No one was around; he could hear the bustling of the dressing room, knowing how he looked he put one hand on the skirt to hold it in place and lifted the script in front of his face to block anyone from seeing him. He quickly slipped around the corner and found Lacey hiding in a small alcove by some electrical meters.
“This is all I could find.” Ben said as he handed it to her. “I got pulled on stage, wow that was awful!” his face was still red with humiliation.
“Well, all we can do is look.” Lacey said as she sat on the floor and began to flip through the script. In addition to the character’s lines this copy had technical directions for the lighting crew, it showed different angles and numbers indicating certain lights that needed illumination at various times. “There are a lot of numbers in here.” She said as she thumbed through it. Ben sat down next to her and rested his head on his knees. She glanced over each page hoping that something would jump out at her as different. Half way through she thought she had found it. “Hey check this out, right after Ferdinand speaks, in parentheses it says,
44 degrees 44’49.7” North and 124 degrees 3’57.1” West, in the grains of the devil’s drink, be careful- do not sink.”
Lacey pointed to the excerpt as Ben looked over her shoulder. He pulled the GPS unit out of the top of the dress he was wearing and entered the numbers.
“Great,” he said with an overwhelmed and exhausted tone. “Looks like this one is back on the coast.”
“Well, shoot…it doesn’t say
clue,
so maybe this is the last one, and since it is on the coast that would make sense, to start and end on the coast.” She said reassuringly. “What do you think?” She asked Ben. “I mean we have already done so much what if this is the last one, we can’t just,
not
go.” She paused for a second, “Right?”
B
en felt the late morning sun warming his face. He was beyond exhausted, but also so excited that it really didn’t matter. He and his aunt were sure that this would be the last geocache; it made sense to have the game begin and end at the coast. A smile came to his face as he thought about holding his share of the ten thousand dollars, within a few hours that would be a reality.
“Well look at that.” Lacey said as she nudged Ben to full consciousness. She was pointing to a brown sign on the side of the road; in bold letters it read “Devil’s Punchbowl.” “Looks like we only have 10 more miles!” She beamed.
Ben yawned loudly and stretched his arms, hopefully finding this cache would be a little less stressful, he knew that at least it wouldn’t be nearly as embarrassing as his performance last night at the Shakespearian festival.
They pulled into a small parking lot, the coast was windy as usual, and as they stepped from the car they could taste the salt in the air.
Ben made his way over to the cyclone fence first; Lacey remained at the car, searching for her bright blue sweatshirt. He was too excited to be cold. He heard the waves crashing as he looked over the cliff’s edge. He was amazed at the site. The waves over thousands of years had created a huge bowl shaped formation in the cliff wall, as the tide went in and out the bowl would fill. The waves crashed against the outer edge, and then water made its way into the bowl through a tunnel like hole. It was absolutely amazing.
He looked at the clue one more time, the coordinates were definitely correct, but what did
in the grains of the devil’s drink
mean? Lacey approached him from behind and hollered, “Hey, you find it yet?” she patted him on the shoulder as she pulled the sweatshirt over her head. “This place is pretty amazing isn’t it?” she leaned on the cyclone fence, staring at the ocean. “I wonder what time the tide goes out, as soon as it does we need to get down to the bottom of that bowl and start digging.”
“Digging?” Ben asked.
“I’m guessing, ya know ‘cause it says
in the grains,
ya know, grains of sand.”
Ben blushed with embarrassment, why didn’t he figure that out? “Well I bet they would know when the tide goes out,” he said as he pointed to a restaurant on the side of the parking lot.
They both headed toward the restaurant; as they entered the overwhelming scent of clam chowder hit them, welcoming them through the threshold.
“Excuse me?” Lacey said to an old woman that was slouched behind the counter. The woman made eye contact with her. “Do you know when the tide will go out?”
“It’s a half moon.” The woman grumbled, then she pointed to a chart on the wall by the door. “You gonna order something?”
“No we already ate.” Lacey replied matter-of-factly, not even considering the fact that they were in a restaurant.
“So?”
“We’ll just check the chart and go, thanks for your help.” She said politely.
“What does the moon have to do with the tide?” Ben asked as his aunt read the chart.
“Hang on, let me look at this, then I’ll tell you once we get out of here, that woman is a real piece of work.” She said as she concentrated. “Okay, looks like it won’t go out until around two this afternoon, and then we’ll have a few hours until the tide starts to come back in.” She opened the door and walked out quickly.
“So the moon?” Ben asked as they walked back to the car.
