by Annie Bryant
“Will you pass me the flashlight, please?” he asked.
I wordlessly handed it to him. He pointed it toward the ground and turned it on. He took a few steps in one direction, then the other. “I always see ’dillos around here. There’s a nest somewhere nearby. But I don’t even see tracks tonight.”
I sighed loudly and stared at the ground. It all just looked like dirt and rocks and grass to me. Then something caught my eye. Something moving.
“Over here!” I shouted. Ricardo shined the light where I was pointing…just in time for us to see a long, gray, ringed tail disappear into the weeds.
“Aw, Isabel, you scared the critter away!” Ricardo groaned. “You gotta be quiet if you want an armadillo to come out. They’re very shy.”
“Sorry, Ricardo,” I apologized, “but this is my first time looking for armadillos.”
We stood there for another five or ten minutes saying absolutely nothing while Ricardo swept the flashlight back and forth over the ground. Suddenly I heard a low rumbling noise. Thunder boomed somewhere far away.
Finally Ricardo gave up. “I’ve got an idea. Let’s go see the tinaja. The water’s deep right now. It’s been raining. And I can show you something really cool!”
I was excited to see the old swimming hole. I did a little dance and said, “Let’s go, cowboy!”
“Isabel,” Ricardo said, “you are a funny chica.” In a minute we were back in the saddle, and we reached the base of the hills in no time.
We dismounted, and I looked around and clapped my hands in delight. Here it was, the very place that in my memories was forever magical. The tinaja was just beyond those trees, a little higher up. I couldn’t wait to see the rock overhang that sometimes had water running over it.
“I’ve got to see this again in the daytime,” I said. “Can we come back here tomorrow?” Ricardo hung his head.
“Please?”
“You know something, I’m not supposed to be here. I can get into big trouble if my father finds out I’ve come here. Especially at night.”
“What? Ricardo, what’s the matter with you? First the living room, now this. It’s like you’re trying to get us in trouble.”
“You wanted to see it.”
“I know, but I didn’t know that your father doesn’t want you coming out here.”
Ricardo wouldn’t look me in the eye. “Well, I do have something I want to show you. It’s right beyond the tinaja, further up the hill.” He pushed his glasses up his nose and started up the hill, leading the horse by the reins.
“So what is it?” I asked, following him.
He finally looked back at me. “It’s a cave. I discovered it a year ago.”
“A cave? Isn’t that kind of dangerous?” But the wind was blustery and cool, and he didn’t hear my question.
After a few more steps, Ricardo stopped. I ran past him to the top of the low rise. Below me lay a pool of black water, sharply outlined against the limestone bowl that contained it. The rock wall that formed a half-dome over the pool was every bit as impressive as I remembered. It almost felt like we were the first humans to find the pool.
I tried to recall how it felt to splash in the water, but it had been so long. I could absolutely see why I thought of this place as a hangout for fairy tea parties. There was something magical about it.
Ricardo tied the horse’s reins to a tree. He got the flashlight and walked past me. “Come on. The cave is right up here. Let’s make this fast.”
We climbed up a gravelly path. My foot slid on loose rocks. I grabbed a tree branch and to save myself from falling down.
“Ouch!”
“You okay?”
“Yes. We have to be careful. I hurt my knee one time, back when I took ballet. How much farther?” I asked, out of breath.
“We’re almost there. It’s not steep. Just watch out for the moss,” he warned.
A few more steps, and both of us landed on level ground. The flashlight went out and I jumped at the darkness. Ricardo hit it against his palm a few times. It switched on. The wind whipped up and flying sand zapped me in the eyes.
“Ow!”
“Sorry, this way,” Ricardo apologized, holding out his hand to help me climb some more. He aimed the flashlight at a stone wall. A jagged black opening was visible. To me, this did not look inviting.
He had that look again, the same one he’d had when he talked about his accordion—a smile from ear to ear. His glasses had fallen down his nose again. I could see his eyes, which were big and brown. I hadn’t really noticed them before.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. I am not going in there.”
