Chapter 5

"Vincent, have you seen Catherine today?" asked Father when Vincent entered the study to return some books.

"Not since lunch," he answered. "She seemed kind of distracted at the time. She ate and left without speaking to anyone."

"Is something wrong?"

Vincent stood for a moment with his eyes closed. "I don’t feel anything beyond a vague unease; a little restlessness."

"Can you tell where she is?" asked Father.

"Not exactly, but she isn’t that far and she is still Below. She is actually below this level. Why, do you need her for something?"

"No, but like you I noticed that she’s been kind of quiet lately, and was a little concerned, that’s all. I hope she knows that if something is bothering her she can always talk to me, or to Mary. I imagine even you?"

"I would welcome a conversation with her, but I think the root of her problem might lie in our relationship. We’ve been more friendly lately, but it is still a little strained. It feels so strange to have her so close all the time, to see her every day, even work with her, but not spend time alone with her, or hold her or even touch her."

"Well, if you see her, please ask her to stop in to see me. Maybe I can get her to talk to me," said Father.

"Perhaps I will seek her out and see if I can get her to talk to me," suggested Vincent. "I will see you later, Father," he said as he headed out the door.

Using the Bond, he quickly tracked Catherine to the Whispering Gallery. As he entered from one side she saw her sitting in the middle of the bridge with her feet dangling over the edge. She had her arms around one of the uprights that held the rope handrail, and she was leaning against it with her eyes closed.

He paused just inside the entrance to the chamber, and was surprised with Catherine spoke.

"Hello, Vincent."

"How did you know it was me?" he asked.

"I heard you; I know your step. The acoustics are really quite amazing here." She hadn’t moved from her position leaning against the pole, but she opened her eyes and tipped her head back to look over at him.

"May I join you?" he asked.

"Sure," she picked up her shoes that were sitting beside her and moved them over to the other side then she patted the boards next to her. "I was listening to some music, but it seems to have flown, now all I can hear are faint traffic sounds."

Vincent sat beside her. He leaned his back against one of the other uprights, hanging his right leg off the bridge and drawing the other up to prop his arms on. "The wind has to be just right. If it is still Above, the sounds are much clearer, but if there is a breeze there are more and they shift constantly. I have been here when there was nothing, no sounds, and even a sound on the other side of the chamber is muffled."

"There are so many wonders here Below," she observed. "It would take a lifetime to find and see them all."

"That is what I’ve been doing since I was sixteen. After I recovered from the illness I had then, I seemed to be infected with an acute case of wanderlust."

"Do you ever take anyone with you?" she asked.

"Mouse or one of the older boys, occasionally. Although Mouse does a lot of exploring on his own. He often comes to me with discoveries that he wants me to see. Last week he gave me a map he drew. He says he found a chamber that has a large, but shallow warm water pool, not hot like some of those here Below, but just a little warmer than body temperature and it is fed by small water fall that is only eight or ten feet high and the water of the waterfall is warm. There is a sandy beach and he thinks it would be the perfect place to give the children swimming lessons; and he swears that it is less than a thirty minute walk from the main chambers. If it is, I don’t know how we could have missed it; that area has been thoroughly explored in the last forty years."

"Are you planning to follow up on Mouse’s discovery?" she asked with some interest.

"I thought I might on Sunday. Would you care to go? I sense some restlessness in you, you’ve been cooped up too long. Father says that you haven’t been Above since you arrived in September."

"I’ve been up to Lin’s grandfather’s shop several times," she pointed out.

"But Lin says that you haven’t left the shop, and then you’ve only stayed long enough to get what you need. You won’t even stay and have a cup of tea."

Catherine shrugged, "I don’t know, there just doesn’t seem to be anything of interest for me up there. I’ve promised Jenny and Joe that I will visit them sometime in the spring, but I’m not even looking forward to it. Strange, isn’t it? But, in answer to your question, yes, I would love to go. It will be a good chance to stretch my legs. Maybe we can even go for a swim and test the pool."

"I will look forward to it," he said.

