Page 68 of Possibly Texas

He winced. “I can’t guarantee that, but I’ve been crawling through them almost every night, so I don’t think any animals have found them to be a suitable home. Most things that like to live in dark, small spaces don’t like to be disturbed all of the time.”

Every night. Auggie had been testing the installation art almost every night. When he pulled the lever, lights came on and the skylight was open. If he didn’t make it to the lever inside the silo in time, the skylight closed. He always practiced around midnight. And he hadn’t figured out his maze yet. That’s why I’d see the lights at night and their sudden disappearance at midnight.

I smiled to myself. Another Possibly mystery solved.

“So?” Auggie perked up. “Are you still up for it? It’s nearly eleven-fifty.”

Ten-minute timer. He starts his maze at eleven-fifty.

Yup. Mystery solved. The barn wasn’t a dance club or a hideout for secret government agents, or a docking port for space aliens. Auggie’s art installation had been the culprit all along.

“Um, yeah,” I said. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Do you want to go in by my workbench or at the other side of the room?” he asked.

“Which do you usually use?”

“Workbench entrance.”

“I’ll take the other one.” I gestured vaguely to the other side of the barn. “I haven’t been in either and I don’t want you going in blind when you’re maybe starting to learn the other one’s twists and turns.”

He scoffed. “Yeah. Not likely. It’s pretty twisty and turn-y.”

We both laughed, then Auggie nodded his head towards the other side of the barn.

“Get ready,” he said. “Take your position, sir.”

Suddenly, filled with excitement and no longer with concern and dread, I jogged across the barn, the shadows enveloping me. It took me a second in the low lighting at the other side of the barn to find the opening to the ductwork. But once I found it, I stood next to it and waved across the room at Auggie.

“Find it?” he hollered.

“Got it!” I answered.

“Okay,” he said as he walked over to the lever on the outside of the silo and gripped it in his hand, “once I pull down, the timer starts. Go right away. Don’t waste time. We’ve got this!”

I held a thumb up.

“Got it!”

“Ready?”

“Ready!”

I watched Auggie smile at me from his spot next to the silo, hoping that I wouldn’t let him down. If he got to the silo’s interior and I didn’t, I’d feel awful for ruining his success—especially after he had been trying for so long. Regardless, I was going to do my best. If I messed up, Auggie would forgive me. And we could try again. And again. Night after night. Until we finally laid under the stars together. The thought made me smile.

A mechanical grinding sound emanated from the silo as Auggie’s hand pulled down on the lever. The interior of the barn flooded with lights and I blinked at the sudden blindness it caused. I barely had time to look up at the ceiling to see what looked like millions of twinkling Christmas lights shining down on us from the ceiling yards over our heads. I could only tell the skylight had opened thanks to a dark rectangle in the middle of all of the brightness.

“Go!” Auggie screamed gleefully.

I jerked at his command, grinning stupidly. Then I raced to the opening in the ductwork on my side of the barn, fell to my hands and knees, and crawled inside.

Absolute darkness overwhelmed me as I slid into the metal tunnel; I froze. What would happen if I couldn’t find my way into the silo? What would happen if I couldn’t retrace my route and back out of the tunnels? Would I have to scream for help and have Auggie locate me so that he could cut me out of the ductwork with some tool?

My heart began to thunder in my chest again and I twitched as imaginary spiders crawled along my arms. Panting, barely inside the dark ductwork, I considered crawling the few feet back out of the tunnel and hollering at Auggie to do the maze without me.

After a few seconds, the darkness seemed to soften, most likely from the light that was peeking in from behind me through the ductwork’s opening. I convinced myself to ignore the phantom creepy-crawly feeling in my arms, and took slow, deep breaths. It dawned on me that the bright lights that came on when the lever was pulled was probably to make it harder to adjust to the darkness of the ductwork. It was probably part of the experience of Auggie’s art installation. That made me give a small smile.

Jerk.