Chapter 25
This time only two members of the Gladsheim Mystery Club showed up.
“I wonder where Bubbles is,” said Crystal, after they had sat there without speaking for several minutes.
“Did you look at her neck today?” asked Freckles. “She has the necklace now.”
The silence returned. Crystal began to twirl her hair around her fingers. Freckles started pulling up grass and tossing it into a pile.
“So, what do you think is going on?” Crystal finally asked.
Freckles spoke without looking up. “I’m not sure an American would understand.”
Crystal’s face clouded. “What do you mean by that? American’s are too dumb to figure things out?”
“No,” said Freckles, continuing to play with the grass. “It has to do with our history, and you don’t learn much about Swedish history in America.”
Crystal’s anger faded. “No, we don’t. But I’ve done a little reading.”
“Tell me something, Crystal. You are obviously supposed to be at this camp, but I can’t figure out why. Who sent you here?”
“Well, I was supposed to go on the expedition with my parents, but my brother went instead. They wanted me to be nearby, so my Mom sent me to this camp.”
“So, your parents are on some an expedition here in Sweden?” asked Freckles.
“Yes, they are marine archeologists. They are bringing up artifacts from an ancient Viking longboat.”
Freckles nodded her head, then stood up. “Come on Crystal. I’m tired of this game. Let’s go down and find the other girls and go swimming or something.”
Every night Eric and his parents had dinner with Mr. Frost. They reviewed the artifacts that had been recovered so far, examined any new pictures taken of the area, and decided on a strategy for the next Day.
They had only been in Sweden for four days, but as each day passed Mr. Frost became more and more impatient. “These shields and helmets and coins you’ve been bringing up are fine, but I thought I made myself clear. My museum is most interested in swords. When will you bring those up?”
Crystal’s Mom seemed exasperated. “Mr. Frost. We are professionals. We know how to survey an historical site and the right way to recover artifacts. Any swords will be buried in the mud. We have to work our way down to them slowly, or we’ll destroy the archeological value of this site.”
“You seem to forget that I am a professional too,” said Frost. “And I know a lot more about Viking archeology than you do. The archeological value of this site is the swords.”
“But” Eric tried to interject.
“But nothing,” said Frost. “Listen, little boy. Your mother begged me to go on this expedition. She knew that I was in charge then, and she needs to remember that I am in charge now. I did the initial research on this site. I sent you the airline tickets to get here. And I am the one signing your paychecks. So, I get to decide how the expedition is run!”
Eric’s mother shot him a look. Eric couldn’t tell if it was a look of sympathy, or if his mother was telling him to shut up. But it didn’t matter what kind of look it was. Eric was tired from swimming all day, and he was tired of Frost trying to bully his parents. He was ready for the meeting to end.
“Excuse me,” said Eric as he got up from the table. He wasn’t sure at first what excuse he was going to use to leave the meeting; he just needed to get out of there before he lost his temper. He started to give the universal ‘bathroom break’ excuse, but then he noticed that Frost was ignoring him completely. He didn’t need to invent an excuse; he could just leave.
Eric went up on deck for some fresh air. He saw Scarlett leaning on the railing, looking out over the water. He had been looking for a chance to talk with her some more, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. He walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
Scarlett immediately swung around to see who had touched her. At least Eric expected it to be Scarlett. The woman who turned to face him looked like a cross between a girl and a shark. She had jet-black eyes, pointed teeth and a series of gill slits in her neck.
Eric gave a shout of surprise and jumped back. He was expecting to flirt with a beautiful girl, but instead he was standing face to face with a monster. However, when he blinked and looked again, the monster was gone, and Scarlett was in front of him.
“What’s wrong?” asked Scarlett.
“Oh My God!” exclaimed Eric. “My eyes were playing tricks on me. For a moment, you looked like some sort of a monster.”
Scarlett laughed at that. It was a musical laugh meant to put Eric’s concerns to rest. “They say that this fjord is haunted, but that’s just an old wives’ tale. There’s no such thing as a haunted fjord. I think it is all some kind of self-suggestion. When the moonlight catches you a certain way, suddenly you look like a monster.”
Eric smiled back at her; half convinced. He knew he hadn’t been on an expedition before, and his mother had always told him that the real world was different from college. But with a crew made up of giant people, a museum director who didn’t care about rare artifacts, and a cute girl who turned into a shark-monster, he was pretty sure that something was not quite right.