Chapter?
When Kate woke up that morning she knew something was wrong. She slipped in to her slippers, pulled on her robe and ran out her bedroom door. When she got down stairs every one was up and everything seemed normal, Mom was cooking breakfast, Dad was reading the news paper, and Charlie and Susie were watching Saturday morning cartoons, so far nothing was wrong.
Charles Macson (Kate’s father) had dark brown curly hair and brown eyes, his wife, Mary, was the complete opposite her hair was strait golden blond and she had green eyes, the three year old twins, Charlie and Susie, both had strait blond hair and brown eyes, as for Kate herself she was fourteen and had curly dark brown hair and bright green eyes.
She took her seat at the table just as Mom came out with a plate of steaming pancakes. Charlie and Susie climbed up to the table, Dad put away the news paper, gave thanks and began to pass the food.
“What do you mean something feels wrong?” Asked Teana and Jena, Kate’s close friends. Teana Holmen was an eleven year old blond with BIG green eyes and high cheak bones, while Jenifer Clider, or Jena as she liked to be called, was thirteen and had long wavy light brawn hair with natural blond highlights and sparkling blue eyes.
The tree of them were walking to the library on that cold April morning. They were just passing the Santa’s Sleigh toy shop on the corner of 7th and Cranberry, when Kate happened to glance in the window. “That’s what’s wrong!” she exclaimed. Sitting in the shop front window was a set of three twelve inch dolls, the weird thing was that they look just like the girls, one had blond hair and big green eyes, the next had brawn hair with blond high lights and blue eyes, and the third had curly brown hair and green eyes, but the weirdest thing of all was that they were holding a sign that read “Help Us!”
“Maybe it means the shop is closing dawn and they need someone to buy the toys” suggested Teana. Kate and Jena listened but steered at the window. “Hello, you listening? Come on let’s ask.”
Teana pushed the shop door open and the three girls entered. The shop owner looked up from behind the counter as the girls entered. Mr. Inkins (for that was his name) had a red hair and a strong Irish ascent and was in his mid fifty’s, or “In me prime” as he called it. “How are you today ladies?”
“Fine thanks. We were wondering if your shop was closing” remarked Jena, which gave the shop owner a rather startled look making him ask them what gave them such a startling quenchin.
“The sign that the dolls are holding,” replied Kate. “The ones in the window, the dolls that look like us.”
“I don’t have dolls in da window, the only dolls I have are on dat shelf,” he indicated a small shelf in the far corner “but I have to say you are rite dat they do look somewhat like you. I have stuffed animals in the window, but there not holding any signs. What did da sign say?”
“Help Us” reapplied Teana.
“Let us go take a look” The shop owner called in his assistant from the back room while he and the girls took a look at the window. But when they reached the window the dolls were gone.
“I don’t understand” exclaimed Jena almost in a whisper.
“They were here I know they were! They can’t just walk away!” cried Kate.
“Now dat you mention it da last time I put dolls in da window they disapered also.”
“When was that?” Teana asked.
“Da middle of March. I haven’t put any in sense then though, so I don’t know how dey could have got in there in da first place, unless Rupert, my assistant, put dem in, but I usually do the window myself.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, how long has Rupert been working for you?” asked Teana, the questioner of the group.
“Oh, no, I don’t mind. He’s been with me four years now I serinly don’t dink he would do dis.” Reapplied Mr. Inkins.
“If you don’t mind, we like to salve mysteries, and would be happy to try finding the dolls for you. We’re homeschooled so we’ll have the time.” Jena offered.
“Well I would shear like the help.” He reapplied.
“Grate we’ll stare to marrow if that’s convenient for you,” Kate offered.
“Dat’s fine with me. See you here at one o’clock. Sound good?”
“Perfect!” the girls reapplied in unison.
* * * * *
“Find anything?” Teana asked.
“No.” reapplied Kate with a grown.
The girls were in the town’s library looking up dolls on the book search.
“Here’s one,” whispered Jena “The big book of dolls, isle one number 413.11”.
