Chapter 16: Cross-Country Mystery (Long Fiction for Middle Graders)

Chapter 16

 

The day in the car started out fun. The family played the alphabet game, the license plate game (Ashley kept the record of all the different state license plates they saw), and kept a lookout for PT Cruisers, purple motorcycles, and black Suburbans.

Eventually the games got tiring and the miles and miles of flat farmland and dull interstate scenery never seemed to change. Nanette and Frank had been playing a CD of old 70’s and 80’s songs, and when the last song ended the kids immediately begged for a movie.

“Let’s drive a little farther enjoying this scenery,” Frank said. “Look at the colors of those fields! Look at the different kinds of green! And the clouds look like a herd of sheep crossing the blue sky! We’re ‘Painters’ so we should be appreciating all the colors of the landscape.”

Ashley sighed, but before she could complain, Peter started singing, “A hundred bottles of beer on the wall, a hundred bottles of beer! Take one down. Pass it around. 99 bottles of beer on the wall…” The other three kids grinned and chimed in with the next verse. It was Nanette’s turn to sigh and roll her eyes. “You know, Frank, I think now might be the perfect time for a movie.”

Three hours into the trip, they stopped at a rest stop near Portage, Wisconsin and took a family photo. They ate some sandwiches and cookies and watched the cars and trucks coming in and out of the rest area.

“No sign of the BG’s,” Peter said.

“The Who?” Nathan asked.

“Not ‘The Who’! The ‘BG’s!’” Peter repeated. “Short for ‘the Bad Guys’. That’s what I’m going to call those crooks anyhow. I called them ‘the stagecoach robbers’ at the motorcycle shop and the owner looked at me like I was nuts.”

“Sure. No one will think you’re nuts talking about the Bee Gees!” Nathan said sarcastically.

“Well, they certainly are ‘Stayin’ Alive’ long past their own time.” Ashley said. “And they’re almost as annoying as that band.”

Nanette and Frank pretended to look hurt on behalf of their generation.

“Why is the band called ‘Bee Gees’?” Ashley asked. “Is it short for ‘bad guys’ too?”

“Brother’s Gibb,” Frank said. “And there were three of them too. Maurice, Robin and Barry.”

“Hey, since we don’t know our BG’s names we could borrow those names too! Except we can’t use Robin because that makes me think of cousin Robin,” Peter said.

“Too confusing,” Nathan said. “I don’t know if I will be able to think of them as anything other than the ‘bearded guys’ and the ‘motorcycle guy.’”

“Not me! The guy who stole the watch should be ‘Rob,’” Peter said. “Because you saw him robbing the museum. ‘ Mo’ can be the MOtorcycle guy and ‘Barry’ can be the other bearded guy.”

Nathan shook his head but didn’t argue.

Nanette and Frank looked skeptical, but decided only time would tell if any of the nicknames stuck.

Not long after returning to the car, Ashley and Charlie both fell asleep and Nathan and Peter talked about secret codes. Since they had just watched the 1952 movie Ivanhoe –a favorite of theirs because of the jousting scenes—they decided to make up a number code based on medieval weapons. 0 was a shield, 1 a spear, 2 a short saber, etc. They wrote it down and it looked like this:

“And how is this any better than just using numbers?” Nanette asked later when they showed off their completed list.

“It will confuse anyone who intercepts the message,” Nathan maintained, although Nanette was skeptical.

“Why are there two “4’s”?” Frank asked.

“To make it more confusing,” Nathan said.

“You can’t just solve it like a cryptogram,” Peter said.

Frank and Nanette decided to let it go.

They crossed the Mississippi around 1:00 pm near La Crosse, Wisconsin. Frank made sure everyone took note, but only Ashley seemed impressed.

The family took a detour to Lester, Iowa, just to get a photo standing in an Iowa corn field. By the time they reached their one big touristy destination for the day–the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota—it was 7:30 pm central time. The summer sun was still bright, but the shadows were long as they parked and walked to the building. They saw a black Suburban in the parking lot and Nathan and Peter memorized the license plate using their new code. (South Dakota- B-C-V- spear-club-cutlass-pitchfork). They saw two PT Cruisers parked several blocks away but didn’t bother to check them out.

Everyone was glad to stretch their legs after spending so much time in the car. They walked around the outside of the Corn Palace to see the murals decorated with corn. The theme of the 2003 corn murals was “Scenic South Dakota” and the scenes were impressive even though they were only partially completed. They entered the building and saw photos of murals from past years displayed in the hallways.

In the middle of the palace was a large auditorium/gym area where concerts or sports games could be played. A temporary gift shop was set up for tourist season. With their daily allowances Nathan bought a disposable camera, Peter bought a fake rubber knife, and Ashley bought a sticker book.

Nathan immediately alerted his parents that one of the cashiers was a man with red-hair and freckles. Nanette and Frank talked to the man, whose nametag said “Dave,” but he said he didn’t know anyone named Tim Trave or Curt Hopewell. He agreed to ask around, but their conversation was cut short by a high pitched scream echoing through the large room. The Painters recognized it immediately as Ashley.

Ashley was near the door of the auditorium sobbing. “He got my fanny pack! