I wished I could tell him it would all be fine, that Alanis was happier here and we were becoming good friends. We wouldn't get into any more trouble, and maybe she would even do better at school. Greataunt Frances certainly enjoyed her company.
Now that Alanis had decided pretending was really fun, she was into it almost as much as Greataunt Frances. She even struggled with chopsticks and refused to use the fork.
Afterward, we both pitched in and cleaned up the dishes, silverware and the kitchen itself even better than we had previously.
"You are two very nice young ladies," Greataunt Frances told us. "You've already brought me more happiness than I had before you came."
"Maybe you can tell my granddad so he doesn't nag me to come home so much."
"Oh. I will," Great-aunt Frances promised.
Alanis gave me one of her satisfied expressions.
"I'm going to watch some television with your aunt," she said. "Don't you want to do your
homework?"
"I can do it all in a study hall tomorrow. Don't worry about it," she told me.
I was nervous about her watching television with Great-aunt Frances. however. Earlier, she had complained about how Great-aunt Frances talked to the television set and made it hard for her to watch television with her. Why did she want to do it again? Why wouldn't she want to come up to read the book. anyway? She saw my concern.
"Stop being a worry wart," she emphasized.
Not wanting to waste any more of my own time. I hurried upstairs and got into my homework again. I didn't want to do another poor job and have Mrs. Morgan scowl at me and give me a poor grade. If I worked hard. I thought, maybe I would have time to read another of Ian's letters before I went to sleep. As long as Alanis remained with Great-aunt Frances watching television. I could return to Grandmother Emma's bedroom and take them out of the closet.
However, the schoolwork took longer than I expected again. and I was so tired that I lowered my chin to my hands, propped up on my elbows. I nearly fell asleep at my desk. I opened my eyes when I heard Alanis enter the bedroom. She stood there smiling at me.
"Guess what?"
"What?" I asked, rubbing my eyes and sitting up. She held up a key.
"What's that?"
"I asked your great-aunt a lot of questions about the house and she gave away where the old keys to things were kept. They were in a bottom drawer in the food pantry."
"So what's that key for?"
"I was right about that locked door. It does open to the stairway that goes up to the attic, and this is the key to that door," she said. adding. "which may lead us to our new clubhouse."
"How do you know that's the key?"
"I tried it and the door unlocked. I came to get you before I went up. C'mon."
I started to shake my head.
"What?" she demanded. She frowned and put her hands on her hips. "You're not going to start on that ghost thing again, are you? Well?"
"No, but--"
"But nothing. I'm going up there to check it out. You coming or not?"
It was just like that telepathy thing Ian had written about in his letter.
I could hear his voice.
"No," he was saying. "Don't open that door."
13 A Real Mystery Story
.
Alanis couldn't understand my reluctance. "C'mon," she pleaded. "Your great-aunt will be
downstairs for a long time yet. Who knows what we'll find? Maybe all that money that's hidden here is hidden up there. Whatever it looks like up there, we might be able to fix it up for ourselves to use instead of the basement. And we won't tell anyone else about it. even Nikki or Raspberry, until we both decide to tell. okay? It will just be our secret place, a place for just you and me."
I didn't move, and she grimaced, her hands on her hips.
"Don't you want to have fun? I'm living here with you to have more fun and I thought you'd like that. Well?" she asked, the ire in her eves reminding me of her mother's eyes.
"Okay," I said, closing my books. But we better not stay up there long. And what if it's dark? And--"
"And, and, and... you sound like some old lady. Darkness, ghosts," she said, laughing at me. "I checked. The switch worked and the lights to on up there. The ghosts will hide. C'mon," she urged and started down the hallway, still laughing to herself.
I thought if anything was funny, it was that we were still wearing the Chinese dresses. As we passed Grandmother Emma's room. I looked longingly through the doorway at the closet. In my mind Ian was standing inside it, calling to me, waiting for me to open the closet door.
She opened the attic door and turned to me. "See? This is the key."
She flipped the light switch. I was surprised at how brightly the light lit the stairway and everything above. The stairway wasn't just an ordinary wooden step stairway for an attic either. It had dark gray carpeting, and the carpeting looked better than the carpeting on the main stairway in the house. There were ten steps to the top with no banister. Alanis glanced at me, excitement lighting her eyes, then started up. I followed slowly, half-listening for Greataunt Frances below, Our stealing the key and sneaking up here would be sure to upset her. I was set to turn around and rush out the moment I heard anything resembling her footsteps on the stairs. Alanis paused at the top.
"Wow," she said. "You're not going to believe this. What you dragging your feet for? Get your booty up here."
She turned and walked into the attic. I hurriedly followed now that she had whetted my curiosity. She was right. It was surprising. The attic was a like a separate apartment within the house. There was a bedroom and an area with a small kitchen and another area with a sofa, table and chair, with a small television set on a table across from the sofa. To the right there was another door. She opened it and turned to me.
"It's a bathroom with a tub." she said. "Just about as big as the closet we're sharing now."
