LITMIR.BIZ

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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, but when do we get to go inside the cavern? I thought we were supposed to do that this morning.”

      They’d reached the bottom of some stairs that led to the door of a building made of limestone blocks. Peering through the window glass in the front door, Olivia answered, “Your dad will take you there after we see the bat woman—whoops!” Blushing, she said, “Now you’ve got me doing it, Sammy. I hope I don’t call her that by mistake—it would be an embarrassing way to meet her. Anyway, after you kids and your dad leave Dr. Rhodes’s office, I’ll stay with her to learn more about the bats.”

      “So let’s get started,” Steven suggested, leaning across Olivia to push the door wide. While he held it open, the three short ones—Olivia, Ashley, and Sam walked under Steven’s extended arm into the corridor. Jack was now too tall to fit under his father’s arm, and he liked that. With every inch he grew, he felt a bit more grown-up. He figured that one of these years he might actually outgrow his father, who was nearly six feet four.

      “Come in, come in!” Dr. Rhodes welcomed them. For a world expert, she had a small office, Jack thought, and only three chairs.

      “The kids can sit on the floor,” Steven quickly offered. “These two are our kids—Jack and Ashley—and Sam Sexton is our guest.”

      Guest. That was the word the Landons liked to use for the short-term foster kids who stayed with them from time to time, kids who needed a safe place to live until their problems could be solved.

      “Pleased to m-meet you,” Sam said, hardly stuttering as he took the hand Dr. Rhodes held out to him.

      “How are you, Sam?” Smiling warmly, Dr. Rhodes told him, “You sit here, closest to my chair, so you’ll have the best look at the pictures I’m going to show everyone.” Jack wondered whether his mother had clued Dr. Rhodes in on Sam’s background. Or maybe Dr. Rhodes was just naturally nice to small kids.

      “Well,” she said, “let’s start. Your mom said you wanted to hear about bats. The first things I’m going to tell you are what bats are not!” She laughed a little, then went on, “They’re not birds, and they’re not blind, although they are color-blind. They don’t get tangled in people’s hair, and they don’t suck blood—well, actually, three species do drink blood, but those species don’t live anywhere near here.”

      Ashley’s hand flew to her neck. “Where do they live?” she asked quickly.

      “In our hemisphere, they’re in Mexico, Central America, and South America. But less than one percent of the world’s bats are vampire bats, and two of the vampire bat species

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