“Are you afraid? Don’t be, Isabel. We’ll only go in a few feet. I’ve got a flashlight. Please…you’ll love it in there.”
“Well, okay,” I said, hesitating. “But let’s hurry up. It’s getting spooky out here.”
Suddenly I remembered Aunt Inez’s voice telling me never to leave without asking permission. I just kind of forgot. Hunting armadillos just seemed so interesting.
Rico wasted no time. I had to scramble to stay near him…and near the flashlight. When we got to the entrance, Ricardo kept close to the opening. He waved the flashlight over the walls with slow, controlled movements. But he seemed more interested in the floor.
“How deep is this cave?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been in here before. I actually just found it last week,” he explained sheepishly.
“You’ve never—but you said—” Before I could ask if he was crazy, a sound like the sky splitting apart shook me to my bones. I heard the horse whinny from outside the cave. The thunderclap boomed for what seemed like an entire minute. We stood stock-still, each of our mouths in a frozen “Oh!” It finally ended.
“Rasquatch!” Ricardo cried. He ran to the cave entrance. “Rats! There he goes. He’s off,” he said.
As if on cue, the rain started. I heard it pound the ground outside. Its intensity frightened me. “Who’s off?” I asked.
“Who do you think? Rasquatch.”
“The horse is gone!”
“Well, it’s raining too hard now to see. But my guess is yes. The good thing is that horses know their way home. He’ll head towards the barn.”
“The good thing?” I couldn’t believe my ears. And was Ricardo’s voice shaking? An icy chill ran through me from head to toe. I thought I would faint. Lightning struck and illuminated the sheet of rain. I could not take my eyes off the cave entrance. Another crack of lightning was so sharp and sounded so near that I flinched.
Ricardo stayed at the entrance. Unbelievably, the rain fell even harder.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“Wait.”
“Wait for what? For the horse to come back?” My voice sounded shaky to my ears.
“Are you kidding? That horse isn’t coming back. I meant, wait for the rain to end.” Ricardo’s sudden calmness irritated me. We were silent for a moment. Then he said, “And…one more thing. This is the season for flash floods. If this storm is one of those, then we might be stuck here for a while.”
“For a while! How long, Ricardo?”
He thought about this. “Mmm, till the morning, maybe. Sunup, probably.” I wanted to strangle him. My cousin had a few scrambled eggs in his brain as far as I was concerned.
The rain sounded a long way from easing up. Every so often the lightning flashed and thunder would follow, not as menacing as before, but just as powerful. Endless minutes passed. My stomach erupted in a long, drawn-out snarl. I started to laugh nervously. So did Ricardo.
“Jeez, Isabel! What are you, a bear?” he said.
I cracked up. Ricardo’s funky sense of humor made me feel a little better.
Suddenly there was another crack of thunder. Without an explanation, Ricardo shut off the flashlight.
“Hey!” I shouted.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “Gotta save the ba
ttery.”
Every time lightning flashed I saw clear as day that our situation was still the same. The rain was coming down hard. I thought about our predicament. We didn’t even ask permission to leave the party. Worse, I worried that me being lost in a storm would aggravate my mother’s MS.
I rested my head on my knees and thought about how messed up everything had become, at what was supposed to be a beautiful time for my family. It was like the Bluebird of Happiness decided to take a vacation or something.
CHAPTER 9
A Cave of Mysteries
Neither Ricardo nor I had a watch, so it was impossible to say how long we’d been stuck in the cave. Ricardo was too quiet. Maybe he was scared too. I really wished the BSG were here. No matter what, we would have kept up a chat just to keep the heebie-jeebies away.
The rain lightened up occasionally, but as soon as our spirits lifted, the clouds tricked us and ripped open again. I tried to get comfortable, squatting on the dusty floor of the cave. When I tried to adjust my position, I put my hand on a sharp rock.
