The Cave

This is another story that I wrote for a Creative writing class during undergrad. This is a children's mystery that I was told by my fellow classmates/critics as an example of the 'Encyclopedia Brown' stories. I will be making a few changes and I hope they will be for the better of the story. I feel my writing aptitude has improved since 1990 when I had taken this course.

THE CAVE

It all started out on a partly sunny day when the whole town heard this horrible noise and it seemed to come from all sides. Most of the town folk did not know what made that horrible noise that sounded like a croaky, creaky and penetrating sound that just enters your whole body. They wondered what or who made that particular type of sound. Could it have been human or animal or maybe both?

Some of the town folk think it's just the small volcano letting off steam once in a while. Some even say that it is an ancient Haitian king, but no one seems to for sure. One day when I was walking down Maine Street I was thinking about calling some of my friends and see if they wanted to try and figure out what the strange noises were and solve this mystery. "Oh, my the way my name is Dawn and I live in the small town of Darby.

On my way home I was thinking who I was going to call first and see if anyone was interested in finding out what the noise is all about. I decided to call my closest friend, Jed. As all teenagers as soon as entered the house I headed to the kitchen for a snack and a soda. After I relaxed for awhile and finished my homework I called Jed to see about helping with a small project. Jed seems to know what my little projects entails.

"Dawn, I suppose you want to find out what is making that strange noise all over town. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct, Jed." "Do you want to help?"

"You know me Dawn. I'll do anything for you the quirky mystery hunter of Darby."

"I knew I could count on you, Jed." "Who else do you think would help?"

"Let me think and I'll let you know and call you back."

Some of the other friends that Dawn and Jed knew that might like to solve a mystery were only Ben and Susan as well as Andrew and Drew.

"Hello, Dawn. Hope you aren't busy right now. I thought of two people that could help us. How about Ben and Susan."

"I like them two." "Do you want to call them or do you want me to call them."

"Your the ringleader of this mystery tour you can call them."

"Okay. I was thinking of making it a 'conference call' like my parents do."

"Good idea and we can find out sooner what all the noise is about and we can all get a good nights or day sleep. Could you join me or us during the conference call. It would be help."

"Sure, I can be there."

Dawn and Jed starting calling and asking them to hold on till they get everyone connected on the same call.

"Is everyone here? Let me know." "Is everyone here?" "Let me know with something."

"Jed?" "Here."

"Susan?" "Here."

"Andrew?" "Here."

"Drew?" "Here."

"Ben?" "Here." "Okay, we are all here and you all would like to know what this is all about." "We all have heard that strange croaky or even creaky noise all through the town." As a group they all said they heard about a strange noise.

"I am proposing that we go on a mystery tour to find out what it is or causing it." "Now we all have to decide since it is now a weekend what time we want to start this little adventure." "Any ideas." "I think we should start early in the morning say around 6 or 7AM. "8AM would work better for us wouldn't it Drew, Andrew said." "Any different times." "Me and Drew only suggested 8AM being a Saturday for we usually have practice on Friday nights now, but I think we can adjust to 7:30 as a compromise." "Okay, any other times" "Susan speaks up and says, 7:30 would be better for me as well for, believe it or not, I want to try and finish an art project." "I'm fine with 7:30 the earlier time was just a suggestion and you all know I just get excited about a new mystery." "Ben, you have been quiet is 7:30 good for you to get started." "Sure, I was just thinking for I could maybe get my few Saturday chores done on Friday. There are not too many." "Well, that is about it and Good bye everyone and see everyone at the park around 7:30 in the morning."

Usually on a regular Saturday Dawn would have to do a few chores as well, so she asks her mother if she could do them this afternoon, so she can go with her friends as she planned help her community. Her mother usually allows her very responsible yet tom-boy daughter do what she wants to do as long as she does what she is suppose to do around the house.

"Mom, what do you want me to do?"

"Well, you could go ahead and water the plants and clean your room.

"I think I will go shopping while you start those chores and I will see what I can find good for you all."

I can get up with you and make you a good breakfast for you and your friends. I think while I am making you all some fast food you could run the sweeper in the living room or anywhere else you may want to sweep for me. That would be a great help."

