The Cave

Every time I think back to the summer of ninety-one, it gives me the chills and I start sweating. For one thing it was a scorching hot summer, and the other is something I’ll never forget for as long as I live. I spent that summer down at the lake with friends, swimming and staying as cool as possible. My friends and I had the perfect place to dive off cliffs that was only accessible by climbing a steep cliff side to the top. I’d say the cliffs were about thirty feet up from the ground and the lake. After that it was easy to jump in the lake and climb back up with a rope we had tide to a tree at the top. The water side of the cliffs had foot grooves all the way up the side of it and we felt like professional climbers when we climbed up using our rope. We always wondered just how deep the lake was and if we could touch the bottom, but every time I tried to do it, I’d end up out of breath and barely make it back up. It was scary down there and dark. There seemed to be an underwater current that was fairly strong and pulled you toward the cliff side down there. As soon as I got to that point I’d panic and shoot to the surface out of breath and glad to see the light. My friend Jack said he never felt a current and that I’m out of my mind, but evidently he doesn’t go as far down as I do. But It’s down there and it keeps drawing me to it like a magnet. Every time I go down there now, I go a little bit more into the current just to tease it and myself.

It’s the end of July now and they say that August is going to be even hotter and much more humid than the previous month. Everybody is dreading the heat except for us cliff jumpers. My friend Jake and I were the first to get to the lake and started jumping and diving in. I told Jake about the current down below and he tried without any luck to feel it. I was next and dove in with a swan dive. I paddled with all my might to get down to it and before I knew it I was caught in the current. I tried to come back up but the current was too strong and sucked me down and towards the cliff side. I think I blacked out because that’s the last thing I remembered when I woke up. Of course I gagged and coughed up lake water for about five minutes before I could get my breath and see where I was. Luckily I had a lighter in my Levi shorts that I always carried to light my cigarettes with. It took about twenty clicks before a flame ignited and I saw for the first time my surroundings. It was a cave and a big one at that! I started walking around and on the first wall to the right there were drawings of animals and human looking people with spears and knives. It was telling a story of hunting for food and clothing. There were drawings of what looked like buffalo and deer. Drawings of big fires with animals roasting over the top of them and their fur draped over tree limbs. I realized these drawings had to be a tribe of some sort and they must have lived in this cave before the lake was here. I kept going down further into the cave and found more drawings of the same and also some pottery on the ground. My lighter was getting too hot to hold now so I had to stop and sit in the dark for a while. It was pitch black in there and the sounds coming from all around were chilling. I could hear what sounded like voices of children that lived here. I heard the sound of the fires and smelled the food being cooked. I was starting to sweat now and goose bumps were staring to pop up all over my skin. I lit my lighter back up and found the end of the cave. There were more drawings on that wall of the tribe, but one drawing caught my eye and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The human figures were looking up and two spaceships hovered above them with beams of light shining down on the people. I had to blink my eyes several times just to make sure I was seeing this. I started heading back along the other wall to where I came into the cave and more drawings of spaceships were all along that wall.

When I came to the end of the wall of the cave, I looked down and noticed some drawings on the lower part that were drawings by the children. Just the way they were different from all the other drawings and how they looked like some of my kids drawings was how I figured that out. These were kind of scary because of the adult figures were lying on the ground while the spaceships above had beams of light shining down on them. The small human figures were hiding behind trees and big rocks and looked as if they were crying. I caught out of the corner of my right eye more drawings going back the way I came on this wall. It showed more spaceships with rays or beams of light shining on the big human figures and the children hiding. As I moved more and more down the cave wall, the drawings got more intense and the spaceships looked to have killed all of the tribe members and then disappeared. These drawings of the spaceships amazed me because they looked exactly like the ones I see on websites like AboveTopSecret. They were crescent shaped like the ones Kenneth Arnold saw over Mound Rainier in 1947. The drawings showed them flying close to the ground and high in the sky. Drawing after drawing, these spaceships got bigger and bigger until finally the last drawing showed only children sitting around a fired looking up at the stars and crying. I started crying too. I started thinking of how tragic it must have been for those children to watch in hiding as their parents and other adult members were killed by these spaceships and the children were left on their own. Then I felt a burning sensation on my thumb and dropped my hot glowing lighter on the ground. I didn’t even notice the pain of my thumb from the flame until it had burned the end of it really good. I screamed as the pain in my thumb got worse and started feeling for the water that was there behind me somewhere. Finally, I found the lake water and sat there for a good ten minutes with my burnt thumb in it. I started thinking of how I could get out of this cave and back up to my friend Jake who was hopefully still there. I didn’t see any exit or light inside the cave at all and knew there was only one way out. The same way I accidentally came into this cave. I sat there at the edge of the water trying my best to calm down and get ready to go into the pitch black water and find my way back to the cliffs on top.

As I plunged into the black water, I was scared and knew I had to feel my way out of this place. If I mess up, I don’t know if I could make it back to the cave and would likely drown. I felt the rock side of the wall and followed it until I came to a dead end and almost panicked. The only thing that kept me from freaking out was the cool current of water I felt and knew to go down and under the wall. The current was strong and took all my will power and strength to make it to the other side and up towards the surface. I was almost out of breath when I saw the sunlight shining at the top of the lake and I pushed the water with my hands and feet and made it to the top. That was the biggest breath of fresh air I have ever taken in all my life. My friend Jake was screaming “there he is, right there!” He had gone for help and my parents and his, the fire department and police were all there. All I could say was “I’m alright” and smile. Jake asked me where I went. We’ve been looking for you for hours now. I told him what had happened and where I ended up, but I decided to leave the spaceships and drawings to myself for fear of being labeled crazy. I was just happy to see my friends and parents and went home and relaxed on my bed for the rest of the day. But my mind will never forget about the drawings in the cave and the spaceships I saw. I now look up to the sky and keep watch where ever I go.

[edit on 3/2/2008 by Solarskye]

Oh, man! That was eerie!

Having experienced many swimming holes like this myself, I've often wondered if there were caves down deep just waiting to be discovered...

I hope your character eventually tells someone about what he found down there!

BTW - nice plug for ATS in the middle - clever!

My story had a cave too - check it!

p.s. I liked the way you wove a separate story from the walls of the cave - neat!