Follow up on the rumors of the other spring. It's probably nothing, but if someone else gets a foothold the competition will be bad for business. If there is a spring we'll take it for ourselves.

I don't know why I came to the Big Maw. I'd never considered why we called it that. As far back as I can remember that's just what it was called. I remember family picnics here, and the older kids climbing down to swim in the summer. Now, though, there can be no question. I cannot say for certain which of the circumstances has caused it to open. I do know that I must go inside. Is it the smell, the sound, the warmth? Even as I write these last words I am impatient to look back into the yawning abyss, the true Maw. The ancient namesake of Big Maw.