We arrived at Glenn’s farm a little after three in the afternoon.Instead of the VW bus, Glenn had borrowed a larger, newer, blue van from his friend, Edgar, someone he had met at Occupy Wall Street. He knew about Glenn’s plan and was interested in being part of it if it got off the ground. Glenn wanted to make sure his mom would be comfortable, and this van had more seats and a lot more storage space, so the trip was a li...

It was a long drive home. My dad took over the driving somewhere in Massachusetts and Glenn was able to nap. Alice was asleep on my shoulder. l also dozed off, but kept waking up to see where we were. My dad was quiet and listened to a jazz station. Glenn woke up and continued driving when we got closer to New York where bumper to bumper traffic brought us to a stand still. It took us an hour and a half to reach the Verra...

It was just past noon when we got back to the farm and started getting ready to leave. The sky was blue without a cloud. The fire was out and dad picked up the grill from the rocks and leaned it against the rocks that surrounded the pile of ashes. Glenn carried the blue ice chest to the van and Tammy gathered the cooking utensils, the iron skillet, coffee pot and orange plastic jug of water. Alice and I went to the cabin...

Morning Star led the way through the tall grass in the pasture to the red ribbon marking the path through the woods. After we passed the stone wall on the hill, she stepped aside and allowed Glenn to go ahead, followed by my father and Tammy, who carried the empty basket on her arm. Before climbing, Morning Star looked back at the farm. I wondered what she was thinking, but she had the same astonished, smiling look in her...

Sun Dancer led us back to the farm on a narrow, well worn and clearedpath that was much easier than the way we had walked before. "This is the way we go to visit our ancestors who are buried near the river,” he said. “Remember this way when you return tomorrow." When we reached the bottom of the hill, he took two strips of leather out of a small pouch he carried and tied them to a branch, so we would know where to enter....

While we made our way down the other side of the hill through the much thicker woods and no path, we stopped a few times, uncertain which way to go. "I think it’s this way," I said, pointing in one direction and Alice said, "No, I think we came from that direction." "Maybe we should have let Sun Dancer bring us back," I said. "Maybe," Alice responded, looking around. "We’ll find our way back. Let’s go that way," she said...

When they left, no one spoke. My dad clutched his coffee cup with both hands and stared into the fire. Glenn's gazed in the direction where the three Indians had disappeared, then, shaking his head, looked down at the ground, mulling over what had happened. Tammy bit her lower lip, glanced at Glenn seated next to her, then rubbed his back, trying to soothe him while looking at the hill where they had disappeared. Alice wr...

Dad sat in the front seat of Glenn’s green and white VW bus, and I sat in the back with Alice and Tammy. We had all of our sleeping bags and backpacks in the rear but no tents. Glen thought we would be able to sleep in the barn, or maybe the house, and said there was an old cabin used by apprentices we might be able to use. “We’ll figure it out,” he said. Tammy had a large blue ice chest that she said was filled with sand...

It had stopped raining, but the dark, wet streets sparkled from the streetlights. We drove for a few blocks before anyone said anything. Alice turned to look at me in the backseat as if she wanted to say something, but hesitated. Her eyes told me she was as confused and disturbed as I was. My mind was swirling. What’s going on? How could the books we read be real? How could Elizabeth know about the Bendula? This is nuts....

It was a rainy Thursday. School was a drag, and I went through the motions of being a student--going to the different classes, sitting in the back row where I always sat, usually by the window, so I could see the trees and watch the birds scampering on the grass in front. But that day, it was dreary and pouring. I kept looking up at the clock, watching the hand moving slower than ever. I doodled in my notebook, making int...

In the kitchen, my dad put the book down on the old maple table, filled up the red kettle with water and turned on the flame. "You and Alice were so quiet in the car. Is something wrong?""Not really," I answered. "Not really? That means there is, but you don’t want to talk about it." "Nothing’s wrong ... really." "How about some hot chocolate?" I was anxious to get up to my room to call Alice, but I could tell he felt lik...

It's amazing how something happens that changes your life. I mean, you hear something, see something, read something and you know nothing will ever be the same. That's what happened the night I finished reading the final book of the Atlantis Trilogy by Arnold Greenberg. It made me cry, actually sob, and I remember Alice telling me, “Alex, you have to read these books. They changed my life.” If you knew Alice, you'd know w...

Gordon Fink looked in the bathroom mirror and muttered to himself, I look like an old man. He leaned over the sink, then moved his face closer to the mirror and noticed the wrinkles on his forehead, his thinning white hair. I'm losing so much hair. He looked at his pale, watery eyes. My eyes aren't as blue as they used to be. He turned his face to the left. Maybe it's the florescent light. Look at you. You're old. Your li...

Jason’s suicide shattered our lives. I was his best friend since second grade at Sherman Elementary School. We went to Hidden Valley Camp in Maine every summer, played little league baseball and damn it, we spent almost every day together. How could I not know what was going on? Why would he hang himself? At the cemetery when they were burying him, I couldn’t keep my eyes off his mom and dad, the perfect parents. Dr. Medn...

THE FOURTH OF JULY Did they know when they signed their names, declaring freedom from tyranny and the right to pursue happiness, that the women in their lives, the Africans who plowed their fields, the Natives whose land they occupied were listening and breathing the same air that summer day? Did they realize their ignorance when they rang the bell of liberty and heard the cannon roar in celebration that they were creatin...