Kate found the book first, flipped to the index, ran her finger dawn the page tell she came to “Toy stores” , finding the rite page she again ran her finger dawn it tell she came to the spot where it was riten “companies that sell to toy stores, the fallowing ten only sell to toy stores though catalog”
“Perfect, now we just need to find the catalogs.”
“Oh but forgot to check the brand in the toy shop, sorry Kate.” Jena gowned.
“That’s ok I’ll just run back and check while you and Teana search for the catalogs”
As she left she heard Teana writing dawn the names of catalogs as Jena read them.
* * * * *
“Welcome back Miss. Macson, I wasn’t expecting to see you again today”
“Hello Mr. Inkins, I came back to ask what brand of dolls you have here.”
“Ah, started on dat mystery already have ya.”
“You know Jena, as soon as she heard you say yes she just about flue to the library”.
“Well now let me dink the company I buy from is actually da store right across da street, umm Eleanor Ann I believe it’s called.”
“Do you order bye catalog?”
“Yes, only the doll clothes though, the dolls themselves come straight from the store”
“So Eleanor Ann correct?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, thank you.”
“No, no, dank you.”
* * * * *
“Did you get it?” Teana asked as Kate rea-enterd the library.
“Yes, Eleanor Ann, but only the clothes come from the catalog.”
“Well then I guess we can stop looking for the catalog,”
“Ya. Hay were is Jena?”
“She ran back to the store to investigate something she thought of. But she’s been gone a while.” Teana reapplied just as Jena walked in the door “On the other had there she is.”
Jena walked (very fastly) strait past Kate and Teana to the book search. After a couple secants she got up and went to the town record section.
“What are you doing?” whispered Teana
“I’m looking up the amount of feet in Santa’s Sleigh and Taste That Tea.”
“Why?”
“You’ll figure it out. Here write this down, ‘S.W. 70 feet, T.T.T. 30 feet, S.S. 30 feet’ hay I was right, maybe, I hope.”
“What are you talking about Jena? What are all theas letters and numbers sapost to mean?” Kate questend.
“It means there is an extra ten feet missing between Santa’s Sleigh and Taste That Tea. Just as I thought.” Jena reapplied. “Here I’ll translate it… ‘S.W.’ stands for Side Walk, the side walk in front of Taste That Tea and Santa’s Sleigh is seventy feet long. But Taste That Tea and Santa’s Sleigh are each only thirty feet long.”
“But that’s only sixdy feet,” Kate remarked. “I would say that is fine because of the ally, except that there is no ally, the stores are rite smack-dab agents each other.”
“Exactly, so that means there is an extra ten feet missing between the two shops. Now I know that’s not the biggest space, but it’s big enough for a crawl space, right?”
“Right.” Teana agreed. “Kate, you listening?”
“Oh, sorry. Your right, but that dose not exsplan were the dolls went, because I don’t think anyone stole them.”
“I don’t think anyone stole them ether. But your right it does not explain were they are.”
“Well we can figure that out tomorrow right now I have to get home. Do you realize what time it is?” Teana asked.
“Yikes, I got to get home. Come on we can talk as we walk.” Exclaimed Kate.
“You mean run!” Jena corrected, as she pushed the door open.
And all the girls laughed as ran home.
* * * * *
“Hi Mrs. Clider, is Jena up yet?”
“Well, hello Teana, Kathryn. I’m not shear if she’s up or not I was just about to call her, but why don’t you girls sneak up and surprise her.”
“Ok, thanks Mrs. Clider.”
* * * * *
“Hay sleepy head wake up!”
“Oh, do I have to? Five more minutes.” grownd Jena, pulling the covers over her head.
“Well I guess you could sleep in, but… you would miss all excitement of the mystery at Santa’s Sleigh.” Replied Kate a little sarcastically. That made Jen jump out of bed as if the house was on fire.
“Give me five minutes,”
“That’s what you insisted when we tried to wake you up.”
“… To change!” Jena called from the bathroom.
