Since the pickaxe was in my right hand, I reached out with my left to pat this sad man on the shoulder. As long as there was a tomorrow, then things could always get better. I tried to convey happy thoughts as one of the loudest sounds I had ever heard assaulted my ears. I could not see what caused the noise, because my vision had turned completely white. My eyesight corrected quickly, but the shorter man was gone. In his place was Mrs. Kelly, who looked down at me with concern. Light shined down on us from a large hole far above our position. Somehow, I had found myself with her at the bottom of the cave. A new tinted window had also appeared with the letters “Redmaw” at the top. Underneath the letters were three lines of different colors. A shorter red line that was above two longer lines. One was blue and the other was yellow. The red line was quite a bit shorter than the other two colored lines. Another window also appeared when I saw Mrs. Kelly's mouth move.

Creeper hits you for 22 damage.

You have become better at Defense! (1)

You were hit by non-melee for 20 damage.

You were hit by non-melee for 17 damage.

You were hit by non-melee for 14 damage.

Laura says, in an unknown tongue, 'htla pn'yt fgaas hhtylp ip dfd'po zvuua'

Mrs. Kelly talked more gibberish as she knelt down next to me and touched my clothes in several places. I was confused by her actions at first, but then I realized that she just wanted to make sure that my clothes were not damaged in the fall. Thankfully, there were not any damage or stains found. She must have thought my clothes were in an acceptable condition as well, because she stopped looking at my body and helped me to my feet. Father hated dirty clothes too. Mrs. Kelly picked up a nearby cube and handed it to me. It was as smooth as glass and had no weight to it. She also picked up a brown cube for herself. Then she turned and looked at me. She nodded at me and then made it disappear. I also concentrated on the small, dirty brown cube in my hands, and after a few seconds, finally succeeded with mine too. Mrs. Kelly then pointed to all the other cubes spread out over the ground. She brought me another cube, a gray one this time, and motioned with her hands for me to continue. I was able to make the gray one vanish into thin air too. She smiled and clapped to show her happiness, then pointed at the cubes on the ground again. I was surprised that Mrs. Kelly could communicate so well without the use of language.

As she requested, I picked up all the cubes that hovered over the ground, and made them disappear. It was great that this place did not have any issues with litter. People just imagined that their garbage was gone, and it would all go away. At first, it took some time for me to make them vanish, but the more I practiced, the faster the trash went away. Pale gray, speckled brown, and speckled gray cubes and some other shapes were removed as well. Glowing green circles and lumps of various colors also needed to be disposed of. There were larger cubes with black blotches that I picked up too. Mrs. Kelly continued to mine away at the cubes as she delved further away from the surface. Most of the cubes were just variations of brown or gray, but sometimes brighter colors would be revealed as well. Blocks with orange and green smudges, blocks with yellow and orange markings, and even blocks with blue or red in them. On the floor, in the walls, and even in the ceiling. There were so many objects that needed to be picked up and disposed of. Sometimes Mrs. Kelly would place glowing torches along the walls of the mine. I did not think that the tunnel was very dark, but I still appreciated the torches. Tunnels just looked better with them.

Mrs. Kelly eventually stopped for a break. I immediately noticed that she had left her pickaxe behind. Mr. Kelly should teach her to treat the tools better or else they will be misplaced, forgotten, or damaged. That was probably why women were not allowed inside garages. They just abandoned the tools whenever they were finished with them. With a wave of her hands, she made the workbench appear on the ground in front of her. The light brown color of the workbench really stood out among all the gray blocks around us. I looked forward to what would come out of the workbench next, but it was a pickaxe. Even if it had a green head on it, it was still just another pickaxe. Soon to be left behind and forgotten like her other pickaxes. If only she had properly maintained her previous pickaxe, then she would not have needed a new one. Father was right, Mothers were just too wasteful. Mrs. Kelly smiled as she showed the green and brown tool to me, but quickly showed dissatisfaction instead. She must have known that I had thought improper thoughts since she frowned and furrowed her eyebrows at me. Mother always seemed to know when I had impure thoughts too. I lowered my eyes to the ground as Mrs. Kelly approached me. I must have disappointed her.

Laura says, in an unknown tongue, 'thwb yp vyvvo eoeq'

She had walked passed me and over to where some of the blocks were located previously. The gray ones with red on them, that I had vanished into nothingness. My eyes were still pointed at the ground in an attempt to avoid her gaze. I heard her footsteps approach me, but then there was silence. It was a rather scary experience. To hear someone approach you that you could not see. I snuck a peak out of my right eye, not too surprised to see her right in front of me. She smirked as she took my hand and pulled me over to where the missing blocks used to be. This was it, punishment time. I should not have touched the large colored blocks. Mrs. Kelly must have left them in the wall because she wanted them. They must not have been trash after all. No permission was given to remove the larger blocks in the walls or ceiling. I got carried away with my trash clean up and made a mistake. Even if it was by accident, I still destroyed something of value to Mrs. Kelly. I deserved punishment. When the dog made a mess by accident, its nose was shoved into the mess, and then it was left outside until Father forgave it for the trouble it caused. I was not a young child anymore. I knew better than to cause trouble. This never would have happened if I had stayed at home and followed the schedule.

