Bailey and the Santa Fe Secret (13 page)

Bailey did, and Elizabeth found it after swiping the air with her own. She sat down by her friend. “Listen, Bailey,” she said. “We’re
going
to get out of here.”

“That’s what we hope will happen, but what if we’re wrong? What if they can’t find us?”

“You know they’ll look until they do. Nothing will stop them.”

Bailey was silent. “What if” thoughts swirled around in her head like a giant whirlpool. “You’re a good friend, Beth. The best.”

Elizabeth squeezed Bailey around the shoulders. “So are you, Bales.”

The girls sat that way for a few minutes, saying nothing.

“‘Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’” Elizabeth quoted the words of Jesus. “Matthew 28:20. We’re not in this mine alone.”

Bailey wiped at the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks. “I know. But I’m still scared.”

“I think everything’s finally catching up to us,” Elizabeth said. “The hike, moving rocks, the stress of the earthquake. Maybe we should rest awhile, before starting to work on the wall again.”

“My mom always says a girl can cope with things better when she’s well rested,” Bailey said. “Maybe things won’t look so hopeless if we take a short nap.”

Elizabeth laughed. “I usually hate taking naps, but that does sound pretty good right about now.”

Bailey agreed, and they leaned against each other, Bailey’s head on Elizabeth’s shoulder. Within minutes, the two fell asleep, backs against the cold wall.

What seemed like only seconds later, Bailey and Elizabeth awoke to the sound of men’s voices.

Elizabeth jumped up. “Help! We’re trapped in here! Help!”

Bailey scaled the rock wall, making it to their wire flagpole in record time. She wiggled it frantically. “Over here! See the red flag moving? We’re behind these rocks!”

The voices grew more distant and then faded away.

“They didn’t hear us!” Bailey wailed. “I wiggled the flag! I thought for sure they’d see it.”

“I know. So did I,” Elizabeth said. “Did you recognize the voices?”

“No, they sounded pretty muffled behind these rocks. Did you?”

“No,” Beth said. “At first I thought maybe one was Elan, but it was too deep.”

“We’ve got to move more rocks so they can hear us easier.” Bailey started working on one rock and Elizabeth on another.

“We won’t give up, Bales,” Elizabeth said. “We can do this.”

“With God’s help, we’ll get out of here ourselves if they don’t find us first.”

“I think that catnap we took helped.” Hope filled Elizabeth’s voice. “I feel like I have more energy, don’t you?”

“A little,” Bailey’s voice trembled. “I just want out. I’m sick of being in the dark.”

“I know what you mean.” Elizabeth worked her rock side to side. “I’m starting to crave sunlight.”

Bailey pulled on her rock, her fingers burning and raw. “It’s weird how cool it is in here when it’s so hot out there.”

“Yeah, I’m afraid we’ll freeze if we don’t get out before dark.”

“We’ll get out.” Bailey stood straight. “I have faith!”

Elizabeth laughed. “I’m glad. So do I.”

Bailey’s rock suddenly came free, and she landed on her backside. She laughed. “I’m glad you couldn’t see that, Beth.”

“See what?”

Bailey explained what had just happened.

“I missed it,” Elizabeth teased. “I could’ve used a good laugh, too!”

With each rock that was pulled out, a bit more light came in, but other rocks fell in, filling the hole they’d just made.

“We can’t seem to clear enough space to crawl out!” Bailey wailed.

“Just keep at it,” Elizabeth said. “We can’t give up!”

“Hello?”

“Anybody there?”

Bailey and Elizabeth stood stock still for a nanosecond. They leaped onto the rock wall.

“Help! We’re in here!” Elizabeth shouted. Bailey reached the wire flagpole first and wiggled it wildly. “Help! Help!”

“We hear you!” the rescuer said. “Hold tight. We’ll get you out of there.”

Elan yelled into the rocked entrance. “Bailey! Elizabeth! It’s Elan! You’re going to be okay.”

“Elan!” Tears sprung to Bailey’s eyes. “I’m so glad to hear your voice.”

“Are you hurt?” one of the men asked.

“No,” Elizabeth replied. “Just tired and scared.”

“Bailey? Is that you? It’s Mom!”

“It’s me,” Bailey answered, her voice shaking. “Don’t worry. We’re okay now that we know we’ll get out of here soon.”

The girls caught glimpses of hands until a circular hole at the top of the wall spanned about two feet wide.

“Do you think you can crawl out?” a rescuer yelled into the hole.

“Sure!” Bailey said. “We just have to climb the wall, and I’ve already been up it plenty of times today!”

She started climbing the wall once more, wincing at the pain from her sore toes and raw fingertips. Elizabeth crawled up behind her, and when Bailey got to the top, the rescuer pulled her out as Elizabeth pushed from behind. The warm sun never felt so good on Bailey’s face.

In minutes, both girls were out and hugging Bailey’s mom and the Tses.

“Oh Mom, I love you! I’ve never been so happy to see you in my whole life,” Bailey said, as she hugged her mother.

“That goes double for me!” Mrs. Chang hugged Bailey, then held her at arm’s length to look her over. “You weren’t hurt in the earthquake?”

“No, but that’s how we got trapped,” Bailey said. “The rocks fell and covered the entrance so we couldn’t get back out.”

“God was looking out for you, that’s for sure,” Halona said.

“We knew it all along,” Elizabeth said. “He was right there in that mine with us, wasn’t He, Bales?”

“Yep, and His Word kept coming to our minds,” Bailey added.

“That’s why it’s so important to hide God’s Word in your heart, like you’ve done,” Bailey’s mom told them. “Then it’s there to draw from when you need it.”

“It was pretty cool, the way that worked,” Beth admitted.

“Come on,” Halona said. “Let’s get these girls home. They’ve had quite a day.”

