by Ron Roy
“It’s twenty after five,” Ruth Rose said. “Will your mom be upset that we’re late?”
“Probably,” Dink said. “But she’ll forgive us when we show her the you-know-what!”
The ferry began to ease into its mooring place alongside the pier. The kids got in the long line of passengers snaking its way toward the exits. The old woman was a few people ahead of Dink in the line. She had wrapped her shawl over her head and shoulders. Dink wondered how far she had to walk in the blowing snow.
Ten minutes later, the kids were hurrying toward the Governor Bradford Hotel. The moon seemed to move with them. It was almost completely dark and still snowing. Dink could see their footprints on the now-white sidewalk.
“There it is!” Dink said as the hotel came into sight.
The kids brushed the snow off their shoulders and stamped their feet outside the lobby door. Dink pushed it open, half expecting to see his mother standing there with an annoyed look on her face.
A woman was at the counter. Her back was to the kids, but Dink knew this wasn’t his mother with the shawl, the matted gray hair, the ankle-length dress. It was the old woman from the boat, and she was talking to the clerk.
The clerk looked up and nodded toward the kids.
Dink felt his throat close up. Panicked, he spun around, grabbing for Josh and Ruth Rose. He yanked them back through the door into the snow.
“What’s going on?” Josh asked.
“It’s her!” Dink hissed. “That old woman has been everywhere we go, and now she’s in our hotel!”
“Dinkus, it’s not our hotel,” Josh said. “She could be staying here, just like us.”
“But I keep seeing her!” Dink insisted, watching through the window. The woman was hurrying toward the door.
“She’s coming outside!” Dink cried. “Let’s get out of here!”
The kids raced away from the hotel entrance. Dink pulled Josh and Ruth Rose behind a row of hedges near the street. The old woman was standing in front of the hotel. She was looking around, one hand shielding her eyes.
“She’s looking for us,” Dink whispered. “I was right—she’s after us!”
“But who is she?” Ruth Rose asked.
Josh giggled. “She’s Emma Browne’s ghost,” he whispered. “She knows you have her jewels!”
As they watched, the woman took a few steps toward them. She glanced down at the ground, then looked directly at the hedges.
“She saw the footprints!” Dink hissed. “She knows we’re here! Come on!”
With Dink in the lead, the kids took off across the street. They hid behind a Dumpster and watched the hotel. The old woman was standing near the hedges now, bent over.
“Dink, we’re gonna freeze out here,” Josh said. “Our parents will find us on Thanksgiving, three ice sculptures!”
“Josh is right,” Ruth Rose said. “We can’t just stand out here all night.”
Dink blew snowflakes out of his eyes. “All she has to do is follow our footprints,” he said. “We have to hide until she gives up.”
“We could go back to the boat,” Ruth Rose said.
“The ferry?” Dink said. He spit snow out of his mouth.
“No, the Mayflower,” Ruth Rose said over the wind. “She won’t bother us with a crowd of people around.”
“It’s worth a try,” Dink said. He looked up at all the falling snowflakes. “Maybe the new snow will cover our tracks.”
It took them only a few minutes to reach the Mayflower II. It sat in the harbor, rocking on small waves as the wind blew snowflakes around its dark shape. Over the wind, Dink could hear the sail ropes thunking against the tall wooden masts.
Dink found a trash can and lifted the lid. He pulled out a newspaper and handed Josh and Ruth Rose each a section.
“Let’s use these to wipe away our footprints,” he said.
The kids walked backward, brushing their footprints with the papers. When they got to the boat, they stuffed the newspapers inside their sweatshirts.
They ran up the gangway toward the fence and gate that let visitors onto the boat.
“The gate is locked,” Ruth Rose said.
“The Mayflower is closed.”
Dink turned and peered back the way they’d come. In his mind, he saw the old woman following their footprints. Would the snow cover them? Would she be fooled by their attempt to wipe their tracks away?
