Read Kate and the Wyoming Fossil Fiasco Online
Authors: Janice Hanna
Kate and the Wyoming Fossil Fiasco (11 page)
After praying with Joel to accept Jesus, Kate felt like singing! She felt like dancing and jumping for joy. Was this how God felt, too? Probably! The angels in heaven were probably throwing a party right now!
Kate’s mother drew near. “Honey, I hate to rush you, but we have to get back to Yellowstone soon. Tonight is our last evening with the Phillips family, and we want to have a big campfire and let you and McKenzie tell us the whole story of how you caught the forger.”
Kate nodded. “Okay, Mom. I’ll be right there. I just need to talk to one last person. Can you give us about five minutes?”
“Sure.” Her mother gave her a warm hug. “And in case I haven’t said it yet, I’m so proud of you!”
“The Camp Club Girls did it together!” Kate said with a nod.
Her mother headed to the RV, and Kate walked with McKenzie and Joel into the museum, looking for Gus. Kate spotted him at last.
“Gus, could we talk to you for a minute?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I’m busy, kid.”
“It will only take a minute. Please?” She looked into his tired eyes and he shrugged.
“I guess. But make it quick.”
“I … we … just wanted to tell you something,” Kate explained. “We wanted to tell you how happy we are that you work here. You do a great job for the quarry and we appreciate you.”
He stared at her suspiciously. “Who told you to say this?”
“No one,” McKenzie said. “We just wanted you to know, that’s all.”
Gus ran his fingers through his thinning hair and looked at them as if he didn’t quite believe them. “You mean, you’re just saying this to be nice?”
“Well sure,” Kate said. “When someone does a great job, it’s always a good idea to let them know.”
“If you think I’m so great, then why were you kids snooping around this place at night, hoping to catch me doing something wrong?” he asked. “I know all about it.”
“Sorry about that.” Kate sighed. “We were just trying to figure out who was making the fake fossils.”
“I know, I know.” Gus put his hands up. “You thought it was me. But now I have something to tell you.”
“Oh?” Kate gave him a curious look. “What is it?”
“I suspected Conner of foul play all along,” Gus said. “I’ve been keeping an eye on him for weeks, documenting suspicious activity.”
“No way!” Kate crossed her arms at her chest and stared at him. “Were you in the woods one day when we were excavating? I thought I saw you.”
“Yes, I followed him out there that day because I’d found a large bag of brown sugar hidden in the closet in my workroom earlier in the day. I took it to the kitchen, thinking maybe one of our cooks had misplaced it, but they thought I was crazy, so I took it back to the workroom.”
“Wow. So that explains why we saw you walk through the dining hall with a bag of brown sugar,” Kate said.
“Yes.” He sighed. “Something told me Conner was up to no good, but I couldn’t prove it. I hated to go to Mr. Jenkins without any proof.”
“I see.” She paused then looked at him. “Are you saying you knew all along that the fossils you were sending out were fake, but you sent them anyway?”
“No.” He laughed. “I only began to suspect it when you kids started following me. I overheard something you said to Mr. Jenkins. Just enough to get me curious. And to be honest, I was worried about Joel’s missing stingray, but I hadn’t said anything about it.”
“Wow. So we were all worried about the same thing,” Kate said. “To think we could have been working together!”
“Yep.” Gus grinned—the first smile she’d seen from him. “Would you kids like a proper tour of my workroom? A lot of interesting things go on back there.”
Kate looked up at him, stunned at his kind gesture. “Really?”
“Really.” He nodded and grinned.
“That would be great. We can’t take long though, because my parents are waiting.”
“They can come, too,” Gus said. “Run and fetch them.”
Kate did just that, and before long, both families were crammed into the tiny workspace.
As Gus showed them around, he was all smiles. “Wow. He’s really great,” Kate whispered to McKenzie.
Kate thought about everything that had happened. How she had misjudged people!
The tour ended after just a few minutes, and it was time to leave the quarry. Kate had a hard time saying good-bye to everyone, especially Megan and Joel.
“Promise you’ll write?” Joel asked.
“I will. And you let me know if you get that internship.”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you! Mr. Jenkins told me this morning that I did!” Joel’s faced beamed. “Isn’t that terrific news?”
“Awesome!” Kate turned to Megan, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She reached to hug her counselor good-bye and whispered, “I’m going to miss you so much.”
“I’m going to miss you, too,” Megan said. “And I can never thank you enough for helping solve this case, girls,” she said, reaching for McKenzie with her other arm. “I hope you’ll come back.”
Kate nodded. “Maybe we’ll get to come back someday and bring our friends. You’ll love Elizabeth. And Sydney and Alex and Bailey …” On and on she went, singing the
praises of the Camp Club Girls.
Finally Kate’s mother interrupted her. “I’m so sorry, honey, but we really have to go.”
“Okay.” Kate sighed and gave the quarry one last look before they climbed into the RV. As they pulled out of the parking lot, she felt the sting of tears in her eyes but quickly brushed them aside. No tears today. This was a happy day.
“Mom, would it be okay if I called Mrs. Smith?” Kate asked. “I want to tell her what happened.”
“Yes, it’s fine,” her mother said. “I know she’ll be very relieved.”
Kate spent the next ten minutes on the phone with her teacher, who was thrilled to get the news, especially when she heard that the real fossils had been located and would be sent to the Philadelphia museum in a few days.
“Kate, you did it! You solved the case
and
saved the day.”
“I hate to disagree with you, Mrs. Smith,” Kate said, “but only God can save the day. I am glad He chose to use the Camp Club Girls to help though!”
