Again!

So there I was, crouched in the dark, blinking at the unfamiliar sounds all around. There was the gggrssss gggrssss off to the left that gave me the creeps, the steady drip somewhere overhead and the annoying thump thump of my heart creating a rather unpleasant symphony of utter eeriness.
That should teach me, seriously. Treasure hunt. How stupid was that. Just because I found a map somewhere that had looked legit and I recognized several landmarks, didn’t mean that this was a sure thing.
I sighed for the umpteenth time, tightened my arms around my knees in the cramped space that didn’t allow for much movement at all. I should have turned back when the big log had come sailing down from some hidden niche and missed me by a mere inch. Could still have turned back when those friggin’ spiders had come crawling from the de dark corners, meaning that I had to do some fancy dancing to squash each and every one of them. Then there had been the dangly bridge thing that had basically disintegrated behind me. That’s when it should have started to dawn on me that getting back out was going to be a problem. The thought hadn’t occurred, of course, since the first thing I did the moment I passed the latest obstacle, was check my map, and trying to figure out the next hurdle.
Troublesome, I tell you, greed. I pondered that very vice while I sat there. I had a scrape the size of Arkansas on my thigh, several rips in my shirt, and my hair…well, I didn’t even want to think about what was in there, since this latest debacle. I’d been about to cross a rather harmless looking corridor when a strange grating sound had made me freeze in the spot. In hindsight that was the worst I could have possibly done, but there you have it…or in this case, me, at the bottom of a of this roughly hewn tube that had gone almost vertically down, and had me land flat on my bum with a rather inelegant oomph.
Yikes, that landing had hurt…and added to that, the bag with my supplies had been lost somewhere along the “ride” down to this three by three prison.
“Drat!” My voice echoed through the tiny space like some sort of megaphone was aiding it. I winced at the sound of it, and then winced because the wince hurt too. *snort*
How the hell was I going to get out of here, preferably before I end up like the skeleton I had landed on top of.
I shivered at the memory. Remembering clearly she girlish squeak upon gazing into the black eye-sockets of the skull, I deliberately kept my eyes aimed at the small dot of gray from high above that had the sole source of light…right before the day had turned into night.
I’d been here for a while now. At least two hours, I guestimated, which meant that it had to be around ten in the evening.
Something wriggled between the toes of my one bare foot. I had the fall to thank for that too. The stupid sneaker had come undone somewhere midway, right in that spot where a sharp rock or tree root had ripped though my jeans and a large part of my upper skin. I pulled a face, and yanked my foot back, trying desperately not to imagine what had caused the sensation.
My phone was lost with the bag, of course, but somehow I doubted I’d have reception down here anyway.
The family wouldn’t come looking for me until much later, since I warned them I might be late, so I was pretty much screwed for the moment. Less numb from the fall now, though, my brain was slowly starting to function again. Using the wall as support, I slowly pushed myself up to an upright position. Should have tried it earlier, but somehow doubted I would have been able to. Even now I was more than a little dizzy from that effort. By the time I was fully up, and semi straight, I was breathing heavy, a sound that only added to the creepiness of my surroundings.
There was this almost uncontrollably urge to scream for help, but I knew that wouldn’t help and convinced myself somehow to save my strength.
Gawd. How could I have been so friggin’ stupid?
My palms felt slightly moist and at first I thought it was because they were sweaty. They weren’t instead it was the wall that was moist…better yet, here I found the source of that annoying drip. There, about the height of my shoulders was a small hole through which water steadily oozed.
