Tiffany glanced at her watch. It had almost been an hour since they had
entered the Straw Maze. It had been dark when they came in, but then the straw
bales had been clearly visible. It had been fairly easy to identify the dead
ends. Now it was impossible to see down the corridors of straw. Dave had been
smart and bought a glow stick and Kirsten had her phone out, two comforting
blobs of light ahead of her. Neither she nor Sarah had thought to bring any
light. Kirsten had gone through the maze the week before and Tiffany hoped she remembered
the way out.
“How much longer is this going to
take?” she called to the front of the group. “Who knows?”
“Not much longer.”
“Forever! We’re never getting out.”
Tiffany sighed. She probably shouldn’t have asked. “I think we need a
strategy, aren’t you supposed to pick one direction and always turn that way?
Just wondering isn’t working.”
Kirsten’s cell phone suddenly stopped, “Aha! I remember this. We have to
go through the tunnels.”
Tunnels? Tiffany watched as the
light dropped and then disappeared. The glow stick followed it. Not wanting to
be left behind, Tiffany quickly scrambled after her friends. She was finally
close enough to see the dark hole in the straw – there really was a tunnel.
Crouching down she crawled in, relieved to be able to see the light again.
“Wow, this is cool,” said Sarah, just ahead of Tiffany.
“It kinda is,” agreed Tiffany. The straw was squishy beneath their feet
and the dusty smell of straw was all around them. All the bodies where blocking
the light and making it hard to see. She hoped she didn’t bump into anything. She
put out her hand and grabbed onto Sarah’s jacket. Sarah cried out.
“It’s just me!” Tiffany reassured her. “I’m trying not to get lost.”
“There’s a short drop up here,” called Kirsten.
There was a pause as each person carefully slid down the drop. After a
turn, they were suddenly back out in the open.
“So where’s the exit?” asked Dave.
“Um,” said Kirsten shining her light around. “It’s close.”
Tiffany turned her head up to the stars. Away from the city lights, she
could see thousands of them. They were spread across the sky like spilled
glitter. She’d been trying to look at them all night, but everyone had kept
moving. “Look there’s the big dipper,” she pointed.
No one answered. Jerked back to earth, she realized that her friends had
left. “Hey! Sarah! Kirsten! Dave!” she yelled. “Don’t leave me!”
There were three openings in the hay. Which one had they gone down?
Without thinking she darted down the one her left. “Kirsten?” she called. Still
no answer. She kept moving. She had to find them. In the dark, she nearly
collided with another group. Finally, she dug out her own cell phone. Its light
wasn’t as bright as Kirsten’s, but at least it was something. Wandering through
the maze alone was a little creepy. There wasn’t anyone to talk to, and no one
to hold on to. She had no idea where she was. She almost didn’t notice the
streamers hanging down in front of her. She bit back a yelp when they suddenly
brushed against her face. Looking up, she saw they were tied to a wooden beam
stretched across the tops of the hay bales.
“Dead end back there,” reported a small family coming out.
“Are you sure?” asked Tiffany continuing in. Kirsten had said something
about streamers at the end of the maze. She wandered in a circle, passing more
streamers before coming to the same conclusion. It was just a bunch of dead
ends.
Groaning she glared at the straw, as if she would be able to see through
it. Being lost with her friends had been fun. Being lost by herself was not.
She had to get out of here! But how? Her own advice finally came back to her.
Choose a direction and stick to it. I
will go right. Turning to the right, she plunged into the maze. At first
she passed corridors and dead ends that seemed familiar. Swallowing her
frustration she kept going. She ignored other people who told her about dead
ends. Most of the time they were right, but she was going to stick to her
strategy. Slowly, she ended up in places that she didn’t recognize. Encouraged,
she began smiling. This wasn’t so bad. She passed another set of streamers, but
these ones were new. She had to backtrack through them, but seeing something
new made her too happy to care. She made more right turns, and noticed that she
could hear the generator outside the maze. She had to be close to the exit.
Her steps quickened. Soon after that, she saw light down one of the
corridors. People passed her, “Dead end that way.” She didn’t listen. Where was
all that light coming from if it was a dead end? It was a long corridor, with
lots of twists. But suddenly she stumbled out of the maze. A loud whoop greeted
her from a crowd that was milling around at the exit. A wide grin spread across
her face. She had done it! Scanning the crowd, she looked for her friends.
Where they still in the maze? After a few minutes she walked over to the concessions
stand and bought some hot chocolate. A while later her friends finally got out
of the maze and found her, sitting on a hay bale, looking up at the stars.