“That’s for sure.” Bailey turned to her rescuers. “Thank you for finding us and getting us out.” She hugged them with all her might.

The four o’clock sun blazed as they started walking toward the tourists’ parking lot, when Bailey remembered. “Halona!” she said. “I almost forgot. We have some good news for you!”

Halona swung around toward Bailey. “What good news?”

“Well,” Bailey said, “when I tried to fix the pot I broke, I found a secret hiding place inside.”

“What?” Halona unlocked the car doors and the group piled inside. “I can’t wait to hear
that
story on the way home!”

Once they were in the Suburban, Bailey continued. “I picked up the piece with my favorite part of the painting on it, the sunset.” Excitement fizzed in Bailey like carbonation in a soda. “I was going to glue it to another piece, but I noticed that the side where it had broken looked weird.”

“How was it weird?” Halona asked.

“It was hollow!” Bailey raised her eyebrows. “It had a hidden wall inside the outer one, making a pocket-like compartment just behind the sunset.” Bailey buckled her seat belt, and they were off.

“Was something in it?” Bailey’s mom asked.

Bailey nodded. “Yes, but I’m not going to tell you what until we get back to the shop.”

Halona looked at Bailey in the rearview mirror. “Well, aren’t you the mysterious one?”

“I don’t mean to be mysterious,” Bailey said. “I just think it will be neater to show it to you instead of just tell you about it. Don’t you think so, Beth?”

“Definitely,” Elizabeth said. “Believe me, this is worth waiting fifteen minutes to find out.”

Soon, the Suburban pulled up in front of Earth Works, and they all climbed out. Halona unlocked the store and stepped inside, where Bailey saw her wince at the sight of the earthquake damage. Her hands flew to her mouth, tears pooling in her dark eyes. The smell of pottery dust hung in the air.

“I’ll never be able to afford to replace all this merchandise,” she whispered.

“What about your insurance?” Mrs. Chang asked. “Will it cover it?”

“It may cover some of it, but probably not everything.” Halona slumped onto a stool behind the counter. “I don’t know if we can recover financially from this. We may have to shut down the store.”

“Wait.” Bailey strode to the studio with Elizabeth close behind and rummaged through the pieces of broken pottery in front of the open cabinet that had held the family heirloom. As she brushed shards aside, she spotted the one with the sunset painted on it and picked it up. Like jigsaw puzzle pieces from different puzzles all mixed together, the ancient pot was beyond repair.

“Where’s the deed?” Bailey asked.

“In my bag,” Elizabeth replied. “Remember? We put it in there so no one would find it and so it wouldn’t get crumpled.” Elizabeth retrieved her bag and pulled out the deed.

She handed it to Bailey. “Let’s go present this to its rightful owner.”

The girls walked down the hall to the store, where everyone was busy picking up broken pottery pieces, baskets, jewelry, and blankets. Elan was putting his broom to good use.

“Seems like something’s missing.” Bailey looked around the store and spotted the incense holder. “That’s it!” She went over and lit a fresh stick of incense. “Now it smells like it should in here. It smells like Earth Works.”

“We found what we wanted to show you, Halona,” Elizabeth said.

All work stopped, and everyone gathered by the counter.

Bailey cleared her throat. “It is with great pleasure that I present to Halona Tse this deed to the Suquosa Turquoise Mine. It belonged to her ancestors and now belongs to her and her family.”

Halona’s mouth fell open. Her eyes went from Bailey to Elizabeth, then to Bailey’s mom and her own children. “The deed? Is this for real?”

“It’s real, all right,” Bailey said. “It’s what we found inside your pot.” Bailey showed her the broken piece of pottery and the pocket where the deed was found.

Aiyana tugged on her mother’s hand. “Mama! It’s just like what your mother told you, remember? ‘Behind the sunset our treasure awaits!’ “

“So that’s what it meant,” Halona said, still stunned. “And my grandma always said the pot held the key to riches. They knew. They knew! But the specifics of it didn’t get passed to the next generation.” Halona hugged Bailey and Elizabeth. “You girls have solved an age-old mystery.”

Her finger traced the fancy old-fashioned writing that spelled the word “Deed” at the top.

“Now we just have to find out if the mine still exists, and if so, where.” Halona’s eyes clouded with doubt. “It will be a huge undertaking.”

“It sure was.” Bailey grinned, her eyes crinkling.

“Was?” Elan asked. “What’s that mean?”

“It was a huge undertaking,” Elizabeth said. “But it’s already done.”

Confusion danced across Halona’s face. “I don’t understand.”

“That’s what we were doing on our hike.” Bailey laughed. “We were looking for your mine when the earthquake hit and we were trapped inside.”

“But at least we found it!” Elizabeth said.

“How can you be sure it’s the right mine, the Suquosa?” Halona asked. “There are many old mines in that area.”

“We’re sure.” Bailey’s voice brimmed with confidence. “For starters, we found an old map on the Internet that showed its location, so we printed it out and took it along.”

“And it led us to the right spot!” Elizabeth said. “But a huge rock pile covered the entrance.”

“So we decided to move all those rocks and try to get inside.” Bailey saw her mother’s frown. “We know mines are no place to play around, but we weren’t going to walk back into it or anything. We just wanted to see if it really was behind those rocks.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Our hands got scraped up, so we were glad when we uncovered the mine’s entrance. We opened it up enough to stand in it.”

“And when we did,” Bailey put in, “we saw an old wooden sign sticking out from behind some rocks. We moved them, too, so we could read the sign.”

“What’d it say?” Aiyana asked.

“It said ‘Suquosa Mine’.” Bailey folded her arms across her chest and raised her chin proudly.

“It is too much to take in,” Halona said. “All of this is so unbelievable.”