CHAPTER 1
New Jersey, 1964

The big two-story house lay at the end of the road. A row of tall green junipers lined the gravel driveway to the large white house. Pink and white flowers decorated the dogwood tree, which shaded the redwood lattice patio on the east side of the house.

In an upstairs bedroom overlooking the front yard was a nine-year-old boy, sick in bed, so his mother and father thought. Sean had blond hair, blue eyes, and freckles decorating the bridge of his nose. His mom called them angel kisses. Red pimples and white scabs were on his face neck and arms, with just a few decorating arms and legs. No friends to play with right now, only his sister Tammy. Meanwhile, he’s content tossing his baseball up in the air and then catching it once again with his dad’s favorite brown leather glove. Sean dreamed of hitting with the big leaguers someday. Right now, chicken pox is a minor setback for this year; luckily, he caught them at the end of the season.

A low humming motor and a crunching sound caught his attention. Louder and louder it came, until he heard a beep, beep, and beep, in the front yard. Up from the floor he sprang to investigate. Oh, how he loved to spy, almost as much as he cherished baseball.

Still in his cowboy pajamas, he climbed up on the brown-padded bench in front of the bay window with the ball in his right hand and the brown glove in his left hand. With his nose pressed against the glass, he only saw the white jeep parked on the edge of the inner circle of the driveway.

“I wonder what is going on down there,” he questioned himself. The postman stood alone on the drive only for a few moments. Moisture formed on the glass in front of him obscuring his vision.

“Oh no,” as he whispered to himself. Rapidly, he turned his head back and forth to see if he could find something to wipe the moisture off. A cool, gentle breeze blew in through the open window. He put the baseball inside the brown glove, set it aside, and quickly grabbed the white curtain that hung beside him. As he wiped the window clean, he saw his mom, Trish. Her long blond braided ponytail bounced side to side on her dark blue tank top as she took great strides toward the postman. Midway she stopped and put her gardening gloves in the right back pocket of her blue jeans then proceeded to wipe off her backside as she walked the rest of the way to the see what the visitor wanted. Before she took the small yellow paper from the postman, she wiped her hands off on the back of her pants.

There was a quick hand-to-hand exchange of a piece of yellow paper and a small white envelope. Trish waved good-bye and spun around. As she glanced up at the house, Sean saw a funny, smile on her face.

I wonder what is going on. Mom never smiled like that when she got the mail,” he whispered. He gave a quick assessment to the situation. Instantly he felt a warm rush run through his body. “Gosh, I hope Mom didn’t see me,” he commented to himself while still trying to look out the window. He saw his mom walking very slowly to the house as she read the letter. Step-by-step, anticipation grew even more. “I bet yea Dad is going someplace again. Well, that sucks. Oh gosh! I best go find out what’s going on around here.”

He climbed down from the brown padded bench, pulled his pajamas out from his crotch. Sean tried to be quiet and be as a sneaky as a good detective as he dashed out from his bedroom, down the hall to the oak staircase. He stopped dead in his tracks at the first step so as not to be seen or heard. Just before the edge of the staircase, he leaned up against the wall to face the open bathroom door. Anxiously, he waited to hear the front door open and close. His heart was making a loud, thumping noise; he was afraid he was going to miss his mom. Moments later the front door screeched open, and a then a thud as it closed. Sean knew there would be trouble if he was caught out of his bed. Trouble is not in his game today. Spying on his family and playing baseball are his games today. Sean rubbed his hands together with a smile on his face.

“My victim is here,” he whispered to himself. After Trish closed the front door behind her and yelled for her husband, Jeff, she moved swiftly through the front room, glanced up to the right of the staircase, and then continued to walk passed the oblong red coffee table. Sean watched her walk passed the white sofa with gold pinstripes.

He mumbled to himself, “She could have left the letter on the coffee table so I could read it, but no, she had to make things more difficult for me.” He watched her walk through the dining room to the sliding glass door.

“That was close,” he thought.

Sean tiptoed down the oak staircase, quiet as a mouse. He sprinted across the room to the first red end table with a brass tabletop lamp adorned with a cream teardrop shaped shade. He crouched down to hide behind the table. Seconds later he rose up to stand behind the brass lamp and cream tear shaped lampshade. This really did hide him pretty darn good. He peered around the lampshade to see Trish open the sliding glass door and swiftly walk out to the back porch.

“Oh great, Mom didn’t close the curtain this morning.” While in deliberation with himself, “What would Sherlock Holmes do? Ah!” with his right index fi nger pointing up to the ceiling. “Think invisible. Think invisible, so she won’t see me. Brilliant deduction, my good man,” he whispered to himself. While watching his mom through the glass door, he walked through the dining room still whispering to himself, “Remember to think invisible: she won’t see me; she won’t see me.”

