Talk of going through the Panama Canal has become serious. Bill will make the final decision. He hasn't yet, but he'll need to soon if we're going to make it to the cove by the time I start school. Most everyone thinks it will be a go for the canal.

I'm not the only one who is hoping to have that experience. If we are going through the canal, we'll leave this site in two or three days. As August passes, we're looking at two to three weeks if we take the Panama Canal Passage. I'll be glad to be on the way home whether or not the canal is the way we go.

Dad wouldn't like it if I'm late starting school. Bill has school too. I haven't been as excited by anything in a while, but now I have an adventure to look forward to. Jungle animals come right down to the canal. They're as curious as I am, I guess.

It was the radio contact from Daddy-O that set me back on an even keel. The person who had thrown me off balance by not being there for me, picked me up and set me straight. His words reminded me that I could do anything I decide to do. Before I knew it, I'd be home with the people I loved. I realize how important that is to me.

That's when I began to really enjoy the summer research trip. Bill was a brilliant scientist and Logan was a great filmmaker. Logan was my friend. There was a lot to learn from the people on the Horizon. I was lucky to be there. I started to appreciate what a lucky kid I was to have the experience I was having.

"Greek, do you have any of those butter cookies I like so much?" I asked, after washing the pots and pans from breakfast.

I knew he did and I knew exactly where they were, but it was Greek's kitchen, and I knew better than to take something without asking. After I asked, I knew to hold my hands out for whatever reward he decided I'd earned.

Greek reached on a shelf and handed me a plastic container. The aroma of butter cookies hit me once he took the top off.

"Just a few. You don't want to ruin your lunch, Dylan," Greek said, wiping down the stove and the counter tops, as he watched me dip one hand into the container. I took one handful.

"I'm going to the film lab. I'll give Logan a few of these," I said.

I went into the passageway to walk to the film lab.

"What are you eating," Logan asked, knowing what I was eating.

He was sitting at the editor's console, gazing into the monitor.

"Butter cookies," I said.

"Butter cookies for breakfast. I guess," he said.

I put a few on the console.

"It's my breakfast dessert," I informed him, popping the last of the cookie into my mouth. "We're diving at eleven. We'll be back in time for lunch."

"Bill doesn't want you to waste away. I don't know how you can eat so much and be so thin. I don't eat half the food you eat."

"I'm a growing boy."

"That makes sense. I was hungry a lot at fifteen."

"What were you doing when you were fifteen?" I asked.

"Collecting trading cards and living with my grandmother."

"What was she like, Logan?"

"She was a quiet woman. She told me about my people, her people. She told me about her life on the reservation. She taught me some Lakota words. She remembered what she'd been taught by her parents. They went back to the Indian wars."

"What was that like? She was on the reservation?"

"In some ways it's like being in prison without the walls. It's gotten better, since she grew up, but not much. That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask you about your mother. I taught you the cords to 'You Are My Sunshine,' but you already were singing that song. You said your mother's name was Sunshine. What was she like?"

"I don't know. My father said she was a breath of fresh air. She was smart, happy, and she died before I was two months old. I never knew her but she died giving birth to me. I killed my own mother."

"You did not. You were two months old when she died."

"Aunt Lucy told me my mother was sick with leukemia. I believe she died because she refused to let them do anything that might harm me. My dad said her people wanted nothing to do with their daughter. He told me that when he took me to her grave the first time. I was about five. It was the first time we had a man to man talk about my mother. I used to go with my dad to his laboratory. I don't remember a time when my father didn't take me with him. Mama said she watched me while he went to college, but as soon as he came home, he was with me. While they were building his lab and he took me to see it, we went for a walk and we walked to the top of the dunes that overlooked his lab. There was an obelisk that reminded me of Egyptian art objects. He stopped there. He got very quiet as he stood in front of the monument to my mother. He used those words."

"This is where your mother is, Dylan," he told me. "This is Harry's land. When he heard Sunshine died, he came to me to say, 'I have a place near where I'll have your lab built. If you like it, we can bury Sunshine there.' On top of the dune overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. I thought it was perfect for your mother. Coming back from college one day, I saw this obelisk. I went in and bought it for your Mama's grave. I had those words engraved on it."

"My father stopped there. I read wife on one side, friend on the other side. Mother was written on the front along with, wife of Clayton Olson. Mother of Dylan Olson," I said before I stopped talking.

