Chapter 43 #2
Auggie jerked the lever on the side of the silo down, released it, then ran for his entrance as the skylight overhead began to roll open all the way.
I waited until he was at the opening of his tunnel before ducking into mine.
The darkness swallowed me up and the music became muffled by the steel tube around me.
Thoughts of spiders and other creepy-crawlies didn’t enter my mind.
The duct work seemed just as clean as the first time I’d crawled inside to try the maze.
Unlike my first go at Auggie’s art installation, I didn’t wait for my eyes to adjust, nor did I hesitate to begin crawling through the duct work.
From experience I knew that my eyes would adjust fairly quickly and my shoulders and head could easily guide me while my eyes were catching up.
Nothing in the tunnels was hard enough to actually hurt myself on, and time was of the essence, so I crawled ahead at full steam, smiling, hoping that I would not just beat the maze once again, but also Auggie.
Though, I found myself hoping that Auggie would be a bit quicker than our previous go.
Through the walls of the duct work I could hear the radio playing and the sounds of Auggie banging around in the distance, desperately fighting his own creation.
Grinning, I took a turn when I hit a dead end, fairly certain that I remembered the path I’d taken through the maze before.
I couldn’t be absolutely sure, but listening to the way the sounds outside of the tunnel were muffled or louder clued me in on the right path.
If I saw too much light, I was circling around to the entrance once again, or I was close to the silo opening.
However, I knew that outside sound was muffled in the silo, but not near the entrance, so that helped me tell the two apart.
Even after two tries at the maze, I still wasn’t clear on what Auggie’s art installation was supposed to mean—what it was supposed to accomplish for him as an artist—but I knew it inspired me to try.
No matter how many times my shoulders bumped into corners or my head slammed into dead ends with a hollow metallic “thunk,” it made me want to crawl faster.
I’d seen the moon and stars before. Thousands of times. But I’d never seen them from inside a silo. And never with…a friend.
After what seemed like an eternity of crawling on my hands and knees through the metal tunnel, the sound of the radio seemed to be getting louder.
I stopped, wondering if I was winding back to the entrance or if I was near the silo exit.
Straining to hear the words of the radio, the words sounded muffled, and I smiled.
The silo.
Full steam ahead, I crawled along as the tunnel grew lighter.
When I turned a final corner, I could see the exit ahead of me—a ring of warm light that only Christmas lights could produce.
The Christmas lights that hung from the rafters and ceiling of the inside of the barn.
Moments later, I was scurrying out of my metal tube and onto the floor inside the silo.
I leapt to my feet and whipped around in an excited frenzy, looking for Auggie.
Once again, he was nowhere to be seen. When I stopped and listened, I could hear him banging around in his tunnel still.
It suddenly occurred to me that I should have brought my phone with me.
I could have set a timer so I would be able to tell how much time was left.
With nothing to go by—except the fact that it felt like I had been crawling around in the maze forever—I had no idea if Auggie still had a chance of making it to the silo in time.
Looking up through the skylight at the full moon staring down at me, I raced to the lever on the interior wall of the silo.
I wrapped my fingers around it tightly and positioned myself so I could watch the tunnel exit on Auggie’s side.
I had no intention of pulling the lever until he popped out, but I wanted to be ready in case it came down to the wire.
Seconds—maybe hours?—ticked by as I watched the dark hole that led into Auggie’s side of the maze.
No matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn’t tell if the sounds of Auggie crawling through the tunnel were getting closer or further away.
I had no idea if he was doing well in his quest to beat his maze, or if we were once again going to fail.
Sweat beaded on my forehead and between my shoulder blades, and I couldn’t think of a worse time for it to start trickling down my back to lower places.
This is not the time for Swamp Ass, I thought to myself.
It wasn’t even all that warm inside the silo, but my nerves were getting to me as I listened to Auggie’s struggle within the maze.
Once again, I was faced with making a decision.
Of course, Auggie and I hadn’t promised to wait for each other to pull the lever like we had the first time, but I felt that it was a rule that didn’t change with each try.
