Huh.”

Karl craned his neck backward, squinting against the sun to find the peak of the Washington Monument against the blue sky.

“We crossed the whole country to see one of the most famous memorials to America’s first president, and that’s all you have to say?” Stan snickered.

Karl shrugged. “It’s—taller than I thought.” He brushed his hand across one of the thick marble blocks that formed the base of the monument. “Lots taller.”

Already, at only ten in the morning, a muggy heat had begun seeping into the world. A steady wind snapped in the flags surrounding the pavilion, and the air smelled of car exhaust.

“Kind of cool.”

“What do you mean?” Stan mimicked his actions and frowned upward toward the peak of the monument.

“I mean, I’ve only seen this place in movies,” Karl said. “Like alien invasion movies and stuff. Just never guessed I’d ever get to see it real life. It’s kind of cool.”

“Aye, mate.” Stan smiled. “It’s quite cool.”

“Think any hot air balloons have ever got stuck on it?”

Stan looked stricken. “I should hope not.”

Karl turned to trace the length of the shadow the monument cast on the lush green lawn. Its tip pointed westward to the Lincoln Memorial at the other end of the National Mall.

Dr. Davalos had parked his “tired old rear end” as he called it on one of the many benches surrounding the monument and sat tapping his foot while he waited for them to get bored. Mia hovered between the Doc and the monument, keeping both her grandfather and the two teenagers she was responsible for in view.

Karl smirked as he spotted a tall, graceful figure walking toward them on the main sidewalk. He elbowed Stan in the ribs. “Look who it is.”

Stan pushed his elbow away and peered around his shoulder. “Oh, it’s Sam. Good, he made it.”

With a snort, Karl grabbed his backpack from the ground. “He’s in a funk.”

Stan blinked and squinted. “How can you tell from here?”

“He’s always in a funk.”

Stan smacked his arm, and Karl faked a dramatic cry loud enough to draw attention from other tourists.

“Buttons, did I hurt you?” Stan gasped.

Karl cuffed the back of the younger teenager’s head. “No, dumbo, do you think one of your little love pats could ever hurt?”

Stan stuck out his tongue.

“Stan,” Karl shook his head, “seriously, how can you keep falling for that?”

“Because you keep doing it?”

Karl refocused on the monument and gazed around in a slow circle. The Lincoln Memorial. The World War II Monument. The White House to the north. The Jefferson Memorial to the south. The Capitol to the east. Half a dozen other structures that looked familiar but he couldn’t name.

“Could you imagine, Fish Face?” Karl murmured. “What would it be like to grow up here? Seeing this stuff every day? No wonder Lurch is so smart. He had to have a super-brain with all this history everywhere.”

Stan laughed. “I don’t think that’s how it works, Karl.”

Mia waved at them. Karl walked toward her with Stan at his heels.

“Are we ready to move on?” Mia took Karl’s elbow as he approached her. “I don’t want to rush you guys.”

“It’s a big rock.” Karl shrugged. “I thought it tipped over.”

Sam, standing beside Mia in his light linen shirt and khaki pants, sighed heavily and hung his head. “That’s because you slept through history class.”

“Did they talk about it in history class?” He snickered. “Maybe they did when you were in school a million years ago, but I think they’ve changed the textbooks a few times since then.”

Sam glared at him.

“Was there anything else down here you wanted to see, Sam?” Stan grabbed Karl’s arm with a bright smile.

Poor little Stan. The kid just couldn’t handle Sam’s attitude.

Karl knew exactly what to do when Sam was in a funk.

Poke him.

With a stick.

Repeatedly.

“I’ve seen it,” Sam growled.

Karl started to respond, but Mia cut him off.

“I think the Korean War Memorial is over by the Lincoln Memorial.” Mia pulled out her folded map. “So we’ll pass several other things on the way over there.”

“Well, what are we hanging around here for?” Karl pumped his fist in the air and ran down the long, circular path that led away from the Washington Monument.

His tennis shoes pounded on the concrete as he ran most of the distance down the walkway beside the monument’s grounds. He jogged to a stop as Stan caught up with him, and they both stopped to catch their breath together.

“It’s really muggy.” Stan wiped his brow.

“I think it’s worse than Enid.” Karl opened his backpack and pulled out two bottles of water. He offered one to Stan.

Stan smiled. “Thanks, mate.”

They drank together, and Karl fished out a package of cheese crackers, which he opened and began to eat.

