Gaven's mystery

Chapter Twelve

As time went on, their was no improvement, Milly was still in a coma. I had no more incidents at the house although I was still on guard. Andy and I were getting closer everyday and my love for him was growing stronger. I came and went to the hospital and checked on Milly. Molly needed my support more than ever. The twins had such a strong bond it was as if, Molly was willing Milly to be strong and come back to us. No one knew what had happened to her and how she had come to be in that truck.

The test did reveal she had been raped, alcohol was also in her system. The town carnival was going on this week, Andy and I decided to go. The street dance was happening tonight and then a firework show. As I was fixing a picnic basket to carry I noticed the living room rug had been moved, it could have been from me cleaning though. I walked over to it and felt a board move, so I removed the rug and I couldn't believe what I had found, it was a trap door leading under the house.

I could tell it hadn't been used in quite awhile because of the cob webs, I quickly gather a flashlight to look in the hole and discovered it was a tunnel. I gently eased myself down the ladder to take a quick look. It was very dark and smelled musty, also it was way too quiet. The tunnel was so long that it looked like their was no way I would have time to follow it the whole way before Andy showed up, and should I tell Andy what I had found? 

I'll deal with that later, to my left I found a switched to a light and flipped it, there were lights the whole way down, and they still worked. The urge to explore hit me like a bolt of lightening and I couldn't help myself. I continued on down the tunnel and it finally stop, where did it go? Why did it stop? 

Then I saw it a latch above my head it was another trap door, but where did it lead? I pushed on it and the trap door open. I carefully waited then decided to take a look, as I eased my head up and looked out, it was a shed or a shack. I climbed out of the tunnel, no one was around and yes it was a shack. Someone lived here. Thank God they weren't home, but who lived here? 

About that time I hear yelling coming out of the tunnel. Oh no Andy had arrived and was looking for me, he was in the tunnel. Guess he knows about the tunnel now. I couldn't scream back to let him know I was okay, so I climbed back down and bumped right into Andy. Andy was startled as I fell on top of him. 

"What are you doing? Where are we? I saw the trap door and figured you would be in here somewhere."

I quickly explained to Andy, how I had found the trap door, and yes I should have waited, but now I wanted answers on who lived in that shack. I quietly picked myself up and gave Andy a hand up and there we were standing in the shack. There was a fireplace, a small cook stove and a bedroom off to my right, but indoor plumbing was no to be found, on the mantle I saw a picture of my grandmother and a crochet doily on the kitchen table. Dirty dishes covered the the sink and the bedroom, the bed was unmade and liquor bottles were all over the place, that lead me to believe this must be Elijah's place.

That tunnel had to be the way Elijah and my grandmother had their affair. Wonder if granddad knew about this tunnel. The house had been in his family for over a 100 years, the tunnels had to have been dug during the confederate war. I was almost positive he had to have know about the tunnels. So had he know about the affair? All these questions were going on in my mind when Andy snapped me out of my thoughts and reminded me we had to get out of here, the street dance was waiting, but before I left the shack I had to look out the window and sure enough in the distance you could see my house.

This must have been how he knew when she was alone. Andy gently closed the hatch back on the trap door and we made our way back to my house, what had first felt like a hour was actually ten minutes. I placed the rug back over the trap door to conceal it. Andy and I talked about it the whole way into town with my agreement that when we got to town I would put it to rest and try to enjoy myself.