by Kathi Daley
“Hazel mentioned that you plan to take over as chair of the event committee in time for Hometown Christmas.”
“That’s the plan.”
“And you don’t think that maybe you’re pushing it?” I knew I sounded more like the mother than the daughter, but I found I was concerned.
“Probably, but I really want to do this. I need to get back to my old life.”
“I understand.” I was sure I’d be ready for the looney bin by now if it had been me who’d been laid up for weeks on end.
“How are things going for the Haunted Hamlet?” Mom asked. “Is everything on track to kick off on the twenty-second?”
I nodded. “I think everything is set. Zak and Levi organized a decorating party for the barn. I’m going to take a drive out there later today and check on things. I guess you know that Dad is in charge of the haunted maze. He seems to have that under control as well. Hazel is organizing the pumpkin carving, and Tony has taken over the organization of the zombie run. The pumpkin walk and trick-or-treating in town are being co-chaired by Greta and Gilda, and Ellie is organizing the food vendors. Tawny is doing the kiddie carnival, and Nick and Grandpa are tackling the community picnic with Zak and Levi’s help. I really think we have it covered.”
“It really is a huge undertaking,” Mom sighed. “It occurs to me each year that perhaps we should cut back.”
“Maybe we should, but this year with Halloween on a Saturday, we actually expanded to two weekends rather than one.”
I chatted with Mom for a while longer about Halloween plans before segueing into a discussion about Thanksgiving. My parents generally hosted Thanksgiving dinner when they were in town, but given my mom’s circumstances, I suggested that perhaps Zak and I should host this year. When she reluctantly agreed to my plan, I knew that her leg must have been hurting her even more than she let on. She loved Thanksgiving, and I knew she wouldn’t give up the right to host lightly.
After we’d finished our lunch and I’d brought out the cupcakes I’d picked up from the bakery, I floated the idea of Harper attending Zimmerman Academy if the age requirements were lowered. My mom had attended a private school when she was a child, so I was interested in her take on things. I wasn’t certain that the issue relating to private versus public school rivalries and stereotypes would be as much of an issue for her as it might be for other locals.
Harper was in first grade this year, so not currently old enough to attend the academy, but she was a bright little thing, and I felt certain she could keep up with the other kids if classes were offered for elementary-aged students. If we expanded next year, she’d be able to slide right in as a second-grader, but if we waited until she was in third or fourth grade, it might work out even better.
“Dad and I would love for Harper to attend Zimmerman Academy if you decide to open to younger students,” Mom replied after I explained the fact that Zak and I were entertaining the idea. “Although she would miss going to school with Morgan.”
Morgan was Jeremy’s daughter, and since Morgan and Harper were born just days apart, they’d been best friends since the beginning.
“If we expand to allow for younger students, we would have a spot for Morgan if Jeremy and Jessica were interested,” I said. “As a friend and employee of the Zoo, he would, of course, be offered a scholarship. I guess the real question would be whether Jeremy would want Morgan to go to a private school. Rosalie is already in the sixth grade, and the earliest we’d do this is next year if we decide to go that route, so she’d be eligible to apply either way. Of course, there are the current entrance requirements to deal with in terms of test scores and whatnot.”
Mom paused and then answered. “The program you offer is exceptional, but I think you should be prepared for the fact that not everyone thinks that attending a private school is a desirable alternative to the well-rounded public school experience. In fact, I think that you will find attitudes relating to the idea of private versus public school to be fairly divided, and those with an opinion tend to have a strong opinion about the matter.”
“Yeah, Levi made a similar comment. I guess I’ve been removed enough not to realize that the kids from town and the kids from the academy have developed a strong rivalry.”
“It’s natural for teens to seek out peer groups they relate to. Having said that, speaking for Harper and only for Harper, I think she’d benefit from the advanced instruction. I’d need to speak to Dad, of course, before committing to anything, but I anticipate he’d be as thrilled for the opportunity as I’d be if you started taking on younger students.”
I’d actually anticipated that my parents would welcome the opportunity for Harper to attend Zimmerman Academy, but Harper wasn’t very interested in school sports. I was interested in chatting with Levi in more depth about the issues he’d mentioned yesterday morning. Our conversation had made me aware that I may have been living in a bubble. Neither Alex nor Scooter had ever mentioned a rivalry between academy kids and town kids, but apparently, one seemed to exist.
“So, can you stay for a while?” Mom asked after we finished off the cupcakes.
“I’d love to, but I actually have quite a bit to do before I have to pick Catherine up from preschool. I’ll try to come back by in a few days.”
“You mentioned that you were going to stop by Ellie’s to drop off some of Catherine’s hand-me-downs for Alya. I have a box of clothes I’ve been meaning to give you for Catherine, but if you want to pass them on to Ellie, that’s fine with me.”
“I think I’ll do that.”
“They’re in the closet in the guest room. I’ll show you where.”
I followed my mom down the hall, loaded the box in my car, and then headed toward the boathouse where I used to live before I married Zak. After I moved out, Ellie moved in, and after Ellie married Levi, he moved in as well. When Levi and Ellie became pregnant with Eli, Zak and I added onto the small structure, and the little family had been living there ever since.
