Chapter 5
The long drive up to the lodge seemed to be shorter this time as Missy and her mom chatted nonstop. They would both miss the other a lot and they were doing all of their summer talks at once. Missy poured her heart out about the school year that had just ended and her mother gave her the appropriate sympathies. Missy hadn’t shared the knowledge of the contents of her father’s treasure box with her mom yet so while her mom’s eyes were fixed on the highway she opened it. She read the newspaper clipping aloud and her mom glanced over at the photo of Mary. Her husband had never told her anything about the lodge so she wasn’t surprised that he’d never spoken of this friend. She laughed when she saw the other items and told Missy that when they were dating they used to play Monopoly and he had always insisted on being the hat. They both were silent for a while as each wished that she could talk with him now.
Missy put everything back into the box and closed it up just as they exited the highway. The scenery was certainly different from that snowy day in March. When they saw the Starkville sign they knew they weren’t far. There was a new sign at the last turn announcing Big Pine Lodge, open May to September, turn here. The road seemed even narrower than it did before since all the ferns along the side leaned into the lane as if they wanted to touch every visitor’s car. Mrs. Stark was nervous again about meeting up with another car but Missy was in awe of the surrounding forest. The pine trees that had been so prominent in March were less visible now that the Maple and Oak trees had completely leafed out. As they passed the fort it was half obscured by the two-foot high ferns. Missy rolled down her window and breathed in the warm mid-June air. There was a distinct aroma to the woods that was very appealing and the songs of the birds were amazing. One in particular sounded so haunting that she thought it was warning her off. Just then her mother stepped hard on the brakes. Three deer darted across the lane and disappeared instantly in the thick woods.
“Wow. That was close. And I was worried about hitting another car,” her mom said.
They drove up to the front of the lodge and parked. Kevin was on a porch swing waiting and immediately jumped up and waved. He scampered down the steps and greeted them with a grin, “Hi! Come on. I’ll take you to your great-grandfather. He hasn’t been feeling well. I’ll show you your room. You’re going to love it here. Wait ‘til you see what we made.” He had so much to say he rattled it out faster than they could hear it all.
“Hi, Kevin. What’s wrong with Mr. Stark?” Missy’s mom asked
“Hi, Kevin. What’d you make?” Missy asked at the same time.
Kevin slowed down and answered Mrs. Stark first. “He’s been having some trouble breathing but the doctor said not to worry, it was the stress of opening for another season. He’s in the dining room now.” He looked at Missy and said, “You won’t believe it. Mr. Stark helped me make an elevator for the tree house. And it’s invisible so you have to know the secret to work it.”
“Sounds cool,” Missy smiled.
Kevin helped them with their bags and led them first to Missy’s room. It was in the servants’ wing on the first floor. “You’re sharing with Angela,” Kevin said, pushing the door open. “She left it unlocked for you. She’s finishing up in the kitchen now.” They set the bags on the second twin bed and said, “You’ll like Angela. She just finished her freshman year at college and she’s the nicest one of the five maids. But you’ll like them all. There’s Danielle, Lindsay, Courtney, and Alicia. They wait tables, clean rooms, and make beds. They rotate chores. There’s a schedule right there.” He pointed to a paper on the nightstand. “They all have the afternoons off until 5 o’clock when they help with the buffet. So you’ll be able to meet them in a little while.”
Missy picked up the schedule. Her name was on it, too, but her duties ended before noon. It didn’t look too hard and she felt good about earning her keep: free meals and room and freedom for the summer. It occurred to her at that moment that she was going to be as independent as one of these college girls.
Her mother must have been reading her mind. “You still have a bedtime, Missy. I’ve already talked to Mrs. Jackson, Kevin’s mom, on the phone and you are to check in with her throughout the day. Okay?” Without waiting for an answer Mrs. Stark looked at Kevin and asked when they could meet his mother. Kevin jumped off the end of the wooden footboard of the twin bed he had been perched on and motioned for them to follow him.
