His eyes narrowed. He got up and stormed over to me, snatched away my suitcase, and stalked off to his mother's room. She sighed. "I'm sorry about him, Alex. He was very close to Mac, though."

"I understand," I said softly.

"Well, I guess you can go on up and see the girls. They've all finished their lessons for today," she told me. "I've got to see what I can make for dinner..."

She disappeared into the kitchen, and I headed for the girls' room.

Inside, the five of them - Jessica, Avery, Zoe, Ezra, and Taylor's girlfriend - were huddled on the floor. "Hello," I said, before stepping fully inside. They looked up at me.

"Hey," they replied in unison.

"Come look at this, Alex," Avery said, waving me over. I walked over and wiggled my way into the huddle. It was a photo album.

"Who is that?" I asked, pointing at a thin blond woman who was eating chocolate ice cream.

"That's Aunt Sarah," Ezra told me.

"But I thought Jack and Anna didn't have any other sisters," I said.

"It's their brother's first wife," Jessie told me. "You know Uncle Will, don't you?"

"Yeah," I replied. How could I forget him? He came to visit Nicky's family when we were 8, and he pinched my butt and called me a cutie. I hated him.

"What's that look for?" Dawn asked me.

I laughed. "Oh," I said, and told her the story.

"OH!" she exclaimed, then trailed off into giggles. "I wouldn't like him much either..."

Page after page of relatives that I had, for the most part, heard of or met. A few though were as mysterious to me as what happened to the dinosaurs. Finally we got up into the more modern pictures. Baby pictures of Isaac - boy, was he different, Taylor - boy, was he fat, and Zac. The album ended with an 8X10 picture of them in the back. From left to right, they were Isaac, Zac, and Taylor. All of them looked like little cowboys. Zac's bald head was covered with a bright red cowboy hat.

"This is dirt!" Jessie proclaimed, sitting back on her heels and laughing. "Blackmail..."

"They were so cheesy looking!" Dawn laughed.

"Grodie," Avery said, wrinkling up her nose. "I'm glad I don't have any pictures of ME in stuff like that..."

"You wanna bet?" Jessie asked, pulling another massive album from beneath the bed.

The girls all leaned forward interestedly. This was filled mostly with pictures of the girls and Mackie as babies. Instead of finding any incriminating Avery photos, they all ended up crying over pictures of Mackenzie.

"I still can't believe he's gone," Jessie said.

"Me neither," Avery sobbed.

"I miss him," Ezra piped. Even I was crying, although I wasn't very close to him. It was almost comforting; we were all crying together over the loss, and yet nobody had so much as shot a pointed glance at me.

Jessie finally put the album away and announced that we ought to go see if Anna needed any help with dinner. We all clambered to our feet, wiping the tears out of our eyes, and headed out the door.