The Closet

Chapter 8

Two stressful and late nights were taking their toll on the James children. Wednesday morning arrived, and with no mother to wake them, all overslept. John woke in a panic after 8 AM and woke his brothers and then ran down the hall to wake Allie. They hurriedly dressed, inhaled their cold cereal, and dashed out the door. Allie was closest to being on time because the elementary school was only short distance down the street. The middle school and high school were over a mile away and so John, Jarom and Jason were decidedly tardy. They reported to their classes, agreeing to meet again after school in front of the buffalo. The school symbol of Mannheim American High School was the bison, and there was a fine concrete buffalo standing in front of the high school. (The terms “buffalo” and “bison” are commonly used interchangeably) The concrete statue had been a gift from the city of Munich to the American troops stationed there.  When the American forces left Munich it was left without a home, but in 1993 it was moved to Mannheim to become the concrete mascot for the high school. 

            At 3:30, John was waiting for Jarom to arrive. He was trying to figure out where he could get a piece of rope heavy enough to climb. He didn’t want to go into the tunnels again without a length of rope because he couldn’t tell what might lie ahead. Inspiration struck him and Jarom was late, so he decided he would run over to the gym and see if Coach Farnsworth might have a piece of climbing rope that he could spare. One last look around for Jarom and he sprinted for the gym. Coach Farnsworth was there, and John thought of a little white lie. He would ask for a rope he could tie to a tree in his yard to use as a swing.  In fact, it might not even be a lie. He could actually make a swing from it when its more immediate use was concluded.

“Coach,” John said, “I was wondering if you might have an old piece of climbing rope that you could spare.”

“Well, John, I don’t know.  What would you use it for?” asked the coach.  “We don’t want any hangins,” he said affecting a western drawl.

“I want to make a rope swing in our yard for my sister,” said John.  “We have a tree that would be perfect and she would have lots of fun with it”

“Well, it just so happens, “said the coach,” that I changed out our climbing rope last spring and I haven’t gotten rid of the old one yet.  If you want it, you can have it.”

“Wow, Coach,” he exclaimed excitedly.  “Thanks very much”.

Coach Farnsworth dug the old rope out of a cabinet and John took it happily, heading back to the rendezvous with his brother. At the buffalo, he was surprised that Jarom was still not there. He decided he would walk across the street to the middle school to find Jarom. 

Looking a bit strange walking around with a long, heavy rope, he entered the middle school office and asked about his brother. Checking the schedule, the secretary called the classroom she suspected Jarom might be in on the intercom. She discovered that he was in detention for tardiness.  It seemed that this morning was not his first offense, although his usual problem was chatting up the girls in the hallway rather than arriving at school late. John sat down to wait until Jarom’s detention was complete, and they walked out together with Jarom getting no small amount of grief from his older brother. 

            He noticed, of course, the rope John was carrying and wondered if it would even fit in his backpack. On their walk home, they talked over their plan of attack for the evening. They expected to speak with their parents at about 8:30 and so should be able to start exploring no later than 9. They were worried about meeting an intruder in their tunnel, but it didn’t deter their enthusiasm. Allie found her kite string and they tied it onto the end of the climbing rope. Jason found a nicely weighted rock that he tied securely to the string and they went into the yard to practice. There were a number of large trees to choose from, and they chose a cherry tree close to the back fence.  Jarom was the most accurate shot with a rock, so he was given the honor of lobbing the stone over a tall branch. On the second attempt, the string trailing the rock crossed the branch in an appropriate spot and picking it up, Jason began to pull the rope up and over the branch. After he had pulled it back to the ground with the rope lying over the branch, he tied a loop in the end and slipped the other end through the loop.  He pulled it tight and as a swinging rope, it was as good as they had hoped.  Each of them practiced climbing the rope and even Allie, twining her legs around the rope to hold her position while she reached for another grip, was able to climb up to the knot at the top of rope.  Getting the rope down was harder because the knot was at the top.  John climbed up the rope to the top, swung up to the branch overhead and untied the loop. Holding onto the loose end of the rope, he instructed his three siblings to lower him back to the ground and thanks to their teamwork, he fell only the last 6 feet.

            The rope trial had been a qualified success. It was stowed in the back of John’s backpack in preparation for descending into the tunnel again. Its only disadvantage was its main advantage. It was a thick rope which made it much easier to climb, but was also bulky which made it awkward and heavy to carry. Since their rope ladder had been taken, the rope became their only real means of reaching the floor of the tunnel and returning, short of another trip through the cemetery.

            The rest of the afternoon and early evening passed fairly normally. They fixed dinner and ate a delicious plate of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Their mother only rarely would fix that dish because she said it was something only kids love.  And she was right. When they were finishing their meal, the doorbell rang and Mrs. Friedrickson was on the porch. They turned on the light and welcomed her in. 

            She came into the living room and said, “Is everything going OK, children? I’ve been a little worried.”

            “Oh, yes”, said both John and Jarom in unison.  They looked at each other uncomfortably and then John continued, “We’re just doing what we normally do.  School, homework, dinner, and sleep,” somehow leaving out the thing that had been dominating their thoughts for the last several days.

            “The Colonel and I were concerned because we heard someone that seemed to be just outside our bedroom last night. He got up and looked out the glass door, but didn’t see anything, so we didn’t come over or call, but I just wanted to make sure you were OK.”

            “No, Mrs. Friedrickson,” John said a bit quickly, “we haven’t heard anything, but it’s so kind of you to check in on us. Dinner the other night was delicious and I hope we can return the favor sometime soon.”

