pressed into his shoulders. “Now I want you to meet Jack. My, would you look at that!” Ms. Lopez broke into a warm smile. “Do you see it? You two could pass for brothers. Same blond hair and blue eyes, and the same chin. An amazing resemblance, don’t you think?”
Since Jack didn’t know what to do, he said the first lame thing that popped into his mind. “Yeah, I guess we do look alike. So Sam, how ’bout if I call you Mini-Me.”
He could hardly believe it when the barest smile crept across Sam’s face. The boy’s lids had fluttered up, revealing light blue eyes the color of a robin’s egg. He really was cute, with his pale blond hair and moon-shaped face. Encouraged, Jack said, “Hey, Sam, I was in the Everglades a while back, and I shot a picture of an alligator eating a turtle. Would you like to see it?”
It took a moment for Sam to respond. Finally, he gave a slight nod, edging to the front of Ms. Lopez.
“Jack,” Olivia broke in, flashing him a look, “maybe that picture isn’t the right one to show him. It’s a little…graphic.”
Jack was about to answer when Sam gave a tortured, “I don’t c-c-care. I want to see the t-t-turtle.”
Although they’d been warned Sam was a stutterer, Jack wasn’t prepared for how hard Sam had to work to get those words past his lips. Sam’s whole face flushed as he looked back at the floor, the color deepening as it spread down his neck like a red stain. Pretending that he didn’t notice, Jack said, “Tell you what, I’ll show you my camera and teach you how it works.”
“You m-m-mean I can try the c-c-camera?”
“Sure. Just don’t break it or anything.”
That had been the start. And now, three weeks later, Sam seemed to be more attached to Jack than ever. He followed Jack’s every move, as if the two of them were pedals on a bike that worked in tandem. And Jack didn’t really mind. It was nice finding out what it would have been like to have a brother. Although having a sister was fine, a brother definitely would have been different. Sam had dived into the box of Tonka trucks Jack kept in the back of his closet for old times’ sake; he never got tired of shuffling through Jack’s football cards or leafing through Jack’s photography magazines; and he seemed fascinated by Jack’s pictures, taking a roll of passable shots of his own. Although he didn’t say much, Jack could tell how much Sam liked him. There were worse things than sharing a house with this kid.
Now, as Sam and Steven and Ashley returned to their seats, Jack realized the crowd was buzzing. Somewhere behind them a cell phone played a tune but was quickly silenced as the anticipation grew. And then, as suddenly as a puff of smoke, the first bats emerged to a loud ooohhhh from the crowd. They spiraled out of the cavern’s mouth, past its rock lip and up into the sky like a whirling coil. Sam watched wide-eyed, his neck rolled back, his mouth slightly ajar, fists clenched.
“You OK?” Jack asked, wondering if the bats might scare Sam.
“Uh-huh. Are y-you?”
“Who, me? Yeah, sure. Of course.” Why did Sam ask that? Jack knew that he was quite safe as the creatures streaked overhead like tiny black missiles, guided by their perfect sonar system. They were not going to land in anyone’s hair—that was only a myth.
Never would he admit it to Ashley, but something deep inside Jack chilled at the thought of what was erupting from the cave’s inky blackness. That explosion of almost half a million swarming bats, hundreds of thousands of bizarre-looking creatures mushrooming from the depths of that enormous cavern, really did make his pulse rate rise. Jack pictured what it would be like to descend into one of the smaller caves in the vast network of Carlsbad Caverns. The Big Room wouldn’t bother him, he knew that, not with its gigantic spaces and spectacular formations and columns. But the thought of some of those smaller, tighter, more confined spaces, dark as pitch and bristling with bats, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
Sam had seen a map of the hidden rooms that snaked though the cavern, and in his halting way he’d begged Jack to take him on the deeper trails, one called Left Hand Tunnel. Well, it couldn’t happen before tomorrow, so there was no use worrying about it now. But how could Jack explain to an eight-year-old that the idea of a narrow, deep, dark tunnel full of bats left Jack less than enthusiastic? Sam’s life had already spooked him enough as it was. No, let him believe Jack wasn’t afraid of anything. He didn’t need Jack’s fears to add to his own pile.
More bats began to wheel up and out in a clockwise formation until it looked as though a column of smoke rose from an abyss. They came in bursts of black, fits and starts of bats, hundreds of them, thousands of them. In the dusk, he could see Sam watching, riveted and fascinated. Jack shook his head in amazement. After three weeks with the Landons, Sam still wouldn’t say ten words to Olivia or Steven or Ashley, and yet, when faced with bats and caves, he didn’t act scared at all. Only people seemed to frighten him.
“I want to g-go in there. T-t-tomorrow. You’re g-going to t-take me, right?”
“To the Big Room? Sure. That’s the most famous room in the cavern. You’ll really like it.”
“No. Not th-there.”
“Why not?” Jack protested. “Sammy, come on, the Big Room’s really cool!”
Sam shook his head slowly, stubbornly, and said, “No. The tunnel.”
What was it about the tunnel? What made Sam want to crawl into a narrow, dark place beneath the earth? As more bats whizzed overhead, Jack thought back over the few facts his parents had shared about Sam’s life. He lived in a rough neighborhood an hour’s drive from Jackson Hole. His father was a mystery—the Landons didn’t know what had happened to him, except that he was gone from Sammy’s life. His mother had overdosed on drugs and was now in jail, and Sam had no other relative to take him.
The kid had faced a lot and asked for little. Jack had a lot and asked for more. When he thought about it, he knew there was no way he could turn down Sammy’s request. Anyway, Jack was Sammy’s hero, and a hero shouldn’t look like a wimp.
No longer hesitating, Jack answered, “OK, Mini-Me, let’s do it. Tomorrow. If it’s OK with Mom and Dad and Ashley.”
Sam didn’t say a word. In the dim light, Jack could see him smile.
CHAPTER TWO
Come on, kids,” Steven said. “Get moving, or we’ll be late for our appointment with the bat woman.”
“B-b-bat woman?” Sam asked. “Like in the movies?” When Jack burst out laughing, Ashley gave a sharp yank on his arm and pulled him back to whisper in his ear, “Stop that! Sammy will think you’re laughing at his stammer.”
“I’m not!” Jack protested, but Ashley only hissed at him, “Show some sensitivity!”
“OK.” Making sure his expression was serious, Jack leaned down to tell Sam, “There’s no Bat Woman in the movies. There’s Batman and Batgirl and Catwoman, but no Bat Woman. What my dad meant was that we’re going to see a naturalist who knows everything about bats, and she happens to be a woman.”
“That’s right,” Olivia added, “and you kids are really lucky to get to meet Dr. Rhodes. She’s a world-renowned expert on bats.”
Ashley sighed and said, “I know we’re lucky, and I really want to hear all about bats,
