Coin Troubles

Aarav Jalota

 

Have you ever been inside a cavern? I have been in a cavern in Virginia. There was limestone everywhere you look. It was like an ice cave except, everything was tannish.

 

It all started on a spring day. One day my parents and my friend’s parents thought of going to visit Virginia for the spring break. Our plan was to leave on Wednesday and return on Saturday.

 

“I am so excited,” I said to my friend Aariv when I saw him at dismissal.

 

“Me too,” my friend said.

 

Not long after, Wednesday came. The next day we woke up at 6:00 am and got ready for our long trip. It took five hours to get to the cavern. At the beginning of the cavern we got this booklet where it tells you stuff about the history of the area you're walking in. The entrance was huge. At first it looked like a tunnel. After we walked a little we reached a huge cave. There were humongous dripstones called limestones everywhere we looked. It was an amazing sight. The lights were dim and focused on a few beautiful formations. We started walking slowly looking at limestones on the left and right. We walked, we stopped, we walked, we stopped, there were so many different limestones to look at. Sometimes the path was narrow, sometimes wide, sometimes dark, sometimes a little bright. The paved walkway also went up and down. It felt like it was an underground hike.

 

We walked for half an hour, when I saw the limestones dripping from above and the same shape and size limestones coming out from below. My jaw dropped. How is that possible? When I tried to touch it, I realized it was water.

 

“Ohhhhhhh! That's a Reflection!” I said to myself.

 

It was an optical illusion. Then we all moved further on our underground hike. Next stop was a haunted stop. I stumbled across a sign board that said that there were many dead bodies found around the area that we were walking in.

 

I screamed, “Run! This is a haunted place.”

 

Every single person in the cave got scared and screamed. Moments later, there was chaos, everything started shaking and the limestones started falling.

 

Just kidding! It was all my imagination. Nothing bad happened. We were safe. But, everyone in our group got spooked out and was as white as a ghost and we got out of there quickly.

 

The cave was really long. It seemed to be a million hundred miles*. I was exhausted after walking for a million hundred miles and clicking millions of pictures with my family and friends. Now I really wanted to exit the cave. I looked around to find the exit when I saw a bright cyan color under the small bridge I was standing on. I bent and looked over. And guess what? It was a wishing well about a foot deep. There was a sign that said to drop in a coin.

 

“ But I don’t have a coin,” I exclaimed. “Neither do I” All my friends said. “Awwww!” everyone said in a sad voice.

 

None of my friends or their parents had coins. We all kids got sad. We really wanted to make a wish and drop the coin in that wishing well. A moment later, one of the dad’s found some coins in his bag.

 

“Hurray!” we all yelled.

 

Finally, that precious moment came, I made a wish and dropped the coin in the well and then looked at my friends with a smile. They all were smiling. You know what I wished for? It will be at the end of the story**.

 

“There it is!” I hollered as we all ran towards the exit. I finally learned to always bring a few coins everywhere I go.

 

* For your information the cave is 1.5 miles long and the entire trek can be completed in 45 mins to 1 hour.

** I’m not going to tell you. It’s a secret.

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