“Guys, I might have messed up,” Dink admitted. “If we’d stayed at the hotel, that woman couldn’t have done anything to us. Not with the clerk there. We could’ve just run up to our rooms.”
“It’s too late to worry about that now,” Ruth Rose said. “Besides, it was my idea to come to the Mayflower. I didn’t know it would be closed.” She peered through the locked gate. “Let’s climb over the fence. If we can hide on the Mayflower, she’ll never find us.”
“She’s right,” Josh said. He put his arm around Dink’s shoulder. “We can pretend we’re the Pilgrims during their first snowstorm in America!”
Ruth Rose began climbing. The boys found toeholds and followed her.
Once they were inside the fence, they ran aboard the Mayflower II. The ship looked ghostly under a covering of snow. The wind blew snow into their faces and froze their eyelashes.
“We have to get out of this snow,” Josh said. He blew into his hands.
“Okay, let’s go downstairs,” Dink suggested. He led them past the dark galley. Now that they were out of the wind and snow, they felt warmer.
They climbed down the stairs to the deck where the Pilgrims had lived and slept. It was completely dark, only the moon’s dim glow making its way into the space. Dink stopped over the grate that led down to the hold.
“This is creepy,” Josh whispered. His voice shook, either from cold or fear.
Dink peered down through the grate into the darkness. “It’ll be warmer down there,” he said, pointing.
Suddenly they heard a thump on the deck above them. They jumped, bumping into each other. Josh fell over a pile of something and sprawled onto the floor.
“It’s her! Help me move the grate!” Dink whispered.
The three kids tugged the wooden grate about fifteen inches. “A few more inches and we can fit!” Dink said.
“How do we get down there?” Ruth Rose asked. “It’s deep!”
“There are some mattresses right below us,” Dink said. “I remember them!”
“Are you sure?” Josh asked.
“No,” Dink said.
And he jumped.
Dink landed on the straw mattresses and fell backward onto the wooden deck. He knew he was on the very bottom of the boat. The wood felt cold and slimy under his fingers. He tried not to think about what he was touching. He moved out of the way and looked up. “Come on, it’s okay!” he whispered.
Ruth Rose jumped next, and Dink helped steady her landing.
“Come on, Josh!” she said.
Dink could see Josh’s silhouette against the moonlight behind him. Suddenly his head vanished.
Dink froze. Could the old woman have grabbed him?
“Josh!” Dink gasped.
And then Josh was falling through the air. He landed with a whump on the top mattress.
“I think she’s on the boat!” Josh whispered. “I heard footsteps!”
The kids grabbed a couple of mattresses and dragged them into a far corner.
“She must be looking for us!” Dink said.
“If she notices the open grate, she’ll know we’re down here!” Ruth Rose said.
They sat and stared at the open space in the deck above them.
Dink could barely breathe. “She must know what we found, and she wants it,” he said, keeping his voice to a whisper.
“How would she know?” Josh asked.
“She might have seen us dig it up,” Ruth Rose said.
Dink remembered his surprise at seeing the old woman on the bench while they’d been digging.
Suddenly
Ruth Rose gasped. She pointed at the rim of the opening over their heads. A dark shape was moving slowly around the edge.
Dink thought it was the woman, but the shape was too small to be her head.
“It’s a rat!” Josh choked out.
“What does it want?” asked Ruth Rose, wriggling closer to the boys.
Josh dug the M&M’s bag out of his pocket. He stood up and walked beneath the opening. Using his best pitch, he threw the candy up and out of the hold. The rat disappeared.
“Aren’t you glad I didn’t feed those to the seagulls?” Josh asked Ruth Rose.
“You’re my hero,” she said.
The kids sat huddled together. Dink was shivering.
“Guys, how will we get out of here?” Ruth Rose asked into the darkness. “I didn’t see a ladder when we were here this morning.”
“I have no idea,” Josh said.
Dink thought he heard something. He strained his ears, keeping his eyes locked on the opening.
They all heard the next sound, footsteps coming down the stairs from the top deck.
