Chapter 1

Blake shoved open the door to the church house and made a beeline for the SUV. “Hey, hey, hey!” she protested. She had been looking out the window, watching her brother about to carelessly toss her paint case into the back with the other luggage.

Ricardo paused, paint case in the air, grinning mischievously as Blake jumped to snatch it out of his hands. “This is very delicate!” She huffed at him and climbed onto the bumper, careful not to scuff her Sunday heels. Ricardo mimicked her complaint under his breath and stood back to let her take care of her precious paint case. “I don’t want anything to break and spill,” she explained as she set it carefully in the back. “People might get suspicious if an ominous stain starts spreading at the corner of the case.”

Ricardo picked up another suitcase off the sidewalk, lifting it to the back of the SUV. “Well, so long as you’re not transporting a dead body―” he grunted and shoved the bag in its place, “―the TSA shouldn’t have a problem with it.”

She climbed off the bumper and held the back window up for him. “A body couldn’t fit in that case.”

“If it was chopped up in pieces it would. Heard of a guy who did that, too.”

“Eugh…” Blake wrinkled her nose. “Can your academy stuff stay at the academy, please?”

“See, ace, that’s your problem.” He braced both palms on the top of the suitcase to shove it down into the trunk, prompting another wince from his sister as she dramatically shooed his hands away from it. “You wouldn’t make a good officer or detective. Too weak-stomached.”

With one hand on her hip, Blake released the back window, dropping it on Ricardo’s head.

“Ow! That thing is kinda heavy, y’know!”

She gave him a knowing grin. “You stick with solving gruesome homicides by studying someone’s shoelaces. Leave rearranging suitcases to me. Hey, where’s your tie?” Ricardo had the habit of removing his tie after church services, a habit their mother did not approve of.

“In my pocket, Ms. Nitpicky.” He lifted a hand to pull at one of her curls in retaliation, but she expertly dodged, knowing his ways.

“Quit it!” Blake’s chestnut brown hair, braided and wrapped around her head in a neat bun, had taken all morning to perfect. One tug on the curls could pull out a bobby pin and set the whole hairstyle falling apart. The look on her brother’s face let her know he knew this already.

“Then keep your nosy questions to yourself.” He smirked at her before walking ahead to the steps of the churchhouse, successful in distracting her from his missing tie.

Blake huffed and tried to fix her hair, pulling a face at her brother behind his back. He was in college and she was in her last year of high school, and still he managed to treat her like a child.

The door of the church opened and out onto the front porch of the building stepped a group of members, each happy to stand in the warm sun and cool breeze. Among that group were the elderly Finns, their Pastor, and Blake and Ricardo’s parents. Blake adjusted her face and swallowed her sarcastic retort, while Ricardo scrambled in his back pocket for his tie.

When the siblings reached the porch, their mother, Mrs. Riley, rested a hand on Blake’s shoulder. “You ready, Blake?” she asked fondly.

Blake gave a resolute nod, resting a hand atop her mother’s. “Yes, ma’am! Ready as ever!”

Pastor Manning laughed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Of course you are. I’ve never known you to be unready for anything.” His eyes moved from Blake to Ricardo and he raised an eyebrow, watching as the young man tried to discreetly get his tie straight so it was not so obvious he had just put it back on. Ricardo flushed red and stepped out of the Pastor’s line of sight, shuffling over to a group of young men his age, whose conversation seemed much more appealing to him at the moment.

Blake was no longer paying attention to her brother’s dilemma and let him escape. “I’ve never been to New Mexico before, so I’m super ready and excited!”

“Aztec, New Mexico, to be exact,” Mrs. Finn reminded her. “I know my first time on a dig site was fascinating. You’ve got a treat in store for you!”

Blake nodded again, finding it harder and harder to remain composed. “I know! This is so great!” She looked towards her parents, zeroing in on her mother. Since Blake had learned she would be allowed to take this trip, she often wondered in the back of her mind how her family would cope in her absence. Now that worry came to the front. Not being around to help out concerned her a little. “You guys’ll be okay?”

Mrs. Riley smiled, a warm gift Blake would miss while she was gone. “We’ll be fine,” her mother promised. “I’ll keep your father doing his exercise therapy and Ricardo doing his homework. We won’t even notice you’re gone.”

Blake pretended to pout. “Aww, I want you to notice a little bit that I’m gone.”

