There are times when you feel that you are really living your life, that your life is an amazing movie and you are the main character. Eliza had felt like that last year when she went to Australia with her mom to see the Olympic Games. Now she was back in New York, back at school, and she felt in between. In between the stories that would make up her life. In between being a child and being a grown-up. She the word for teenager should really be betweenager.

She looked at the envelope on the kitchen table. She was dying to open it but dreading it at the same time. She knew it was from Amanda, her mom. On the postmark in the corner was the town in Pennsylvania where her mom was staying. Staying? More like living. It had been nearly four months and there had been no talk of coming home. There had been no talk, as her mom didn't believe in using the telephone anymore.

Only letters like these, on handmade paper that looked like it had flattened-out feathers and string in it.

It had all started with Amanda producing a TV documentary on the reclusive Amish people. She had become so fascinated by their lifestyle that she had stayed on and gotten involved with a nearby New Age community that didn't believe in modern technology and thought the twenty-first century should be the dawn of a new era of simplicity and getting back to basics.

Basics. Hello? You're supposed to be raising a daughter here, Mom, Eliza had said. Isn't that pretty basic? She needs time out, Uncle Carl had said. She'll get over it. But whatever Amanda needed time out from, she wasn't over it yet. The documentary was never finished. The TV crew had returned to New York. Amanda had stayed behind. Eliza had moved into Uncle Carl's apartment. Just like that.

Eliza opened the envelope. She scanned the one-page letter for any mention of coming home, but there was none. She got to the end, then started again. It was all just news of Amanda's projects-what she was growing and sewing and building. Something about an inner journey and the peace she was arriving at.

Peace. The apartment was quiet, except for the plops from the leaky faucet in the kitchen, and someone practicing scales on a violin in a distant apartment. Eliza felt that she had too much peace. She wanted something to happen. Anything. She wanted her mom to come home and take her away on another trip-like the one they had taken to Sydney. Summer vacation was about to start and all the other kids at school were making plans with their families. She felt like an orphan. If only her dad hadn't drowned all those years ago, they'd still be a regular, happy family and her mom wouldn't be doing weird things like running off looking for peace. As if peace is something to be found anyway, like a bone at an archeological site.

A key clicked in the door.

"Hey, Eliza." It was Uncle Carl. "What's happening?"

"Not much," she said, making little rips in the corners of the letter.

Uncle Carl looked hard at what she was doing and said, "Oh."

He sat down at the table opposite her. "Well," he said. "We'll have to do something about that, and I know just what it is."

Eliza looked at him. He had one of those big, wide smiles that he loved to tease her with. His eyes glittered mischievously.

"What?" she asked, seeing that he wasn't going to tell her right away.

His mouth stayed fixed in a playful smile and he raised an eyebrow.

"Guess," he said.

"What? What? You're taking me to the North Pole, or maybe Mars on the next space shuttle mission."

Uncle Carl laughed. "Well, perhaps I could change the plans and try and arrange-"

"Quit fooling, Uncle Carl," Eliza said, not having to pretend too hard that she was getting angry. She had to vent her anger at Amanda somehow.

"Okay, okay," he said, holding up his hands as if to protect himself from it. "Julie's grant has been approved by the institute and she's invited us both to go with her on the dig."

Julie was Uncle Carl's girlfriend. She was an anthropologist. Eliza liked her. She treated Eliza like a grown-up, not a kid. Whenever she came over, she brought Eliza a book. At first Eliza had thought she was just trying to buy her affection, but she soon discovered that Julie really did like her. Sometimes she talked to Eliza more than to Uncle Carl. Sometimes Eliza thought that if it weren't for Julie, she would have gone crazy, with her mom gone and all. Not that Julie tried to act like a mom-she just seemed interested in Eliza as a person.

Eliza knew about the grant because Julie had been working on her application for months. It had to do with an ancient civilization in Mexico.

"We're going to Mexico?"

"You bet. We're going to jump on a plane and head-" he climbed up on the chair and burst into song-"south of the border, down Mexico way-" He broke off and looked at her from behind the microphone he was pretending to hold. "That is, if you wanna go."

"Wanna go? Are you nuts? Mexico? That's so cool!"

Uncle Carl jumped down off the chair and they did a kind of salsa around the kitchen, but neither knew the proper steps so it was really just messy dancing and Uncle Carl started on that song where he had left off and Eliza forgot about the letter on the table. For a while, anyway.