Cave Story Alan Dolit January 30, 2004 I have a story to tell that Ive never told before, and in all likelihood, Ill never tell again. Theres an expression that the second best day of my life was when I bought a boat. The best day was when got rid of it. This is how I felt about my first wife. Actually not. But I knew that for many years our marriage was not meant to be a lasting experience. So when it finally ended, it was a relief for me. It seemed that in many ways I had put my life on hold, and chose to not do many of the things I really wanted to do, and fantasized I would do in the future. For several months after leaving Kay, but before connecting with Margaret, I was on my own for the first time in 23 years. I had the remembrance of selling Good Humor ice cream during summer breaks from college. Kids would come up to buy one item, but because there were so many things to choose from they would often leave frustrated because they couldnt decide what to get. There were too many choices. That is how I felt initially. In my imagination I would do all these exotic, erotic things, but when I had the opportunity, I wound up dragging my heels, and not doing anything for a while. I decided to take a few days off from work. I dumped some clothes into a suit case, put some food and camping gear in the trunk and took off for places unknown. I had been living in the San Francisco Bay area at the time. I started up the coast on Highway 1. I had made no plans and would let things unfold with no time table for the next week. After driving for a long time I felt tired and hungry, so I decided to stop at the next place I could find food. Amazingly as soon as the idea popped into my head, I saw there were a few stores ahead including a small restaurant. I pulled into the parking lot and entered. I ordered lunch. While I was enjoying my meal I couldnt help overhearing a conversation from the next booth. The gist of the conversation was as follows: This restaurant was only a few miles from an area which was unofficially called Pirates Cove. About 150 years ago pirates would pull into this area and lug their booty up a cliff where they would hide it in a cave. Until very recently, this had been thought to be legend. However recently there has been renewed interest in exploring the area. The conversation was just getting interesting when the couple abruptly ended the conversation by leaving. I wanted to run after them and get more details, but decided to let it remain a mystery. I finished my lunch and continued on my way. After I had driven a few miles I noticed an area on the coast that looked interesting. There was just enough space to pull my car off to the side of the road. I parked, got out my binoculars and walked across the road to view the ocean. It is a very steep cliff side with much vegetation. I had been looking for several moments when I noticed that there was a long cove area that cut into the beach to the edge of the cliff. I viewed the scenery for a long time and concentrated on the cliff side, Without the glasses, the cliff looked quite steep and not very negotiable, it was a different perspective when I trained the binoculars on the cliffside. If there had been a cave, it would be possible to actually climb the cliff. After a few more minutes of looking, I saw what appeared to be a cave opening. I went back to the car and put on my boots and got a flashlight and my walking stick and returned to climb down to the cave. While there really wasnt a formal trail, the descent wasnt as difficult as I first thought. Especially with my trusty stick and bushes to grab on to when most needed. After hiking, and slip sliding down for about twenty minutes, I arrived at the mouth of the cave. It was not a very large opening and was pretty much covered over with vegetation, so it could be easily overlooked. I shone the light into the cave. Inside it was somewhat larger than the entrance had indicated. I crawled in, as the entrance was only a few feet high. I was quite excited with anticipation that I had stumbled onto a real pirates cave. As I shone the light, there was indication of artifacts showing signs of people having been here, but no evidence of pirates treasure. At first it seemed the cave was quite shallow. Then I noticed however that what I thought was a solid wall, was not a complete wall. And there was additional space behind it. In shining the light into this space, I saw what looked like an old chest. As the floor of the cave was slippery and jagged, I slowly eased my way over to where the chest was. The light beam was starting to become dim. As I reached to where the chest was, I slipped, and my leg fell into a hole. As I got up and shined the light on the chest, I was aware that it was precariously perched over a hole which went down about 100 feet. I tried to gently move the chest to a more stable setting. Big mistake. It was too heavy to move and it fell several inches into the hole. It was a very difficult maneuver. First because the light was so dim, and I was afraid to get too close to the chest as I surely did not want to risk falling into the hole. It was scary enough just having my leg fall into it. I realized that in my haste to get to the chest, I had no prior thought that there would be the likelihood of a hole. And had it not been for the chest covering most of the hole I would have taken an unwelcome plunge that I would not have survived. The chest had a very old rusted lock on it. I wedged my walking stick between the lock and the clasp. With some applied pressure, the clasp broke away from the chest. Although at an awkward angle, I was able to insert the stick in enough to flip open the lid and peer in. This took several tries. I had to put the flashlight down. It was an almost an impossible situation, as there was little light shining from the flashlight. The chest was empty except for a rectangular flat box about 12 by 18 inches that was on the bottom. The walking stick was one I had made which had a pointy piece sticking out perpendicular to the bottom like a hook. I attempted to use this to pry the box open. I was afraid to get too close. I had to do a bit of jabbing to get the lid of the box open. Unfortunately, the more I jabbed with the stick, the more the chest started slipping down the hole. I was finally able to open the lid and peer into the box, and right after I got a good look at the contents of the box, the chest fell through the hole. I hastily let the stick go or it would have pulled me down also. I also lost the flash light, but fortunately there was enough light to see my way out. I worked my way slowly out of the cave just in case there were other holes in the cave. After much efforting, and getting very scratched up, I returned to the car, and caught my breath, I tried to put things into perspective. I had seen something in the box that was unlike anything I had ever seen. It resembled a typewriter in some ways. Gradually the memory of that experience faded. It wasnt till 25 years later when I understood what I had seen. That box in the chest was a lap top. I have never told this story to anyone before for a number of reasons. This experience took place in 1980. There werent even personal computers at this time. Much less laptops. Also what I had seen in an ancient chest was something that probably had been there over one hundred years. Also Ive gone back to that same spot on several occasions and could find no trace of the cave. I havent even told Margaret this story. She would say it is just my fertile imagination working overtime. So well just say that is the case, and now that Ive told the tale, I can release it. I know you will ask me if it really happened. I can only say that it is as true as any tale I will tell you.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 03:47:09 +0000
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