“Great job, Mack!” cheered Dad. “Somebody get this girl an ice cream!”
I could see the pride in his eyes. You know, the look parents get like “one day you’re going to grow up and be just like me.” I have to admit, I was proud of myself, too. I walked around feeling like the Queen of Archaeology for a while. But the very next day, somebody else had an even bigger find and knocked me off the throne. It was a stash of ancient silver coins found wedged under a loose stone in one of the floors. News of the find buzzed through the site as Dad gathered everyone around to have a look.
“A stash of coins hidden under the floor. Can anybody imagine what they were doing there?”
We all took a moment to consider the possibilities, but nobody spoke up.
“Well,” he continued, “if it was just one coin, we would conclude that it was dropped accidentally and forgotten. However, an entire hoard of coins suggests that somebody put them there deliberately. The question is, who? Does anybody want to put forth a theory?”
He paused again while we all looked at each other nervously, wondering who was going to speak first.
“Don’t worry, there’s no wrong answer,” he laughed. “Which is exactly what I find so fascinating about archaeology: it’s all a big puzzle. Our task here is to rebuild lost civilizations. How do we do that? By using these ancient fragments from the earth, a bit of history, and a dash of imagination.”
Dad’s eyes sparkled as he spoke. I don’t think I’d seen him this alive since before Mom’s accident.
“So, how did these coins get here?” he asked again, holding one up for inspection. “Let’s take ourselves back to Biblical times when this dirt beneath our feet was a thriving metropolis. Maybe a slave was secretly pilfering them from his master. Or perhaps a desperate merchant hid his savings from the menace of an approaching army. Or maybe a housewife was hoarding money to keep it safe from her gambling husband. Whoever it was, they hid it here not knowing they would never see it again. Not knowing they’d hidden it so well, their stash wouldn’t be found until thousands of years later — by us.”
It was incredible. For a split second I felt transported back in time. And I wasn’t the only one. I could tell that the others were feeling the magic of Dad’s vision, too.
“You see, the people who lived here were just like you and me,” he went on. “Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, students, teachers, and tradesmen. They worked under this same hot sun every day and gazed up into the same starry sky as you do every night. And this site is the time capsule they’ve left behind. Everything we find is a clue to decoding the details of their lives.”
Cool! In that moment, the whole archaeology thing finally started to make sense for me. I began to understand why a couple would honeymoon here instead of Hawaii. And why a sixty-five-year-old woman would spend her life’s savings to be here. It was probably the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. There were ancient cities buried under our feet. I remember thinking that a person could get lost forever out here in the desert.
After that day, I knew it was true.
Chapter 13
Lately, Nasir’s ears were always on alert.
He heard the traffic noises suddenly grow louder — he knew that meant the door to the store had opened. Pushing the carton of toilet tissue onto the nearest shelf, he ran out of the stockroom to see if it was Mackenzie. It wasn’t. Instead, a young mother struggled through the narrow doorway, pushing a stroller with a newborn baby. Usually he would have run to help. Today he just sighed and turned his face away, trying to hide his disappointment.
Where has she gone? he wondered. It had been two weeks and three days now since he last saw her. He wasn’t sleeping well. He often woke up in the middle of the night with his body covered in a layer of damp, sweaty worry, his head jumping with questions.
Has she gone back to Canada? Did he say something to offend her? Maybe she’s become sick?
Leaning over the counter, he picked up a package of her favourite gum and held it tenderly in his hands. He thought about the day he’d touched her cheek and how soft her skin had been. And the way she’d smelled. It was so sweet and fresh … like a ripe peach. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose, remembering. The baby in the stroller began to cry. His eyes flew back open.
Stop being so stupid, he scolded himself, tossing the gum back down. Forget about her! There’ll be other girls.
The traffic roared again and his head swung towards the door. His hopeful heart rose in his chest, but fell back down when an old, balding grandfather hobbled into the store.
He sighed again.
The problem was, he didn’t want another girl.
Chapter 14
Can you guess what the first thing I did when we got back from Tiberias was?
Unpack my suitcase?
Nope.
Take a long shower?
Uh-uh.
Call Marla?
Wrong again.
Run down the street to buy a pack of gum from Nasir?
Exactly!
Okay, I admit I was a little bit obsessed. But it’s not like I’m some kind of crazy stalker or anything — I just needed to see him.
So imagine how my teenage heart soared with joy when he looked happy to see me, too. Happy, and quite a bit relieved.
More than anything, I wanted to run over and tell him where I’d been and apologize for leaving without saying goodbye. But I had to stop myself — I knew he wouldn’t talk to me while there were other people in the store. I glanced around; there were two other customers cruising up and down the well-packed aisles. Parking myself next to the potato chips, I gave them all the hairy eyeball and silently willed them to get out.
Five minutes later I got my wish. I hurried up to the counter before anybody else walked in.
“Muck-and-zee! Where have you been?” Nasir asked, flashing me that great white smile.
“I went on a trip with my dad to Tiberias — an archaeological dig, actually.”
“Oh, really?” he replied, his smile fading a little. “Did you find anything?”
“Yeah, a few pottery shards, a bunch of coins, and some old bones. It was cool.”
“Cool,” he echoed. Those eyes of his were practically glued to my face. I’d almost forgotten how intense he could be. Suddenly, I felt a little bit warm.
“Well … uh, anyway … I’m back now,” I managed to squeak.
“I’m glad. This whole time I was worried you were buying your gum somewhere else.”
“No way, I wouldn’t do that,” I mumbled shyly. Beads of sweat were beginning to form on my lip. I prayed he wouldn’t notice.
“Listen, I shouldn’t be doing this,” he whispered, leaning a little closer.
I turned and looked over my shoulder; there was nobody else in the store.
“Doing what?” I whispered back. “And why are you whispering?”
“I want to talk to you. Do you want to meet me after work? I get off early tonight.”
I was suddenly so hot, my clothes felt like