Disappearing Staircase Mystery (2 page)

Jessie motioned for everyone to follow her. “Don’t worry, Violet. I stuffed our sleeping bags into big plastic bags so they’ll be warm and dry. Besides, we’re not camping in tents like some of the other volunteers.”

“That’s right,” Grandfather agreed. “You’ll be staying in a playhouse that Mr. Bugbee built for his children. Mabel said there’s plenty of room for all of you.”

“I made sure to pack our camp lantern, too,” Henry said. “Did you bring your flashlight, Violet?”

“It’s in my backpack,” Violet answered. “Oooh, something just brushed my cheek!”

“Sorry, Violet,” Henry said. “I let that branch swing back too fast. Here, I’ll hold it for you.”

All the bushes and trees on the Bugbee property were heavy and wet from the rain that had just ended. The branches kept brushing against the Aldens every which way.

Grandfather took out the small notebook he always carried everywhere. “I’ll have to come back with my gardening tools to cut back these shrubs and vines. Why, you can hardly see any of the buildings on the property. Even the main house is half hidden by overgrown trees.”

The Aldens stared at the old mansion. The tall pillars holding up the porch leaned in every direction. Many windows were cracked. Shutters dangled. Paint was peeling.

Just then, the Aldens jumped back when a figure suddenly appeared out of the bushes.

“Hello, Mr. Alden,” Nan Lodge said. “I saw you come up the driveway with your grandchildren. Mabel asked me to bring them to the playhouse to drop off their things. Mabel’s waiting for you in the main house, Mr. Alden.”

After Grandfather left, Nan rushed the children around the property. She pointed out the broken-down greenhouse, the old stable, a garage, some old sheds, and a wonderful small building about half the size of the Aldens’ boxcar.

“It’s a playhouse!” Soo Lee said.

When the children looked inside, they were surprised to see a large person inside the child-sized building.

“Oh, hi, Brian,” Henry said when he looked in the doorway. “We didn’t expect to find anyone here.”

Brian stood up from the small children’s table and chair in the corner. He seemed startled to see Nan and the Aldens. “And I didn’t expect to see you here, Nan. I needed to get away from all the bustle in the main house. The playhouse seemed as good a place as any.”

“Mabel is going to let the Aldens camp out in here this week while they work on the house,” Nan explained.

“What?” Brian said. “This place is falling apart. It hasn’t been used for decades.”

“How would you know that, Brian?” Nan asked. “You told me you didn’t know anything about the Bugbee House.”

Brian didn’t answer right away. “Well,” he said finally. “Anyone can tell by looking that there haven’t been any kids in this playhouse for quite a while.”

“That’s about to change,” Nan turned to the Aldens. “Mabel left that box of cleaning things for you in the corner. Maybe later in the week you can paint in here, too. I’ll come back for you in a while. You’re going back to the main house, too, right, Brian?” Nan asked.

“Right,” Brian answered. He brushed past Nan and the Aldens without another word.

Nan sighed, then headed to the main house as well.

The Aldens didn’t waste any time getting to work.

“Let’s leave our bags on the porch until we sweep and dust,” Jessie said. “Benny, you go fill that bucket from the garden hose. After we sweep, we’ll wash down the floors.”

While the younger children were gone, Henry found a hammer and began banging. “There are a lot of bent nails sticking out. I don’t want us to snag ourselves.”

Jessie handed Violet a sheet of sandpaper from the cleanup box. “Let’s sand down the slivers and rough spots to get everything ready for a paint job.”

Benny was groaning as he carried in the heavy water bucket filled to the brim.

Jessie laughed. “You didn’t need to fill it quite so much. Let’s pour some water into that smaller bucket to clean the woodwork and use the big bucket for the floor.”

The Aldens spent the next hour scrubbing everything that could be scrubbed. By the time Nan returned, the playhouse gleamed. The children had lined up their sleeping bags on the floor. Their jackets and bags hung on a row of nails. Violet had even gathered a bunch of wildflowers and stuck them in an old milk bottle.

But Nan didn’t seem to notice anything different. “Mabel needs you up at the house,” was all she said to the Aldens after they’d done so much work. “Let’s go.”

“Wow,” Benny said as they walked along. “Now we’ll finally get to see the inside of the Bugaboo House.”

“Don’t call it that!” Nan said. She guided the Aldens up the stairs to the fancy porch. “The Bugbees were a fine Greenfield family. They weren’t spooky at all.”

The children could hardly keep up with Nan when they entered the old mansion. She rushed them around from room to room on the first floor. Several volunteers were already up on ladders scraping old paint. Others were down on their knees hammering down loose floorboards or replacing them altogether. Everywhere the Aldens looked, people were busy.

One of the volunteers called out to the children, “Hey Aldens! Mabel said to meet her in the kitchen.”

Nan turned around. She pointed to a long hallway. “The kitchen is off that hall. Go ahead without me.”

After Nan went off, Brian Carpenter appeared, looking for her. “Every time I turn around, Nan’s off someplace. She didn’t go upstairs, did she? Well, never mind. Go check in with Mabel and get out of all this hubbub in here.”

The children went off. At the end of the hallway, they found themselves facing a wall, not the kitchen.

“Nan never did say which door led to the kitchen,” Jessie said. “Maybe she meant the hallway off this one.”

The children retraced their steps partway then headed down another hall. They found themselves in a separate wing of the house, which was empty and silent.

