Hesitating, Consuela admitted, “Dr. Rhodes thought that maybe just this once…actually, she was hoping the tour guide ranger would be willing to take responsibility for them. They’re really good kids.”
“Sorry, Consuela,” the man said. “No exceptions to the rules.”
Is that it? Jack wondered. Are we being turned away? Now what? Dad’s gone, Mom’s in a meeting—does that mean we go back up the elevator and hang around the visitor center on our own?
Biting her lip, Consuela looked at her watch, then said, not sounding too happy about it, “Well, I guess I’ll just stay with them for the whole tour. Will you call upstairs to Dr. Rhodes’s office and tell her I won’t be back for a while?”
“Sure, I’ll do that,” the man told her. Then, to Jack, Sam, and Ashley, he said, “You kids ought to say a big ‘thank you’ to Consuela here. There’s no way I could let you go without her.”
“Thank you,” Jack and Ashley chimed. Sam stayed silent, drilling his toe into the soft layer of dirt. Ashley shot Jack a look, but he could only shrug in reply. What was he supposed to do? Yell at Sam in front of Consuela? Ashley would just have to trust that he’d deal with it later.
With Consuela in the lead, the four of them walked through the opened door. “Enjoy,” the ranger called out just as the door closed behind them with a loud groan.
Jack was unprepared for the weight of the darkness in the tunnel. Two skimpy candle flames seemed totally insufficient in that realm of shadow and bizarre shapes. “Be careful to stay on the marked path,” Consuela was telling them. “These formations are delicate. You don’t want to bump up against them or they might break off.” Pointing, she said, “The bubbly-looking stuff on the ceiling is called popcorn. The part that makes it sparkle is called aragonite. Isn’t it beautiful? And of course, the formations hanging from the ceiling are stalactites. The ones growing from the ground up are called…” she suddenly stopped talking, staring at them blankly. Tapping a finger to her forehead, she said, “Wait a minute. What are they called? I can’t remember. Stalac-aragonite—no, that’s not right. But it rhymes.” She began whispering to herself, as if she were deep in conversation within her own mind.
“Are you talking about stalagmites?” Ashley offered.
“Yes!” Consuela smacked her palm into her forehead. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember. I must be losing it. But aren’t they gorgeous?”
Jack didn’t think they were gorgeous—to him they were almost grotesque, like sculptures from a disturbing dream. Maybe he was a little more spooked than he should have been, after all the strange things he’d heard in the past half hour, but shapes and shadows seemed to dance in the half-light, alive and possibly malevolent. Worse, he knew there were bats in the cave, even though Dr. Rhodes had said there were only a few hundred of a certain species in this particular tunnel. They were clinging unseen to the cave ceiling above his head. No! He wouldn’t let his mind go on that track. Bats were friendly, safe animals.
He needed to get a grip. Anyway, Consuela was in charge, and she wouldn’t let anything bad happen.
They walked on, kicking up a tiny cloud of dust from the silt that seemed to coat the trail. Gargoyle-shaped formations surrounded them on all sides; the walls themselves seemed to have been squirted with frosting from an insane baker. A bridge that spanned a chasm 40 feet deep loomed into view, which made Sam cling to him all the tighter. Consuela was still chattering, but it seemed as if she were speaking only to herself.
“OK, you don’t want to fall, so you stick close to me, and I stick close to you, and we’ll all be…real sticky together.” Consuela giggled at that, and clutched Jack’s arm.
In the eerie light from the lantern, her face appeared a little giddy! Jack couldn’t really see her eyes, which were in shadow, but her smile seemed off center, and the smile stayed pasted on to her face like a comic mask. Weird! Jack thought. It had to be the lantern light that was making everything look weird.
Ashley walked ahead of them, managing to move in the circles of pale light cast by the two lanterns. Sam shuffled behind Jack, his fingers curled around the back waistband of Jack’s jeans. “Quit pulling on me so hard, or you’re going to yank my pants down,” Jack told him. “There’s enough room on the path for you to walk beside me. Anyway, there’s more light up here.”
