/K/ Chapter 35 - Tempestuous Subterranean Diary
Carolyn
Chapter Thirty-Five
I started to laugh as I walked out of the Celestial Viewing Chamber.
Boy,
that was a rush. Now if only I could get Vargas out of my head. I was
heading down the hallway back to Central Gathering, not particularly
watching where I was going, looking down at the floor as I walked. If I
had
looked up, I would have noticed that Jjaks was standing in my path. But
it
didn't take long for me to figure out that he was there. I walked right
into him, and found myself bouncing backwards in amazement. "Ooops!
Hey,
Plumber. How are you?" "Plumber's fine. I'm Jjaks. Remember? We met
at
the Cool Breeze yesterday." I nodded, somewhat embarrassed. "Geez, it's
hard to tell you all apart. Maybe I should have the diggers tattoo their
names on their foreheads, so I don't make any more mistakes." Jjaks
gasped.
"What! And put them through all that pain and agony? Besides, you'll
ruin
all their fun. They love to tease you, and so do we. But, I can tell,
you
don't like to be teased, do you?" I shook my head. "Not really. I'm a
very serious woman, you know." Jjaks laughed a 'Yeah, right!' chuckle
and
took my hand. "Come with me, Oh Serious One! I've got just the place
for
you to go to loosen up a bit.
He guided me down the hallway and out into Central Gathering, even though
I
didn't really need to be guided much anymore. Plumber was standing at
the
entrance of the hallway marked 'The Water Spa'. "Ah, you found her.
Where
was she?" Jjaks smiled. "Stars." Plumber laughed. "Oh! In need of a
little daydreaming, were you, Madam?" Jjaks slyly laughed. "She was
daydreaming, all right. Not watching where she was going, and definitely
not aware of who she was go...Oh, never mind." I looked down at the
floor,
blushing and glad that Jjaks didn't reveal my mistake. "Plumber, Jjaks
wants to take me someplace where I can 'loosen up a bit.' Would that be
the
Water Spa, by any chance?" Plumber walked over to me and put his arm
around
my shoulder. It didn't seem to bother me, although I felt like I was
going
to be led somewhere again. In fact, I realized that the constant
physical
connection that the diggers and their overseers were leveling on me, one
by
one, was slowly breaking down all the walls I had been putting up to keep
them out. They're doing this on purpose. "This way, Auntie. Let me
show
you around." We walked down the Water Spa hallway. As we got closer to
the
room, I could hear some rather interesting sounds wafting through the
air.
"What is that?" Plumber opened the doors to the Water Spa.
"Waterfalls."
I walked into the room, and stood there, immersing myself in the
atmosphere
that had been created in the room. I walked into a really large area,
with
three rooms radiating off. The room was blue, reminding me of the waters
of
Lake Sutton, which I had viewed from the hallway windows of the stone
house.
Each of the radiating rooms were painted the same color, but instead of
heavy doors to close each one off, each had a different door. The
doorway
to the room on the left had a sliding door made of paper, the kind I had
seen in some of my favorite Japanese movies. The doorway to the room in
the
middle had a light wooden door with a small window in it. The doorway to
the room at the right had no door at all, just beads of many shades of
blue
hanging from the top. "Guys, this is a sight to behold. Please tell me
about this. Don't make me guess." Jjaks turned to me. "I'm going to
let
Plumber give you a tour. I have to go over to the Cool Breeze and talk
to
Harry. I'll be back for lunch." I laughed. "Oh, I forgot about lunch."
Jjaks smiled 'that' smile at me. "Don't worry. Cookieman has everything
under control. We've been eating real good down here since you made him
the
cook." I knew that I had made a good choice. Cookieman seemed destined
for
greatness in the kitchen.
After Jjaks left, Plumber guided me, again, over to the room on the
right.
"Auntie, this is the Agua Caliente Room. " He pulled on the handle of
the
door, and slid it to the side. "Agua Caliente?" Plumber's eyes kind of
fixed on the ceiling. "Paul." I chuckled. "Oh. OK. I understand."
Plumber stepped into the room and motioned for me to follow. As I stepped
into the room, I saw before me a rather large hot tub/Jacuzzi, with a
slide
made of royal blue something being the only real access to the tub.
"Plumber, I have this funny feeling that someone in town had his hands in
this. Ted, perhaps?" Plumber just smiled and flung his arm over the
side
of the hot tub. "The water comes from..." I didn't need to guess. "Lake
Sutton, of course." Plumber nodded. "Right you are, Auntie. That
water.
There's something about it. Very, um..." I knew where he was going.
"Invigorating?" Plumber nodded his head. "Yeah. Wanna see the sauna?"
