“Where’d you go?” asked Alejandro, with a tremble in his voice.

June coughed. She could taste dust in her mouth and felt a stinging on her knees. She could barely breathe after falling down the steps and onto the cold concrete.

“June, where are you?” called out Alejandro. The room was pitch black. He could hear his friend at the bottom of the steps, but in the darkness he could not see a thing. He turned around and pulled on the doorknob. The heavy, wooden door wouldn’t budge.

“I’m ok,” answered June. “I think I scraped my knees. Ouch! OK, I’m sure I scraped my knees. But everything else feels OK.” June felt a tear in her eye, but tried very hard to hold it back. She worried about how frightened Alejandro was.

“I can’t see anything in here!” exclaimed Alejandro, trying hard not to panic.

“I know. Me neither. Come down the steps, but don’t hold onto the rail! That’s why I fell. The rail stops halfway down.”

As Alejandro slowly descended into the basement, June looked in every direction. She wondered why she couldn’t make out any shapes. Even when her parents turned out every light in the apartment after bedtime, she could always make out the picture frames on her dresser. In this place, it was like her eyes were shut.

“I’m here,” said Alejandro, interrupting her thoughts. He clasped June’s hand and asked, “What now?”

June squinted and sighed. Then she noticed a bright speck in the corner of the room. A thin beam of light shot out from the speck. It pointed down to the floor and disappeared into the darkness.

“Do you see it?” asked Alejandro. Most of the room was still in darkness, but near that one spot of light, he could see what looked like chairs.

“Yeah!” confirmed June. She reached up towards the light. There was a curtain, covering a window. She opened it.

Alejandro and June covered their eyes. Their corner of the basement was flooded with light! Then, everything in the room became visible: the steps, the broken rail, the chairs, an old billiards table, and boxes and boxes of old newspapers.

“No l