Chapter Fourteen
Oliver
It would be just my luck that after Sadie finally agrees to give something with me a shot while we’re off Camp Brower property, she takes Tyler’s place on the out-of-camp excursions. Yes, we’re out of camp, but the Purple Rule is still in effect due to the proximity of the campers. While I want to have some moments with Sadie, I also don’t want to be ratted out to my parents by a twelve-year-old with braces.
So I tuck every thought about pulling Sadie to me into the back of my mind and spur our group of participants and youth staff along the boardwalk to the cave entrance.
The area surrounding Minnetonka Cave is beautiful. Pines tower above us and a winding road cuts through the mountains. Unlike Camp Brower’s, the road is paved all the way to the parking lot, which is heaven on the suspension of the two large vans Sadie and I drive to transport the campers.
We gather near the cave entrance, and I stand at the back of the group, herding curious teenagers away from the drop off behind me and toward the cool air wafting out of the cave mouth.
The tour guide, a young college student named Naomi, gets the group’s attention, and we all squeeze forward in an effort to hear her better.
“I’m so excited you guys came out to Minnetonka Cave today! We’re going to see some really cool things inside, but first we have to go over an important housekeeping rule. Minnetonka is a live karst limestone cave, which means the formations you are going to see today are still growing. Due to this, we ask you to be respectful and to not touch any part of the cave walls or formations unless you are given explicit permission to do so. The oils on our hands can interfere with how the minerals in the dripping water interact with the formations, which can halt their growth.”
All of the teenagers in our group nod in understanding. We didn’t have any problems last week, but this is a new group of kids. They’ve been great at camp, but you can never be too careful where no touching rules apply.
Cough, cough.
“As a reminder, it does stay around 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the cave year-round, so if you have jackets, you might want to put them on now.” Naomi pauses, waiting for all of us to be ready before she proceeds.
Sadie follows the tour guide into the wide mouth of the cave, leading all of the participants while I take up the rear. The initial part of the cave tour, I remember from last week’s excursion, is a quick decline where the temperature drops quickly from warm summer day to cold clammy cave. I can hardly hear the guide from back here as she explains how the cave entrance was found, so I encourage the teenagers in front of me to get a little closer so they can hear.
I was as unimpressed as some of these teens last week. It’s a cave, what can be so cool about that, right?
I was wrong.
The group follows Naomi down into the first room, where she talks about the man who discovered the cave and the initial expansion and development of the cave. As we gather around, Sadie steps back to allow the younger campers the front row to the in-cave laser show as the guide points out certain formations in the rock around us.
That proceeds to give me a better view of Sadie, and suddenly I’m glad I listened so raptly during last week’s tour. She’s wearing her old CU hoodie again, and it makes me think of our sunrise hike last Sunday. The last time I touched her in more than a passing bump or foot tap underneath the lunch table. The way her eyes sparkle as she listens to the guide, even though I’m sure she’s heard this information so many times she could give the presentation herself, makes me wish I were on the other side of the room, close enough to brush arms with her, if that’s all we’re allowed to do in front of the participants.
Thwarted by the Purple Rule, even off Camp Brower property.
I shake myself out of my thoughts as the group begins to move again—up the stairs that will be the biggest part of the climb during this tour. We only walk about half a mile into the cave, but there are 444 steps—both up and down—during that trek. Overall, it’s not too strenuous of a walk, but I’m glad I only have to do it once a week instead of multiple times a day.
Every time we stop, Naomi tells us about the history of the cave and the myriad of formations that can be found here. The stalactites, stalagmites, and columns. The soda straws, cave popcorn, and cave bacon.
“This tour is making me hungry,” jokes one of the teenage boys in front of me when the guide stops and points out a piece of cave bacon that’s twenty feet long.
It’s an easy thing to marvel at this living, growing place. Before coming to Camp Brower, I had never experienced anything like this. Never even thought that something like this could exist outside of my middle school science book. And maybe—if I hadn’t said yes to my mom—maybe I would never have experienced it at all.
For forty-five minutes, we walk up and down, start and stop, while the group listens to the stories of the formations. And every time we stop, my eyes are pulled to Sadie, who looks like she’s enjoying this for her first time and not her hundredth.
As we funnel into the last room of the cave, Sadie hangs back to make sure that all the kids enter the room. She sidles up next to me as the tour guide starts talking about how the cave continues down a tiny crevice.
“This room is my favorite,” Sadie says quietly while we listen. Naomi explains the concept of complete darkness and how, this far into the cave, there is no natural light, so if she were to turn off the lights, you wouldn’t be able to see your hand, even if it were an inch in front of your face.
“Why?” I ask Sadie, maintaining a respectful gap between our arms, even though I want to press her into my side.
The tour guide asks if any of the participants have a phobia of the dark and if everyone is comfortable with turning off the lights. The teenagers pipe up at the chance to experience complete darkness, making me smile. I remember how disorienting it was last week—cool, but unnerving. But with Sadie here next to me, I don’t think it will be as bad.
“Okay, I’m going to turn off the light in three…two…”
Sadie looks up at me and beckons me closer, like she wants to whisper a secret to me. I oblige.
“One.”
The lights go out.
A few yelps sound from the group, from the kids who were skeptical that it would actually be that dark, but I’m not listening to any of them.
Because Sadie’s soft hand reaches up, grasping the back of my neck, and pulls me down to her. And in complete darkness, she kisses me.
And I kiss her back.
In the cooler temperature of the cave, Sadie’s lips are warm and soft. Her kiss is barely a touch until my hand finds her waist and I pull her closer to me.
Her hand on my neck slides higher. Her fingers tangle into the hair on the back of my head, sending a prickling wave over my scalp. I clamp down on the moan that almost makes it past my lips, not wanting to alert anyone to our violaceous activities.
My second hand finds her waist and slips up her back, anchoring her to me as our heads tilt, granting each other better access. I tentatively brush my tongue against her lips, which part for me at the same time her free hand fists the fabric of my shirt.
She is the fresh mountain breeze, the shush of quaking aspen leaves, the sparkling light across the lake. She is every good thing about camp and I am greedily hoarding my seconds with her before light and reality slips back in.
I know it’s a stolen moment. One that has a literal timer on it. But if this is the only chance I get to touch Sadie until I can find a way to get out of camp—out and away from the campers—I’ll take it.
“I’m going to turn the lights back on in just a few moments. So I want all of you to point which direction you think is north.” The voice of the guide breaks the magic of the moment, and Sadie slips out of my grasp.
I remember where I am and what I’m supposed to be doing, and I try to forget the way Sadie’s lips felt on mine, the way her fingers curled at the base of my skull, the way her hand desperately grasped the front of my t-shirt, like I’d disappear in the dark unless she had a good hold on me.
I straighten to my full height and point in a random direction as Naomi starts counting down to the light coming back on. I remember which way is north from the tour I took last week, but Sadie got me so turned around that there’s no chance I’d be able to point the correct direction, not after that disorienting kiss in the dark.
At the end of the countdown, Naomi flips the switch, bringing the lights back. Everyone squints and blinks, keeping their hands pointed “north” while trying to reorient themselves in the light. Everyone is pointing in different directions, some are laughing at their friends, sure that they’re right and their friend is not.
The guide smiles as she looks around and declares that that direction is north, to the excitement of some and disappointment of others. I ended up pointing east. But when I look down at Sadie, who is smiling softly, she”s pointing north.
“That”s why,” she says, looking up with a sly twist of her lips.
And it”s not until she”s back at the front of the group, following the tour guide out of the room, that I realize she was talking about her favorite room.