After a few more minutes pondering the situation, Ilika closed his eyes.
Boro put his tunic back on, then received a piece of fruitcake from Kibi.
Suddenly Ilika opened his eyes and began to strip down to his shorts.
“Boro, will you be on the rope for me?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll return within a quarter hour.” Ilika secured himself, entered the water, and went under.
Boro played out the rope, but wore a puzzled look. Soon the rope went slack.
Sata could see Kibi frowning. She sat down and put her arm around the black-haired girl. “Don’t worry. Ilika is very strong and smart.”
“I know,” Kibi said, worry still coloring her voice.
The next ten minutes seemed like ten hours as the students waited in the dark, cold, underground room for their teacher to return. Some tried to get comfortable again, but the anxiety in the group grew thicker as the minutes slowly passed.
Finally Boro took off his tunic and started breathing deeply. Before he even stepped into the pool, something broke the calm of the water’s surface.
A moment later, Ilika emerged.
“There’s light in the next room now, and the way out is not far. We have work to do. We need to repack our stuff so it will stay as dry as possible. The
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food needs to go down at the foot of a bedroll cover. Kibi and I will do the same with the book and paper. Other than that, most everything will get wet, and we will dry it as soon as we can. Our goal right now is to get out of these tunnels.”
Kibi noticed that the dark metal bracelet Ilika always wore on his left arm was missing.
Almost everyone went into action. Ilika and Kibi worked together to wrap the educational materials in as many layers of waxed canvas as possible.
Everything else was packed securely.
When all was nearly ready, Ilika noticed Toli coaxing Buna to help, but she just sat, hands around her knees, hiding her face. “Buna, we’re about to leave,” Ilika called. “What’s wrong?”
She said something too softly for Ilika to hear.
“She says she can’t go under the water,” Toli repeated.
“The opening is only about a foot down.”
“I know, but she says she can’t put her head under.”
“Talk to her, Toli. I’ll get the others through.”
Toli
nodded.
“Boro, you and Sata go through. I’ll hand off stuff to you right at the hole, you pass it up to Sata, she sets it on the rocks to drain. The first bundles will be the papers and food.”
Toli pleaded with Buna, but she wouldn’t budge.
The others stacked the bundles and saddlebags as close to the transfer point as possible. Miko added the shovel.
Boro coiled the rope, went under, and a moment later Sata followed.
Buna began snapping at Toli, telling him to leave her alone.
Ilika entered the water, waded to the wall, and ducked under to look.
Silhouetted against the light that now filled the other room, Boro’s hands were ready.
Kibi handed him the first bundle, the one that contained their precious book.
Ilika took a breath, went down, and within seconds had it in Boro’s hands.
He saw Boro immediately lift it clear of the water.
After Toli put his and Buna’s bags with the others, he sat back down, but
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gave her some space.
When the most important bundles were through the hole, Ilika started moving faster, and all the saddlebags and bedrolls were quickly moved to the other room.
“Should we take off our boots?” Neti asked.
“There’s no point,” Ilika said. “They’ll get wet either way.”
Toli had given up on Buna and was getting ready to go through with the others.
“Okay, line up! First person through will meet Boro’s hands, ready to toss you up to Sata like a bundle.”
Rini grinned. “I’ll go! I’m small enough to toss.”
Almost everyone laughed. Ilika even thought he saw Buna crack a tiny smile for a moment.
Rini . . . Neti . . . Miko . . . each swam through the hole.
Ilika scanned the room for anything they had forgotten. In addition to those students ready to cross, he only saw two flickering lanterns and one fourteen-year-old girl.
“I’m taking the crutch through,” Kibi said, “then I’ll be underwater to help Mati.”
Ilika nodded. “I’ll help her on this end.”
Kibi went through.
“You ready for this, Mati?”
“Sure. My knee works better in the water than anywhere else.”
Ilika went down with her, but was hardly needed.
Toli was the last one lined up to go, and he looked frustrated, almost disgusted. Ilika made sure he was safely through, then slowly came out of the water and sat down beside Buna.
