Chapter 2 – Frozen Lake
"Last time we dealt with a lake we exposed a massive environmental pollution deal, do you remember?" Ivy said while Zach drove the car towards the town of Burgess.
"The cursed bells one, wasn't it? That guy really had fun discharging polluted waters in the lake. Everyone thought it was magic because every day at midnight a bells sound come from the lake" he recalled, with a smile "But that was boring, we discovered at the first immersion that an old submerged bell tower was hit by the stream of water. I hope this one is more interesting" he wished.
Ivy smirked: "Me too. Are we here already?" she asked, surprised as they passed over a sign with the name 'Burgess' on.
"Told you: not far. I asked dad to phone the mayor: we need his permission to start working"
"Seems legit" Ivy looked out the car window. Burgess was born as a Colonial town in the late XVI century, and it didn't expand much since then: it was still a small town with one church, one school and many old buildings along the newest ones.
It was a bright day of mid-August and they spotted a bunch of kids playing with water pistols and water bombs, since school hadn't start yet.
Finally, they reached the mayor's house, one of the more modern ones; as they parked the car a tall man with a moustache approached and shook Zach's hand as soon as he stepped out of the vehicle: "Zachariah Summer, I presume" he greeted him "and Yvonne…"
"Ivy" she corrected him.
"Of course" he didn't seem to be bothered "Please, come inside so we can talk".
The twins walked inside the house. "Make yourself at home" the man said, encouraging them to sit down on a large comfy sofa.
"So" Zach started once they settled down "our father should have called, did he explain the…situation to you?"
The mayor cleared his throat before speaking: "Yes, yes, he did…to be honest I didn't know about the place myself until few hours ago. I decided to check myself and…well, it was exactly as he described it" he told them, Ivy and Zach exchanged an excited look.
"How long have you been mayor of Burgess, Mr. Nolan?" Ivy asked, politely.
"Since this summer" he answered, with a puzzled look. "If I knew about it earlier, I would have exploited for tourism…" he sighed.
"Not until we finish our investigation" Zach interrupted him "So, the lake isn't private property, then?"
"It isn't" he confirmed. The twins then stood up simultaneously: "That's all we needed to know" Ivy said with a smile.
The man looked like he was a bit worried, nonetheless he handled them a map of the woods with an X marking the lake.
"Thank you very much" the girl said again when Mr. Nolan accompanied them outside, before hopping into the car.
"You know? You sound like somebody else when you're so polite" the boy told his sister when they both closed the car's doors. Ivy didn't even look at him: "Shut up and drive" she ordered: "Can we reach the place by car?"
"Don't think so" he replied "We'll approach the woods, then walk 'til the place. By the way, what do we have?"
"A depth gauge, some tubes for samples, a thermic swimsuit with oxygen tanks and an ice-melter" she listed "Since we're not far from home, I left most of the stuff at the lab"
"I agree with you…but a swimsuit? It shouldn't be bigger than a pond!"
"We don't know how deep it is…"
Zach didn't let her finish: "And what the hell is an ice-melter?!"
Ivy sighed: "I suppose we're going to find out" she said.
Zach drove the car until an empty parking on the edge of the woods, the air was nicely warm and not far away from them a family with two children was having a picnic.
The two of them started packing their instruments in two backpacks, then locked the car and headed towards the place indicated by the map. They walked for five minutes in complete silence, then Ivy finally spoke: "Can you remember the last time we had a picnic like that?" she wondered.
"Probably when mom was still alive" Zach stated, simply, without any emotion in his voice. Ivy was about to reply when a gust of cold air surprised her: they were both wearing light clothes and the sudden cold made them shiver.
"There it is…" Zach said. In front of them opened a small clearing, surrounded by rocks; they stared in awe at the sight of a beautiful frozen little lake. Sunshine shone and glittered on the icy surface, wrapping the place into a magical feeling. And yet, Ivy couldn't help but feel uneasy: the cold and the total absence of grass or animals gave her a feeling of death. Slowly she left her backpack on the lakeside and walked on the ice.
