"Unwanted Magic" 6

“We have no choice but to go forward in the maze so we need to be careful but at the same time, we need to hurry,” the dad warned.

“The mom nodded and pedaled around the first boulder but after clearing it, she ran the bike smack into a large, imposing, twenty foot rock that was directly in her path.It blocked their way forward after she hit it, the air was filled with…rock music.

“I can’t hear myself think,” Jane, the mom, complained covering her ears, “who turned that music on?”

“That would be the rock; it is their kind of music,” the magic dog woof-chuckled.

“Very funny; come on, I'm sure you can turn it off, can’t you?” the dad asked.

“I can not, but you can ask them to change the channel, but I doubt they will,” the dog told the dad with a wolf-grin.

Joey covered his ears too and called out to his mom, “Try going around that rock mom; go to the left of it; I think I see some space that way,”

Sure enough the left was the right way to go and they sailed through several passages seeing it had begun to look like a true maze with distinct openings in front of them. They turned a corner and came to a double opening, one leading to the left and one leading to the right.

“Which way should we go now?” the mom yelled over the drum solo now booming off the rocks.

"Go right,” the dad yelled as a high pitch guitar riff followed the drum solo.

“No mom; you should go left again,” Joey yelled.

The mom was confused by the differing directions and didn’t know which one was correct. “You both have to agree on one way to go,” she yelled back to them, over the sound of an electric organ, a bass guitar and the beat of drums pounding out another tune.

“Just go left like Joey suggested,” Jack yelled to his wife, hoping it was the right way to go.

The mom entered the left side and continued along a solid line of boulders until she came to another double opening.

“Go right this time,” Joey yelled to his mom.

She entered the opening to the right but as soon as she did, the music changed to a somber death knell.

“What does that mean?” she asked turning worried eyes on her husband.

“It doesn’t sound good but keep going; we’re committed now,” Jack told his wife.

She peddled forward but found no more openings, only a straight line of boulders as far as she could see. “I think we went the wrong way back there; should I turn back?” she yelled over the bongo beating dirge that was getting louder.

Joey looked behind them and saw the way back was blocked by a solid wall of rock. The maze had closed around them; they could only go forward. “I don’t think we can turn back mom,” he said with a worried frown, “You have to keep going forward but...I think it’ll be okay,” he tried to encourage her but just the, a few rocks tumbled from the boulders. It showered down around them, like a small avalanche and his mom screamed.

“Please, some of us are trying to nap,” Flint woof-grumbled.

“Sleep? Are you kidding me?" the miniscule dad gave the dog an incredulous look, “You’d better stay awake and help us get out of here or you will never be anything but a dog for the rest of your life!”

The magic dog wolf-frowned at the dad. “Fine, but you have no choice now. You have to go forward as your son has already told you, the way back is blocked. Oh and...I’d go faster if I were you, because the top of that boulder looks rather shaky.”

The mom looked up at the teetering stone and peddled as fast as she could and if she’d waited a second more, they'd have been buried under that rock when it fell from the top.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness...oh my goodness!” the mom repeated like a mantra as she peddled like a mad woman hoping to see the exit soon; but no exit was seen.

Time was ticking and as it drew closer to an hour, the sound of a clock ticking got louder, like a backbeat to the death song bongos. The bongos and the ticking frayed the little family’s nerves and set their hearts to beating faster.

“How long have we been in here?” the dad asked and wished he’d had time to grab his cell phone before he was jettisoned into this magic dog-driven adventure.

“I think it’s close to an hour,” Joey told his dad in a worried voice.

“It can’t be,” the mom said peddling harder and faster still following the solid wall of rock that had no end but then, they all felt it.

The vibration of heavy rocks rumbling, like they might do just before an avalanche, shook the ground beneath them.

“You promised we’d get another chance.” The dad turned and accused the dog.

“Did I?" Flint asked. “Oh yes, maybe I did…so, do you want one?”

“Yes!” the mom, dad and Joey all yelled the answer together.

Just as the boulder next to them began to fall, they were back at the start of the maze.

 

“Okay we're safe." the dad said.

The mom gave him a wild eyed look and shook her head, "I wouldn't call being here safe at all."

'Okay, that's true but now,...when you go in there...try to remember all the choices we made the first time, and don't make the wrong one again."

"You're funny from the back seat aren't you? And I think you're the one who needs to remember the way we went before and tell me which way to go, because I'm busy peddling!"

"You're right, sorry. I'll watch for each opening," he corrected, not wanting to further stress his already stressed out wife.

The mom peddled the bike back into the maze and this time the loud rock music was already blaring; it reverberated off the rocks making it impossible to even think.

They got through to the second boulder that blocked them and this time they went to the right, and came at the first double opening, they went right.

"So far so good," the mom said, smiling back at her diminutive husband. Then at the next double opening they went left and they all held their breath waiting to hear the funeral march played but when it didn't, they smiled with relief.

They were on the right path now but at the next double opening they stopped; they hadn't gotten this far before and would have to make a decision which way to go.

“Do we go right or left?” she asked her husband and son and prayed they’d guess right because she hated this maze and her calves were killing her from all the peddling, and her miniature husband wasn’t really picking up the slack.

“You should choose mom,” Joey said.

The dad shrugged. “I’m not sure which way to go honey; Joey's right, you should just pick the way.”

The mom eyed both entrances and on a whim she went left. The dirge music immediately filled the maze and she screamed out, “Do over!”

They were back at the start.

Their third attempted was going well until they got to another unknown opening. The mom looked back at her family and asked, “Does anyone have a coin?”

“I can accommodate you,” said the magic dog, Flint.

The mom opened her palm and in an instant a quarter appeared in her hand. “Okay heads is left and tails is right,” she said tossing the coin high in the air. She caught it on her arm, covered it for a second then looked at it and nodded. “It’s heads; we go left."

They all held their breath as she steered the bike into the left side of the opening; this time the rock music continued to play and it played a loud, orchestral crescendo as they rode out of the rock maze.

They all cheered and the mom jumped off the tandem bicycle in victory but she promptly collapsed to the ground; her legs were too shaky to support her but she lay there laughing. “We made it! We made it out!” she giggled then looked up at her husband and said, “Can you hand me my coffee?”

Joey suggestion they have a picnic to celebrate and Flint grumbled at the request, not wanting to delay the adventure, but in a blink, a picnic table and barbecue grill appeared.

The family dragged themselves over to the picnic table and the dad began to flip the hotdogs and hamburgers that were already grilling on the barbeque. The mom poured lemonade from an iced pitcher in to tall glasses for each of them and she even poured some into a dog dish for Flint.

"You were amazing mom!" Joey said and raised his glass of lemonade.

"Thank you, but I couldn't have done it without your help and your dad's." she said with a warm smile.

"That's right; it was a family success," The dad agreed and they all clinked glasses.

"Sure, celebrate this victory," Flint woofed under his dog breath, "but this adventure isn't even half-way over." Then he slurped up the lemonade in the bowl and snatched a hamburger off the table.