In the late afternoon sunlight, at the remains of the old Merker building, the Lambchops and the Weekses watched Chief Johnson prepare Stanley for his rescue attempt. Flash Tobin, the Daily Sentinel photographer, was there too, taking pictures.
Mrs. Lambchop had supplied two slices of bread and cheese, each wrapped in plastic, and her grandfather’s flat silver cigarette case filled with grape soda. Chief Johnson taped the bread and cheese packets to Stanley’s arms and legs, the cigarette case to his chest, and gave him a small, flat flashlight.
Then he led Stanley up to a tall crack in the wreckage. “Emma!” he shouted. “Fella’s coming to help you! When he calls your name, you holler back ‘Here!’ so he knows which way to go. Got that?”
Emma’s voice came faintly. “Yeah, yeah! Hurry up! I’m starving!”
Chief Johnson shook Stanley’s hand. “Good luck, son!”
The evening sunlight glowed warmly on the red bricks of the fallen building as Stanley stepped close to the crack. Mrs. Lambchop waved to him, and Stanley waved back. How handsome he is, she thought. How brave, how tall, how flat!
Stanley took two steps forward and disappeared sideways through the crack. A moment later they heard his shout. “Hey! It’s really dark in here!”
“Hay is for horses, Stanley!” Mrs. Lambchop called back. “Oh, never mind! Good luck, dear!”
This was a dark greater than any he had ever known. Stanley could almost feel the blackness on his skin. He clicked on his flashlight and edged forward without difficulty, but then the crack narrowed, slowing him. The bread slice on his left leg had scraped something, loosening the tape that held it. Pressing the tape back into place, he wiggled forward until he came to what seemed a dead end, but a little swing of the flashlight showed cracks branching right and left.
“Here!”
Her voice came from the right, so he moved along that branch. “Emma?”
“Yeah, yeah! What?”
“When I say your name, you’re supposed to say ‘Here!’”
He followed another crack to the left. “Emma?”
There was no answer. Stanley managed a few more feet and then, quite suddenly, the crack widened. He called again. “Emma?”
“Bananas!”
“Keep talking,” he shouted. “I need to hear you!”
“Bananas! Here! Blah, blah! Whatever! Hey, I can see your light!”
And there she was. The crack had widened to become a small cave, at the back of which sat Emma. Her jeans and shirt were smudged with dirt, but it was most surely Emma, squinting against the brightness of his light.
“You!” she exclaimed. “From school! The flattie!”
Don’t lose your temper, Stanley told himself. “I was the only one they thought could get in here. How are you doing, Emma?”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Oh, just great! A whole building falls on me, and they send in a flattie! And now I’m starving to death!”
Stanley untaped the slices of bread and cheese, and handed them over.
“Cheese, huh?” Emma put her sandwich together and took a bite. “I hate cheese. Got anything to drink, flattie?”
“Please don’t call me flattie. Here.” He held out the silver cigarette case.
Emma rolled her eyes again. “I’m not allowed to smoke.”
“It’s soda.”
She opened the cigarette case and sipped. “Blaahh! I hate grape!”
Chief Johnson’s voice rose from a hole in the wall behind her. “Stanley? You there yet?”
Emma jerked a thumb at the hole. “It’s for you, flattie.”
“I’m here, Chief!” Stanley called. “Emma’s okay.”
He heard cheering, and then the Chief’s voice came again. “See a way out, Stan?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look around yet. Emma’s eating.”
“We’ll wait. Over and out, Stan!”
“You too!” Stanley called.
He waited until Emma had finished her sandwich. “Emma, how did you get into this mess? What made you come in here?”
“I just came over to look,” Emma said. “And they had all these signs! ‘Danger! Keep out!’ All over the place, even behind in the parking lot. ‘Keep out! Danger! Danger!’ I really hate that, you know? So there was this door, and it was open, so I went in.” She finished the grape soda. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Not the way I came in,” Stanley said. “I could just barely squeeze through. And we have to be careful, because—”
“I know!” Emma interrupted. “Chief whatshisname kept telling me: ‘Don’t move around! The whole rest of the building might crash down!’ So am I supposed to live down here forever?”
“This door you came through,” Stanley said. “How far did you come to find this sort of cave we’re in?”
“Who said anything about far? I just got inside, and there were these crashing noises, and the whole building was shaking, and I fell down right here! The crashing went on forever! I thought I was going to die!”
“Calm down.” An idea came into Stanley’s head. “Just where was this door? Do you remember?”
“Over there somewhere.” Emma pointed into the darkness of a corner behind her.
Stanley swung his light, but saw only what seemed to be a solid wall of splintered boards, rock, and brick.
Emma pointed a bit left, then right. “Maybe there … I don’t know! Was I supposed to take pictures or something? What difference does it make?”
“We might be just a little bit inside that door,” Stanley said. “And what we want is to be just outside of it.”
Moving closer to the corner, he saw that a jagged piece of wood protruded at waist level. It came out easily when he tugged, followed by loose dirt.
Emma stood beside him. “Why are you making this mess?”
He poked in the hole with the stick. “Maybe I’ll find—”
Dirt cascaded from the wall, covering his shoes. He saw light now, not just the little circle from his flashlight, but daylight! Unmistakably daylight!
“Oooohhhh!” said Emma.
Stanley made the hole still larger, and they saw that a door lay on its side across the bottom of the hole, wreckage limiting the opening on both sides. But it was big enough! They would be able to wiggle through! He ran back to the wall from which Chief Johnson’s voice had come.
“We’re on our way out!” he shouted. “We’ll be in back, in the courtyard!”
“Got it!” came the Chief’s voice. “Great work!”
Stanley turned to Emma. “Let’s go!”
“I’ll get all dirty, silly,” Emma said. “Maybe we could just—”
“Come ON!”
“Don’t yell!” Emma said, but she crawled quickly through the hole with Stanley right behind her.