“Oh yeah, the moon’s got a gravitational pull on the earth, so it tries to bring the earth closer to it. Since the earth has its own gravitational pull the moon’s pull isn’t strong enough to pull anything toward it except the water. So since the moon is in different locations it has a different amount of strength to pull on the earth. When there is a strong gravitational pull toward the moon we have high tide- the water is actually being pulled out toward the moon, when the pull is weaker we have low tide. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, I think.” Ben said as he opened the car door.
“I’m gonna take a nap for a bit, we can’t go down there until it is low tide, and I’m beat from driving.” Lacey reclined her seat and pulled her baseball cap over her eyes.
Ben sat quietly, and then decided he would take a little walk around and stretch his legs. He walked up and down the cyclone fence, planning exactly how they would get down to the middle of the bowl. This would be the perfect place to hide the treasure, he wondered if the prize people put the treasure in a treasure chest, just to add to the drama; that would be cool.
As he walked back to the car he noticed a familiar vehicle, it was a blue van with dark windows. He couldn’t see the driver, but he knew he had seen this van before. Ben tried to remember what setting he had seen it in, had it been at the camp ground at Lake Paulina? It had, it was parked right at the entrance. Why would they be here too? Unless they were looking for the prize as well. But he and Lacey had taken the clues each time; no one else would have been able to figure out where to go next. He eyed the silhouetted person in the driver’s seat again, and saw that the person was holding a camera with a long scope on it. The camera was pointed directly at Ben.
Ben ran and jumped in the car, “Aunt Lacey!” Lacey jumped in shock. “I think we are being followed, that guy in the van just took a picture of me.” Ben was pointing at the van. Lacey looked over and sure enough she saw the man pointing a camera at their car. “Plus I saw that same van at the camp ground at Paulina Lake.”
“That could have been a different van, although it is strange they are taking pictures of us.” She looked at the van again. “Well, only one way to find out.” She opened the door and stepped out. Ben followed quickly as she walked over to the van’s driver side. The man in the van was obviously freaking out; he was shuffling about putting stuff behind the seat. Lacey tapped on the tinted glass. The glass moved down slowly and the man’s face came into view. “So, can we help you with something?” Lacey said in an irritated tone.
“Um, what do you mean?” the man said.
“I noticed you were taking some pics of my nephew here and my car, just want to know why.” She was getting even more irritated and her voice had a clear
don’t mess with me
tone.
“I was just taking photos of the ocean, not you guys.”
“Uh huh, well then you might want to point your camera toward the ocean, that helps, ya know, for taking pictures of it and all. Oh and if you are for some reason taking our pictures, stop!” She yelled then grabbed Ben’s arm and walked back to their car.
As they got back in the car, they could see the man in the van talking on his cell phone, he saw them looking at him then rolled the window back up. He then turned the van on and left the parking lot.
“Creep.” Lacey said as she watched him leave. “We need to be careful; there are a lot of freaks out and about.”
“Yep.” Ben agreed with a sigh. “Ya know the tide might be going out now, maybe we should get to that treasure before that van gets back.”
“I think that’s a good idea, the faster we get out of here the better.” They both climbed out of the car, Ben had the GPS unit and was pointing it at the punchbowl, as he walked closer to the cyclone fence the unit subtracted feet from the total distance.
They looked over the cliff and saw the water swirling around inside the punchbowl as the waves grew smaller and the ocean receded. By the time they figured out how they would get to the bottom the water would be gone.
They looked behind them and saw no one looking their way so they quickly jumped the cyclone fence, the weather had worn the rock, and it was slippery from the mist of the ocean. Looking over the edge to at least a sixty-foot fall was terrifying. As they moved to the left they saw that there was a steep worn area, it looked as if people had come down this way before, probably teenagers, or maybe a geologist collecting data.
They started to make their way down the path that led to the base of the punchbowl; the sound of waves crashing in the distance was eerie. Half way down it became too steep, Lacey sat on the steep ground and started to slide on her rear, Ben followed her lead, they could get much better traction, and they were able to use their hands to stabilize themselves.
As they went deeper into the punchbowl, it became darker and the chill within the rock walls seemed to be fifteen degrees cooler. They could see the waves crashing on the other side of the rock wall, just through the small hole that allowed water to enter the bowl. As they approached the sandy floor they saw millions of air bubbles rising from the sand. Scattered over the cliff wall was graffiti that was slowly disappearing from the crashing waves, it decorated the sand stone and somehow made this place feel safer. Ben tried to rationalize his fear, other people had been here, this place couldn’t be that dangerous.
