Okinawa Caves Part 3 of 3 We had our favorite, the horseshoe cave, and many second favorites. One of the secondary favorites was our ammo dump cave. It was a relatively shallow cave near the bottom of the cliff mostly hidden behind brush. It wasnt directly below our house, but not too far from it, just up river a bit. We began stockpiling our munitions finds in there after the mortar incident that my brother Michael wrote about earlier. It had become apparent that bringing explosives home would be met with hostility. Grownups just didnt understand. We had that thing stocked full of explosives, taking everything we found to it each day. But someone found our stockpile and called EOD. They cleaned us out. Of course we didnt make it known it was ours, but we sure were heartbroken. That cave full of explosives was a result of our hard work and perseverance, and was in our minds a treasure trove. The horseshoe cave was our little piece of paradise. Wed set on the ledge outside the entrance and gaze across the river at the miles of land far below and at the ocean that was close by. We kept a supply of candles and matches in a crevice inside of the cave. When first entering we couldnt stand up straight, but a dozen or so feet in we could. In the middle of the horseshoe bend, right where the cave narrowed down to a small hole, there lived the monster. It was a hideous beast. The inside walls and top of the cave were riddled with holes and cracks and crevices, the monster would sometimes appear out of one of those dark holes and wed see it by the dim flickering candle light. When it held its head just right the light reflected off its eyes in the eeriest way you can imagine. Ive looked for photos of this thing on the internet and havent found anything remotely close to it. The best I can describe it is to imagine a three foot long hairy centipede/tarantula cross as big around as your thumb. Its legs were long and had knee like bends in them, and there were hundreds of them. It was a brownish reddish color and its whole body pulsated even when it wasnt running along the top of the cave upside down. It made a clicking sound, something like a muted cricket. It didnt like us, didnt like us in its cave and would make that clicking sound at us. The only time we saw it was by candle light because it stayed way back in the dark. Dim, flickering, candle light that didnt penetrate the darker places of the crevices and holes. Light that could go instantly out if you moved too fast, or maybe when you screamed and the candle was in front of your face. Far worse than seeing the monster though, was not seeing it because you let your candle die. We learned to run in the dark quite well. The first ten or so times we saw it, it scared the hell out of us and we ran as fast as we could. After that we more or less just kept a wary eye on it and moved back a bit if it approached. We had no doubt this was a poisonous creature, and it was a fast creature as its long hair body scooted rapidly along the cave walls, but we loved that cave and just wouldnt let the monster keep us out of it for long. Its purely amazing how fast you get your courage back when you shoot out of a dark cave into the sunshine and wind. Pretty soon youre ready to go back in and see the monster again. I kind of suspect that the horseshoe cave is still there, still hidden, and that the monster still lives, scurrying around in the dark, making that clicking sound.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 00:13:08 +0000
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