“N-no,” Sam answered defiantly. “I’m st-staying back.” For a kid who got so easily spooked by the least little thing, Sam sure could act stubborn at times.
The tunnel tour had been really interesting up to that point, but it was starting to turn into an ordeal for Jack, with Consuela’s sharp fingernails digging into his arm and Sam’s jagged fingernails scraping the skin on his back.
“It’s like we’re dancing,” Consuela was saying. “Step step dip, step step dip….”
What was she talking about? The path was pretty level right there, with no dips or rough spots. Even so, Consuela began to stumble.
“Are you all right?” Jack asked anxiously, struggling to hold her upright. At the same time he yelled impatiently, “Sammy, let go of my pants!” As soon as he yelled it he knew he’d made a mistake, because Sam stopped dead on the path. When Jack swung the lantern around, he saw Sam’s lips tremble as the tears built up in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Sam,” Jack said quickly, but he thought, Oh, great! Here I am, stuck with a crying kid and a woman who seems a little—off-center. And Ashley’s up ahead, not paying any attention to what’s happening. Why do I have to deal with all this by myself?
Right then, he heard a tour guide in the distance announce, “Well, visitors, here we are at The Beach. This is where we stop to experience total darkness. In a moment we’ll all extinguish our lanterns and my flashlight, and then we’ll see what it’s like to be completely deprived of light. Are you ready?”
“Wait,” Jack called out. “We’re right behind you—we’re supposed to join your tour.”
“Come on, we’re just up ahead,” the tour guide called. “Can you see our light?”
“Yes, I see it,” Ashley cried. When Jack pulled Sam and Consuela around a bend in the path, in front of him he saw a large group clustered in an open space that looked like an amphitheater. At least 20 people—men, women, and several kids about their age, greeted them with surprise. Jack gave a tiny wave and tried not to look as stupid as he felt. He wished Consuela would introduce them.
“Oh, Consuela, hello,” a woman said, smiling pleasantly. She was a small ranger, blond, from what Jack could tell, and as thin as a sparrow. Another ranger, a man, stood at her side, his arms crossed over his thickly muscled chest. Both rangers held flashlights instead of lanterns.
“I see you brought some special guests,” the woman said. “Well, there’s always room for a few more. Everyone, this is Consuela Sandoval, who works in the office with our bat specialist, Dr. Rhodes. And she’s brought three young friends. Welcome to our tour, little cavers!”
Was Jack supposed to answer that? “I’m Jack, and this is my sister, Ashley, and that’s Sam,” he said, feeling himself color as the other tourists in the group stared at him. A girl about the same age as Ashley gave a wave.
“I’m Laura,” the ranger said. “My partner”—she gestured to the male ranger—“is Chuck. And you have joined us in an area we call The Beach, since it’s open and the silt floor is almost like sand. Well, Jack, Ashley, and Sam, you’re just in time. As I was explaining to the others, this cave is completely devoid of light, and we’re all about to experience total darkness, something we don’t really get on the surface.”
“How come?” Ashley asked. “I mean, my room at home can get pitch black.”
Laura nodded enthusiastically. “Good question. Up above, even though you might think it’s dark, in actuality there is almost always at least some source of light getting in. Starlight, moonlight, light pollution from buildings—light seeps in from everywhere. But down here, deep in this cave, there’s no source of illumination whatsoever. Your pupils,
if you could see them in total darkness, would be all the way open and your irises would disappear. Your eyes would look almost completely black.”
“Cool,” Jack breathed.
“I’m going to ask you not to move around while we try this, just to be safe. So—are you all ready?”
“We’re ready,” the crowd answered.
“Then on the count of three, blow out your candles. One…
“Two,” the crowd cried.
“Three!”
In an instant all the lanterns were blown out, all except for Consuela’s. “Consuela,” Jack hissed, “blow your lantern out!”
“Yes. Of course. Sorry folks,” Consuela muttered, and with a quick puff of air she blew out her lantern. Jack found himself standing in absolute blackness. Except it wasn’t. Images of the cave walls and ceiling appeared in front of him, like visions from a flash that lingered long after the picture was taken. Ghosts of stalactites and stalagmites floated in front of him, almost real, but phantasmic. Was his mind playing tricks on him, or could he actually see in the dark?
