The Hole In The Dam

Danny grew up at Misty Vale Apartments, just downstream from the old stone dam. The water from the dam crashed down in a white froth to fill a small pool at its base, which drained into the river. Towering stone ledges supported the dam, and the pond behind it.

The dam was built by hands long dead. But besides the dam itself, those hands had left something else behind, too. In the face of the dam was a small square hole, just big enough for a man to crawl into: or a boy.

"What's it for," Danny asked his neighbor Alex as they stood, arms folded, staring at the hole. Alex was one of the gang of kids, aged six to a dozen, who lived in Misty Vale. They roamed the neighborhood as a pack, on foot, on bikes, on skateboards, scooters, roller skates, whatever fell to hand.

"It's a tunnel, it goes all the way under the pond," Alex said knowingly. "Lisa says her big brother and his friends crawled all the way through with flashlights, and they saw drugs and a skeleton."

"No way, drugs?" Danny said in amazement. They had learned about drugs in school but they never seemed like something that could be found so close to home.

Danny leaned closer to look, his feet unsteady on the wet rock at the edge of the pool. It was as close as they could get to the hole without stepping into the water. He could see that the hole was built into the dam, apparently on purpose, and went back several feet. It was impossible to see how far due to the darkness.

"It would make a cool hideout," Danny said.

"Yeah," Alex said.

"Let's go get some flashlights and check it out," Danny said.

"Uh, I don't have a flashlight," Alex said. He was looking back toward the buildings, as if he could feel his mother's disapproval even on the far side of the road.

The boys soon became distracted by some other project, throwing stones, or building a new stick-bridge across the river, or rearranging the spokey-dokes on Alex's bicycle, and the hole in the dam was forgotten for a while.

But not forever. A few weeks later found Danny, Alex and Danny's little brother Josiah at the corner store, buying supplies for an expedition.

"Snickers bars have protein in them," Josiah said. He had been watching in alarm as Danny grabbed a bunch of Slim Jims and seemed to be ignoring the candy. "Half of it's my money, I get to choose some."

"Fine, here's a few Snickers," Danny grumbled. He also slipped a couple Baby Ruths into the stack; Josiah said they were a crummy ripoff of Snickers, but Danny preferred their chewier texture and oilier flavor.

The boys topped off their order with fountain sodas. Josiah got Sprite, Alex got Coke mixed with Root Beer, and Danny got a mixture from basically all the levers on the machine. He was working on a long-term project to find the ultimate fountain soda recipe, and so far his favorite involved Grape, Cream Soda and Mountain Dew in roughly equal portions.

The kids' preferred route to the corner store was this: cross the stick bridge from the Misty Vale parking lot to the public trail on the other side of the river. Walk a mile or two through the woods to where the trail crossed the river on a real footbridge, into the back side of the town park. Pass through the park, ignore the playground equipment (usually), go around the building where the restrooms and utility closet were, through the parking lot, and up the driveway out of the park.

This time they had had to forgo the woods route as the stick bridge had washed away again due to the spring snowmelt. They took the longer way around via the sidewalks, adding a full half mile each way.

Either way, once past the park entrance, they would pass Angela's house where she lived with her grandma, a couple more houses, and there was the little strip mall. Drugstore, beauty parlor, pizza joint, Cumby's, and a dingy little bar at the end. Sometimes when his friends weren't around Danny would keep on going, past the strip mall, and cross the street to the little library on the corner. But when friends were present it was always Cumby's.

Danny was pretty sure his mother didn't know about this place, and since she never asked what he did with his allowance, he never mentioned it, or in fact any of the places he and the kids went when they weren't at home.

On returning home with their backpack full of supplies, the boys agreed they needed a light source. Alex still held to his claim that he didn't have a flashlight. Danny said his mother had one but he didn't want to take it without asking and of course he didn't dare ask as that would raise questions. So they settled on torches.

Sticks were easy to find along the riverbank, and when Ronald heard what they were doing, he ran home and returned with a bag of scraps from his mother's sewing. She did alterations from home in her spare time. The boys rummaged through the cloth scraps at one of the picnic tables by the edge of the parking lot. A lot of the fabric was shiny, slippery stuff, but they finally found some that would stay tied to the sticks. Ronald ran the bag home and stuffed it back in the closet where he had gotten it.

Alex produced one of his mom's cigarette lighters and lit his torch. The frayed end of the cloth caught fire instantly, burned until it reached the knotted bundle of cloth on the stick, and just as instantly went out. Danny tried again with similar results.

"Hey, in the movies there's always something dripping from the torches," Josiah offered. The older boys slapped their foreheads, how could they have overlooked this. They proceeded to discuss which flammable liquid to use.

"Gasoline," offered Danny. But they had no way to get gasoline.

"Whiskey," Ronald suggested excitedly, and turned as if to go fetch some, but Alex stopped him.

"Pee."

"Wait, what?"

"Pee doesn't burn," Josiah said with a serious expression.

