Nothing but Footprints

Sweat poured down his face. He dumped a bottle of water on his head so at least cool water soaking him for a bit. His shirt was soaked through looking like a darker shade of blue than normal. Even his cargo shorts were stained with sweat. He would have been embarrassed if he wasn’t about to overheat. He walked over to a shady spot and sat down.

“Hey Oak!” Bert walked over to the shade and sat down next to him.

Bert had a big sun hat on, long sleeves, and long pants on. He said it helped to block the sun and keep the dirt off him. Oak did not think baking yourself in the heat would be worth staying a bit cleaner. Sunscreen and a little dirt earned the glorious relief of a nice breeze.

Bert took a big drink of water and pointed out at the yard.

“The hedges here are blowing up! All this sun and rain is making them huge. Even that left side that usually doesn’t get as much sun is nice and fluffy.”

“I almost feel bad trimming them back. But, we gotta make way for the other plants to get some sun too. I didn’t expect the tiger lilies to bloom again this summer. The bursts of orange look good from the street.” Oak’s eyes wandered along the length of the garden, swimming through the colors of the flora. His gaze paused on a piece of weird debris that was poking out of the tiger lily leaves.

“I thought we got all the big stuff earlier this morning?” Oak pointed at the debris, not moving from the shade.

“Hmm… I don’t know what that is. Hang on.” Bert walked over to the tiger lilies with his hand up to block the sun, even with his hat, the harsh sun rays beamed into his face.

“It’s a shoe?” Bert held up a red shoe with a white sole that looked stained black and caked with dirt. He turned himself 360 degrees looking around the area.

“The latch to the cellar is broken over here too.” Bert waved Oak over.

Oak reluctantly left his shady refuge and trudged out into the hot sunshine. He instantly started sweating more leaving a trail of sweat droplets in the mulch. He wiped the sweat building up on his eyebrows and looked closer at the shoe Bert found.

It was all crimson red with no laces. The dirt fell off easily, having dried out in the heat. Shaking the shoe a gray-black powder fell out from the inside of the shoe. Looking closer, Oak thought the powder looked like ash the way they spread over the sole of the shoe and fell lightly to the ground separating from the dirt. The latch on the cellar door was broken clean off, sitting half buried in the dirt. Only the holes where the latch attached remained in the door itself.

“Jervy is out in Norway for the whole summer right?” Oak looked around noting the cameras on the house and giving Bert a look.

“Yessir. Let’s get these weeds. Those cameras don’t have sound, Oak. We should keep working while we decide what our plan is here. I agree what we found is concerning.” Bert bent down to start weeding around the cellar door, with his back to the camera.

Oak started weeding next to Bert.

“Should we go down there? No one is here now, but they’ll see on the camera.”

“We can move the palm frond in front of it to block the view. That one there tends to get caught on the corner of the house on windy days.”

Bert continued weeding and moving slowly towards the palm tree, out of the camera view. He stepped up on the thick bark that sprouted out of the base of the palm tree to reach up to the frond. He dragged it under the camera, then let it go. It sprung upwards and caught on the corner of the house covering the camera in thick green leaves.

Bert gave a thumbs up and Oak relaxed his shoulders down with an exhale. He stood up straight, tossed his handful of weeds in the bucket and met Bert at the cellar door. He grabbed the handle, then paused and looked at Bert. Bert rolled his eyes and quickly yanked open the other door. A short wooden staircase led down to a dirt floor and darkness. Even on the hottest day of the year, the power of the sun couldn’t light up the depths of this cellar.

Oak stepped in and jumped from the first stair down to the dirt giving Bert a thumbs up. It was noticeably cooler in the cellar, which was a nice break from the pounding sun. Oak did notice drops of his sweat still dripping onto the dirt floor. He looked forward and saw stacks of boxes on the left, a big table on the right, a chain hanging from a light bulb in the center of the ceiling.

Bert stepped in front of him. His form became a large shadow in the darkened cellar.

“Let’s get the light.” He walked to the center of the room and grabbed the chain.

As he pulled down time seemed to slow. Oak could hear each individual bead of the chain unravel from the light mechanism. The sweat dripping on his body felt stuck in place. Bert looked like a beast in the dark, his hand was a claw of a sloth wrapped around the chain.

Then the light erupted. It came like an explosion from the center of the ceiling where the light bulb was. Bert became fully lit up, his human form returning from the shadows. His hand seemed to move more quickly than the light into a thumbs up.

The light hit the left and right walls at the same time, just before Oak himself. He saw the boxes clearly now, covered in portraits, beautiful models, and cosmic scenery. The table on the right had canvas sitting on top. It was a painting of Oak in the garden, and Bert in the background behind a palm tree.

The light was about to hit Oak, it stretched from the ceiling hovering like a tidal wave. He looked back at Bert, his hand had changed, thumbs down. Then the light hit Oak and he felt like gravity had increased 1000 times. He felt pressed into the earth as the light cascaded over him, his field of view shifted down as if he was in an elevator going down. The last thing he heard was the sound of the cellar door banging shut.

The light illuminated the base of the stairs, there was a pair of footprints from Oak’s shoes impressed in the dirt floor, a ring of water droplets formed a circle around the impression. Bert pulled the chain again. The light bulb went dark plunging the cellar into darkness again.