Chapter 3
“Kevin, give Missy the grand tour of the lodge,” he said as he reached into his pocket and took out a large silver key. It was on a chain with a penlight. He handed it to Kevin who nodded and turned to go out the door without waiting for Missy. She grabbed her coat and quickly followed. Kevin had stopped just outside the door and Missy bumped into him.
“I’m sorry,” she said but he just smiled and started to walk toward the lodge. He was slightly taller than Missy and had dark brown curly hair. He’s either shy, stupid, or mute, Missy thought. She tried to think of something to say to start a conversation. Should she ask him if he was the one at the little fort spying at them? Should she say something about the tree fort? No, no, instead she just asked, “So, where do you live?”
“We live past the last cabin, through the woods, and in back of the stables. It’s a two-bedroom cottage. We’ve lived there as long as I can remember. My mom runs the lodge pretty much, handles the reservations, oversees the maids, the cooks, and the waitresses and my dad takes care of the grounds and maintenance stuff. I work, too,” he said proudly, “I run the Snack Shack on the beach.”
Well, she thought, he’s not shy, stupid, or mute. He had rattled all that information off so fast that she had to think a minute before she could get her questions out. They had reached the covered porch of the lodge but he was leading her around to a side door, much smaller and less ornate than the main entrance. He turned the key in the lock and opened the door, then walked through first and flipped on the lights. They were in a small entryway. Missy closed the door and said, “Wait, wait, slow down. There are stables here? Horses?”
“Not anymore. But the stable used to have a dozen horses that the guests could rent. At least that’s what Mr. Stark told me. The stable is empty now, just some old tack and stuff in there and junk.”
“And you said there were cooks and waitresses?”
“Yeah, there’s a huge dining room for the guests to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in. Come on, I’ll show you.” He led the way down a short passageway that opened into a large restaurant style kitchen. He turned on more lights that reflected off the stainless steel of the sinks, counters, and refrigerators. They walked by several empty bins and then Kevin pushed open the double swinging doors that led to a wonderful dining room. There were four chandeliers made from deer antlers and several wall sconces but Kevin didn’t turn on any lights since there was plenty of light coming in through six large picture windows facing the lovely lake. There were eight round tables with their chairs placed upside down on top.
Missy walked over to the windows and looked out. The lake was the central focus of the view but to the left there was a swing set and slide and to the right there was a small building with a sign that said Snack Shack.
“That’s where you work?”
“Yeah,” Kevin answered. “I sell soft drinks, candy, and ice cream in the afternoons. Mr. Stark lets me keep all of the profits. You can’t tell now but all of that space there without trees is a really nice sand beach. The guests love it, and this summer we’re going to hire a lifeguard.” Missy was beginning to think that this would be a really great place to spend the summer, or at least two weeks, like her dad did.
“Come on, I’ll show you more.” Kevin gave her a little tug on the sleeve and started toward the other end of the dining room. There were two sets of French doors on either side of a two-sided stone fireplace. They went through the doors on the left and entered another room the same size as the dining room. It was a combination lobby/living room. There was a counter for customers to check in at near the front doors. There was one grouping of couches and chairs around the fireplace and another grouping around a big screen TV. A wide staircase led to a landing and turned to continue on up.
“Off that way is the owners’ apartment that Mr. Stark lives in but my mom thinks he’s going to let us live there this season. Down the other hall are the employees’ bedrooms, two to a room like a college dorm. And check this out over here.”
Kevin walked straight to the bottom of the stairs and opened a small, three-foot high door to a small space under the stairs and landing. A little light went on automatically, like opening the refrigerator, and there was a string to pull to switch on another brighter light bulb. Missy peered in. It was full of pre-school toys, a tiny table, and two little chairs.
“Cute,” she said. “It hides the rug-rats.”
“That’s not all it hides,” Kevin said with a little smirk on his face. “You want to see the guests’ rooms?”
“Sure.”
