Professor Taylor greets us and leads us
to his office on the second floor. Our

lawyer is there and he speaks for a few
minutes with Harry, then with my father.

Dad smiles over at me once. I think
he’s still confused about all of this,

but somehow he also seems relieved.
I guess there was a part of him

that thought I was heading for trouble,
spinning into some kind of delinquency

from which I would never return. The truth
about what I’ve been doing all summer,

though strange in its own way, is a lot better
than what he’d been afraid of. Professor

Taylor leaves them, motions for us to
follow him down the long, dark hall

posted with neat red arrows that say:
ARCHAEOLOGY LAB—EMPLOYEES ONLY.