Contributor’s Corner
BILL ARNOTT’S BEAT Book Signing and Saying
Yes, Part II: The Book.
And what was the book given to me by the friendly guy at my book signing event? Matt Gutman’s The Boys in the Cave: Deep Inside the Impossible Rescue in Thailand. The man who bought me the book knew one of the guys involved. I think. Degrees of separation were unclear, dark and muddied as a flooded cavern. If you don’t know the story, twelve Thai boys—part of a U15 soccer team, and their coach—went for an after-practice hike into the underground caves near their town. It was a popular hike—you can clamber and creep a mile and a half into the earth, the caverns the result of monsoon erosion. The team (ages 11-14) finished practice, and along with their coach, made their way to the popular local hike. It wasn’t yet monsoon season. They weren’t irresponsible. They weren’t misbehaving. Just a group of boys with a well-intentioned coach doing something more than simply practicing. But they get caught in the caves amidst an atypical, early flood that made exiting impossible. To ensure their safety they were forced to move further inside the underground maze as water accumulated, cutting off their only possible exit.
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