Watching the small lumpy figure descend into the hatch from behind a tree, Avi played through dozens of questions in her head. Who was this person? Why had she never met this person before? What was this person doing descending into a hatch in the middle of the forest? What did birds get up to when she wasn't looking? Had that hatch been there all along, or was the hatch new? Avi had no answers.

Then Avi had to run, because the hatch was closing quickly behind the figure. Or above the figure, Avi supposed. But Avi caught the hatch before it shut.

Avi would later admit the hatch was closing pretty slowly, and that she had had all the time in the world, but Avi did not know that in this moment.

It turns out that there wasn't just a hatch in the middle of the forest, but that there was a whole cave in the middle of the forest. Was the hatch just a way of getting into a cave that had been there all along, or had this cave been dug here, below the forest, in total secrecy, right under Avi's walk to work? Sticking her head down the hatch, Avi was determined to find answers.