... Continued
We were all sweaty from the sunlight beaming down on us, and
we had come too far to turn back. We followed the steep winding
path up the hill. From the peak, the campsite and the tents looked
like tiny blocks. I followed Wheatly up the dirt trail and steps that
led us to the closet caves, but I wanted to go to the middle cave
that had a unique shape.
“Welly.” Aaron’s voice made me cringe because I knew he wanted to go back.
I turned to him very calmly, and he scolded, red in the face from the sunlight beating down on him, “Why are we skipping all of these caves? Explore them!”
The middle cave called my name; its strange origami shape drew my curiosity.
“Can we please stop here?” Aaron begged.
“You need to man up, Aaron,” I yelled back at him. He had become more and more scared lately.
Wheatly stood ahead of us, inches from the middle cave. “Hurry,” he yelled down to us as we traveled quicker up the trail. He poked his head in and then vanished. Suddenly, thoughts of what if popped in my mind.
“Wheatly!” I shouted and wondered if he had entered a mountain lion’s den. Dad would never forgive me if I allowed something terrible to happen to Wheatly. Aaron and I quickly ran up the hill. I poked my head inside of the cave, and there was nothing, but red rocks. Aaron walked in collecting samples into his pocket. I flopped down on to my butt as everyone examined the empty cave.
Gary lagged behind, “Nothing in here! Let’s go to the top.” He ran out as Wheatly raced passed him. I hopped on to my feet because those words sounded like angels singing in my ears. I followed them to the very top, to the cave shaped like a triangle. I ran past Gary and Wheatly and hoped that the cave contained everything that I wished for.
I entered, and the smell of wet rock filled my nose. A small amount of soil covered the ground. The cool moisture clustered the air, and the desert heat was nowhere inside. Where is the moisture coming from in this arid environment? I wondered.
“Wow, it’s beautiful.” Wheatly stepped inside gazing at the hard shiny rocks.
“Not much in here either. No hidden treasures.” Gary stepped in for a moment and then headed back outside. “Hey! Over here.” He waved to everyone at the campsite. I rushed over to him.
“Be quiet. What are you doing?” I stopped his arm from waving like a maniac.
“Why?” he questioned as he yanked back his arm. We watched the kids from our youth group stampede towards us from the camping site, and below where I stood, Aaron struggled to make it to the top. I went to the back of the cave to collect some native shrubs from the corner before the rest of the group came inside and destroyed it with their touchy-feely hands.
“Wellington,” someone called my name. My heart pounded.
“Over here,” the voice said again. I followed the sound to a curved wall hidden from the cave’s entrance. At first glance, it seemed just like a wall, but once I roamed my hands upon it, I felt emptiness. “Come over here.” Wheatly poked his head out to me.
“Wheatly. Come from out of there now.”
“Come on, Welly.” He squeezed his body further into the next section, and my heart skipped a beat. My body trembled, and I dropped everything as nerves trickled down every layer of my skin. I couldn’t see him anymore, and his voice faded away behind the rock layer. I couldn’t help but think what if something awful waited for Wheatly, or what if someone left an ancient trap or a hole?
“Wheatly, come back! I can’t see you.” I reached inside, but I couldn't feel him. I quickly opened my bag and grabbed a flashlight.
“Where’s Wheatly?” Aaron huffed and puffed as he leaned against the wall.
“Behind the rock.”
“What!”
“Calm down.” I turned the toy light on and pointed it into the
dark, afraid to witness what lurked behind my brother. I just knew something scary like a mountain lion or an anaconda or— “Plants?”
The light fell upon Wheatly’s grin as vines and leaves dangled over him and up and down the wall. Immediately, I took off my sling and squeezed my body between the walls into the next section with Wheatly.
“You got to be kidding me!” Aaron shouted from the other side of the wall. His voice sounded so far away.
“Hello over there.” My voice echoed as Wheatly laughed to himself.
“Come on, Aaron,” Wheatly pleaded with him.
“Oh, no way. Not me.”
As Wheatly pleaded with Aaron, I examined the healthy leaves
covering the cave’s walls. They amazed me. I wondered how they grew in complete darkness and where they were getting their sunlight and water? Before I walked further into the cave, I listened for sounds of growling and snarling and heard nothing.
“It's safe, Aaron. Come on!” I yelled behind me.
