Chapter 2

Crystal hated airplanes, and she hated airline food. The only food they served on this flight that she would even consider eating were the little courtesy bags of peanuts. The very difficult to open little courtesy bags of peanuts. She had struggled with this particular bag of peanuts for what seemed like an hour and could not find a way to open it. Under normal conditions, she would have given up by now and asked her Mother to open the bag for her. But today she hated her mother as much as she hated airline food; which was about as much as she hated her father; which was still less than how much she hated her rotten older brother.

Thinking of her older brother must have given her a burst of strength. The bag tore straight down the middle, sending a shower of salted nuts high into the air to rain down on everyone sitting near her. She wanted to cry. She had worked so hard on opening that stupid bag and ended up with nothing but sour looks from other passengers. It wasn’t fair.

She looked across the aisle and scowled at her family. This whole trip wasn’t fair. She should be the one going on the expedition with her parents, not her brother. She always went with them. Being home schooled meant that she could go along with them whenever they got an assignment, without having to worry about make-up work or attendance rules or special meetings with the principal.

Hadn’t she spent the last month studying about Vikings? Hadn’t she been practicing scuba diving and snorkeling almost every day? Hadn’t she sat at the dining room table with them, studying the pictures and sonar readings? So why wasn’t she the one going with them?

Her brother looked over and smiled at her like nothing had changed in the five years he was gone. Five years of only being with her for a couple of days at Christmas. Five years of making quick little phone calls on her birthday. Didn’t he realize that he had abandoned her for almost half of her life?

Now this near stranger with the fancy college degree had waltzed back into their lives and pushed her aside. Suddenly he was the center of her parent’s attention and she was just a little girl who had to sit quietly on the couch and let the grown-ups talk. Suddenly this creep was going on the Viking expedition and she was getting sent off to a summer camp full of strangers.

And it wasn’t even a good summer camp. It was some stupid Swedish camp full of people who probably ate weird food and couldn’t even speak English. It was obvious that her mother didn’t pick it because it was a good fit for her. She picked it because it was located on the same fjord as the Viking boat so Crystal would be nearby on her birthday. Her mother probably wanted to save long-distance phone charges when the family gave their quick little “Happy Birthday” phone call.

Crystal hated the entire twelve hours she flew in that crowded, uncomfortable plane, and things did not improve for her after they landed. She had to stand in long, slow-moving lines for passport and customs, all the time surrounded by people jabbering in languages she couldn’t understand. She was tired, her feet hurt, she was starving, and her stomach just wouldn’t stop growling.

Then they took a pint-sized plane to some little airport near the fjord. Eric insisted on sitting next to her, and that just made everything worse. He kept pretending that things were like they used to be, back when he cared about her feelings. He tried talking to her. He tried kidding around with her. He even tried to reminisce about the good old days. Crystal just ignored him. She had resigned herself to summer camp and just wanted to get there (and away from her family) as soon as possible.

When they finally got off the horrible little plane, she broke from her family and ran alone to the baggage claim area. Determined not to go hungry on this trip, Crystal had packed an entire suitcase with peanut butter, graham crackers, ramen noodles, and protein bars. The food called to her, shouting her name, promising to fill her mouth with her favorite flavors; her stomach growled even louder than before.

Back in Florida Crystal had marked her two suitcases with bright red tape to make them easy to find, but now she only saw one of them. After searching the conveyor belt three times, each time more carefully than the previous, she realized that her food cache was not there. Her clothes were there, her parent’s bags were there, and even her rat-fink brother’s suitcase was there. But her food was missing.

She spun quickly around, instinctively looking for her mother; she would know what to do. Then, at the far end of the terminal, she saw that her luck really was stuck on ‘Bad’. A tall man with long dark hair was ripping the red tape off her bag as he quickly walked away from baggage claim. Crystal took two steps towards him and then stopped. He was only about five feet from the exit, and she knew there was no way she could catch up with him. She was going to call out for help but didn’t know how to say, “Stop that man—he’s taken my suitcase of food!” in Swedish.

Crystal wanted to scream and slump to the floor and cry and hold onto a chair leg until someone brought her something to eat. Right now, she’d even settle for a pepperoni pizza with anchovies, and she hated anchovies.

Just then a beautiful girl’s face suddenly appeared in front of Crystal. It looked like it was surrounded by flames, as if she were emerging from a fireball. She had piercing blue eyes and a friendly smile that flashed beautiful white teeth. Her skin was freckled, but the freckles just added to her natural beauty.

Then the face spoke. It had a melodic voice that made her talking sound almost like a song. “Hello, Crystal,” the face said in lightly accented English. “Are you having a problem?”