Karl regarded his friend who walked at his elbow. Stan and his crazy pale skin was probably going to be burnt like a lobster before the day was out. Had Mia packed sunscreen?

“This is probably weird for you, right?” Karl asked as he and Stan crossed Seventeenth Street and approached the World War II Memorial.

“What do you mean?” Stan reached for a cracker, which Karl handed to him.

“All this American stuff.”

Stan chomped on the cheese cracker. “Well, this is America.”

“But I don’t think we have any British stuff over here.”

Stan laughed. “No, probably not, and if there were, it wouldn’t be celebrated. Not in this part of America.”

Karl frowned. “Why not?”

Stan took a swig from his water bottle. “Oh, a little tussle called the Revolutionary War?”

“Oh, that.”

Stan shook his head. “But seriously, I find this all very interesting.” He paused as the reached the edge of the memorial. “I believe I had a great grandfather who fought in World War II.”

“Really?”

Stan looked slightly sheepish. “I think so. I don’t really remember.”

Karl shifted his weight and spun the water bottle in his hands. “I think I did too, but I don’t remember either.”

“We’re a pair aren’t we?”

“Hey, dude, what if they were buddies?”

“Like we are?” Stan brightened.

“War buddies.” Karl elbowed him and laughed.

Stan laughed with him and reached for his backpack to drop their waters back inside. “I’m glad we’re mates.”

Karl ruffled Stan’s wild hair. “Yeah, me too, Fish Face. Even if you talk funny.”

Stan beat his hand away, and Karl shoved him. “Race you!”

“To where?”

“You’ll find out!” Karl shouted.

“That’s not how a race works, Karl!”

Karl stretched out his legs and dashed past the crowds on the sidewalks, darting down a narrower walkway that led away from the World War II Memorial.

Freaking Washington DC.

How had someone like him ended up in a situation like this? Just a dumb farm kid out of Nowheresville, Oklahoma. A guy in a funny hat drops into his life and gives him a magic samurai armor, and suddenly he’s living in a castle with a billionaire and making day trips to the Washington Monument.

And Mom told me to go to college. Ha!

The path started in a curve and straightened out as it reached a large grove of trees. He passed several public restrooms and slowed to a jog when a stitch flared up in his side, and he slowed to a walk. A marble rotunda came into view among the trees as he stopped, gasping for breath. 

He bent over, breathing hard, and waited until Stan caught up with him.

Much faster than he expected.

“Aw’right?” Stan jogged to a halt beside him.

“How’d you catch up?” Karl wailed.

“You don’t run that fast.” Stan chuckled. “And you certainly can’t maintain it long.”

“I hate running.”

“Let’s walk then.”

“Walking. Walking is good.” Karl dug out his water again, and he and Stan strolled along the path toward the looming shape of the Lincoln Memorial.

“So.” Stan started after they’d both caught their breath.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you want to come here?”

Karl stepped around a large crack in the sidewalk. “What? I can’t come see cool old stuff because it’s old and cool?”

Stan threw his head back and laughed at the sky. “Sure, you can, but this was a long trip. And it just seems a bit out of the ordinary for you is all.”

Karl wiped the sweat off the back of his neck.

He had a certain reputation in San Francisco. It was the same reputation he’d had in Enid, the one he’d worked all his life to build and maintain. He was Karl Goodson, the blockhead, the bulldozer, the buffoon. As far as reputations went, it was pretty easy to keep up. Probably because it was pretty close to true.

“It’s cool old stuff, right?”

“It is.” Stan nodded. “But Mia said you specifically wanted to see the Korean memorial.”

Dang it, Fish Face. You’re gonna make me say something mushy.

Karl huffed. “Yeah. It’s cool and old too.”

“Not as old as some of the memorials here.”

They passed a building with service vehicles parked outside as the path wound through a grassy area toward a circular section of carefully trimmed trees.

Karl stopped. “Hey, what’s that?” He pointed ahead at the manicured garden.

He picked up his pace as they rounded the bend in the sidewalk. Beyond the stretch of grass, Karl could see about a dozen figures standing in a field, each one pale white with their backs loaded down with heavy packs. None of them were moving.

“Well done, mate.” Stan pounded his back as he jogged up next to him. “We found it.”

Stan cut across the grass, and Karl followed him to the main pathway that led to the Korean War Memorial. He slowed as he approached one of the pale figures.

Statues.