"Ivy, what are you doing?! It's dangerous!" Zach called her.
"It's not" she replied, surprised herself: "It's surprisingly thick, not even a crack!" kneeling, Ivy wiped away the snow, trying to see below the surface but the ice was dull.
"Ok, time to start!" she exclaimed rising up and rubbing her hands to warm them; she went back to her backpack and pulled out a box containing a long, needle-like object, with a cloth handle and a wire linking it to a battery. Then she grabbed a long wire with a weight and a meter; Zach looked at her curiously.
Ivy walked to what approximately was the center of the lake and pressed the long object's switch, careful to not touch it but from the handle: as a matter of fact, the metal became soon white hot, the girl put the object in the ice, and cut a deep circle in the ice, like a knife in a pat.
"Ok, Ice-melter" Zach stated "Does exactly what it says"
It took a while to reach the water underneath, since the ice was thicker than they thought, but finally ice cold water came out: "There's a three-feet layer of ice!" Ivy exclaimed.
"You're kidding me!" Zach joined her and whistled as he looked down: "How deep do you think it is?"
The girl threw the weight in the water, holding the wire: "We're about to find out" she murmured as she slowly let the weight sink deeper and deeper.
"3 feet, 4, 6…it's pretty deep too…" she observed, the rope still didn't stop "15, 16…" the weight finally stopped: "between 19 and 20 feet, including the ice" she stated as she started to recover the depth gauge.
"Cool" Zach commented, after a moment "Like, cool, cold! Did you get it?"
Ivy looked at him like she just wanted to facepalm, then went back to the lakeside and tossed him a pencil and a block-notes: "Stop blabbering and start working" she scolded him, then proceeded to unpack the swimsuit and the oxygen tanks.
"Am I going down?" Zach asked, hopeful, as he scribbled down the data they collected.
"Nope. I am" she retorted.
"Eh? What? That's not fair!" he pouted
"I'm your older sister: I decide" she stated
"You're two minutes older than me!" he cried "Don't be such an ass, Ivy!"
The girl laughed: "Just kidding" she gripped his shoulder tight, "Listen, once we're back, I'll let you deal with the lab analysis, all right?"
Zach smiled like a child who just received a new toy: "Deal!"
Ivy smiled too: Zach was such a baby sometimes, but he had always been there for her in the most difficult moment, he always knew what to say and what to do to make her feel better. That's why she loved him so much, more than how much she actually loved their father, who wasn't home most of the time. Since their mother died when the twins were 12, they grew up with carers and babysitters and Ivy had to grow up faster since she felt like she had to take care of her brother.
They both started to get interested in physics and science since their father was a researcher, and their grew interested in how any mystery could be in fact revealed as a scientific phenomenon: they started to solve mysteries at 19 and they became pretty known in the country, since Zach decided to keep a blog about it.
They were twins and they had many things in common, nonetheless they were pretty different in many others: Ivy loved staying indoors, chatting at the telephone and reading a book flipping slowly through the pages, maybe listening to good music such as melodical, classical or slow music. Zach on the contrary loved to go out with friends, drink a good beer and he often enjoyed a movie or a TV show in front of his computer.
Ivy quickly wore the suit and activated it: suddenly her skin warmed up. She grabbed a torch while Zach helped her putting the oxygen tanks on her back, then, together, they walked until the hole they created earlier.
"Remember, search for any exchange of water, there could be even a glacier, for what we know" Zach told her "And if you start to feel cold don't be stubborn and come out as fast as you can"
Ivy nodded, unable to speak because of the snorkel, then saluted Zach in a military way, turned on the torch and jumped down, letting the darkness swallow her.
I don't have the slightest idea if an ice-melter or a warming swimsuit really do exist, but after all, what the hell! It's a fan fiction! This is an average-long chapter, there will be shorter and longer, but all around this length.
I hope this chapter wasn't boring. Coming next: Frozen Window, in which Ivy's going to find something on the bottom of the lake.
