You know those kinds of people who can’t help but go looking for trouble? Like, instead of being the person who reads the newspaper headline DANGER: CENTRAL VALLEY HEATWAVE, and thinking, damn, I should stay inside. They’re like, Nobody is going to be crowding up the lake today? Perfect.
Yeah, that’s my buddy Shamus. I love the guy, but he’s a grade-A idiot.
Today, Central Valley had reached 118 degrees, and the press recommended everybody to steer clear of outside activities. Most everyone had decided to lock up their houses and blast the AC. Not Shamus though. He had dragged me to Lake Lohman because he was convinced the fishing would be stellar without any loud boats roaring around the water.
“God damn it, Shamus, it feels like Lucifer himself has risen from the ground to make a second home out of Central. Can we please just go back to the house?” I could feel the sweat glistening off my forehead. My shoe caught on some rubble and sent me flying onto the pebbly beach. Each stone left a singe on my skin.
Shamus was gut-rolling, “Wow Urie, that’ll be a shoo-in with the ladies.”
“Shut it, Shamus.” He would have responded, but something took his focus away from me. He was staring ahead at the rock wall that separates Lake Lohman from Central Forest. I positioned myself where he was and noticed a landslide had eroded away the rocks in the back where the lake empties into a drainpipe. Next to the pipe, now stood an uncovered entrance to a mine.
I stood up and walked side-by-side with Shamus towards the entryway. A long time ago I had heard that Central used to be a hotspot for silver beds. Miners flocked here in the 60s to excavate the place, and nearly depleted the area of its resources until the city stepped in. Since then, most mining spots have been sealed away from the public to avoid any more issues. When we reached the entrance, we noticed a stone sign amongst the rubble.
It read: Big People Beware.
“Seems a bit ominous, don’t you think?” I asked my friend as he waddled his way into the mine. Shamus was overweight and carrying a supersized fishermen’s kit on his back. Anyone walking by would see a gangly teenager with red spots covering his body standing next to a tubby brown kid in a bucket hat, sweating up a storm. We’d probably get blamed for the destruction of a protected area and uncovering the mine.
“I think it means to be careful if you’re heavy-set like me. Come on, let’s go.”
I followed my friend into the mine and pulled out my cellphone to use as a flashlight. As soon as I turned it on, I heard the scurrying of feet running along the walls and saw flashes of figures running.
Little bridges lined the top of the room and deeper into the mine. The deeper into the mine we got, the cooler the air felt. As we continued walking, we began noticing little holes along the walls. I shined my light into the nearest one and nearly dropped my phone. Inside looked like a kitchen. There was a miniature stone table and tiny dirt cabinets. I pushed my finger into the room to open one of the cabinets and out tumbled crude devices that were smaller than the tip of my pinky. I saw a pebble bowl, a goat-head whisk, some twig-shaped spoons…everything you could need to fix a little meal.
“Don’t you know it’s rude to rummage through folks’ homes?” A pewter-voice chirped from behind us. Shamus dropped his gear to the ground and fled, leaving me behind.
“Looks like you need a new friend.” Another voice chimed in. Almost immediately, the bridges lit up with twinkling lights and revealed hundreds of little people standing on their railings, looking at me. I couldn’t speak.
“You think it’s stupid?” One of the little people squealed.
“No, I think it’s scared.” Another piped in. It leaped from their spot on the bridge to my nose. “Hello, big person. Why were you messing around in my kitchen? If you wanted some cookies, you could’ve just asked.”
“S…sorry…” I stammered. The little person crossed her arms and shook her head at me.
“Silly big people, always going around messing with things where they’re not needed. Are you back here looking for silver? Been out of that stuff for a while now. Silica uses it to make our twinklies work.”
“Your twinklies?” I asked. She sighed and pointed to the lights lining the bridges.
“Big people sure do have small brains. Do you even read?” the little lady giggled.
I nodded, “My name is Urie, and I read all the time.” She bopped my nose.
“Well then Urie, surely you read our sign. We don’t like big people coming here. They always want something from us. Stealing our silver or asking for favors, and we’ve had it. No more.” The little girl bounced off my nose and back onto the nearest bridge. She raised her arm and pointed towards the exit. “You may go now and take the fat one’s items with you.”
I didn’t argue. Picking up Shamus’s things, I ran out of the mine. My friend was long gone, and I was exhausted. I turned around to take one last look at the mine we had discovered, and to my dismay all I could see was the familiar rock wall staring back at me. The entrance was gone, as if it had never existed.
I made it back to my grandmother’s house and dragged my body into our kitchen to find some water. What I saw had my jaw open in shock. All over the floor I saw broken bowls, my grandmother’s whisk, and spilled silverware staring up at me. On our counter, I found a tiny pebble-plate filled with little cookies and a note.
Dear Urie,
Make the big people better.
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