Day 25

Chapter 37

Hugo thought about Maya and Mandy as he walked down what could now be described as a corridor. The walls Had been bricked and torch brackets lined them. He wondered about Mandy, and where she might be today. He thought of her hair, and how then held hands on the previous day. He felt stupid thinking such thoughts, but continued to think them anyway. He enjoyed the sappy romance of it, and wanted her to like him like he liked her. My god, he thought. Am I still in junior high?
And what about Maya? He had gotten a strange feeling from her when she tried to help him out of the hole. Dr. Bonanza had said that she might be trouble. What about Dr. Bonanza? I suppose that I will be meeting him --and Olaf, I guess-- shortly. He felt sure that the underground part of his initiation --it certainly felt like an initiation-- must be about over, though the passageway seemed to be sloping downward again, not a good sign if you want to get back to the surface. At least, he thought, I must be going the right way, with all the bricks.
He looked at his wrist before he remembered that he had not put on his watch before leaving the house. He estimated that he had been in the cave for well over three hours, and probably more than four. It should be about two by now. He wondered about the weather, the glimpse that he had gotten out of the hole had been wispy clouds, but that could mean anything. He thought again about Mandy, and also about the Duck. He had always wondered why people called him the Duck. Hugo conjured many images, each more ghastly than the last, but couldn’t decide on a single reason. Probably something he picked up in high school or college.
As he thought and walked, the corridor opened gradually until it terminated in a round room with three doors in it. How congruous, Hugo thought. This must be the end, but which door to choose. Then he wondered if he even had to make a choice. Maybe they all lead to the same place. He thought this unlikely. His day hadn’t been going like that. Then he remembered the other two passageways and wondered where they must lead. They certainly didn’t connect up with his chosen passageway. It might be that one of them came down the chimney, but he thought that unlikely. That would still leave the other one. He would ask Bonanza, he decided, assuming that he would know. It must have been he or Olaf who set up the initiation. One of them crawled down there? He thought. He couldn’t imagine either of them being strong enough to go and do it. Though the way they had been talking, they must have set it up long ago.
He stared at the doors again.
“I chose the left one to get in,” he said aloud. “I suppose that I should choose the left one to get out.
He reached out and grasped the copper knob, long greened by the dampness, turned it and pulled. The door swung open. On the other side, Hugo saw more blackness. The passageway ahead stood unlined of bricks or other adornment. He stepped through. The door swung shut behind him of its own accord. He turned, startled at the noise. He tried the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. It was locked.
Hugo let the fatalism take over and walked ahead into the darkness. He picked up his lantern and wondered that it could still be lit after all this time. He sloshed it about: plenty of oil still filled the metal reservoir. He held it up and walked on.
Here the passageway sloped upwards. It gave Hugo hope that now, he must really be nearing the end. Suddenly he came to a crossroads, branches in front of him and to the right and left. He shone the lantern down each of the passageways, but the looked exactly alike. He walked a little way down the right and left branches, but found that they both sloped slightly upwards.
He chose the straight path.
The air became warmer, more fecund. I must be nearing the exit, he thought. He walked a little more quickly holding the lantern more loosely and to his side. He trusted in the path being clear and so didn’t see that the tunnel suddenly narrowed, and the ceiling dropped. He hit his head on the polished rock. He fell to his knees, holding his head. He felt for blood, but found none. He opened his eyes and felt lucky to not have knocked himself unconscious.
As he tried to regain his bearings, and for the pain to subside a bit, he glanced at one of the walls and found one of the symbols that had been marked on the two trees that he had found on the previous day. The symbol had been partially covered with another symbol. The over-symbol seemed to be an upright stick, with a feather laying beside it. Hugo recognized it immediately as one from the Southwest. He had actually gone to New Mexico to take a look at the original. He knew that it meant that goodness had prevailed over evil. On a whim, he searched the symbols on the club, that he still held in his left hand. He found many that he recognized, but the stick and feather was not among them. He wondered about that thoroughly expecting to find one. [previously when we described the club, we need to add a feather to it.]
He shrugged again and looked up at the ceiling that the had just ran his head into, and the way ahead. He dreaded the thought that he might have to crawl on his belly again. Here, at least, he could stoop to walk: he wouldn’t have to resort to crawling just yet.
The floor had a groove worn in it from many feet. The polished ceiling and walls reflected the light from the lantern back at him, almost blindingly. He stopped and checked the lantern for some kind of hood, but it had none. He squinted and continued on.
The passageway opened up and he could walk without stooping. The reflections from the wall, seemed to remain just as bright.
Finally, after another hundred yards of straight walking, Hugo came to a set of stairs. The metal clanged under his feet as he ascended. Above, still was darkness.
After ascending only a short while, maybe thirty steps, Hugo came to an overhead door. He wondered what must lay on the other side. He turned the knob and gave it a push. The door swung open and light flooded into the stairway. Hugo put up his arm to shield his eyes from the glare, much brighter than what the lantern had been in the polished corridor.
