The Cave
Finnegan was the last one.
He watched silently as his best friends crawled into the small mouth of the cave.
The extra tiny Oliver was first, followed by the leader and the toughest of the teenagers, Peter Salvador, known as Pizza Pete to his friends. Next was the weight challenged jokester with ginger hair that was buzzed to the skull. A friendly double-chinned smile and pinkish-white skin made him look like a large tuna fish, but folks in these parts never knew much about fish, it was land mammal country, so everyone in the community called the likeable boy Wiggley Piggly.
Finnegan, the large speckled, microscope loving brain of the group and the most responsible was the last one to enter the cave, just in case Wiggley Piggly got stuck and a solution was needed.
In Red Hawk County, Kansas, one would be hard pressed to find a soul in the small town of Dixon (population 850 and the commercial center of Red Hawk) who had ever heard of the cave Peter Salvador discovered on a Saturday afternoon. A cave that was so powerful and mind-blowing to Peter Salvador, he knew he had to show and share it with his best friends in life to verify that it was truly real and not some cruel trick that his mind was playing on him.
The cave in question was only 2 1/2 miles outside the town of Dixon and was even closer to a popular swimming hole that generations in the area had frequented for at least the last one hundred years.
In the faded blue centennial book that most households in Dixon owned, there was a black and white photograph of men of long ago in dark suits and top hats and women with dull grey umbrellas in the air trying to block the sun’s oppressive heat as they leisured by what was called Comanche lake. Today Comanche lake was only known as “the spot.” A place for mischief and fun that usually only teenagers from the community hung out at. It had been that way for a long time, as most everybody else in town used the municipical pool that a rich farmer gave the city the money to build and maintain upon his death ten years ago.
The current dwellers in Red Hawk County like most communities today have a majority of the people who don’t have an idea on what happened in the past, not even in places their feet frequent. Maybe a handful living in Red Hawk County knew that there had been a battle around Comanche lake between white settlers and Comanche Indians a long time ago. It was a blood bath and legend says it turned Comanche lake red from the blood and it stayed that way for at least a month. The surviving Comanches took refuge in the cave that we are about to discuss. There is no oral or written records that tells us what happened to the surviving Comanches once they entered the cave or anything about their time after. The cave is only 400 yards from the lake.
The cave was the only thing on Peter Salvador’s mind when he entered his uncles pizza parlor on the Saturday evening after his discovery. He repeatedly asked his uncle if he knew about the cave, maybe hoping if he asked enough times the uncle would say that he did. Peter would leave disappointed. Including uncle Salvador, he asked ten people if they had heard of or knew about the cave. No one had.
The entry into the great room of the cave comes after a ten feet crawl through a narrow tunnel. Darkness soon became light as a kalesidoscope effect filled the great room with colors and patterns normal human life did not experience. It was a big step above stunning. There was also the strangest rock formations that Peter Salvador had ever seen and seats that had been carved into the stone that could hold a dozen people. What was hard to explain was the indescribable feelings, thoughts and knowledge that came to you when you were in the cave. Feelings that stayed with you, even after leaving the cave.
In the first afternoon alone inside the cave, Peter Salvador saw a vision of his dead father that came to him so strong, he became sure that he knew what had happened to his father. A father he previously thought had abandoned his family.
In the cave he laughted, he screamed, he cried, felt euphoria and pain and he drunkenly sucked in answers to what had been problems before.
Later that same Saturday evening he tried to expain it all passionately to his busy uncle, who was too occupied making pizza for a boys imagination. However, later that evening when it slowed down he asked more than a handful of customers if they had ever heard of a cave outside of Dixon that led to a great room where light came in from the top. To the uncle’s dismay, not one local had any idea on what Sergio Salvador’s nephew could be talking about. Sergio wondered if his nephew who lived with him was just playing a practical joke on him or was it even worse, had Peter lost his mind like his mother had.
Sergio Salvador was from Italy and had come to Dixon after his brother had disappeared and his brother’s wife had a nervous breakdown that was so severe she had to be institutionalized. It had been an incongrous five years, becoming a father, mother, opening a pizza parlor in a foreign land. All of it in middle age.
