Day 18

Bonanza lit an oil lantern and Hugo could see around the interior of the barn.
A monster of a machine dominated the entryway. It was so large that Hugo wondered how it had been brought in through the doors, even though Hugo could see that the door that they had come through opened double-wide. Even so, Hugo wondered if it had been taken apart and put back together inside the barn.
Inside the door, along the earthen walls stood many implements of farming and ranching. Broken and whole tools lined the walls. Buckets lay piled near the machine, burlap sacks were stacked in five or six feet tall piles. Half a cord of wood stood back a bit. Hugo picked up one of the pieces; it weighed almost nothing, having sat so long; it had succumbed to the slow decay and would only warm a small hut for a very short time.
The lamps failed after only a short while, the darkness swallowing the light. Hugo tried to peer farther, but could not make out anything after twenty feet. Bonanza and Olaf stood close together, whispering quietly and animatedly together. Finally, Olaf turned and picked up a lamp of his own. He lit it and turned to Hugo expectantly. Hugo looked back at the two, blankly. He shrugged his shoulders, wishing that he had brought an extra beer. “What are we doing here?” He asked.
Hugo’s words set Bonanza and Olaf into motion. “We’re looking for something,” said Bonanza.
“Okay,” said Hugo. “Do we know what this something is?”
Bonanza pushed past Hugo, past the machine and the wood, into the darkness. Olaf gazed at Hugo for a second, then followed Bonanza. Hugo stood, wondering what was happening. I’ve been wondering that a lot lately, he thought. He turned and had to move quickly to catch up to Olaf and the light. He banged his shin twice before finally coming close enough to see in the light of the lamps. The earthen walls absorbed the light.
They passed wooden boxes that had stains on the outside from contents that had leaked out years ago, piles of rubbish, or what appeared to be rubbish, and mounds of dirt where the walls had slumped inward. The farther along they went, the more the walls seemed to have decayed. The roof, however, didn’t let in a peep of light. Hugo felt like they had been walking for much longer than the barn had appeared to be on the outside. He felt a question rising in his mind, but chose not to ask it. Bonanza hadn’t been in the mood for questions all morning.
The floor of the barn began to slope downward, imperceptivity at first, then more steeply. The floor changed from compacted soil to smooth rock. Eventually, they came to a set of stairs. They had been carved in the rock that underlay the soil. Bonanza stopped at the top of the stairs. A dubious hand rail had been sunk into the right hand wall. The ceiling had lowered. The potato barn began to look more like a tunnel under the earth. Hugo wondered about it, but kept his questions to himself, again.
Bonanza looked at Olaf. Olaf nodded slightly, and they began to descend the stairs. Hugo followed, filled with dread, fear, and curiosity. Here we go, he thought. Wherever that might be. Hugo wished that he had a lantern of his own. He immedeatly felt it childish, but the comfort of controlling fire comforted him. The closeness of the tunnel, and the glistening rock --the earth no longer absorbed, but reflected the light-- made the need for an extra lantern superfluous. Still the warmth would have been nice.
The stair descended for over two hundred steps. At their base, a small chamber opened onto three equal looking passageways. The rock looked less carved here, and more natural. As in the refuge, many lava tube caves dotted the McLoughlin valley, though Hugo knew of only three…four including this one. As a teenager, he and his friends had one much exploring of caves.
Bonanza handed a lantern to Hugo as though he had read his thoughts. Hugo felt reluctant to take it, however, the grasped the bail, warm from Bonanza’s hand, and lifted it up to look down one of the passageways.
Bonanza and Olaf looked at Hugo solemly.
“Hugo,” Bonanza began. “In this world, there are pockets of great evil. And always there have been men to fight and controll this evil. Some men were brave, others cowards, some of them brilliant thinkers, others no more than idiot stable hands. But they had one thing in common, when the time came, they defended their loved ones, their land, their way of life. If they passed these tests, then they knew that they could defend themselves from the evil, overcome it, overpower it. This, Hugo, is one of those tests.
“You can choose to not take this test. We will walk back up the stairs and I will drive you home and we will forget that any of this had ever happened. We will go on as though nothing had happened, though the evil will still be there, and it may be there between us. I will hold no quarter against you, but the evil will have stuck a knife in a chink in our armor. Will the evil overrun us? Will it spread throughout McLoughlin? Yes. That may happen regardless of what happens here today, or what good we can do tomorrow against the evil presence that has been growing in the south.
“This evil, we have kept it in check for many years. Not only Olaf and myself, but many others as well. We are part of a greater whole that has been working in the world since long before the birth of religions. We are a group that dates back to before the advent of farming. When our ancestors put down their clubs and picked up their planting sticks, the evil found a chink in the armor of the world. And since that time, some have been called to defend our chosen way of life. You, Hugo, have now been chosen.
“You will pass through one of these tunnels. Whichever you choose, all lead to the same place: a better understanding of our world, the evil and the good in it; and also a better understanding of yourself. You will become a part of a greater fellowship, a greater [German term for fellowship].
“Each of the tunnels has its own perils, and tests, and puzzles. You must chose one tunnel and pass through it, if you are to join us in the fight that you already have been fighting.”
Hugo stared at him, his mouth hanging open. “Why…why me?” He said.
“You have shown interest and knowledge in this affair of the last few days. You have been a good companion to me and have shown that you are willing to learn, listen, and most importantly to think. There are other reasons besides, but we will not discuss them now.
“Are you willing to do this, Hugo? Which tunnel do you choose?”
Hugo looked from Bonanza to Olaf and back to Bonanza. He couldn’t believe that the little man with bald pate who stood before him was the same man who drove him around, drinking beer, swearing about the government and what his sheep had recently gotten into. Images of the last three days flashed through his mind, and he wondered how they all fit together.
He turned and stared down the tunnels, one after the other. Then he looked back up the stairs. Somehow, not because he felt that it would be cowardly, the way up the stairs seemed the most difficlut way, the darkest path.
How strange, he thought, that the known way would seem the hardest.
Hugo nodded faintly at the lefthand tunnel. He tried to speak, but his words left him.
“Good,” said Bonanza.
“Good,” said Olaf.
Hugo nodded again, more to himself, then to either Olaf or Bonanza, and started walking.


