Eyelids of the Morning

By Heidi Peltier

Ethan is a sixteen-year-old boy who, with his twelve-year-old brother Rory, reluctantly leaves his boarding school for the summer to be dragged to the other side of the world by their reclusive and eccentric uncle. When their uncle finally explains that he is hunting for a true, living dinosaur in the heart of the Congo River Basin, Ethan immediately pegs him for a lunatic. However, using documented eyewitness accounts, a vivid description of dinosaurs from the Bible, and, his most powerful weapon, news that Ethan and Rory’s late mother believed that dinosaurs exist too, their uncle has them convinced. They journey to the Congo and meet Shari, a missionary nurse, and her adopted daughter Maggie whose passion for the plight of the Congolese people leaves Ethan instantly smitten. Their dinosaur hunt leaves Ethan, Maggie and Rory separated from their group, facing danger at every turn, and racing against the clock to get medical help for a serious injury. In the end, they make the discovery and sacrifice of a life time, the emotional gap between the boys and their uncle is finally bridged, and Ethan learns that home truly is where the heart is.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Heidi Peltier
• Release date: Jun 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301371365

Heidi Peltier

I am what they call a "jack of all trades but a master of none." I write, draw, paint, cook, bake, photograph, video edit, and craft. My most important job though is being a wife to my wonderful husband of thirteen years, Chris, and being a mom to our two precious boys, Ethan and Rory. Between driving my "should-have-been-a-yellow-school-bus" minivan to take kids to school, pick them up, take them to various practices, and watching soccer and baseball games, taking zumba classes, rehearsing with my church handbell choir, and doing my own recreational reading, I don't have a lot of time to write. But when I do, I enjoy it, and you can be sure I give it all I've got. I hope to continue it and to have an audience ready for more. Thanks for stopping by, and Happy Reading!

Book preview

Eyelids of the Morning

A Novel

By Heidi Peltier

Text Copyright 2013 Heidi Peltier

All Rights Reserved

Smashwords edition

Cover art is the author's derivative translation of Private Eye 2005 by Atomicjeep, used under a Creative Commons Attribution license 2.0

For Ethan & Rory, of course

Never stop dreaming

CHAPTER 1

It's seven o'clock! Someone was shaking my shoulders and whispering loudly. It wasn't hard to figure it was my brother. This was his normal morning greeting. I had hoped he'd sleep a little later this morning, and more importantly, let me sleep a little later. So much for that.

Go away, I said blindly flailing my arm in his general direction, not ready to open my eyes yet.

But, Ethan, we're going home today!

Home? Where did he get that idea? For the past two years, this had been our home. Rory and I attended a boarding school in the middle of Texas. St. Mark Christian Academy. This is where we slept, ate, did our homework, hung out with friends. We had dorm directors and RA's instead of parents, but otherwise, this was our home. Our mom chose this school for us two years earlier when our dad had taken a job overseas in a country that would not allow American kids to attend school. I never understood what he was going to do, but it was something to do with oil. And apparently it paid well, so well that no matter how heart-broken they said it made them to send us here, they sent us anyway. I resented them for it for a while, and Rory was pretty homesick. He was only eleven our first year here, so I tried to help him feel more comfortable which only led to him thinking it was OK to hang around with me and my friends all the time. He got pretty annoying after a while. I started getting irritated with him and yelling at him to leave me alone. But that all changed after our second semester started.

We had only been back on campus from Christmas break for a day when we got the phone call. Our parents had flown back to Texas to spend Christmas with us at our grandma's house in the Rio Grande Valley. We had a nice time, and I easily forgot what had made me so resentful in the first place. They told us great stories about the place they were living and showed us tons of pictures. They promised they would only be there one more year, and then we could move back to our house near San Antonio. Best of all, Mom said she would be coming back for the summer and that we'd rent a house at the beach for a month. We were excited, and suddenly going back to the Academy didn't seem so dreadful. But then that call came and changed everything. After dropping us off on campus, my parents caught a flight out of San Antonio, and the plane went down a few hours later. There were no survivors. Rory was 11, and I was 14, and we were orphans.

The staff and faculty rallied around us and gave us loads of love and support. When we got back from the funeral, they minimized our homework for a while and allowed us to share a dorm room for as long as we wanted. Normally, we would room with another student our own age, but they made an exception for us. Typically, I would never choose to share a room with my annoying brother, but I felt like we both needed this for a while. Rory would cry in his sleep sometimes, and in the middle of the night, I would feel my way across the dark room and curl up next to him until he stopped. I felt sorry for him. He felt the pain of the loss right away. I, on the other hand, as always, took a while to process it. I had to think about it, analyze it, consider what it meant for both of us. When the pain did finally catch up to me, I made sure I never let it show in front of my brother. I didn't think he could handle it.