They backed out of the small space and Kevin bounded up the doublewide staircase two steps at a time. There was a large landing with a bench, a bookcase, and a brightly lit wall sconce and then the steps continued up to the second floor. It was rather dark in the hallway with all of the rooms’ doors closed. Kevin went to the first door and pushed it open. It was charming. The carpet was a forest green but there were throw rugs with bright, colorful scenes. The walls were paneled in light knotty pine. The dresser was made of pine, too, and the drawers’ handles looked like small branches. The two double beds were separated by a pine table with a deer antler lamp. There were a table and two chairs near the windows which were framed by heavy green drapes. Behind the door on the left was a bathroom. Missy walked to the window and looked out. She could see the little cabins, the lake, the Snack Shack, the stone cottage on the other side of the lake and something else off in the distance to the right.
“What’s that?” she pointed.
“Good eye,” Kevin responded, “it’s the closest thing we have to a mountain around here. We call it Mount Rocky. I’ve gone there climbing a bunch with my dad. It’s pretty cool.” Kevin looked shyly at her and said, “Maybe you could go with us when you’re here for the summer.”
Missy was confused. “I’m not going to be here for the summer. My mom works hard but I know we couldn’t afford to stay here.”
Kevin had that smirk on his face like he knew something that she didn’t know. All he said was, “We’ll see.” He turned and headed for the door saying over his shoulder, “The rest of the rooms on this floor are pretty much like this one but the third floor rooms are really nice.”
She followed him again and this time she took the stairs to the third floor two at a time, too. He didn’t open the first room they came to but instead walked to the end of the hall and opened the second to the last door. It was a two-room suite, much larger and brighter. The ceiling seemed higher, too. Again Missy went to the window and looked out. Now she could see the “mountain” better. It would be so cool to stay here and explore, she thought. Kevin was pointing to the left. “See that trail past the last cabin? That leads to the stables and where I live.”
“Oh,” she paused, “well, anything else to see here? What’s behind that last door? It didn’t seem like there’s enough room there for another suite.”
“It’s a linen room . . . and the way to the attic.”
“What’s up there?”
“Ghosts.”
Missy rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. You afraid?”
Kevin wasn’t about to be teased by a girl. He reached for the knob but it wouldn’t turn. “It’s locked.”
“So open it, you’ve got a key.”
“This was the key to the side door, it won’t open the linen closet.” He jangled the silver key and penlight in front of her face.
“How do you know if you don’t try?” She grabbed the key from his hand and stuck it roughly in the keyhole. She wiggled it back and forth and pushed on the door. It flew open. She wasn’t about to tell him that the door was still locked, it just hadn’t been closed all the way.
There were shelves and shelves of sheets, blankets, towels, soap, and toilet paper. Looking up they could see that they would have a big problem getting into the attic. There was no cord to pull on to lower the fold-down ladder. They would need a pole with a hook on the end to catch the metal ring on the att
ic door.
“Darn,” Missy said, “I really would have loved to explore an old attic.”
“Well,” Kevin paused, “if you really want to get in there, there is another way. But it’s kind of scary.” He hesitated, “And I don’t know if I should show you. It’s a secret Mr. Stark showed me. My parents don’t even know.”
Now Missy really wanted to know. She said, “But I’m family. He wouldn’t mind.”
“Well . . . okay.” He laughed and challenged her to a race down the stairs. She bounded after him but it was no contest when he leaped onto the banister and slid to the first landing.
“Hey, no fair!” she hollered. She hopped onto the banister and slid, much more slowly, after him.
When they reached the lobby/living room he went back to the little room under the stairs. “In here.” He lifted a poster of Snoopy and revealed a narrow door. It was latched at the top where a toddler couldn’t reach, but Kevin easily unhooked it. “This is where the penlight comes in handy.” He switched it on and started up a steep circular metal stairway. It was like a long firehouse pole with narrow steel steps bolted to it. There was no railing and Missy went up only three steps before she started grabbing the next steps with her hands and sort of crab-crawled upwards. After a few more feet she looked up at Kevin who had stopped and was looking straight down on her between the steps. “Scary, huh?” he smirked. The light from below didn’t reach much past his head and she couldn’t see the top but there were two pinpricks of light coming through the wall about one-third and two-thirds of the way up. She wasn’t sure if she went up she would be able to get back down. She thought she would have to come back backwards on her hands and knees, as there was no way she could walk forward and twist and turn around the pole.