* * * * *
Ding-a-ring went the bell over the door as the girls entered the toy shop. “Good morning ladies, what can I do for you today?”
“Good morning Rupert.” The girl’s choresd. “Is Mr. Inkins here?”
“I am afraid he will not be in for another twenty minutes or so Miss. Teana.”
“Ok that’s fine, we have to run another errand any way. We’ll be back. Kate, Jena where did you go?”
“We’re over here Teana, by the dolls.” Kate called. “We’re ready to go though.”
“Good, let’s go.”
* * * * *
“Mmm… smell all that tea!” Jena exclaimed.
“Smells good. Oh, there’s the owner let’s go ask.”
“Anything I can do for you today girls?”
“Yes there is. We were wondering if you happened to know of a crawlspace sort-of thing on the right wall over there, maybe next to the window display.” Asked Teana.
“Well I have never found one, but you are welcome to check if you like.”
“Ok, thanks.”
“Let’s start next to the window,” suggested Kate.
“Just run your fingers over the wall there might be a spring or something.” Reminded Jena.
The girls had searched for about 15 minutes when Jena screeched. “Wow, hay guys I think I found it.” Shear enough there was a small opening into the wall. Kate handed Jena the flashlight. And as she peard into the space she could here Teana asking if she found anything.
“No, but there is a lot of space in here so come on in.”
The first thing the girl’s eyes beheld was a small room with another small door on the far side. The next thing they notest was a small heap in the middle of the floor, and Jena slowly creeping up to it.
“What are you doing?” Teana and Kate cried.
“Well we have to see what it is somehow, right?”
“Well, yah. But at least shine the light on it first.” She did, she shined it right on the faces of the three dolls they had seen in the window. Next to them lay another four dolls and the sign that read “Help Us”.
“Well how do you think they got down here?”
“Hay Jena hold the light down.” She did but there was still a faint light coming from above.
“Teana, Jena, stay here I’m going to run over to Mr. Inkins’s, when you hear me, tap the spot the light is coming from.”
After about three minutes they herd Kate calling from above. They taped for about a minute then herd Kate call again. “Ok I think I found it, get away from that spot.”
Jena and Teana scooted away just as a small trap door fell open.
* * * * *
“Well I can’t tell you how dankful I am for finding da dolls, but tell me again how dey got down dere.”
“Well once we found that there was ten feet missing between the shops we figured there had to be a small opening some were, next to the window display area was our first guess so we started there,” Kate began.
“Then we found the secret door, the dolls and the sign on the floor,” Teana continued.
“It was easy to figure out the rest. The dolls had been set up in the same spot each time, then they had diapered.” Went on Jena “You had set something on the button that released the trapdoor each time. But the door was old so it took a little while to open all the way.”
“Then the dolls fell though. On the first occasion you had a sign in the window that read “Help Us, to Help though’s in need.” the sign was the last thing to go through the trapdoor so the trapdoor closed when only half the sign was through, ripping it.”
“As I understand Rupert is the one to clean out the window when he found the sign he kept it incase at some point he found the other half. Also noting that the day we happened to glace at the window was April first, or April fool’s day he thought it a good joke to put the sign in the window along with the dolls, and it was.”
The girls had been taking turns talking all this time and now Mr. Inkins turned to Rupert.
“Is dis true Rupert?”
“Yes sir. You know for the past years you have made me the April fool so I have been thinking up a way to get you, and it shear worked.”
“It shear did. Good job, and danks for helping with va mystery, I know da girls liked it.”
“We shear did!” they cried and every one laughed.
The End
Well Tell ma what you think.
P.S. Sorry if there are speling or puchuashin arers:)
Alaska Time
3 comments:
It was a very cute story!! IT flowed very well.
Hey thats pretty good. I think your better than me when I was your age. Keep it up, after all the best training for writing is writing.
I like it, Jacynne. I think there are a couple of minor things you could do to make the climax better. And you need to polish the grammar and such. Let me know if you want me to help you with that.
The story itself is very fun--I was really interested in the mystery! I like the characters, and the timeline.
Post a Comment