Running Scared (4 page)

When Consuela saw the concern growing in Sam's eyes, she quickly added, “But it's all just fairy tales. People will believe in all kinds of imaginary things, like Bigfoot or the aliens that were supposed to have landed at Roswell, New Mexico. Did you know that Roswell is not all that far from here?”

Jack had begun to worry about Sam. First the boy had thought he'd seen Consuela taking drugs. Now he was hearing stories about the Chupacabras, the Goatsuckers who supposedly sucked the blood out of farm animals.

No wonder Sammy was clinging so tightly to Jack's arm that it hurt. Even Ashley looked a little nervous.

“I'm going to call upstairs again to make sure the ranger's coming to unlock the door for us,” Consuela was saying. “You kids wait here. I'll be right back.”

“Wow!” Ashley breathed. “You know, Jack, those people who were talking to Consuela about the Chupacabras didn't look like weirdos or anything. They looked like perfectly normal people. What if they were telling the truth? Vampire bats—oooh—yuck!”

“Don't be silly,” Jack told her, moving a little behind Sammy and pointing down at him with his free hand, trying to give Ashley the message that she shouldn't scare Sam over a fairy tale. “People make up all kinds of stories all the time. They see movies or television shows about monsters and they start to think they're real. But they're not real! There's no such thing as vampire bats three feet tall with spikes down their backs.”

“Oh, sure, you're right,” Ashley agreed, getting the message. “No such thing as aliens, either. But, Jack—did you realize Roswell was near Carlsbad? I mean—I saw it on TV about aliens landing in Roswell. But I know that isn't true,” she added hastily.

Consuela came toward them, carrying two old-fashioned looking lanterns, one in each hand. Ten inches tall, they were made of wooden posts with glass panels between the posts, and handles above. Inside each lantern was a thick, white candle, unlit.

“What's with the lanterns?” Ashley asked.

“Oh, there's no light in Left Hand Tunnel. It's completely dark. Everyone is supposed to carry a lantern, but there were only two left, so Jack can have one and I'll carry the other.”

“You're going with us?” Jack asked her.

“Just until we catch up with the tour group. Then I'll go back. Come on, we'll wait at the door until the ranger arrives to let us in.”

A
nd if you look closely at the door you'll see bullet holes,” Consuela was telling them, pointing to the top of the rounded wooden door that separated the lunchroom from the entrance to Left Hand Tunnel. “I bet you didn't know that Carlsbad was the setting for a siege that happened many years ago.”

“Bullet holes?” Ashley breathed. “Are you serious?”

They all looked at the gouge marks, small and round and darkened with grime. When Sam hung back, Consuela told him, “Four young men who were, how do I put this—under the influence—stormed the lunchroom here to make a political statement about the plight of Native Americans. They demanded a million dollars and a flight to Brazil.”

She shook her head and said, “No one was hurt, thank heavens, but it just goes to show that people say and do the stupidest things.”

That was true. People got all kinds of crazy ideas in their heads. Jack suddenly wondered if Consuela knew what Sam had said about her, but when he looked at Consuela's warm, unflinching gaze, he realized she didn't have a clue that Sam had accused her of being a drug addict. A drug addict with a needle jammed into her arm—how insane was that? People like Consuela didn't get high! The whole idea would have made him angry if he hadn't remembered that in Sam's life, all kinds of unimaginable things had happened to him every day. Ms. Lopez told them that Sam had been left to get his own food and take care of himself since he was small, and that he'd spent most of his time staring at a television set, hungry and dirty and alone. No wonder the kid was so afraid. No wonder he acted so much younger than he was. If Jack had been raised the same way, how might he have turned out? Sighing, he rubbed the top of Sam's round head. Later, when they were done with the tour of Left Hand Tunnel, he'd have to think of a way to make Sam understand that regular people were good. The people that worked for the Park Service, especially, were the best folks in the world. He'd have to straighten Sam out when they were alone, just the two of them.

“You OK, Jack?” Ashley asked, her dark eyes serious. “You're awfully quiet.”

“Yeah. I'm fine. How about you, Sam? You OK?”

Sam's voice was barely above a whisper when he said, “I d-d-don't want to g-g-get shot.”

“Oh, I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have told that story. I didn't mean for it to upset him.” Crouching down, Consuela tried to take Sam's hand, but he pulled it away and clasped his hands together behind his back. If it bothered Consuela, she didn't let it show. “No one is going to hurt you, Sam. You're going to see a wonderful place, a cave full of amazing stalactites and crystals and all kinds of great things. I'll take you to the tour guide, and he'll tell you some first-rate stories. Would you like that?”

“I w-want,” Sam said, struggling to get his mouth around the words.

“What do you want, sweetheart?”

“I w-w-want you t-t-to,” he swallowed, twisting his lips into a tiny knot, “l-l-leave me alone.”

It took a moment for the words to register on Consuela's face. Her smile froze at the corners of her mouth.

“Sam!” Ashley exploded. “That's not nice—that's rude!”

“No, it's all right. Don't bother him,” Consuela said, straightening. She brushed gray dust off one knee and then the other, trying, it seemed to Jack, to keep her face even. “Well, I think I see the ranger coming who's going to unlock the door for us. You kids wait here. I'll be right back.”

As Consuela walked away, Ashley turned on Sam, her braids whirring around like blades. “Sam! What are you doing? You can't talk to Consuela that way! And don't try to hide behind Jack—he's not going to protect you! I can't believe you said that!”

Sam's large eyes got even bigger as he grabbed Jack's hand. “She t-t-took d-d-drugs. W-w-with a n-n-needle—”

“Stop it, Sam. She did not! And you'd better be nice to her from now on, and maybe she'll forget the rotten thing you just did.” Wagging her finger just inches from his face, Ashley snapped, “You better start smiling, Sammy, or—” the words died in her throat as Consuela came toward them with the ranger.

A very tall man wearing his Smoky Bear hat, he offered Consuela a book of matches for the lanterns. Smoke curled around her face as she lit the candles, and when she blew the match out, Jack noticed her nails had been enameled with silver nail polish. The ranger unlocked the door with a key and swung it open. “The group is only about ten minutes in front of you now—you should have no trouble catching up. How old is that little boy?” he asked, eyeing Sam.

Sam held up both hands with four fingers extended on each.

“OK,” the ranger said. “Just checking. Six is the youngest age permitted on this tour, and 16 is the youngest without an adult. You're planning on staying with them, aren't you, Consuela? Policy says minors must have an adult escort.”

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?