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No one in the town of Palma seemed to be very upset over their unusually long sleep period.

It did not surprise Lucas, Tracy, or the kids.

“Oh, don’t worry,” one resident had said with a smile. “We won’t talk to no strangers about it.”

“What about all those men who were killed?” Lucas asked Kyle, sitting in a motel room in Atlanta.

“That’s the funny part, Lucas,” Kyle said. “Other than the sheriff and Burt Simmons, no one has been reported missing. In Palma, it’s just business as usual.”

That didn’t surprise Lucas either.

“We’ll have to keep in touch, Kyle,” Lucas said.

“Yes,” the highway cop said. “Louisa says we won’t have any choice in the matter. She says you’ll have to come back someday.”

And that didn’t surprise Lucas either.

“Where are the professors?” Tracy asked.

“I don’t know,” Kyle said. “They just disappeared.”

“What does Louisa have to say about that?”

“She says we’ll all be back someday.”

Kyle shook hands with all the men, kissed the ladies, and walked out of their lives.

For a time.

* * *

The Bowerses, the Westerfelts, and the Hudsons all traded in their vehicles in Atlanta. No one wanted to take those vehicles back to New York.

The further they drove away from Edmund county, the more muddled the incident became in the minds of the Westerfelts and the Hudsons. By the time the small convoy reached Washington, D. C., the Hudsons and Westerfelts weren’t sure exactly what had happened in Georgia.

And that didn’t surprise Lucas or Tracy either.

Jackie and Johnny had known that was going to happen. But they hadn’t told their parents.

The Bowers family all agreed not to talk about their summer.