“Yeah, this is pretty scary,” she confessed. “I don’t know if I want to do this anymore.”
Kevin switched on the penlight and shined it at the wall. “See that hole? That light is coming in where the lamp on the wall is at the first landing. You can spy on people, listen to them, see what they’re reading. It’s kind of fun. Come on.”
Missy wasn’t tempted. Maybe if there had been someone to spy on she would have found the courage but she just plain felt scared. Her mother had drilled into that if she didn’t feel right about something, she shouldn’t do it. Trust yourself, her mom would say, people have instincts just like animals.
“I don’t think so,” was all that Missy said.
Luckily Kevin wasn’t the sort of kid who would bully someone and he seemed to understand her fear. “Okay, you go back and take the stairs. I’ll go up this way and open the trap door ladder from the attic.”
Missy inched her way backwards and managed to turn herself around for the last few steps. She ran up the first flight and a half and stopped at the second landing to see if she could find where the light was coming through.
“Kevin!” she yelled. “Can you hear me?” She knocked on the wall.
His muffled voice came back, “Yeah, look through the hole under the bottom screw on the light.”
She put her face up to the wall and pressed her right cheek to the metal. It was dark and she couldn’t see a thing through the wall when suddenly Kevin shined the penlight directly into her pupil. She jumped back. “Hey!” She could hear Kevin laughing on the other side.
On the third floor she went to the end of the hall where they had left the door to the linen room open. She could hear his footsteps above her and then the attic door swung open and the ladder came down. It was a lot easier to climb than the spiral stairs and she scampered up them easily.
Kevin had moved to the side and was reaching for a string that turned on a light bulb overhead. Then he walked past her to the other side and turned on another one. A small amount of light was coming in through some vents.
“This is a good time to explore,” he said, “because it’s about a hundred degrees up here in the summer.”
“Show me where you came up the hidden staircase,” Missy said.
He led her over to the front middle of the large expanse and pointed the penlight at a trap door in the floor. There was no handle, just a knothole in the wood that served as a finger hold to lift the door.
“I can see why it’s a secret,” she said. “It’s practically invisible.”
Missy turned and looked around the attic. She saw a lot of big boxes, two trunks, a crib, four mattresses, and some old furniture. Near the far wall the floor and several shelves were littered with odd-looking mechanical things, some quite large. The trunks looked the most interesting, however. One was gray with a big keyhole but it wasn’t locked. Inside she found a fur coat. Genuine muskrat, the tag said.
“This is cool,” she said. She put the coat on and knelt back down at the trunk. There was a packet of papers tied with a string, a small metal box full of medals, an old photo album and some yellowed newspapers. She thumbed through the album and put it back. One newspaper was dated thirty years ago but she didn’t check the other ones. She put everything back except the muskrat coat and turned her attention to the other trunk. Kevin had already opened it and was taking things out; a dress, two hats, some strange looking pants.
“Ooooo,” Missy said, “I know what those are. Those are old-fashioned riding pants. They’re kind of puffed out at the sides and tight below the knees.”
“Must be from when they had the stables filled with horses. They rode English style not western.”
There were more articles of clothing in the trunk and at the bottom they found nicely framed pictures of people. Some were in color but most of them were in black and white. They didn’t recognize anyone in the pictures but Missy suspected that the tall gentleman with the black beard was probably her great-grandfather, which would mean that the lady next to him was her great-grandmother. She was very pretty and mysterious looking.
They put everything back and closed the trunk’s lid. Missy was thinking that this weekend had turned out pretty fun after all. She liked Kevin and he seemed to be easy to get along with even though a few times he acted like he knew more than she did. She smiled to herself and ran her hands up and down the arms of the fur coat. It was so soft. There were big pockets on the sides and she reached her fingers into them. She could feel the silk lining in each but the left one had a small tear in the seam. She slipped her arms out of the coat and took it off. She folded it in half like it had been and put it back in the first trunk. As she patted it down to fit into the trunk she felt something hard in the hem. She pressed the object between her fingers trying to determine what it was.