Hugo felt hands under his arms, hauling him up. He struggled, afraid after being alone so long, but a soothing voice said, “It’s okay now. Calm yourself down.” Hugo looked into Dr. Bonanza’s face. He stopped struggling at once. The hands placed him on the floor. He sat down with a thump, exhausted from all the time in the cave.
A bottle of water was thrust into his hands. He drank it greedily.
Hugo looked around. He sat in an adobe style round room. The light came in through open windows above them. He could see bushes reaching above them, and knew that he must still be underground. In the room a fire burned, smoking little, and not giving out much heat, the flames had died low. Bonanza stood near the fire, and Olaf had backed toward one of the walls.
Hugo felt disappointed. He had expected to be initiated into some kind of brotherhood with many members, but here only stood Olaf and Bonanza. He thought about the possibility of fighting evil with only these two. How can it be done? He looked at the club, then the lantern. He turned the wick down and let the flame wink out, then set the lantern of the floor beside himself.
“Stand and hold the club,” said Olaf. Hugo did as he had been told. A similar club and appeared in Olaf’s hands. Hugo looked to Bonanza and saw that he also had one.
“Hugo de Naranhas,” Olaf continued. “You have traveled a great distance underground, farther than you know. You have been to the place of the dead, and the underworld from whence evil springs. You have crawled through the very vein the beast to retrieve this club, that will help to overcome the evil that has been unleashed on the earth, on McLoughlin this day. You, Hugo, have allowed this evil to come into the world. You have brought it with your research and your book. You showed the way to two who should not know of such things. Knowledge is power, and power in the wrong hands can be very dangerous indeed.”
[excerpts from Hugo’s books sprinkled throughout the whole story, though we are not told exactly where they are from.]
Hugo stared at Olaf trying to make out all of what he said. He wondered about his book, how he had given the key, and had no idea. He slowly came back to Olaf’s words…
“…Do you, Hugo, accept this task put before you? We alone cannot vanquish the evil alone,” he indicated himself and Bonanza, but also many who were not present. “You, who have the knowledge to bring such things into the world, also have the knowledge to banish them.” Hugo wracked his brains trying to remember anything about unleashing an evil on the world from his book, but could think of nothing. And I am supposed to vanquish it as well? What am I getting myself into, he thought.
“Do you, Hugo, agree to become a part of this Brotherhood of Good [think of a better name]?”
Hugo nodded his head, looking Olaf in the eye. “Yes,” he said.
Olaf held his club aloft, then bent to the ground and drew the upright stick and feather symbol on the floor, though it made no marks. He nodded to Hugo as he stood up again. Hugo bent and did the same. He imagined that he saw a glow on the floor where he had traced, but put it out of his head.
Bonanza likewise drew the symbol, then looked around the room, as though here were watching other people do the same. Again he imagined glowing lines on the floor where people might have stood, one time, long ago.
“Good,” said Olaf.
Bonanza put another stick on the fire and flames sprang to life. “You must be hungry after such a long journey,” he said to Hugo. He thought that the ceremony must be over.
“Yes. I am hungry,” he said. He sat down near the fire, joining Olaf on the floor.
Bonanza rummaged through he satchel and came out with some dried meat and a piece of bread. Hugo ate them hungrily. Bonanza said, “You probably have many questions, hey? We only have time for a few. The sun has already began to set and we need to be far from here when that happens. You need to eat, and then we need to leave.”
Hugo thought of all the questions that he had while he at the bread --a scone, he thought-- and drank the water. “What is the evil?”
Bonanza looked at the fire and thought for a moment. “We can never tell when or where the evil will show itself, only that it is strongest at night. And each time, it is different. This time, we think that it is a creature has taken animal form. Sometimes is will take on human form, or a even a piece of land: it will turn the ground sterile and nothing will grow. It can get into anything that is alive…” he trailed off, not sure of how much to say. “No one has seen it, as far as we know.”
Hugo thought back to seeing the animal --the thing-- that had run out in front of the truck when they drove home from Skeleton Cave. “Did it come from Skeleton Cave?”
Olaf stirred the fire and replied, “We don’t know where it came from.”
Bonanza handed Hugo another scone. Hugo ate in silence for some time, then asked one final question. “Who else is with us?’ he dreaded the answer that must be coming. No one else sat around the fire.
“In the old days…” Bonanza began. “In the old days, everything seems better to us. Many have died, some have left us. It has been a long time since we last saw evil in McLoughlin Valley. We have grown lazy and complacent,” here he looked at Olaf, “and we haven’t initiated a new member for more than twenty years.” He hung his head and looked a the fire. Hugo felt that he had not gotten an answer to his question and started to pursue it further when Bonanza said: “We are three: Olaf, myself, and Esmerelda.” Hugo recalled the name…
“Mrs. McGregor?” he asked almost incredulously. But that would explain quite a lot, he thought.
“She is the one who initiated me. She is our strongest member.”