I bit my lip, wondering whether the water was drinkable and gently probed the outline of the hole so I could bring moist fingers to my nose and sniff. Nothing detectable, except for the same musty scent that hung all around.
No. I wasn’t thirsty enough yet to attempt it, and when I put my fingers to the wall once more I noticed something odd. The section where the liquid dripped was soft, almost like a malleable clay and gave, ever so slightly, to me applying pressure.
Frowning, frustrated with the lack of light, I scraped the tips of my fingers over the clay, finding them coated in the substance, albeit only a little. I needed something stronger, something hard to do this with, but what.
Frantically, almost dizzy with excitement, I looked around my “prison” to find only a handful of tools that might do the trick. My fellow companion. The bones.
Oh yuck. The idea of handling them was repulsive, but I really didn’t see another option and reached for the biggest bone on the heap, hoping that it would serve well as a hammer of sort. Tentatively at first, I wrapped my fingers around the thinnest part of the thing, but then, discovering that it was dry and smooth, with more strength. For a moment I tried finding a proper position that would allow for the best swing, but then discovering that there was just no way for that to work, I just slammed the thigh-bone, hard as I could, against the softer surface in the wall. There, right where the joint had struck, sending a painful jar up my arm and shoulder, a slight indentation was noticeable under the gentle probe of my fingers.
Exulted I stepped back and tried again. And again. And again, until a foot by foot impression was awarded to me for my efforts.
Yes! I thought, somewhat madly, my hands, once more slippery, but this time from exertion. Again, over and over I hammered away until at last something cold and wet hit me right in the face. Water, the strength of it making me stumble backward, sputtering all the while, before I had the quick of mind to duck down and sideways out of the hard spray.
Well, that water better be drinkable, otherwise I was pretty much screwed right then and there. I wiped at my eyes and face, turning my head away from the point of impact and peering instead at where the water was coming in.
Already the icy liquid was gathering around my feet, and the smallish hole I had created, was rapidly growing from the pressure of the streaming water. Looked like a friggin’ fire hose at full blast, for crying out loud, and I shuffled passed the side wall as far away from the water as possible. I just might have chewed off more than I could handle, and I dropped the bone with a squeal when more of the wall broke free, bringing the ever-rising water level up to my hips. This was so stupid, I thought, looking around frantically as the water churned and rose at an alarming rate. I was so screwed, wondering how long I’d be able to stay afloat (I’m a good floater) in this cold water. I doubted I could hold out long enough all the way up to where I’d fallen.
Already my teeth were starting to chatter, and the water came up to my chin. So screwed.
More water burst through, the whole, taking more mud with it, almost bursting over my head, if I hadn’t set off with both feet and bobbed above the surface.
I sure was going to find out whether I’d make it, paddling like mad in an attempt to stay afloat in the center of the rapidly filling tube. I was going faster and faster, fear and relief battling for supremacy as I rose a yard, two, and so on and on. I bumped my shoulder, went under for a second or two, but managed to paddle back up. A slight bend in the tube, but going too fast now to do much maneuvering. It was all I could do to keep my head above water. Up there, the vague grayness approached, seemingly slower than I was going, but it was getting closer. My legs were burning, arm and shoulder aching, and leg throbbing like mad. Just a little longer. I choked on a mouthful of water, struggled against the panic of drowning and kicked harder. Come on! A little more. Come on…

