What do you mean?
It stinks. It smells like something died.
Oh man, is it Boxes?
I really hope not.
I set down the walkie and oscillated the flashlight as I crawled forward a little, trying to survey as much as possible from my current position. Looking through the hole from the outside, you could see all the way back with the right lighting, but you had to be inside the crawlspace to see around the support blocks that held the house up. I’d say that about forty percent of the area wasn’t visible unless you were actually in the crawlspace, but even inside I could only see directly where the flashlight was pointing; this would make scouting around the place much more difficult. I tried to call my cat.
“Boxes…”
I paused and listened.
“Booooxxxxeessss…”
There was no sound or movement. I tried clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth, but there was no response to that either. Pressing my hands hard against the earth, I pulled myself forward until my feet slipped past the opening and into the crawlspace. As I moved farther into the void, the smell intensified to the point that it stung my nostrils. If I covered my nose with my hand, I couldn’t properly leverage myself in the cramped space. This meant that in order to move I had to breathe the air directly.
When I tried breathing through my mouth, the stench in the air layered on my tongue and coated the inside of my cheeks to the point that I could actually taste it. For the entire journey from Josh’s house to my old home, I had hoped that we’d find Boxes here, but now the fear was growing in me that Boxes had come here and something had happened to him. I began hoping for the first time that I wouldn’t find Boxes after all.
I twisted my body and tried to look around with the light, but I couldn’t see much of anything. The foulness of the rotten air now lined my throat, and I coughed and spat reflexively to remove it. I needed to hurry up so I could leave this place. Reaching my arm forward, I wrapped my fingers around a support block to pull myself forward, and as I did that, I felt something that made my hand recoil.
Fur.
My heart sank, and I prepared myself emotionally for what I was about to see. I crawled slowly so I could prolong what I knew was coming, and I inched my eyes and the flashlight past the block to see what was on the other side.
I staggered back in horror and disgust. “Jesus Christ!” escaped my trembling mouth. It was a hideous and twisted creature, badly decomposed. Its skin had rotted away on its face so the teeth were revealed in an ever-present sneer that made them look enormous. Its eyes had either sunk back into its skull or were simply gone altogether, but I still felt like it was looking right at me. The smell radiating from it was unbearable.
What is it?! Are you okay? Is it Boxes?
I reached for the walkie. No, no I don’t think so.
Well, what the hell is it then?
I don’t know.
I shined the light on it again and looked at it with less fear in my vision. I chuckled, though I felt bad for doing so.
It’s a raccoon!
Well keep looking. I’m gonna go into the house to see if he might’ve made it in there somehow.
What? No. Josh, don’t go in there. What… what if Boxes is down here and runs out?
He can’t. I put the board back.
I looked and saw that he was telling the truth.
Why’d you do that?!
Don’t worry, man; you can move it easy. Doing it this way makes more sense. If Boxes ran out and I missed him, then he’d be gone. If he’s down there, then it’ll be easier for you to grab him, and then you can just radio me, and I’ll come move the board. If he’s not down there, then you can move it yourself and meet me in the house.
I thought of the times that my mother had tried to catch Boxes either running out of the house or sprinting around the backyard; Josh had a point. In fact, this plan seemed more thoroughly thought-out than our entire mission. Still, I liked the idea of him being just outside, even if he wasn’t doing anything productive — it was just good to have him there. But we’d save time this way, and we needed all the time we could get; both of Josh’s parents got up early, and I would still have to try to clean my clothes after crawling around under the house. I didn’t want him to abandon his post, but there was always the chance he wouldn’t be able to get in anyway.
Hesitantly, I radioed him back.
Okay. But be careful, and don’t touch anything.
Don’t worry, man; I won’t touch your Barbie collection.
I laughed. You remember your way around inside, right?
Yeah, I think so. Where do you think I should look?
I thought for a moment. He used to sit on the washer or dryer sometimes, but if he’s not there, then try my room. There’s a bunch of my old clothes still in boxes there; check to see if he crawled in one, I guess. And make sure to bring your walkie.
Roger that, good buddy, Josh replied.
I realized only then that it would be pitch-black in there; the power would have been turned off since no one was paying the bill. With any luck he’d be able to see from the streetlights on the other side of the house that might cast some light inside — otherwise, I wasn’t sure how he’d find his way around, or how he’d find Boxes, for that matter.
Before too long, I heard footsteps right over my head and felt old dirt raining down on me.
Josh is that you?
chhkkkk Breaker. Breaker. This is Macho Man coming back for the big Tango Foxtrot. The Eagle has landed. What’s your 20, Princess Jasmine? Over.
“Asshole…” I muttered to myself. Macho Man, you know that you don’t have to make the walkie-talkie noise when we’re actually on the walkie-talkies, right? And my 20 is in your bathroom lookin’ at your stash of magazines, good buddy. Looks like you’ve got a thing for dudes’ butts. What’s the report on that? Over.
I could hear him laughing without the walkie, and I started laughing too. I heard the footsteps fade away a little — he was on his way to my room.
Man, it’s dark in here. Hey, are you sure that you had boxes of clothes in here? I don’t see any.
Yeah, there should be a couple boxes in front of the closet.
There aren’t any boxes; let me check to see if you maybe put them in the closet or something before you left.
I knew that I hadn’t done that. I started thinking that maybe my mom had come back and gotten the clothes and just given them away because I had outgrown a lot of them. But I remembered leaving the boxes there — I didn’t even have time to close the last one up before we left so abruptly that summer.
While I was waiting for Josh to tell me what he found, I felt a tingling on my foot and thoughts of spiders surged back into my mind. I kicked out my leg quickly, and the sensation subsided. There were no spiders — my leg had fallen asleep due to the position I had been laying in. As the feeling returned to my foot, I became aware of the fact that it was now resting on something other than mounds of dirt. I turned my head back and stared, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
My foot was resting on a bowl that lay among a scattering of other bowls. I turned my body, crawled a little closer to the collection, and saw that most of the bowls were lying on a brown blanket that was quite difficult to see in this darkness, since it was earth-colored. The blanket smelled moldy, and most of the bowls were empty, but one had something that I recognized still in it.