hesitated. What could he say? That a boy had taken him back in time to an Etruscan village? Ettore would tell the others, and then they would laugh and say heâd been dreaming. So he just shook his head.
âYou look sad,â Ettore noted, his head on one side, considering Hectorâs face. Hector shrugged. âAre you missing your father and your sister?â
âNo,â Hector said. âI donât see much of them even when weâre home.â
âYour friends?â
To his surprise and embarrassment, Hector felt his face turn hot and his eyes sting with tears. He looked away so Ettore wouldnât see, but the man didnât appear to mind.
âItâs too bad there are no other kids here,â he said. âShall I ask in the village and find out if there is someone who wants to play with you?â
âNo,â Hector said, so loudly that he startled himself. âI mean, no, thank you.â Did Ettore think he was five years old and needed someone to play with?
âOkay,â Ettore said. âWhy not be an archaeologist for the summer, then? You are good at it, and you could be a help. Really,â he added, as Hector hesitated. âIâm not saying that the way you say to a little boy, âOh, what a helper you are.â I mean it. You found the most important sherd of this summer, and I myself walked past that same piece a dozen of times without noticing it. What was it that made you want to dig it out, anyway?â
Hector said, âI donât know. It just looked different, somehow. Like it didnât belong.â
âGood eye,â Ettore said approvingly. âSo, you want to be an apprentice archaeologist?â
Hector nodded. It was either that or watch the same music videos over and over again until they went home.
âBravo,â Ettore said. He took Hector to the shed and showed him the different implements the archaeologists used and his own most useful tool, a small notebook in which he carefully wrote down where each piece of pot, scrap of metal, and broken brick was found. This was the whole point of the dig, he explained. Sure, it would be great to find a beautiful statue or a pot of gold, but the things that excited archaeologists were usually small, and uninteresting to other people. A coin with the picture of a ruler whose dates historians knew, a vase shaped in a way that no one made until a certain time, a written text mentioning a historical eventâthese were the real treasures for archaeologists. Hector concentrated. What Ettore was saying helped keep him from thinking about what heâd seen that afternoon.
âWhen we study these things we learn about the people who made them,â Ettore explained. âItâs like going back in time. These were our ancestorsânot just mine, but yours too, since the Etruscans helped the culture of Rome take form, and the Romans went all over Europe, and the Europeans went all over America. If we know where we have come from, we understand us a little better. For example, if that building over there is a templeââ He stopped talking and shook his head ruefully.
Hector glanced up to see if a cloud had covered the sun, but no, the sky was still an unbroken, piercing blue. Then why had he felt a chill, deep enough to cause a shudder?
âIt is a temple,â he said without thinking, and then flushed.
âHow do you know?â Ettore asked.
Hector shrugged. He couldnât say, âBecause I saw it when it was whole.â He wouldnât know how to explain it. And Ettore would tell him heâd been dreaming or think Hector was a baby playing make-believe.
âI just bet it is,â he said lamely.
âI bet it is too,â Ettore agreed. âBut I wonât be sure until I find more things.â
âWhat kind of things?â
âI wonât know until I find them. But temples usually had an altar. There might also be some holy
Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Casey Dawes