The Gum Tree Gang
and
The Mystery at the Old Queenslander
Author: E Marie Seltenrych
10.18.10
Copyright 2010 E Marie Seltenrych
Published at Smashwords, 2010
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~~~~Chapter One~~~~
Camp Plans
The morning sun was bright in Krystal’s eyes. She squinted into the distance, brushing a strand of golden hair from her face and pushing it under her brimmed school hat. She held her hat in place, mainly to keep all her hair off her face.
She could see a small person waiting at the corner of the street. She knew it was Tracey, her best friend. As Krystal came closer, she waved to her. Krystal took her hand off her hat and waved in return. Krystal admired her neat little friend. Tracey looked really good in her royal blue-chequered uniform with a oyal blue jacket and blue brimmed hat. Tracey’s shiny, short dark hair was tucked under her hat.
“Hi.” Tracey smiled as Krystal approached.
Krystal’s face was pink from her brisk walk. Her bright blue eyes sparkled and her face broke into a large grin.
“Hi,” Krystal replied, slowing down her fast walking pace. Tracey joined Krystal, and the two walked quietly together for a few moments.
“Got any ideas for the camp?” Tracey turned her head to ask her friend.
“Sure have!” Krystal replied, grinning from ear to ear. “...about four pages!”
“Wow!” Tracey stopped in her tracks.Krystal's eyes twinkled. “What about you?”
“I’ve written down a few, definitely not four pages! Mrs. Goldsworthy will be happy,” Tracey commented as the girls continued walking and talking.
“I just hope she likes my ideas. Gosh, I can’t wait to go to Mount Tamborine. I’ll never forget last year! Do you remember...?”
Krystal’s excited voice was stopped by a strange ‘whee’ noise coming close to the girls.
Krystal and Tracey jumped in fright.
Tracey stopped again, her hand over her heart. “I nearly had a heart attack. It’s that brother of mine. Matthew, I’ll tell Dad,” Tracey yelled at the two disappearing bikes and their riders.
“You too, Kevin,” Krystal shouted at her younger brother.
The two girls watched as the boys disappeared into the distance, their stack hats glinting in the sun.
“Brothers...,” Tracey sighed heavily.
“Yeah, they have so much fun.” Krystal’s voice had a wistful tone. “Oh, I wish the camp would hurry up. I just can’t wait, Tracey. Only two more months to go, then it’s Mount Tamborine and fun, fun, fun!”
~~~~Chapter Two ~~~~
Dark Clouds
It seemed like minutes before the two girls were leaving the school grounds and waving goodbye to their friends.
Krystal held the brim of her hat as they walked along. Her face was flushed from the day's activities, and several strands of golden hair had fallen out of place. She glanced at her friend. “I don’t think Mrs. Goldsworthy liked some of my ideas!” Krystal voice was sad.
“About the camp?” questioned Tracey.
“Yeah, she had a ‘no way’ look on her face when she read my sheets.” Krystal kicked a stone.
“I’m not surprised. I nearly died when she read yours out: sausage throwing, rotten egg- rolling, tree climbing in pillowcases....” Tracey was grinning widely.
“Well, it's fun to do something different sometimes.” Krystal could not help smiling, directing her gaze to a nice tall mango tree. “I love climbing.” She stared at the top of the mango tree. “I think I'll be a mountain climber when I grow up!”
A drop of rain landed on her nose. “Hey, looks like a storm's coming. I just felt a drip.” Another drop landed on her hat. “Let’s run home,” said Krystal, pushing the straps of her bag higher on her shoulders and taking off in a fast run. After a few moments she looked back. Tracey was quite a way behind. “C’me on, slow coach, she called out. The rain became heavier as Krystal placed her bag near her feet and stood next to the tree for a few moments, watching the black cloud move slowly over them, and the rain getting heavier. “Yuk, I’m getting wet,” Krystal moaned, as a large drop of water landed on her nose. She moved right up against the tree trunk. A few more drops landed on her. “My hat’ll get wrecked. I’m going up on the verandah; it’s dry there.” She picked up her school bag and ran up the rickety wooden front steps, leaping two at a time. In a few moments she was in a dry patch near the front door of the old building.
