Are There Kids on your Christmas List?

I struck gold. Really. Literally. As I came slamming out of the hot tunnel I swerved to avoid falling on top of Samantha and my right arm struck an outcropping of rock that was solid gold.

“We’re still in a tunnel,” Samantha said. Did she even notice the gold?

“Yeah,” I muttered, rubbing my elbow.

“But maybe we’re going to go somewhere else. We’ll have to walk out of here.”

“Maybe here is where we’re supposed to be,” I said. “Maybe the adventure will all take place below ground.”

I pointed towards a light bulb that was dimly illuminating the length of tunnel.

“Sure glad we have light. I’ll bet we would have had flashlights in the bags, if we had gotten the bags.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. Then she screamed really loud. Probably because that’s when the light bulb disappeared and we couldn’t see a thing.

“Ow!” I yelped.

“Sorry,” Sam said. She clutched my arm and said, “I just don’t think we should get separated in the dark.”

Oh, boy. If she would just wait a second I was sure that our eyes would adjust and we’d see some daylight from somewhere.

Of course, maybe it wasn’t daytime here.

It’s a funny thing about these missions we go on. Sometimes it’s like we travel through time and space and planets in a matter of seconds.

So far I, Nick Bazebahl, champion reader, sports hero and middle child, along with Samantha Tennes, girl, have saved a sailor, a witch and a child, and have dealt with aliens, wolves and mountain lions. Not to mention we have been weightless, invisible and magical.

Sam and I became friends first because everyone laughs at our last names. We think it’s cool that they sound like sports. We’re just waiting for the day someone with a name like Polo or Soccer or even Joaquin moves into our school and then we can be like the three Musketeers. Only we’ll be the three Sportsketeers.

Sam’s grip on my arm loosened. “Look!” she said. Sure enough, I could make out a ray or two of daylight coming around the corner of the tunnel ahead.

Then something covered our heads and everything went dark again.

(excerpt from NICK BAZEBAHL AND THE MINING TUNNELS, book 4 in the Tunnels series for kids 8 - 12, now out in paperback and ebook, copyright 2011.)