Dawn's cell phone plays its' tune and she picks up.

"Hey, Dawn it's Susan I wonder I could spend the night with you and that way we can head out together to the park." "That sounds fine with me and I do not think my mom would mind. Let me call my mom just to check with her. Call you back in a few minutes." "Okay."

"Mom, one question can Susan spend the night tonight? She wants to so we can set out for the mystery tour together?" "Dawn, that's fine with me." "Thanks, mom."

Calling Susan back. "Hey, Susan, my mom says it's okay to come on over." "I will get my stuff together and be over there in a few minutes."

Just a few minutes later Susan was at Dawn's front door.

"Is that you Susan come on back to the kitchen and we will make some hot chocolate." "That sounds good do you have any cookies to go with the hot chocolate?" "The hot chocolate will take a few minutes what do you think is making the strange noise through town?" "I think it is some sort of spirit for you know I am into that kind of stuff." "That could be I think it would be kind of neat to meet a spirit of some kind. Kind of like they do on those television shows." "The hot chocolate is ready and look what I found a box of Girl Scout cookies and they're the peanut butter kind covered in chocolate." "My favorite."

After they had their hot chocolate and cookies and an old movie Dawn and Susan decided to go to bed. They were both ready for bed and knew the morning would soon be upon them. Susan then shared with Dawn, "We have always done everything together as long as I can remember from kindergarten to now. I hope we will always be friends." That is when they heard the noise and at this time of night it was even a bit more creepy feeling.

The next morning Susan was up before Dawn and after hearing that creepy sound she knew she wanted to find out what it was or still is out there. She gave Dawn a few more minutes before she excitedly woke her up, but she couldn't wait and went over to Dawn's bed and woke her. "Let's get going!" It was only 5:00 in the morning and Dawn sat up "We did not agree this early we still have a while before we get started and meet up with the others at the park." "I know but I want to get started after that noise last night." "Okay, okay give me a few minutes and I will get moving." Dawn rolled over and wouldn't you know it now she couldn't sleep now either. Dawn sat up and told Susan "Let's go downstairs and have some breakfast and see what my mom packed us all for lunch and a few snacks for the gang.

"It looks like mom packed us all some very good snacks even though they all are on the healthy side. There are a lot of fruits and vegetables and juice boxes. Ahh, there are some real goodies on the bottom of the basket."

"What time is it now?"

"Time to go and see if anyone has arrived at the park."

Out the door the the two went and the sun was just rising above the horizon.

"It looks like Jed is here and right behind him are Drew and Andrew."

"Coming from the other direction there is Ben." "Did everyone have breakfast?" "If you didn't here are some snack bars." Everyone said that they were fine and they wanted to start the mystery tour.

"Just as a reminder this mystery of ours is to find out what is causing that strange creaky, croaky noise that we have all been hearing lately around the town over the past few months. I have a peculiar feeling that it's not just the wind and I believe with all of us we can find out what it is."

Susan had the first question. "Where do you suppose the sound is coming from or even which direction is it from?" "Good question." everyone said. "I guess we should split up and head in several directions like over to the lake, to the cave, and even downtown around the docks." explained Jed. Dawn agreed with all these suggestions and they decided to split into groups.

We all agreed that it is more than just the wind making that ominous sound and usually at night, so let's split up.

Drew and Andrew you go to the docks.

Sue and I will go to the lake.

Jed and Ben you two go to the cave.

If anyone hears and maybe sees anything that seems not to belong give a yell of some sort. We need all of us if we are going to solve this mystery for the town. The groups were headed in their various directions and they were all thinking the same thing.

"Where do we start and the noises seem to start and come over the hills from over there or even there." For they were all pointing in various directions.

Jed and Ben were over my the caves and they remembered that the or at least some of the noises came from their direction from over the hills. "Let's get going!"

Drew and Andrew were not sure, but they did not think the noises were coming from the docks. "I think there is a way that connects all these areas together. But, again I am not sure." explained Drew.

Dawn and Susan were on the way to the lake and they to were thinking that the lake could be, but was not the right area for the sounds to come from for the sounds also sounded like echoes.