“This is good Trace. C’me on. It’s really dry,” she yelled at Tracey, who was still standing under the ‘ghost’ gum tree.
“Okay.” Tracey brushed a large droplet off her jacket. She picked up her school bag in one hand, and holding her hat with the other hand, dashed to the steps. She paused for a moment and then carefully walked up the wet steps.
“You must have the whole library in here,” Krystal murmured as she took Tracey's bag and placed it in a dry spot.
Tracey stood next to Krystal, slightly out of breath. Each girl took one side of the double door to lean against.
“It might stop soon,” said Tracey wistfully, looking at the black clouds overhead.
“Maybe.” Krystal pressed against her side of the door. Suddenly she almost fell backwards
as the door moved
.
~~~~Chapter Three~~~~
A Ghostly Idea
“It’s unlocked.” Krystal pushed the door a bit further. It creaked as it moved. She peered inside the opening, then stepped cautiously inside the building. “It’s nice and dry in here.” Krystal crept through the hallway of the house.
Tracey sniffed as she stood in the doorway, peering in. “Looks dark and spooky, and it smells.”
“It’s okay. May as well look around while we’re waiting for the rain to stop,” said Krystal, venturing further into the entrance of the house.
This was exciting! The children had always been a bit frightened to visit this house since the owner mysteriously disappeared and the place was left abandoned. Now that they were actually inside, Krystal did not want to waste the opportunity of checking the place out.
The light from the opened front door showed that there were several doorways off the hallway. There was an opening to the right and a closed door on her left.
“Right or left?” Krystal chose the closed door. “Left,” she said aloud, answering herself and turning the knob of the door. To her surprise, it opened!
Krystal stared into the room, her eyes adjusting to the poor lighting. The windows were boarded up, with only a small crack of light filtering in. The room had timbered walls on the lower half There was a timber ledge about as high as Krystal's forehead going right around the room. The wall above the ledge was painted a dull grey.
The ceiling had some fancy work around the ledges that made it look even higher than it was. Krystal reckoned the ceiling to be about three metres high. There was a hole in the middle of the ceiling where some sort of light used to hang.
On the far side there was an enormous brick fireplace, with the bricks going right up to the ceiling. The firep
lace was as wide as Krystal's extended arms. Krystal could just imagine some beautiful lady in a long dress, checking the ledges for dust and then sitting down in front of a nice log fire.
“Trace, it’s really cool. Come and have a look. Bring my bag in please. I don’t want it to get saturated on the verandah.” Krystal turned her head towards the front door. She felt a thrill as she walked carefully around the room, checking the creaking floorboards.
In a few minutes Tracey’s shy figure stood in the doorway, with the two bags near her feet. “We might get into trouble for coming in here,” she whispered.
“We’re just lookin’. Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
Krystal’s tone was firm. Krystal moved around the room. “Isn’t this magic? Hey, why don’t we pretend to be spooks. We could get some
old sheets and frighten anyone who comes in here.” She waltzed around the room as she spoke.
“But nobody comes here.” Tracey felt a shiver run down her spine.
“Well, we could peep out the windows at bad kids passing by and make spooky noises. Hey, that would give them a fright,” Krystal giggled.
“Maybe we could scare Matthew and Kevin. They frightened us this morning.” Tracey began to feel slightly excited about the idea.
“That’d be cool. I think we should check the rest of the place out.” Krystal headed through the door into the hallway and into the open doorway on the right of the entrance. She ‘floated’ around the room. “Woo,” Krystal called out. Her voice echoed.
“It sounds eerie,” Tracey quivered.
