The three of us ran to where Matthew had vanished.

crevice: a narrow opening made by splitting, particularly in rock or earth

I would have fallen into the large crack in the ground myself if Jessie hadn’t pulled me back.

Rossi held the lantern over the opening. Matthew was wedged between two rock walls just a few feet below us. All I could see below him was blackness. “Are you okay, Matthew?” Rossi asked.

Matthew looked up at us through the narrow crevice, his face strained. “I can’t move.” I turned the flashlight on and shined it into the blackness—there was another ground, covered in jagged rocks, below him. Far below him. Rossi and I looked at each other. She barely shook her head. I flipped off the flashlight and didn’t tell Matthew what we’d seen.

“Can you try to pull yourself up?” Rossi asked.

“With what? There’s nothing to grip.”

“Can you reach your arms up?” she said.

Matthew slowly raised his arms over his head. “It’s just my stomach that’s stuck.”

Rossi looked at Jessie. “Maybe you can lie down and reach him.”

Jessie lay on the ground and reached into the crevice. He and Matthew gripped hands. Jessie grunted and huffed as he tried to pull him up. Matthew’s face contorted in pain. “I can’t move him,” Jessie said.

Rossi looked at me. “Gus, you lie down and grab his other hand.”

I lay down on the ground and . . . really?

mortification: great embarrassment or shame

“Gus can’t reach me.” Matthew strained to grab my hands, which were about an inch from his. “His arms are too short.”

Rossi set the lantern down and lay on her stomach. She reached Matthew’s other hand. She and Jessie pulled and pulled, but Matthew wouldn’t budge. They finally let go and sat at the edge of the crevice. “What do you have in your backpack?” Rossi asked me.

I shrugged. “Just my jar of water, Twinkies, and a couple of bologna sandwiches.”

Rossi looked down at Matthew. “Take out the bologna sandwiches.”

“What are you going to do with them?” I asked her.

She raised her eyebrows. “We’re going to eat them. We all need strength.”

I took them out and gave everyone a half. “I don’t think I can eat that,” Matthew said. “I can barely breathe, much less eat.” I saved his half to give him later. I hoped there was a later.

When we were done eating, Rossi pulled her knees up to her chest and folded her hands in front of her face. I took out my pocket watch and checked the time—already after two. I slammed it shut. “Maybe we should shut the lantern off if we’re just going to sit here,” I said. “Save the batteries.”

Rossi turned the lantern off, and then we were in complete darkness like I had never known. None of us spoke. That buzzing started in my ears until our breathing got heavy enough to drown it out. Rossi flipped the lantern back on.

“That was a fun experiment,” said Jessie.

“You guys should just move on,” said Matthew.

“No,” Rossi said. “We’re not leaving you here in the dark like this. Just . . . give me a moment.” She pulled her hair out of its frazzled ponytail, slipped the rubber band around her wrist, and pushed her long dark hair back from her face.

Jessie let out a big dramatic sigh. As much as he disliked Matthew, I knew he agreed with Rossi. “This winning for worst day yet?” he said.

Matthew shook his head. “Nope.”

Jessie scoffed. “What could be so much worse than getting stuck in a big crack in the ground in a cave with no hope of getting out? Not to mention not finding any gold. No race for either you or Rossi. Bo is totally going to win. No one here is getting a new dirt bike, and no one is going to Breaker Bradley’s. All of this was for nothing!” Jessie’s voice had raised to a near screech, and the word nothing echoed off the cave walls all around us.

Matthew took a labored breath. The rock must have been pushing into his diaphragm. “Valentine’s Day. Second grade.”

“Really?” I said. “I remember you got made fun of for giving out those cards, but really?”

“I stole those cards,” Matthew said. “I stole them from the Nowhere Market and Ostrich Farm. We couldn’t afford them, and I wanted to have cards to give out, since I’d never gotten to before. Not like it mattered anyway. I just got made fun of.”

“There are worse things than getting made fun of for giving out stupid Valentine’s cards,” Jessie said.

I could only see the top of Matthew’s dirty hair as he said, “My mom found out I had stolen the cards, and when I got home that day . . . When I got home, she beat me so badly with a belt I could barely walk for two days. She screamed at me that it was bad enough she was burdened with me when my dad skipped out on her. It was the worst she had ever beaten me.”

