved, light colored tile, while the walls continue in concrete, about three quarters of the way up the wall, until meeting the tile. Light bulbs are mounted every so often along both walls, and while Kidwell says that a couple of the ones near this entrance snapped to life, however weakly, with the pull of a little chain, all the ones they’ve tested further down failed to work.
“I’ve been in the process of switching out the bulbs as we go or, you know, made a note to test out the wiring if that doesn’t work. Most of them have, though,” he explains to the four of them, now, near the entrance. Then adds, admiring the long passage, “isn’t this something!?”
The passage continues farther than they can see, even with most of the bulbs freshly installed and functioning. It continues in what appears to be a straight line, to the naked eye, albeit ever so slightly diagonal from where the stairs came down, in a vague SSW direction. Tony and Marcus each have a case of bulbs and are making their way down the paths in lockstep, switching out the lights until they deplete their source material. As for Jeremy, he remains skeptical, as to how clean, new, and cobweb free this tunnel is, and can’t wait to compare impressions with Denise later. For now, however, he’s just waiting for his opportunity to broach this topic.
“So, how far do you think they’ve made it, Harry?” Emily asks, and is flipping an index finger up and down, to indicate the two levels, “as far as, like, compared to Otherwise? Have they made it to the edge of the clearing?”
“Oh yeah, they’re well past the clearing, I would say,” Kidwell nods, “they’re a good…twenty feet into being underneath the woods, I would guesstimate. But, I don’t know, that’s a great question. We should figure out a way to measure this.”
“And you don’t have…any kind of maps or charts of this property, and you haven’t been here since…you were a little kid?” Jeremy questions.
Possibly picking up a little bit of his dubious tone, Kidwell slowly rotates his head in Jeremy’s direction, hand on chin, before stating, “no, huh uh. That’s why I’m saying, we should probably do so now. Seems kind of important.”
“Okay but what about this fire? You had to have heard something about this major fire. Considering…isn’t this how your grandma acquired the place?”
“Well, now, I do remember something about the fire, of course,” Kidwell allows, assuming a pensive expression as he taps his upper lip with a finger, staring into the near distance to recall, “it was big news at the time, like you say. But as far as the details? Eh…no. Then again, you have to remember we didn’t live all that close to here, and I didn’t see Grandma Edwina all that often, either. Maybe twice a year.”
Jeremy supposes he’ll have to buy this tale for now, though he still isn’t sure. By this point, Emily and Denise have long since drifted off, to inspect the passage in detail. Laughter and the unmistakable high pitched sound of enthralled voices bounces all over, off these hard surfaces, the preternaturally still water. Grace remains dutifully at her boss’s right hand side, though, hands clasped behind the back, continuing to offer her daydreamy tour guide smile, however silent at the moment.
“What about the water?” Jeremy thinks to ask, “wouldn’t your guys have tapped this to get water, for the cabins and other buildings?”
“Good question. I definitely would have told them so if knowing where this was!” Kidwell chuckles, adds, “but, actually, it’s all well water, which they accessed elsewhere. Then again, I’m not a hundred percent on any of this. I’m more of a hands-off boss anyway. I tell my guys to execute such and such and they execute such and such. We’ll ask them, though. But you know me – all I can think about now is how I might market this natural spring angle, heh heh!”
Like the story so far? Pick up the entire tale from your favorite store below!
Kindle version:
