Chapter One Excerpt
The Newstadt Exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology, on the University Campus, was offering an interesting evening. I had been waiting for months for its arrival since the announcement first hit the Alumni mailing list. The jade bowl artifact, strangely named, ‘The Pillars of the Moon”, was one of those obscure pieces of physical history that seemed to miss the notoriety of the more gregarious Haida Totems of the area, and yet held an irrepressible obsession for collectors in acquiring its possession, the few who knew of it. Intrigue, mystery and even death surrounded this little jade object, almost too small and innocuous for its reputation.
Heading down the upper reaches of 16th Ave., ominous gray and black clouds hung amid the bellies of the resolute mountains guarding the inlet which is English Bay; strands of their white mist reached down like fingers, writhing and dissipating as if in despair, grasping at the high-rise buildings of the North Shore. Encumbered pedestrians, beneath their multi-colored umbrellas, dodged and darted beneath the tears that rained down from above making the trip even lengthier for an impatient and already anxious driver. Ghost-like ships, anchored in the bay, behemoths waiting to be unloaded, rested from the abysmal assaults of the winter’s inclement weather and battle-bound seas.
Upon entering the museum parking lot, the skies began to clear relieving the area of the day’s persistent drizzle and a chance glimpse at the sun. The oddity of several security guards that had stationed themselves at either end of the lot, gave the event an heir of uncertainty. Black limousines and a variety of up-scale late-model vehicles lined either side of the lot closest to the stairway to the museum. Further toward the gallery, Tsimshiam wall-to-ceiling carvings at the entranceway to the museum’s foyer were now bordered with gray suit-clad security guards. They glanced from time to time at the repose patrons puffing lightly on their cigarettes, just outside the full-length glass doors. The paradox of the scene did not impede the true nature and design of the museum’s unique architecture, which was a marvel in itself, nestled among a line of cedar trees atop the cliffs overlooking the Spanish Shores area of the bay.