“This house seems so sad,” Violet said. She opened a closet door. Three empty hangers hung on a rod. Lying on the floor was a broken umbrella someone had left behind.

“After we fix it up, this house won’t seem so deserted anymore,” Jessie said. “Benny, why don’t you and Soo Lee run ahead. Check those doors off the hallway.”

Benny liked nothing better than exploring new places. “Come on, Soo Lee.” He leaned on the first door they passed. “It’s locked.”

Soo Lee tried a different door. “This one isn’t locked. Look, there’s another little hallway. Maybe that’s the one that goes to the kitchen.”

“Follow us,” Benny yelled back to the other children.

The door closed behind Benny and Soo Lee. Except for a tiny crack of light coming from under the door, the space was completely dark.

Benny felt something hit his cheek. “What was that?” He reached up. “Whew! It’s a string to turn on the light.”

Even with a light on, Soo Lee stayed close to Benny.

The two children walked down the short passageway.

Benny discovered another door. “This one’s locked, too,” he said. “Hey, do you hear voices?” He tilted his head to hear better. “I can’t tell who it is.”

“Can we go back?” Soo Lee asked.

“I guess it was just some people talking in another room,” Benny said.

Soo Lee and Benny walked back to where they had started. Benny tried to open the door, but the knob refused to turn.

“Are you two still in there?” Henry asked from the other side.

“We’re here,” Benny called out.

“The door must have locked by itself when you shut it,” Henry said. “I’ll try to find a key.”

Benny felt a little braver now that his brother and sisters stood on the other side of the door. “We’re going to try the next door down again. Maybe it’s just stuck.

“When I push, you push me, okay, Soo Lee?” Benny said when he leaned against the door. “One, two, three, push!”

The door opened! Soo Lee and Benny found themselves just down the hall from the other children.

“Hey! Over here!” Benny called out.

Henry came over. “Good thing you found a way out. Mabel said she has no idea where the keys to all the doors are. She lent them to the Gardiners, but no one knows where they went. Oh, good. Here’s Nan.”

The children explained to Nan how Benny and Soo Lee had found another passageway.

“Did you get inside any rooms? Or find anything?” Nan asked. “Books, papers, anything unusual? I wish I had time to look around, but Mabel sent me to the hardware store.”

“The Bugaboo House sure is a mixed-up place,” Benny said. “All we found were doors and more doors.”

“One of the engineers said there are over sixty doors in the house and different passages and levels,” Nan told the Aldens. “Yesterday I opened one door, and behind it was just a wall.”

“Wow!” said Benny.

“Yes, well, there’s no time to explore now,” said Nan. “It’s time for the auction. The Gardiners have spent the last few days getting it organized, so let’s go.”

All of Greenfield seemed to be jammed into the Bugbees’ old stable for the House and Hands auction. The Alden children strolled through the excited crowd. Unlike the grown-ups, they passed right by the displays of old furniture, mirrors, paintings, tools, dishes, and lamps.

“There are the toys!” Soo Lee cried, running ahead.

Off in a corner, the children spied a bookcase and a table with old toys displayed.

Benny and Soo Lee were excited. The older children looked at one another, puzzled.

“Somehow I thought there would be lots more toys,” Henry whispered to Jessie and Violet. “I heard a lot of people saying the Bugbees had a huge toy collection.”

“I see what you mean,” Jessie agreed. “Still, Benny and Soo Lee seem happy with what’s here.”

Jessie joined Soo Lee. She was crooning over some old dolls, several of them with china heads. But the one Soo Lee fell in love with was a small stuffed doll made of faded cloth.

Over on the table was a collection of train cars and metal trucks, including a horse-drawn fire truck, a milk wagon, and even a toy ice wagon.

“Look,” Benny said when he spotted a small train set. “This locomotive looks just like a real one.”

Violet wandered over to a bookcase, where several toy music boxes were lined up on the shelves. “I like these,” Violet said. One of them had a dancing bear that spun around when the box was wound up. “Listen. It plays ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ Do you think I could bid on this?”

At that moment, Brian came over. “No one is supposed to touch these toys,” he informed the Aldens. “George will show the audience how they work—that train set, this music box. Just leave it there.”

“Brian!” a volunteer yelled from the doorway. “We need you to sign for some materials that just arrived.”

Brian looked at the Aldens and sighed. “See you later. I never get a free minute around here.”

“We’d better get to our seats,” Henry told the other children when the Gardiners seemed about to begin the auction. “Grandfather saved us places in the third row.”

George Gardiner stood in front of the crowd. He explained how the auction worked. Then he had one of the volunteers bring up an old painting to get the bidding started.

The Aldens followed the bidding carefully though it moved very quickly. George put up one item after another for people to bid on—everything from vases to eggbeaters. As soon as an item was purchased, it was whisked away to a storage room in front of the stable.

The Alden children waited and waited, until finally it was time to auction the toys. One by one, the Gardiners held up each toy for the bidders.

“Here we have a small antique train set,” George Gardiner announced finally. “Who will start the bidding?”

Benny jumped from his seat and waved his hand. “Fifty cents!” he shouted.

The whole crowd laughed. The set was definitely worth more than fifty cents.

“Never mind, Benny,” Grandfather whispered. “I’ll add a bit to your birthday money. You can go up to twenty-six dollars.”

In no time, the Aldens were on the edge of their seats. George Gardiner raised his auction hammer for the final bid. “Twenty-five dollars. Going once, going twice…”

Benny stood up and shouted out, “Twenty-six!”