Cave Dwellers (11 page)

   “I know what you mean. I think that’s one of the reasons I starting rock climbing and mountain biking, besides the exercise. It was nice to get away from it all.”

   “I don’t know about you, but I’m about ready to call it a day.” Ramira stifled a yawn.

   “I am too.”

   Reaching down, he helped her to stand. They stood for a moment facing each other. Zaac leaned forward slightly, starting to kiss her. Caught up in the moment, Ramira tilted her head, waiting for their first kiss.

   Their plans were interrupted by a loud squawking from the ledge. They turned and watched as the megapetomeinon flew off and started their usual flight around the cavern.

   Feeling a little awkward, Zaac cleared his throat acting like nothing had happened. Ramira bowed her head with a slight smile and started into the cave. Her cheeks had a nice rosy glow. She went to the left side of the cave and laid down on the moss.

   Zaac muttered under his breath as he followed her: “Stupid birds.” He lay down on the moss to the right.

   “Good night Zaac,” she said turning to him with a smile on her face.

   “Good night Ramira. Sweet dreams.” He turned to face her.

   They closed their eyes, each caught up with thoughts of the other. Soon their breathing became even as they went off to sleep.

10

   Ramira woke first with a warm feeling inside. She faced Zaac, watching him as he slept. His hair was tousled from the night’s sleep. His chest rose and fell evenly. She did not like the predicament they were in. Who would want to be trapped in underground caves and caverns? But she could not have picked a better person to go through it with.

   She believed that she was starting to fall in love. Her mind went back last night to what was to have been their first kiss. A smile swept across her face. What a time for the birds to interrupt. When the kiss did happen, she knew it would be right and special.

   Just as she was letting her thoughts run further, Zaac roused from his sleep and slowly opened his eyes. Turning his head toward Ramira, he noticed that she was already awake.

   “Good morning,” she said with a smile on her face. “Did you sleep well?”

   “Good morning and yes I did.” Noticing the smile on her face, he replied. “You seem pretty chipper this morning. How did you sleep?”

   “I slept very well last night. I had some nice dreams.” She responded.

   Zaac looked confused. He felt like he was missing something. Girls! You could never be sure what they were thinking.

   “I think I’ll go down and wash my face. Get the sleep out of my eyes.” He stated getting up from his bed of moss.

   “I’ll join you,” she said rising with him.

   They walked down to the water’s edge in silence, knelt and splashed their faces, scrubbing them clean. Zaac tossed a little on his hair and tried to smooth it down the best that he could.

   “So, which tunnel would you like to explore today?”

   Ramira stood and looked at the waterfalls. “Instead of trying the one that’s so dark, let’s try around toward the falls.”

   “I like that. I wasn’t exactly jumping at the bit to go into that dark one.”

   At the edge of the lake, Ramira noticed a plant growing close to the water and bent to get a better look. It had an odd resemblance to a carrot, yet it was not green. It was mainly white with a hint of green. Her parents had a garden in their back yard and carrots were one of the things they planted. She reached down, grabbed a hold at the base of the plant and pulled it out of the ground.

   What came up was a vegetable that was shaped like a carrot but not like any she had ever seen. Its color was mainly white with a slight orange tinge. It was not developed like a normal carrot but was close enough so you could tell what it should be.

   “Look at what I found,” she said holding the plant with the root shaped vegetable out for Zaac to see.

   “What is it?” he asked.

   Ramira was pleased with her find, “I think it’s some type of carrot.”

   Zaac had a confused expression on his face. “How did a carrot get down here?”

   “I’m not sure but there seem to be several growing here.” Ramira pointed at them. “From the looks of it, most of them seem to be budding so they can reseed.”

   “There are a lot of things growing close to the lake. I wonder what else is down here.”

   He walked to another plant. This one was also mainly white with a little green in it. All of the plants were this color. It was different from the carrot plant. It had a larger white object growing at its base. Growing out from the top of the plant was several small pods. Each of the pods contained a multitude of seeds. The pods were starting to turn brown while the seeds inside were much darker. 

   Zaac reached down at the base and gave the plant a gentle pull that dislodged the round object growing in the ground. He pulled it out of the ground and held it out to Ramira.

   “What’s this?”

   She took it from him and gave it a small sniff. “It looks like a turnip to me. What I don’t know is how they got down here. How are they growing without the sun?”   

   “I’m not sure.” They could try and figure out the explanation to this phenomenon later, he thought; right now food was at the top of the agenda. “What I do know is that I’m hungry and this offers a nice variety from our diet of bugs.”

   “I totally agree. Let’s get a few more and we can wash them off.”

   Zaac found a couple more turnips while Ramira tugged up three more carrots. Zaac got out his Leatherman and cut off the leaves and trimmed the roots. They washed off their finds in the lake and returned to their boulder to enjoy the meal.

   They took a bite of the carrot, savoring the taste. It was unlike carrots they had eaten in the past but they still relished every bite. Once they finished the carrots, Zaac peeled the turnips and handed one to Ramira. They ate the turnips and topped them off with another carrot.

   After the meal, they sat contemplating their new find. They weren’t sure how the vegetables got there or how they grew.

   Although they couldn’t know it, many years earlier a flood had washed over a farmer’s field, taking the vegetables away. They traveled through an underground spring and ended up in their current location. The water was higher in the cavern because of the flooding and deposited the vegetables on the soil. The vegetables died but their seeds remained.