They both sat in quiet contemplation for a time before Catherine spoke again. "Father said that he feared that you had chosen to step off the bridge into the Abyss right after you disappeared."

He was so quiet that she thought that he might not comment; she was a bit surprised when he did. "He doesn’t know how close he is to being correct. I thought about it. I was having a very hard time seeing beyond my own pain. I’m not sure what stopped me."

"Whatever it was, I’m glad it did," she said, quietly.

He looked over at her and smiled, "And so am I."

He rose and offered her his hand to help her rise. "I was wondering why you had your shoes off," he said as he watched her slip them back on.

"Just one of my little paranoid quirks," she laughed as they left the chamber. "I used to sit on the dock up at the lake when I was little, and I was always losing my shoes in the water. I fell in one time trying to retrieve one, so my mother made me take swimming lessons and wear shoes with ties or buckles after that. I didn’t wear shoes that tied today, so I was afraid that they would fall off if I swung my legs over the Abyss."

* * * * * * * * * *

Sunday arrived and Vincent met Catherine in the dining chamber for breakfast.

"I’ve asked William to pack us a snack, just in case Mouse’s thirty minute walk turns into something longer," he said as he sat next to Catherine.

"You said you have a map. Does it look like it’s further away?" she asked.

"No, but he has placed this chamber in an area that has been fairly well explored early on. I've been through that area many times, and I don’t remember ever seeing a chamber like what he describes, so we shall see. It will be a nice walk, anyway."

As they left the chamber Vincent stopped in the kitchen to collect the pack containing their snack. He nodded at the pack that Catherine was carrying.

"What do you have?" he asked.

"Bathing suit and towels, just in case we decide to try the pool," she answered with a smile. "I’ve been looking forward to this all week."

Catherine noticed that Vincent wasn’t wearing his cloak; she hadn’t seen him wearing it very much lately.

"I haven’t seen you in your cloak lately; aren’t you a little chilly?"

"I don’t really need it down here. Mary made the first one for me when I started going Above to walk in the park when I was seventeen, it was more for camouflage than for warmth. I wear several layers and don’t need the extra warmth of the cloak. I would take it if I was going to be gone several days. It doubles very nicely as a ground sheet under a sleeping bag."

"Or as added warmth on a chilly balcony," she added with a reminiscent smile.

"You sold your apartment?" he asked as they walked along.

"Yes, not long after my father died. He had a rental property, a small house on Long Island, and I moved into it."

They didn’t talk much until they got to the dead end tunnel marked on Mouse’s map.

Catherine stood in the middle of the area and played her flashlight over the walls as she slowly turned in a circle.

"I don’t see anything," she said in a puzzled tone.

"Point your light up there," said Vincent, pointing about seven feet off the ground on one of the walls, "I can smell water and I think I can hear it."

She shined the beam of the flashlight to where he was pointing and they could see a darker spot that looked like a roughly round hole about three feet in diameter.

"If I give you a boost up, do you think you could stand on my hands and take a look?" asked Vincent.

"Sure," she moved toward the wall. He stood under the hole with his back to the wall; he leaned over and linked his fingers together. She dropped her pack and put the flashlight in one of her pockets, then she put her foot in his hands and her hands on his shoulders. He lifted her smoothly up and she braced one hand on the lip of the opening and used the other to grab the flashlight and shine it into the hole. Sure enough, there was another chamber there; she saw the light glint off water and could here a faint sound of water falling on rocks.

"It’s here," she said.

Vincent’s reply was delayed and a little strained, she hadn’t realized that he was trying to keep his face off her bare midriff. The hem of both her sweater and jacket had pulled up when she’d raised her arms. She felt his cheek against her stomach just before he spoke.

"Is there much of a drop on the other side of the hole?" he asked.

She was the one who was distracted now, and when she leaned farther forward to shine the light on the floor under the hole on the other side his cheek pressed harder against her bare skin, creating a tingle that went through her whole body. "Um…no. The floor in there is higher than the one on this side."

"I’m going to raise you a little higher, pull yourself up and through, then I’ll toss you the packs. Take the rope out of mine and toss the end through so I can send the lantern up to you. Then I’ll pull myself through."