A head in silhouette appeared over the edge.
Dink shoved himself as close to the wall behind him as he could.
“I know you’re down there,” a hoarse voice said, floating into the hold. “And there’s only one way out. I’m kneeling on the rope ladder.”
Dink didn’t recognize the voice.
“Do exactly as I say, and I’ll drop the ladder for you,” the voice went on. “I’m going to lower a basket. Put the jewels in it, and the next thing I send down will be the ladder.”
The voice paused. Dink could tell that Josh and Ruth Rose were trembling.
“If I don’t get the jewels, you’ll stay here all night, maybe longer,” the voice said. “Pretty soon the rats will discover you, and—”
“We’ll do it!” Ruth Rose suddenly cried out. “I have the leather bag and the jewels. It’s a necklace. You can have it-just promise you’ll let us out!”
Dink had never heard Ruth Rose sound so frightened. He could feel her pulling something from her sweatshirt pouch. She dropped it in the darkness, and he heard her fingers scrabbling to find it again.
A basket appeared over their heads, tied to the end of a rope.
It landed on the mattress pile.
“Do it now,” the voice said. “Or you’ll miss your Thanksgiving dinner!”
Ruth Rose crawled over to the basket. “Okay, the necklace is in the basket.
Now you have to let us out!” Ruth Rose yelled toward the opening.
The kids watched the basket rise and disappear.
Ruth Rose came back and huddled on the mattress. “Sorry guys,” she said. “I had to give it to her or we’d never get out of here!”
They heard laughter from above. A moment later, the rope ladder flew down. It smacked loudly on a mattress.
Dink heard something else land. Whatever it was bounced from the mattress to the wood deck. Dink hoped it wasn’t the rat looking for more of Josh’s M&M’s.
The kids stared at the rope ladder. No one moved. Dink felt sick at the thought that the old woman was still up there, watching for them to climb out of the hold.
They waited in the dark.
“Should we go?” Ruth Rose asked.
“Yeah, I’m outta here!” Josh said. “She must’ve taken off by now.”
Dink held the bottom rung of the rope ladder as Josh and then Ruth Rose climbed up. Dink went up last, the ladder swinging as he climbed.
They pulled the ladder up and piled it next to the opening. Then they tugged the grate back into place.
“It must be after six by now,” Dink said as the kids scrambled off the Mayflower II. “My mom is going to freak.”
They climbed the fence and ran toward the hotel for the second time that night. Now that the snow had almost stopped, a bright moon shone from between the clouds. Dink would have enjoyed the scene if he hadn’t been so scared.
This time the woman waiting inside the hotel lobby was Dink’s mother.
She ran toward the kids as they burst into the lobby out of breath and dirty from being in the hold.
“Donald David Duncan, where have you been?” his mother asked. Her voice shook with worry. “I’ve been looking all over town for you. Do you remember we agreed on five o’clock?” She checked her watch. “It’s well after six!”
Dink felt his face turn red. He didn’t know where to start with his story. “I’m sorry, Mom,” he finally said. “Could we go upstairs? I’m really tired and hungry. We have a lot to tell you!”
Dink’s mother wrinkled her nose, then she grinned. “You three smell!” she said. “Hot showers first, then I’ll call down for some food.”
Wearing clean jeans and a sweater, Dink sat with Josh and Ruth Rose on the sofa. Ruth Rose had changed into her pajamas, yellow from top to bottom. Josh was wearing fresh sweats. All three still had damp hair.
While Dink was showering, his mother had sent out for pizza. Dink grabbed a slice and began eating. He started to talk and nearly choked.
“Finish eating,” his mother said. “Now that my heart is beating at its normal rate, I can wait a few more minutes to hear your story.”
Ten minutes later, after the pizza box had been emptied and cleared, the kids told their story.
“We went to see the Mayflower II” Dink said. “A woman on the boat told us about some jewels that got stolen from a passenger.”
“Do you mean a jewelry theft on the actual Mayflower?” his mother asked. “In 1620?”
