Finders Keepers (14 page)

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do if Godzilla comes out of the woods?”

“Don't leave the porch.”

He yelled, “Alex!”

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do if you see an asteroid in the sky coming right at your head?”

“Don't leave the porch.”

Grumpa grumped his way to Mr. Walt Miller's pickup. They disappeared in a cloud of dust.

I said, “I don't like the looks of that Mr. Walt Miller.”

“He looks creepy, but he must be okay. My dad said Walt Miller offered to come here and attach the washtub to the wall.”

“That snoop! He's looking for the money.”

“I wondered about that. Old Walt said he'd fix the washtub when Grandpa is out fishing so it'd be a surprise. A surprise! He must think we're stupid.”

“He just wants to be down there alone so he can hunt for clues.”

“Walt told my dad that Grandpa isn't feeling so good, but Grandpa is too proud to let anyone else fix it. That's why Walt wants to surprise him.”

That Mr. Walt Miller was slicker than a water slide. He'd probably been sniffing around Capone's, too. He couldn't outrun Sheriff Duncan like a teenager, but he could probably outsmart him.

“So what's next?”

“Amelia's friends think there might be something in a freezer in the basement of the restaurant.”

“Why would my great-grandmother move money from the house to the restaurant? They owned both places. One isn't any safer than the other.”

“Anyway, Matt and Travis said the freezer is locked. Are there any old keys lying around the house?”

Alex scratched the side of his head. The helmet had left his hair damp and plastered flat against his head. “I've never seen any unusual keys. Just regular keys.”

An engine rumbled, and Grumpa arrived on the ATV. He struggled to lift his leg and swing it off the bike. If we were closer, I think we could've heard his body creak. He limped to the porch. “All right. Get inside.”

We got inside. Alex and I sat at the kitchen table and waited for instructions.

“This is how things are going to be,” Grumpa said. “You're going to stop this nonsense. All this talk about Capone and that money is making me crazy. I don't need to be living in the past. It's bad for the brain when you're old. You two are going to stay out of Sheriff Duncan's sight. He's got no appetite for funny business. Understand?”

We nodded.

“Hell's bells, I should tell your parents, but lucky for you I'm in a good mood. I'm going easy on you this time. I worked my whole life and I'm not giving up my naps and I'm not selling that ATV and you two are not going to get me fired from the job of knowing my grandson.”

Grumpa walked to the living room and turned on the TV.

Not tell our parents? Grumpa was the best babysitter in the world, mostly.

 

THE HOLIDAY AND THE SCARE

Independence Day is the best holiday of all the holidays without presents and egg hunts and birthday cakes. And my parents were trying to ruin it.

“We don't have a lot of money, but we want to do something special for the Fourth of July.” Dad set plates on the table for breakfast while Mom flipped pancakes. “We thought we could spend next weekend in Duluth going through the museums.”

“We'll get a hotel with a pool!” Mom said.

“It'll be a treat,” Dad said. “There's a museum about the logging industry and one about the shipping industry. Then there's a museum dedicated to actress Judy Garland. Remember
The Wizard of Oz
? Well, she was from this area! Wouldn't it be amazing if they have her journals there? I'd love to read her deepest secrets.”

We needed to act fast. Faster-than-fast fast. I looked at Amelia, who started tapping on her phone. This was no time to be texting.

“We'll have ice cream!” Mom said.

Amelia turned her phone toward me. She hadn't been texting. She'd typed a note:
Tag team! Follow me.

“That's so cool!” Amelia said. Then she sighed all big.

Dad asked, “What's the matter, honey?”

“Nothing. I'm glad we'll have a family weekend. I'll just tell all my new friends I can't go.”

Mom put a plate of pancakes on the table. “Go where?”

“Travis is having a cookout and everyone's waterskiing and tubing and doing fireworks. No big deal, really.”

“I didn't know you'd been invited to a party,” Mom said.

“It's the one thing I've been happy about, you know, since it's the last holiday we'll ever have at the cabin. But the museum trip will be pleasant.” Amelia never used the word “pleasant.”