Lacey reached the bottom first and slowly stepped onto the sand, her feet sank a few inches and water surrounded her shoes. Ben slipped off the trail and onto the sand, again only sinking a few inches. “Well I don’t think we need to worry about sinking, as long as we stick to the edges, there is probably more of a rock base under this sand than in the middle.” Lacey said confidently.
“Problem…the GPS is pointing to the middle, see look, twenty feet straight ahead.” Ben showed her the screen.
“Well let’s try it, one of us will go first that way if we get stuck, the other can grab on and pull us out.”
“Not it!” Ben yelled as if a game a tag had just been proposed.
“Okay, that’s fine.” Lacey began to walk to the middle of the bowl, the sand rose higher above her shoes and it was getting tougher to move with every step, when she reached the middle she sat down trying to distribute her body weight so that she wouldn’t sink as quickly. She began digging with her hands, shoveling sand out as quickly as possible. Water arose from the sand and filled the hole she was creating. Suddenly Ben was by her side, digging as well. She looked up at him with a questioning look.
“What?” He said.
“I thought one of us was staying back, ya know in case I sink.”
“You were taking forever! We only have a little while longer before the tide comes back in.” He complained.
They both continued to dig, and scoop the water out as it filled the hole. About three feet down Ben’s fingers scraped something hard. He looked up at Lacey, excitement overcoming him. They both dug faster. Within a minute they had uncovered the top of a metal container, labeled “United Cellular.”
“What is this?” Lacey said, with a frustrated tone. They continued to remove more sand from the edges and tried moving the container back and forth to loosen it from the sand. They were both so involved in the digging that neither noticed the man standing above them at the lookout. He was watching them intently, holding a camera, snapping pictures. They also didn’t notice that the waves were becoming louder, and that on the other side of the punchbowl’s wall the sea was rising.
B
en and Lacey dug faster and faster, excitement was overcoming them. Ben slid his hands under the case. The metal was smooth and cold from being buried for so long. It didn’t look like a treasure chest, it was only the size of a box of cereal. Just as they were pulling it from the thick sand an enormous wave slammed up against the outer wall of the punchbowl. They both turned in shock, not knowing what to do they stood quickly and started to head to the edge of the bowl so they could start climbing out. The waves continued to slam the wall; water crested the top ridge, drenching them both. Suddenly a huge spurt of water shot through the hole that was in the side of the wall, filling the punchbowl quickly.
“How did the tide come in so quickly?” Ben yelled to Lacey, both were having trouble gripping the slippery sand stone.
“It must have taken us longer than we thought, hurry!” she yelled, just as another wave crested the bowl and covered them. Ben was pushed from the steep pathway, knocked almost senseless as he hit the sandy floor. These waves were much stronger than they had anticipated. He grabbed the case as it swirled in the water and wedged it under his arm again.
Ben gripped the pathway and pulled himself up higher, it was so slippery that every inch was a challenge. Suddenly he heard a scream, and then felt Lacey crash into him as another wave overcame them. They both slid to the bottom of the bowl. As they collected themselves the bowl filled higher and higher, it was now at chest level, and with just one more wave it would fill past their heads. Ben still had a tight grip on the case; he wasn’t letting this go for anything. He was determined to get out of here, no matter what.
“Ben let’s wait for the next wave, it will raise the water level, then hopefully we can pull ourselves out higher on the pathway.” Lacey yelled. “Just um…be careful not to get slammed into the wall…Duck!” She yelled as another wave crashed over them. They both resurfaced, coughing and clearing the salty water from their eyes. They were now treading water to stay afloat, the punchbowl was churning, and with each crashing wave the water rose higher and higher. Soon they wouldn’t have the protection of the bowl, they would be level with the crashing waves and they would be thrown directly against the rocky cliff wall.
Ben kicked harder to get to the edge of the punchbowl, he reached the pathway, which was now under water and tried to grasp the stone under the water with his free hand. He turned to see how Lacey was doing, she continued to kick, trying to reach the edge, but she was on the other side of the vortex in the water. As she kicked harder, she was just tiring herself out, the water was so powerful it was pushing her in the wrong direction. Ben looked up at the ridge of the bowl, if he could somehow get to the other side, he could pull her out. He tightened his grip on the case and used all his strength to maneuver up the pathway. Ben allowed the rising water to help him, he continued to grip the pathway, but was now floating more than climbing.