Each one carved in stunning detail, facial features and everything. Even the textures of their clothing looked real. They carried rifles, wore boots, and looked as if they were speaking to each other. The dozen men moved in a triangular pattern across the landscape strewn with scrubby looking plants.

They looked so real.

Karl’s stomach twisted, but it wasn’t from hunger. He walked up the sidewalk along the memorial to stand at its head, where the leader of the platoon of men strode forward, his expression grim and unyielding while the men behind him searched the area with faces full of fear and uncertainty.

Karl swallowed as he stared into the face of the lead soldier, emotions swirling in his mind and in his chest and all over the place. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with all of it.

A slight pressure on his arm made him look down.

Stan.

Geez, the kid was going to give him a heart attack one of these days.

“Karl, are you okay?” Stan touched his elbow. “You look upset.”

Karl cleared his throat at the emotion clogging his throat. “I’m fine, Stan.”

Stan knit his brows together. “No, I don’t think you are.”

Karl shoved his hands into his pockets and focused again on the lead soldier’s face. “My grandpa fought in Korea.”

Stan smiled slightly. “Oh, I see.”

“Yeah.” Karl nodded. “He was—we were close.”

Stan shifted a bit closer. “You don’t talk about your family much.”

“There’s not a whole lot to say.”

Stan arched his eyebrows.

“Honest. There’s not.” Karl chuckled. “But my grandpa? He was legendary.”

“Yeah?”

“He could milk a barn full of cows in half the time it took me.” Karl grinned. “He could build anything out of scrap wood. He could fix any broken car, no matter what was wrong with it. And the guy grilled like a boss. He grilled my birthday cake one year, dude. And it was awesome.”

“And he was a war hero, then?”

Karl faltered.

For a moment, he let the memories of his grandpa’s wrinkled face flash in his mind. Dark blue eyes. Wispy gray hair. Fingers gnarled like the roots of a tree. Suspenders and tobacco pipes and midnight card games at Christmas while they ate crusty homemade bread slathered with pimento cheese.

His eyes burned, and he shook himself.

“I don’t know.”

Stan tilted his head. “You don’t?”

“He never talked about the war. Other than how much he hated the food over there.”

Stan laughed.

“But I wanted to see the memorial—because it—I guess it’s like it’s a part of him.” Karl swallowed. “And I miss him.”

Stan reached up and set a hand against his shoulder. “I’m glad you could see it.”

Karl smiled. “Me too, Fish Face.”

They stood in silence, staring at the soldier statue until Sam, Mia, and the Doc caught up to them.

“Wow,” Mia said, coming to stand on his other side. “This is beautiful.”

“Yeah,” Karl said.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this is really amazing.” She put her map back into her bag and tucked her arm in Karl’s. “What do you think?”

Karl blinked at her.

In all the world, he could probably count on his hand the number of people who gave a hoot what he thought, and Mia was one of them.

He grinned. “It’s cool and old.”

Mia laughed.

The Doc sighed heavily behind him. “Well, I’m glad you know it’s old.”

Karl looked over his shoulder at the Doc and waited until the old man met his gaze. “Thanks for bringing me, Doc.”

Surprised, Dr. Davalos frowned and then nodded. Karl looked back to the statues of the soldiers and cleared his throat.

“So, what’s next on our agenda?”

“Well.” Mia hugged his arm. “We can sightsee for a few more hours, but then Grandpa and I will need to head to the Hilton with Sam so we can get ready for the presentation tonight.”

“Right,” Karl said, “Lurch’s big, fancy dinner.”

Sam grunted threateningly from further down the sidewalk.

“That means you and Stan are going to be on your own tonight.” Mia pulled away and narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you two think you can handle that?”

Karl barked a laugh. “There’s loads to around here. We won’t be bored.”

“I don’t think us being bored is the concern.” Stan grimaced. “More along the lines of us causing some kind of incident that will get us all arrested.”

Karl waved his hand dismissively. “Ronnie’s the one who’s always in trouble with the FBI. Not us.”

“Don’t remind me.” Mia reached for her map again. “Okay, so who’s up for the Lincoln Memorial?”

Karl raised his hand. “That’s the sports guy, right?”

“Sports guy?” Sam sneered as he strode toward them, breezy and carefree and just as much a pretty-boy as a runway model.

“Yeah.” Karl made a face. “He was the one who did the big speech about scores and stuff, right?”

Mia opened her mouth and started to speak but changed her mind.

Stan snickered uncontrollably, which was a sure sign that Karl was close enough to the facts but not quite there. And that was exactly where he liked to be.