Peppi Walcott has a secret

under her barn on Fraid Knot Road.

 

It’s not a big secret- as far as secrets go,

you could lift the trap door above Peppi’s secret all by yourself

and you could walk down the stairs, because she wired the stairwell for lights a few

years back.

 

It is a safe bet that you could walk down the stairs all alone  and with confidence

even though it’s super humid down there

and the wooden steps are slippery.

Just take it easy is what Peppi would advise.

 

For the most part,  Peppi has gone not out of her way to hide her secret, it just seems

like the smart thing to do.

 

So, with that.

Go ahead and open the trap door, hold onto the railing and make your way carefully

down the stairs until you come to the floor where Peppi’s secret  begins under Fraid

Knot  Road.

 

The first thing you will see and feel is that the further you walk, the darker it

gets and with the darkness comes the heat and together they have grown crystal

blooms that are sharp as razors, together they robbed the little creatures that live

down there of their sight and leached them of any trace of color they may have once

had.

 

At this point there is no electricity and

what light you bring in on your own will be gobbled up by  the blackness fills Peppi’s

secret.

Remember, walk slowly and carefully and you will be okay. Your flashlight will do just

fine.

 

Turn left here where the rocks sparkle green and yellow- turn right next to the   little

stream that hisses as it swims over the rocks that look like the broken bones – relax,

they only look like broken bones pushed against the wall by careless and clumsy feet

just keep walking carefully through the tunnels and caves that started under Peppi’s

barn.

 

There are so many things to see, if you can bear the heat ,  on the walls of Peppi’s cave.

 

Handprints in red and blue, little message scrawled from one explorer to another will

be at  eye level

drawings of fish with fins that almost look like hands are drawn close to the floor,  cats

with horns, snakes with feathers and feet and faces with no eyes on the heads of

wolves with long and terrible  teeth are drawn just above your head

and thorns, there a so many pictures of thorns sprouting from the ceiling  are

everywhere , it’s as if they have sprouted from the rock .

 

Are those these the secrets of Peppi’s cave you might be wondering at this point,

this strange art work, painted and carved and scratched into the walls, on floors, on the

stalactites bleeding down from the ceilings?

It’s possible that you will not be wondering for long because you may have noticed its

getting warmer, not cooler and it might occur to you that this isn’t normal, or is it?

 

Why did you pay more attention in science class when you were a kid!

 

You might be on the verge of panicking, but hang on just go a little further and you will

find a set of stairs that will take you above ground, where the air is cooler and the sky is

cool  and blue and there’s an Ice Cream Shoppe just a half a mile away.

 

You get to the door, you reach for the handle and of course there isn’t one.

 

That’s Peppi’s secret, the doors to the cave system under her barn on Fraid Knot Road

only open from the outside- when she feels like opening them that is.