I stepped up beside her and looked in at the sink, tub and toilet. It was all clean, with no rust, but there were no mirrors. The floor was a dull cream linoleum.
The walls of the attic were papered in a light blue, but there were no pictures or shelves. Alanis moved slowly, looking at the furnishings until she reached the queen-size bed, which had a dark cherry headboard. It looked freshly made with a dark blue comforter and fluffy big pillows. It was made even more carefully than the bed in what was supposedly Grandmother Emma's room. She paused, then held up her hand, as if she wanted me to remain still and quiet. Then she turned slowly.
"Come here. Look at this,' she said.
I stepped up beside her and looked.
"What is it?"
"What is it? Don't you know nothing? That's a baby's bassinet.
It's what they call a Baby Moses basket. My granddad still has the one my mother slept in right after she was born. She was born in a house, not a hospital. Maybe that's why my grandma died. If she was in a hospital..."
"Your grandmother died when your mother was born?"
"Never mind," she said, waving her hand as if she'd been talking to herself aloud. "Who lived up here? Whose baby slept in that? Why is all this locked away? Huh?" she asked me as she looked around. Then she paused and looked at me, waiting for an answer, suspicious of my silence.
"I don't know. How would I know?"
"I just thought she might have said something to you about it."
"No, she didn't."
She went to the small television set on a table across from the sofa and turned it on. The screen lit up with a picture, and a smile exploded across her face. "This is better than the basement, way better. It has a kitchen and a bathroom. too. This really is a private apartment!"
She shut off the television set and went over to the sink to turn on the faucet. Dirty brown water came out but started to clear as she ran it. We heard the sound of what seemed like a bang in a pipe, so she turned it off quickly. We were both quiet, listening.
"Don't worry. I doubt she heard anything. S
he plays that television too loud," Alanis said and continued to explore the attic, looking in the dresser drawers. She held up baby clothes. "No question that there was a baby up here once. It's all blue and green and yellow. Bet it was a boy. Why keep it up here?"
"Maybe it was the maid's quarters." I suggested. "And she had a baby."
"How can you be a maid and have a baby in the house? Who would watch it while you worked, and where was the daddy?"
"I don't know. Maybe someone lived up here before my grandparents bought the farm."
That gave her pause.
"Yeah. maybe. I'd ask my granddad. He's been here forever and would surely know, only then he would know we got the key, unlocked the door and snuck up here. I better not say anything to him."
"I don't know why it's important we find out anyway."
"Hmm," she said. "You know what we'll do?" she said. smiling. "We'll pretend this is our own private home. Yeah, that's what we'll do. We'll even bring food up here and have our own parties again."
"But Great-aunt Frances might not like it," I said. "The door was locked and she never told me about it."
"Well, we just gotta be careful so she don't find out. right? Right?" she punched at me.
"Right," I said.
"We'll just use it on weekend nights. We'll come up after she toes to sleep. For now, I don't want to even tell Nikki or Raspberry about this, so don't mention it in school. They can be big gossips."
She continued to search the dresser drawers. When she opened and sifted through the clothing in the bottom one, she paused and took out a piece of small notebook paper. She read what was on it.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Woman's name and telephone number. Toby DeMarco, 555- 4343. I wonder if this was the woman who lived up here."
"Why would she have her own number in a drawer?"
"Maybe she left it after she left the house. Just in case she forgot something or something. I don't know all the answers.
You know what we'll do? We'll just mention her name to your great-aunt and see if she says anything. If she wonders how we know the name, we'll say we heard someone say she lived here once."
Once again, I shook my head at how quickly Alanis could come up with stories and lies. It was as if they were all lying just under the surface, waiting anxiously for a chance to pop up.
She continued to explore the attic. I looked closer at the bassinet. It seemed very new, maybe even never used.
"Maybe this was all fixed up for someone and she never lived in it," I suggested.
"Yeah. That could be. You know what I noticed about this attic?" Alanis said, settling on the small settee.
"What?"
"It's clean. Look at the coffee table." she said and ran her hand over it. "Not much dust. Nothing like some of the furniture in the house."
"Maybe your mother cleaned it."
"My mother? No way. She don't do one thing more than she has to," Alanis said. Then she smiled. "Neither do I."
We heard what sounded like a door open and close below,
"Let's get down," she said, rising quickly. "But remember. This is our new secret."
She hurried ahead. We descended the stairs as quietly as we could. At the bottom, she checked the hallway first, and then we slipped out. She locked the door again.
"I'm going to put this key back. too. Just in case," she said. "I'll go down and spend some more time with her so she don't get suspicious."
"Why should she?"
"I don't know. I wanna watch some more television anyway. If she's asleep. I'll turn on something I like." She patted the door with her palm. "Our place," she said. "What should we call it?"
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"How about Hideaway Hotel? Every time we go there, it will be like checking into a hotel someplace."
"Okay," I said. Why did we have to call it anything or pretend anything? She was getting to be like Great-aunt Frances, pretending and creating her own little world. I thought.
