Ashes of Twilight (14 page)

Pace doesn’t complain, he just quietly follows me into the cavern. I believe he’s as anxious as I am for water.

“Can I turn on the lamp?”

“Not here. There are no guarantees that someone won’t come by. This part of the mine is old and the coal is exhausted but we still use the tunnels. People even come here and swim sometimes.”

“It seems like there are miles and miles of them.”

“There are. And some of them go really deep. We run out of coal in one place and have to dig until we find more. We use the rock we dig out of new ones to fill up old ones. The old ones we keep because they lead to the water and to our escape hatches around the dome.”

“Are there a lot of escape hatches?”

“Not enough.”

I see the flash of his grin in the darkness.

“Feel like washing up?”

“Yes. Wait, I can see something.”

“Glow fish.” The water here is gentle. At one time long ago there was a cave-in, so the water bubbles up from beneath and forms a pool before doing the same on the opposite side. There’s a lot of life in the pool, crabs and plankton and the fat fish that glow like white orbs floating beneath the surface. The floor is sandy instead of the hard-packed dirt of the tunnels and the water is shallow enough that you can walk across to the other side.

I sit down on a rock and pull off my boots and Pace does the same. He’s much quicker than me, shucking out of his clothes until he’s down to his shorts. He wades into the water until it’s ankle deep.

“It doesn’t drop off, does it?”

“No.” I look at him, furtively, as I slide out of my pants. He’s straight and he’s strong, with well-defined muscles in his back, arms, and legs. He’s a good six inches taller than me too. “It shouldn’t be more than waist deep on you.” I’m glad he can’t see me. My face flames with my concept of where the water should hit him.

“Good.” He walks out until he’s thigh deep and lowers himself with a sigh. “I can’t swim.” He goes under and then comes back up. He shakes the water off and pushes his hair back from his face.

I’m down to my undershorts and the sleeveless shirt I wear beneath my work clothes. I gather up my clothes to carry to the opposite bank. A good scrubbing with some sand should get a lot of the filth and most of the smell off until I can get back home to wash them out. I drop my clothes in the sand and wade back out. The glow fish, scared by Pace’s splashing, gather close to the cave wall. They are so close together that it looks like a fire burning beneath the water and half of the pool is lit up, enough so that I know Pace has no trouble seeing anything. The water is cool against my legs but turns icy when I’m deep enough that it touches the small of my back, and I shiver. “How can you not know how to swim?” I ask as I lower my body into the water.

“Where do I have to learn? Nobody up there can swim that I know of.”

“We learn to swim as soon as we learn how to walk.” I sink beneath the surface and welcome the sensation of the water cleansing my panic along with the nasty smells from my body.

“Lucky,” Pace says when I finally break the surface. He looks my way and then quickly back at the bank where his clothes lay in the pile where he dropped them.

I shrug. I’ve never thought about it much, one way or the other. Swimming is as natural to me as breathing. We learn how at an early age because there’s always the risk of a child falling into the water and being swept beneath the cavern walls. Most of our play as children involved the water and seeking out pools, such as this one.

Pace has a sudden interest in his clothes. I can’t help but watch as he wades to the bank to pick them up. The fabric of his shorts is transparent from the water and doesn’t do much to hide the curve of his behind. Just as he turns I drop down into the water with the sudden awareness that if I can see through his, then he can see through mine, even in the darkness. Both of us have skin so pale that we practically glow like the fish. I crouch down, in water up to my chin, and wave my hand at a curious glow fish that nibbles at my toes. They are used to us now and bob happily beneath the surface as if we are here for their entertainment.

Pace wades back across. He holds his clothes in front of him so that they trail in the water. His eyes dart down at where I’m crouching and he grins. The water is so clear that it’s not doing anything to disguise what I’m showing. I flick water at him as he passes by and he laughs.

“What are you doing?” I ask as he kneels in the sand.

“Using the sand to clean my clothes.”

I arch an eyebrow in admiration. It was the same thing I planned to do, so I join him. There’s no use pretending we can’t see each other. We’re long past that place. Still, I wring the water from my hair and comb it forward with my fingers over my shoulders. Pace slicks his back from his face and winces when he accidentally touches the swelling around his eye.