“Hey, I see the walls of the cave,” a man in the crowd announced. “Is that normal?”
“Absolutely,” Chuck’s deep voice answered. “You’re seeing images your brain is painting, since your brain can’t decipher total blackness. The images would go away if you stayed in the dark for a while. Try waving your hand in front of your face. See anything?”
Jack could feel a slight breeze from his hand, which was probably just inches from his nose, but his brain didn’t register. All he could see were strange phantom images that floated in front of his eyes. No hand, no nothing. Feeling slightly off balance with no visual reference points, he teetered a little in his sneakers.
“J-J-Jack?” Sam whispered, clutching Jack’s arm in a vise-like grip. “I’m scared!”
“I’m right here, Mini-Me,” Jack answered softly.
When Laura turned on her flashlight, it was surprising how much illumination one small light cast. “Now,” she said, “we’ll light all the lanterns again.” Both rangers flicked on Bic lighters, then went from one tourist to another, holding flame to candle until all the lanterns had been lit. It felt like a solemn religious ceremony, ending with illumination that now appeared startlingly bright.
When it was over, Laura asked, “Before we resume the tour, does anyone have any questions about the part of the tunnel we’ve already seen?”
“Ques…,” Consuela began, raising her hand. “When is the bird?”
“I’m sorry?” The ranger cupped her hand to her ear. “What was your question?” She frowned as though she weren’t sure what she’d heard. “Something about a bird?”
“The bird. From the…in the car…. You know. Gloves.”
As Jack stared at Consuela in disbelief, her hand went slack on his arm. Almost in slow motion, she crumbled and slid to the floor of the cave with a gentle thump.
“Move back!” the tourists began shouting. “A woman’s fainted here. Give her room! Give her air!”
The ranger who’d been guiding the tour knelt next to Consuela’s unconscious form. “She’s breathing,” she murmured. The other ranger rushed to Consuela’s side and put his ear to her lips. Raising her left wrist, he checked her pulse, while the rest of the group strained forward to see what had happened.
A tall young man unzipped his backpack and said, “I’ve got my cell phone in here—do you want me to call somebody for help? It looks like she’s really out of it.”
The ranger answered, “Your cell phone won’t work in this tunnel. But if you’ll go to the Big Room as quick as you can, there’s a phone in there that connects to the visitor center up above. Tell them we have an emergency here, and we need a crew with a stretcher to be dispatched right away. And tell them they’d better call Station Four to send an ambulance.”
Ashley cried softly to Jack, “What do you think is happening to her?”
“She passed out,” Jack told her. “But she was talking and acting funny for at least ten minutes before we got to the tour group. Her feet were, like, all wobbly—she was hanging on to me like she couldn’t stand up straight.”
The ranger named Chuck had pulled off his jacket to fold it under Consuela’s head. “We need a first-aid crew,” he was saying. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but it’s more than just a simple fainting spell.”
Ashley stared wide-eyed at Jack, her lips forming words she wasn’t about to speak out loud. Jack knew that both of them were thinking the same thing: Sam had seen Consuela inject herself with drugs, or so he claimed. Jack and Ashley had refused to believe him, had scolded Sam for even saying such a thing, but what if Sam had been right? “Should we tell the ranger?” Ashley whispered.
“What if something else is wrong with her?” Jack answered softly. “If we say maybe she took drugs, she could lose her job.”
Consuela had begun to moan, “What am I—? Find the cat.” Then, sounding angry, “Get your hands off!”
“Take it easy,” Chuck told her. “You fainted.”
“No I’m not. The chicken,” Consuela said, slurring her words. “Too fast.”
One of the women tourists said, “She’s delirious, and she’s shaking. Here, put my jacket on top of her.” A man leaned forward to suggest, “It could be claustrophobia. My mother-in-law had claustrophobia. When she was in small places she’d really freak out. But I don’t think she ever passed out, at least I don’t remember.”
