"Caleb and me-when he and his family stayed here at Bird Song-we played a lot together." Caleb-Dean couldn't recall his last name-and his family had been guests in Ouray early in June.
"Go on," Cynthia said. "I was sorry to see Caleb leave. You two got along very well."
"Yeah, but he was kind of a jerk. Caleb and me sort of got in trouble just before he left." Martha paused, but the Deans allowed her time to gather her thoughts and continue. "It was that day his ma and her husband took us up in Governor's Basin for a picnic." It had been the mildest late winter in years and the lack of high country snow had opened the Jeep roads weeks earlier than usual. Martha continued. "They let us go off by ourselves for the whole afternoon while they messed around." Dean could picture the messing around. The couple was honeymooning on a second marriage. "Someone told Caleb about this old mine and this thing they swore was in it."
"You didn't go in a mine, did you?" Cynthia said with alarm. "You know how dangerous they are!" Dean was equally unnerved. A cold shiver went down his spine just thinking about it; a primal fear of dark and dank places. He couldn't imagine any childhood taunting that would have caused him to crawl into the earth through a cold, wet, and black hole.
"Sort of," she said. "Yeah. I guess we went in-a little way- but it wasn't so bad until the flashlight started dimming and I got scared we wouldn't find our way out in the dark."
Cynthia put her hand to her mouth. "Oh, God! You could have died there, Martha!"
"It was scary but I bet I wasn't as scared as Caleb."
Cynthia closed her eyes. "Martha, how could you . . ."
"I tried to tell you what I did was really bad. Worse than what you did."
"No one even knew where you were! You could have been trapped-lost, for God knows how long! For good!"
"Yeah," she answered. "I know. It was really kind of stupid. But we piled stones pointing the way out at the turns."
"How far in this place did you go?" Dean asked, trying to control the quiver in his voice.
"A good bit. There were a few turns-three at least. I knew we wouldn't get lost, as long as we had the flashlight. But in the dark, just feeling around for 'em-the stones I'd left-I was scared we might mess up and make a wrong turn. There were side passages. Then the light started dimming. That's when I knew what everyone says about old mines being dangerous is true."