Our uncle, my mom's brother, Paul became our guardian. Uncle Paul was a little strange. He always had been. We weren't sure how much money he had, but it must have been a lot. He was always traveling, and it was almost always internationally. His house which was not really a mansion but not really small either was filled with all kinds of maps and navigational instruments. When we were younger, Rory and I made up all sorts of ideas as to what Uncle Paul could be up to. We finally decided he was a treasure hunter, and we imagined all the gold and jewels he must have stashed somewhere in his house or in some secret vault somewhere.

Because of all his travels, Uncle Paul decided to leave us at the Academy, but it was no secret that he preferred to avoid especially Rory. My brother bore an uncanny resemblance to our mother which bothered Uncle Paul a lot. Even when he was around, he made very little eye contact with Rory. I didn't know if Rory understood or even noticed, but I pitied him for that too. The one parental figure we had left avoided him like the plague. Uncle Paul spent that first summer somewhere in India, so Rory and I stayed with our grandma. She was getting older and the loss of our parents turned out to be harder on her than anyone else realized. We ended up having to comfort her a whole lot more than she comforted us. Needless to say, it was the worst summer we ever had. That coupled with the fact that our grandma recently had a hip replacement left our uncle with no choice but to take charge of us this summer. This was the day he was going to pick us up and take us on one of his mysterious adventures. So, I guess this is what Rory meant when he said we were going home. Honestly, I preferred to stay right where I was.

Come on, Ethan! He was shaking me again. I was really beginning to regret that my roommate's parents picked him up after his last final and that I had allowed Rory to stay in my room since his roommate was gone too.

Get – Up! Now he was sitting on my back and bouncing. Annoying.

Get off me, I said rolling so that he slid onto the floor. I'm up, OK?

Let's go eat. I'm hungry.

You're not even dressed yet, I was still groggily trying to sit up and scratching my head.

I'll race you! he said grinning. There was Mom's smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

OK, but I'll win. All I had to do was throw on some clothes. Rory would have to mess with his hair. If I kept mine short enough, I never had to do anything with it. I was unfortunate enough to get my grandpa's hair which meant cowlicks and waves which made my hair stick out in about fifty different directions. But my hair was short now, and I never had to do anything with it. Rory wore his hair longer, so in the mornings, it looked like he'd been though a wind storm. All he had to do was go through it with a wet comb, but it took a few minutes. As predicted, I won the race.

We walked across campus to the dining hall.

Bye, Robert! Rory called to a friend who was being picked up by his parents outside the dorm. Have a good summer!

There weren't many students on campus anymore. Our uncle had waited til one of the last days the campus was open to pick us up. Only one serving line in the cafeteria was open, and our only choices were runny eggs and greasy bacon as well as a couple of choices from the cereal bar. Finding a seat was no problem either. Most of the wooden chairs had been stacked to one side of the dining area, and several of the round tables had been moved off the main floor. But there were a few tables left, and most of them were empty. I waved to my friend Justin to come sit with us. He played on the JV baseball team with me, and we both said we were going to practice all summer to make varsity next year. I wished he didn't live so far away so we could practice together. The three of us sat in silence and ate, and after a few minutes, Rory's friend Hallie sat down with us.

Hey, Hal, Rory mumbled between bites of cereal.

Hey, she answered pushing some of her short black hair behind her ear. She and Rory weren't romantically involved or anything, but they hung out together a lot. She was one of the few students, boy or girl, who was as interested in motors as Rory was. They liked to tinker with anything that moved. They both wanted to race dirt bikes, but there was nowhere for them to do it around here. Besides, the school wouldn't allow that anyway. Too dangerous. There weren't any official clubs on campus for that sort of thing, but if there was, they would be the co-presidents. Once, they tweaked the grounds crew's riding lawn mower, and the entire school was glued to the dining hall windows as we watched the poor driver hanging on for dear life as he sped down the hill. They both got detentions for it and had to fix it back, but I didn't think the grounds people should have complained about how quickly they got the front lawns mowed that day.

So, you guys still going to Africa this summer? Hallie asked. This was the same question she'd asked several times a week for the past four weeks. It was making me nuts.

Yep, Rory answered simply still not looking away from his cereal.

Hallie was grinning at me as if she hadn't heard Rory at all. It was no secret that she had a crush on me, but I tried to ignore it. She was almost as annoying as my brother, and she was in middle school, for crying out loud!

I turned toward Justin as if he'd asked the question. Our uncle is some sort of treasure hunting enthusiast. He'll probably have us out digging for diamonds or something.

Rory laughed with his mouth full and held out his fist.

Taters.

I bumped my fist to his and kept eating.

Hmm, Justin responded. Send me a big diamond then.

