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          "What's the matter son? Do you recognize that picture?" "Sure. It's an exact duplicate of the toy key I had as a kid. Mom and Dad returned it to me a few years back, before they disappeared." "Where is it now?" "You know that box of stuff you went through?" Reynaud nodded. "Remember that little envelope, the one that was sealed?" Reynaud nodded again. "Yes I do. I didn't want to be nosy at the time. Are you saying it's in there?" "Yes, I'm afraid so. I had no idea what it was for. No one ever told me. " "Unless they did and then had to mindwipe you. But it hardly was going to do you any good without the box." "So now I have to go all the way back to New York City to get the key." Maggie was excited. "So you think you have the key that opens this box?" He hooked his arm around her and kissed the back of her head. "I'm pretty sure I do. But we'll not know until I get it and try it out." She turned and returned his kiss. "This is so cool!" She kissed him again and skipped off. Reynaud was shaking his head. "This is a lot to take in. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think we need to slow things down. I need to piece together information for the Taborum, and we need to return to get Edward's key. I hate to think about driving a thousand miles each way, but if it will help, I'll do it." Edward raised a finger. "Yeah, about driving; whose Range Rover is that?" "Mine!" Maggie said in her typical saucy tone s she returned to the room. "Of course, I can't drive it, but that's ok." Edward lowered his head and shook it. "I suppose you paid cash for it?" "Of course. The salesman would have stripped and allowed us to walk over him in high heels he was so delighted." "I'll just bet he was. Still, it beats my ride." "Your ride." "Yeah. I sort of stole it at the diner." "You stole a biker's motorcycle?" "Yeah." Maggie climbed up in his lap. "You so have to give me a ride on it." He whispered in her ear. "The motorcycle, or are you talking about something else?" She giggled. "Maybe both!" Reynaud ignored their display of playful affection. "We need to retrieve the key and open the box. Once we know what's inside, we'll be able to know better the reason for all this secrecy. I don't like secrets." Maggie started to say something, but Marcus interrupted her. "I agree with Rey. We'll have to get this key. Assuming the mechanism still works, the key is still our best bet for getting it open. I say that maybe Edward, Verona and Maggie can go back, open it up and report back to us here." Maggie giggled. "How? You barely have electricity out here. I don't see a radio or a television anywhere. You want us to send a message by pigeon?" "One of you could leave your cell phone behind." She held up her phone. "Yeah, like that'll work. Look at the reception. I don't think any carriers even know this place exists. No, I think I have a better idea." "And what is that young lady?" "Open it here." Marcus smiled a bit too condescendingly. "We'll not have the box destroyed in any clumsy attempts to open it. I've got tools, but nothing that can pick a lock designed by one of the most brilliant minds ever known." Maggie let her legs swing from side to side. She let the adults talk for a while longer. Then she slid off Edward's lap and picked up the box. "I still say we don't need to drive across six states just to get this open." Lupenia waved her to come closer. "Why is that dear?" She held up a small envelope. "Because I brought father's box of treasure s with me. I wanted something with me that he had held dear. Call it being sentimental. I didn't know there was anything of importance in it." Edward scooped her up. "Maggie darling, you're the queen of the ball!" Verona turned a shade of green. He ripped the small envelope open and shook out the contents. It was a small ornate brass key, and it was indeed a match for the image in the book. Edward's hands were shaking as he took the box and tried the key. It slid in, but balked halfway. "I think the mechanism is dirty." "It probably is. Let me find some toothpicks and maybe some stiff wire. Maybe we can finish cleaning out the dirt." For the next hour, the men took turns carefully working away at the bits of dirt and sand that had gotten lodged inside the workings of the lock. Time after time they tried, and each time they failed to make it work. After a while they gave up. "There's no point in damaging the box in our impatience, "declared Marcus. 

