by P.J. Lowry
Never was there a time that Lizzy had felt so alone since she started her quest to finish the things her husband wanted to do. Gale had to fly home because of a family emergency but promised to come back when everything settled down. Anna was still no where to be seen and the fact that her absence stated with the arrival of Crispin to resolve item number twelve was not a coincidence. For the next week she tried her best to investigate the next item on the list, but every idea she could think of was a dead end. She was lounging on the couch and racking her brain over what seemed like an impossible task while Wyatt was parked on the green chair, watching her with an occasional whimper. What lake what Hayden referring to? There were a few within a few hours drive, several if she wanted to travel for more than one day to reach her destination. She called David as a last ditch effort but even he had no idea what Hayden was talking about. He talked about how Mr. Sheppard liked to pack up an SUV and travel to various campsites and while some were located on the shore of a lake, there were several he remembered going to and had no idea which Hayden could be referring to. Lizzy was pulling out hair trying to think this one through, but it sounded like her husband kept this one very, very close to his chest. If there was a story to be told, he apparently never told anyone about this one. Something happened to Hayden near a lake, and for some reason he never told a single person about it, not even his family.
Lizzy felt defeated, like this was the end of her quest. If she couldn’t figure out what this item was it seemed like there was no way she was ever going to be able to complete all of the tasks. Every since she first started her campaign to complete Hayden’s list, Lizzy had never felt so drained and so close to throwing in the towel and giving up. She spent three weeks at home, sulking about how everything was over when something came in the mail that changed it all. It was a postcard. On the face of the postcard was a picture of Lake Huron. When Lizzy turned over the card, she realized there was something written on the back: