Mara Louis; Girl of Mystery

by Timothy Paterson

beds. The next morning, Mara, once again pushed the dream out of her mind. She was having too much fun on the ranch to think about dreams.

  After breakfast, Mara, Karen and Jake heard Mr. and Mrs. King talking quietly in another room. Therefore, as any typical nosey teenagers, they listened in on the conversation. They learned that there was a chance that the King family might lose their ranch.

  The owner of the neighboring ranch; John Norman, was trying to convince the court that he was the rightful owner of the land that the Red Rock Ranch occupied. There was to be a court hearing the following week. At noon, the next day, the other co-owners of the Red Rock Ranch; Franklin and Esther King arrived home. They were Craig King’s parents and had just returned home from a Caribbean cruise.

  When Craig filled his parents in on the details of the lawsuit, Frank became extremely angry.

  “If anything” said Frank, “John Norman is the one who is on shaky ground. My grandfather told me that the Norman family didn’t have clear title to their ranch.”

  When Craig asked his father where the title to the Red Rock Ranch was, Frank just looked at his son with a worried look on his face.

  “I don’t know where the title is” he replied. “My great grandfather, Robert King was in charge of the ranch, back in 1899. He was the only one who took care of the legal papers and the finances. In June of 1899, he disappeared and no one ever saw him again. Some people speculated that he may have abandoned his family and the ranch, to see the world, but my grandfather believed that someone or something kept him from returning home. He suspected foul play.”

  Frank went into a closet and took a large box from the top shelf. From the box, he took several old photos of the King family. He was sitting on the couch looking at the photos and reminiscing, when Jake, Karen and Mara entered the room. They had been out riding and didn’t know that Jake and Karen’s grandparents had returned. After Jake and Karen hugged their grandfather, they introduced him to Mara. Frank invited the children to join him on the couch, so he could show Karen and Jake photos of their ancestors.

  As they looked at the photos, Frank told Mara the history of the ranch. “This ranch has been in our family for nine or ten generations, beginning with Thomas King, who purchased the land from the Mexican government back in 1810. Later, when Texas declared its independence from Mexico, the land was granted to Thomas by the President of Texas; Sam Houston, for Thomas’s loyalty to Texas, and for fighting for Texas’ independence. When Texas became part of the United States, The President of the United States deeded the land to Thomas King and his heirs.”

  The story as well as the old photos fascinated Mara. She suddenly felt a chill run down her back, when she saw a photo of the man from her dreams. “Who is that man?” Mara asked Mr. King.

  “That was my great grandfather, Robert King,” said Frank. “I never met him because he disappeared in 1899, long before I was born.” Then, Frank repeated the story that he had just told his son. Soon afterwards, Craig entered the room and told his children about the lawsuit.

  When Frank and his son had finished telling the children everything, they knew about the ranch and the court case. Mara told Karen and Jake that she needed to talk to them in private, immediately.

  When they were far away from the house, Mara told Karen and Jake that she often had psychic visions, which had helped her to solve mysteries within the past few years.

  “I thought your name sounded familiar!” said Karen. “I remember reading about the haunted house in California and the White House treasures that you found.”

  “Well, when I got here” said Mara, “I had a dream in which a man was trying to show me where a special book was hidden.”

  “So?” said Jake. “It was just a dream.”

  “I had that dream again last night,” said Mara. “The man in my dreams was Robert King, your great, great, great grandfather. I think that he wants me to find the book, because he knows that it can help save this ranch.”

  Jake, Karen and Mara talked it over and decided to start searching for the book, but secretly, to surprise the adults. For the rest of the week, after their chores were finished, the three teens began systematically searching the ranch, starting with the ranch house itself.

  By Sunday afternoon, they had found nothing. Karen’s parents asked Mara if she would like to go to a barn dance with their family. Mara told them that she would love to go. Mara, Jake and Karen decided to take a break from their search, and began getting ready for the dance. Karen let Mara wear one of her dresses, since Mara had not packed one of her own.

