The Jigsaw Jungle Read online

  But I’m not excited about the baby

  I don’t want to have to go and fake it

  Oh

  What?

  Well, you were right about Luis

  What do you mean?

  I’m glad you convinced me to give him

  another chance after the movie incident

  He’s really nice

  So you think I should go?

  All I’m saying is, if you have to

  have a brother, maybe you

  should try to be a little excited

  At least go and eat free cake!

  Haha. I’ll think about it.

  RECEIPT

  SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK

  PARKING RECEIPT

  TYPE: CAR PARKING

  DATE: 7/11/15

  TIME: 11:05 AM

  PAID: $25.00

  VISA:

  XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-5921

  THANK YOU AND DRIVE SAFELY!

  VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  EXT. ZOO—DAY

  Blue sky. Some trees. An elephant wanders by.

  LUIS

  No, you push that button there.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  This one?

  The camera zooms in on Luis’s face.

  LUIS

  Yeah.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  Wave.

  Luis waves at the camera.

  * * *

  —————

  EXT. ZOO—LATER

  Papa and Luis walk side by side while Claudia films them.

  LUIS

  So, my mom was really mad when my dad bought me the camera.

  PAPA

  Mad? Why?

  Luis shrugs.

  LUIS

  My mom came here as a baby. They didn’t have a lot of money growing up. So she does not like the idea of me doing anything artistic. Doctor, lawyer, engineer. That’s what I’m supposed to be.

  They stop by a small waterfall.

  LUIS (CONT’D)

  I don’t get it. The map says it’s right . . .

  PAPA

  There! There it is.

  He points. Sure enough, behind a low metal fence, hidden in a bunch of tall bushes, is a huge fiberglass triceratops.

  It’s surprisingly lifelike. About nine feet tall, and over twenty feet long. His three horns point straight at the camera, the two big ones by his eyes, and the small one on his snout too. His skin is mottled and his bony frill protects his neck. There is a sign in front of the statue that says KEEP OFF THE DINOSAUR.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  It feels like it’s looking at us.

  Papa’s face twitches. He blinks a few times and scratches an eyebrow. Finally, he covers his face with his hands and his shoulders start to shake.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  Papa. Are you okay?

  PAPA

  I’m fine.

  But he doesn’t take his hands away from his face.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  You’re crying.

  Papa wipes his eyes.

  PAPA

  I’m not crying! I just need to sit down.

  He turns and sits on a nearby bench. Sweat beads on Papa’s forehead. Luis pulls a bottle of water out of his backpack and hands it to Papa. He takes a long, long sip.

  PAPA (CONT’D)

  Thank you. I feel better now.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  What . . . what happened?

  PAPA

  When he was little, Jeff used to play on this dinosaur in front of the Natural History Museum. He loved dinosaurs. I didn’t approve. I thought it was silly.

  He glances at Luis.

  PAPA (CONT’D)

  I guess I had pretty firm ideas about what he was supposed to be too.

  Claudia hands the camera to Luis. He refocuses quickly. Claudia sits down next to her grandfather on the bench and puts her head on his shoulder. They sit like that for a long time.

  VOICE MEMO

  Walter Dalton’s Cell Phone | Saturday, July 11, 2015, 1:15 p.m.

  [RECORDING BEGINS]

  Lily, this therapy is not helping. It’s making everything worse! I’ve never broken down like this. I started crying at the zoo. It was so embarrassing. I gave the kids twenty bucks and told them to go buy themselves some ice cream. Now I’m sitting in the car, talking to my phone, trying to pull myself together.

  ’Cause we can’t just go home. Oh, no. Claudia wants to go to the Natural History Museum, since that’s where the Uncle Beazley dinosaur used to be. Still too many possible puzzles. We have to narrow it down.

  I can’t tell her no. Because . . . because maybe if I had been more involved . . .

  Maybe if I had been more involved, more understanding, less judgmental, a better father, maybe Jeff would not have left. Maybe he would have just told us what was going on. Maybe this is all my fault.

  [RECORDING ENDS]

  RECEIPT

  Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

  10th St. & Constitution Ave. NW

  Washington, DC 20560

  Saturday, July 11, 2015

  2:31 PM

  MAMMAL STORE

  First Floor

  Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals

  10:00 AM—5:30 PM

  1 plush animal

  9.99

  (Baby Triceratops)

  1 “Dinos Rule” onesie

  12.00

  size 0-3 months

  21.99

  Subtotal:

  1.26

  Tax:

  23.25

  Total:

  VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM—DAY

  Claudia stands in the rotunda. She points at a huge stuffed elephant.

