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Show was already listening to the low, Dawn of the Dead hum of the store and thinking and about how I would spend the next five and half hours. After he left I walked into the back area where we stocked the drinks, and drank a stolen beer of my own. Then I walked behind the register and sat down, positioning myself in front of the cigarettes so it would look like I was organizing them to the surveillance camera. I was pretty sure the manager didn't look at the surveillance tape to check up on me, but I wanted to be in the position of doing something in case he fast-forwarded through it. This was their route: Winding in Blake's mom's Jeep above Seven Peaks water park, parking in an unfinished residential area, exiting into the night and climbing the steep but familiar hill until it veered off into a mysterious cement oasis half-mile up the mountain. Some of that dirt was loose and you had to grab at the sagebrush and dry trees for balance. In my head and on the back of my nightly to-do list I traced those directions, pictured the dark water shining wherever the moon hit. I could see their bodies slowly submerging until their heads were cutting through the glassy water like dorsal fins. I had been in that cave. Wrapped my hands around the well-worn rope tied to both sides and followed it through the fifteen foot tunnel to the cavern with head space on the other side. Before I sank in the water I was intimidated as I stared into the moon's reflection on the otherwise dark water. I took off my shirt with hesitance and touched the water with my feet. My skin tightened and I felt a charge through my body as my veins started to change colors. I had clutched the rope the whole way, vaulted my body through the water all around me. When I emerged in the cavern I was nervous and afraid that I might somehow lose my energy, and I stayed there long enough only to look around, breathe deep, then swim back. I usually felt the fire of fear in my |