“Ah, that hurt!” I protested. Ricardo barely noticed. “I’m so thirsty, aren’t you?”
This sparked him. “I’ve got an idea. If you empty your bag, I can hold it out and try to fill it up with rainwater.”
Bag? The sparkly party purse I still had with me from the barbecue was specially decorated for me by Katani! No way was I going to get it all wet. “No thanks, I can wait. But that was a good idea.”
“It might not be raining later.”
“Then we’ll just leave, right?”
He was quiet for a moment. “Maybe they’re out there, in the rain, searching for us,” he said.
“Yeah, I’ll bet they are. Or just waiting for the storm to pass to come get us. They’ll be here soon. We’ll be okay.” I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. He gave me a squeeze back. Maybe he was glad I was here too.
“We’re not going to be too popular if they have to look for us in this storm.”
I’m already expelled from the popularity contest, I figured.
I shifted on my spot a number of times. I couldn’t just sit still. The nerve-shattering cracks of thunder and the blinding flashes of lightning came so regularly that I could predict them. I started to think about the thunder and lightning that would soon shoot out from my sister. Seriously, being stuck in a creepy cave was nothing compared to what Elena Maria might do to me when I got out of the cave. Having her beautiful party ruined because I caused a big commotion would upset her, and I wouldn’t blame her one bit.
And that was if I ever saw my sister again. I shivered to think that the storm could continue for hours, possibly through to the morning and maybe all day. I decided that as soon as it got light, downpour or not, I would start walking back to the ranch.
“Aunt Lourdes is going to tell my mom to ground me for life when she hears about this.”
“Will she really?”
“I don’t think so, but Aunt Lourdes is really strict sometimes.”
“Well, I bet she’s nothing compared to my parents. They won’t let me do anything!”
“Is that why you keep breaking all their rules?” I asked him. “Going in the living room, coming out to this cave…”
“Yeah, I guess so,” he said. Then he thought a minute. “But I also just get so interested in things, you know? Like showing you the art. And hunting for ’dillos. And I sort of know in the back of my head that I shouldn’t do it, but…then I get excited.”
“Have you tried talking to your parents about it? I mean, maybe if they knew you just did that stuff because you were curious, not just to be bad—”
“No way,” he interrupted me. “My parents think I’m like a baby. They would never understand.”
We sat there in silence again for another few minutes.
“It’s like this whole trip is going wrong for me,” I said finally. “First you and I break the most beautiful piece of glass art I’ve ever seen. Then the police have to track me down at the River Walk, and now we’re stuck in some crazy cave out in the middle of nowhere and it’s dark and raining and creepy in here and…and…I just want to go home!” I felt tears coming and rested my head on my knees again with my arms wrapped around me like I was giving myself a big hug. I definitely needed one. But I didn’t want Ricardo to know I was crying.
“It’s okay, Isabel,” he told me. “Don’t freak out. It’s not so bad in here. I mean, at least we’re dry. And my mom doesn’t know it was us who broke the eagle, so that’s okay too.”
“Yeah, about that,” I said, sniffling back my tears. “I don’t think that’s okay. Your mom is going to start asking questions, and if she accuses somebody like…”
“Maybe…Mercedes?” Ricardo offered.
Oh, no. “You really think so?” I felt faint. This was awful. Poor Mercedes.
“Well, probably,” he reasoned. “She dusts in the living room every day, and hardly anybody else ever goes in there. Fonzie and Tony and me aren’t allowed.”
I gulped. “Do you think your mom would fire her?”
“She might.”
“Ricardo! I can’t believe how calm you’re being. Do you know what this means? We can’t let Mercedes lose her job because we broke something! We have to tell your Mom!”
“Isabel, chica, calm down,” he said. “My mom hasn’t said anything about firing anybody yet. Let’s wait and see if she does it, okay? Maybe she’ll just get over it.”
“Get over it?” I couldn’t believe he was being so dense. “She said that piece meant a lot to her, Rico. She sounded so sad that it was broken.”