  CLAUDIA

  Apparently, his name is Henry.

  PAPA

  This thing has been here since Jeff was a kid.

  LUIS (O.S.)

  Any elephant puzzles?

  Claudia pulls the list of puzzles out of her pocket.

  CLAUDIA

  “Elephants of the Wild.” Five hundred pieces.

  Papa walks over to a security guard.

  PAPA

  Where are the dinosaurs?

  GUARD

  Fossil Hall is closed until 2019.

  Papa looks like he’s about to cry again. Claudia rushes over and takes his arm.

  CLAUDIA

  It’s okay. We’ll just look at other stuff.

  * * *

  —————

  INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM—LATER

  Ocean exhibit. A huge life-size model of a blue whale hangs from the ceiling.

  PAPA

  Is there a whale puzzle?

  CLAUDIA

  Maybe “The Giant of the Deep”? Two hundred fifty pieces.

  * * *

  —————

  INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM—LATER

  Close-up of a sparkly necklace with a huge blue jewel. It’s displayed in a thick glass case, and the pedestal it’s on rotates slowly.

  PAPA

  The Hope Diamond.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  Could it be “Rocks and Gems”? That’s only a hundred pieces.

  LUIS

  I hope it’s that one.

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  Haha.

  PAPA

  It’s also called “The Cursed Jewel.”

  CLAUDIA (O.S.)

  Ooh, that’s on the list too. Two hundred pieces.

  * * *

  —————

  INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM—LATER

  Claudia stands in front of a huge crystal ball, staring into the glass.

  PAPA

 
Come on, Claudia. It’s time to go.

  NOTE TO READER

  WHEN WE GOT home, we had seven puzzle possibilities. Luis and I found the puzzles on the shelf and looked at the pieces before we started working them. The cardboard on the back of the Uncle Beazley piece was blue. The cardboard on the back of “Stegosaurus,” “Elephants,” and “Giant” was brown. “T-Rex,” “The Cursed Jewel” and “Rocks & Gems” were gray. And “Pterodactyls” was a weird beige color. So none of those were right.

  Luis started pulling the boxes off the shelves and looking at the pictures on top. Sometimes you can’t tell from the title what it is. Like how the “Orbiting Earth” puzzle didn’t mention Skylab. So we decided just to look. We were about halfway through when we found one called “The Gentle Giant.”

  It was a scene from a museum, with a crowd of people gathered around a triceratops. When we opened the box, the cardboard on the back of the pieces was blue. And there was a VHS tape labled “Uncle Beazley.”

  VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  INT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM—DAY

  A group of kids and parents wait in the rotunda, a huge stuffed elephant looming over their heads. Jeff stands with his ear to a white wand with a cord attached to the exhibit. A boy comes over and taps him on the shoulder.

  BRIAN

  Hey! What are you doing here?

  JEFF

  I’m signed up for the Dinolab class.

  BRIAN

  The one where you get the behind-the-scenes tour of where they excavate the bones?

  JEFF

  Yeah.

  BRIAN

  Me too!

  He grins.

  BRIAN (CONT’D)

  If they put us into groups, we should team up.

  JEFF

  Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good.

  Jeff smiles.

  WOMAN

  Dinolab! Over here, please.

  A group of twelve-year-old boys shuffles toward her.

  * * *

  —————

  EXT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM—DAY

  There’s a big plastic model of a triceratops on the mall in front of the museum. Brian and Jeff climb up the front, hanging off the horns. Two women stand nearby, watching the boys.

  BRIAN’S MOM

  Your son is Jeff, right?

  NANA

  Yes.

  BRIAN’S MOM

  I’m Lucile. Brian’s mom.

  NANA

  I’m Lily. Nice to meet you.

  BRIAN’S MOM

  Jeff seems like a really nice boy.

  NANA

  He is.

  PAPA (O.S.)

  But who ever heard of a kid wanting to study science on the weekend instead of signing up for soccer?

  Brian’s mom laughs.

  BRIAN’S MOM

  It’s not that odd. Brian likes science and soccer.

  The boys climb over the dinosaur’s frill, sit on the top of its back for a moment, and slide down its tail. Lily turns to the camera.

  NANA

  Walter, watch my purse.

  Without waiting for an answer, Lily strides over to the dinosaur. She puts her hands on her hips and studies it for a moment before grabbing the horns, putting her foot on the nose, and pulling herself up.

  The boys cheer.

  VOICE MEMO

  Walter Dalton’s Cell Phone | Saturday, July 11, 2015, 7:30 p.m.

