fLoOd--Part Twenty-Nine

Big Mole

tWeNtY-nInE

 Lying in the bottom of the boat, Murphy abruptly opened his eyes. He closed them again when he found that there was very little difference between having them open or closed. Closed everything was dark, but open didn't seem to bring any light to his surroundings. He took a sensory examination of himself. He was stretched out on hard wood planking, lying face down with both arms raised over his head. His head! It ached mightily but it seemed quite a while since he'd had anything to drink. Of course, that could be a part of the problem. But there was a more specific, a sharper kind of pain than the general ache of too much or too little liquor. There was a strange sensation behind, below, above or inside his left ear. For a moment the feeling jumped to one of his kneecaps and this disconcerted him no end. But it shortly returned to his right - no, left - ear. No, make that the right ear. Definitely his right ear. It felt as though it were being nibbled on by something that had no teeth in its gums. It also felt as though someone were trying to see how far they could stuff a feather into it. And there was a very sharp pain beside it somewhere, though he couldn't place quite where. Trying to take his mind from his achy head and mystifying ear, he found that he was being weighted down by something lumpy on his back. "Murphy, me boy," an inner voice remarked, "ye're kivvered wi' sacks o' potatoes, and as much as it makes ye feel at home, I've me doubts it was done wi' the Christian intent of keepin' me warm and soothin' me moind." He tried to remember where he might be that had potatoes to spare for holding a man down. He sensed movement under the planks beneath him and also some rocking back and forth. Had he been dumped onto some amusement park ride and then been covered over with sacks of potatoes? After having been brutally attacked about one ear (which ear was seeming problematic)? He thought he could hear a faint strain of music which gave a touch of credence to the amusement park idea, although something about that still seemed rather far-fetched. He tried, through his muzzy mind, bruised brain and hurting head to travel back to a concrete memory onto which he could anchor himself and from which he could follow a trail that led to his present predicament. The darkness actually helped. He could see himself, quite clearly, Mr. Michael Murphy, crouched down in complete darkness. No carnival tunes. It was silent except for the sounds of his clothes rubbing against walls...dirt walls...the walls of a tunnel. He was on his hands and knees and he was slowly moving along a tunnel. A tunnel that he was creating himself by digging out the earth in front of him and dumping it behind him. Where was he going to through his self-created tunnel? He was looking for water. He was looking for water because...No, he was looking for diamonds. Well, that seemed a more likely reason to be digging underground. Although water was also found in the ground. And he was trying to get away from the city. The city underground. His mother had told him to go find water (it was water!) and never look back. But El had begged him to find diamonds (it was diamonds too!) and bring them back to her. So he had started digging. All this seemed quite clear to him. But the digging had led to...He'd broken through to...the devil? A man in a devil suit? At an amusement park? Murphy could find no trail to follow. He was digging in the dark. The earth around him had started to sweat. There was a trickle of water at his knees. And now he was lying face down in the dark, covered with a sack of potatoes. With a grunt and a heave, he rose onto his hands and knees. The sack rolled off of him and he moaned as the pain in his head dug in deeper. He blinked his eyes in surprise to find that it wasn't that dark. There was a silvery light coming from up above. There was a man sitting by his left shoulder, asleep with a brick in his lap. And a board stretched in front of his face that he'd just missed smashing his head against as he rose to his present position.