THE BACKYARD CAVERNS
[NOTE: I originally wrote this story for my niece and nephew, who were 11 and 12 years old at the time. Later, in 1994, I revised this story to use as an Institute of Children's Literature assignment. K.G.]
"Hey, Dorothy! Go get the flashlight!" Danny Taylor pointed at the foot of a small hill near the end of their back yard. "My raincoat slid down in the bushes!"
Dorothy raced into the house. A few minutes later, she returned with a flashlight in each hand.
Danny hated wearing his raincoat on cloudy days, but Mrs. Taylor made him wear it. Because the summer heat felt scorching, Danny had removed his raincoat.
For the next few minutes, the children searched the bushes. When Danny found the raincoat, he slipped his arms into its sleeves.
Dorothy screamed. Danny whirled around, then froze. Dorothy had disappeared!
Danny darted through the bushes to the spot where Dorothy had stood. There, he found her flashlight caught in some branches. As he bent down to grab it, his feet gave way. Then he slid down a dark, narrow tunnel.
When he reached the bottom, Danny rolled over and over. The darkness looked so thick he couldn't even see his own nose.
"Dorothy? Where are you?" He sat up and turned on his flashlight.
"Over here." Dorothy squatted on the ground nearby. Danny tossed the flashlight to her and she switched it on. Danny stared at the entrance.
"We can't get out the way we came," he said. "The tunnel's too smooth. And too high."
"Well, let's find a way out!" Dorothy's voice shook.
Danny aimed his flashlight at the walls. Monstrous shadows loomed on them. Across the cave gaped a pitch-black shaft.
Danny and Dorothy entered it, and edged along down the shaft for a long time. At last, when they reached the exit, they stopped and stared.
Ahead of them loomed a gigantic cavern. The ceiling was so riddled with holes and crevices that it resembled a rock sponge. Rock plates on the walls looked like straws, ribbons, lace, etc. Numerous stone icicles hung from the ceiling. Millions of "stars" dotted one of the walls.
"Danny! There's stars in this cave!"
Staring at them, the children leaned against the wall. It felt frigid and damp. Drops of water dripped from cracks in the rock, and faintly echoed plink! Plonk! Some splashed on Danny and Dorothy and felt ice-cold. The damp air smelled stale and moldy.
Goosebumps formed on Danny's arm, and he shivered. Hugging himself, he said, "Come on." He bent over and picked up a piece of crystal. "Let's each take a rock home! We'll show them to Mom and Dad." Dorothy picked one up, then followed Danny toward the "stars."
The "stars" turned out to be tiny, glowing worms crawling on webs. Something Danny had read clicked in his memory.
"These are glowworms! See, they live in caves and spin webs just like spiders!"
Dorothy laid one on her arm. Danny did likewise.
"Look at the 'star' crawling on me!" Danny laughed.
"This is no star. This is a sun, and I'm going to stick some planets around it." Dorothy picked up nine more glowworms and surrounded the first worm with them. They crawled all over her forearm, as she giggled.
"Watch out for the comet!" Danny zoomed his glowworm at one of her "planets," then laid it on his left forearm.
"Look out!" Dorothy scolded. "You almost knocked one out of orbit."
"Good. The people on it are bad."
Dorothy stuck out her tongue at him. She then picked all the worms off her arm, except one. "I'm keeping this one."
"Me, too." Danny pointed at the glowworm climbing onto his shoulder.
They laid their glowworms on their crystals, then stuffed them into their raincoat pockets. They examined the three shafts in the walls on the cave and entered the one to their right. For awhile, they explored a succession of caves and shafts.
Soon, Danny's feet felt sore and his stomach felt hollow.
"It sure is cold." Dorothy hugged her chest and pressed her flashlight against her side.
Danny nodded. "I'm hungry."
"I wonder what time it is." Dorothy shivered.
Danny fidgeted. "I guess it's near suppertime."
Dorothy gulped. "Mom and Dad must be worried sick!"
The children entered a shaft to their left and followed it. More long minutes passed as they shuffled forward. When they reached the other end, Danny froze in horror. Dorothy gasped.
Ahead of them lay a narrow ledge, which lined a wide, seemingly bottomless chasm!
Danny shone his flashlight ahead. All he saw at the other end of the ledge was darkness. He glanced down. A small boulder blocked his path.
Danny kicked it into the chasm. Then the children stood still and listened. Eventually, the boulder crashed.