"That's about the most touching thing I've ever heard, Dylan. I admire and respect your father. I had no idea he was a romantic."

"I didn't have many feelings about it. I was only five and the question of where my mother was had formed in my mind but I didn't ask yet. As I grew older, I started going to the top of that dune to talk with Sunshine, and one day, after I learned the song, I began equating it with my mother, and I sang it when I went to talk to her. That became my thinking place. When I was with Dad or Pop at the Conservancy, some days, I'd take the walk to talk to her. I started singing her song. 'You Are My Sunshine.' It makes me feel good. Since the day my father showed me her grave, I've gone there often. I talk to my mother about questions I have. I feel at peace there. The Gulf is a few hundred yards away, and it's all open sea. It's beautiful."

"Sounds beautiful," Logan said. "You are special people. Your father is such a passionate man, and you, well, you're ..., Dylan through and through."

"I'll take you there, since we're going to the cove. You'll like the cove. It's not much of a place, but everything there is part of who I am. It's the place where I grew up. I'll introduce you to my best friend, Tag. Dad calls him Taggart. Tag's mother nursed me when my mother couldn't make milk. She's like my mother. I have four mothers. Sunshine, Mama, Aunt Lucy, and Twila. They all mother me and I can go to sit and talk to Sunshine, and sometimes I sing to her."

Logan cleared his throat.

I told him my mother died the summer before and that her name was Sunshine, while he taught me to play the cords to, 'You Are My Sunshine.' Now, I told him the rest of the story.

Logan couldn't have imagined the story that went with the song.

Each day Logan showed me more tricks of the trade as we began to assemble the first copy of how he wanted the documentary to look. It would go through revision after revision and only Logan would know when he had it where he wanted it.

Teaching Dylan was more like collaborating. Dylan's understanding of what they were doing was intelligent and intuitive. He didn't simply understand but he had thoughts about the process Logan hadn't considered. Logan was learning more about his craft from the student he taught, and he enjoyed it.

Because he only needed to show Dylan once to get him to remember, they stayed ahead of the schedule Logan had in his head. There wasn't a lot of time to talk about where their lives had been, or where it seemed to be leading them. It made Logan curious. He had wondered how Dylan got to the place where he found himself.

"I had some of yesterday's film ready for you to look it over. I've marked the section I'm planning to use in the documentary. You'll need to tell me if you approve. You don't want to be late for our dive, but it's only a few minutes of footage. Just do a quick run through and we'll talk it over at lunch or this afternoon."

"I want to dive this afternoon. If we're going to sail to the Panama Canal, Captain Hertzog said it's nearly ten days, depending on weather. I want to get in the diving time before we go. We'll have days on end to work on the documentary. That'll give me plenty of time to let you know what I think."

I sat at the console to view the footage Logan wanted me to look at. I checked the clock. Then, I watched the footage he loaded.

"I recognize my footage. It's fine. Let me think about it," I said, "I need to go get my equipment to put on deck for Dolf to take down."

I went to the equipment locker with Logan. He got his equipment out too. He decided to take the eleven o'clock dive with us. Bill was just handing his equipment down to Dolf when we got there.

Dolf came up the ladder as Bill got into his gear and slipped off the platform into the water. I followed him into the water and Logan made three. It was the most exciting part of the dive for me.

I felt invigorated and at the same time sad. After the dive the next morning, I wouldn't dive again until after we got home. Then I realized, I must be the luckiest kid in the world. I was diving in the Pacific Ocean and I was about to go through the Panama Canal.

It was the following day at breakfast that the final plans for the trip through the canal were discussed. Bill and Logan were seated across from each other when I got to the table. I sat beside Logan.

"When do you start school, Dylan?" Bill asked.

"End of August. I don't need to be there the first day. I'm starting 10th grade but it'll be a lot like 9th grade, which was just like 8th grade," I explained.

Captain Hertzog came in and poured himself a cup of coffee. He sat down beside Bill.

"Good morning," we all agreed.

"I've told your father I'd bring the Horizon into the Gulf one day. We'll plan to have you at the cove by the time school starts. I'm looking forward to the trip through the canal. I'm told it's an experience any adventurous soul should have at least once."

"I'm looking forward to it," Logan said.

"Me, too," I said.

"I'll weigh anchor tomorrow after the morning dive," Captain Hertzog said.

