Chapter Three

Crazy, mad, ludicrous, those were the words I was thinking as I pulled myself from the boat's floor and onto the passenger's seat, briskly buckling the seatbelt. What was Tammy thinking? Had she gone out of her mind? Was this normal? NO WAY! Wait, actually this is normal. This is Tammy. I'd just hate to see her when she's abnormal. "Slow down, Tam!" I insisted, "I really don't think I have life insurance. Tammy laughed, but slowed down. "Sorry," she said, "I was just testing its speed." "What else were you testing?" I asked, "How long I could stay in this thing?" Tammy apologized for the second time, and of course I accepted. I wasn't mad at Tammy. I'm just a very careful person. Didn't I already mention something about that? Anyway, Tam and I explored around without finding much, just rocky shores, large boulders sticking out of the shallow water (naturally we stayed in the very deep water), steep mountain sides covered with grass and trees and some waterfront houses with docks. About half an hour later, Tammy had turned off the engine so her boat would coast by a small marsh. The water was swampy and a few frogs sat on a couple of grass patches surrounded by plants like sea grass, sea asparagus and so forth.

Everything was pretty boring until without warning Tammy jumped up and shouted. "Look over there," extending her arm out in front of her and pointing ahead with her index finger. I looked and saw nothing but the bayou we were in. "What?" I asked. "Over there!" Tammy kept pointing. "Where?" I inquired, I was starting to get a bit impatient, swinging my head from side to side, looking for whatever thing Tam had found. "Over there." Tammy took my head in her hands and pointed it in the right direction. I looked forward. Blinked once. Blinked twice. Then said, "It's a cave, Tammy. What's so great about a cave? There are millions of caves around the world. What could be so exciting about a cave?" "What could be so exciting?!" Tammy said, looking at me with disbelieve, "You mean to tell me you don't know what could be so exciting about a cave?" "Yeah. What exactly would we do?" I asked. "Explore," Tammy answered with a smirk. "Sure that sounds fun. Let's go exploring." I said with a yawn, then I jumped up like someone had placed a pincushion on my seat. "Wait! Exploring! Oh no! You're not serious are you, Tam?" I looked at Tammy and she just smiled back at me. "Oh no! You are! Okay, I think it's time for me to go home now!" "Wait, you can't leave." Tam retorted, "Who will come in the cave with me?" "I don't know. It can be a two-headed ape for all I care. Just as long as its not me." "Oh come on, Amy!" Tammy pleaded with me as she pulled the boat to the side of the cave and threw down the anchor. "It's not that scary. It's big enough so we don't have to walk on our knees." "I don't know, Tammy." I asked looking into the cave with fearful eyes. "Please Amy! It'll be fun." She handed me a black raincoat and gumboots (I guess they put them in the boat for part of the prize). "Here. We'll wear these so our clothes don't get dirty."

I thought for about minute then finally, you'll never believe this, I agreed to go in the cave. I hardly could believe it myself. Tammy could. She let loose a big cheer and whooped out, "Lets get started!" Stepping out of the boat and onto the soaked, mushy grass, I followed behind her. We didn't want to get separated so we locked hands and Tam lead me into the cave. The inside was dark so Tammy pulled out a flashlight from her raincoat pocket and flicked it on. Where does she keep getting these things? Anyway, the roof and sides of the cave were made of large boulders covered with dirt and grass roots were dangling down. The floor was of mud and made a squishing sound when we plopped our boots into the sticky mess. "Seems fine. Nothing to worry...What's that sound?" I asked shivering with fright. Tammy and I stood still and listened. We listened carefully, and we heard a rolling sound. Our hearts pumped faster and faster. Beat beat. Beat beat. Beat beat. When suddenly "AAAAAHHHHHHH!" Tammy and I screamed as a huge rock crashed down the hill above the cave and covered the entrance.