“Pleasant,” I agreed. “Alex wants to have a cookout and bonfire, too. But maybe we'll get invited next year. Maybe.”

Dad's shoulders started to droop. “The city of Duluth has wonderful fireworks. People come from all over to see them.”

“Yay! Fireworks are most fun when you're with thousands of people in a parking lot. I probably won't miss the Clarks at all.”

I buttered my pancake and poured syrup until Mom grabbed the bottle and said, “That's enough.”

“Christa, don't be a drama queen,” Amelia said. “I know it's the first year we've ever had friends here, and that it's the last year we'll ever see them, but family's more important.”

“You're right,” I said.

Dad sighed. Mom sighed. She looked at Dad and said, “I guess we didn't think this through.”

“Rescheduling isn't easy,” Dad said. “You see, girls, this coming weekend is our only three-day weekend until Labor Day. But maybe you both should be with your friends. We'll see those museums another time.”

“I have an idea.” Amelia sat up tall. “You guys used to have a date night like twice a month! You never do that anymore. Why don't you go to Duluth without us?”

“You've been teaching all summer,” I said. “It's not fair you haven't done anything
you
want to do.”

Dad's shoulders perked right up, but Mom's expression didn't change. “I'm not sure I want us to be apart on a holiday.”

“Mom, you always think about us,” Amelia said. “Maybe for one weekend you should think about you.”

“What do you think?” Dad asked Mom. “The Clarks are right next door.”

“Neil and Sally are leaving tomorrow for Arizona. Sally's sister had a baby. Alex is staying with Ed.”

Dad nodded his head like it was settled. “So Ed will be here if the girls have any trouble.”

Mom said, “Somehow I don't find that comforting.” Then she squeezed Dad's hand. “I don't know, Todd. What do you think?”

“I think I'd love a date weekend with my wife.” He leaned over and kissed her.

Dad smiled at Mom. Mom smiled at Dad. Amelia smiled at me. I smiled at everyone.

“All right, it's settled,” Mom said. “But we need to tell you something. Remember the people who looked at the cabin with the new realtor? The ones who left because of what Alex said about bats? Well, Shawn explained everything. They really liked what they saw, so they're coming back to give it another look. Shawn thinks they'll buy it.”

“
AARRGGG!” Dad shrieked.

For a second I thought he was upset about the cabin, but then I saw the snake. It moved in an S-shape from the bedroom door toward us. Then Mom saw it, too. She screamed, “AARRGGG!”

The snake glided across the floor, right toward me. I jumped up and stood on the kitchen chair, screaming, “AARRGGG!”

My parents scooted off their chairs and backed against the wall by the window.

“Get it, Todd!”

“Why do I have to get it? You're the science teacher. You get it.”

“You saw it first!”

“Seeing it makes it my responsibility?”

Amelia swallowed the last of her orange juice while my parents argued. She tossed her hair to the side, stood up, and in one smooth move, picked up the snake. It wiggled in her hands. She grinned and lunged toward me. When I screamed, she laughed so hard I thought she might fall over and crush the snake, which would've been fine with me.

“Admit it. You're afraid of snakes.”

“Am not! I'm just afraid of that one because it's a rare poisonous snake.”

“It's a garter snake. It eats bugs and toads and mice.” Amelia shoved it toward me again and laughed. “Who knew
you
were such a princess?”

“If it's poisonous and you die, it's your own fault,” I said.

“Get that thing out of here!” Mom yelled.

“Okay, okay.”

My heartbeat slowed as I watched Amelia push open the screen door with her hip and take the snake outside. I jumped off the chair and looked out the window. Amelia walked to the edge of the lawn and gently placed the snake on the ground. She watched it disappear into the brush.

My parents sat down and talked about how the snake could have possibly found its way into the cabin. They knew I wouldn't touch a snake, and they didn't seem to be considering Alex as a suspect.

I tuned out their words because I was stunned. Amelia My Sister had made a guest appearance. She'd snatched that snake like it was an adorable puppy. Maybe my sister, my real sister, was still under the shiny hair and lip gloss.

