goes straight, Savannah and a couple of her gang veer right. “Looks can be deceiving,” Savannah asserts. The girls around us giggle. I’m embarrassed that I’ve never bothered to learn their names.
We run, our pounding footfalls echoing through the hallway until we hit a dead end. Savannah opens the door on the left, and we follow her into a dark room. She flips on the light switch, and I see a set of stairs leading down.
“This is one of the entrances to the underground tunnels,” Glasses Girl explains to me. “They were built as part of the Underground Railroad to help hide escaped slaves. One passage leads to the chapel. Others lead to the kindergarten, to the gym, to the pastor’s house, and to the administration building.”
I’m impressed. This does make the game infinitely more exciting.
“Listen, girls—we have to find the secret meeting place before the Romans find us.” Savannah scrunches up her face in thought. “So, there are five passageways and five of us, right? I say we each scope out one of them and then meet back here. The one who finds Neil can lead the rest of us to him.”
Glasses Girl speaks up. “But if we find the secret meeting place, they won’t let us leave again. It’s too dangerous!”
Savannah scoffs. “Don’t actually go in. Peek in and come back.”
She assigns the girls their routes, and they dash off.Then she turns to me. “The easiest to find is the gym.” We take the stairs down together, and at the bottom she points out a narrow passage to our right. “Keep going straight. You’ll know it when you see it!” She squeezes my arm. “Don’t forget to read what your medallion says. And keep it to yourself. Don’t even tell me, because some of the Christians are Romans in disguise. Got that?”
“See you back here?”
“Yes.” She grins. “Well, unless I get caught.”
Savannah heads the opposite way, and I peer down the passage I am to take. It’s narrow and dimly lit. Judging from the amount of spiderwebs, it’s not used often, or maintained well.
I close my eyes for a minute and remind myself I’m playing a game. I’m in Ohio, not Nairobi. Once I’ve gained enough courage, I walk briskly down the chilly passage and ascend the stairway at the end. The door at the top is closed, and I bite down my panic as I turn the handle. Fortunately, it creaks open.
I peek into a cavernous gym. It’s dark, but there is a soft glow of a candle coming from behind stacks of thick blue mats on the far side. Could this be the secret meeting place? Or is it a trap? I tiptoe as carefully as I can across the gym, but a squeak of my tennis shoe betrays me.
“Who’s there?” calls out a voice in a stage whisper. I see a familiar head of curls pop up behind the mats.
“Neil?”
Neil stands up all the way and waves me over. “Felicia!” He looks down at his watch. “Seven minutes, forty-five seconds. That must be a new record. How’d you find me?”
Once I am behind his barricade, he sits down on a low pile of mats shoved haphazardly against the wall. The candlelight flickers, and I’m suddenly aware we’re alone together—really alone—for the first time. “Oh . . . Savannah sent me down this hidden tunnel.” I perch next to him, careful to leave a respectable amount of space between us. “Now I have to go back and get her. Let her know I found the secret meeting place.”
He shakes his head. “You can’t. Against the rules.”
“What are you going to do if I try to go? Handcuff me to a mat?” I run my fingers over the mat’s surface. It’s rougher than I expected.
He leans over toward me on his elbow and looks at me gravely. “If I have to . . . ,” he says in a low voice. But then he straightens and laughs, diffusing the tension. “What does your medallion say?”
I finger the medallion around my neck. With my thumbnail I scrape along the edge to loosen the tape and unfold it. I have to squint to read it. Underneath a password are
We run, our pounding footfalls echoing through the hallway until we hit a dead end. Savannah opens the door on the left, and we follow her into a dark room. She flips on the light switch, and I see a set of stairs leading down.
“This is one of the entrances to the underground tunnels,” Glasses Girl explains to me. “They were built as part of the Underground Railroad to help hide escaped slaves. One passage leads to the chapel. Others lead to the kindergarten, to the gym, to the pastor’s house, and to the administration building.”
I’m impressed. This does make the game infinitely more exciting.
“Listen, girls—we have to find the secret meeting place before the Romans find us.” Savannah scrunches up her face in thought. “So, there are five passageways and five of us, right? I say we each scope out one of them and then meet back here. The one who finds Neil can lead the rest of us to him.”
Glasses Girl speaks up. “But if we find the secret meeting place, they won’t let us leave again. It’s too dangerous!”
Savannah scoffs. “Don’t actually go in. Peek in and come back.”
She assigns the girls their routes, and they dash off.Then she turns to me. “The easiest to find is the gym.” We take the stairs down together, and at the bottom she points out a narrow passage to our right. “Keep going straight. You’ll know it when you see it!” She squeezes my arm. “Don’t forget to read what your medallion says. And keep it to yourself. Don’t even tell me, because some of the Christians are Romans in disguise. Got that?”
“See you back here?”
“Yes.” She grins. “Well, unless I get caught.”
Savannah heads the opposite way, and I peer down the passage I am to take. It’s narrow and dimly lit. Judging from the amount of spiderwebs, it’s not used often, or maintained well.
I close my eyes for a minute and remind myself I’m playing a game. I’m in Ohio, not Nairobi. Once I’ve gained enough courage, I walk briskly down the chilly passage and ascend the stairway at the end. The door at the top is closed, and I bite down my panic as I turn the handle. Fortunately, it creaks open.
I peek into a cavernous gym. It’s dark, but there is a soft glow of a candle coming from behind stacks of thick blue mats on the far side. Could this be the secret meeting place? Or is it a trap? I tiptoe as carefully as I can across the gym, but a squeak of my tennis shoe betrays me.
“Who’s there?” calls out a voice in a stage whisper. I see a familiar head of curls pop up behind the mats.
“Neil?”
Neil stands up all the way and waves me over. “Felicia!” He looks down at his watch. “Seven minutes, forty-five seconds. That must be a new record. How’d you find me?”
Once I am behind his barricade, he sits down on a low pile of mats shoved haphazardly against the wall. The candlelight flickers, and I’m suddenly aware we’re alone together—really alone—for the first time. “Oh . . . Savannah sent me down this hidden tunnel.” I perch next to him, careful to leave a respectable amount of space between us. “Now I have to go back and get her. Let her know I found the secret meeting place.”
He shakes his head. “You can’t. Against the rules.”
“What are you going to do if I try to go? Handcuff me to a mat?” I run my fingers over the mat’s surface. It’s rougher than I expected.
He leans over toward me on his elbow and looks at me gravely. “If I have to . . . ,” he says in a low voice. But then he straightens and laughs, diffusing the tension. “What does your medallion say?”
I finger the medallion around my neck. With my thumbnail I scrape along the edge to loosen the tape and unfold it. I have to squint to read it. Underneath a password are
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