"Then why did you say chupacabra?"
"'Cause no one outside of Chile or Argentina has ever heard of el peuchen. It's not exactly big up here, you know? Besides, I've never heard of one of them coming this far north. Chupacabra, on the other hand..."
As much as she hated to admit it, he had a point. Still ... "You don't really believe that, do you?"
"I know you want me to say no, Doc. I do. But ... Abuela knew things. She saw things. Things no one could explain, no matter how much science you want to put on it. She said they were visions given to her by the Holy Mother back in the day. When I was a boy, she told me I could see them, too. But I didn't want to see them and so I didn't. Just because we study science, it doesn't mean there aren't things that defy us. For everything we know, there is much more we don't. Things no one can find out with an empirical test." He jerked his chin at her computer screen. "And that is something we definitely don't know."
He was right about that.
Not wanting to admit it, she went back to unwrapping what felt like a giant round rock.
Enrique helped her until they uncovered ...
A giant round rock.
His scowl deepened along with hers as she pulled the plastic back to reveal a hand-chiseled wheel the likes of which she hadn't seen since they left the dig months ago.
"What is that?" he asked.
She ran her fingers over the intricate carvings as she studied the giant red stone that had to be thousands of years old, judging by its worn condition. "It appears to be a Mayan calendar, but the glyphs aren't exactly Mayan." More than that, there was writing on it, too. Not glyphs, but something that appeared to be an ancient Greek script.
Okay ... someone had to be screwing with her. They had to be. One of her friends must have made this up as a joke.
Because she'd never seen anything like this. No one had anything ancient Greek with Native American. There was no way for it to exist.
But what if it was real?
It can't be. Those two cultures had never intermingled. Ever.
Frowning, she dug through the peanuts until she located a note near the bottom. Prepared to have it say "April Fool's," she quickly skimmed it.
Teri,
We found this seal in the center of our site under an ornate headstone unlike anything I've ever encountered. I have never seen glyphs like this. The other script looks Greek to me-yeah, I know, go ahead and laugh-which shouldn't be possible. I've sent a photo of the writing to Dr. Soteria Parthenopaeus in New Orleans to see if she can read it and I've asked her if she has any idea how anything European could be on a Preclassic stone in the Yucatan. My initial test results say the stone is 14,000 years old. Not a typo. Believe me, I know it's impossible, but I've checked and rechecked a thousand times. It can't be right, so I'm sending this to the best geologist I know for corroboration. Or for you to tell me it's time to update my equipment and better ventilate the shafts we've been working in. I've included several soil samples for you, too. Please call me as soon as you get this.
Fernando
Chills spread over her arms as she stared at his name on the paper and a million memories assaulted her. Even now, she could see him sitting outside the pyramid last summer as the sun set behind him. Grimy and sweaty with his hair matted and sticking up all over his head, he'd been happy and excited even though they'd been excavating for ten hours straight in the worst sort of heat. Flashing her that boyish grin of his, he'd popped open a lukewarm beer and handed it to her. "Despues del trabajo-cerveza!"
Tears welled in her eyes. That had been the worst-tasting beer she'd ever drank, but his company had made it seem perfect. Fernando had always been a good friend to her and she would miss him terribly.
Why did he have to die? He was too young. He'd had too many plans.
She clenched her teeth, forcing her tears down as she focused on what Fernando would want her to do. Work always came first. It was why he didn't have a wife or even a girlfriend.
Focus, Teri.... By the date and time on the package, he'd sent it to her the same day he'd boarded the plane to come home. No doubt it'd been too heavy for him to pack or carry, what with all the airline restrictions nowadays.
Not to mention, the stone was huge.
In more ways than one. If this really was fourteen thousand years old, and if that was Greek writing on it, it would entirely rewrite the historical record and change everything they thought they knew about the ancient world. Both here in the Americas and in Europe.
Fourteen thousand years predated any known script-writing system. Come to think of it, it might even predate ancient Greece....
She frowned at the thought. When was Greece founded? She had no idea. That wasn't her area of expertise. She'd never been all that fond of traditional history. That had been Fernando's scope of knowledge, and while she'd picked up a great deal of information on her digs with him, most of it was Mesoamerican and not European.
But even with her limitations, she knew this was epic to the extreme. One of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time ...
There is no such thing as a coincidence. The universe and spirits are always sending us omens and signs. You must learn to see and read them. Only then will you be able to control your destiny.
Her grandmother's words haunted her.
But what was this a sign of?
"Do you believe the world's going to end in two weeks?" Enrique asked, dragging her thoughts back to where she was.
"What?"
He jerked his chin toward the calendar in her hands. "You know, the Mayan thing? Isn't the world supposed to end any day now?"
At least that added a small twinge of humor to her sadness. She'd listened to Fernando rant and rave against that all summer long. It'd been his sore spot the way she couldn't stand how some people left their shopping buggies in the middle of the aisle so that no one could get past them. Rudeness always set her off.
"No, sweetie. There's absolutely nothing in the Mayan culture or writings to suggest the world will end this year. Like the Cherokee and other natives, they have a cyclical calendar system, and the fourth cycle ends on the 21st, but they never once wrote anything about it being apocalyptic."
Fernando would be so proud to know that she'd actually been listening to his tirades. That thought caused pain to lacerate her heart as she finished Fernando's diatribe in honor of him. "That was a distortion made back in the days when we could only read about thirty percent of the Mayan glyphs ... if that much. Then back in the nineties when everyone was terrified of Y2K, some scholars repeated the old misconception and cashed in on it. So don't start giving away your personal effects. You'll be needing them on the 22nd and whatever you do, don't forget to buy something for your mother and abuela for Christmas. They'd be very upset at you."