Then something in their conversation caught my ear. Dad was talking about Judy Garland's journals at the museum. How the journals would be a study of the times and a peek into her brain. How sad it was that journals now are typed into computers instead of handwritten, losing “the personality revealed in the style of the penmanship.”

Dad said history-teacher stuff like that all the time, but this clanged in my ears.

Notebooks. Handwritten notebooks. A study of the times. A peek into the brain.

The notebook Alex had found in the basement wasn't just a bunch of recipes and weather reports. It had to be the journal of Mrs. Hillary Clark. Alex and I needed that notebook.

 

THE JOURNAL AND THE DEAL

From that moment on, I behaved myself so nothing would make Mom and Dad cancel their trip to Duluth. I even thought about doing dishes, but I didn't want to make them suspicious. Amelia and I made a pact for peace, too. If we argued even once, our parents might decide we couldn't be trusted.

After work Friday, Mom and Dad stopped at the cabin to pack their bags and say goodbye.

“If you need anything at all, go talk to Ed,” Dad told us.

“Or call my cell phone,” Mom said. She quietly added, “We could drive here in the time it would take Ed to figure out something's wrong.”

“It's fine, Mom,” Amelia said.

“Remember, Amelia: no friends here. You can go to the party, but I don't want kids in the cabin while we're gone.”

“I know!” Amelia said.

“And you…” Mom looked at me and sighed. “No trouble. I mean it.”

“Zero trouble!”

Mom hugged us and Dad hugged us and then Mom hugged us again and then Dad hugged us again.

As soon as Mom and Dad were on their way to Duluth, Amelia went into our bedroom to watch a movie on her laptop. That was her definition of being in charge. Fine by me. Alex and I had a job to do.

Alex was outside washing the ATV. He wasn't allowed to ride it, but nobody said he couldn't touch it or sit on it or wash it. Even though he had a bucket of soapy water and a wet sponge, he was covered in dirt.

“Hey, Alex! Are your parents gone?”

“They left this morning.”

“Did you get the journal out of the basement?”

Alex shrugged, which told me the answer. I couldn't believe it. Alex had one job to do. Just one: get the journal out of the basement so we could study it for clues.

“Grandpa said we're not supposed to go down there, and I couldn't sneak around. It's like everyone was constantly watching.”

“That's a complete load! You're chicken. You know how important this is.”

Before he could defend himself, Grumpa came out of the house with a phone in his hand. He held the phone at arm's length, like it might explode if he carried it too close.

“Your parents decided we couldn't survive for three days without a cellular phone. So your mom left hers, and it's been beeping at me. There's a note on it that says ‘missed call from Neil' and ‘voicemail.'”

“I'll show you how to listen to the message,” Alex said.

“I've got a phone inside with a message machine. Why didn't your father just call that?”

“In case you weren't home. That's why. Let's just call him back. You just push this and this.”

Grumpa shook his head like he'd never heard anything so dumb, but he held the phone against his cheek. “Neil, it's me … Uh huh … I don't think there's anything wrong with sugar before bedtime, but if you say so … Yes … Well, you have yourselves some fun out there.” Grumpa shook his head again. “Hell's bells. He knows … Fine, fine.” Grumpa pulled the phone from his face and said to Alex, “He says to tell you he loves you.” Alex's face turned red and he rolled his eyes at me. Grumpa spoke into the phone again. “See, now you embarrassed him. Sons should know their fathers love them.”

Just then it seemed Grumpa figured out a cell phone would let him talk
and
walk. He turned and went back to the house, mumbling into the phone.

Alex kneeled on the ground and started scrubbing the wheel.

“Are you kidding me, Alex? Who cares if the tires are clean?”

“I want it to sparkle.”

“We have business. That journal isn't going to crawl out of the box and fly up the stairs. You said you'd take care of it. You said we could read it after my parents left.”

“I didn't say—”

“Yes, you did! You said you'd take care of it.”

“It's really dark down there at night. I didn't want to fall down the stairs and squish it.”