Desert Passage (17 page)

“How did it go up there?” asked Greg, stopping and looking at Eric.

“The canyon spoke to me last night,” he replied with a distant look on his face.

“Did it tell you where we should dig?” quipped Scott, laughing as he passed Greg on the path.

Eric ignored the cowboy's remarks and took a large breath of air. He glanced at Miguel and Ramón for a moment then proceeded to follow the group. The others followed and soon arrived at their destination. Carved into the cliff wall was a mass of stone and clay buildings. They were square in shape and had flat roofs with large doorways cut into the walls. Miguel and Ramón looked at the structures with curiosity and followed Greg to one side of the established dig site.

Dr. Shaw was hesitant to begin excavating again without Dr. García's approval. He split the group into three teams and took Miguel and Ramón with himself, Scott, and Eric to the edge of the cliff wall, and instructed Scott to continue to clear the area slowly. Scott took his hunting knife from his belt and set it beside his work space. Eric unrolled a leather bundle containing various sized brushes and small sharp blades. Miguel and Ramón sat off to the side of the two archaeologists and watched each movement they made with interest.

“So, what are you guys looking for? If there are more dead bodies would they be right here?” Miguel asked, moving closer to Scott to see what he was doing.

“No, kid, no bodies here. We'll have to wait til Dr. García gives us the go-ahead to continue that part of the dig. Now we're looking for small artifacts.”

“Are you a doctor, too?” continued Miguel.

“Almost. This research project should do it, then everyone can call me Dr. Harris.” He looked up from his work and smiled to himself. “I'm going to like that. ‘Dr. Harris.' Sounds important.”

Miguel watched the slow, gradual process that Scott and Eric were involved in. Their dig site was only a few feet wide and they cautiously checked each clump of dirt with their knives and brushes, hoping to find a hidden treasure. They filled the slow early morning hours by talking about their past adventures.

“Remember the pottery we found last year?” asked Eric moving his long hair back away from his face. “If we had our doctorates then, we could have taken full credit for that find.”

“Yeah, I heard they're going to be part of an international exhibition in New York,” answered Scott, picking up his knife to carve a deeper hole on his side of the site.

Eric stopped brushing the large clump in his hand and said to Ramón, “What brought you two here?”

“It was Miguel's idea, we needed to stop for the night,” he answered looking with interest.

Eric looked into the blue morning sky, then back to Ramón.

“Something must have brought you here. There are no accidents in this world.” He grinned and began to brush the object in his hand delicately.

Ramón thought about Eric's words.

Dr. Shaw walked over to their group. He took a long drink from his water bottle and told Scott, “Dr. García will be here in a few hours. Let's hold off on this site until we know if we can continue with the one in the cave.”

Scott and Eric nodded and put away their tools. The boys stood up and walked over to the other group working nearby to observe their activities. Randy was using a large shovel
to start a new dig site and Brain was opening his laptop. After looking up for a moment at the boys, Brain continued with his work. He connected a battery power pack to the side of the computer and began typing.

“Can we watch for a while?” Miguel asked.

Randy looked up at Miguel and told him to start moving the loose dirt onto the metal sieves. “Just move the bowls around back and forth. If you see something that's not just dirt, tell us,” he ordered, more concerned with the digging of the hole than the scientific aspects of the project.

“Look, Ramón,” Miguel said, shaking the round metal bowl back and forth, “it's like panning for gold. Remember that camping trip with Grandpa when I found a gold nugget?”

Ramón picked up another metal container and joined his cousin in the search for the precious gold.

From outside of the cave opening, Miguel saw Dr. Shaw waving at the two boys to stop what they were doing and come over to where he was. The boys put down their sifting bowls and went outside.

“Since Dr. García won't be here for a while, Eric has agreed to take you through another cave site. Do you want to go?” asked Dr. Shaw.

“Yeah,” Ramón answered quickly.

“I'm sending Randy and Scott along too,” Dr. Shaw added, looking at Eric. “You're in charge. Be careful out there.”

The newly assembled team of five walked out of the gorge site using the same path that they had taken earlier that morning. They continued back to the stream and cluster of trees and crossed over the shallow water to the other side of the canyon. There Scott pointed to the cave that had caught his curiosity the day before.

“That's it,” Scott said, pointing to a small, dark opening that was blocked by a large boulder. “That's our cave!”

“We have to move that boulder before we can get in. Any ideas, guys?” Eric asked, including Miguel and Ramón in the question.

