The Cave

The Cave
By Don Jones

The light played along the rock walls of the cave. The sound of water could be heard dripping as if it was around the next turn. The boys ahead of me had found the hole which went straight down about 10 or 15 feet. Everyone was trying to get someone else to start down but know one wanted to go.

One of the guys in the crowed that I hung around in high school had suggested that we go cave exploring on the weekend. Sounded like it would be a fun adventure. He said he knew where there was a cave that was easy to find and go into. If we wanted to go, we would need to go soon, because the cave was on property that would soon be flooded when the work on a new Percy Priest Dam was completed, not far out side of Nashville, Tennessee.

My friend and I with several other daring students, met that Saturday. We piled into our parents cars that we had borrowed for that outing and went to a field north of Nashville out in the country. We were lead into the middle of a pasture where cows were grazing next to a very small rock outcropping which was not higher the what appeared to be three or four feet. There was a small whole about two feet high under one of the edges of the outcropping. Our leader of the group got down on his knees disappearing as he crawled inside the hole. In a moment he poked his head out and said “Are You coming”? We all followed suit. When we got inside we were all amazed to find that there was an enormous chamber just inside of the rock opening. It could not be seen from the outside, but it was a room big enough for all of us to stand in with room to spare.

We started our underground caravan, following our guide, who had the brightest light. We all brought flashlights, and kept them all on, as the light gave us comfort from the darkness. We climbed down a path that was like a fat man squeeze, and then it turned into a small ledge around a large drop off. Then we started up another path along another fat man squeeze. You could smell the dank ground in the dankness and the walls were sometimes wet. Water would drip from the roof occasionally.

What our leader failed to tell us, was that this particular cave had recently been in the news. Our star football player at our school, had been in this cave not more then a month or so earlier. He went exploring here also, but he climbed down into the whole that now confronted us. He got to the bottom and tried to go through the hole at the bottom of the chamber, and got stuck. That probably would not have been any thing special because his friends could have got him out.

There was one thing they had not counted on. While they were in the cave it had started to rain, and water was now pouring into the cave. The the chamber they had crawled into began to fill with water. Being stuck with water pouring into the hole caused the football player to create a vacuum on the other side. Now he was held firmly in the grip as the physic of nature. THe hole refused to release him from its hold.

His friends had to abandoned him and go for professional help. The fire rescue was there along with the TV cameras. They made a lot of news that day. After a couple of days they got him out.

This peace of information was given to us by our leader just as he was trying to get us to go down the hole.

“Not in your life’ I said. Turning from the crowed, I headed down the path that lead to the way out of the cave. The more I thought of what had happened here made me want to see the blue sky again. The others needed no encouragement to follow.

On the way out I happened to find what appeared to be a mouse on the cave wall. Taking my flash light apart, I used it as a scoop, and caught the little creature and quickly put the top back on.

We crawled back out into the sun light from the cool darkness of the cave. It felt good to be in the sun again. Now what about this creature in the flash light case? On the way out of the cave I had been thinking about what to do with the bat. The guys gathered around and wanted to see what it look like. I decided taking it home was not an option.

“You caught a what ?” I could here my parents saying. “Not in here.” Release was the only answer.

“OK guys” I said “let see what we have” as I opened the flash light head. The little mouse like creature crawled out to the edge of the flashlight and stuck his head out as if to see if all was clear. He just sat there. I tossed the light up ward as if I were going to throw it and he got the hint and took off. We were all stunned. This little creature must have had a three foot wingspan as he unfolded his wings and took off. We all looked at each other and grinned and knew we had done the right thing. It was a lot more fun to watch this beautiful creature fly away then to have kept it in some cage.

It is interesting, now that I am much older, we never once considered the dangers we had placed ourselves in. We never considered leaving a note as to where we were going, Nor did we think about what could have happened if we had experienced a cave in, or had gotten lost , the weather might have changed, or got bitten by a bat with rabies. To us it was just an adventure. How wise we become with the years.

Story ID:	2365
Written by:	Donald L. Jones (bio, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family Memories
Writers Conference:	$500 2007 Family Memories Writing Project
Location:	Donelson Tennessee USA
Year:	1965