Sergio silently shook his head when even Bill McCoy, local historian and county inspector said he could swear that he had been over every inch of the county at least twice and didn’t expect he had missed out on any secret worlds. Bill McCoy chuckled with the other patrons in the parlor who could hear him, while they all enjoyed their beer and wine with the locally famous Sergio pizza and a free Saturday night.
Peeking Inside the Cosmos
The first time they entered the cave, Wiggly Piggly wormed his way through the tight tunnel without a problem. Finnegan was right behind him and he instantly felt a pleasant feeling of tranqulity upon making it into the great room. He could feel and taste the novel colors as if they were a part of his good mood. The more he breathed in the colors the bigger the euphoria got. Wiggly Piggly and Oliver were soon on the floor laughing with intermittent moans of pleasure. In contrast, Pete Salvador was silent and sitting still on the highest carved space that had room for one person. At that moment in time he looked like the God of the Universe to Finnegan, who was trying to comprehend what was going on.
It was Sunday morning and the four boys had ditched church. In Dixon children were required to go to church each Sunday and to the towns only church, the First Church of the Resurrection. Peter’s uncle was one of only two adults in Dixon who never attended FCR regularly, along with the town drunk who was an unemployed botanist named Barnwell Scotch-Stevens.
Both Oliver’s and Wiggley Piggly’s parents dutifully attended mass each Sunday with their children and Finnegan’s adoptive father was one of the 12 elders of the First Church of the Resurrection. A man that Finnegan who was adopted at the age of five clashed with repeatedly.
In contrast to the committed elders of the FCR, uncle Sergio Salvador was famous for saying with a playful grin, “I make pizzaaas, why do I have to go to church, what will the church do for the garlic loving me…?” with the bottom of his hands out in front of his white apron to add to the drama. Sergio would sometimes go on about how his love of garlic would keep vampires and other evil spirit away. The attitude was frowned upon by many at the First Church of the Resurrection, but most of the towns people gave him slack since he was new to community and a jolly outsider who made the best pizza anyone in Dixon and Red Hawk County had ever tasted.
“I have it figured out,” broke Peter Salvador’s silence. “I believe my father was murdered and right here in Dixon. I can see my father’s beaten and broken body lying motionless on the pavement, not far from main street. I see men taking him away but I can’t tell who they are.”
Finnegan was the only one who heard Peter’s accusation or cared to and tried to console him, but Peter wasn’t receptive and went back to the silence and his thoughts. He was determined to find out who these men were and he was sure that the cave would eventually tell him.
However, soon after an unexpected explosion of laughter would come and replace Peter Salvador’s dark thoughts and send him rolling down to the floor with his friends. Periods of euphoric laughter would be interupted by moments of enlightment and new knowledge. Sometimes the insight and euphoria ovelapped and mixed together creating a buzz that was felt from the bottom of the toes to the top of the head.
Unlike most adults who regularly get in the way of a good thing and most of the time screw up a good thing, the teenagers excepted what was happening in the cave and all of the pleasures and personal transformation the cave provided without overly pondering why it was so. They embrased the pleasure and knowledge without challenging it, thus they preserved it. What did they care if it was the Lord, Satan, Native Americans, aliens from Trakador, or simply good old Mother Earth who was responsible for their bliss and the creation of their new secret paradise.
For three days the four boys spent every moment together. They were either in the cave or taking a break at the swimming hole where they would eat a sack lunch and take a swim before hurrying back to the cave. They had become progressively more protective in keeping their cave a secret as each day passed. It was Finnegan’s duty to make sure that nobody was following them as they headed back to the cave. In doing his job Finnegan was always a little behind the others and hidden from sight as he moved his rail thin and lengthy body delicately through the tall golden prairie grass that was ripe with blooming wild flowers striving in the late, hot summer Red Hawk County was having.
On the first night when it became dark they headed to the basement at Peter’s uncles house. Sergio Salvador was always at the pizza parlor until late and usually back early in the morning. He was married to the successful parlor and being a lifelong bachelor of 56, he didn’t know a lot about parenting other than showing kindness. The boys had the perfect refuge on the first night for sleep and there was always pizza brough home from the previous night, so their hunger needs were also met easily. By the next night they were staying in the cave. In the cave their imaginations brought them every food and drink they could desired and comfortable beds and pillows filled with the softest feathers.