“Me, too.” Her teacher laughed then thanked her once again for helping out.
Kate ended the call, then looked at McKenzie. “Now we need to call the other girls and let them know what happened!”
“Yes, they’ll be so excited!” McKenzie added.
“Awesome! Let’s do a conference call.”
Minutes later, Kate had all of the Camp Club Girls on
the line. Everyone was so excited that they talked on top of each other.
Kate held the phone in her hand and McKenzie leaned in close to hear everything.
“We have so much to tell you!” Kate said. “We figured out who forged the fossils!”
“No way!” Bailey let out a loud squeal. Kate pulled the phone away from her ear and rubbed it, then laughed.
“Yes. And you’re never going to believe who it was. The very last person on planet earth that we would have ever suspected—Conner! Alex already knows because her uncle helped us run the fingerprints, but I wanted to tell the rest of you.”
Kate quickly relayed the rest of the story, giving the girls all of the details then thanking each of the girls for her help.
“Oh wow, that’s unbelievable!” Sydney said. “Conner seemed so trustworthy.”
“I know,” Kate said. “He’s a respected paleontologist and a counselor to the boys. That’s why I never considered him. But in the end, that’s who it turned out to be.”
“So Gus wasn’t the one after all?” Bailey asked.
“No, it looks like we judged a book by its cover … and we were wrong,” Kate answered.
“What do you mean?” Sydney asked.
“I saw a grumpy older man in wrinkled clothes and thought he was a bad guy. Turns out he’s just a man who is hurting. His poor wife is in a rehab hospital because of a terrible car accident. Instead of judging Grumpy Gus, I should have shared God’s love with him.” Even as she spoke the words, Kate felt guilty.
“Don’t let her fool you,” McKenzie said. “Kate
did
show him God’s love. Every time she passed by, she smiled and talked to him. That’s a lot more than most of the other campers did.”
It warmed Kate’s heart to hear McKenzie’s words, but she still felt bad.
“Remember what happened in the story of Jacob and Esau,” Elizabeth said. “Even though Jacob made some mistakes, God still made something good out of the situation. That’s how the Lord works. You watch and see.”
“O—okay. I will.”
“I see one good thing that came out of it already,” Sydney said. “You suspected the wrong person, but your suspicions led to the right person. Don’t you find that interesting?”
“Yes.” Kate couldn’t help but smile. “I learned a big lesson.”
“What’s that?” Alexis asked.
“Megan told me on the day of the treasure hunt that we each leave an imprint on others with our attitude. She called it a fossil on the heart.”
“Ooo, I like that,” Elizabeth said. “A fossil on the heart.”
“When my attitude is good, I leave a good imprint and when my attitude is bad, well …” Kate paused and sighed. “Let’s just say that sometimes I leave a negative imprint.”
Sydney laughed. “Kate, don’t be so hard on yourself.
You’re one of the sweetest girls I know. You’ve left a great imprint on my heart. And on Bailey’s. And Elizabeth’s.” She began to talk nonstop about how each of the Camp Club Girls had left a different imprint. Before long, Kate was laughing. The Camp Club Girls all started laughing and talking and soon got really loud. Kate’s mom gave her a warning look.
Kate ended the call just as they arrived at their campsite at Yellowstone. The sun was starting to set in the west, painting the sky the most brilliant colors Kate had ever seen.
She and the others climbed out of the RV and stretched their legs.
“I’m so hungry!” she said. “What’s for dinner?”
“We’re grilling hamburgers and hot dogs,” her mother said. “You girls can help.”
Kate and McKenzie helped their mothers get the meal ready. As they worked, Dexter drew near, his eyes wide with excitement.
“Kate, you’ll never believe what happened when you were gone.”
“What?” She looked at her little brother.
“Yesterday morning we had a bear. He came right to the edge of our tent.”
“No way!”
“It’s true,” her mother said. “I think someone …” she looked at Dexter, “someone left the bag of marshmallows out. And a little bear cub found it at the campsite, just a
few feet from our tent.”
“I wish you could’ve seen it, Kate,” Dexter said with a grin. “I came out of the tent and caught him in the act.”
“What did you do?”
“Well, I read online not to ever spook a bear, so I stayed quiet. For a minute or two he didn’t know I was there.”
“We watched the whole thing from our tent,” her father said. “The cub was so busy eating marshmallows that he wasn’t paying attention to anything. But as soon as he saw Dex, he took a couple of steps in his direction.”
“Then what?” Kate could hardly believe it.
Dexter shook his head. “I stood frozen like a statue.”
“We all prayed silently,” her mother said. “The Lord answered our prayers. The bear ate that last marshmallow and then took off into the trees.”
“When he left we ran and got inside the van,” Dexter said. “Just in case he came back.”
Kate’s father said, “He didn’t come back. He went off, probably looking for more food.”
“I’m so glad I didn’t go to fossil camp with you,” Dexter said. “I would have missed the whole thing.”
“See!” Kate laughed. “I told you God had an adventure in store for you.”
When everyone gathered around the campfire with food, between mouthfuls of their yummy burgers, Kate and McKenzie told them the whole story. Afterward, one thing stood out above all the others. Kate still heard Megan’swords echoing in her ears …
“We leave an imprint on others with our attitude. A little bit of us rubs off on them. So, when you react with an attitude to something—good or bad—it’s like you’re creating a fossil on the heart.”
“A fossil on the heart,” Kate whispered once again.
This was
one
lesson she knew she would never forget.
