Junior's Luck

Junior's Luck-Chapter 13

The concrete tunnel was tall enough for Kelsey to stand in and as wide as the sidewalks along the streets in his neighborhood. Junior held the flashlight in one hand and the tree branch in the other. In the shadowy light, his face looked like a grinning jack-o'-lantern. He offered the branch to Kelsey.

"Knock out the stick with this."

Kelsey perched on the second rung, where he could get a full swing at the target. To avoid losing his balance and falling, he clung to the top rung with his left hand while he swung with his right.

The branch slipped out of Kelsey's grasp just before it thunked against the stick that propped the lid open, knocking it free. Kelsey ducked into the shaft a heartbeat ahead of the falling door.

"I lost the branch."

"Hey, come on." Junior's voice reverberated from within the tunnel. "This is neat."

With the light in front of him, Kelsey couldn't see enough of his surroundings to tell if there was any yucky stuff, but his sneakers crunched on things as he walked along. Probably big cockroaches, he thought. He was relieved that no rats squeaked, but snakes and ghosts didn't make noise. They could be anywhere. They could be all around. Kelsey hurried to catch up to the bobbing beam.

He joined Junior at an intersection with another tunnel. Junior stopped and pointed the flashlight to the right. It shone into a long, black void.

"Where does this one go?" Kelsey asked.

"I don't know, but we should not follow it. If we stay in this tunnel, it should lead to the mansion and the secret passages."

"No way." Kelsey took a step back. "I'm not going. Someone's in the house."

"What about the bet?"

"We are doing the bet. We will check out these tunnels until they quit looking for us. Then we leave. That's what you said.

"The bet was about secret passages, not tunnels. They won't even realize we're in the building." Junior turned and walked away, the light leaving with him. "Besides," he called over his shoulder. "You don't want to go back alone, in the dark, a ghost might get you." He let out a weak laugh.

Kelsey followed his friend; Junior left him no choice. It wasn't the fear of darkness or ghosts that made Kelsey stay on; Junior wouldn't make it without him. Kelsey wouldn't abandon his friend, although Junior had intended to do just that to him. But maybe it had been a bluff. If Kelsey had stayed put, Junior would have returned for him. Kelsey wanted to believe that, but Junior could be stubborn. If Kelsey had called Junior's bluff and been wrong, he would have had to search for him, alone, in the dark.

It wasn't fair. Junior was sick and dependent on Kelsey to get him back to the hospital alive, yet he still bossed Kelsey around. To show his disgust, Kelsey stayed as far behind him as possible without losing the light.

They walked thirty yards further, which seemed longer because Kelsey was afraid. Junior stopped at what appeared to be a shaft. His head disappeared. Kelsey trotted to reach Junior, while watching his friend's torso, then legs, pass from sight as he climbed the iron rungs.

By the time Kelsey arrived at the shaft, which was taller than the previous one at eight or nine feet in height, Junior had climbed to the top of it. This shaft was a metal tube for about six feet, topped by a wooden box for the final three feet. Kelsey saw the outline of a trapdoor cut into the wood above.

Junior grunted, and then he grunted again.

"It's too heavy-for me," He explained as he came down the ladder, one of his feet nearly beaning Kelsey. Junior gasped for air. "I can move it-a little, but I can't-open it. You try. I need-to rest."