Once Aaron made his way inside of the cave's hidden section, we both pointed our flashlights towards the middle of the den.
“Wait!” I grabbed Aaron's flashlight to point in the same direction as me.
“What is it?” Wheatly stepped forward, but I stopped him before he invaded its personal space.
“Looks like a tiny tree to me,” Aaron answered and waited for confirmation.
My facial expression revealed my own cluelessness. I twitched and scratched my chin as the little tree glowed like a lava lamp.
We stepped backward, ready to escape. Our flashlights beamed upon the tiny tree, and we slowly took another step back. However, I stopped my feet from moving backward and forced them to inch forward.
“Wellington, what are you doing?” Aaron whispered. “It looks poisonous.”
The tree glowed with a reddish orange color. My hands trembled as I shined my flashlight two inches from the tiny tree, discovering that it sat on a pile of dirt that came to my thigh. Aaron pointed his flashlight downward.
“It's sitting on a hump,” Wheatly said. He stepped forward, and then Aaron inched toward us with one leg back ready to run at any moment.
“Here, Wheatly.” I handed him my toy flashlight as I searched in my backpack for Dad's heavy-duty flashlight. Three flashlights illuminated the hidden section of the cave’s walls. Roots went from the tiny tree’s hump, across the cave's floor and up the walls with small leaves covering the area.
“What the heck is it?” Wheatly asked.
“Help me count the roots.” I counted five, no ten, maybe twenty roots spreading from the dirt hump and creating thick lines on the ground. I stepped even closer to the tiny tree and measured its size against my fingers and felt the heat from the reddish-orange colors changing to bluish and greenish. Tiny Tree's whole trunk could fit in the palm of my hand and small leaves filled the branches. It was not an ordinary tree, but mature, grand in stature, and confident of its own existence. My fears disappeared, and a gentle sensation covered us all. Tiny Tree stood tall despite its size, and it twinkled like a star in the middle of the night.
“Can trees grow in the dark?” Wheatly asked me.
“Or live in the dark?” Aaron wondered.
I answered my previous question, “I’m going to study
paleobiology.”
“What?” Aaron questioned.
“I’m going to be a plant paleobiologist.”
The tiny tree changed my perspective of plant life by its
glorious presence. Aaron’s shoulder touched mine, and I immediately knew the little tree made us all feel safe.
“How could this be left alone here?” I admired.
Aaron replied, “Well, it was waiting for someone to discover it. It’s your purpose remember?” He knocked shoulders with me. I smiled. I had always dreamt of discovering a plant and naming it after me. My heart jumped with joy, and my spirit rejoiced.
At that moment, shimmery green and blue light from the tiny tree exploded all over the walls, and we watched in awe. Different colors reflected and beams bounced between the walls.
“Look.” Wheatly held his hands up at the light, and they made images with their hands, laughing and enjoying the moment.
I sensed the tree enjoyed our presence too as it sparkled and celebrated our presence.
“Whoa.” A curious voice snapped us out of our daze, and both flashlights turned to Gary behind us. “Hey, it stopped glowing,” he blurted. We turned back to the tiny tree, which hid in the darkness.
Aaron shined his flashlight on it, and everything returned to normal.
“What's making it glow?” Gary examined. Aaron and Wheatly both looked at me, and we realized trees do not glow. So, we all searched for the light source.
Wheatly and Aaron followed the roots up the wall with the flashlight when their light fell on a sketch figure with two lines across it.
“Guys?” Aaron’s voice quivered. He stepped backward towards the exit.
We turned to a giant, eerie mark on the wall.
“Here’s another one.” Wheatly pointed with his flashlight on the opposite wall.
“And another.” Aaron found another creepy sketch on the back wall that was bigger than the two on the sidewall of the cave. The sketch markings on the rear wall stuck out like a statue. Gary walked closer and stood underneath the abnormally shaped figure. He pointed his finger up, traced the markings that looked like a head, and then outlined the bigger circle that resembled a body.
“It’s not human.” He determined because the figure had no arms or legs.
He used his finger to show where the two lines intersected beneath the small circle on the bigger circle.
“It looks like an X,” Gary explained with his finger still pointed at the figure.
“X, like do not enter?” Aaron panicked.
“Or X marks the spot.” Gary clapped his hand and ran past us. “Wait until everyone sees what I found!” He vanished to the other side and screamed for the leaders to hurry up.
