Jessica
Are there things in the world that we cannot see with our naked eyes?
As a matter of fact, I believe what lies in the darkness frightens
people the most, for it is extremely unpredictable and inexplicable.
The summer before I
graduated from elementary school, I accompanied my father and a group of
graduate students to do an environmental impact analysis in a tunnel
before it was opened to the public. At the entrance of the tunnel, we
adjusted all the instruments and divided into groups to collect samples
at different spots in the tunnel. When another girl and I reached our
assigned spot, with excitement, I got out of the car with the girl and
watched my father disappear into the darkness.
The girl and I quickly
set up the equipment and moved to the next step of the
experiment—waiting. We were waiting to record the results that were
supposed to come in a little while. As we waited, we decided to kill
time by telling ghost stories in such a suitable atmosphere. Instead of
the usual scary screams, we giggled all the time because neither of us
believed in those supernatural legends.
「Hey! The meter』s
working!」 I noticed. The girl checked at the meter and sank into a dead
silence. 「What』s the matter?」 I asked. She finally recovered and said
in puzzlement, 「That』s the decibel meter but it』s impossible to show
such a high reading in a quiet environment like this!」 As she said
those words, the reading kept on climbing with the beacon going from the
left side all the way to the far right side. At the same time, the
numbers on the screen of the air pollutant monitor started to bounce at
an incredible speed. The rest of the analyzers and all the beacons were
also ticking faster and faster, thus creating a formidable echo in the
tunnel. The tick-tack sound went madly like a metronome working at an
extremely high speed. The girl grabbed the walkie-talkie and shrilled
at whoever was on the other end: 「There』s something really weird. Come
here right away!」 This was the first time I realized how isolated we
were from the other people, and we were swallowed by darkness.
Not until the headlights
of my father』s car rescued us from the darkness did those instruments
cease their ticking. While my father tried to calm down the frantic
girl, the other assistant exchanged an incredulous look with me because
all the monitors were showing unbecoming data at that time.
Despite this
inexplicable incident, the tunnel was opened several months later and
the government even held a grand ceremony to celebrate it. But whenever
my father drives through the tunnel and announces proudly to us that
it』s one of his masterpieces, I don』t even dare to look out of the
window. Even though I cannot see it, I am sure there is something out
there in that tunnel.