“Lacey!” He screamed. She was so exhausted from trying to stay afloat in the churning water; she could barely look up at her nephew. “Lacey!” he screamed again, then yelled “I’m gonna walk the ridge to get to that side, just try to swim to that edge and hold on!” The water continued to aid Ben, he was lifted to the top edge of the bowl, he swung his arm over and held on with his free hand, ducking as waves crashed over his head. He turned slightly and saw that Lacey had made it to the other side of the bowl; she was hanging on tightly but was being pulled under by the strength of the undertow. After each wave crashed, it would slightly recede. The force of the water going backward through the hole, that was now six feet under water, was fierce. It was pulling on Lacey with a great strength; there was no way she could get enough momentum to pull herself out.
Ben looked around quickly, searching for some area that was safe enough to place the metal case. Approximately eight feet to his left there was a slight ledge. He started to pull himself to the left, he just had to drop the case off on that ledge then he could get to Lacey faster. He kept one arm on the edge of the punchbowl and allowed the strong current to push him toward the cliff. Within a minute he was forcing the case onto the ledge, and then with all his strength he pulled himself over the top of the punchbowl’s ridge. He now was balanced on his waist, the ridge varied in thickness but he guessed it was close to a foot wide. He pulled himself to his feet, his hands still holding tightly. Although it was a thick ridge, the waves continued to crash, he was losing his balance. His weight shifted from side to side and his feet began to slip. Before he fell back into the water he quickly dropped his body flat against the ridge. He was now lying on his stomach, but having more contact with the stone allowed him to move faster toward his aunt by sliding on his stomach. Each time he saw a wave coming he would use all his strength to hold his position with his arms and legs.
Lacey continued to try to pull herself up on the ridge, she could see Ben approaching, he was crawling like an inchworm toward her. She quickly decided that she would try to move to the left, so he wouldn’t have to cover such a far distance. Pulling herself along she could feel the suction from the hole pulling harder and harder, if she was sucked through the hole she would surely die.
Fear inspired her to pull harder; she was almost to Ben when she heard a strong roar. She was so disoriented she lifted herself as much as she could so she could see over the wall. The wave coming toward them was the biggest she had ever seen. As it grew in height she screamed “Ben! Hold on!”
Ben had just reached Lacey’s left hand, he gripped it tightly. He heard her scream then heard the sound approaching, it was as if a freight train was about to run over them, the stone they were gripping shook as it approached, then suddenly it crested and began to crash over them.
They both held on to each other’s hand as tightly as possible, they were being pushed and pulled under; it was like being in a tornado of water. Ben forced himself to open his eyes, the salty water burned, but he had to keep them open. He saw Lacey swirling about, and then as they looked at each other under water the wave receded. The force pulling them backwards to the punchbowl’s ridge again was almost as strong as the original crash. Suddenly Ben’s arm felt like it was ripped from his body. He was trying so hard to not inhale the salty water, but as he looked at his aunt being pulled through the hole in the punchbowl’s outer wall, his mouth gaped open. His body was smashed against the wall of the punchbowl, hers was pulled through the hole, and at some point their hands were pulled apart by the water’s strength.
Ben surfaced, he was gripping the ridge tightly, he choked and coughed. The water was burning his nose and lungs. Fear overcame him, in a panic he pulled himself up so he was resting on the ridge on his waist again. As he looked over the ridge, the sea was strangely calm; it was as though the sea had used all of its strength to produce that last wave.
He wiped the water from his eyes again and concentrated on the swirling ocean in front of him, there in the distance he saw her. He pulled himself over the ridge and dropped into the water. He kicked as hard as he could; she was floating about thirty feet from the punchbowl’s edge. He decided maybe swimming under water would be easier, he needed to preserve his strength and this current was relentless. He dove under like a dolphin and with each stroke kicked as hard as he could. As he resurfaced, he could see her, she was only a few feet away, the current must be pushing her toward him. He swam quicker and quicker, he was within reach and with all his strength made one final pull in the water and grabbed the edge of her sweatshirt.
Strangely there was no resistance, he had put so much force into his reach that he pulled himself under water, his hand was still on the sweatshirt, he opened his eyes, again fighting the burn. He didn’t know if he was seeing correctly, he couldn’t be…his hand was gripping her sweatshirt, he knew it was hers, it was bright blue, he had seen her put it on. He pulled the sweatshirt towards him as he surfaced, he rubbed his eyes, hoping it was just the water playing tricks, but it wasn’t. The sweatshirt floated limply in the water, and Lacey was nowhere to be seen.