"We'll stop at the site I added to your charts earlier. I'll take one dive. I'll check the condition of the reef, take water temperatures, and collect any plant species that I find interesting. At most it'll take two hours and it's on to the canal. We can put the Scorpion away, Captain. I won't be using her again until next summer," Bill said.

"It takes a day to pass through the canal," Captain Hertzog said. "No telling how many boats will be in front of us. We'll need to wait our turn. I've waited as much as two days. Once we're through, it's three to four days to the cove, depending on the weather conditions. I estimate two weeks to the cove from here."

"Once in the Gulf, how long to the cove?" I asked.

"Three days to the Straits of Florida once we're on the Atlantic side. Once in the Gulf it's half a day to the cove. The straits can be tricky depending on the weather, but the Gulf is easy sailing if we aren't sailing into a storm," the captain said.

"Sounds like we have a plan," Bill agreed.

I didn't have anything else to say. It was a new adventure I'd add to the adventures I'd experienced. The more I heard about the canal, the more excited I got. I planned to sit on deck so I didn't miss anything. I hoped to see a variety of land animals native to Central and South America. That excited me more than anything. I was familiar with many species of sea creatures. I'd only seen the species of land animals that were native to the area around the cove.

Once through the canal, I was practically home. Considering how far we'd come, it was a short distance home. The excitement over that had begun to build. I was happy to be heading toward home.

Captain Hertzog came to the galley each morning for a cup of coffee and to tell us about our progress. We would arrive at the canal on the 20th of August. We'd be through on the Atlantic side by the 21st.

We'd be in the Gulf of Mexico by the 25th.

School started on Tuesday, August 28th. I wouldn't miss a day of school, which was disappointing to say the least.

The weather was perfect as we headed Southeast. I spent most days in the film lab with Logan and in the galley with Greek. I ate my share of butter cookies and I took Logan butter cookies.

On the morning of the 19th of August, when I woke up, we were in a line of ships waiting to journey through the Panama canal. I could see two very large freighters and another ship the size of the Horizon.

One of the freighters was being positioned to go into the first lock and it soon disappeared.

When we were the next boat to go into the locks, Sydney stopped at the door of the film lab and told Logan and me. I followed Sydney onto the deck and Dolf was putting a half dozen deck chairs on the stern of the ship.

"What are the chairs for?" I asked Dolf.

"You'll see," he said, going into the passageway and bringing out a table to put between the chairs.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"You'll see," he said.

Sydney was sitting in one of the chairs putting together a device that had a lens he was installing at one end.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"You'll see," Sydney said.

A small boat came along side and a man came up on deck before going up to the bridge.

"Who's he?" I asked Sydney.

"He's the pilot," Bill said as he stopped next to me. "He knows everything about the canal. He makes sure the boat is in the proper position and doesn't get into trouble. It's fifty one miles with three separate locks. The pilot's job is to keep us out of trouble."

"How do you know all of this, Bill?" I asked.

"Captain Hertzog. I was on the bridge before I came on deck."

Finally, I didn't need to wait to wait and see.

Bill sat in a chair on the outside of Sydney. I sat on the other side. He put the device he was working on up to his eye. I figured it to be some kind of instrument to get a closeup view of things.

As we moved into the first lock, I could feel the level of the water under us changing. We'd be raised or lowered three times in the 51 mile journey from the Pacific to the Atlantic. It took twelve hours.

The jungle quickly closed in on the ship from both sides. It was far different scenery from anything I'd seen. I didn't want to miss any of it and no one else did either. Before we got far Greek brought out a platter of sandwiches and Dolf was right behind him with a large bucket of ice filled with drinks of all assortments.

Greek returned with two huge bags of Ruffles and Dolf followed him with a platter of olives, pickles, cheeses, salami, ham, and prosciutto. Those smells blending together were great. I already had my root beer. I grabbed a sandwich, heaping Ruffles in my lap.

After Logan joined us, I was ready for the show to begin. Lunch on deck turned out to be a big hit.

"What's that for, Sydney," Logan asked.

"To look at things closeup," he answered, screwing a magnifying lens into place and putting it up to his eye.

"What kind of things?" I asked.

"You'll see," he said.

The thick undergrowth was near and the sights and sounds were stunning.

"This is jungle?" I asked.

As dense as it was, it seemed to only get thicker on one side.

"Keep your eyes open. You'll see wildlife that you'll rarely see this close," Bill said. "There. There's an aardvark right over there."