Before the pairs got too far away from each other Drew and Andrew decided to yell "I think we should all just go to the caves even though everything in this town is connected in someway anyway. So they all gathered together again and headed to the caves.

Dawn at this point kind of continued the history and how to of the caves to the group. To get to these caves you have to go through several streams and kind of a tunnel that starts at the docks, kind of what Drew and Andrew said. There are also many areas of thick well very thick grasses that are on the outskirts of the lake where me and Susan were going to look for awhile especially in the area of the Weeping Willows area. It seems that some of the caves have been covered over with so many weeds that the openings were well blocked and safe from intruders from the outside, but who says what or who may be already on the inside. According to several of the older adults around the town the caves were pretty safe.... an on with the Great Cave Mystery of June 16, 1948 and off they went up the road to the Cavernous Caves.

"You know there are several caves up here, so I think after we climb Bowll Hill we should split up into those groups again and search them." Jed suggested. "Do you know your way around them I don't." exclaimed Susan. I think we should just stay as one whole group." "Now let's finish this walk and climb that hill so we can make it to Cavernous Caves." she explained.

It seems about noon who's ready for some lunch? Dawn asked. "After we eat and rest for awhile we can enter the caves and start searching them." We are entering as a group, but we will probably split up and follow some paths even though I heard that they all connect in some way. So when we are looking and finding any secret passages we need to be very careful and yell if you do find any of these passages.

The group did end up separating in their searches for any clues for Dawn and Susan took the first cave on the left; Drew and Andrew took the cave on the right and Jed and Ben took the one in the middle.

"Dawn, are you sure you want to do this?" "I sure do for I seen too many people in horror when they hear those noises." "You're not chickening out are you?" "No, no. I just wondered why you decided to start this mystery."

"Make sure you check every spot you never know what might trigger a doorway to open." In about 20 minutes into the journey Jed found a lever of sorts and it opened up a pathway, but it was narrow, but we were able to fit in and we walked through it, which seemed to take an hour or so. Just when we were never to get out it seemed we were right around the corner and we entered a room. We do not know for sure what kind of room it was, but it had all sorts of paintings on the wall. The pictures were all of cavepeople either doing various activities that ended up telling a story.

This was about the same time that the others were also working their ways towards us for their passages lead to this great room as well. We all studied the pictures for we then all said "These drawings look to be from the New Stone Age just with some of the tools that were being used in the pictures. It was then that we heard the terrible, creaky, croaky noise and it was even worse in the cave due to the many echoes. We then entered the next room that seemed to be all cleared of any debris which we thought was a little weird for it was the last room in this cave.

"What do you suppose this room was used for all those many years ago?" "They could have been used for burials for just look at some of the pictures from the other room." "The noise or noises could be spirits that were left behind and could not move where they needed to be." Ben, Susan, and me thought it could have been a meeting room for other purposes for there seemed to be a high pit well more of a fire pit where many discussions could have been talked over by the tribe leaders. "Hey, you can still see some of the old bones that have been fossilized in the pit."

When they started to find their way out Drew and Andrew told their story.

When they all reached the cave entrance they heard the horrible noise one more time. It seemed that the noise can from within themselves. Deep down they all knew they were going to solve this mystery sooner than they thought they would. They all walked in and started to everything over. Drew stumbled hitting a piece of the cave wall and a slab opened up into a small room something like an anteroom like you would find in a pyramid. Then almost immediately another door opened into another room. All of the sudden they all felt very cold for there were now freezing drafts surrounding them. At the moment we know we had solved the mystery of the cave. The noises that everyone in town heard and continued to hear even most recently were the spirits of the people who built and carved out the caves and all they wanted was someone to help them reach the Happy Hunting Grounds to be with all their families that have gone before. Since no one would believe us down in town we agreed we would help them anyway we could if we could. The next time we heard the noise it wasn't like the moaning, awful noise we all have been used to through town, but more of a happy, laughing sort of sound. It seemed the cave spirits figured how to get to their families on the Happy Hunting Grounds for me and my friends just said a simple prayer for the spirits and one by one they entered their eternal rest and so ends my summer of mystery.