Underworld travo

I was barefoot and wearing my new blue swim trunks that mom had just gotten me to start off the summer. She had drawn the drawstring too tight, and I could feel the pressure of the fabric lightly digging into my stomach. I could feel loose dirt and tiny pebbles rub against the soles of my feet, and I moved my right foot back me forth on the large boulder that looked over the lake. My eyes where squinting down at my hands and I anxiously play with a loose thread I pulled loose from my swim trunks. “Please, don’t do it.” I urged for the third time in a slightly whinny voice, “let’s just back down and skip more rocks.”

My older brother, Greg, was holding a shaggy looking rope that dangled from a tree branch that stuck out about 10 feet from the lake’s surface. “We skipped ricks all yesterday! I want to do something fun. Like this! Besides we are running out of time! We only have so much summer break left!”

I managed a quick look at Greg, and then looked back at our lake house, which was now five houses away. “But mom will kill us, if she sees us doing this. And there is no way she will take us to the water park tomorrow if she catches us.”

Greg gave a quick shake of his head, and tugged on the rope. “The only way she would find out is if you tell her.” He squinted at me, “And you are not going to do that Kevin, are you?”

I held his eye briefly, before looking at the rope and then water again. It was a long fall, “But what if you get hurt? Then I’ll have to tell mom.”

He just rolled his eyes at me, “That won’t happen. I’ll be fine. And mom won’t find out. Aunt Becky just showed up today. They are going to be too busy talking on the dock to even notice that we aren’t at the Moore’s dock anymore.”

I knew Greg was right. When mom was with her sister they got so lost in their conversation and laughter, that they wouldn’t noticed us being gone for hours. They would only care when we got back, and then would ask if we caught any fish with our friends, or rode their boat. But I still couldn’t fight the unease of jumping off the boulder. I wish I had stayed back with our sister, Emma, the Moore brother, Jake and Tony, when Greg first spotted the rope. But with Greg being 10 and the oldest, and me being the second oldest at 8 we had something to prove. But I could have cared less about proving how brave I was. I rather be looking for salamanders under ricks with my sister and the Moore twins.

Greg could still see the hesitation coming from me, so he quickly added. “You like those books right?”

I looked up from the water I was looking at dazed, and had to shake my head to clear it. Confused I looked at my brother, “Huh, what?”

Greg was now pulling the rope close to his chest, “Yea, you like those books. The one with the kids that go on crazy adventures together, and end up in that mythical world. They enter through portals. What is it called, ‘The Undertakers?’”

I made a cringed face at him, “It’s called the Underworlders! They don’t take care of dead bodies after they die like a undertakers.”

He rolled his eyes, “Yea, whatever. Anyway, think of it like that! This rope is the key, and the water is the door. The rush off the fall is us going threw the portal! And we will be in a new world!”

I May have been 8, but I wasn’t a baby. I knew that wasn’t how it worked. “It’s fiction, that doesn’t actually happen!!!!”

But my brother had nothing else to say about it, with a big leap he gave the rope a death grip and threw himself off the cliff.

He entered the water with a large splash, and then was covered in water. Just a few bubbles and ripples showed that he ever existed. I stared at the water for what felt like 5 minutes. I felt myself beginning to panic as I wondered when he would surface again.

But just was I was starting to climb up the rock to the edge of the cliff to call for him he popped up with a loud gasp, and the most memorized smile, “Oh my god, it worked!!!” He called up to me.

With a wash of relief I called backed, “What worked? You didn’t die!?”

He called back with the biggest smile, “No…I mean yes, I’m not dead. But it did open a portal. I saw a mermaid! And she said I went back in time!!!!”

I rolled my eyes heavily at my brother, “Haha, very funny.” But I wasn’t amused at all.

My brother splashed the water, “Nooooooooooo, I’m serious! Just jump in and see.”

Slowly I went up to the rope, and trapped it. It felt rough and hard in my hands, “I’ll jump in, but I’ll have you know, I don’t believe you!”

Then he ducked back under the water and it was just me. I felt my heart race, and the voice in my head telling me not to do this. But I grabbed the thick rope and let the fibers digger into my palms. Then I threw myself forward and jumped.

It felt like an hour before I hit the water, and I could hear only my scream in between the rush of wind in my ears. Then suddenly I felt the sting as the cold water slapped my feet and my body was surround by dark cold water and bubbles. But instead of swimming up to the surface I felt myself flip and then I forced my eyes open again, and saw a blindly flash of light. I went to gasp, and panicked expecting my lungs to fill with cold icy water.

but surprisingly they filled with air and I watched as my body was carried to an underwater world where I could breath, and a women with gold hair, and a beautiful pink fish tail swam up to me, and floating next to her was my brother, with a big smile.

In a sing song voice she said, “welcome to the year 1886, lord.”

and my brother smiled, “see I told you, and we are kings here”

And it was just the year 2006.