“You’ve got quite a wall-eye growing there.” I can’t help but wonder if he’ll understand my slang for a bruise covering his eye. I stretch my jacket out flat on the shore and start scrubbing at the stains that cover it with a mix of sand and water.

He does. “Stupid yob,” he says. He joins me in attacking the stains on his own clothing.

Maybe our worlds are not so different after all. “You did pretty well for facing two of them.”

“I was junior champion in boxing at school.”

“Oh, did you club your opponents with stout pieces of wood there too?”

In the next instant I find myself flipped over on my back and Pace lying on top of me. I don’t even try to fight him. I can feel his strength covering me, from the tip of my toes all the way up to my breasts, which are squashed flat beneath his chest. I don’t want to fight him. My skin tingles against his and I’m so warm where he touches me that I can’t help but wonder if I’m glowing like the fish. I’ve never felt this way before; it’s strange and scary but also kind of wonderful.

“I’m pretty good at wrestling too.” His hands are on my shoulders, pinning me down. He relaxes his hold and pushes back a strand of hair that is stuck to my cheek. I wonder how I look to him, through his eyes. I feel very self-conscious as he studies my face, but it all goes away when I find myself staring into his beautiful blue eyes. His hardness presses against my thighs, much the same as I felt from James, but for some reason it doesn’t bother me like it did with James.
It’s because of me …
Knowing I have that power thrills me, and the warmth I feel explodes to a blasting heat. Just as suddenly as he flipped me on my back, Pace moves off and turns back to his clothes.

“Your eyes are amazing.” He looks over his shoulder at me. “What’s it like? What do you see?”

So are yours …
so different from anything I’ve ever seen. “Shadows and definition. I don’t see a lot of color.”

“Ever?”

“Yes. I mean in the dark. In the light I see the same as you.” I shake the sand off my jacket and examine the stains. “I mean I think I do. I guess there’s no way of knowing as we can never see through each other’s eyes.”

“What color is this?” He picks up my bandanna.

“Red.”

“Barely.” He flips it at me and I snatch it up as if he’s threatening to steal it. My bandanna is older than I am, as is most of my clothing. Some of it belonged to my grandmother, some my mother, some of it I picked up in various places. I don’t think much about it. Clothing is a necessity, not a luxury. I feel fortunate to have what I have and privileged to call it my own. I put my shirt on, now relatively clean compared to the rest of my things, and go to work on my pants.

I also feel the need to prove to Pace that I can really see like him, so I start a list of things I know we’ve both seen. “Apples are red. Some are green. The leaves on the trees are green. Cheese is orange or yellow.”

Pace nods along in agreement as he works on his pants.

“Your eyes are blue.” He turns his head to look at me. In the dim light from the glow fish his eyes are dark, but I can still see the color. “Very blue.” I swallow back the sudden dryness that fills my throat as he stares at my mouth. Is he going to kiss me? I want him to very much.

He turns away. “So is the sky.” Pace’s voice is rough and hoarse. The reason we’re here, the reason why we spent most of the day running for our very lives, comes crashing back to me. Alex was murdered and I’m thinking about kissing a boy. A boy I don’t even know.

“I need to hide you.” I pull on my pants, not caring that I’m still wet and covered with sand. I gather up my things and splash back through the water, soaking myself up to my waist.

“Can’t I stay here?” Pace asks. “Where there’s light?” He follows me, smarter than I am; he carries his clothes and puts them on when we reach the opposite bank. “And water?”

“No.” I jerk on my socks and work boots. “Someone might decide to come and swim. We can’t risk you being found. They’ll cast us both out.”

He doesn’t speak as he finishes dressing. He knows what it will mean for both of us if we are cast out. He keeps a tight hold on the lamp. Neither of us speaks as we crawl through the portal that leads us back to the tunnels. It’s not far to the place I think to hide him. I choose the cavern where we held the seekers’ meeting last night as I know it will be left alone for a good long while. Beyond that I can’t think of what to do.