"Let's go back, Danny. Please."
Danny ignored her. He didn't want to return down that long shaft they had just come out of; it had taken so long to reach where they now stood. Perhaps at the other end would be the way out.
He and Dorothy stepped onto the ledge and minced toe-to-toe. A moment later, Danny heard something whirring far above him and looked up. "Look! A bat!"
He lost his footing and slipped. As he fell, he grabbed the ledge, letting go of his flashlight. He gripped the ledge till his fingers hurt.
"Dorothy, help me! I can't climb up."
Dorothy lay down and extended a hand to Danny. He grabbed it with his right. "Hold on, Danny!"
Dorothy helped Danny pull himself up back onto the ledge. In minutes, he lay face-down on the ledge, panting. He was safe!
Gradually, his pounding heart slowed down. He grinned faintly at Dorothy. "You sure are strong, for a girl." Dorothy smiled.
The children grasped the wall and stood up. Danny stepped carefully the rest of the way.
When they reached the other end of the ledge, the children groaned. There was no shaft, only a solid cave wall. "We'll have to go back." Danny slumped his shoulders.
As they retraced their footsteps, Danny thought about how his heedlessness had cost him his flashlight and almost killed him. All his earlier excitement had ebbed out. What if we never get out? he wondered silently. He looked at the yellow light shining from Dorothy's flashlight. What if the batteries go out? How will we find our way out if we can't see?
Minutes after leaving that ledge, the children re-entered the previous cave. Danny sank down on a huge, smooth boulder to rest. Dorothy flopped on the floor near his feet and switched off her flashlight. Danny yawned and closed his eyes.
"Help me, Danny!"
Danny jumped up. He reached down to grope for Dorothy's flashlight; he picked it up and shone the flashlight at the spot where Dorothy had lain down to rest. To his horror, Dorothy lay motionless on the floor. Had she died?
As Danny stared at her in grief and horror, she vanished. Your sister has died, a mysterious booming voice announced.
"No!"
"Danny?" Dorothy grabbed his knee and aimed her flashlight at his chest. "Are you OK?"
Danny stared at her and sighed. "Just a bad dream." He stood up. "Let's try, again."
The light faltered; Dorothy shook her flashlight. The light had grown faint. "It's going to go out soon," she moaned. "We gotta hurry!"
Dorothy jumped up, and they entered another cave. For once, they had no eyes for any of its wonders.
The cave had two shafts. "I'll look in one, and you look in another." Danny raced toward the shaft to his left.
"Danny! Come here!"
Danny joined her at the mouth of the other shaft. As he listened, he heard a faint roar of water. "Come on!"
As the children darted downt the shaft, the roar gradually grew louder. Eventually, they raced into another cave. On the other side, a narrow stream flowed into a wide shaft.
"Let's go!" Dorothy urged.
They followed the stream down the long shaft to another cave. At last, the stream branched into a larger, swollen underground creek, much too high to cross. Danny and Dorothy followed it for a long distance. Again and again, Dorothy shook her flashlight to keep the light shining.
Around a bend, they came to a narrow entrance, through which sunlight poured. The swollen creek flowed out of it.
The children had no chance to rejoice. The creek blocked them from the entrance! They stared at each other miserably.
Dorothy pouted. "We're stuck. We can't cross the creek. It's too high!"
Danny searched for a safe way to cross. A narrow ledge lined the creek on the other side. Near another bend, a wider, slightly higher ledge jutted halfway over the creek. As he turned to point it out to Dorothy, the light from her flashlight flickered and went out.
"We can't go any further with the flashlight out," Danny said. "I see a place where we can cross. Come on!" Nodding, Dorothy switched off her flashlight and slipped it into her raincoat pocket.
The children darted toward that ledge and leaped to the other side. They tiptoed along the narrower ledge till they reached the crevice. They stepped carefully through the crack, one at a time. Danny and Dorothy sighed in relief.
"We're free!" Danny jumped and waved his arms.
"Danny, look! It's been raining."
The sun began to set. Dark gray clouds had scudded away and now lay on the horizon. The wet grass sparkled.
"Come on! Let's go!" Dorothy tugged Danny's hand.
Just as the first stars came out, the children arrived home. Their parents raced out the front doorway.
"Children!" Mrs. Taylor cried. "Where have you been?"
Danny grinned at her and Mr. Taylor. "You'll never believe what happened to us, today!"
THE END
©1994 by Kathryn D. Green