March 1, 1517, somewhere off the northeast coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Three small wooden ships under the command of Francisco Hernández de Córdoba rock gently in the turquoise waters close by a shore unknown to them before that day. On board one vessel, soldier and future historian Bernal Díaz del Castillo squints toward a shimmering skyline that rises above the trees beyond the beach. “As we had never seen such a large town in the island of Cuba nor in Hispaniola,” he later recalled, “we named it the Great Cairo.”
—Gene S. Stuart and George E. Stuart, Lost Kingdoms of the Maya
HONOLULU, HAWAII
Carrollee’s sense of humor knew no bounds and when it came time to name their children, Emmett gave in to her whimsical side. Their daughter, age seven, was named Emma for Emmett and their son, who had just turned five, was named Lee, for Carrollee. Today, Lee was not feeling well, and Emmett carried him in one arm. Carrollee’s mother, Grandma Chen, held Emma’s hand, as they trudged to the airport security gate where they would say good-bye.
Carrollee’s mother was half Chinese and took to grand-mothering like the matriarch of a herd of monoclonius. Like her daughter, Grandma Chen had a unique sense of style, her graying hair tight in a bun, her short, trim body decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, yellow Capri pants and orange sandals.
Carrollee was pink today, from sandals to shorts, to top, to the sweater she wore over her shoulders. On her head were perched pink-and-white sunglasses. Emmett wore tan slacks, green polo shirt, and Hush Puppies, resisting for a decade Carrollee’s efforts to get him to wear “outfits.” Emma and Lee, however, were at the mercy of Mom and Grandma and wore matching blue shorts and tops. When they reached the security station, Carrollee pressed her hand to Lee’s forehead.
“He’s got a fever, Mom.”
“Let me see,”Grandma said, putting her own hand on Lee’s forehead. “Yes. Quite warm.”
“Maybe you should stay, Carrollee,” Emmett suggested. “Since Lee is sick. They don’t have to have a botanist.”
With the incident with the entelodonts fresh in his mind, Emmett had argued long and loud with Carrollee that she should not go on the expedition, but refused to stay home himself.
“You think I can’t take care of a sick little boy?” Grandma Chen complained. “I raised five of my own and they did well, too.”
Grandma Chen was fiercely proud of her children. Two were doctors, one a lawyer planning to run for the state legislature, and two had Ph.D.s.
“You go on your vacation and let me take care of Lee.”
“It’s not a vacation, Mom,” Carrollee said. “It’s a research expedition.”
“You’re going to take pictures. Sounds like a vacation to me.”
“Fine, Mom, it’s a vacation.” Now Carrollee turned to Emmett, speaking firmly. “I’m going, Em. We’ll have a satellite phone so I can call every couple of hours until we get close.”
“No you won’t,” Grandma Chen said. “I’m not getting up and down to answer the phone because you don’t trust me with my own grandchildren. You call twice a day, no more!”
“Fine, Mom.”
Reaching for Lee, Grandma Chen took the sleepy little boy. As small as she was, Grandma Chen was strong and held the boy comfortably, letting his head sag to her shoulder.
“Now, you go.”
They both kissed and hugged Emma and then kissed Lee and rubbed his back. Lee did not move.
“Bring me something,” Emma called as they joined the security queue.
“Me, too,” Lee managed, rousing briefly.
They separated in Los Angeles, Carrollee continuing to Dallas, and Emmett catching a flight to Las Vegas. It was a reluctant separation and they parted with a lingering kiss.
Carrollee met part of her team at the Dallas airport. John Roberts was the team leader. She had worked with him before at the OSS. A lifelong friend of John’s, Robert Ripman was to be their guide to the Yucatan anomaly. With his ponytail, jeans, and flannel shirt, he struck Carrollee as odd. Ripman was nearly six feet tall, lean, with tan and weathered skin, sun-lightened brown hair, and myriad scars on his face and hands. He was friendly, but emotionally reserved. An hour later Nikki Ryden arrived from Florida, carrying a
small suitcase over her shoulder. She was taller than Carrollee, with blue eyes and short cropped blond hair that looked like it had been trimmed with hedge shears. Her face was round, her lips full, her cheeks pink over deeply tanned skin. Her makeup was poorly applied, and, oddly, she wore a shirt that was monogrammed “Gatorland.”
“You wore your work shirt,” John said.
Nikki pulled at the front of her shirt.
“It’s the only thing I have that seemed appropriate for a safari.”
Carrollee sized up Nikki from her ragged running shoes to her patched shorts and Gatorland workshirt, deciding the clothes hid a beautiful woman.
“You safari in East Africa,” Ripman said, staring at Nikki intently and shaking her hand. “The proper term for this group would be ‘buffet.’”
No one laughed. Nikki didn’t flinch, but continued to hold Ripman’s hand and said, “Been there. Done that.”
“Welcome, survivor,” Ripman said, smiling.
“I’m glad you’re here, Nikki,” Carrollee said, pushing John and Ripman aside. Taking Nikki by the arm she said, “We have a couple of hours before the rest of the team arrives. Let’s wander around some.”
The two women walked off together, John and Ripman watching them go.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Carrollee asked candidly.
“You mean because I’m a former mental patient!”
“Yes,” Carrollee said honestly.