This room also had a wooden lower wall with a ledge and a painted section above the ledge. The paint was peeling in many places. The ceiling was high and there was, again, a
hole in the middle of the ceiling where a light was missing. The windows were broken and boarded up, except for one small glass-louvered window at the left side of the room. The glass was so dusty the light hardly broke through. At the back of the room there was a deep ledge, and on top of the ledge one remaining ‘cupboard’ that looked like part of the wall. It was painted a drab grey colour like the rest of the wall.
“This would make a great hiding place for us spooks.” Krystal gazed at the high cupboard. “I wonder if we can open it? She leaped up on the ledge and reached for the handle of the door on one side. “Waw,” she uttered as the door swung open in her hand and she almost lost her balance on the ledge. She pulled the door right open on its hinges. It creaked a little.
“This is terrific. It’s really big inside.” Krystal peeped into the cupboard. “Wish we had a torch though, it’s pretty dark.” She began to crawl around the opened door and went right inside, checking everything with her hands. “Ouch! Watch out for splinters.
They forgot to paint in here.” She sucked her finger to try and remove a small piece of wood.
“Maybe we could bring old sheets and leave them here. Look, I can stand up. It’s great, ’cept for the splinters!”
“Krystal, someone’s coming,” said Tracey, with panic in her voice.
~~~Chapter four~~~~
Boy talk
“Don’t be silly, nobody lives....” Krystal stopped speaking and listened. Yes, she could hear voices getting closer; someone was coming!
Tracey grabbed both bags, dragging them to the cupboard.
“You're right! Quick, come in here.” Krystal held her hand out to take the bags.
Tracey scrambled up. She just had her knee on the edge of the cupboard when the footsteps could be heard on the verandah. She gasped and stiffened.
“Hurry,” Krystal urged, yanking Tracey inside the cupboard. She quickly stretched to reach the open door and had almost drawn it shut when footsteps could be heard inside the entrance of the house. Krystal gently released her fingertips from the centre of the doors, and both girls kept very still in the darkness.
They could hear each other breathing. Tracey thought she could hear her own heartbeat. She felt almost faint. She hugged her knees as she crouched on the floor of the cupboard. Krystal stood as still as a statue. She noticed a small crack in the woodwork of the door, and placed her eye near the crack, remembering not to lean on the door in case it opened. Her eye took a few moments to focus. She could just make out two boyish looking figures disappearing into the room with the fireplace. The footsteps became louder and were coming towards the room they were hiding in! Krystal could feel herself tense up. She could hear Tracey gasp.
“Pray,” Krystal whispered to her frightened friend. She was determined not be scared by a few humans. Two figures stomped into the room. They sure don't try to be quiet, Krystal thought. She watched, then almost gasped out loud. They were Nathan and Davo from their school. For a moment she almost opened the door of the cupboard and yelled out ‘boo’, but decided to wait and see what they were up to.
The boys were reading something. They plonked down on the floor and waited for a few minutes. They seemed distracted by noises outside the building. Krystal realized someone else was coming! Before she could blink, two young men came into the room. One was tall and thin, the other a bit shorter and had a stocky build. She did not recognise them. There was silence for a moment.
“Up!” The thin young man directed his instruction to Nathan and Davo, who quickly rose to their feet.
“Yes, Sir Chevy,” Krystal could hear them say as they made a sort of salute to ‘Chevy’. They stayed standing while he spoke.
Krystal strained her ears, but all she could catch were a few words here and there. After a few minutes, ‘Chevy’ dismissed the group with a salute. Nathan and Davo were heading for the door when he yelled out, "Get back here Toy and Maz. Show your respect to Merc and me, now!"
Well, at least they heard that part of the conversation, Krystal thought. She watched as Nathan and Davo returned to the centre of the room and saluted Merc and Chevy. The two younger boys were then allowed to go. Merc and Chevy headed for the room with the fireplace and they could only hear muffled noises. After a few minutes the front door creaked as they left.
“Are they gone?” Tracey whispered, staring up at Krystal.
