Another Pink Book!

Chapter 6

Friday, 11:16 am

To say I was surprised was quite an understatement. If that pine cone hadn't dropped right in front of me, I would have stepped right off into nothingness.

I jumped backward abruptly, slipped in the leaves and fell on the cushioned forest floor. I took a moment to absorb the situation. The ravine had sheer sides and appeared as a crack in the hill that split from top to bottom. One more step and I would have fallen at least thirty feet to the rocky bed of a wide, rushing creek.

I laid back in the leaves, forgetting about snakes and looked around me: no pine trees. I looked through the bare branches of the maples, oaks, and poplars into that same blue sky that I had viewed just a short time ago as I had laid in the middle of the road. I said, "I love you too, Uncle Clarence" and rested a bit. After a few moments, I sat up and wondered what I should do next.

To the north, the uphill side of the slope was a sheer wall of rock. I couldn't even attempt to climb that wall; it was a non-starter. I had been heading west; I could see, on the other side of the split, the path as it resumed toward where I supposed Katie Lee's house to be. The split was only 20 feet or so wide at this juncture; it was clearly the head of the rift. The split seemed to widen and I could hear the rush of water. There must be an underground stream or river that broke loose, maybe centuries ago, and carved this niche from the ground.

I was so close, yet so far. There was no way I could jump across that expanse. I stood and looked at my surroundings, but no miracle way over the ravine appeared. I would have to retrace my steps to the game trail. I would have choices when I regained the trail: either go back the way I came, rejoin the road and walk to Katie Lee's house by the road or go toward the south and downhill. I thought about crying, but there seemed to be no point.

I stood still a moment, listening. I couldn't hear much over the roar of the water, but as I strained my ears I thought I heard a ruckus down below me, in the gorge. I crept closer to the cliff's edge, listened, then tentatively called: "Sam?"

A joyful bark answered me. Poor baby! Had he fallen off the cliff? Was he injured? I had to get to him and fast. I yelled that Mama was coming, then scrambled back toward the path. I yelled for Ben and Toby but received no answer. I found the path and scrambled down the hill. I lost count of how many times I got caught in blackberry briars and how many times I slid down in the mud. I kept going and as I went I yelled for Sam, for Ben, and for Toby. None of them answered me.

I finally reached the bottom of the hill and the game trail led directly to the sluggish shallows of the little river and the entrance to the narrow canyon into which I had nearly fallen. This had to be close to the place I had heard Sam. The water flowed on a rocky bed with narrow, shallow 'beaches' on either side, made of crushed stone and some mid-sized boulders. Opportunistic weeds and saplings grew everywhere. I pushed through, slipping and sliding in the mud and across the slippery stones as I yelled for Sam.

I neither saw nor heard any evidence of Sam. It was perceptibly cooler in the ravine and when I had to step in the water to make my way around errant botanicals, I discovered the water was icy. I traveled about 50 yards or so when I saw the mouth of a cave, dead ahead. It had a roughly triangular opening that tilted downward on one side. The little river poured from the mouth of the cave across a beautiful waterfall. The vertical rock wall that climbed behind it rose to the point in which I had nearly fallen.

The ravine was narrow here. The cave wasn't very large and it wasn't very high. A tall person could probably touch the roof of the cave easily; a man was attempting it right at that moment. It the man from the side of the road.