Sean saw his mom reaching for the sliding glass door handle, leaving it slightly ajar. Staring through the glass door to the other side, he can see a side view of his dad, of Jeff sitting on the back porch swing.

“This is my chance to get closer to find out what was in that letter,” he thought. Sean scratches at the chicken pox on his neck and behind his right ear while trying to sneak an earful.

Sharing the same wall with the kitchen is the sliding glass door. Sean stood as quietly as a church mouse along the sliding glass door. Pulling the phone out of his way, he took a deep breath, then a slow exhale, while sliding the glass door open a little more than it already was, just enough to hear his mom and dad’s conversation, along with an unexpected cool breeze.

While standing in front of Jeff, Trish handed the mysterious white envelope over to him. Jeff is a larger image of Sean, but with dark blue eyes and more facial hair.

“Jeff, the postman Joe gave me this letter from Mr. Vance. He said he found a fossil. It was unearthed from a landslide,” Trish said crossing her arms in front of her. Biting her lower lip nervously, she continued, “Do you think it was an aftershock from Alaska’s big quake? Hey! Wait a minute. Didn’t Washington State receive a lot of rain this year? That would cause a lot of massive mudslides, wouldn’t it?”

After Jeff skimmed over the letter, he commented, “It must be a major find for him to send a message like this one.” He waved the letter up and down and around in front of him while he spoke with his hands.

She put her hands firmly on her waist. “Do you really think he has an amazing find like a fossil?” She positioned herself next to Jeff. The tone in her voice told him differently. “I don’t think so, Jeff. The last time we spoke to him, it sounded like he wanted you as a manual laborer. I think he needs you up there to help build his new house. That’s all he spoke about in the past. Why would he start something new, unless he really did find something? You know, since your father passed away last month, Mr. Vance doesn’t have anyone to talk to or help him anymore. Can you tell me why they bought that property together? You and I both know your dad could have bought the whole mountain by himself if he wanted to. Did your Dad know that there might be a fossil on that piece of property?” She glanced back at Jeff with a twisted smile. “What was your dad up to before he died? One more thing, before you gave the journal away, did you get a chance to read it?”

He took brief glance at the letter. “Yes, I really do think he found something this time.” Jeff sounded excited like a kid with a new toy.

“Look.” He held up the two pieces of paper: one envelope and one letter. Jeff exchanged one for the other to explain the puzzle. He first pointed to the address on the white envelope. Pleased that he thought he found a real clue. “See here, he put your name on everything instead of mine to mislead anybody that has been watching him. I think we should go. What do you think?”

Moments of silence passed as he lowered his voice, almost ashamed of himself, “I gave him my dad’s diary to borrow. And no, I didn’t get a chance to examine it like I should have. Unfortunately, it is a little late. You know Dad really wanted to find the Great Woolly Mammoth; it was his dream before he departed from this life. He believed they crossed the Bering Strait and traveled on into North America before the great Ice Age.” He glanced back down at the letter, and then slowly he rocked his head back up. “Maybe that’s why my dad and Vance bought some property in Washington State.” You could almost see the mindless thought pattern on Jeff ’s face. Almost as if he were thinking of a way to go. He nervously rubbed the back of his neck, cleared his throat, and said, “You know, Mr. Vance is a wanna-be paleontologist, and he actually needs my help. I have to go.” He quickly changed his voice to a deeper tone, “As a family, we have to go.” “Oh boy! We get to go on a dig. Yahoo!” exclaimed Sean. He looked at the clock above the white refrigerator. “Three o’clock, Tammy will be home soon. I can hardly wait for her to get here.”

Sean scratched a few spots on his leg while listening to his mom and dad. He nervously began to fiddle with the off-white phone cord that was connected to a phone not too far above his head. He whispers to himself, “OK, are we going? Or not?” Sean held out his hand, waiting for the answer from his mom. She announced, “I want to go, but I don’t want to take the kids.” She shifted forward on the bench. “I’ll go call Beth and see if she would like to watch the kids. What do you think? What about three weeks?”

Sean felt this warm, uncomfortable feeling spread through his whole body like a wildfire. He saw the irritated expression on his Dad’s face, but he knew that funny look his dad gave when he really wanted something bad.

Jeff gently took hold of her left forearm to get her attention. He cleared his throat and said, “I want to take the children on a family vacation. It will be fun and a great experience for them. They will have something to remember for the rest of their lives. Come on, it will be fun for you and the kids, you’ll see. I promise you won’t regret it.” He gave her a striking smile, which enhanced his deep blue eyes then released her arm.