“Hi,” he said.
“I can’t put my head under the water! I’m sorry!” she snapped.
Ilika let some time pass. “Any idea what stops you?”
“I had a master’s wife try to drown me when I was about nine. I was coughing up water for a week. I think I almost died.” She buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
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Ilika didn’t say anything, just put his arms around her. Eventually the tears ran their course.
“Well, I’m not going to leave anyone behind in these tunnels.”
Buna looked at Ilika. His face showed complete sincerity. “You’d . . . stay in here with me?”
“If I had to.”
“But . . . we don’t have anything to eat . . . and there’s no other way out.”
“That appears to be true.”
“If we went all the way back and pounded on that little door, a guard would probably come and you’d be arrested!”
“Probably.”
Time passed as teacher and student sat in silence together.
Suddenly Boro surfaced in the pool.
“We all talked about it, and thought of something that might help. I was chosen to do it because I’m leading right now.” He went to one lantern and blew it out, then to the other and did the same. Without a word, he returned to the pool and disappeared.
The room was now completely dark, except for the greenish-blue glow coming through the underwater hole in the wall.
Ilika smiled to himself.
After getting over her surprise, Buna started crying softly. “Now we can’t go back . . .”
“It would be very hard. We’d have to cross the timber over the pit by feel.”
They both fell silent again, sitting side by side in the darkness. A faint squeaking sound came from somewhere behind them. Buna shivered.
“How . . . long does it take?” she asked in a tiny, shaking voice.
“About ten seconds, at the most, underwater. The wall is only two feet thick. You can see now exactly where the opening is.”
“Yeah. It’s not very far down,” she said with a little more hope in her voice.
“No.”
“And when you’re through, you can go right up?”
“Yes. The wall is straight up and down on the other side, just like this side.”
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She was silent again for a long minute. A tiny rustling sound came from somewhere under the rubble.
Finally Ilika heard a very soft voice in his ear. “When I go under, I want you to push me through that hole. I don’t care what I’m doing, you have to push me through. Promise me.”
Ilika was silent for a moment. “I promise.”
She got up and took several tortured steps until she arrived at the edge of the pool. Ilika stayed right at her side.
“The water sure is a pretty color with that light coming through. Where is the light coming from?”
“My bracelet. It’s sitting on a rock in there.”
“Wow . . . a magic bracelet.”
“Yes.”
“I’d like to see that,” she said with a tiny grin.
He took her hand and they walked into the water together until they were facing the wall.
“Just hold your breath, close your eyes, and let me do the rest,” Ilika said in a reassuring tone.
She took a breath and went down. Ilika was right with her, and immediately clamped her arms against her sides and shoved her through the opening.
Boro grabbed her and pulled, and most of her body was through the hole before panic set in and her legs started thrashing wildly. Ilika received several hard kicks to his head before he was able to get clear.
He tried to find the surface, but was dazed and confused, and his lungs were screaming at him to take a breath. An instinct told him to go toward the light, and he started to, then remembered the light was not toward the surface. He stopped himself, went a different way, and slammed into a rock.
An unknown amount of time later, a strong arm grabbed Ilika and pulled him up. He gasped and sputtered and coughed for a long time, but the strong arm held him steady, and eventually his breathing and balance returned to normal.
“When you weren’t right behind Buna,” Boro said with wide eyes, “Kibi
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knew something was wrong and made me come back for you. I’m sure glad I did!”
Ilika looked at the young man who had just saved his life. “Me too!”
Deep Learning Notes
Why did Ilika avoid using his bracelet for light until it was absolutely necessary?
When Ilika promised to stay with Buna, he gave her a gift that no one in her life had ever given her before. It is a gift that is rarely given, especially in affluent modern society. That gift allowed her to find strength inside herself that she could find in no other way. If you are ever in a position to give that same gift, beware: if it is not given with complete sincerity, it will not work, and may make things worse.
How was the situation changed when Boro blew out the lanterns?
How did Buna’s mood change when she heard about the “magic bracelet”?