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...

  If we weren’t here everything would flourish. The blazing sun would rise each day like now. The moon would do its rounds and what would perish would not know its name. New seeds somehow would grow and from decay bloom new flowers, new colors, new aromas and the new seeds would plant themselves with no one on their knees. The forests would take back the land, grow thick where cities were, the vines embracing towers, ivy...