  [RECORDING BEGINS]

  Apparently, this is the day for embarrassing myself. I certainly didn’t expect to get all teary-eyed watching some old home movie.

  But I did. When you marched over and climbed up onto that dinosaur, I laughed out loud. You looked so pretty and young. I wished I had told you how much I loved it when you did silly things like that. I wish I had been more like you.

  Well, with Claudia, maybe now I have a second chance. Don’t want to waste it.

  [RECORDING ENDS]

  EMAIL

  From: Claudia Dalton

  Date: Saturday, July 11, 2015 9:09 PM EST

  To: Jeffery Dalton

  Subject: Uncle Beazley

  Dear Dad,

  Uncle Beazley!! We found a video of you and Nana on Uncle Beazley. That was so cool! When did you write these clues? A bunch of them are out-of-date. Seems like it might have been a long time ago.

  But it’s funny, ’cause they all remind me of stuff I’ve done with you. Like that time when you played with me on the monkey bars. We both hung upside down and you were so tall, your hands reached the ground. You looked just like you did on Uncle Beazley. Is that why you wanted me to watch them?

  Anyway, we found the next puzzle, “The Gentle Giant,” and finished it tonight. It was only 300 pieces. And sure enough, there was one piece left over, red on the front, beige cardboard on the back, with a clue written in pencil.

  Love, Claudia

  PS. Did you ever look into the crystal ball in the gems and jewels exhibit at the Natural History Museum? I spent a long time there today, trying to see when you would come home.

  PUZZLE

  TEXT MESSAGE

  Claudia Dalton’s Cell Phone | Sunday, July 12, 2015, 9:15 a.m.

  KATE

  Okay, I’ll say it

  You were right

  The baby shower last night was actually fun

  I’m glad

  We played a game where you

  had to change a diaper on a doll

  And I won!

  Learned how to do that in the class

  Cool

  Mom got so many presents, she said

  I could have the Target gift card

  Nice

  And the cake was yummy too

  Good

  Claudia, are you okay?

  Cause you’re texting like my dad

  Sorry, I’m just eating breakfast

  We found another puzzle piece last night

  What?!

  It’s red on the front

  Says “Bobs on the pendulum” on the back

  Who the heck is Bob?

  And why is he on a pendulum?

  Haha

  Google pendulum

  A bob is the little weight thingie at the end

  Is there a puzzle of a pendulum?

  No

  So what are you going to do?

  Work all the puzzles with red?

  Too many

  But Papa says there’s a pendulum

  at the American History Museum

  We’re gonna check it out

  Is your boyfriend going too?

  Haha

  Well, is he?

  No, his mom is sick and he

  has to babysit his little sister

  Oh well. Next time. Have fun with Papa

  Thanks

  DIRECTIONS

  Trip Planner

  Trip Planner Results

  From KING STREET METRO STATION

  To SMITHSONIAN METRO STATION

  Leaving at 10:00 AM | Sunday, July 12, 2015

  ITINERARY 1—24 MINS

  Leave at: 10:10 am

  Arrive at 10:33 am

  KING STREET METRO STATION

  Yellow Line to FORT TOTTEN

  Exit at L’ENFANT PLAZA METRO STATION

  L’ENFANT PLAZA METRO STATION

  Orange Line to VIENNA FAIRFAX–GMU

  Exit at SMITHSONIAN METRO STATION

  $2.75 SmarTrip Fare

  $1.70 SmarTrip (Senior/Disabled/Medicare)

  RECEIPT

  STARS AND STRIPES CAFÉ

  National Museum of American History

  14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW

&nb
sp; Washington, DC 20001

  Order #: 68261 Date: 7/12/15

  Server: Cashier 2 Time: 12:53 PM

  2.99

  1 Diet Coke

  2.99

  1 Dr Pepper

  3.00

  1 Cherry Pie

  2.99

  1 Chocolate Pudding

  3.50

  1 Ice Cream Sundae

  3.00

  1 Coffee

  18.47

  Subtotal:

  1.85

  Tax:

  20.32

  Total:

  Thank You For Dining With Us!

  VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

  INT. AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM—DAY

  Papa walks through the front doors. There’s a metal flag on the wall in front of them, but no pendulum. Papa looks around, bewildered.

  PAPA

  I don’t understand. I could have sworn it was right here!

  * * *

  —————

  INT. AMERICAN HISTORY MUSEUM—LATER

  Papa talks to a museum guard while Claudia films them. The guard is so old, even his beard is white.