Maggie went to the kitchen and came back with a straw. "Give me that!" She proceeded to blow into the mechanism and was rewarded with tiny puffs of dust and dirt. She shook the box, turned it upside-down, and then blew in it again. Sophia stifled a laugh. "You men folk could learn a thing or two. She's making faster headway than you three combined! And she isn't risking any damage to the box." She was correct. After only five minutes Maggie was able to get the key all the way in. She handed it over the Edward. "Here father. You do the honors." He turned the key until it clicked. The lid was stiff, but it opened.   A few counties away, a motorcycle pulled into the parking lot of a now infamous diner. The rider wore sunglasses, and while his bike looked a bit rough, it ran like it was powered by the demons of hell. He drove it around the lot looking this way and that, then parked and dismounted. He cracked his knuckles and headed into the restaurant, smiling knowingly at the bits of debris that still littered the ground. He had on enough jewelry to weigh down a corpse in deep water; reaching from his fingers to his nose and eye brows. The moment he stepped through the door, the entire place went quiet. He jingled and jangled like a medieval knight heading off to battle.  Hair bristled out from under his jacket. He sat down at the lunch counter and ignoring the open stares, asked for coffee. The waitress brought him a cup, but as she went to pour, he blocked it with his hand. "Skip the cup. Leave the pot." The stares became more intense, leastwise until he turned to look over the customers. The all eyes turned to the tables in front of them. "Any of you folks know what the hell happened here?" No one said a word. "It ain't what you think. I ain't here to get no revenge for that gang. If they can't take care of themselves, it ain't my job to wipe their sorry asses. I wanna know about that animal." The waitress tapped the counter, and not with some trepidation. "Police say it was a bear." The man guffawed "A bear? In these parts? Maybe. But I ain't never heard of no bear that could take down that many men. Anyone here actually see the beast?" Silence. "I see. Well then, I guess I'm wasting your time and mine. I'll finish my coffee and be on my way." He heard a voice from the back. "Someone said they saw it ride out of here on a motorcycle." The big man chuckled. "Bears don't ride bikes." "They do in the circus." He nodded. "Friend, you've got me there. The circus. A bear on a motorcycle heading to his circus.  Sounds a little impractical, don't ya think?" "I'm just saying what I heard. Didn't see it myself." "An honest man is a rare thing friend. I appreciate your candor. Me, well I have a thing for finding wild animals. Sort of a family business. So I'll be lookin for this here bear of yours for a spell. I'll likely be back in a few days time, so if you have any information, leave it here. I'll be glad to compensate you appropriately." "How much?" "How much what?" "How much money you offering?" He held up his right hand. "If your information helps me to find this animal, then I'll strip off every ring I have, and every necklace I've got, and if that ain't enough for ya, I give you every coin I've got in my bags. It's all real, and it's all genuine, and as you can see by the color, every last bit of it is in silver. If you can a better deal than that, then I'd suggest you take it."   The box was empty. There was a layer of fine sediment, but nothing else. The interior of the box was designed to hold a ring, if the indentation meant anything.  But whatever ring had been inside was now gone. The disappointment in the room was palpable. Maggie groaned and fell to the floor. Rey took the box gently out of Edward's hands and turned it over and over in disbelief. He handed it back. "I don't understand. Shouldn't there have been something inside the box? Why lock it, separate it from the key and then bury it? Why was this worth dying for?" Edward sat down. "I wish I knew." He ran his finger over the inside of the metal container. The inside was slightly darkened with age, but he could feel the tiny tool marks left by the artisan. To think that he was holding something made by the great Leonardo was as incredible to him as being able to morph into a werewolf. Maggie started crying. He handed the box over to Verona and sat next to her. "What is it dear?" "I was hoping that it would have some great wonder in it." "Like what?" he said, half amused at her emotional state. To him, it was just a box; old, neat, probably valuable, but just a box nonetheless. "The moonstone!" "The what?" "It was mentioned in the book." Maggie was drying her tears as she spoke. Rey explained "The moonstone is nothing more than a legend, detailed in the Taborum, but lost for hundreds of years, if it existed at all." "Sounds cool. You mean like the gemstone?" "No son. The moonstone was said to have great power for whatever werewolf wore it." Edward gave Maggie a squeeze. "It's OK. At least we answered Schrödinger's cat question. We now know the box contains precisely squat." She was still sniffing back tears. It was amazing that the longer he knew her, the more she emerged as a caring person. It was probably hard to be one with not being able to be with your own kind. She was now surrounded by what might be the last few remaining werewolves in the US of A. Marcus was holding the box. "I would have staked my life on it that this box was protecting something inside.  Why bother wasting our life over an empty box?" Sophia coughed to get their attention. "I wouldn't say wasted Marc. Maybe this was a diversion to throw off whoever wished to possess whatever was inside. Maybe whatever it was has been hidden somewhere else." The old man pulled his wife to her feet. "I'd like not to think that my entire life has been spent as a red herring." "No dear. Don't go thinking like that! We have had a good life here, we raised a family, and now we have been reunited with those of us who were lost. There are worse endings to life than that." He gave her a tender kiss. "I suppose you're right." He made a sweeping gesture. "You are all welcome here under my roof until such time as you must leave. May the fates have written that the time is long and the days are filled with happiness!" Even the birds in the trees seemed to sings happier, except where the passage of a certain rider and his motorcycle disturbed their joyous noise. He was crisscrossing the country roads and lanes, sniffing the air as he went. Sometimes he stopped and retraced his path, and only when he got low on fuel did he stop to put gas in his machine. And then he was off again. As he grew nearer to the old town of Wolf Creek, he stopped and shook his head. "It can't be. Looks like lightning strikes twice in the same spot after all." He gunned the accelerator, popping a wheelie as he headed for the town that no longer existed. His silver gleamed in the sunlight, counterpointed by the black leather riding clothes.  His hair wavered in the wind as his bike kicked up dirt and debris. It looked like there was going to be a showdown in Wolf Creek one more time.