“Thank you for all the hand-me-downs,” Ellie said after I presented her with several boxes of clothes. “These are in really good shape. Are you sure you don’t want them?”
“I’m sure. Catherine has outgrown them, and the next baby might be a boy. I don’t feel like storing them. Is Alya napping?”
“She is. I’ll need to wake her up in a little while since we need to pick Eli up at school, but I have a few minutes. Do you want a glass of iced tea?”
“Iced tea would be nice, although I can’t stay long. I want to run by the haunted barn and take a look at the progress before I pick Catherine up.”
Ellie headed toward the kitchen and began making the tea. “I asked Levi about it last night, and he said that all the props and decorations have been delivered and are being stored in the barn. The decorating committee is going to meet on Saturday. It’s a big job, but I think Levi and Zak managed to round up a fairly large crew.”
There was a time when the props were so elaborate that it took a week to set everything up, but the group currently in charge had simplified things quite a bit in recent years, so one day should work fine.
“Are you planning to take the kids to the Haunted Hamlet on opening night?” I asked.
“I want to take them to see the lights, but I think they’re too young for the haunted barn or spooky maze. Levi mentioned taking the kids to the kiddie carnival. We should go together.”
“I like that idea,” I said. “I’m helping out at the barn on the Saturday of opening weekend, but maybe we can go to the kiddie carnival on Sunday. Can you believe that the Haunted Hamlet will be upon us in just over a week?”
“It does seem to have snuck up on us this year,” Ellie agreed, handing me a tall glass with tea and ice. “So, what else is new?”
“Not a lot since yesterday. Zak is home, which I am thrilled about.”
“I bet. I’d hate it if Levi traveled as often as Zak.”
“His need to be out of town has seemed to have increased in f
requency lately. He really wants to cut back, but Pi wants to expand, and then there is Alex to think about.”
“Alex?”
“Zak wants to be sure there’s a role for her to step into when she’s ready if she decides to follow her current plan to work for Zak after college graduation.”
“Seems like Alex graduating from college is a date still pretty far down the road,” Ellie pointed out.
“Zak and I have discussed that as well. It’s a complicated situation, but I know that Zak and I both feel the decisions we make relating to the company need to be decisions that take into account the needs of us as well as the kid’s needs.”
We headed out onto the deck and sat down at a round table in the sun. “Levi is already talking about Eli’s football career, so I guess I get the concept of looking ahead. Is there anything else going on?”
“Marlow is missing.”
“Missing?” she asked.
I went on to explain that my fluffy orange fur baby hadn’t been seen since yesterday or perhaps even the day before yesterday. Alex hadn’t been able to find him when she looked for him yesterday afternoon and wasn’t sure if he’d been in the kitchen that morning. I’d been in a hurry yesterday morning, and while I’d feed the animals and had taken the dogs out for a quick bathroom break before I left for the committee meeting, I hadn’t really looked around for the cats.
“Oh, no,” Ellie said. “Did you look everywhere? Under beds? In the guest rooms?”
“I haven’t looked around much. I did walk around calling him when I got home from meeting with the man selling the lots next to the Zoo, but Alex called me a little while ago and told me that she tore the house apart when she got home from school and can’t find him anywhere. I’m going to take a look when I get home.”
“Oh, Zoe. I’m so sorry. What can I do? How can I help?”
“I guess just keep an eye out for him. It’s only been a day or two, and he might be hiding somewhere, but it isn’t like him not to be underfoot at mealtime.” I looked around. “I figure that since your place is really close to our place and Marlow lived here when he and I shared the boathouse before we moved in with Zak, if he got out of the house and somehow became disoriented, he might end up here.”
“I’ll keep an eye out. I promise. The kids, dogs, and I usually take a walk after Eli gets home. Maybe we’ll find him hiding out in one of his favorite old haunts.”
“Maybe.” I hated that I didn’t really believe that he was simply hanging out somewhere in the area. The only explanation I could come up with for him not to be home by now was that he was hurt or worse. “Maybe if you and Levi look in this area, and Zak and I take a second look near our house, someone will find him.”
Ellie placed her hand over mine. “I’m sure he’ll show up.”
“I hope so. I don’t know what I’ll do if something happened to him.”
By the time I’d finished my tea, Alya had woken up, so I said my goodbyes and headed toward the venue for the haunted barn to make sure that the props and decorations had, in fact, been delivered and safely stored in the barn. The haunted barn was the keystone to the Haunted Hamlet, although it hadn’t always been held in a barn. When I was a child, we’d used a barn out at the Standish Farm, which was the venue for the event for years and years. Then six or seven years ago, Mr. Standish sold the property, and the new owner decided to use the barn for actual livestock, so we were forced to find another venue. The committee eventually decided on a barn on the same property as an actual haunted house known as Henderson House, which would have been awesome if the area hadn’t been closed off due to the second murder in two years on that very property. We eventually decided on a haunted hayride to replace the barn that year. The following year the event was scheduled at a haunted graveyard, which ended up with its own dead body, followed by a different haunted house and a whole other murder to investigate.