As he lifted her higher his cheek dragged down the front of her jeans and she could have sworn she heard him groan. She dropped her light through the hole then pulled herself through. The floor on the other side was only about three feet below the hole and it was an easy drop. She leaned through the hole.

"I think you can just hand me the packs and the lantern" she said. "The floor is a good four feet higher in here."

Vincent passed everything up to her then she stepped back to watch him lift himself through the hole.

"That is going to require some creative problem solving if you are going to bring the children here for swimming lessons," observed Catherine.

Vincent held up the lantern to look at the wall with the hole in it. "The ceiling is at least twenty feet in here, we can enlarge the hole; take it from the floor in here up about six or seven feet and then build a ramp of some kind on the other side."

Catherine was shining her flashlight around the large chamber they were in. The floor of the whole chamber was fine sand, more like beach sand than the sand that was in the rest of the tunnels, and the chamber itself was comfortably warm. She took off her denim jacket and dropped it on top of the packs on the floor then walked over to the water and stuck her hand in.

"It is warm, just a bit warmer than body temperature."

They both explored different sides of the cave and met toward the back on either side of the small waterfall.

Catherine reached up and tested the temperature of that water. "Oh, this is much warmer here. More like the temperature of the springs in the bathing chambers. I wonder where it comes from."

"Probably run off from a hot spring somewhere," said Vincent. "Would you like eat first or swim?"

"It didn’t take that long to get here, I’m not hungry yet. I think I would like to swim." She looked around the chamber and there was no place she could change into her bathing suit in privacy.

"I’ll put out the light and we can change in the dark. I’ll light the lantern again when you say it’s all right"

She smiled and nodded, "Just let me get my suit out." She picked up her pack and pulled out her suit and a couple of towels. She dropped the towels close to the edge of the pool then moved a couple feet away. "OK, I’m ready."

The light went out and suddenly darker than anything she’d ever seen before. Vincent could feel a faint thread of fear as it ran though her.

"Are you all right, Catherine?" he asked.

"I’d forgotten how dark it was underground when the lights go out, that’s all."

She has just pulled the straps of her tank suit over her shoulders when she heard a faint splash of water.

"I sure hope that was you, Vincent, because I would hate to think that there is something else in that pool."

She heard Vincent chuckle, "It’s me, Catherine. Are you ready for the light yet?"

"Yes, I am."

He must have been standing there with the match ready to strike because no sooner were the words out of her mouth when she saw the match flair and the lantern was lit again. Vincent adjusted the flame and set the lantern on the edge of the pool so the light would illuminate most of it.

Catherine did her best not to stare, but she couldn’t help but see Vincent’s bare chest. He was standing in water that came to just above his waist. She’d seen his bare forearms before, and from the hair on them she’d expected him to have more hair on the rest of his body, but she was surprised to see that he didn’t have that much more than an ordinary man. It looked like it might be a different texture, softer, but the growth pattern seemed to be about the same and there wasn’t that much more of it. And he was leaner than she had expected. The muscles were more like those of a runner, but with the definition of a weight lifter. She directed her eyes down and stepped into the water. She approved.

Vincent was equally distracted by the vision before him. Her bathing suit was a simple tank in a dark green, but it outlined every curve perfectly. And from his viewpoint, looking slightly up at her she looked perfect.

"There must be a high mineral content," she said as she stepped into the pool. "I feel as buoyant as I do in the ocean." She relaxed back into the water and floated while Vincent walked over the whole pool bottom making sure there were no holes or hazards.

"The area where you came in slopes gradually, the rest of it goes straight from the edge to about three feet of water. The whole bottom is fine sand and there isn’t a spot where it is over about six feet. It would be an ideal place for swimming lessons. Plenty of room for several children to paddle around at the same time; they will love it."

"And no one will be sitting on the edge of the pool with blue lips, shivering," commented Catherine as she pushed her feet back down toward the bottom.

"Is that what you did when you took swimming lessons?" He asked.

