Chapter 1

Chapter One

-Abigail-

Friday, November 11, 2016

This morning, a package arrived at the door of our headquarters.

It says it is to “Abigail and Rosalyn”. There is no return address, which makes me curious.

I call my cousin Rosy over and we begin tearing the package open. Inside was a rather plain wooden box with a latch. It looks very old, and smells old.

There is a small inscription on the lid, in a language I do not know.

Rosy snapped a picture and researched what language it is.  It is Kalaallisut, a Greenlandic language.

It says “Lluatitsilluarisi”, meaning “good luck”.  We are puzzled by this, then decide that opening the box might give us an explanation. Inside is a figurine, which we learned is called a tupilak, and a small note. The note is in Kalaallisut, so Rosy translates.

It says:

“Nuuk Havalimani”

The airport. Then there is an address beneath it; that is all it says.

There are two airplane tickets for Greenland taped on the back of the note!

Rosy and I grinned at one another.

This looked like the beginning of  a scavenger hunt! But how the sender of the package  knows our names…..

Excuse me, I forgot to introduce us.

There’s me, Abby, and my partner, Rosy.

We are professional  scavenger hunters, explorers, and archeologists.

In our minds, anyway.

Wasting no time (mostly, we were just excited), we began learning Kalaallisut phrases and researching the area we will be heading to. I examined the tupilak, to see if it might have some writing or something on it. It did not, so I put it back in its box.

The date on the tickets give us a week to pack, so for now we will do research and learn as much of the language that we can.

We started with researching the tupilak. We learned that in Greenland, the tupilak is a monster fabricated by a practitioner of witchcraft or shamanism. Creepy.

Well that explains why it looks so gruesome. It is believed this started 5,000 years ago. People do not believe that stuff anymore.

We read on. How they were made is really creepy, and what was believed about them. One would make them at night, using only the forefinger and thumb to assemble the bone pieces, lest it fail. In what? It’s magic, I suppose. It was then wrapped in old skin, then a song was sung in belief that it would give it life.

Magic this and that. Ridiculous! I am glad it is not made from human bone, as they apparently were at times. Though it was interesting to find out about the tupilak, it was a little scary.

I decided to put the box on our desk for the time being, but as I passed the window, a movement caught my eye. Someone’s head quickly disappeared!

I rushed back to Rosy, whose fingers were clicking away on the laptop.

“Rosy! I just saw someone disappear by the window. I think we’re being spied on.”

Rosy, always quick to react, jumped up in alarm. Perhaps I am overreacting. I try not to, for Rosy will always react more than I. I try to stay calm, but I guess seeing a head beneath my window caught me off guard. I take a deep breath.

“Perhaps it is nothing. We are in town, after all. There are always people around.” I try.

Rosy cocks an eyebrow then laughs. She knows what I am trying to do.  

“Let’s keep our eye out. This is an artifact after all, even though not an extremely valuable one.” she replies. I had not thought of its value.

“How much do they sell for?” I ask.

Many go for a nearly a thousand dollars or more. Wow! I did not think they would be that valuable, and ours is not a replica, but an original tupilak.  

Perhaps it is valuable enough to steal. Or enough to be followed.

I guess you could say Rosy and I are quite widely known. It has not happened yet, but I should not be surprised.

Then I remembered. We had prepared for this sort of thing when we first began, and got a safe. We kind of have a museum with all our souvenirs from previous adventures, which is actually just an old warehouse, but we keep it locked.

Not very thief-proof, I hate to admit.

I pour my thoughts to Rosy, who suggests getting security cameras.

I thought so too. Then I had another thought.

“Rosy, why would we still have everything in our warehouse if there is a thief about, trying to get our artifacts? There are plenty more valuable ones in there than this tupilak.”

She doesn’t know what to say. Then she speaks up.

“Maybe there is someone who knows more about this package than we do, besides the one who sent it.” she suggests. Hm. I had a feeling this venture would be different that what we have ever been on.

-Friday, November 18-

This morning we leave for Greenland! I check my watch. We should be leaving in half an hour. Rosy will meet me at the airport.

Before I leave, I decide to check on the warehouse, and the security cameras.

The door creaks when I open it. I switch my flashlight on, since we don’t have lights in here. My boots clunking sounds loud as I walk around slowly in the silent warehouse, looking at every  ‘souvenir’ as I pass them, remembering each journey it took us on.

Now I wonder why no one followed us then.

We had far more valuable things than this time.  Something is not right.

I walk faster. When I reach the place for our  tupilak, it is gone!

As a run to our computer room, I smack myself in the forehead over and over.

“Abby, how could you be so dumb? You never suspected, all this time!” I scold myself.

I run the cameras to see who stole the  tupilak, but there is nothing.

Our cameras have been disabled.

I hold in the button on my communicator watch. “Rosy, our tupilak has been stolen. The security cameras have been disabled. Someone cut the cords.”

Her voice crackles through. “I thought this might happen. I took the tupilak out of its box. It’s in my suitcase. The thief only has the box!”

I breathe in relief. But I am not satisfied. Who knows who might steal us blind while we’re gone? But then, if there is someone follows us, they will be right behind us, not here.

I push it to the back of my mind. Right now, I have a flight to catch!