I stared down at him. “The worst?”

Matthew shrugged. “I’m used to it now.”

We were all quiet as Matthew took a deep breath and wiped at his cheeks.

Finally, I said, “Why do you hang out with Bo?”

Matthew took another loud breath like the air simply wouldn’t fill his lungs. “I couldn’t take it at home and at school.” He wiped at his cheek again. “I just couldn’t.” I looked at Jessie, but he turned away from me. “There are worse things than being stuck in this cave. And there are definitely worse things than not going to Breaker Bradley’s. That sort of thing is just a pipe dream for people like us anyway.”

“No, it’s not,” I said. “Rossi could’ve gone. She would have won if it hadn’t been for me.” I looked at her, but she didn’t even seem to hear me.

“You mean if it hadn’t been for Bo,” Jessie said. “Stop blaming yourself for what that jerk did.”

“You know, Bo’s not that bad,” Matthew said. “Maybe he wouldn’t be like he is if his dad hadn’t been so terrible. That was the nastiest man I’ve ever known in my life.”

“We all make our own choices,” I said.

“Yeah,” Jessie said. “None of us have had rainbows and unicorns for our lives.”

Jessie’s life was the closest to rainbows and unicorns of anyone I knew. But I guess that was saying a lot, too. There was no money left for any extras in Jessie’s life, including a new dirt bike. And yet, I was somehow jealous of what he had.

“Anyway, I’m just saying,” Matthew said, “Bo’s had it bad. Real bad. The worst I’ve ever seen. I mean, his dad’s in prison for killing his mom. Don’t forget that. And Jack’s pretty good with his fists, too.”

I didn’t want to feel sorry for Bo, and it made me annoyed with Matthew for making it happen.

“It’s your turn now,” Matthew said to me.

“My turn what?”

“Your worst day. I need something to distract me,” Matthew took a deep breath, “from the pain.”

I looked at Rossi, but she seemed lost in her own head. I thumbed through my mind’s catalogue of bad days: today (or yesterday, I guess) when Bo stuck my face in a cactus, last week when Bo threw a scorpion on my head, last year when Grandma called me in sick at school and told them I had “the trots.” And about a thousand more days just like those.

Or should I tell them the real worst day? I’d tried for years to never think about it. To never think about him. I had nearly succeeded in completely blocking those memories out. But now it was all I could think about.

“My mom took off when I was a toddler,” I said. “I don’t remember the day she left.”

“Doesn’t count,” Matthew said.

“I know. It was just me and my dad until I was six. We lived in Reno. It was tough, you know, trying to work and take care of a kid on your own. He wasn’t a bad dad or anything. I think he did the best he could. He didn’t make a lot of money as a glazier.”

“What’s that?” Matthew asked.

“They work with glass—like glass windows and doors. Anyway, we ate a lot of canned food and I slept on the couch in the living room. He usually wasn’t there when I got home from school, so I would watch TV until dinnertime. He’d get home and open a can of chili or something and we’d watch more TV together until he told me to go to sleep. That was pretty much my life. I thought it was a good life actually.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad,” Matthew said from below us. “You could watch as much TV as you wanted.”

“One morning he woke me up early when it was still dark and told me he had a surprise. We drove for several hours. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the sign for Disneyland. I thought I was dreaming.”

Rossi was still sitting in that same exact position, legs crossed, hands clasped in front of her face. She stared at nothing.

“What was it like?” Matthew asked, as he had when we first entered the cave.

“It was everything you think. I can barely even describe it.”

“Try,” Matthew said.

“Well, when we first walked in there was a big train station and a street that was like . . . the opposite of Nowhere.” I didn’t need to explain further—they understood. “And there are different lands with all different rides.” I tried to remember the names. “Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain.”

“What kind of food do they have?” Matthew asked.

“My dad bought us the best corn dogs ever. And cotton candy, too. I always remember the cotton candy cost so much money, but he said it was my special day. I guess I was too young to think about the cost of the day too much, but I know it was a lot.”

“Did you go on Pirates of the Caribbean?” Matthew asked.

My stomach lurched. “Yeah. Yeah, I went on it. Really, the coolest thing I’d ever seen.”

Matthew grunted, and we all looked down at him as he tried to move. “I really want to go,” he said.

