The hinged trap door was covered by a rug braided from clothing
which had been worn thin. The wooden stairway was short but steep
and an eerie light was cast by the coal oil lamp placed on the
second step. It was nothing more than a square hole in the dirt
under the 2 room shack, but that root cellar could sustain the
large family living above for weeks of prairie blizzards when the
road was impassible. The roughly sawed shelves were lined with
canned garden produce, fruit, chicken and pickles, all labeled and
dated. It wasn’t uncommon for the 5 gallon crock to contain a slab
of pork soaking in brine.
No matter how the little girl hated that root cellar, it seemed
she was always the one culled from the brood to fetch the required
item. Her stomach would knot, but her fears were swept aside with
lighthearted assurance that it would not be there. Her brother had
taken it out last time. But she knew better. She knew it was
waiting for her. Those dark beady eyes. That moist, charcoal skin.
That tail, always curved one way or the other. She knew it would be
there waiting. If it touched her, she would surely die. The knot
tightened as she neared the bottom step. Was the required item
reachable while her feet were still on wood? She scanned the whole
cellar once again before the last step onto dirt. A lightening fast
grab and the jar was in hand. Up the stairs she shot in a trembling
panic. Safe this time. But next time, she was sure, the lizard
would be there.
463761-724201
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.