In 1598 she successfully freed herself from this world. She met a beautiful young french man named Gerald one day working at the hospital. He was lame, and doing poorly. She talked with him often, and fell in love with him. After a month she was pregnant, and together they had a child. When the child was just over a year old, Isabel switched lives with Gerald, he was cured, and she lay in the hospital for another three months before she died. "I give my love. Now he will have the strength to care for our child."

At this point the writing switched to another pen. Gerald wrote in french, which Adam also could not understand. The writing in pencil above the entries matched the penmanship of Gerald.

Adam tucked the card back into the leather of the book, making sure it was secure. He then quietly walked back to camp listening to the the sound of everything living around him, feeling at once seperated from it, and at the same time, more connected to it than he had ever been before.

He crept in the cabin, got into his sleeping bag, and put his arm on Karen. He slept very well that night.

Tuesday morning, the last full day of their vacation, came quietly. The quiet sound of fire crackling in its pit, the sound of children talking quietly, and the clink of Karen trying to quietly get the heavy cast iron pan from the cabin, awoke Adam.

"Is is morning already?" he mumbled.

"Yes, it is love." she smiled, "Go wash and cut up some potatoes for breakfast since you're up, please."

He shook his head awake and unzipped his sleeping bag. "Yeow, it's a cold morning."

"Paul started a fire for us, and we've got some water heating. Soon we'll have some coffee."

Adam got dressed for the day, grabbed an armfull of potatoes, and a bucket, and went to wash them across the street at the water faucet. He returned, and scooted the children to one half of the picnic table, while he took the other half to cut the potatoes.

"What are you guys playing?" he asked the children who had hands of cards.

"John taught us 'Liar', you say what you're putting down. If someone calls you a liar you have to draw that many cards, unless they're wrong, then they have to."

"Ah, I used to play that in college, we called it something else though." he chuckled.

"Yeah, so does my brother, but I didn't think you'd like the other name." John replied.

"Thank you...Ouch!" cried Adam, realizing where the potato stopped and his finger began.

"You ok daddy?" asked Heather?

"Yeah, it's only a little cut, I'll go wash it off." he said throwing the bloody piece of potato into the trash, and walking to the faucet. It was really only a little cut. He washed it well in the water, and it stopped bleeding promptly.

"See," he displayed, "it's only a tiny cut." He dug into his backpack and pulled out a bandaid for his finger. Karen insisted he put some anti-bacterial cream on it, which he neglected to do. Bandaged, he returned to cutting the potatoes without further incident.

Butter, Pepper, Butter and onions went into the pan on the fire. When the butter was melted, the potatoes was added. Karen had beaten some eggs, and was waiting for the potatoes to finish. "French toast ok for breakfast?"

No one disagreed.

After a big breakfast, made from the bread that was freshly ground yesterday, they packed everything into the cabin, and locked it. In the caves they wouldn't have any need for their packs, they took only their flashlights and canteens. Karen brought her camera.

Back into the cramped car, and an hour drive to the caves. After the filling breakfast, the car was unusually quiet, and the drive to the caves began peacefuly.

The ground became bumpier, the road driving between limestone walls, and over flowing rivers. They easily found the enterance to the Caverns State Park, it's sign built from large rocks. They drove in the enterance, about three miles along the road they came to the Museum/Visitors center.

Due to new rules, they could no longer go into the caves unguided as Karen had as a girl. They signed up for the long cave tour, two and a half miles in, and then they'd turn around and come back. Tours left every hour, and they had come five minutes after the previous tour left.

They went outside, and took a walk around the small trail system surrounding the museum. On the other side of the fence that boarderded the trail were small white signs, listing different plants native to the area. They looked at these plants, some of them very unusual looking, and effectively killed time until the tour began.

On the hour they met up at the main enterance of the cave. Several other people were also in line with them, waiting for the tour to begin. Before them, the great opening of the cavern dwarfed the eight foot fence built to limit access to the cave.

Dressed in park ranger tan, their tour guide arrived. He was a tall and skinny individual, who taked with a slight southern accent.

"Welcome to Caverns State Park. Before we enter the cave, we have some basic rules to follow. One, don't touch anthing that's not human made. The oils from your body can cause these beautiful cave formations to stop growing for many hundreds of years, so please, don't touch. Two, Tracy, will be your second guide, she'll be here in a moment. She will walk behind the group, and I will walk in front. Please don't go wandering off on your own. Three, and this goes along with rule one, don't pick anything up. Also, don't leave anything behind, it's called littering, and there's a hefty fine. Four, when we talk, please keep quiet, the caverns magnify sound, and people in the back won't be able to hear me if you're talking.

Now, before we begin, who's never been in a cave before?"

Mary, Heather, Paul and several people from the other groups raised their hand.

"Ok, you get to go in first. Ah, here's Tracy."

"Hello everyone, I'm tracy. Frank's already told you our rules I see, any questions?"

None were voiced.

"Ok, follow Frank, it's time to go on in."

Frank stepped into the dark caverns, his flashlight bobbed for a distance, and then the caverns lit up.