“Yeah, I think so. Just wait a minute to make sure.” Her eye was still on the small crack in the door.
~~~~Chapter Five~~~~
Home Safe
All seemed completely quiet, so Krystal took her eye away from the crack and sat down beside Tracey.
"Man, that Chevy sounds like an army general or somethin'." She looked at her friend. Even in the darkness of the cupboard her face looked white. "You really look like a spook. You okay Trace?" Krystal asked, feeling concern for her friend.
"I'm fine. I was just a bit scared, that's all, but I asked the Lord to help me and I felt better. At least I didn't faint. Who were they? I thought some of the voices sounded like I knew them," Tracey questioned.
"You do. They were Nathan and Davo from school. I nearly called out to them. It's stuffy in here..." Krystal kicked the cupboard door open with her foot. "That's better!" she exclaimed breathing deeply.
"So, what did they do?" Tracey felt revived with the door open.
"They were reading something; then they sat on the floor. I heard noises and two other guys came in. Nathan and Davo saluted them. One was called Chevy and the other Merc. Nathan and Davo had funny names too," Krystal continued.
"I heard that: Toy and Maz!" Tracey concluded Krystal's speech. "But what did they do?" she questioned.
Nothin' really, just talked. Then Nathan and Davo left, and the other two left after that. Oh, yes, they went into the fireplace room before they left, that's all," Krystal concluded.
"Weird, eh?" Tracey's face looked bewildered.
"Sure is. I wonder what those boys were reading when they came in?" Krystal said her thoughts aloud.
"They probably borrowed library books," Tracey suggested.
"No. I couldn't even see what they were reading it was so small, definitely not library books. Well, we'd better get home before Mum sends a search party for m
e. The rain might be stopped now." Krystal rose to her feet, remembering why they came into the old house.
"Yeah, I'm getting stiff sitting here," said Tracey, standing up.
Krystal jumped out of the cupboard.
Tracey handed her the bags one at a time, then climbed down. She didn't feel up to jumping right now; her legs felt a bit wobbly. She brushed her skirt.
Krystal walked around the room. "We were having so much fun. They spoilt it."
"Hey, we should have pretended to be spooks." Tracey grinned impishly.
"That's exactly what I was thinking. But we didn't have bed sheets. Next time, why don't we do it?" Krystal urged.
"Yeah, that would be fun. What's that?" Tracey pointed to Krystal's foot.
Krystal looked down. "What?"
"This piece of paper under your foot," said Tracey, bending down towards the spot.
Krystal lifted her foot.
Tracey peered at the little piece of grubby paper. "It's got something written on it. Let's read it outside; it's too dark in here."
"Let's go then." Krystal put her school bag on her shoulders and headed for the front door.
Tracey picked up her heavy bag with a groan and followed behind Krystal.
"It's bright out here." Krystal was the first to go outside. The sun was shining again and the sky was clear. Everything looked 'washed' and clean.
"Maybe it was just dark in there." Tracey blinked in the strong sunlight.
"Let's see that note." Krystal looked over Tracey's shoulder at the slip.
"Awful writing. Something about cars. What do you reckon?" Tracey handed the piece of paper to Krystal.
"Nathan and Davo were reading something small. It was probably this. I think we should keep it." Krystal folded the note and pushed it into her pocket.
As they walked together, the two girls were deep in thought. Krystal and Tracey wondered about the boys' names and the little note.
After a couple of minutes Krystal stopped. "Trace, their names are car names, Chevy, Merc, Maz, Toy!" she exclaimed. "Like, Maz for Mazda, Toy for Toyota."
"Struth, I think you're right, Krysty. See, I called you Krysty instead of Krystal." Tracey halted. "And I was wondering about the messy writing, all different sizes. Maybe there's a message. I've read in books where people leave coded messages." Tracey couldn't help feeling excited about the whole matter, even though she had never been so scared in her life. "Where's that note?"
The Gum Tree Gang and the Mystery at the Old Queenslander Page 1