“She did?” Finally Ricardo sounded guilty.
“Yeah. She did.”
We faced each other in the dark, not saying anything.
“I don’t think saying nothing is right, Ricardo,” I went on. “My friend Avery says that you have to step up to the plate and take the medicine when you’ve done something wrong. And I’ve been avoiding that all day today.”
“Let’s just wait and see what happens, Isabel,” Ricardo repeated.
I gave up trying to convince him. Suddenly I was really tired, and having some big confession scene wasn’t something I wanted to do anyway. And maybe he was right—maybe the whole thing would just go away. In the darkness I squeezed my eyes shut and crossed my fingers. I wish everything would be okay. I wish everything would be okay. I wish everything would—
Suddenly Ricardo got up. “My legs hurt.” He flipped on the flashlight. “Let’s go exploring.”
I sprang up and dusted off the seat of my pants. “Are you crazy? What if we wake up a bear and it eats us? Of course, if that happens, we won’t have to face your mom,” I added sarcastically.
“There are no bears here. Only scorpions, tarantulas, and rattlesnakes.”
I froze, but then ran after him so as not to be left in the dark. “You’re kidding, right?” He didn’t answer.
We moved slowly, close to the wall. In just a few feet the path narrowed and was impassable. He stooped to get past the low ceiling. I was still on the other side and was plunged immediately into darkness. The light reappeared when he pointed it at me. It disappeared again.
“Ricardo! Come back! Don’t play games with me!”
“Oooh,” he said, frightened or worried, I couldn’t say. He rushed back to the crevice and stuck his head out. “You’ve got to get over here. It’s like a little room in here.”
“No! There might be spiders!”
“There’s nothing in here. Come on, just do it.” Once again he extended his hand, and I had no choice but to accept. I almost bumped my head on the way through, but on the other side I saw we had entered a big cavern. I couldn’t hear the pounding rain anymore.
It was perfectly dry in here. It smelled strongly of dirt and old, cold air. The floor was sandy. Ricardo followed one wall with the light. It went on for yards, then seemed to form a corner. “Follow me,” he said.
As we went deeper into the cave
, I made a mental picture that if I stayed close to this wall, I could always find my way out if I just reversed my steps. Eventually we entered an even larger room, with taller walls and a ceiling that was too far overhead for the flashlight.
“Wow,” Ricardo said. “I’ll bet nobody even knows this place exists. We may be the first people to be here!”
I was speechless. The first people ever! This was better than a tea-party room for fairies. This was a chamber, a perfect hideaway. If we were closer to the ocean I would have said this was the ultimate pirate’s lair. Ricardo walked a few yards to the middle of the room and dropped to his knees in the sand. “Hey, this ground is soft. We can camp out here till daybreak.”
“No way!” The place was amazing, but it gave me a creepy feeling. “Let’s get back to the other side. Maybe the rain’s stopped by now.”
“Fat chance, Isabel. Take it easy, will you? Nothing’s going to happen to us here. Nobody even knows there’s a cave here. And it’s quiet. Maybe we can get some sleep.” He took off his glasses and lay on his back.
“Who can sleep? We’re lost in a cave!” I heard myself freak out.
“We’re not lost. You’ve lost your mind, that’s all. Just chill for a minute.”
I knew he was right. I needed to calm down, but something about this space scared me. I wanted to go back to the cave entrance.
Instead, I flopped down on the soft ground and stared into the darkness, feeling kind of hopeless. I wanted to write a letter of apology to my parents, my sister and her friends, and to Ricardo’s parents, who’d done so much for our family this week. I could just imagine them all wandering around out there in the rain, searching for us. My mom would be so worried—out of her mind by now, probably. And, of course, I wanted to apologize for breaking that beautiful eagle.
I pulled a little pad of paper out of my purse. Ricardo must have heard the paper rustling, because he asked, “Are you making a map of the place?”
