Suspending Reality (90 page)

Stuck in a cave and he still manages to flirt,
I jested. “If you had one clue about what those “stars” really were, you’d know the romance had just been sucked dry.”

Jack leaned in, his arm brushing mine. “Aren’t those New Zealand’s “living lights”?”

“Looks like it. Do you think that’s where we are?”

He shook his head. “Could be, but it’s over a thousand miles away.”

“Living lights?” asked Mike. “Dude, are you saying those lights are
alive
?”

“Yep.” Jack nodded and motioned with his hand. “Millions of little, glowing worms, courtesy of the fungus gnat.”

And with my luck, a big fat one would fall off and land on my head, a new friend dropping in to say hello. The thought made my stomach squeamish, and now I might hurl.

“Glowing maggots, huh?” asked Mike, who didn’t seem fazed in the slightest. “They’re pretty cool. Got to admit, nature puts on one heck of a light show.”

I clung to Jack, watching the shadows dance and flicker on the dark limestone. I tried to swallow the sudden knot in my throat. “No, they’re
not
cool. It means they’re what’s causing the dim light, not moonlight.” I took a deep breath, my heart racing. “What if we’re stuck here?”

Jack gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “There has to be a way out…and we’re going to find it. Besides, glowworms have to eat insects like moths and mayflies to survive, so they have to be able to come and go. So don’t look so sad. This
is
good news. All we need to do now is find their point of entry.”

I glided forward, using long strokes. “Okay, then let’s go find ourselves an exit out of this giant bug hotel.”

“Wait a sec. What’s wrong with the water?” Jack frowned, his eyes darting to and fro, as he jerked his hand back. “It’s changed colors three times.”

I scooped up the brown water and watched it trickle through my fingers. There was nothing wrong with it as far as I could see. I wouldn’t be drinking it anytime soon since it looked somewhat like rusty punch, but apart from that, it seemed as good as any other.

“A little mud never hurt anyone,” said Mike.

I focused my gaze on the brown water when it suddenly turned purple. My hand flew to my mouth. “Look! Are you guys seeing this? I swear it changed right before my eyes.”

“Dude!” Mike’s jaw dropped as his eyes flew wide open.

Jack laughed and slapped him on the back. “I told you! We didn’t notice it before because we were so occupied with each other and the ceiling, and the colors really weren’t that noticeable.”

“There it goes again!” Mike couldn’t stop staring at the strange phenomenon. “Whoa. Now it’s green. Weird, huh?”

When the surface turned orange, Jack let out a gasp. “No way! The colors are switching like every twenty or thirty seconds. What kind of place is this?”

The words remained frozen in my throat. I could only shake my head in shared disbelief.

Mike swirled his hands back and forth through the multicolored sea. “This is crazy stuff, man.”

“There’s got to be a logical explanation.” Jack struggled for words. I knew he was never comfortable with things he couldn’t easily explain. He fidgeted with the buckles of the life jacket. “Maybe it’s the bioluminescent glow of algae reflecting through the water.”

“Like the blue algae I swam with in Puerto Rico?” I asked.

“Exactly,” answered Jack.

I cocked an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make any sense. The water there didn’t change colors.”

Mike nodded. “Yeah, she’s right. I saw the vacation pics. Maybe it’s best not to be so obsessed with cause and effect, Jack. You sound just like that chick Pam I dated last month. She had to have an explanation for everything.”

“Pam? Hmm. Name doesn’t ring a bell.” Jack paused for a moment. “But then again, there’re so many of them that I can’t keep up.”

Jack was right. Mike had a beautiful girl hanging on his arm practically every week. I wondered how I could ever compete with that.

“C’mon! Let’s find a way out of here.” I took the lead and swam through the large limestone room, followed by Mike and Jack.

Mike cocked his head to the left. “Hey, I think I see an opening. See that, Jack?”

He craned his neck and looked. “Nah. That’s only a shadow, man.”

