The Tunnels Below by Nadine Wild-Palmer (best short novels of all time .TXT) 📕

Cecilia Hudson-Gray and I live at 141 Enders Road with my sister, Hester, and my mum and dad—Alice and Lyle. Today, yesterday or whenever, was my twelfth birthday. I’m going to be a scientist when I grow up and I love nature and birds and trees…”

A bulb of water gathered at the corner of her eye, forming a large tear that rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away.

“What are you doing? Stop it. Don’t waste them, you’ll have nothing left for the lamentations!” Luke said, astonished.

“Stop what?” said Cecilia, wiping away another tear.

“Stop crying!” Luke and Jasper said in unison.

“I can hear you snivelling!” said Jasper.

Cecilia’s eyes were wet with tears and she trembled as she fought to hold them back.

“Yeah, you’ll be all cried out if you do that. And then when you’re supposed to cry your eyes out with the rest of us to help fill the lake at Polaris, you won’t be able to,” said Luke.

“What? You’re trying to fill a lake with tears? But why?” Cecilia felt a bit dizzy and breathless. “Are you insane? That would take for ever!”

“Err, don’t you think we already know that!” said Luke.

“Well then, why are you trying to do it?” Cecilia still couldn’t quite get her head around it.

“So we have power? So we can have light? So we can seeee?” Luke seemed to be getting very frustrated at having to explain everything all the time.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Cecilia.

“Nothing seems to make sense to you though, does it, Cecilia?” said Luke. He seemed to have become quite fired up.

“Right, you two, that’s enough. Calm down, the both of you. Arguing isn’t going to get us anywhere. What we need is a plan!” Jasper said, intervening before things got too heated.

Jasper’s milky eyes wandered over to Cecilia, and then he moved towards her. When he reached her, he handed her a small rusty jug of water.

“Here, have this,” he said. “We’re sorry. I can imagine you’ve been through an awful lot.” Cecilia noticed that when Jasper smiled he looked sad. It was strange and made Cecilia want to hug him.

“Drink it slowly now,” said Jasper.

“Thank you, Jasper,” said Cecilia, cupping the jug with both hands.

“We will be back in a minute. We’ll just give you a moment to collect yourself. There are some things I need to talk to Luke about in private if you don’t mind,” said Jasper. He seemed much kinder now.

“OK,” she mumbled.

Luke pulled the door to as they left Cecilia alone in the room.

She perfunctorily sipped from the rusty jug Jasper had handed her…

“YUCK!” she exclaimed, swallowing the first sip of metallic, eggy water. She held her nose and gulped down the rest—after all, she was thirsty. There was a fair amount of sediment that seemed to glitter as she tilted the jug in the light. It pleased her.

She felt better and searching for somewhere to rest the rusty jug, she drifted around the room, picking up bits and pieces. Boy-oh-boy, was it a weird place! There were lots of lanterns dotted about, filled with fireflies like the one she’d seen on the way in. She walked up to one and tapped the glass, finding that when she did the creatures clumped together into a round bulb, which created a lovely warm glow—just about enough light to read a book by. She marvelled at the fireflies a while, feeling sort of sorry for them.

Beside the lantern were many more receptacles used for holding water. One was an old boot with a blue corner-shop-style carrier bag lining it. The boot had a rather bedraggled-looking weed flopped over the edge. It was placed on a mantle over the fireplace, almost identical to the one in the cavern next door, but this one housed a small pile of warm, glowing embers. It had a very ordinary-looking fork next to it, used to poke at the coals, Cecilia supposed. Surrounding the fireplace were lots of tiny pieces of mirror joined together like a mosaic, and each and every one picked up even the faintest light and multiplied it, thus generating more light.

She cast her eyes back to the embers and the scientist in her awoke. Cecilia wondered what the oxygen supply was like down where they were and where it was coming from. She supposed, knowing that an above world did exist, that air filtered through cracks in the rock, but surely they’d need a supplementary supply so far down? Looking at the weed struggling over the boot, she thought about how hard it is to grow things with so little light. Then her brain flipped into worry mode as she considered that the water she had just drunk was most likely full of microbes and had probably been resting stagnant somewhere for quite some time. What if she got sick? Who would look after her?

Trying to take her mind off her worries, she began to make her way towards the door to find the others. But something stopped her. She gasped and recoiled a moment in shock at the figure standing before her. Staring in a mirror, Cecilia tried to make sense of what she was seeing. There in the reflection was a grubby, worn-out little thing, a dishevelled version of the person she had been when she had left the house. She pointed at herself in the mirror and laughed at the state she was in. Perhaps this new look of hers had become her disguise. It felt good to laugh. She collected herself, licking her finger and wiping off some of the dirt. Then she gave up—she didn’t even attempt to tidy the nest that was forming on her head.

As Cecilia went to join the others next door, she paused to listen to the muffled voices coming from the other side. It all sounded pretty covert. She leant closer, peering through the gap.

Luke was describing something. “…It’s round and heavy but it’s not very big. It fits in her pocket,” he said. “Jasper,