The Curse of the Alabaster Treasure--Author's Notes

This story is an entry for Jenni J's Trix-e-tron Challenge, which happens to be Jixemitri Circle Writing Challenge #8.
Thanks to Jenni for the inspiration. This story never would have been written without the interactive program at trixie-belden.com. The different covers and titles really did inspire me to write!
I chose #45 because it's my hockey number!
For those of you who don't know, I lived in Puerto Rico for two years while stationed at Naval Hospital Roosevelt Roads. I have stayed at and/or visited all of the places depicted in this story.
The history of the Taíno people and the island of Puerto Rico is true, but the legend that carries this storyline is my own creation. I mean no disrespect to the Taíno culture.
The picture at the top of this page and on the story page is a photo of an ancient Taíno Indian petroglyph that I stole from the Associated Press (AP). I don't feel bad about this because a few weeks ago one of their reporters called me at my job for expert help on a microbiology graphic he was running the next day in a story. He expected me to drop everything (which I did) and fix any inaccuracies in the figure. I took hours to fix his inaccuracies, and he never gave me credit or even thanked me! But there, now I've stolen one of their photos and vented, so all is good! :)
All other pictures in this story are my copyright, taken when I lived in Puerto Rico.
The U.S. government has recently announced (May 2003) it's going to close the Naval Station at Roosevelt Roads, the largest Navy Base in the world.
Although it may seem like it, this story was not inspired by a certain episode of The Brady Bunch—it's all a coincidence—really!
However, this story was influenced by the X-Files episode entitled, "Teso Dos Bichos."
Frommers.com rocks! :)
A PDF file is available, but the pictures are not included.
Enjoy!