I rounded a corner and stopped, gazing across the vast space, past clusters of towering stalagmites. Through a jagged opening high in the rock wall, I noticed something peculiar. Not one but
two
suns glowed in the sky. The rays pushed through the dark clouds.
Did I swallow too much salt water, causing me to hallucinate?
I gripped a rough rock formation until my knuckles turned white. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. “Jack! Mike! Come quick!”

Jack was the first to appear from around the bend. With powerful strokes, he swam toward me. “What is it? Did you find a way out?”

“Maybe. Look, there’s an opening!” I pointed straight ahead, across the giant room, at the long, narrow gap hundreds of feet above us. “I think I just found the
bug door
in this joint.”

His eyes widened. “That’s awesome!”

“Look closer,” I said.

Jack sucked in a deep breath. “What the—”       

Mike started forward, and then swung back. “Twin suns? No freakin’ way!”

“I think it’s safe to say this isn’t New Zealand.” My stomach fluttered, but my gaze didn’t waver from the two suns across the horizon.

Jack paused for a moment before he continued. “This is just a phenomenon that makes it
seem
like there are two suns in the sky. You’re actually looking at two luminous spots caused by the bending of light, that’s all.”

I rubbed my eyes. “Are you sure? It’s just an optical illusion?”

“Yep. It’s called a “sundog” or “mock sun”. Incoming sunlight is bent at just the right angle and passes through a thin layer of ice crystals in our atmosphere. It’s best seen at dawn or dusk when the sun’s near the horizon.” 

“Glowing algae and mock suns?” asked Mike. “Well, I think both of your theories are lame, especially the second one. Ice crystals would mean snow, and we’re not in Alaska. I know you’re a genius, but this time you’re wrong, Einstein.”

Jack’s gaze narrowed. “Got a better way to explain the freaky water and
two
suns?”

“Easy, dude,” he said. “Don’t you get it? None of this can be explained.”

I had to agree with Mike. Jack was the smartest person I’d ever met, but his explanations didn’t make any sense…especially the mock sun. We were in the boiling hot tropics, not at the North Pole.

“Never mind.” Jack’s forehead wrinkled, and his dark eyebrows bunched. “We’ve got more important things to worry about, like how we’re going to scale that wall.”

I had no idea how we’d climb that high. If we could only find notches in the wall, we might have a chance. “We’ll figure something out.” Through the hole, a blur of green caught my eye. I blinked. In the far distance, lush green mountains sharpened into focus. I smiled, my heart pounding like a jackhammer. It was the miracle I’d been praying for. Emotion overwhelmed me as I pointed a trembling finger. “LAND!”

Mike shook my shoulder. “Where?”

“Look…there’re mountains way off to the left,” I said.

He did a double-take and threw his arms up. “Woo hoo!”

Squinting, Jack tilted his head. “Oh yeah! I see them now.”

We laughed and hugged, Mike’s arms tightening around my waist, his face pressing into the soft spot at the nape of my neck.

“Well, what’re we waiting for?” I asked. “Let’s swim across to the other side and check out that wall. My fingers are shriveling up like prunes.” I disconnected our embrace, and with a lunge forward, pushed off the cave wall with both legs, my arms cutting through the green water.

“Wait for us!” called Jack from behind.

Mike said goodbye in his usual dramatic fashion. “Twinkle on, glowworms, twinkle on!”

I sped across the water to the far end of the cave and lifted my gaze. The gap was unreachable. We’d have to climb up a sheer vertical wall towering hundreds of feet above the surface of the water. There was no way we could do it without killing ourselves.

We all exchanged a look before Mike broke the silence. “I can do it.” He flashed me his trademark cocky smile.

I prayed he could, but deep down, I knew he just wanted an excuse to pull a crazy stunt.

Jack’s gaze swept over the ceiling and the wall. “With the proper equipment, maybe, but right now, it’s a suicide mission. The last time I checked, you weren’t Spiderman.”

“Yeah, what’re you going to do?” I asked, half-smirking. “Get a radioactive spider to bite you? We’ll just have to find another way.” It might’ve helped if I’d thought to bring along a Mount Everest climber’s guide.  