"Of course it does. My mother is always complaining about it. Here, I'll do it." And he grabbed the sooty cold torch and hurried off to the bushes.

As the other kids listened to the pittering sound of Alex making a torch in the bushes, Johnny rolled up on his ten-speed. "What you guys doing," he asked.

Johnny was older, in high school, but he sometimes hung around with the other kids at Misty Vale when he wasn't playing basketball at the park or working at his after-school job. He was one of few kids on the property who lived with both his parents.

"Alex is peeing on a torch," Ronald explained. "So it will burn."

Johnny stood straddling his bike for a moment pondering what Ronald had just said. He looked at Ronald, then over to the bushes where Alex was returning with a damp and dripping bundle of cloth on a stick. Johnny started to giggle, then doubled over with laughter, hands resting on his handlebars for support.

"You wanna make a torch, with pee?" he said.

Alex and Ronald nodded earnestly. "Yeah, pee burns," Alex started to explain.

"You need oil," Johnny corrected him. "Vegetable oil. Here, I'll get you some," and he turned and wheeled over to the building where he lived with his mom and dad and sister. As he came back out the door, the kids could briefly hear the distant sound of laughter.

Ronald, Danny and Alex stood in a row, each holding a torch. Alex had insisted on testing his alternative fuel along with the others. Up close, there was a faint but unmistakable odor coming from his torch. Josiah stood by, hands on hips, ready to run for help if the torches exploded or set the nearby trees on fire.

Johnny held the lighter up to the two oil-soaked torches, and in a moment they were burning with a sooty, dancing flame. Shaking his head, he held the lighter up to Alex's pee torch but nothing happened.

"Here, let me try this," Alex said and held the end of his torch over Ronald's flame. A sizzling sound erupted, and the faint unmistakable odor of pee stopped being faint. Still no fire.

"I told you it wouldn't work," Josiah said. Alex shrugged and tossed the pee torch into the river.

"Right, are we ready?" Danny said.

The four boys and Johnny crossed the road and approached the foot of the dam. This was the part Danny had not figured out yet: how to get to the hole in the dam in order to explore it. This time of year, there was no ice, but the water was high and the pool was at least waist deep. At least, that was Danny's estimate; he had not thought of measuring it for real.

"You gonna wade in there?" Johnny asked dubiously, pointing to the brown, swirling water. There was no ice but it looked cold.

"We can use this," Josiah grunted from further down the shore. He was tugging on something.

Danny looked over to see what his brother had found. It was a wooden pallet, partly washed up on the riverbank. The rest of it bobbed in the water. It must have washed over the dam.

Johnny and Alex hurried over to the pallet and helped Josiah lift the beached end. The rest floated, so they walked it awkwardly along the bank until they got to the spot opposite the mysterious hole. They shoved the floating end of the pallet against the stones of the dam as hard as they could, and set down the near end on the rocky bank at their feet.

Even Danny could see it was a questionable solution. "I'm not sure it will hold our weight," he finally said. It was not clear to him what exactly was keeping the far end of the pallet up, besides a temporary side effect of flotation and whatever friction existed between the wet wood of the pallet and the wet stones of the dam.

"It doesn't have to hold us all at once," offered Josiah. The others thought about this.

"How about you go first," Danny offered, looking at Josiah. "You are the lightest."

Josiah looked at the pallet bridge, then at the black mouth of the hole in the dam. "Give me a torch," he finally said. Danny handed him the torch.

"If the bridge fails, he might get stuck over there," Ronald pointed out. "Better give him the supplies too."

Danny handed over the backpack of Slim Jims, Snickers and Baby Ruth.

Josiah slung the backpack over his free arm, shifted the torch to that hand and put the other arm through the strap. He took a deep breath: he was ready.

The boys watched in silence as Josiah took a first step onto the near edge of the pallet bridge. It seemed steady. He put his other foot on it. The pallet didn't shift, though it wobbled a little on the irregular stone of the riverbank.

Josiah looked back at the others. Johnny had his hand over his face to hide his mirth, but the other three boys were anxious.

"Go on," Alex said.

Josiah turned back toward the dam and started inching his way toward the opening. His torch sizzled every few seconds as spray from the dam landed on it, but it showed no sign of going out. Ronald's torch also continued to burn, as it hung forgotten in his hand.

Josiah inched closer to the dam. He had left the end of the pallet supported by the riverbank now, and stood supported in midair, a foot or so above the churning murky water of the pool.

"Go on," Alex urged. Josiah adjusted his grip on the torch and scooted a few inches closer to the dam. A drip of fire fell from the torch into the hungry water below.

The pallet shifted.

As Danny and company watched in horror, the far end of the pallet gave up its grip on the wet stones of the dam and submerged. The rest of the pallet followed, tipping down and down with Josiah trying to keep his balance as the near end of the bridge slid forward into the pool. Josiah lost the fight to stay upright and fell back, sitting down hard on the slanted pallet as it sank into the water. The torch hissed angrily as it disappeared beneath the waves.