“When we got off Pirates of the Caribbean, we stopped in this gift shop. My dad said I could pick anything I wanted. Anything at all. I knew I must be dreaming. I spent probably a whole hour searching the store, trying to pick the perfect thing. And then I found this giant barrel of sparkling treasure—jewels. You could fill a bag of them for like five dollars. I thought they were real and I would take them and sell them when we left, and then my dad and I could live in a nice place and eat nice food and he would be so much happier.

“So that’s what I got. After my dad paid for them, he knelt down and told me, ‘Every time you look at those jewels, you’ll think of me and this day. You’ve had a great day, haven’t you?’

“I told him it was the best day of my life. We watched the fireworks before we left, but I kept pulling out my jewels. They looked so sparkly and real by the light of the fireworks. I counted them over and over again. Seventeen. I had seventeen jewels.

“Then we left. I fell asleep in the car and didn’t wake up again till it was almost morning. And we were here. In Nowhere. He pulled a couple of bags I didn’t know were there out of the trunk of the car and walked me up to my grandma’s trailer and knocked on the door. She knew we were coming.”

forsake: to quit or leave entirely; abandon

“And that was the last time I saw my dad. The last time I ever spoke to my dad. He left me here with a woman I had never met before in my life.”

Everyone was quiet. “I still have the jewels. I keep them in the table beside my bed. I take them out sometimes, trying to remember what it felt like that day—the hope I had felt when I picked them. I had thought they were real, but they were as fake as my dad. And now all I feel when I see them is . . . worthless. He bought me those jewels because he felt guilty about not wanting me, not because he loved me. Those jewels don’t remind me of some great memory with him. They remind me that no one in this world wants me.”

Everyone was quiet until Matthew finally said. “Geez, Gus. Couldn’t you come up with something better than that?”

I smiled a little. “Sorry. Bo did give me a wedgie in front of everyone in the cafeteria once. That was really embarrassing.”

“Yeah,” Matthew said quietly. “Yeah, I remember that.” Matthew took several rasping breaths. I looked at Rossi, but she seemed lost in thought still. What were we going to do about Matthew? “Well, we already know Jessie’s worst day. What about you, Rossi?”

She finally put her hands down and looked at us. “We need lubricant.”

Jessie gawked at her. “Now’s a strange time to be thinking about your motorcyle.”

Rossi tied the rubber band back around her hair. “Yes, I wish we had motorcycle oil. We need something to lubricate Matthew so he’ll slide out more easily. Maybe your water, Gus.”

I frowned. “I was kind of hoping to use that water to prevent, uh, you know, death by dehydration.”

Jessie jumped up excitedly and bounced from foot to foot. “Oh, I know! Let’s pee on him!”

Matthew’s head shot back. “No way!”

“Would you rather stay stuck down there?” I said. Matthew looked terrified, and I wasn’t sure which thought scared him more.

Rossi shook her head. “That’s not slippery enough.” She grabbed my backpack and started pulling the Twinkies out one by one. “These will have to do instead.”

“Twinkies?” I said.

She tore open one of the small packages. She broke the cake in half and scooped out the filling with her finger. “We’re going to need all of them.”

The three of us scooped the filling out of each cake. Jessie and Rossi reached down and gave it to Matthew, and he did his best to shove it between his body and the rock walls while I carefully placed the leftover cakes back in the packages. No need to waste them.

“There’s not a whole lot,” Matthew said. “But I guess it’s worth a try.” He wiped the excess off as well as he could on the front of his shirt.

Jessie and Rossi lay back down on their stomachs and gripped Matthew’s hands. They all three strained and grunted and pulled, but Matthew wouldn’t move. Rossi stared at him, breathing heavily. “Listen to me, Matthew. You need to completely relax and let all your air out. Just go limp and let Jessie and me pull you up.”

Matthew nodded at her and closed his eyes. Once his breathing evened out, he let out a long breath. Rossi looked at Jessie and they pulled. “He moved!” Jessie cried.

Matthew’s eyes shot open. “Just stay calm,” Rossi ordered him. He shut his eyes again.

Rossi and Jessie pulled, and Matthew slid up. When he was high enough, he grabbed the edge of the crevice and pulled himself onto the ground.

“Are you okay?” I said.