Sure, I said turning back to my plate. Hallie was staring off into space still grinning. I figured she was imagining me giving her a diamond too.

I thought you were already gone, I snapped at her sort of rudely.

Oh, she laughed, coming back to Earth. My dad had a last minute stop in Fort Worth for an interview. He'll be here later today.

Hallie's dad worked for a major news broadcasting station out of Washington D.C. That was where she would be spending her summer. Her parents took her to all sorts of historic places in the area, but we all knew she'd prefer to be on some deserted dirt road with her bike.

Justin's family was taking a Caribbean cruise in a few weeks. In fact, most of my friends had big plans for the summer including trips to Hawaii and New York. One kid was even going to Australia. And what did we have to look forward to? Flying off to Africa on some crazy adventure with our weird uncle.

We finished up our breakfast, dumped our trays and headed back toward the dorms. Rory and Hallie talked about their bikes a little more and about how much riding they would do over the summer. Then we said goodbye to her at the fork in the sidewalk that split between the boys' and girls' dorms. Back in our dorm, we said goodbye to Justin in the hallway and headed back to our rooms to finish packing. After a while, our dorm director poked his head into my room.

Ethan, Rory, he called, your uncle's here.

Thanks, Mr. H. I answered. Rory and I exchanged glances. His looked excited. I know mine looked hesitant. We only had a few boxes and a couple of suitcases to load in his car, so it didn't take many trips out to the parking lot. Uncle Paul had come in his big SUV to pick us up so he could haul all of our stuff. Normally, he preferred to drive a tiny car that looked like a wind-up toy, but even without luggage, the three of us couldn’t fit into it. He signed all the proper paperwork at the front desk, and I took one last look at the dorm, my home. Uncomfortable as it was, I couldn't wait to get back here in the fall.

I got in the front passenger seat of the SUV and looked over at Uncle Paul.

Let's go, I groaned.

He looked at me over the top of his sunglasses and smiled.

Ready, boys? he asked.

I glanced back at Rory who still looked excited.

Yeah, I can’t wait! Rory answered.

Africa, here we come? I murmured in a hesitant voice picturing me and Rory holding picks and heading into a diamond mine.

CHAPTER 2

Yep, Africa, boys! He answered way too gung-ho. To the Congo, into Conrad’s 'Heart of Darkness.'

I was still confused by the idea. Africa? The immunizations alone were enough to cause me to panic. We had started getting shots during spring break and got a second round at Easter, but we still had a few more to go. We couldn’t leave until we had gotten them all.

We're headed off to get a few of your shots right now, Uncle Paul announced as though he had been reading my thoughts.

What? This was more than I could stand. I was trying to keep my panic in check since I knew Rory was watching. I made a quick glance at him and his face had a slightly nervous look to it now. He didn't like shots any more than I did, but like everything else, he didn't think about it as much as I did either. I was arguing with myself in my head. Part of me thought it was good that he sprung this announcement on us. It gave me less time to worry about it. The other part of me was angry because I always like to have a little notice about these kinds of things so I can prepare myself mentally. It was a moot point since we were already on our way, but this was the way my brain worked.

After an hour drive, we entered the gate of our uncle’s property and wound up the long path to the driveway in front of the house. The two-story, limestone home stood on about thirty fenced acres. You couldn’t see the house from the road because of all the plants and trees growing in between them. Most of the rest of the property was old pasture land, so it was pretty open with the exception of a few really big, old trees. Uncle Paul hadn’t done much to develop the property; he didn’t even keep animals here. All he had built was the house, a guest house out back, and the fence. Even though he was seldom ever here, the place was always kept up and looked nice. Though for no reason other than its occupant, my brother and I saw the place as just plain weird.

I could see the doctor’s car already parked and knew he was waiting inside for us with is big pointy needles. Our uncle had a personal doctor who came to the house to administer all of our immunizations so far. It was no surprise that we would do them all this way. Uncle Paul looked my way and then laughed.

What’s so funny? I asked more than a little irritated at the whole situation.

You are, he answered. You should see the look on your face.

Well, I don’t like shots, I argued in my defense.

Yeah, I know, he said still laughing.

We walked in the front door, and immediately to the left, in Uncle Paul’s study stood the doctor, needles at the ready.

I put on my brave face for Rory who was looking a little green, but inside, every part of me was trying to bolt out the door. I remembered the times my parents both had to take me for shots because it would take both of them and usually a nurse to hold me down. But this doctor was good. I barely felt the needles as he put them in, and I did my best to distract Rory when it was his turn. The doctor explained that in about four days, he would be back to do the last round, and we’d be ready for our trip.

Africa. I still couldn’t believe we were going there, and I still had no idea why. I was sure Uncle Paul would bring it up soon, so I waited.

Uncle Paul made a quick telephone call to the Chamberlains, a husband and