"Damn, girl. Stop scowling. We're gonna have fun whether you like it or not," she said as she turned and headed for the stairway. I watched her go, and then, instead of returning to my room. I returned to Grandmother Emma's and Ian's letters. I really felt I needed to be close to him at this moment, even if he was writing things that made little or no sense to me.
I took out the bag and plucked the next one, slipping it out of the envelope.
.
Dear Jordan,
Today I spoke to Mother using telepathy. I could hear the joy in her voice when she realized it was I. She thought we had deserted her. I explained what I could, but I don't blow -where you are or what you're doing since I have had no letters back from you
and Grandmother Emma attorney won 't tell me -anything. Mother immediately said your not writing back to me it-as probably Grandmother Emma's doing and then I told her about Grandmother Emma being in the hospital. I told her everything-Grandmother Emma's lawyer would tell me.
She felt sorry for you because youwere alone in that big house. She told me to tell you not to worry, that she -would get better someday soon and she would come for you. She asked that you just be patient.
Of course, I told her where I was and what was happening around me. Guess what? She said she already knew, She said Father had come to see her and told her everything
She said he sat there for an hour in his wheelchair and he cried and apologized.-I told her to be careful about believing
anything he says. She was sorry that I -was so skeptical. That means doubting.
She asked me to be patient, too, but I don't think I have much more time. I'll explain why in my next letter.
Ian
.
I wondered when our father had been there with our mother. Why hadn't he ever told me or taken me? Unless he'd gone there after I'd left the house, but then why hadn't he told Mother where I was? I'd have to get Great-aunt Frances to send out my letter as soon as I finished reading all of Ian's. He would know the answers.
I immediately took out the next letter. My fingers fumbled with the paper because I was so nervous, not only because of what I was reading but because of Alanis discovering me.
.
Dear Jordan, It began today.
I am slowly being- drawn into a cocoon, l am not sure yet what sort of an insect is doing this to me, but it's happening ever so gradually.
Whatever it is, it is weaving itself around me from my feet up and doing a good, tight job of it. Today, I was unable to get out of my room. When I stood up, I fell over. I was lying on the floor for some time before I was discovered.
Dr. Walker came immediately. I told him what way happening and he tried to convince me itwasn't true. I listened and listened and smiled and nodded and then he left. They had to bring my food to me.
I can still sit up well enough to write to you.
But don't worry. I will think of some way to get out.
I didn't tell Mother about it. Why worry her any more than she isworried about both of us? If you get to see her, don't say a word about me.
Ian
.
How horrible for him, I thought. Father should help him. I tore open the next envelope. The next letter was very short.
.
Dear Jordan,
It's around my knees.
Ian
.
I heard footsteps an the stairway, stuffed the bag of letters back into the closet, and hurried out just as Alanis turned toward our room. She didn't hear me hurrying behind her, but when she saw I wasn't in the room, she turned. "Hey. Reading those letters again?"
"Yes," I said. I didn't want to lie about it. It might only make her more curious. She wasn't that interested anyway. I was sure she thought it would be boring.
"I have some interesting news for you."
'What?"
"I did just what I said. I mentioned Toby DeMarco and your great-aunt became very disturbed. She wanted to know exactly where I had heard abo
ut her and I said I couldn't remember. I asked her who she was and she shook her head and said she forgot. Isn't that silly? First, she gets agitated at the mention of her name and then she says she doesn't know who I'm talking about. We got to find out ourselves somehow."
"How?"
"I don't know. We'll call." she said and showed me she still had the slip of paper with Toby DeMarcors name and number.
"What will we say?"
"I don't know. Jeez. Give me time to think, will you?"
"Why do we have to know anyway?" "Ain't you curious?"
"No."
"Yes, you are." She stared at me a moment. "You look upset, flushed. What did your brother tell you in his letters? Did he tell you something bad or something sexy?"
"No." I said quickly.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head.
"Your face might as well be made of glass," she said. "You can't hide much." An idea occurred to her. "He didn't mention that attic by any chance?"
"No. He didn't say anything about this house or anyone in it. I swear," I said. "He never knew much about Great-aunt Frances either and he was never here, and he doesn't know I'm here. No one has told him about me, and my letters were never sent to him."
"Maybe." She smiled. "Anyway, we sure got ourselves one sweet hangout, Hideaway Hotel. I feel so good about it all, I think I'll do some homework to make my teachers happy. You finish all yours?"
"I have a little more to do." I said.
"Well, let's get to work," she said. "If we both do poorly, my granddad will have an excuse to make me leave." she added and went for her books.
She sprawled over the bed to read and do problems. and I continued at my small desk. That was the way Great-aunt Frances found the two of us a little while later.
"How wonderful,'" she said. "The two of you working so hard on your schoolwork and helping each other. If Emma had helped me, I might not have had so much trouble graduating."
"Did you?" Alanis asked her.
"Graduate? Yes, but my daddy had something to do with it," she said with a short laugh. "That's all right. No one expected me to go to college anyway."
"What you do after you left high school?"
Early Spring 02 Scattered Leaves Page 22