"Yes, I hated it! We lived in the city so Mom took me to the Y for lessons. After the first lesson, I came out of there swearing that the teacher was trying to drown me! There were six of us in the class and she was trying to get us used to the water. She started out by having us put our faces in the water and she told us to blow bubbles. Then she wanted us to put our whole heads under water. I didn’t like that, because I didn’t like getting water in my ears. I’d had a lot of earaches when I was little and just that little bit of added pressure was uncomfortable. The next step was for us to put our heads under the water, grab our ankles, roll into a ball, then turn a somersault under water. I tried, but couldn’t quite get the somersault thing, so she helped me and rolled me over. That was why I swore she was trying to drown me, she was trying to help me finish my somersault, but it felt to me like she was just holding me under the water. Every time she touched me I would panic and start fighting her. After only three lessons we had to give up on the idea of formal swimming lessons."

"You never learned to swim?" he asked.

"Yes, I learned, in college. Everyone was required to take a physical education class, I took the one where we met 3 times a week, and when the weather was nice we would jog around the campus, but if it was bad weather we would go to the pool and swim laps. I took it starting in January, so we had most of our classes in the pool. We swam laps, played games. It was really fun and a great way to let off steam. I even learned to swim under water with my eyes open."

With that she ducked under and shot across the pool toward Vincent like a torpedo. She couldn’t see much under the water, since there was only the lantern light, but she saw enough to know that Vincent hadn’t brought a bathing suit with him. She surfaced, spitting and sputtering; wiping water out of her eyes.

"Are you all right, Catherine?" he asked with concern.

"Yes," she said after a coughing spell. "I’m out of practice. I forgot that you are supposed to take the deep breath before you duck under the water."

Later they used the same routine to get back into dry clothes that they had used to get out of their clothes. Then they sat on the edge of the pool and ate their snacks, William had packed them enough to eat two or three meals off.

"Other than enlarging the entrance, the only other thing I can see that this place needs is better lighting," Catherine said as they were gathering up their things and preparing to leave.

"We can install hooks every few feet and hang lanterns. I think that would give us more light than candles and be safer than torches. I’ll bring Kanin and some others sometime next week and we will come up with a plan."

Catherine was thoughtful for a moment. "Can I make a suggestion?" she asked.

"Anytime, Catherine."

"Once you have the hole cut and the ramp built, this place will be lot easier to get into, and it is only a short distance from the main living quarters. Get Cullen to install a door, with a lock. This place will draw the children like honey draws flies. It might be a good idea to make sure they can’t get in unless there is an adult or one of the older children with them to supervise."

"That is an excellent idea, Catherine! You are right, if the current group of children are anything like Devin, Pascal, Winslow, Mitch, Rebecca, Olivia and I were, it won’t take them long to get just that idea."

Catherine put her jacket back on then picked up her pack and flashlight. "So, who goes out first, you or me?"

"I’ll go first, you can hand me everything then you come out. If you can come out feet first I’ll catch you and lower you to the ground."

"Sounds like a plan."

Vincent lowered himself to the tunnel floor on the other side and Catherine handed their packs, the lantern, and her flashlight through to him. The hole was just big enough where she could sit on the edge and swing her feet around and slide out feet first. Vincent caught her hips and lowered her to the floor on the other side. His hands lingered a moment before he moved away to pick up her pack and hand it to her.

The short walk back to the main hub didn’t take long and while they walked Vincent speculated on how long it would take to get the work done, and whether or not it could be done before Winterfest or if they should just wait until after.

"Kanin should be able to give you an idea of how long it should take to do the work," suggested Catherine. "There is a lot going on between now and Christmas, not everyone will be as busy as you will be, but it might be wishful thinking to try to get it done that quickly."

"That’s true. I’ve already been down to the Great Hall with Cullen, and there are no repairs to be made on anything this year, so he won’t be in great demand, and Kanin is free too, it would be nice to have it done in time to relieve those midwinter doldrums."

"That would be a lovely surprise for all of them, but don't push too hard. It is always nice to have something to look forward to during that long dull stretch of time between New Year's and Easter." She smiled up at him.

"I thought that was what Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day were for. Let’s go tell Father what we found."