   Without the sunlight needed for photosynthesis, plants cannot normally live. But plants, like every other living organism, struggle to survive. The plants in the cavern evolved so they could live in the phosphorescent light that was available. The pigmentation changed from their natural vibrant colors to the pale colors that were more sustainable in low light. The shapes of the vegetables were altered as well, although a semblance of their original shape remained.

   Ramira thought about the other plants that she had seen among the ones they picked. “If we found carrots and turnips,” she said, “there may be some other types growing down here.”

   “Let’s take a look.”

   They returned to the spot by the lake and started looking. Ramira found several plants a little over a foot high that seemed familiar except for the color. The color was almost completely white, like the other ones they found.

   “Would you mind going back up and getting that rock that you used to dig up the loose dirt when we transplanted the moss,” Ramira asked.

“I have an idea.” 

   “Sure. Be right back.”

   While he was gone, Ramira continued her search of the plants. Nothing seemed to be growing in sections the way vegetables would if you planted them. Everything appeared to be scattered here and there. She found a variety of herbs. She wasn’t sure what kind they were but there appeared to be three different ones. She reached down and broke one off just as Zaac arrived back with the rock. Holding it up to her nose, she inhaled its scent.

   “I think that this might be dill but I’m not completely sure.”

   “Let me smell,” Zaac said. She passed it to him and he took a big sniff.

   “Yes it is dill.” He said it with a funny look on his face.

   Ramira watched him with a puzzled expression. “Have you ever smelled fresh dill? Do you even know what it smells like?”

   “No,” Zaac replied laughing, “I guess I’m busted. We never grew a garden. When my mom wanted fresh vegetables, they always went to the farmer’s market to get them.”

   “That was a good try though. You had me going for a second. If you hadn’t had that funny expression on your face, you might have gotten away with it. Do you have the rock?”

   He handed it over and she walked to the plant that had aroused her curiosity earlier. She started digging carefully around it. She loosened the dirt about a foot out from the plant and scooped it away with her hands. As she took more dirt out, several round white objects began to appear. She plucked the plant out of the ground and tossed it to the side. Grabbing a couple of the round vegetables, she held them so she could have a better look at them.

   “See what I found.”

   Zaac took one and turned it in his hand. “Is this a potato?” he asked.

   “It sure is,” Ramira responded as she knelt to get some more out of the ground. “We use to grow three rows of potatoes each year. At the end of summer, we’d harvest them. They’d last through the winter and sometimes we used them as seed potatoes for the next year. With that many potatoes, I did my share of hoeing them. That’s why I recognized the potato plant—but I admit I wasn’t sure.”

   Zaac got down on his knees across from her to help. “I take it you don’t live in a housing development. Does your family have a farm?”

   “No. We live in a house on a couple of acres. Dad enjoys raising vegetables so he usually plants about a third of an acre. He says that it relaxes him from the stress of his job. Personally, I think it’s an excuse to give me extra work. He’s always having me help him with planting, hoeing, or when it’s time to get the ‘crop’ in.”

   “He probably just wants to spend some time with you. He sounds like a cool guy. What all did you raise?” Zaac was interested. This was something he’d never experienced.

   “It seems like we
raised just about everything.” Ramira thought for a minute trying to recall all the things they had grown. “We grew onions, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, different kinds of peppers, turnips, carrots, okra, cabbage, lettuce, green beans, peas and a small salad patch. He even had a trellis with bird house gourds growing on it. The trellis was next to the house. The vines of the gourds grow like crazy. One night I glanced out my window and saw this shape right outside. I thought it was a head at first, so it startled me. It turned out to be a leaf growing on this vine.” She gave a goofy smile.

   Zaac had to laugh. He pictured her in his mind, catching the strange image out of the corner of her eye and jumping in response. “I can see why it scared you. It seems you guys did grow everything. The only thing left out was corn.”

   “We tried it one year but it didn’t produce that well. Occasionally we grow a few stalks of native corn for decoration in the fall. My dad will go get a bale of straw and a pumpkin and they decorate the front yard with it.”

   Zaac was impressed, “With all of the stuff that you grew, you should be able to recognize the different plants. Let’s see what else might be growing here.”

   They spotted some kale and lettuce as they drew nearer to the falls. Looking across at the vegetation growing on the other side of the lake made them curious. There was no way to get across without swimming.

   But even as they had that thought, a tunnel in the wall near the vegetable patch caught their eye. They entered and noticed a bifurcation with a bend to the right. They went that way. The tunnel widened and opened back into the cavern under the falls. Ramira went immediately to the falls to watch the water. She could feel the drops as they splashed, sparkling, around her. Closing her eyes, she tilted her head back, enjoying the sensation.

   Meanwhile, Zaac noticed a large hollowed out stone. There was an opening in the ceiling above it and another smaller opening inward from the larger one. A smaller rock beneath the second opening had the same hollowed out impression. Zaac stepped up onto the ledge leaning over the boulder. The shape of it gave him an idea.

   “What have you found?” Ramira asked.

   He glanced up. “Just a large hollowed-out rock. It looks like water wore away at this rock, creating a bowl. It would take thousands of years to do that. There’s a smaller rock, too, with the same kind of hollow.”