Imag­ine being out for a beau­ti­ful walk one after­noon, inno­cent­ly, absent-mind­ed, strolling through the seclud­ed coun­try side with not a care in the world. Bil­lowy white clouds in the blue sky above, flut­ter­ing birds chirp­ing over­head chas­ing after late after­noon buzzing bugs as cool­ing breezes rus­tle tall grass.

With­out notice, like Alice tum­bling down the rab­bit hole in Lewis Car­rol­l’s Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land, the ter­ri­fy­ing sen­sa­tion of falling into pitch black dark­ness is over as quick­ly as it began.

Land­ing with a thud in shal­low water with a splash, arms and legs sink­ing into soft ooz­ing gunk cush­ion­ing the impact of a night­mar­ish nev­er-end­ing decent to the pit bot­tom of an old aban­doned well. What awaits ? What moves ? What’s that smell?…

The crack of old boards hid­den beneath lay­ers of veg­e­ta­tion and over­growth give out from beneath explor­ing feet, weary from weath­er and count­less years, made load bear­ing impossible,