Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 It was hard to imagine, but it was still afternoon. Jet lag was beginning to set in. But there was so much still to talk about. Shep made tea, and they sat around a table on the patio off the kitchen area. The exhilaration of out-surfing the Holts had drained away. Now they wanted answers. Saladin jumped up on Shep's lap. Shep stroked him absentmindedly as he talked. "I did get the idea that Art and Hope's visit was more than a pleasure trip," he said. "I guess Art was doing some sort of mapping connected to his mathematical genius thing. He was always interested in geography as a kid. Always poring over maps. It's strange how I was the one who traveled the world. I think he liked going places in his head." Shep smiled. "Not your mother, though. She was ready for anything." "So where did they go?" Amy asked.

"Normally, I'd space that kind of thing out," Shep admitted. "I fly a lot of people a lot of places, you see. That's what I do for a living— I fly tourists around the outback. But that trip, I remember. Let's see… I flew them to Adelaide, dropped them off for a few days while I went on to Perth. Then I flew back, picked them up, and we all went up to the Top End. Darwin. Hey, I bet I still have their itinerary. Lucky for you, I'm the original pack rat. I don't throw anything away." Gently, Shep dropped Saladin on Dan's lap and got up. Through the open door, they could see him rummaging in one of the colorful bins. "Well, would you look at this," he muttered, tossing away a tennis racket. "That's where that went. Never could stand tennis. Now, I know it's in here someplace…. Aha!" Shep came back, a battered leather jacket over one arm and a thick book in the other. He handed the jacket to Amy. "Here's something of your mother's. She picked it up at a vintage shop in Darwin. At the last minute she left it with me. She said she had enough baggage to carry. Sure she would want you to have it."

It was warm on the patio, but Amy let the weight of the jacket remain on her lap. Her fingers ran over the leather. Her mother had picked this out. Slipped her arms in the sleeves. Amy would hug it if she could, but she was too embarrassed. Shep held up the book. "This is my logbook from that year. Let's see now…" He leafed through it. "I thought so. They gave me an itinerary, just in case, they said. Here." He held out a piece of paper. Amy recognized her mother's neat handwriting in the purple ink she liked to use. "They went to all these places?" Amy asked. "Round-the-world trip, I guess," Shep said. Dan peered over her shoulder. "How come Sydney isn't there? And Adelaide?" "I guess I was the pleasure part of the trip," Shep said with a grin.

Amy put her finger on Miami. "I remember now!" she exclaimed. "They brought us along on the first part of the trip. We stayed in a hotel on the beach. Dan, you were only about three. Grace came with us, too. I remember crying so hard when they left. I thought I'd never see them again…." Amy's voice trailed off. She remembered her six-year-old self crying as though her heart would break, feeling abandoned. She'd been holding Grace's hand, and it scared her when she saw that Grace was crying, too. Grace never cried. They had stood in the lobby of the hotel, watching through the glass doors as her parents climbed into a taxi. She remembered that glass wall between them, so that no matter how hard she cried her mother couldn't hear her. "I don't remember a thing," Dan said. "No, you were too young," Amy said. "They were gone for a long time— I mean, it seemed long, but it was probably about a month. Grace stayed with us." Amy had a sudden memory of Grace sitting at the window, looking out at the yard. Her grandmother had looked so worried. To

Amy, it seemed that Grace had felt exactly as she did, lonely and scared. She had climbed into Grace's lap. They'll be home soon, Grace had murmured against her cheek. Had Grace been trying to reassure herself… as well as Amy? Had Grace been just as afraid as her granddaughter? They had to have been on a Cahill mission. It was no pleasure trip. They wouldn't have left Dan and Amy for that long if they didn't have to. Amy knew that as a solid truth in her heart. "Surprised me when Arthur became a professor," Shep said. "I would have thought anything but that." "What do you mean?" Dan asked. "What did you think he'd become?" "Lion tamer," Shep said, putting his empty mug down with a smack. He grinned. "Acrobat. Professional race car driver. Bush pilot, like me." Dan hooted with laughter. "You've got to be kidding me." "When we were kids, Artie was the daredevil," Shep said. "He was always egging me on. Built an

obstacle course for our bikes. Built a tower out of boxes so we could jump into the lake. Once we built a slide from the garage roof. Artie always went first." "Dad?" Dan's voice was close to a squeak. "Awesome!" Amy looked at Dan. He was sitting up straight in his chair, his eyes sparkling. Hearing about their father always made him happy. Why did it make her so sad? When you lose your parents, the sadness doesn't go away. It just changes. It hits you sideways sometimes instead of head-on. Like now. Amy hadn't expected to suddenly feel like bursting into tears just hearing that her dad had been a daredevil when he was younger… just like Dan. "Your dad, though— he was smarter than me. He did his schoolwork. He was always interested in puzzles, too, in figuring things out. I moved to Hawaii and discovered waves, and I was a lost cause." Shep grinned cheerfully at them. "I've been traveling around the world ever since. Until I landed here in Oz."