Movement broke the stillness of the lavender water. Tiny bubbles popped and then disappeared. I leaned forward and peered into the ocean. Something glistened and swirled beneath the surface. “Did you see that?”

“Oh yeah, baby!” Mike slipped out of his life jacket as his voice brimmed with excitement. “Maybe I can wrestle with a giant squid.”

I slapped his arm playfully. “Focus. Don’t let your imagination run wild again.”

“I’m kidding,” he said. “It could be fish, and if that’s the case, they’ve got to come from somewhere. Maybe we can swim our way out of here like frogmen.”

I pushed back a long strand of hair from my eyes and heaved a sigh. “We’re not trained Navy SEALs, but I see your point.”

“It’s a great idea,” said Jack. “I’m onboard.”

I nodded. “Me too. Let’s go for it. Mike, you lead the way.”

He threw up a hand. “Wait. When did you two learn to free dive?”

Jack’s brow furrowed. “We didn’t, but—”

“Then it’s settled.” Mike’s mouth stretched into a wide smile. “Since I’m the one who can hold my breath for five minutes, I’ll go search for an underwater way out.”

I had been cut from synchronized swimming last year. I let out a sigh at the remembrance of that embarrassing situation.
But come on! It was gymnastics, aerobics, and ballet all combined in one, requiring strength, flexibility, and precise timing all while holding your breath—and smiling too.
I sucked underwater big time and would certainly be of no use to Mike.

Jack cut into my thoughts. “Mike’s right. He’s the most experienced one outta all three of us. He should go.” Jack spun in the water to face Mike. “No crazy stunts, okay?” He slapped him on the back. “Be careful and hurry back, bro.”

Mike pointed to himself and laughed. “Me? Pull a crazy stunt?” He playfully rolled his eyes. “Never.”

They laughed and traded fist bumps.

My gaze connected with Mike’s. “I hate it when you disappear underwater for long periods of time, especially now with all of this going on.” I pointed around me. “We don’t know where we are. What if it’s not safe?”

“Don’t worry,” said Mike, scoping out the water as if he had some kind of brilliant plan playing out in his head. He probably imagined himself riding out of there hanging on to the dorsal fin of a whale, and I knew I hadn’t signed up for that excursion. Dolphins, yes, but a fish as big as a submarine? Maybe not so much.

Mike gave me a quick hug and pushed his floating life jacket toward me. “Hang on to this for me, okay? And try not to look so sad. This isn’t goodbye. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?”

“You want a list a mile long?” I retorted.

He smirked, then took several large breaths before one giant gulp, and dove under the water with a splash.

I called after him, my voice anxious. “Mike, no!”

A trail of bubbles trickled to the surface. Watching his toned, tanned body disappear deeper, I pressed my lips into a grim line. “We should go with him.” I peered at Jack, waiting for an answer.

“Listen, we’d only get in the way. Mike’s our best chance at finding a way out.”

I stared at Mike’s empty life jacket bobbing in the ripples. “What if the water changes to a dark color? He’ll be as blind as a mole, a bat, and a sea cucumber all put together.”

His gaze fixed on me. “It’ll only be for thirty seconds. If anybody can do this, it’s Mike. Remember, he’s a skilled free diver. He’s been diving on one single gulp of air for how many years now?”

I hoped he was right, but somehow Jack’s reassuring words failed to convince me. I slumped on a nearby rock and closed my eyes, waiting for Mike to resurface. The seconds trickled slowly by. By the time the five minutes had passed, I couldn’t stop fidgeting with the hem of my life jacket. The surface remained undisturbed, not a ripple or a bubble in sight.
Where is he?
I pushed off the rock and peered into the water. “Do you think he’s all right?”

Confidence shone in Jack’s weary face. “Caves can have lots of chambers. Maybe he’s found one.”

I clutched my yellow vest, my heart racing. I tried to think positively, but it wasn’t an easy task.
What if he got lost, or there’s been a cave-in right on top of him? Even worse, what if he’s run out of air?