When we live in the dark, what would we give for a light?

When we take a cave tour, the guides always have that moment when they ask us to turn out our flashlights down deep in the cave. Each light clicks off; it gets darker. Then we are down to two lights. One more flashlight clicks off.

Then we wait. It is always that one kid who wants the moment in the literal spotlight. But we don’t care because we both want them to turn out the light and ― please don’t turn out the light.

What if the light never comes back on? Maybe we are in the limestone caves of Wyandotte, Indiana, or far below the New Mexico desert in Carlsbad Caverns. We are down deep, and everything is dark. What if the light doesn’t come on again?

We hope that one kid doesn’t press the button to extinguish the last light.

Then she p…