Her father pulled her into a hug. “Oh, trust me, kid, it’ll be impossible for us not to miss you singing at the top of your lungs in the shower every morning.”

That was enough for Blake and she returned her father’s hug, trying to get her arms as far around him as she could. Her father was not the tallest man—he even stood a few inches shorter than his own wife—but he was broad-shouldered and well-built, everything about him making Blake feel safe and protected when he was around. Even with his weak leg, he still had enough arm strength to lift Blake up if he wanted to.

“You keep careful out there, you hear?” he said in a quieter voice.

She smiled and reminded herself that she promised she would not cry, but burrowing her face into his shoulder a little more was always an option. “It’s just New Mexico, Dad… I’ll be with the Finns, I’ll be okay.” Her voice trailed off a little, more so reassuring herself rather than the friends and family gathered around her. Realizing the most important people in her life were all standing right there made her smile even more.

“Yeah, I know you will.” He let her go and tugged at a curl. “Just watch out for the iguanas.”

Blake gave an involuntary shiver. “You didn’t have to remind me about those.”

Though her mother chuckled and shook her head, she slid a protective arm around Blake. “Filha will be fine. Even if I can’t call her every ten minutes to be sure the iguanas aren’t nibbling her toes.”

Her mother was teasing her as well, but Blake stole the opportunity to bask in her mother’s embrace, enjoying her familiar scent for what would be the last time in a long while. Filha meant daughter in Portuguese, her mother’s native tongue. The tall woman hailed from Brazil and Blake, her only daughter, had inherited her tan skin and some of her curls. Blake had to keep her tears at bay once again and focus on saying something else so they would not fall. “I can only call you at the hotel when we land. After that, we gotta go all the way out to the desert and camp out there at the dig site during the week. Mrs. Finn said there’s no cell phone service out there. I can call on Sundays at the church we’re going to. I’ll send postcards and stuff, and take lots of pictures so I can show you guys when I get back.”

With one last squeeze, her mother released her. “I’ll be looking forward to them. Make sure to keep smiling.”

Pastor Manning watched the family say their goodbyes with a fond smile, then he addressed Mr. and Mrs. Finn. “You’re gonna have your hands full, you know that, right? She never was one to sit still, not in all the years I’ve known her family.”

Mr. Finn nodded his acknowledgment. “New Mexico has plenty of wide-open spaces for her to keep herself occupied with. I’m certain Fenton will give her a job.” There was a mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes and his white mustache quivered as he spoke.

Blake’s mother held her at arm’s length. “Yes, make sure you don’t spend the whole time painting. Help out Dr. Briggs and learn some new things.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Blake replied, resisting the urge to bounce to attention and salute. Learning new things was her favorite pastime. As long as it was not in a boring book and she would have to memorize it and write an essay about it later. This summer vacation, her last break before she worked to finish up her school year, would be a welcome respite from her complications with math and history. New Mexico was about to become the farthest state she had ever visited and the only state she had ever visited without her family.

Going as a family would have been amazing, but her brother could not miss that many college classes, and her father would not manage the long flight in his condition. Still, Blake would not have given this chance up for the world. Even if it meant flying in a plane. She hoped it was roomy. Small spaces were not her favorite.

Mrs. Finn chuckled and tossed her long white-blonde braid behind her. “As long as she knows how to work a shovel, there’ll always be somethin’ for her to do!”

The Finns had been part of their church since before Blake was born. They both had the same athletic build, white hair, and laughing eyes, always giving a smile and a friendly handshake or hug. Blake was already looking forward to spending several weeks with them, even if it would mean being so far away from her parents and brother.

Pastor Manning rested a hand on her father’s arm. “Let’s say a quick prayer of safe traveling before everyone heads out. Ricardo? Wanna join us?”

Ricardo had finally gotten his tie straight enough and he nodded to his friends before quickly joining the circle of people for prayer.

With a chuckle of amusement, Pastor Manning bowed his head, and everyone else followed suit.

“Our Heavenly Father, we want to thank You for giving us a beautiful day like this. You’ve blessed us in so many ways we don’t deserve. We ask now that You look after our dear friends, the Finns and young Blake, as they travel out to New Mexico. Lord, I pray that You would help them be a blessing to Dr. Briggs and let them be a shining light in a dark world. Help them to keep a good testimony in front of others and may You protect them from harm and show Yourself real to those around them. May all things go according to Your will. We thank You for all the blessings You have given us, in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”

“Amen,” they all softly echoed.