Dink nodded.
“That’s when the whole story really started,” Josh put in. “A crew member on the Mayflower stole the jewels, then he disappeared and they were never found!”
Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose took turns describing everything that had happened to them that day.
Dink’s mother’s eyes got wide when they told her how they dug up the decaying leather bag and the necklace. But her face turned white when they described how they got trapped in the Mayflower II hold and what happened next.
“So Ruth Rose had to give the jewels to the old woman who’d been following us,” Josh said. “After she got the jewels, she threw down the rope ladder so we could get out.”
“And then we ran back here,” Dink said. “So that’s why we were late, Mom.”
“That is the most amazing story I’ve ever heard!” Dink’s mother said.
“Actually, we left part of the story out,” Ruth Rose said. She glanced at Dink and Josh. “There’s something even you guys don’t know.”
Ruth Rose went across the hall to her bedroom and came back holding a sock. She reached a hand into the sock. “I didn’t give the old woman the Mayflower necklace,” she told them. “I switched it with that cheap toy one I got out of the machine this morning.”
She pulled her hand out of the sock. She was holding the necklace they’d dug up in Rock Park.
Josh leaped up and gave Ruth Rose a bear hug. “You are awesome!” he cried. “How’d you ever pull it off?”
“I did it when we were hiding down in the hold,” Ruth Rose said. “I took my necklace off and rubbed it around in that slimy stuff on the floor so it would look like it had been in the ground.”
“May I see it?” Dink’s mother asked.
Ruth Rose carefully handed her the necklace.
“These stones look like sapphires,” Dink’s mother said. “I’m sure this necklace is very valuable.”
“The passenger who brought them onto the Mayflower was Emma Browne,” Ruth Rose said. “Maybe we can go online and see if she has any relatives, then we can return the necklace.”
Dink’s mother nodded. “That’s a lovely idea,” she said. “But for tonight, this is going in the hotel safe. Tomorrow morning I’ll call the local police. They may know the old woman who tried to rob you.”
That night, Dink dreamed that he was being chased through a blizzard. In his dream, dark, grasping fingers were reaching for him out of the s
now. The faster he ran, the more hands appeared, until there were hundreds of fingers, all trying to grab him.
Dink bolted upright, with the bedcovers twisted around his trembling legs. When he realized he’d been dreaming, he lay back down. He looked over at the next bed. Josh was sound asleep.
Dink thought he knew why he’d had that nightmare. The hands belonged to the old woman who’d followed them. Ruth Rose had given her the wrong necklace. And now in Dink’s dream, she was coming back for the right one.
Dink felt certain that this dream would come true. Somehow, the woman would come after Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose again. And this time, she wouldn’t be fooled. This thought kept him awake for hours.
Dink’s mom and the kids were finishing breakfast in the hotel dining room when two police officers appeared. They all moved into the lobby, and the kids told their story again.
Dink was asked to describe the woman, and he did. The baggy clothing and scraggly hair, the fingerless gloves, the cheek mole.
“Where did you first notice her?” one officer asked.
“On the ferryboat,” Dink said. “Then everywhere we went, she seemed to be there, too.”
“And as far as you know, you’d never seen her before?”
Dink shook his head. “But she did look familiar,” he said. “I mean, there was something about her that reminded me of someone else. I just can’t figure out who.”
“Did she ever speak to you?”
Dink looked at Josh and Ruth Rose. “Just when we were in the Mayflower II hold,” he said. “Her voice sounded hoarse, kind of whispery”
“Could you get her fingerprints off that basket she lowered to us?” Josh asked.
“We can try,” one of the officers said. “Is it still aboard the Mayflower II?”
Josh nodded. “It was there when we left,” he said.
“These jewels, where are they now?” the other officer asked.
“In the hotel safe,” Dink’s mother said. “I called my attorney this morning. He told me they should remain there until we figure out who the rightful owner is.”
After a few more questions, the officers left. They said they’d put the word out to watch for this woman.