  Mara was very excited, because she had never been to a barn dance before. Mara and the King family arrived at the dance at five o’clock p.m. The dance hall was colorfully decorated and every family had brought a casserole or salad to pass around. There was also plenty of barbecue beef, beans and bread for everyone, plus iced tea and lemonade.

  When the music started, Jake asked Mara to dance and a boy named Kirk asked Karen to dance. Karen had not seen Kirk around town before. When she asked him if he was new to the area, Kirk explained that his mother had recently married a man named John Norman, and they had allowed him to stay with relatives in Philadelphia, until the school year was over. Kirk also told Karen that he did not care for his stepfather very much.

  Karen found out why Kirk disliked his stepfather later that evening. After their second dance, Mr. Norman saw Kirk and Karen dancing, and pulled Kirk by the arm and told him to stay away from the King family. When Kirk tried to protest, Mr. Norman smacked him across the face with the back of his hand.

  When Kirk’s mother asked Kirk what happened to his eye, John quickly answered for Kirk and said that he ran into a door. Kirk was about to tell his mother what really happened, but when he saw the mean look his stepfather was giving him, he reluctantly agreed that he had walked into a door.

  It was late when the King family and Mara returned to the ranch. Mara could not fall asleep right away, because she was thinking about the evening. She had danced almost every dance with Jake, who she thought was very cute and a good dancer.

  When Mara did finally fall asleep, she once again dreamed about Robert King. This time, Mara asked Mr. King some questions about the book and where it was hidden. She saw that the book was hidden behind a loose board in an old building. At first, she saw images of bunk beds, and then she saw images of old tools, saddles and harnesses.

  Then, the scene changed, and Mara was standing near a cave that was in the side of a small mountain. Tumbleweeds and cacti surrounded the cave. The scene changed again. This time, she was somewhere near the cave, and Mr. Norman was pointing a gun at his stepson Kirk.

  The next morning, Mara told Jake and Karen about her latest dream. After breakfast, the three of them continued the search of all of the buildings on the ranch. By late afternoon, they had come up empty handed. They decided to take a break and went into an old harness room in the stable. Mara thought it looked familiar. She thought she had seen it in her dreams. “Did this building ever have a lot of beds in it?” she asked Jake and Karen. Jake told her that many years earlier, it had been a bunkhouse for the hired hands.

  “This is the room from my dream,” said Mara. The book is hidden behind a loose board, somewhere in this room.” The three of them started searching for a loose board. After twenty minutes, Mara went to one corner of the room and began moving some old crates away from the wall and then she started checking for a loose board. When she felt a board begin to move, she yelled; “I think I’ve found something”.

  As Jake and Karen crowded around her, Mara pulled the board to one side, reached behind it, and pulled out a small black book. Mara opened it and realized that it was Robert King’s journal.

  Mara told Karen that she was worried about Kirk, after what she had dreamed about him and suggested that they ride over to the Wagon Wheel
Ranch and make sure that Kirk was okay. Karen and Jake agreed. Mara put the journal in her purse and the three of them saddled up horses and headed for the ranch next door.

  When they arrived at the Norman’s ranch house, Kirk’s mother answered the door. Mara asked her if she could talk to Kirk. Mrs. Norman told them that Kirk went with her husband that morning to check on their livestock. She said that she expected them home any time.

  As they were about to leave, Mr. Norman drove up in his truck and asked the teens what they were doing on his property. Lynn Norman asked her husband where Kirk was, he replied, “Kirk and I got into an argument and he told me that he hated the ranch, and then he ran off. I figured that he would be here before me.” Mrs. Norman was worried. “Don’t worry” said John, “he will come home when he gets hungry.”

  Then, John turned to the teens and told them, “Go back to your own ranch, while it still belongs to you. After tomorrow, I will have your whole family thrown off of my land.”

  That evening, when Mara, Karen and Jake returned to the ranch, they went straight to Karen’s room. Mara took the journal out of her purse and began to read the journal aloud. She was hoping to find some clue that could help the King family save the ranch. Also, in the back of her mind,