Aaron and Wheatly rushed to exit. Fear crept back inside of them, and they forgot the joy we had experienced moments before Gary climbed in. However, I didn't forget. It was my discovery, and I needed to take Tiny Tree with me. I fell to my knees and sawed the roots with my pocketknife.
“What are you doing?” Aaron yelled from halfway out of the hidden cave.
“I can’t leave this here. You even said it was meant to be discovered by me,” I pleaded. Aaron and Wheatly saw blood draining from my hand and my teeth gripping my lip.
Wheatly ran towards me. “It’s going to die if you cut it like that, right?” He pondered.
His words didn’t faze me. The thought of adding the tree to my plant collection back home gave me zealous faith. Wheatly dug deeper into the ground. He picked up my pocketknife to slice Tiny Tree’s roots from the wall. Aaron kicked his feet against the ground and grunted, and he helped remove Tiny Tree’s roots from the hump.
“I have to cut it far enough so it can still grow.” I grabbed the pocketknife from Wheatly and measured the roots as if performing surgery. I held the knife in my hand, took a deep breath, counted to three, and then cut. We heard voices from the other kids getting closer.
“We have to hurry.” I sliced the ground away from the roots up to the tree. Wheatly reached, but I yelled, “Stop!” and my voice echoed.
“Don't touch it. It might be dangerous,” I explained as Wheatly stepped back with both hands up. I reached into my backpack and grabbed a comic magazine.
“Hey, that's mine!” Wheatly yelled.
“I'll buy you another one.” I ripped the pages and wrapped the tree inside of it, pulled it away from the hump that it sat, on and immediately placed it into my backpack. I scooped dirt into my bag and dusted the sides off. A sense of accomplishment and defeat at the same time wrestled inside of me, but I shook it off. I glanced at the figure on the back wall, and I saw it clearly through the darkness. The human-like-figures, held swords across its body in a running stance—ready for war. The figures on the sidewalls stood in the same position but carried a torch. Small pins-and- needles went from my head all down my body.
“What's wrong?” Aaron wondered why my joyful expression went away. However, if I told him what I saw and felt, he would never let me keep the tree, so I kept quiet.
“You boys okay?” Pastor Patrick poked his flashlight and head inside, snapping me out of my trance.
“Yes, sir,” Aaron and Wheatly yelled together, hiding me behind their back as I gently zipped up my bag and placed in on my back. We followed Pastor Patrick's voice. Aaron, Wheatly, and I squeezed our way back to the other side. I struggled to get back through, and everyone wondered how I was able to squeeze through the little hole in the first place.
“Kids, are you guys okay?” They patted us on the back, dusting off the layers of dirt.
“You guys look like coal miners,” Pastor Chris teased, eliminating the awkwardness of the rescue.
“We found a glowing tree,” Gary exploded with excitement. I searched around for Dad, but he wasn't near us.
“I'm going to go find my dad,” I blurted. Aaron and Wheatly followed me out of the cave, down the hill, and towards the campsite, proud that we found something unique, and leaving Gary to explain everything to the leaders.
When Pastor Patrick reported the findings to the Israel Antiquities Authority, police cars, news vans, reporters, and archeologists arrived in less than an hour. We watched as the archeologist gently analyzed and discussed the markings on the wall in their work van. They showed us how to collect natural samples and how to store them.
“Yep, high energy,” we overheard one scientist tell authorities and then pointed back to the campsite. The medical team tested our whole group for signs of fevers, but we all passed.
We sat inside of the ambulance waiting for the journalist to interview me when Wheatly said, “Welly, your hand?” I held my hand up and examined the lines. No blood, no open wound but a scar. Nevertheless, my hand was perfectly healthy again.
“Did it heal you?” He stepped forward and gripped my legs.
“Ouch and no! The paramedics did it. They gave me some type of medicine,” I lied, and his smile turned sour.
I held on tight to my backpack with the precious tree inside as the Tel Aviv journalist interviewed the four of us for the newspaper. We explained how we found the sacred place and what we each saw. After the interview, we noticed Dr. Alex Frazier, an Italian American and senior archeologist admiring the hillside near our campsite. He squinted at us, blocking the sunlight from his eyes, and watched us as we helped take down the tents.
To be continued
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