Carrollee had been briefed on Nikki’s mental-health history.
“Well, at least you don’t tippy-toe around it. Yes, I’m up to it. I’ve been there before and I made it back when no one else did. Maybe I used up my luck but maybe it wasn’t luck. Maybe there was a reason why I got back. Do you know why I tried to kill myself? Why I ended up in the looney-bin in the first place? It’s because I didn’t have any purpose in life. No direction. I got addicted to drugs looking for … for whatever. But I found the strength to get clean when I met Kenny. He and
I brought each other back to the world. I was able to forgive myself for what I had done and I reconnected with my family. I made friends. Of course, my friends are all dead now.”
Her mention of the deaths of her friends was emotionally flat.
“You don’t seem concerned about their deaths.”
“I mourned for them for a long time but then I realized they died doing something important. They had a sense of purpose right up to the very end. That’s why I’m willing to go with you. When I got back it took a long time before I could work again. My grandmother has been giving me money and my parents let me use their condominium. I have a job now but it’s not enough, not without Kenny. Honestly, in the last few months I can feel myself pulling away from the world again—don’t worry, I’m not crazy yet, and I’m still clean, but I would rather die doing something important than go back to my old life.”
Carrollee was satisfied. Nikki still had issues in her life to deal with, but they wouldn’t hinder her on this journey.
Carrollee had been steering Nikki through the airport and now she stopped in front of a hair salon.
“We could be gone for quite a while. It’s best to start with a good cut.”
Nikki looked at the salon.
“I can’t. I make minimum wage and I owe my parents and grandparents for money they loaned me for my first trip. I won’t borrow anymore.”
Carrollee pulled a platinum Visa from her purse.
“This expedition is fully funded by the OSS.”
Nikki hesitated and then smiled.
“I’ve been cutting it myself,” Nikki said.
“Really! You do a good job,” Carrollee lied.
Nikki was wearing new shoes, shorts, and blouse and pulling a suitcase with its price tag still dangling when she and Carrollee returned. Her hair was professionally styled, her makeup freshly applied by Carrollee. The new suitcase was packed with clothes, cosmetics, feminine supplies, and other equipment purchased at airport premium prices.
Now, Ripman and John hovered around Nikki, joking, finding reasons to be close to her. A half hour later the dinosaur rangers arrived. They were all male and looked both Carrollee and Nikki over in that male way and then concentrated on younger Nikki, thus irritating Carrollee. The biggest of the rangers was six feet four, broad shouldered, with long yellow hair, goatee, and mustache. He looked like he had shown his barber a picture of George Armstrong Custer and said, “Make it so.” While he was the most physically intimidating, his name was Marion Wayne.
“My mother loves those old John Wayne Westerns, and ‘Marion’ was Wayne’s real first name,” he explained.
The other two were shorter, but only by a couple of inches. They looked more military with eighth-inch buzz cuts that left so little hair it was hard to tell hair color—both brown but slightly different shades. One ranger was quiet, but not shy, the other willing to do the talking for his friend. Both took a back seat whenever Marion spoke. Both also laughed whenever Marion joked.
The talkative ranger was Mitch Hope who had been ten years old and living in Dundee, Oregon, when the time quilt wiped out Portland. When John heard that, they immediately reminisced on all that had been lost in their home state.
The quiet ranger was Jose Ibarra, a Hispanic who had been living in one of the buildings just missed by the New York time quilt. He had been nine then, and he remembered being shocked awake by a sonic boom. Pictures fell from the wall and his baseball trophies tumbled off his dresser. He and his brother were looking out the window when a dinosaur came walking toward their building.
“I thought it was a monster and I was dreaming it,” Jose said, staring into space like he was seeing it for the first time. “But my brother was seeing it too. We ducked low, peeking over the sill and watched it come. It was an iguanodon. They look scary to a nine-year-old but they’re herbivores.”
The others nodded. Even average citizens were experts on Dinosauria in the new world.
“We got out of there fast, but one thing was kind of sad. My
dad and mom stopped on the way out to help an old woman who lived in the building. She was kind of a busybody, but she didn’t mean any harm by it. Her name was Mrs. Weatherby. She refused to come with us. We had to leave her, but then my dad went back to get her and found her feeding sugar to the iguanodon like it was a pet. She had that animal trained to come to her window and beg. Then some thugs shot the iguanodon and Mrs. Weatherby followed the wounded animal, crying, just like it was her baby. When my dad caught up she was with the iguanodon and dying; a heart attack I think. My dad has told that story a hundred times and he still tears up every time. You know that’s the only iguanodon in any of the time quilts? Brought back from extinction and extinguished again in twenty-four hours. That’s got to be a record.”
A chartered Boeing 737 was waiting to take them to Mexico. Once in the air, Carrollee and Nikki opened the new suitcase and Nikki examined the contents as if it were a treasure chest. Using the scissors from Ripman’s Swiss Army knife, they clipped the tags from the new clothes. Next came the fashion show as Nikki tried on her new clothes. The men oohed and aahed like they were watching a Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
Carrollee let Nikki enjoy the attention, mentally totaling the cost of the purchases while the party atmosphere continued. Eventually she fell asleep, practicing her explanation to Emmett of why Nikki Ryden’s wardrobe was charged on their personal Visa.