Bill pointed him out to me.

"Aardvark? Oh, I see. What's an aardvark?" I asked, knowing I knew what it was but couldn't think of it.

"Ant eater. That's what the long snout is for. It roots out ants."

"Must need to eat a lot of ants to keep him going," I said.

"Lucky for him, there are plenty of ants to go around," Bill said.

"Monkey's overhead," Sydney said, putting the devise up to his eyes to see a closeup of the jungle creatures swinging overhead.

"Let me see," Bill said, taking the magnifier from him.

Bill put his eyes down on top of the device aiming it toward the top of the trees beside the canal.

"It's like watching TV," Bill said. "Gives you a nice view. You made this, Sydney?"

"I did. Just an idea that came to mind in my spare time. It works nicely. Magnifies just enough to give you an idea of what they look like up close. This is as close as they'll let people get. They've seen thousands of ships like this one passing through."

Bill handed me the devise and I put it up to my eyes. The jungle was immediately all there was in my vision. Something moved along at the pace of the Horizon. I caught glimpses of a cat like animal, but it was hard to see among the trees.

"There's something following us. Looks like a cat but I can't get a good view of him," I said.

"Give it to me," Sydney said. "Jaguar. It's a jaguar," Sydney said.

"There's a car in that jungle?" I asked, more joking than serious.

"It's a panther," Bill said. "Native to South and Central America."

It was an amazing trip. The birds were bright and loud at times. The monkeys also followed us from time to time, swinging through the trees alongside the Horizon.

No one wanted to leave the deck. It was a great show as we went from one lock to the next. Once we got to the last lock, it was getting dark and the show became more difficult to see. When we floated free on the Atlantic side it was dark.

After nibbling on Greek's treats all afternoon, dinner wasn't ready until late, and Greek made a stew he called goulash. It was alive with flavor and he got a bowl ready any time someone wandered in to eat. The hot garlic bread made it filling as well as delicious. I stayed to help with the pots and pans, but I went back on deck once we sailed out of the canal.

I watched the pilot climbing down from the bridge as Captain Hertzog stood on the catwalk talking to him. The pilot waved as the boat came along side to pick him up.

As we floated free of the canal, a flock of birds took flight. There was enough light to see their magnificent colors. They flew close enough to see before they settled back into the treetops.

I realized we'd had a unique setting for the trip through the locks and I hadn't thought of getting a camera to make a record of it. As the birds settled back into the trees, I thought of filming them. It was too late now, in more ways than one.

"It's spectacular, Bill. What are those birds?" I asked, as Bill watched them fly up, circle around, and a few at a time left the swarm to light back in the jungle that was now behind us.

"There's a macaw, toucans, and those are parrots," Bill said, pointing them out to me. Horizon's lights on the deck were on and it made viewing easier while making it difficult at the same time.

"Most fortuitous they took flight as we came upon them," Sidney said in his distinctive Australian brogue interrupting us.

I would have stayed there for another day, another week, to watch the life forms I'd never experienced before. It was hard to believe with all the amazing sites I'd seen with my father, I'd seen none of these particular animals before. It was all new to me.

I'd lived my life in the cove. Except for a few trips with my dad that took me to different places where he spoke. I'd been nowhere, and yet I'd seen amazing things most people never get to see.

The Pacific Ocean was full of surprising creatures. Few of them could be found in the Gulf of Mexico, but some sea creatures went everywhere there was a sea. The porpoise and dolphins were ubiquitous. I'd learned that when we met Tangle the summer before.

I could tell the difference between him and the dolphin that were frequently around Sea Lab once we got out beyond the cove. They were even in the cove at times to the delight of campers, but they lived in the Gulf, unless they followed Sea Lab into the cove.

I wasn't prepared for the wildlife show, once we reached the canal. If I'd known what we were about to see, I'd have had my camera at the ready. I might have gotten some of it on film, but I'd need to wait until the next time to have anything to show for it.

It was on the Atlantic side of the canal, after we floated free of the narrow passageway, when Sidney Peacock heard the sound as soon as Captain Hertzog checked his gauges. He'd just begun to give the engines power, and I heard it too. I watched Sydney look toward the bridge as soon as the silence said the engines were off and Captain Hertzog's effort to restart them failed.

He tried to start the engines twice and stopped. By that time Sydney was climbing the ladder to the bridge. We were dead in the water. The silence was everywhere, when the anchor dropped.