Which was just about when my alarm went off this morning. Don’t you just hate it when a vivid dream gets broken off just before the climax? I tried to go back to sleep for another ten minutes to see if I could finish it, but alas it was not meant to be. The dream was gone, and I didn’t get to know if I got out of there, or if I found the treasure. Funnily I don’t even remember what the supposed treasure was. Hah.

So, Song of the day: “If you’re going through hell” by Rodney Atkins. Dontcha just love country music? I sure do.

It’s been a crazy couple of days. First off yesterday started early when grandpa phoned me out of bed to get me an big brother to come up to help Sally who had fallen in the bathroom, and whom he and caregiver couldn’t get up any more. We couldn’t do much either, seeing as the moment we tried to get her to her feet she started screaming as if the end of the world was nigh and we were torturing her to death, even after we both let go she continued to swear and cry. *sigh* Ended up calling the ambulance people to come and help out, because there was no way to convince her that they were going to do the same when they arrived.

And they did. They each went to one side of her, tried to lift her, at which point she started screaming again. At that point caregiver warned her that if she didn’t let them help her up now, they were going to leave again, which she apparently believed, because the next thing you know they grabbed her by the armpits and set her right on her feet. Of course in her memory there were five strong guys who came to her aid, while in truth they were two medium sized middle-aged men. *double sigh* The old noggin’ just ain’t working all that well. Same goes for her lying down. The doc told her that when she sits she has to put her legs up on a chair, but when she sits, she doesn’t. No, instead she puts them on the chair when she lies down on the bed, which is, in turn wrecking her back, a new problem. The ambulance folk suspected a mild hernia. *triple sigh*
Added to that fun, today she had her appointment at the Málaga hospital for a full body scan to check if perhaps her cancer has spread to the bones, because she complains about a lot of discomforts.

That was part of today’s fun filled activities, by the way. First Sally had to go to the village health center for her legs…they’re still not healing well, and she has to start taking antibiotics again…after which we had to go to the consulate for Cousin Ed’s passport, then on to the Málaga university hospital, where we dropped caregiver and Sally off, while big brother and I rushed back to the MOT appointment for the Opel.

Went through the registration bit without a hitch, then had to wait for half an hour for our turn, at which point we had to let the car jump through all the proverbial hoops. We passed just barely, because the errors with the car weren’t deadly…or at least, that’s what our mechanic said when I went by to have him look at the results of the test. He told me not to worry about it now. None of them were something that was mandatory to fix, and we could do that whenever we have enough fund. *phew* A relief that.

Once the MOT was done, we headed for a supermarket for some cheap ice cream because it was hot and we didn’t have cold water with us…which reminds me of yesterday…I’ll get to that afterward then.
With ice cream to battle the heat, we received a call from caregiver that Sally would be another two hours, so that meant we better find a cool spot where we could take out our computers (we were smart enough to take those along) and get some work done. Did part of this blog, with the aborted dream in it, and before you know it it was time to go pick ‘m back up.

Once at home I took a quick dip in the pool, made supper of sandwiches grilled in garlic/herbal butter and loads of fresh veggies, which I just finished eating. Hah.

So, yesterday. After the ambulance was gone, we basically started planning. The small shower cell tenant and Sally have been sharing with grandpa just won’t do anymore, so we’re going to have to put together a new cell that is accessible for someone with a walker and a wheelchair. It is going to have to be behind Sally’s place, so we had to skip the morning editing session (drat) and get to work.

Because the big fridge was standing there where the bathroom is going to be I quickly had to tile that part of the kitchen floor so we’d be able to put the machine there later in the day. Got that done while big brother went to the yard to quickly water the veggies.

Then the planning bit started. We talked materials, budget, and sorted through storage until we had something to work with. It’s not going to be gorgeous, but it will be serviceable. We’ve got the tiles, the plastic partitions for the walls, and the space, so…
Most of the plumbing got set up during the course of the day, with me playing gopher most of the time.

Good bit of news is that tenant came home at last yesterday. She was in good spirits despite the fact that she is once again carrying a urine bag...at least until the latest kidney stone has passed through.

Had to leave early to boot, because Knight II had a vet appointment. His ear was a problem again, several inches of swollen tissue once more, and added to that, he wrecked his paw, again, too. Gawd! That dog will give me ulcers, I tell ya. Had to leave him there, again.

Regretfully we couldn’t do much on the bathroom afterward because big brother and I had to go to town to get a donation for the dogs. A big load of canned goods again (remember that friend with a store?) a good variety of them to boot, giving us something to fall back on if we can’t get fresh veggies some day. Loading took forever, so I had to phone Cousin Ed to ask her if she would please go to the vet hospital with the moped, before closing time and pick up Knight so she could wait outside with him until I arrived.

Luckily we came only fifteen minutes later at which time Knight was in a near panic and basically jumped into my lap the moment I opened the door…while we hardly had space for him yet. *sigh* Poor guy. He was not a happy puppy.

Was too friggin’ tired yesterday, meaning I could hardly get any work on the edit done at all. In the end we decided to go to bed early and see if we could catch an extra hour, or something.

Which I’m going to call the end of today’s blog. Gotta go.