            “Why aren’t you just the little gentleman, “she observed. I can’t wait to tell your mother how little trouble you have been…and how polite and genuine you all are.  I’ll leave you alone and will see you tomorrow.”

            Blushing, John said, “Thank you again Mrs. Friedrickson. Our parents are set to arrive home tomorrow evening, so you probably won’t even have to worry about us a bit tomorrow.”

            Mrs. Friedrickson stepped through the door and waved goodbye as she made her way back to her own house. Jason closed the door and said to John in a snide voice, “Oh John, you are just the most polite little gentleman.  I could just eat you up!  Hahahahahahaha,” he laughed, receiving a punch in the arm for his efforts.             

            “What time is it? “asked Allie.  “I’m tired”

            “It’s only about 8:00 and we still have to wait for Mom to call before we can start,” stated Jarom.  “Maybe we can get a little nap now.”

            Everyone seemed to think that was a good idea and they sprawled over the living room furniture and were promptly asleep. They hadn’t slept long when the phone rang. It was another neighbor asking for their mother. They tried to fall asleep again and were just succeeding when once again, the phone rang. 

            This time it was their mother and after chatting a few minutes, she asked, “Are you sure you are all doing well?”

            Jarom, who had answered the phone said, “Oh, Mom. We are doing just great! You know you don’t have to worry about us.”

            “Well,” she said, “your father and I have been talking and he’s been in the conference most of the time since we’ve been here. He suggested we take another day or so to drive home and do a little sight-seeing. I would love to go to Neuschwanstein Castle.  I’ve wanted to see it since I was a little girl and I saw Cinderella, but it would mean it would be Saturday morning by the time we got home.”

            “Mom”, Jarom cried, “You should go see the castle. You deserve a little vacation. We can take care of ourselves here! Don’t worry.”

            “Oh, Jarom, let me talk to Allie.”

            She repeated the conversation with her youngest and Allie gave her the same assurance. The others had heard what had been said and when it was their turn to talk, they told their mother to have a wonderful time, and when they hung up the phone, they were free!

            John turned to the others soberly and said, “What about the person that must be in the tunnel. What do we do if we run into him?”

            Jarom said, “What if we do?  We don’t know that he is dangerous. Maybe he’s a homeless person who lives in the tunnels.”

            “And there are four of us and only one of him,” chimed in Jason.  “We’ll be safe.”

            It was 9 PM when they climbed their own stairway and prepared for their nightly descent. Jarom opened the closet door and with his handy screwdriver, he pried up the front of the trap door and raised it to it’s ‘up’ position.  John carried the rope in his backpack, and he started climbing down the ladder. The others followed and when he got to the bottom rung, he took the rope out and draped it over the rung so that the middle of the rope was centered on it. He intended to hold both strands of the rope and slide down them. Except for a little rope burn on his hands, it worked out OK, but when Jarom attempted the same move, his grip on one of the ropes slipped and he began to fall to the ground 10 feet below. John saw what happening and quickly grabbed the half of the rope going up and Jarom slowed his fall so that he landed safely. John held on to one half of the rope after that while Allie and Jason slid down the other half of the rope. 

            “Gloves would have been a good idea,” he said looking at his sore hands.

            Now that they were all in the round room, they pulled the rope down and put it back in the John’s pack. The tunnel that they had explored the night before to the southwest didn’t end at the cemetery stairway. John had assumed they would try the west tunnel, but Jarom and Jason both protested they should complete exploration of the southwest branch. He agreed and they set off once again to the southwest. In 10 minutes or so they reached the stairway and could feel moving air that seemed to come from the opening above. Looking up with their headlamps at the stairs, it was a bit unnerving to realize that they had climbed the shaky stairway up 85 feet to the surface, but figured they could do it again in a pinch.

            The tunnel continued on and John’s map estimated Turley Barracks at 2 miles from their house. They were now a little more than ¼ mile away, so he estimated another 1¾ miles to go.  At 20 minutes a mile, they were a little less than a 40 minute walk away from the kaserne. They began the trek with not much to see except the now familiar rock tunnel with occasional concrete patches that had been apparently applied to keep loose rocks from falling onto the floor.  At exactly 37 minutes, instead of arriving at another ladder shaft, they arrived at a cave-in. The walls and the roof had fallen in completely blocking further passage. They could see that the roof of the tunnel was sloping upward as if it were rising to the bottom rung of a vertical ladder, but they couldn’t tell how far that might be. Wild-man Jarom ran up the small slope of rubble and began to pull out rocks and dig the earth away with his hands, but more rubble continued to slough in on any progress he made, and after a few minutes he gave up. 

            “I wonder what caused the cave-in?” asked Allie.

            “It was probably a bomb,” guessed her brother Jason, as if it were obvious.

            “It could have been that the ground here was just less rocky than what we’ve seen elsewhere, and over the years it just collapsed,” said John thoughtfully.

            “Or it was a bomb,” seconded Jarom. 

            Having no way to settle the matter, they turned and began to walk in the opposite direction, and 45 minutes later they were again looking at the other eight exits from the round room, one being the exit that led to their closet. They had been through six of the eight tunnels, and all had been empty. While by themselves, they were pretty neat, they had expected to find something worthy of the explorers that they had become. They were getting a little bored walking through underground tunnels for miles and miles like they were miners. They thought they deserved a skeleton or a buried treasure. Feeling just a bit sorry for themselves, they turned west.