Blake lifted her head and had to bite down on her lip to keep her grin at bay.

“All right, all right, I know you wanna get going,” Pastor Manning said, hugging her. “You guys be safe out there, okay? Tell Bro. Vane I said hello.”

Ethan Vane, a good friend of Pastor Manning, was the pastor of the church they would be visiting while they were in New Mexico. “We will,” Mr. Finn promised before turning to Ricardo. “Everything inside the truck?”

Ricardo nodded, still glancing at his mother to see if she would notice that his tie was tied differently than it had been before. “Yes, sir.”

“All right, time to get a move on, then.” Mr. Finn smiled at Blake, then turned and shook her father’s hand. “Take care of yourself, Gabe.”

“Easy travels. Take care of her, she’s a handful.”

As the adults said goodbye, Blake craned her neck to look up at her brother. He was looking away from her.

“Well, goodbye to you, too, then,” she said, playfully hitting his arm.

“Psh, who says I’m gonna even notice you’re gone?”

She rolled her eyes. “The absence of my singing, duh. Just don’t forget to feed my fish and don’t mess up any save data on any of my video games.”

He smirked. “No promises, shrimp.”

Knowing she would get nothing more than that out of her irritating but affectionate brother by way of a goodbye, Blake stepped forward and hugged him around the waist. She was going to miss his teasing and hair tugging and generally dorkiness. Most of all, she would miss the sense of support he provided. It was always a little easier to face uncertain situations when she knew Ricardo was right behind her. There were a lot of awkward social instances, uncomfortable extended family interactions, and anxious incidents she could not have managed well without his presence.

Despite his claims of not missing her, Ricardo wrapped his arms around her and returned the hug. “Take it easy, ace,” he said while resting his chin on top of her head.

That was all the affection she would receive from him. He stepped away and found something of interest to pay attention to other than her.

“Oh, Blake!” a flustered voice exclaimed. “You’re leaving now?”

Coming from out of the church was the woman who had been her Sunday School teacher when she was little, followed immediately by a few other couples in the church. Blake gave each of them a hug, letting them know she would miss them all and promising to take plenty of pictures to show them upon her return, and that, yes, she would remember to watch out for snakes and reptiles and to drink plenty of water. One would think Blake was about to cross the desert and travel all the way to New Mexico on foot the way they were carrying on. Despite the theatrics, she did love them all and would miss these people. Her closest friends, Tarra and Tyrone Booker, made her promise to take as many pictures as possible and bring back an artifact from the site.

After she made sure she had said goodbye to each member of New Life Baptist Church, she grabbed her purse and headed for the Finns’ truck.

“Goodbye, everyone!” she called with one last wave.

Her mother stepped back and took her father’s hand, both of them waving to her. “Goodbye, Blake!”

“Take care of yourself!”

She climbed into the back seat and pulled the door shut.

“Ready to go?” Mr. Finn asked, starting the vehicle.

“I’ve been ready all year! This will be the best summer vacation ever!”

Mrs. Finn laughed. “That’s what we like to hear! Aztec, New Mexico, here we come.”

The greatest trip she had ever taken in all of her seventeen years was about to be underway. They had to get to the airport and fly out to Albuquerque, then drive out to Aztec. It was a lot of traveling that needed to be done over the next two days, and Blake was all set to enjoy every minute of it.

---

The airplane they boarded was not the most luxurious, but thanks to her window seat, Blake did not feel as confined and trapped as she might have felt sitting in the middle or closer to the aisle. With no worry of triggering her claustrophobia, the five-hour flight was mostly a bore, only broken up when Mr. Finn gave her a book to read, titled Navajo of New Mexico.

“Dr. Briggs has a lot of books by this author,” he told her. “This was the first book he got when he began his research out here. It’ll give you an idea of some of the things you’ll see.”

Blake bounced between looking at the beautiful pictures in the book and napping, her attention span too short to bother trying to read the fine print for each picture. She was not much of a reader.

It was nearly four o’clock in the afternoon when they finally stepped onto New Mexico ground in the Albuquerque Airport.

“Where to, now?” Blake asked as she pulled her suitcase along behind her.

Mr. Finn chuckled and stifled a yawn. “Now we get ourselves a hotel and sleep off this jet lag.”