“Hey, Kevin,” she called, “come here.”
Kevin got up from the floor where he was looking through a box marked comic books.
“Feel this,” Missy said and held up the bottom of the coat.
“Feels like a key.”
“I think it was in the pocket and slipped through a hole. I wonder what it opens.” She had already reached one hand into the pocket and was working the key towards it with the other hand. “There! I got it!” She pulled out a most strange looking key.
Just then they could hear that clanging sound made by the triangle on Mr. Stark’s porch.
“Oh, oh,” Kevin said, “we’d better get back.” He ran over to the lights and pulled the strings to turn them off. Missy went down the attic ladder first. When Kevin reached the bottom he gave the ladder a push and the whole thing sprang back up. It banged loudly.
“Oh, well,” Kevin said, “no big deal.”
When they got back to the cabin they were red-faced and panting. Kevin kept on trotting past the cabin and yelled, “Bye! See you this summer!”
Missy didn’t know what to say so she just waved and said, “See ya.” She still held the strange key in her hand when she entered the cabin.
“Mom, wait till you see the lodge. It is awesome.” She removed her shoes and jacket and held out her hand to reveal the odd key. “Look what we found in an old fur coat in the attic.”
&n
bsp; Her great-grandfather grinned. “Finders keepers,” he said. “Maybe you’ll want to keep that in this treasure box. It was your father’s when he was a boy.” He was holding out a wooden puzzle box about the size of a large shoebox. Missy reached out her hands and took the box.
“May I keep it?” she asked.
“Of course,” he answered. “But I’ve got to warn you, I’ve forgotten how to open it. Your dad and I made that together a long time ago. I have no idea what treasures or secrets he had in there. You have to move the pieces in just the right sequence or it won’t open. Good luck.”
Missy was intrigued. She wanted to start working on the mystery immediately but her mother was saying something about getting their bag out of the car and settling in to the second cabin. They were going to spend the night.
“Thank you so much, Great-Grandpa. And I really like your lodge. This is a cool place but don’t you get lonely in the winter?”
He chuckled. “I don’t have time. I’m always busy making something, tinkering with something, inventing something . . . making more secrets and mysteries.” He laughed again. “And I’ve really gotten attached to that computer there, too. Pretty good for an old man, huh?”
“Yeah,” Missy agreed, “I didn’t think hundred year old people used computers.”
Missy’s mother’s face looked stricken and the old man seemed not able to suck in any air. Then suddenly he laughed the most uproarious laugh of all. “Is that how old you think I am? Maybe I should shave this beard and stick it on top of my head! I’ve got more than a dozen years before I see one hundred. But that’s okay. Did Kevin tell you to say that?”
He was still laughing but Missy was embarrassed. She didn’t mean to offend him. Well, at least he didn’t seem offended but she couldn’t get an apology out of her mouth or even a word in defense of Kevin. Her mother rescued her by blaming the misunderstanding on something she had heard about how old the lodge was. She managed to turn the whole thing into a compliment about how he must have been a really smart businessman at an early age to have been able to afford to build the lodge. Actually that wasn’t so far from the truth. Apparently he had been, and maybe still was, a gifted inventor. Something he had patented as a young man was still bringing in money.
They stayed that night in the second little cabin and had a nice breakfast with Mr. Stark on Sunday morning. She didn’t see Kevin again but shyly asked her great-grandfather a few questions about him.
“Oh, I’ll just let him answer your questions when you come back in June,” he said.
Missy looked quickly at her mother who was smiling and nodding her head. “You can stay a week, two weeks, the whole summer if you want,” her mom was saying. “It’s up to you. Your great-grandfather and I discussed this yesterday. But you have to work in the kitchen some mornings and help the maids, too. What do you think? Would you like to spend the summer at Big Pine Lodge?”
“You’ll stay in one of the maids’ rooms,” her great-grandfather added.
“Are you coming, too, Mom?” she asked.
“Weekends and one week in August.”
“Great!” Missy hooted. “Great! This will be really fun.”