Chapter 24

Mandy woke with the sun, ready to tackle the puzzle that was the refuge. She had thought about their time there, and specifically about being outside the entrance to Skeleton Cave. She felt certain that what they had heard had only been a rodent, or possibly a martin or badger. It hadn’t been some malevolent force. She had been tired; she had been ready to believe that something unknown and dangerous scuffled in the underbrush in the sink-hole of Skeleton Cave.
The new day washed all the fear from that encounter away. She felt ready to take a look in the daylight.
The Duck still lay asleep on the bed. His paintings scattered about the room, covered with the disarray of everyday life. Mandy smiled down at him, knowing full well that he would sleep for at least four more hours: he was not an early riser, and always required nine hours of sleep, no matter what time he went to bed, and last night had not returned particularlly early. After they had discussed the days event with two of the Duck’s friends at Astor’s, they had gone to a party at another lawyer’s house. There they had drank and talked, and played bawdy word games until early in the morning. When they arrived home, Mandy crashed in her clothes, barely kicking off her shoes before pulling up the covers.
After four hours of heavy sleep, though, she felt fine.
She made her way to the kitchen via the bathroom. She fixed coffee and a doughnut for breakfast. Felt guilty eating such a non-nutritious breakfast, but gobbled down the doughnut all the same. Then she had another while she though about what her plan of attack would be.
She decided that first she would go get Hugo, and see if Dr. Bonanza wanted to come. She wished that Hugo had a phone, but shrugged her shoulders: sometimes she wished that she didn’t have one. She would fix some sandwiches and some tea, and they could pick up some beer on the way.
She packed the lunch, two flashlights, and her coat in her backpack and headed out the door. She glanced in at the Duck. He lay sprawled across the bed at an angle, taking up her side as well as his own when Mandy had left. His right arm hung off the bed.
She picked up her keys from a handmade ceramic bowl on a table by the door and headed to her car. The car started right up, which was odd. Usually on frosty mornings she had to try at least twice before anything happened. She scraped he windows as the news blared out of the speakers and the defrost blew on high. She got in and drove through the downtown area, now deserted. She frowned at all the garbage on the streets and sidewalks. Saturday nights were always bad for littering, but this seemed particularly slovely. She noticed that two concrete trashcans had been knocked over, spilling their contents onto the street. High School hooligans. She mentally noted that she would try to pick up some of the garbage when she had time.
She wound her way to the Southside Addition and found Hugo’s house at the end of Hugo’s street.