Sally and Raca
She stood frozen in horror as the rest of her fourth grade class walked into the opening of the mine. It was like a black hole in the side of the mountain, eager and ready to swallow them up. Sally was not with the rest of her class because her mother, a chaperone on this school field trip, left her in the gift shop to wait until the rest of the gold mine tour was finished. There were four mines on the side of the mountain, and she didn’t realize her fear of small and dark places until she was in the first mine of the tour.
The first mine was the oldest, and the tour guide warned them that there would be animatronics and sounds of mine workers to recreate the experience of how the first gold mines operated. They stepped into the cave, and the sunlight trailed behind them. Bolted to the cave walls were dim lanterns that lined the cave, replacing the warm California sun with a cold light that signaled the world becoming smaller. She tugged at her mother's shirt, but her mom shooed her away. Sally wasn’t listening anymore to the tour guide, she looked at her peers, who had no concern at all about the cave. She felt alone. Her stomach felt twisted like something was telling her this was all wrong. She felt a cold breeze down her spine and she jumped.
“Sally!” Her mother hissed, loudly reprimanding her.
“Sorry,” Sally squeaked.
The noises of the mine, imitated on speakers that were set up, grew louder as they moved closer to the speaker, but all it did was scare Sally more. She tied her hands in knots, she looked for her friend, someone else to grab a nervous hand with, but her friend was talking to one of the boys she liked, and she didn't even look at Sally.
Sally’s breath had become fast and unsteady, and she felt as if the mountain were going to swallow her whole. She tugged at her mom’s shirt again, more frantically this time. She pointed to her throat, indicating her trouble breathing, and tears began to well in her eyes. She wanted to sob but tried to contain it. Her mother took her out of the mine then. Sally was thankful that she was outside again, even if her arm hurt a little bit. Her mother handed her the inhaler, she took two full breaths and felt the air return to her lungs.
“Are you ready to go back?” Her mother asked.
Sally took a step away from the cave, and shook her head, no.
Her mother sighed, “Okay, I have to chaperone, you wait in the gift shop until we are done.”
And that is where Sally waited.
There were three more mines that they had to tour. She walked around the gift shop to look at the various items that all had to do with the gold rush. Little history books with black and white photos saying Sacramento: 1849, and GOLD! And there were souvenirs of gold suspended in water. The gift shop also had little polished rocks for purchase. Sally looked through them, picking out rocks she wanted, and kept them in a little place in the book shop behind Sacramento: 1849. When the tour was over she could ask her mother if she would have them.
She looked at everything in the gift shop, twice and leaned against a pine pillar looking out. Pine trees and wildflowers flourished in the early spring. She had expected everything to be brown, everything was brown in the valley, but here everything was green. It was as if the mountain was magically bound to beauty.
That is when Sally saw an old woman, hunched over and hobbling from here to there. She carried a metal claw and a trash bag, she was picking up the litter left by some of the visitors, she had hoped none of her classmates were culprits of that.
Sally’s dad had taught her the importance of respecting nature and when there wasn’t a trash can she kept her trash in her pocket until she found one. Sally watched the old woman, hobble along the path, here and there, there and back again, looking for items to fill her trash bag. She looked almost frantic in her movements. The old woman hobbled to a tree and poked a branch menacingly, shaking it so vigorously the pollen was creating its own cloud above her. Sally took a deep breath and stepped out of the safety of the gift shop.
“Excuse me!” Sally called.
The old woman still shook the branch.
“Miss!” Sally called again, demanding this old woman’s attention.
The old woman stopped and turned around, and looked at Sally in a type of bewilderment.
“Huh!” The old woman grunted, “what do you want?” She hobbled closer to Sally. She had deep wrinkles like she was older than time. Her nose was large and hung over her mouth. She stared at Sally with small black eyes, waiting for a response.
“I want to help.”
The old woman sighed in relief, she tristed the trash bag in her hand, for fear that the wind would carry it and she would have to start over, even if it was only a light breeze outside. “You see that brach,” she said pointing at it.
Sally wanted to say, of course, she could see the brach, she had been watching the old woman shake it but she simply politely nodded acknowledging that, yes, she saw the branch.
The old woman continued, “Do you see that plastic bag?” she pointed to a brownish-grey thing that seemed to be caught on a pine cone. “It’s little too high up for this claw to reach.” She snapped the claw twice, “but maybe you can climb up there and get it?”
Sally looked at the tree, she loved to climb, but her mother never allowed it. It was also a pine tree, not the most ideal for climbing, maybe if she were a squirrel she could scurry up with her claws.
“I can help,” Sally said, thinking of a new plan. “Wait here, I’m going to get a step stool.” And then Sally was off to the gift shop. She asked the desk clerk politely if she could borrow a stool, the clerk said yes with little interest on why she needed the stool.
“I will bring it back soon,” Sally reassured the disinterested clerk who only responded with a small grunt.
She was back with the old woman and presented the stool proudly.
“Yes, that could work,” the old woman mused.
Sally set the stool under the branch, stepped on it, and realized she was much taller than the old woman, who, Sally didn’t realize, had been so short.
“If you hand me the claw I think I can get the bag.”
The old woman gave Sally the claw, and she reached with all her might, she extended on her tiptoes.