“I’ll never be able to find my way out of here,” Pace mutters as we dash through the tunnels with me leading him by the hand once more.

“Good,” I say. “Then I won’t have to worry about you stumbling about and falling into a pit, or something worse.”

“I can’t imagine much worse.”

“I can.” Alex dying fills my mind once more.

“Are there pits?” We’ve arrived at the cavern. Pace stands behind me, blind once more, as I look up the tunnel to make sure no one is about. The stillness is oppressive. It feels as if we’re the last two people in the world. Where is everyone? Even though we’ve been in a part of the mines that has long been deserted and doesn’t usually see traffic, it seems like I should have heard or seen something of the shiners. And I still haven’t seen a lamp since I came down here. It’s as if everything and everyone is gone.

“Yes, there are.” I don’t go into detail. If his fear of falling into the unknown will keep him from wandering about, then that’s one less thing I have to worry about. “In here.” I lead Pace inside. “You can turn on the lamp long enough to get oriented.”

I leave him for a moment and go to check the escape tunnel on the far side to make sure it’s clear. To escape you have to crawl back about four feet, then there is room to stand and climb up to the next level. It will be a good place for Pace to hide if someone comes by.

“It won’t come on.” I’ve heard him messing with the lamp, continually flipping the switch that ignites the filament.

“It must have gotten damp when we were by the water.” I take it from him and look but it’s too small and detailed for me to make out in the darkness. “Probably a good thing, now you won’t be tempted.”

“Great. So I’m stuck in the dark for how long?”

“Until I can get away again. I have to check in with my grandfather, and hopefully get some sleep before my shift tonight. I don’t even know how much time I’ve got until work. If feels like I’ve been gone for days.”

“Yeah.” Pace leans against the wall and folds his arms around his body. “Me too.” He has got to be cold, as his clothes and hair are wet. I know I am.

“I’ll try to bring you another lamp. And some food.”

“How about a fire?”

“No fires in the mines. Ever. If you have a fire and there’s a gas pocket…” I shiver. An explosion in the mines is our biggest fear.

“This just gets better and better.”

“I’m sure the bluecoats would be happy to give you a fire.”

“I’ll settle for a blanket.”

“You don’t want much…”

“What? I’m the one who has to sit here in the dark and freeze.”

“And I’m the one who’s risking everything to keep you safe.”

“At least you’re doing something,” he grumbles.

“Look, I know you’re frustrated and I know you don’t like being closed in. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to feel blind and helpless…” My voice trails off. Maybe my words of encouragement weren’t the best things to say. I can’t see his face as he has his head down. I take his hand—he’s shivering—and lead him to the corner away from the opening. “Sit. Try to get some sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Pace puts his hands against the cave wall, turns his back to it, and slides down. “What if someone comes?” He puts his hands under his arms and huddles up in a ball.

“We’ll just have to hope for now that it doesn’t happen.” I turn to go, then stop. “I’ll whistle, like this.” I demonstrate a two-note song that I’ve heard the canaries do. “That way you’ll know it’s me.”

He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t need to. I stand in the entrance for a moment, torn between the need to go and the urge to stay. I have to go. I have this strange nagging feeling that something happened while I was gone, something much worse than ever before. I leave without another word and run back the same way I’d gone the night before.

The canary is still there. His cage hangs from a nail stuck in one of the arch supports. I stop when I see it and check to make sure he is still alive. He is. He stares at me resentfully with his black bead of an eye, condemning me for leaving him alone the night before.

“I’ve got a friend for you, little one.” I run back to the cave where I left Pace. I hear him moving as I reach the entrance. I’ve forgotten to whistle.

“It’s me.”

He lets out his breath. “What?”

“I have something for you.”

“Food? A blanket?”

“No…” I feel foolish. It seemed like a good idea when I came across the canary. I put the cage next to him and placed his hand on it. “It’s a canary. They alert us about the gas buildup. As long as they’re alive…” Once more I’m not sounding very encouraging or optimistic.

“I know what they’re for.”

“I just thought…”

Pace reaches out, searching. I take his hand and he squeezes mine. “Thank you.”

“I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Yeah … see you.”