Beneath the Foundation

Chapter 7

At approximately 3PM, George Flotsen knocked on the front door of my house, and just two minutes later we were on the front lawn. We both peered into the small opening on the side of the house. The single opening led beneath the foundation, a small crawl space that, supposedly, ran along the bottom of the house. In the months that we had lived there, no one had taken upon the task of trekking under there. Wasn't much reason to I suppose, but recently critters had been heard rustling around, and the concept of anything bigger than a possum taking residence seemed unlikely due to the fact that we were smack dab in the middle of the suburbs.

The sun had risen front and center above our heads, the heat was apparent, but at the moment we didn't complain. Not that we didn't have a reason, but we were locked in silence, glaring at the gaping maw leading into darkness. My hands felt numb as I attempted to find the words that needed to be said, but the words escaped me. I tell you this now, that I had no real reason to worry this readily about the confines of the crawl space. I had no great fear of the dark, nor any great fear of bugs or snakes, and I often found small critters such as mice or possums amusing to interact with. Small spaces didn't perturb me, and I was the first kid to get dirty rolling around in the mud. So, when I say that the fear that gripped me as we stood there was very strange. Maybe it was my sixth sense kicking in, trying to warn me that there ought to be fear of such places, that I understood very little of what could be lurking in the darkness. Maybe I was just, once again, a dumb little kid, shitting his pants over nothing, but hindsight's 20/20.

"So, uh..." George disturbed the silence. "You're goin' first, right?"

Sensation started to return to my fingers.

"Why the hell do you think I invited you over, bozo." I layered on the sarcasm thick.

I did really enjoy George's company. Earlier, when I mentioned that most of my friends were away for the summer, that wasn't a lie. George was just the only one who stayed back. We were really similar in a lot of ways. Socially awkward, played a lot of games (and this was back when gaming was a slight more taboo than it is now). Our families were even in similar economic situations. Although he lived in a trailer just a few roads down. Who knows, if we didn't get 'lucky' with finding this place, we'd probably also be trailer-bound.

"Oh, come off it. I know you invited me over before you got this little assignment." He says. "Now, I'll hold the light, but I'm not dumb enough to go skulking around amongst the rats."

George was right after all; I had a busy day planned for us. A blur of video games and horror movies, but this little chore put a bit of a hamper on all that. Regardless, the prospect of 'skulking around amongst the rats' did have its own flavor of excitement. It's true that at the time, I was terrified, but that terror was like a drug.

When you watch horror movies, you find yourself wishing for it to end. You cover your eyes and close your ears as the suspenseful music slowly builds, before falling silent, only for it to crescendo in abject terror as the monster reveals itself to both the character and the audience. You hope for it to end as your heart races, your face fills with blood, and you start to get that little lightheaded feeling when you feel you're about to pass out. It all becomes almost too much to handle, but then it ends. You start to regain your faculties and the feeling of terror and suspense is replaced with adrenaline. Like fire coursing through your veins. You feel invincible and euphoric. You want it all over again as you tell your friends 'I wasn't even that scared actually'. We both know you were, but you want to feel it again, because it's manufactured hysteria, and you love it.

In the moments leading up to our expedition beneath the foundation of the house, that's what I felt in so many words. I can't tell you if I understood the logic of it – I can almost guarantee I didn't - but I did know that the feelings were working through my mind.

'I don't want to go down there.'

Followed by

'Oh, yes you do.'

"Yeah yeah, I'll be your hero this time around Georgie. Always the sidekick, never the hero, huh bud?" I grin and slap my hand on his shoulder playfully.

"Oh, you sure got me pegged Josh. You're just so much more of a MAN than I am." He speaks sarcastically. "And when you come on out of there, I'll make sure the scrape all the rat crap off your back. Now if ya don't mind hurrying this up." George gestures the flashlight towards the small entrance.

The supplies for this adventure were few and far between. We had a couple flashlights, one George was currently wielding, and a smaller one I had tucked into my messenger bag. The chore was simple; place the rat traps along the middle of the crawl space. I just had to keep crawling, laying a trap every couple of feet, and once I hit the end, I crawl back. Easy-peasy. A little worry we had though, was that these were uncharted waters. Only just moving here a few months back, no one had been jumping at the opportunity to go crawling around down there. So, I was going in blind, like an explorer charting untouched land. Except it wasn't nearly as exciting as all that.

Tossed over my shoulder, I had my trusty messenger bag. Its contents currently just being the supply of traps I was to lay about, along with a few batteries in case I needed them. There was to be very little wiggle room down there, so anything I needed had to be a simple grab and go.

"Well," I began "No time like the present. Make sure to have a tall glass of lemonade waiting for me." The words came out much less full of conviction than I had planned.

I began to inch my way towards the entrance. It had rained the night before, and with the heat barring down upon the wet soil, turned the dirt into almost a dry chalky consistency. I didn't account for any of that, or anything at all now that I think about it, but we were going. Feet planted, this was getting done here and now.

'Oh, but it would be so much easier to do it another day.' My thoughts coalesced and plotted against me, filling me with worries and disbelief. Telling me that I wasn't the man for the job.

I was stuck in my own head, before I realized it, I was bumping into the side of the house, the opening breathing against my shins.

"Yeah uh, there's a house there bud. I woulda mentioned it, but kinda thought you had that part down already." George smirked, cupping his hand around his mouth.

"Yeah, got that part there George."

I was looking for any excuse not to go down there, but nothing seemed to come to me. Maybe it was a mistake inviting George over. He was a witness to my shame and fear. If he hadn't been there, I could easily have come up with a multitude of excuses for why I couldn't accomplish my chore, but all that was out the window now. The die was cast, and there was nothing left to do.

'Well...no time like the present.'

I crouched to a prone position as I slowly shimmied my way below the foundation.