“Don’t fall,” the old woman warned.
Then with the claw in hand and Sally reaching with all her might, she clasped the plastic bag in the claws grip.
“Got it!” Sally exclaimed.
The old woman untwisted the trash bag and Sally put the plastic bag in the trash, where it properly belonged. Sally jumped from the stool triumphantly, “How did it get in the tree?” She wondered openly.
“The wind carries many things, like hopes and dream, colors and cold, but now, now it just seemed to carry trash.”
Sally looked confused for a moment, then picked up the stool, “I’m gonna go give this back.” Then she ran off, gave the stool back to the clerk and then ran back to the old woman.
“It’s nice that you are cleaning up the park, is there any more trash I can get for you?”
The old woman pointed to a picnic table, “Let us go sit for a moment and I will think about it.”
They faced the mines, Sally looked for her class but they had not emerged from that pit of darkness yet. The old woman saw the concern on Sally’s face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost? Have you? There are plenty that haunts this place.”
Sally felt a pit drop in her stomach, and she felt her face turn cold, and she felt the panic and anxiety rise in her, just like when she was in the cave, “What if they scared my friends, what id the mine collapses, what if they can’t get out?”
The old woman rocked back and forth a moment in her seat before responded to the girl. “This place is old,” she finally said, “Very old. My ancestors were born in these mountains. They died here, just like I will die here.”
Sally looked at her confused for a moment, “I know it’s old.”
The old woman peered at her, “What is your name, girl, why are you not with the rest of your group?”
Sally swing her feet from the picnic table, keeping her head down in shame, and watched the dust collect on her shoes. “Sally,” she responded quietly, “I was too scared to go in the mines. The first one was really scary.” She felt ashamed to admit it. She wanted to be brave, like so many of her heroes.
“Ah yes,” The old woman seemed to match Sally’s same tempo in her swing. Contemplating the ground, but not for the same reasons as Sally. “I was born in those mountains.” The old woman pointed, “Raca, the clever, my father called me, he added the clever part.” She snorted like she was trying to suppress a tear.
“Nice to meet you, Raca.” Sally said.
“You as well, Sally. Thank you for helping me with the trash, humans, they litter everywhere. This is the only thing I left to do for the rest of my days, clean up after humans, always cleaning up after humans.”
Sally looked at her confused, ‘humans’, was Raca not also ‘human’. Yes her nose was large and she hobbled around a lot, but she looked human to Sally.
“I’m sorry,” was all Sally could offer up as any sort of comfort. “It will be okay.” She added. Her eyes became locked on the mine. They still had not emerged from the second. It felt to Sally that her class, and mother, had been in there for an eternity.
“My father and I used to be feared,” Raca said, her voice gathering a sort of darkness Sally hadn’t picked up before. “And look at you,” Raca turned her black eyes to Sally, and look disdainful, “A pink little human trying to offer me comfort. In the night, all those years ago, when men first came here to claim my mountain as their own. I remember them, oh I remember them, with their picks, and their explosives turning my hope upside down for their greed and their wealth,” Dark clouds gathered in the sky, and the old woman skin had a green tinge to it that Sally hadn’t noticed before. “We would boil a man's bones and suck out his marrow!” She growled, and Sally jumped from the picnic table away from the old woman. Her green hand gnarled up and made a fist when she clenched a nearby rock split in two and made a sound so sorrowful that Sally began to cry.
Even with Sally's fear and her tears Raca relentlessly continued, “Children young as you worked in those mines, we would pluck them, father and I, from where they stood, to never be seen again.” Raca’s clawed hand gripped Sally’s shoulder, and it stung like acid. “I don’t need to be in that cave to pluck more little children from the world.” Raca pointed to the mine that her mother and her classmates were in. Sally wiggled her shoulder from Raca, still crying.
“Please, please don’t hurt them,” Sally begged.
Raca seemed to consider the girl for a moment and then sighed, “I’m a little tired. You did a good deed, Sally, maybe that is what has cooled my notable fiery temper.” The clouds cleared just as quickly as they came, and the green hue of the old woman moved away and turned back to a more human color, but now that Sally had seen the green she couldn’t quite unsee it.
Sally stood stunned, unsure of what to say or what to. Raca picked up her trash bag and claw, and then began to slowly walk away from Sally, “Run along,” Raca told her, “I’m sure your mother will be back soon.”
Sally ran away, wiping tears from her eyes. She ran straight to the gift shop, the only safe haven in this place, she slammed the door, looked behind her and Raca was gone. She can’t have gone far, Raca never seemed to move very fast.
“So you’ve met Raca,” the clerk asked over the counter, looking interested in something for once. “She’s mostly harmless, likes to scare children like you.” Then the clerk thought for a moment, “Of course there was that one time in the eighties a kid disappeared, and we still aren't sure if it was her or not.” The clerk was digging through her drawer, looking for something, “Ah, found it.” The clerk held out an old penny minted in 1849. “Take this, and stay away from any more cave, the trolls seem to like you. That penny can be a useful bargaining chip, and others aren’t as nice as our Raca.”
“Thank you,” Sally said, taking the penny.
She turned around and saw her mom and her class walking back to her towards the gift shop. She wiped her eyes, put her new penny in her pocket, and waited for them to come back, she had had enough of trolls.