Laura says, in an unknown tongue, 'kpy t'klo'

Laura says, in an unknown tongue, 'jyny sdut'

Mrs. Kelly pressed herself up against me and wrapped me in her arms again. I do not think I have ever received this many hugs in one day before. Maybe she just really liked to hug others. I could feel Mrs. Kelly tremble, so I patted her on the back with both of my hands to calm her down. We were rather deep underground now and she only wore a t-shirt and shorts. She was probably cold. This caused her to snort and then laugh as she pulled away from me. There were wet streaks on her cheeks, so she was obviously very upset about the disappearance of the blocks. Those red stones must have been really important. I should find some more of them to give to her. Mrs. Kelly pulled me by the hand again and took me over to a gray section of the tunnel. She pointed at the gray block around chest high and then opened and closed her right hand in quick succession. The signal to have the object disposed of. I looked at her questioningly, but she only nodded to me with a big smile. The cube quickly vanished after I placed my left hand on its surface. Mrs. Kelly threw her fist up in excitement. It was a good thing that she was short or else she would have punched the ceiling. It was low enough that I had to stay hunched over to keep myself from scraping the top of my head against the cubes above. She whirled me around and had me face the opposite direction. Then she placed a hand on two different blocks at the same time and nodded to me with a huge smile.

Two blocks at the same time was easily achieved too. With my right hand at chest level and my left hand at waist level, I walked forward, disposed of both blocks at the same time, and then continued forward again. It was much faster than her improper use of a shovel. We continued that way for a while until I finally discovered some gray stones with red on them. I was finally able to make up for the ones I had mistakenly destroyed before. She seemed confused when I stopped and pointed them out to her, but she eventually smiled and carried over her green pickaxe. In a few swings, the blocks were gone and in their place were some red blobs that rotated above the ground. She picked them up happily and then grabbed my hand and squeezed it. She had a new idea to try out though, so she had me place both of my hands at waist height, but as far apart as possible. Which was not too far, since there were blocks above, below, and on both sides of us. This meant that my hands touched 6 blocks at the same time. The two in front of me as well as the two blocks on both sides of me, since I touched them all where the corners met. All 6 of them quickly disappeared into nothingness. Mrs. Kelly was really excited that the gray cubes were gone. Either she did not like the color gray, or she just really liked the color red.

Laura says, in an unknown tongue, 'fyk'n ayoha'

We continued to clean up the underground for a while. Mrs. Kelly placed even more torches on the walls while I erased the cubes in front of us. She used her green pickaxe on anything that caught her eyes while I cleared the path forward. Sometimes she would have me change directions to the left, right, or even deeper underground. This activity continued on for quite a while. Mrs. Kelly eventually patted me on the back to get my attention. I was not sure why she had us stop, but then two gray blocks appeared a short distance away from each other. She sat upon one of them and pointed me to the other one. She could not possibly expect us to take a break while there was still work to be done. The work was not finished until after the place of work was cleaned. I immediately shook my head and pointed at the tunnel we had made. At all the trash we left behind. The torches placed on the walls and the objects that she had cut out of the surroundings with her multiple pickaxes. Since she was always behind me, it was quite possible that she went through many more of them that I was aware of. Father would never let someone like her into his garage.

It took us much longer to clean than I thought it would have. We had traveled quite a distance away from the surface. Much of that was in a straight line, but there were times when Mrs. Kelly changed our direction. There was quite a bit for us to pick up on the return trip and each object needed to be picked up and erased by hand. Roundish spinning blobs of varying colors and an incredible number of blocks. Sometimes we found pillars of speckled gray blocks or beige-colored blocks in the tunnel. I was quite sure they had not been there when we passed this way before, but they somehow appeared there in the tunnel anyway. Even after I made them vanish again, more of the blocks fell down from the ceiling. Mrs. Kelly wanted to leave them, but Father always said that the workplace should be left cleaner than it was found. What surprised me the most though, was that there were less than a dozen torches in total. Mrs. Kelly had picked them up and moved them forward as we moved. When we finally returned to the surface, there was not a single piece of trash left behind in the tunnel we had made. Though she showed more teeth when she smiled at me now, I could tell that Mrs. Kelly was also happy with our efforts. Hopefully, some wildlife could make use of the tunnels in the future.

After we exited the cave, Mrs. Kelly ran to the nearest tree and attacked it. She really hated trees for some reason. The workbench soon appeared and gave her some more sticks. Then a new item showed up for the first time in a while. A flat wooden item that she placed down onto the ground. The workbench gave her a small “c” shaped item next. That item created sparks and a roaring flame appeared in the middle of the wooden item that she had placed on the ground before. It was a fire. Not just any fire, but a campfire. There were trees around us, though not as many as before, since Mrs. Kelly killed so many, but there were still many trees that remained. A gray and white mountain was in the distance. We were outdoors and with a real campfire. The fire emitted smoke and even made crackling noises. I quickly sat down next to the campfire and raised my hands towards it. I stayed up late to watch a happy holiday movie years ago. The family faced their palms towards the campfire to warm them. Even though I could not feel the heat emitted from the yellow and orange flames, it was still a fire. It looked and sounded just like the television show Mother would put on for the Winter Solstice. I picked up one of the sticks that Mrs. Kelly had abandoned on the ground, and tried to poke the campfire. The stick would not ignite, and nothing seemed to happen to the fire, so I instead held the stick up to it and pretended that there was a blob of whiteness on the end. I hoped the fire would last until nightfall. Even I knew that campfires were best at night.

For some reason though, the campfire I had hoped to enjoy, turned into a desk. The green carpet I sat indian-style on somehow became a white carpet....