Chuck didn’t answer because he’d lifted Consuela’s right wrist and was staring at it. “Laura, shine that flashlight here,” he told her. When Laura did, Chuck bent down for a closer look.
“Uh-oh,” Ashley whispered. “Is he looking for needle marks?” In school, they’d been taught all about drug abuse and the signs of it.
Instead, Chuck was asking Consuela, “What’s this bracelet? Can you tell me about this bracelet? This bracelet on your arm,” he repeated.
Who cares about a bracelet at a time like this, Jack thought, wondering why the ranger was so insistent on examining the bracelet in the lantern light. Suddenly, Ashley said, “Hey, Jack. Turn around. Listen to me!”
“What?” Reluctantly, Jack pulled his eyes away from Consuela, who was muttering unintelligibly now.
“It’s Sammy,” Ashley answered. “I can’t see him. Where the heck is Sammy?”
Jack looked around. “I don’t know. He was right behind me a little while ago. Is he somewhere in the middle of these tourists? Is that him over there?”
“No, that’s another blond kid, not Sam.”
Ashley worked her way through the group, then returned to answer, “He’s not here. Maybe he slipped out to the Big Room with that guy who went to make the phone call.”
“He couldn’t have,” Jack told her. “Look, the people are so jammed up here they’re blocking the path. No one can get past. And the rangers and Consuela are in front of us, so we’d have seen him if he went around them. There’s no way he could have gone out of the tunnel.”
Ashley bit her lip. “Then he must have gone into the tunnel,” she declared. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he was mad at me.”
“Mad at you? What for?”
“’Cause I sort of yelled at him a while back. But he couldn’t go far into the tunnel because he can’t see back there in the dark.”
“Maybe he can. I think he picked up the lantern that Consuela dropped,” Ashley stated. “That little brat! He’s gone in there, and we’ll have to go after him. Come on, Jack, before he goes too far and gets lost. Hurry!”
CHAPTER FIVE
Jack and Ashley rushed into the dark tunnel—or tried to rush. With only one lantern to light their steps, they moved cautiously, remembering what Consuela had told them about staying on the path. If they bumped into a formation, or worse, tripped and tried to catch themselves by reaching out, they could damage these amazing natural sculptures. Though it had taken the stalagmites and stalactites tens of thousands
of years to form, a single misstep could destroy them.
“Sam can’t have gotten very far,” Ashley was saying. “It’s as dark in here for him as it is for us, so he can’t see any better than we can. And anyway, his legs are shorter.”
“But we’re not sure how much of a head start he got,” Jack reminded her. “So don’t blame me if—”
“Who said I was blaming you?” Ashley snapped, stopping in her tracks.
“I mean, it wasn’t all my fault—you could have been keeping a watch on him, too.”
“You’re the one who yelled at him and made him run away,” she argued. “Anyway, he’s always hanging on to you. He hardly even talks to me, so why should I take the blame if Sammy disappears in here and they have to call out a search party….” Her voice trailed off as both of them realized how bad things could actually get. “Anyway, we shouldn’t panic. He can’t be far.”
“Maybe we should start calling him,” Jack suggested.
“If we do, the rangers will hear us, and we’ll get in trouble for leaving the group. I just want to get Sam and get back before anyone knows we’re gone. Then none of us will be in trouble.” She hesitated before asking, “Do you think Consuela’s going to be OK?”
“I…I don’t know. I think so. I hope so.”
“Do you think she’s on drugs like Sam said?”
Jack shrugged. “She was acting funny before she passed out, but I’ve never been around anyone who was high. It’s possible she was sick with a fever or something.”
“Except she didn’t look sick to me. Just…weird. And all that stuff she was saying with her words backward and stuff….” Ashley sighed as Jack held up the lantern. The yellow light showed her forehead furrowed, a sure sign she was worried. “I really feel bad that I didn’t believe Sam,” she told Jack. “I bet that’s why he ran off.”
“We’ll apologize when we find him. But we’d better move it or we’ll never catch up to him.”
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