While the boys were living their ultimate fantasy life the parents were furious that the boys had missed church on Sunday and in how disobedient they had become. A Saturday night sleepover at Peter Salvador’s house had been arranged, but to miss church was not a part of the plan and then to top it off they had not gotten back with the parents or the church, who were very determined to have the boys come in to discuss their absence and receive punishment for downright blasphemous behavior. To the parents and the churches astonishment, the 14 years old boys remained defiant and were unwilling to face the consequences of their actions. Some wondered what would happen next. Animals and humans using the same toilet, people painting their houses odd colors and not the acceptable white… The world was falling apart, but what they did know for sure was that God gave the right punishment.
Holy Spirit Reprisal
In the early evening of the third day in the middle of the lake, Wiggley Piggly floated on a tube and fantasized on what it would be like to french kiss a girl he had a crush on while Oliver who floated beside Wiggley wondered if he would grow as tall as the other boys, and if he never, could he have a decent life being at the shoulders of other boys. In the cave he was the tallest boy in the world. Why did the world outside the cave have to be so disappointing, Oliver pondered. He decided to hand Wiggley Piggly his last five Starbursts and they both laughed for no particular reason.
Five minutes earlier Finnegan had left to check on Pizza Pete who wouldn’t leave the cave. He told Oliver and Wiggley Piggly to be ready to go back to the cave when he returned.
Fifteen minutes later the two friends were floating toward the edge of the lake and discussing the Ford Mustang that they were going to get when they were older. Wiggley Piggly’s mouth was full of Starbursts when he was pulled under. A half second later Oliver followed. The strong arms and hands of six elders from the First Church of the Resurrection held Wiggley Piggly under the water until his body was limp and then they pulled him to shore and tried to revive him unsuccessfully while panic broke out. The poor waif Oliver who had got pushed with great force off his tube into the water did not resurface. The six elders scratched their heads at the shore regarding where the body could have gone and wondered what they should tell the sheriff if they couldn’t find his body.
Finnegan heard a loud scream of agony inside the cave as he started to crawl toward the opening to the great room. At the entrance he saw six shadowy figures dressed in long black robes and he was sure the seventh was Pastor Ken Watkins, who stood over the limb and now quiet body of Peter Salvador.
Finnegan yelled inside the cave, ‘”what have you done” and cried out that he was going for Sheriff Greene for help.
Fearing that it was already too late, Finnegan quickly backed out of the cave while the pastor waved for the six elders to go after Finnegan.
Finnegan was the last of the friends alive as he started to run up the hill from the cave.
He reached a fairly flat and open field at the top where there was an abundant amount of sunflowers and purple prairie clover. Two of the younger elders were starting to catch up to the unathletic Finnegan when a rusted out 57 Chevy came off the dirt road from the left. The pickup plowed over the slowest and fattest of the elders first, then it plucked the fastest two about to catch Finnegan.
Barnwell Scotch-Stevens stopped his 57 Chevy and quickly opened the door and waved Finnegan inside the truck.
Back on the highway, Finnegan and the town drunk, who had been the best friend of Peter Salvador’s father sped away from Dixon as the sun set and the full moon rose from the east.
Resurrection
A short while later under the kaleioscope sky, an alive, but seriously injured Peter Salvador tried to reach his feet outside the tunnel of the cave. Exhausted and desperately weak, he knew he had to getaway somehow, and quick, if he expected to survive. After the third attempt to stand, he started to crawl away from the cave into the tall and golden colored prairie grass, his clothes were soaked in blood, mixed with his own and the blood of Pastor Watkins, who was dead inside the cave with a skull that had been severely crushed by a tomahawk.
The death of Peter Salvador’s father had been avenged.
Within shouting distance the surviving elders were preparing to take the body of Wiggley Piggly back to town in the cargo bed of a gray Ford pickup.
Looking down from the higher-ground filled with beautiful sunflowers and prairie clover to the cave and further yet to the lake during the sunset, you would see that lake Comanche was once again turning red.
The body of little Oliver was never to be found or the tomahawk that crushed the skull of Pastor Watkins.