Blake nearly skipped all the way through the airport, only her luggage weighing down her high spirit. The closer they came to their destination, the more she anticipated the fun of digging, learning, painting, and soaking in all of this newness that she was unaccustomed to being subjected to all at once. “Is Aztec far from here?” she asked eagerly, not wanting to hold off on the excitement any longer than physically possible. Jet lag unimportant, she would hop in a vehicle destined for the dig site right now if she could.

Mr. Finn rubbed his chin in thought. “As I recall, it’s about… oh, I’d say… hundred eighty miles northwest of here. Shouldn’t take us any longer than three hours to get there from the hotel.”

Her face fell in the slightest at the prospect of having to travel for so long.

“We’ll start first thing in the morning,” he reassured her. “We need a good night’s sleep.”

They checked into their hotel room, went out for an early dinner at a nearby restaurant, then settled in to get some sleep before their long trip in the morning.

Before Blake laid down, she called her mother to let her know that they had safely arrived and the plane had not crashed in Oklahoma or anything. It was good to hear from her family and so strange knowing they were across the country. It would not be until Sunday when she could contact them again, but the excitement of the upcoming days kept her from being too homesick. Tomorrow, she would be seeing an archaeological dig site for the first time.

Excitement began to build up in Blake’s stomach once she hung up her cell phone and tucked it in her bag. She assumed sleep would be a long time in coming, but when the lights were turned off and she crawled beneath the covers of the large bed, the exhaustion from the plane ride caught up to her. In only a few moments she was sound asleep, dreaming of Navajo ruins and ancient pottery.

---

Two hours of driving from the hotel to the research center in a rented vehicle that smelled like the previous owner’s cats was almost too much for Blake. She let out a cheer when they finally pulled into Aztec, more than ready to get out of the tiny car.

Aztec was a small town on flat land, the largest of the few buildings it had being the Aztec Research Center. Blake tumbled out of the car and took a deep breath of fresh air. It was hot outside, but being hot in the open air was better than being hot in an enclosed vehicle. She would rather walk all the way back to the airport when this vacation was over if she could.

Once Blake had more or less cleared her head and got her spirits back up, she all but bounced into the Aztec Research Center right behind the Finns. It was a homey building, with pictures and paintings on the wall depicting the lifestyle of the many different tribes that could be found in New Mexico. Aside from the Navajo, Blake noted that there were many different Apache and Pueblo tribes.

The bored and uninterested lady behind the desk did not even glance up from her computer when she instructed the trio where they could wait for Dr. Briggs to arrive from the dig site.

“Have they had much progress out there?” Mr. Finn asked her.

The lady only shrugged. Blake did not understand how the woman could not find an archaeologist dig site the most fascinating thing in the world. Every single bone in her body was jittering and raring to get out there now, but they had more waiting to do. Their rental car would not make it across the desert and around the winding roads of the New Mexico canyons to where the dig site was. They had to wait for Dr. Briggs to come get them in a Jeep.

Since the lady had no information to give, Blake and the Finns took a seat in the lobby as they were told to do. The elaborately weaved wicker chairs were more interesting than the lady behind the desk.

To keep herself occupied for just a bit longer, Blake grabbed a pamphlet from the side table to flip through. This particular pamphlet spoke of the Navajo religion. She glazed over the words paired with pictures of strange-looking sticks wrapped with yarn and feathers. They were labeled prayer sticks and were used in many different spiritual ceremonies. The Navajo seemed to believe that the earth was created by several gods, such as Spider Woman and her twin sons, the Monster Slayers. It was all so foreign to Blake, until she started noticing a few similarities between the Navajo religion and the truth.

“The Navajo greatly worshipped the Sun and nature all together. According to their legend, time on earth began when Holy People passed through many underworlds, which were at some point destroyed by a large flood, until they arrived in the present world. Here they created First Man and First Woman, the ancestors of all the Earth Surface People. The Holy People gave to the Earth Surface People all the practical and ritual knowledge necessary for their survival in this world and then moved on in their journey to dwell in other realms above the earth. Though having moved on, they remained keenly interested in the day-to-day doings of the Earth Surface People, and constant attention to ceremonies and taboos is required in order to keep in harmony with them. The condition of hózhó, or being in harmony with the supernatural powers, is the single most important ideal sought by the Navajo people.”

Blake tilted her head. A flood destroyed the earth… first man and first woman… Some of the Navajo beliefs were so similar to the truth, she wondered where they had got the ideas from originally. She chose to go back to just looking at the pictures to avoid giving herself a headache trying to comprehend everything. There would be plenty to take in and learn in the coming days.

Continued in Sun Racer