This year, the haunted barn was going to be held in an empty barn on a working farm. The barn was set on a large piece of property next to a home lived in by a stable family who we assumed had no skeletons in their closets. While trying for an actual haunted building to house the venue had been an interesting idea, it seemed each year we’d tried to pull it off, the whole thing ended in disaster.
Zak texted me as I was walking through the barn, asking if I’d been to the bank that afternoon to access our safety deposit box. I texted back and told him I hadn’t and had, in fact, never accessed the box other than that first time we went to the bank together to add my name to the account. I asked why he was inquiring, and his response said that he’d explain things when he got home. After satisfying myself that the items Levi had told me he’d ordered had actually been delivered, I headed toward the preschool to pick Catherine up before stopping by the store on the way out to the estate.
By the time I returned home, Zak was home as well.
“So, what’s the deal with the safety deposit box?” I asked after greeting him with a kiss.
“I had a call from the bank manager, letting me know that my wife had come in to access the box but had forgotten the four-digit passcode. He was conflicted about using his master override key to allow you to access the box without checking with me even though your name is on the box, so he decided to call me. At that point, according to the bank manager, you left, saying you’d just be back later.”
“But I was never there,” I insisted.
“I know, which concerns me. I called the bank manager back and asked him if he checked the ID of the woman claiming to be you who’d been in. He admitted that he hadn’t gotten that far before you decided to leave and come back later, but he reminded me that he knows who you are and said that he recognized you.”
“That’s nuts. The person who tried to access our safety deposit box wasn’t me.”
“I know.” Zak took my hand. “Chances are it was just someone with similar enough features to decide to take a chance and try to fool whoever was at the bank.”
“Are you worried that someone tried to access our box?” I asked.
“Not overly at this point. I figure they tried and were unsuccessful, so I doubt they’ll try again. I am, however, interested in who tried to access the box. The bank manager is going to pull the security tape so I can look at it.” He looked me in the eye. “I don’t want you to worry about this. I’ll take care of everything.”
“Okay,” I said, although I had to admit that I was worried. The idea that there was someone out there with features similar enough to mine to think she could pretend to be me to access our safety deposit box sort of freaked me out.
“Let’s take a walk,” Zak suggested. “I was just about to take the dogs out, and I bet Catherine would like to go for a walk.”
“Okay,” I agreed. It was a gorgeous day, and if Zak was going to handle things at the bank, I guessed I’d let him. “I wanted to look around the grounds for Marlow anyway.”
“Is he still missing?”
“Alex said she looked and looked, but can’t find him. Maybe he got locked in one of the outbuildings.”
After rounding up the dogs, we set out. The sun was high in the sky, and the aspens were brilliant with fall colors. There was a hint of a breeze, but only enough to cause the aspens to quiver as we checked all the outbuildings for a stowaway cat and then walked along the damp lakeshore. Zak and I walked hand in hand while Catherine and the dogs ran along just in front of us. It was moments like this when I felt completely content. I knew that change was an inevitable part of life, but there were times I really did find myself wishing I could simply freeze time and live forever in the current moment.
“How did your staff meeting go?” I asked Zak as we strolled.
“It went well.” He laced his fingers through mine. “We have a good group this year, and I’m particularly excited about our new mathematics teacher. She has some innovative ideas that I think might lead our curriculum down a new path. She shared some of her ideas, and I found myself excited to se
e what the older kids under her tutelage will come up with for the national math and science fair in the spring.”
“I’m glad she’s working out. I know you’ve been looking for someone with just the right fit.” I reached down and picked up the stick Scooter’s dog, Digger, dropped at my feet. After giving it a toss, I continued. “I spoke to my mother about the idea of Harper attending the academy if we decide to go ahead with the expansion. She, of course, was thrilled with the idea, and we both felt Harper would do well in that environment.”
“Harper would be a good fit,” Zak agreed. “Phyllis and I spoke some more this afternoon, and we’re looking at the idea of expanding a few grades at a time rather than all at once. We currently offer options for students in the seventh through twelfth grade, and while my eventual plan is to offer classes for children in grades K-12, we did discuss the idea of adding just two grades initially to see how that goes.”
“So you’d expand to fifth through twelfth in phase one?”
“That’s the idea.”
I supposed a slow expansion did make more sense, and it was a few years before Catherine would be ready for school.
“We also discussed the idea of whether or not to relax our entrance standards a bit in the hope of attracting additional students,” Zak added. “It does seem to be a complicated idea.”
“I suppose there is a lot to consider.” I thought about my own schooling. I had definitely been an average student. I wondered if being thrust into an advanced learning environment such as Zimmerman Academy would have helped or hurt me. I did okay in school. Not great, but I got acceptable grades. I chose not to go to college due to a lack of interest, although I was sure I would have done fine if I’d chosen to attend. I looked at the academic load Alex had taken on since moving in with us when she was ten and knew in my heart that if I’d faced a similar challenge, I would have faltered and failed. More importantly, I would have been miserable while doing so. Alex had been bored in public school, but it had suited me just fine. Perhaps an academically advanced education really wasn’t for everyone.