Once fully free of the rocks, the pallet wobbled a little under water and finally emerged again, rotated clockwise about a quarter turn. Josiah was still on top, soaked from his waist down. The butt end of the pallet was riding lower in the water, so Josiah scooted himself forward until the bridge-turned-boat leveled out. In a moment he was drifting across the pool and downstream.

Relief at his brother's undamaged state lasted a few seconds, then Danny realized the gravity of the situation. Josiah was a fine swimmer for his age, but a swollen stream of frigid water was not an ideal place to test it. Danny shouted to Josiah: "Get to shore!"

"How?" Josiah asked irritably. His arms were not long enough to reach the water to paddle, without risking a capsize. The current seemed determined to keep him in the center of the stream.

"The stick bridge!" Danny shouted, and ran onto the road bridge to cross to the far side of the river where the public trail lay. The others followed, Ronald bringing up the rear with his torch still lit, holding it aloft to avoid setting the brush on fire.

They caught up to the pallet raft just when it reached the stick bridge: but of course the stick bridge was gone, swept away by the same high water that had grabbed the pallet from who knows where and pushed it over the dam to tempt them.

"Don't worry," Danny shouted to Josiah.

"Who's worried," Josiah quipped as he eyed the river's course ahead. The other boys trotted along on the trail, sometimes right next to the river, sometimes several yards away, keeping pace with the damp and chilly raft, Ronald's torch adding a festive air to what any adult observer would have called an emergency.

Slowly and unsteadily, Josiah began to adjust his position. He had been seated with his hands out to the sides for balance; now he gathered his feet in and slid his hands forward, keeping his weight to the center of the pallet, until his knees were fully folded and he could push himself up to a crouch. Then he stood, and widened his stance: he was standing on the pallet, surfing almost, riding it down the river. His legs were soaked and freezing, but he couldn't feel it.

The boys on shore cheered as they raced along. Ronald waved the torch.

"Throw us the backpack," Danny shouted.

"What?"

"The supplies, throw them to us," Danny shouted as the trail came alongside the river once more. Josiah realized he still had the backpack. He took it off, unzipped it to retrieve a Snickers, which he stowed in his damp pants pocket. Then he closed the bag, held it by one strap, and after adjusting his feet once more, he hurled it to the shore.

Almost.

The backpack arced through the air, across some twelve feet, and to everybody it looked like it should land soundly on the trail. But it struck a low hanging branch and stopped, then plunged straight down into the river. Johnny lay down on the muddy bank to reach for it, but the current pulled it away from shore and it was soon racing along merrily behind the raft. Josiah shrugged, grinned, retrieved his Snickers and proceeded to eat it with relish while his friends groaned and continued to jog alongside.

"I… can't… keep… running" panted Ronald from the back of the pack. Danny fell back to Ronald's place and beckoned him to hand over the torch. Thus equipped, Danny sped up and passed the others, leading the chase with a grin.

"Meet you at the footbridge," Danny said, and the pack of boys broke away from the rivercourse following the trail on a straighter path to the town park. Josiah was left alone for a few minutes as the river took a sharp bend. He wished he had grabbed a second Snickers. He was feeling cold.

After a few minutes the raft cleared a bend and the footbridge to the town park came into view. Danny, Alex and Johnny stood along it, waving and hollering. As Josiah got close, Danny handed the torch to Alex so that he and Johnny could lie down on the bridge to reach for Josiah.

Just as Josiah's upraised hand was about to grab Johnny's wrist, a submerged rock jostled the raft and Josiah stumbled forward. The raft rocked, and Josiah fell to his knees. A moment later the footbridge was behind him.

Danny looked where Josiah was headed: the fallen tree, which they had used many times before as a bridge. The obstacle roiled the waters, causing them to churn and tumble. The topmost surface of the trunk was still visible, if not properly dry. This looked to be Josiah's stop whether he wanted to or not.

The boys hustled off the bridge and hurried along the shore. No trail ran here, just the overhanging edge of the grassy soccer field at the back of the park. They reached the fallen tree and carefully shuffled out along it to await Josiah's arrival.

Thunk. The raft struck the fallen tree. Johnny and Danny pulled Josiah off the raft onto the slippery tree trunk as the raft tipped and rolled in the churning water.

"Wait, the supplies," Josiah said as he turned to look back to where the backpack bobbed toward them.

Alex bent down to fish the bag out of the water but as it reached the tree, the greedy spring current pulled it down and under the old trunk. The boys turned unsteadily on the wet trunk and watched for the bag to reappear.

It never did.

"Hey, that was awesome," panted Ronald as he ran up. Josiah pumped his fist in the air and gave a laconic grin as the four boys picked their way back to shore. Alex handed Ronald back his torch, but Ronald gave it to Josiah.

"Where to now, captain," Johnny asked.

"Resupply!" Josiah declared, and he turned and marched off across the park in the direction of the corner store.