Even so, I wondered if I should pull the lever and hope Auggie wouldn’t get mad, but simply be happy that we could look at the moon and stars together, or if I should honor our promise.
As much as it pained me, I tightened my fingers on the lever…and decided to honor that promise.
If we missed the moon and stars, they’d be there the next night. And the next. And every other night. We’d just have to keep trying until we got it right.
I could live with that.
Auggie inspired me to keep trying.
When the banging in the tunnel grew louder and closer, I gasped with happiness, knowing we still had a chance. As Auggie’s head popped out of the tunnel, his eyes immediately found mine and he grinned so widely I thought the corners of his mouth would split.
“Hold on!” He scurried out of the tunnel and leapt to his feet.
Itching with expectation, my fingers turned white as they gripped the lever.
Auggie raced across the width of the silo and joined me at the lever.
Together, we looked up. The skylight was still wide open.
When I felt Auggie’s hand wrap around mine on the lever, I looked down at our fingers touching, then over at him. He gave me a cautious smile and a nod.
“Together?” he asked.
“Together.”
We both hooted and hollered in triumph, and then we jerked downwards on the lever. Darkness so thick it could practically be felt slithering along my skin enveloped us. A mechanical “CLANK!” sounded from somewhere outside the silo.
We had beaten the maze.
A gasp from Auggie’s direction startled me, but when his hand tightened over mine on the lever, I realized he was simply excited.
Looking up at the silo opening that looked out of the skylight, I could only stare in awe and wonder at first. With the lights off inside the barn and the lack of light pollution in Possibly, the sky was infinite.
We weren’t just looking at the swollen and heavy moon looming down upon us, but the universe laid out beyond a place only the greatest minds could measure.
Swirls of stars twisted through the sky, blankets of pinpoints of lights and clusters of fireflies shone in my eyes as I stared up in wonder.
The universe wasn’t some intangible, obscure place that only esoteric science and mathematics could give meaning.
It was right there.
If I reached up, I knew I could touch it.
I could scoop up a fistful of stars, slide them into my pocket, and keep them for myself for when the world felt dark.
I could grab the moon with both hands and have it lift me into the sky, weightless and carefree, unconcerned with the trivialities of life.
It wasn’t the universe out there and Auggie and me inside the silo.
We were with it and it was with us. We were all part of an ever-expanding, unimaginably beautiful, intricately intertwined organism that was alive from one end to the other.
We were the universe; the universe was us.
Auggie’s hand squeezed mine again and slowly slid away. I’d been focusing too much on the silvery blue orb in the sky and the fireflies that hung unmoving around it to notice, but my eyes had adjusted to the dark.
How long had we been staring up at the sky and holding the lever together?
The silo wasn’t a cylinder of darkness any longer.
The moon had filled it with a calm blue light, just bright enough that I could make out Auggie’s form as he walked to the center of the silo.
He was staring up at the sky, a beatific smile on his face.
My hand finally slid from the lever and I couldn’t help but smile as I watched Auggie admire the result of all of his hard work.
He was speechless. Even he hadn’t imagined how beautiful the universe would look from the center of his creation. There was something about his smile, the result of seeing his reaction to his work paying off that made my breath catch in my throat.
I didn’t know how to explain it—even to myself—but something deep inside of me, a question I never knew I’d asked of…whatever is out there that could reply…was answered. I felt complete.
I was no longer the desert tortoise staring up at the moon, asking it to be my friend. To give me someone to share myself with. Though, it had heard my request. It had simply taken liberties with the delivery.
So…the moon took away my status as a desert tortoise.
Maybe I’m…a Fennec fox?
“Auggie,” I felt myself breathe out.
He turned to me; his smile unfaltering.
“Yeah?” he asked.
“It’s beautiful.”
“You’re not even looking,” he chuckled.
“Yes. I am.”
Auggie gave me a curious grin and cocked his head to the side. After a few moments, his smile melted away and he averted his gaze.
“No,” he said, though his voice was shaky. “I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Not with you.”
“But why?”
“I can’t do that with someone who is embarrassed by me,” he said softly, his voice even shakier. “Or who doesn’t know what they want.”