“I don’t know.” He stood up and stretched his arms over his head. “I kind of slid down in there, so nothing hit me too hard. I think I’m okay.” He swooned a little to one side. “A little dizzy, though.”

I handed Matthew his half of the bologna sandwich. “Here, eat this. It might help.” He scarfed it down in a couple of bites. I pulled out my pocket watch and flipped it open. “We should probably get moving. It’s nearly three o’clock already.” I snapped the pocket watch shut.

“What’s that you keep looking at, Gus?” Rossi asked.

“Just my pocket watch.”

“Can I see it?”

“Sure.” I handed it to her, and she studied it for a moment. “W.A.D.,” she whispered.

“No, it’s W.D.A.,” I told her.

She looked up at me. “No, Gus.” Then she looked at Matthew. “What did you say your great-grandfather’s name was?”

Matthew stretched a little from side to side. “William Dufort.”

“Do you know what his full name was, including his middle name?” she asked.

Matthew stopped stretching and stared down at her. “William André Dufort.”

She looked down at the watch. “W.A.D.,” she said again. “William André Dufort.”

“No, no,” I said. “It’s W.D.A.”

“No, Gus,” she said again. “The larger letter in the center stands for the last name. It’s W.A.D.”

“Let me see that pocket watch,” Matthew said and snatched it out of Rossi’s hand.

Then he looked at me, his face furious. “You little thief!” he said.

“What?”

“This is my great-grandfather’s pocket watch!”

“No way.”

“Yes way,” Matthew said. “My dad had a belt buckle that had this same thing on it. And, trust me, I knew my dad’s belt really well. Where did you get this?” He looked at Jessie. “Did you give it to him?”

“No!” Jessie cried. “Gus has always had that.”

I reached for the pocket watch, but Matthew moved it away and held it over my head. “My dad gave it to me,” I said as I jumped, trying to reach the watch. “And my grandma gave it to him. It belonged to her father.”

“Where did he get it from?” Matthew demanded.

I didn’t answer him as I kept jumping, trying to reach the watch. I stumbled on a rock as I came down and twisted my ankle. I winced in pain, causing Matthew to lower his arm. I jumped again and grabbed it. I couldn’t pull it down, so I lifted my feet off the ground, using the full weight of my body to get his arm down. It stayed up.

Then Rossi walked up behind Matthew and snatched the pocket watch out of his hand. He dropped me and turned around. “Hey!”

Rossi ignored him as she studied the watch, running her finger around the outside like she was testing it.

“Be careful, Rossi,” I told her. “The back is loose.”

Rossi continued examining the watch intently. “What if the story is all wrong?” she said.

Matthew and Jessie looked at each other. “What do you mean?” Jessie asked.

“What if . . .” Rossi said. “What if there was a third person who stole the gold?” Then Rossi looked at me. “Gus, did you know your pocket watch—”

“My pocket watch,” Matthew said.

She looked at Matthew a moment then back at me. “Did you know William Dufort’s pocket watch had a secret compartment?” Rossi ran her finger around the edge of the watch and jiggled the loose backing a little. Something clicked and she popped the back open.

“Whoa,” I said, stepping forward. We all gathered around the watch as Rossi lifted out a small, folded piece of paper.

“Whoa,” I said again.

She carefully began to unfold the paper, but then we heard a strange rumbling sound. Rossi paused and listened.

“What was that?” Jessie’s voice trembled. “Please tell me one of you just farted.”

“No.” I didn’t think the one from twenty minutes ago counted.

Rossi continued unfolding the paper, but then we heard it again—a low rumbling that grew louder and then quieted slightly. Then it grew louder again.

Jessie raised shaking fists up to his face, his eyes clenched shut. “Oh my gosh. What is that? It sounds like someone’s trying to start up a dirt bike in here.”

Rossi stopped unfolding the paper again, and I noticed her hands shook slightly. Suddenly the soft sound grew into a full growl. I took the flashlight out of my pocket and switched it on with trembling hands.

Matthew whispered, “What is it?”

I slowly lifted the flashlight to shine it behind us, not completely sure where the sound had come from. With the way sounds echoed off the walls in this cave, it was difficult to tell where any of them came from.

I turned in a slow circle until the eyes of a large cat flashed far off in the distance.