Hide and Seek

Her voice was ice water. It was good for me and bad too. The shame

was as strong as the anger had been. Nothing Steve had said was

particularly out of line. It was only reasonable from his point of

view. Another time it might have been typically Casey. I couldn't

blame him for wanting to believe this was like the others. He hadn't

sat in that tunnel like I had. He had no way of knowing.

"Clan ... I... I was trying to say..."

"I'm sorry, Steve. I'm just scared, I guess, that's all."

He stopped stammering.

"I was trying to say that I'll help you. Only..."

"Only he's not quite as dumb as you are, Daniel. Suppose you're

absolutely right. Suppose there's someone or something in there. Then

suppose we go in, and it's something big enough so that three rusty

knives can't quite handle it. What happens then? Sorry, Casey? We

tried?

"I don't think that's good enough, Daniel. Not good enough for Casey,

or for us."

I looked at them. There was no need to apologize further. They knew.

They were pretty good people and they knew.

Her voice was calmer now.

"Look," she said. "I could take the car and go for the police. You

and Steve could stay here and do whatever you can. I can drive as fast

as either of you and I'm a lot more persuasive. But I'm telling you, I

don't like the look of that hole. Not one bit. I don't think you

should try to go in there."

"We've got to."

"What else can we do?" said Steven.

"Stay here. In case she comes out again. You are not heroes for

Christ's sake! I want you to promise me you won't try."

"But what if she..."

"What if she NOTHING! You don't know what's in there; you don't

knowifthedamnthingcavedinonher! Jesus! Could we please stop arguing?

We're wasting time."

"Okay," I said. "Go."

"Promise me."

Steven hesitated, glanced at me. I nodded.

"I promise," he said. "All right."