Just ahead were two tunnels going in opposite directions, although the tunnels weren't uncommon since that's what a cave is mostly made of. It was that was in the middle of the two separate paths that caught my eye, and what was it? Well I couldn't say cause I had no idea myself. It looked like a large stone with strange carvings and a flat top. Light shone down apon it from above, but as I approached the object to seek where pale bean may be coming from I found something rather strange. Even though there was light shinning on the stone when I looked up I saw absolutely to hole in the cave. "What do you suppose it is?" Tam questioned me, her mind blank of what may be solutions. "I have no idea," I answered, being of no help to the problem-solving mission that Tammy seemed to be having. She leaned her back against the cold wave wall and began biting her nails and staring vacantly into space, something she always does when she's thinking deeply. "Hey!" she said, popping back into reality, "What if the rock tells will tell us how to get out?" "It possible!" I leaped over to examine the stone. The rock's surface was luminous and nicely polished. The calligraphy on the granite were fairly familiar although I had not the slighted what it meant or what it was from. Still I had a feeling that I knew the odd writing from somewhere. "What do you suppose the designs on this stone means?" I asked, "I can't find anything that could give me an explanation." "Well you know what Mr.Mic'ber says," Tammy pointed out, "If you can't find a solution to your problems then you're not looking hard enough." "What do I care what Mr.Mic'ber says? "That's it!" I laughed with joy hopped around. Totally loosing control of myself until Tammy said, "Okay 'Miss Rabbit', what is it?" Trying to hide her giggles, I guess I was acting pretty absurd. "I know what the writing is!" "What? Tell me!" Tammy inquired with eagerness. "It's Greek writing!" I beam with enlightenment, "Remember how Mr.Mic'ber was teaching us about it and gave us all Greek language books?" "Yeah!" Tammy said, "But how will we know what the writing means if we don't have one of those books?"

The question wasn't hard to answer. "We do!" I pulled out a small paperback book from my large back pocket. I had put it there when I got it and forgotten about it until now. "Just leave it to you to have a book in your back pocket," Tam said with relief So with my language book in hand we began figuring out what the Greek script meant. After we solved the first three words our hopes sprung higher and higher. By the sixth word we were on edge, our enthusiasm rising like a match was trying to light itself inside us. The last two words set us ablaze. "We have it!" Tammy whooped, "We can get out!" With joyful excitement she hugged me tightly, very tightly. "Tam!" I cried, "You're squeezing me to death!" Laughing, Tammy let go. But kept laughing. I have to say it was pretty hard to control myself in all the exhilaration. I couldn't help but let out a few jubilant giggles. Then remembering my mothers orders I asked Tammy what time it was. When she told me it five minutes past five o'clock, we took one look at each other and took off, sending mud flying in every direction. Following the instructions of the Greek script that read 'The way out is through the left tunnel (I thought it would be more complicated then that). As came closer to the end of the tunnel our legs moved faster and faster. Then finally we reached our destination point. Breathing heavily from our fifty-foot dash, we sat ourselves right in the muddy ground, too tired to notice that our pants were covered in muck. Anyway, you expect us out of this miserable mud house by now wouldn't you? Well think again, because to our certain disappointment we found that there was a door at the end of the tunnel with a large lock that looked about a thousand years old. "Stupid rock," Tammy pouted, "How could it betray us like this? It never said anything about a locked door or even where to find the key!" "Well, perhaps its here somewhere." I said with an assured hopefulness.

I began searching every nook and cranny near the door to find the lost key. With no such luck I gave up. "It's no use!" I cried leaning back on the door. When suddenly to our amazement it swung open. Tammy had a theory that it might be a trick door. Making you think it was locked. I didn't really care what kind of door it was. I was out and that was all that mattered. Finding Tam's boat was a piece of cake and we booted it out of there, as fast as her little craft could go. It didn't worry me this time because through the ear pinching wind the movement of the boat was making and the roaring of it's motor I kept on shouting at Tammy to go faster. After Tammy settled her vessel down for the night we hoped on our bikes and headed home. When we reached our street we said our good-byes and separated. I knew that my parents were going to ask me what I had been doing today, and in case you're wondering, I still haven't figured out what to tell them.