“We need leverage, something to tilt it from the bottom, then we can push it over to the side,” said Scott.

They all agreed that Scott's idea might work. They looked around for a strong piece of wood to use, something that wouldn't break under the pressure of the large boulder. Ramón found it first.

“Hey, would this work?” he asked, holding up a sturdy wood branch.

“Let's try it,” said Scott, taking the branch and lodging it underneath the rock.

The branch was slid under the rock as far as possible, then Scott and Eric tried to push the rock away from the cave opening. The rock didn't budge.

“Randy, do you think you can try?” asked Scott.

Randy braced himself against the boulder and bent his knees. Miguel walked over and took the same position against the rock next to Randy. “Let's push on three,” the boy said to Randy.

With the leverage of the branch and the strength of two men, the boulder was moved away from the opening. The cave was now open to exploration and the young men entered, not knowing what they would find.

 
Chapter 34
 

T
he bright beams of the flashlights lit the dark walls of the cave as they walked deeper into the mysterious tunnel. Scott led the way. He took out his knife and held it in his right hand, ready to use it. The cave was narrow and after walking for a few minutes, a large underground room appeared. The team entered the cavernous room filled with shadows and stood in surprise at what they saw. The walls of the room were painted with large colorful pictures of people, animals, and hunting scenes.

“What have we found?” whispered Scott in complete shock.

“This must be one of the caves I've been reading about,” Eric started to explain. “The theory is that these caves were used in rituals for the young boys of the tribe.”

“What kinds of rituals?” asked Ramón, wondering if he was the right age.

“Rites of passage, actually,” said Eric. “The men of the tribe would lead the young boys, probably about your age, down into these caves to initiate them into their society. It was meant to teach them of their responsibilities of being a tribal member and to scare them a little, too.”

“Why would they want to scare them. Was it like punishment?” asked Miguel.

“Adulthood was a serious responsibility for these ancient tribal cultures. They had to be sure that the young boys would respect nature and put the needs of the tribe first, above their own,” answered Eric.

“These wall paintings must be over one thousand years old,” commented Randy. “How did they see to paint. There's no light in here.”

Miguel and Ramón walked up to the painted walls and stared at the colorful and familiar forms. The figures of people were painted in geometric shapes and the animals were large and fierce looking. Many of the paintings were scenes of men hunting animals with arrows and spears. The cave felt magical, as if something very important had happened there a long time ago.

Scott walked around the room and saw another passage leading upward. “I'm going to check this out,” he said, starting to climb out of the cave.

“We should all go together. We don't know where that passage leads,” advised Eric. “You two follow Scott and Randy,” he said, pointing to Miguel and Ramón.

The passage was dark but a small amount of light was filtering in and they didn't need to use their flashlights. Scott was a quick climber and Miguel followed close behind. Suddenly Miguel heard a noise that sounded like a rattle, then a hiss.

Scott, hearing the noise too, stopped climbing and told Miguel to step back. Then it appeared on a crevice of the wall, a rattlesnake, coiled in a corner posing to strike Miguel.

“Don't move,” Scott said in a quiet voice. “He'll strike if you move suddenly. Stay back and keep your eyes on him.”

Miguel was terrified but did what Scott told him. He took a slow breath and waited. Scott slowly raised his knife and aimed at the head of the snake. With one fast throw, the knife lodged in the snake's neck and it was dead.

Scott cut the snake's head off and cleaned the bloody blade on his pants. “Well, looks like more snake meat tonight, guys!” he laughed.

Miguel looked at the headless long body and knew the terror that must have existed in that cave years ago.

“Look at this!” Scott yelled back. “It looks like this passage leads to the top of another formation.”

The team of five climbed out of the passageway one by one, out into the daylight. As they glanced around they saw that they were standing on top of the tallest cliff in the canyon. The view was spectacular. The desert floor expanded beyond the canyon walls into the horizon in all four directions. They were standing on top of the world. Miguel and Ramón stood on the cliff taking in the view, turning their bodies to see the desert that surrounded them.

“It looks like we're at the center of the earth, that everything revolves around us,” Ramón observed.

Eric smiled and looked at Ramón thoughtfully. “There are many centers. I have stood on the tallest mountains all over the world and have felt just as you do now.”

The five young men stood together on the top of the cliff, each feeling that he was a part of something greater than himself.

 
Chapter 35