Plumber closed the sliding door as I stepped into the foyer of the Water
Spa. He pointed to the wooden door in the center room. "It's in there.
Kimbo, you know, from town..." Plumber started to blush, and I wondered
if
perhaps Kimbo had been healing some more of the diggers. "Um, Kimbo gave
us
a lot ideas for the Spa, and she offered to, um, uh..." I patted Plumbers
arm. "Let's take a look at the Sauna. Is it working yet?" Plumber
walked
over to the wooden door and opened it. "Um, no, not yet. We've been
hauling in rocks from Lake Sutton beach, and Jjaks is going to work on
the
heating unit after lunch. Once that's working, we're going to run the
water
over the heated rocks. Should create quite a head of steam. Come on
in!"
I stepped through the door, and tripped over a large black one left close
to
the door. Plumber leaned through the door to grab my arm. "Oh, sh$t.
Auntie, be careful." I waved him off. "I'm OK. I've been running into,
um, things, all day long." I pointed to the pile of rocks in the far
corner. "Where are all those rocks going?" Plumber walked over to the
pile
and pointed up to the corner where the ceiling met the wall. There was a
large hole in the ceiling. "That's where the water will come from. And
we're going to cement each rock into the wall, kinda like a mountain, so
when the water comes out up there, it will run down the rocks like a
waterfall. Cool, huh? And the rocks will be heated with the heating
unit
Jjaks is gonna make, so the water running down the rocks will make steam.
That was Kimbo's idea." He bowed his head down to the floor, and I
noticed
the red in his cheeks. "Kimbo's nice, isn't she." Plumber was blushing
more. "Yeah, she is. My neck's been bothering me and she's been taking
good care of it, you know?" Kimbo Hot Hands? "Has she?" Plumber was
really blushing a good one now. "Uh huh."
I figured it might be a good time to see the final room in the Spa, so I
walked over to the door, and motioned for Plumber to follow. As he
walked
out of the room and closed the door, I saw that the red in his cheeks had
turned to crimson. "Plumber, is there something wrong?" Plumber kicked
his
foot around, not looking at me. "Uh, no. Why?" I had to get it out of
him
because he seemed so troubled. "I don't know. It just seems like
something's bothering you." He pointed over to the last room without
looking at me. "No. I'm OK. Um, that's the Tantric Room. Kimbo set it
up
for massages for the townies. You know, when there's a storm. You don't
really want to see that room, do you?" Wrong thing to say to me, my
dear.
"Plumber, I'm responsible for this place. I have to see it. Is there
something going on in there that shouldn't be?" The crimson was now
scarlet. "Um, well, um, no, I don't think so, um..." I knew he was
trying
to keep me out of the room, so I walked over to the doorway and pulled
back
the blue beads. There was a small gathering area and three wooden pocket
doors leading to offshoot rooms. Nothing looked out of the ordinary.
There
was an incredibly overstuffed couch in the center of the room. I turned
to
Plumber, and pointed at the couch. "OK, park it! I want you to tell me
whatever it is that you don't want to tell me. Spill it!" Plumber sat
down
on the couch, next to me, but it seemed far enough away to make a quick
escape if necessary. "Auntie, do you know what Tantric means?" Yeah, I
certainly do. "Yes. Do you?" Plumber started to play with the material
on
the knees of his jeans, not looking up at all. "Uh huh, yeah. Jjaks and
I
went and looked it up at the library. You should've seen Dana's face
when
he asked her to help him find it. I guess she knows what it is, too.
Well,
the other day, when Kimbo was here putting her massage stuff in those
rooms
for her people to use, Horseman dropped by to see what was going on. We
were moving rocks, and so we didn't pay much attention to him. A couple
hours later, I was coming out of the Sauna, and I saw him walking out
through those blue beads. He looked kinda happy, ya know, and he was
muttering to himself, you know, like he does, so no one can understand
him.
He kept saying, Tantric, Tantric. A few minutes later, Kimbo came out of
those blue beads, too. And 'she' looked happy. That's when I figured I
better talk to Jjaks, but he didn't know what the word meant. We went to
find Illuminati, but he was meditating, and you know, he's somewhere else
when he's doing that. That's when we decided to go to the library."
I stared at him, and watched as the blush spread down his neck. "Honey,
I
think we just better forget about this. Just pretend like it didn't
happen,
and stop thinking about it." I could tell he wasn't going to forget the
experience for quite some time, and I needed to reassure him, so I gently
patted his cheek. "It just makes you blush." At first, he jerked his
face
away from my hand, but then a tiny smile appeared. I got up from the
couch,
grabbed his hand, and dragged him out of the Tantric Room. "I think I'm
ready for lunch, Plumber. How about you?"
End of Chapter 35