“She’s probably going over receipts with your great-grandfather. They’re in the dining room.” They followed him down the hallway and through the lovely reception area/ living room. Mrs. Stark hadn’t seen it before and slowed her pace down to take in the detail of the quaint lodge. They entered the dining room where there were still a few people finishing up lunch. At the table nearest the kitchen sat Mrs. Jackson and John Stark. Mrs. Jackson was a nice-looking lady with medium length brown hair. She was wearing khaki pants, a red shirt with the name of the lodge on the front, and a belt that held a beeper, a phone, and a huge ring of keys. She had the same smile as Kevin and stood up to greet them. After the introductions were completed they all sat around the table and chatted for a while. Missy thought that her great-grandfather looked paler but he acted the same as before. His beard was trimmed up quite a bit, though. He seemed as excited as Kevin to show her the tree fort elevator so the three of them left the two mothers and went outside.
“You’re not going to believe this,” said Kevin. He and Missy had run ahead of Mr. Stark and were at the base of the tree. Missy walked around and around the tree. She could see the platform high above and the steps on the one side. The steps had rope coming down along each side, but where was the elevator?
“All right,” she said, “I give up. What’s the joke?”
Mr. Stark joined them and was coughing a little bit but smiling. “Show her, Kevin.”
Kevin pointed to the bark at the bottom of the tree. “Look really close.” Missy knelt down in the thin grass and got close to the ground. Now she could see that the bark appeared fake. She reached her left hand out and felt up and down the bark of the tree. She could feel a difference.
“Stumped?” Kevin asked.
“Ha!” Mr. Stark laughed. “Kevin you made a joke!”
“Yeah, I’m “stumped”. What’s the trick? I can feel a difference, though,” Missy said.
Mr. Stark steadied himself on the tree trunk while Kevin pressed two spots on the left of where Missy’s hand had been and two spots on the right. Suddenly a one foot by two foot section of false bark popped free of the tree and the ropes along the steps swung out. Kevin stepped onto the tiny platform and held the ropes. The elevator started to ascend.
Missy, open-mouthed, stared upward, “This is so cool!”
Kevin reached the top and called down, “Your great-grandfather knows everything about pulleys and weights and levers and mechanisms. This project only took us two weeks this spring.” He was on his way back down now and Missy was eager to try it out.
“You better sit on it like a swing the first time, legs out away from the tree.”
Missy rode it several times sitting down and then dared to go up standing, facing the tree. That way she could step out onto the fort above and check it out, too. She felt just a little dizzy but swallowed hard and took a deep breath. The view from the fort wasn’t what she expected. There were so many leaves that she couldn’t see much, but then no one could see her either. She realized that it was really pretty nice of Kevin to share this place with her. Maybe he didn’t have any more friends than she did. She heard them laughing below and then the sound of her great-grandfather coughing. The coughing seemed to get fainter and fainter as if he were heading back to the lodge. Suddenly Kevin appeared. He had climbed up the steps.
“Oh, you startled me,” Missy said.
“Sorry, but you didn’t send the elevator back. I’m thinking we should get rid of the steps so no one can sneak up. What do you think?”
Missy was pleased that he was asking
for her opinion. They sat up there and talked about forts and spying, her duties, his snack shop job, school, parents, and just about anything that came to mind. Missy learned a lot more about her great-grandfather and the lodge. The Stark land, woods, lodge, lake and all, covered two square miles. She started to ask about swimming and boating in the lake when Kevin got a funny look on his face and said, “Oh, oh, I’ve got to open the Snack Shack!” He helped her into the elevator then took the steps. He showed her how to press the bark platform back into its hiding place then waved as he hurried around the lodge to the beach.
Missy smiled to herself and then looked all around at the beautiful surroundings. When she looked up at the lodge she saw a face in one of the windows looking down at her. He was maybe a high school boy, fifteen, sixteen. His hair was longish and he didn’t look pleasant. He was squinting at her from the third floor and she felt very uncomfortable. Had he seen the elevator?
You have finished the first 5 chapters of THE SECRET IN THE HIDDEN CAVE. This book is available in paperback and online in digital e-book format. It is the first in BIG PINE LODGE series and is followed by MYSTERY’S GRAVE and BULLIES AND BEARS.
Next up is a sampling of the first 5 chapters from BULLIES AND BEARS.
BULLIES AND BEARS
Adventures in Reading Page 10
