CHAPTER 16

Mom and Dad were home when we returned to the apartment.

“We’re going to eat ice cream!” I announced. “Chunky Monkey! Rocky Road!” I said the flavors as boisterously as Uncle Richie had announced them when he first walked through our door.

But he still wasn’t smiling.

“Ah, Thomas. Susan. Good to see you.” Uncle Richie sounded like the weary old man he could’ve been. “Your children are a joy and a delight. It was grand spending time with them.”

“Thank you so much, Uncle Richie,” said Mom.

“Are you free tomorrow?” asked Dad.

“Unfortunately, no. You see, Thomas, I am setting off on a new expedition.” He thumped the hard cover of the antique book he’d just bought. “I’ll be searching for the Lost Ship of the Desert! I have a few promising leads. Very promising, indeed.”

“They’re solid?” asked Dad, sounding impressed.

“As solid as any I’ve ever followed.”

Mom nodded politely when he said that. “Good, Uncle Richie. Good.”

“Flying off to California tomorrow. I’ll be touching down at a secluded airstrip I know of near the Salton Sea, not far from San Diego, as the crow flies. I’ve made preliminary arrangements with a local excavating company to borrow a backhoe and bulldozer. Might need to dig my way through several hundred years of sand.”

“Do you have the money to finance your expedition?” asked Dad.

“I am in the process of securing funding,” said Uncle Richie.

That sounded like he was off to another card game.

“Can we go find the buried treasure with you?” asked Tommy. “I mean, Mom and Dad are going to be busy. We’re going to be bored.”

“It would be an honor to excavate sand alongside you, sir,” said Storm. “I mean, Uncle Richie.”

“Love to have you along, Thomas. You, too, Storm.”

“I want to go, too,” I said.

“Bully for you, Bick. Bully.”

“We could finance the trip,” said Mom.

“We’d be happy to do it,” added Dad. “I’ve been curious about the legendary Lost Ship of the Desert for quite some time.”

Beck was the only one in the room not saying anything.

“Well,” said Uncle Richie, who had to notice Beck’s silence (it was hard not to). “Talk it over amongst yourselves. I’d love to have you children along for the ride. It would prove to be a marvelous expedition, I’m sure. I hope to be wheels-up at nine hundred hours. Please let me know ASAP if you will be joining me on this quest. Life is a grand adventure, children. Accept it in such a spirit, and it doesn’t matter what the naysayers buying bargain books along the boulevard might blather about you!”

Uncle Richie had bucked himself back up. He tipped his hat and strode triumphantly out the door.

The instant he was gone, I turned to Beck.

“Can we have the room?” I said to everybody else.

“Of course,” said Mom. She, Dad, Storm, and Tommy went off to the kitchen to start scooping ice cream. They knew what was brewing.

“Do you have a problem, Rebecca?” I shouted.

“Of course, I do. You’re my brother.”

“I meant about Uncle Richie!”

“He’s full of hot air!”

“So are balloons, and they can take you places you’ve never been before.”

“They can also burst in midair and leave you stranded in the desert!”

“Oh, so you’re afraid?” I said.

“You heard Professor Hingleburt! He said Uncle Richie is a phony and a fraud.”

“Ha!” I scoffed. “Talk about hot air. Hingleburt has so much, he scorched off his own hair. That’s why he’s bald.”

“I know,” said Beck. “How dare he talk about our family like that! We’re the Kidds. So is Uncle Richie.”

“Actually, he’s a Luccio, like Mom used to be. But he’s still family!”

“Right. Good catch, Bick.”

“Thanks, Beck. All for one and one for all!”

“You’re right. So, what are we doing yelling at each other?”

“I have absolutely no idea. Especially since we need to start packing!”

Beck nodded. “Nine hundred hours is early.”

“I know! It’s like nine o’clock in the morning.”

“Because it is nine o’clock in the morning.”

“Good point.”

“Thank you.”

I turned to the kitchen.

“You guys?” I hollered. “We need to load up our gear. Hurry up and finish your dessert. We’re going to the desert with Uncle Richie!”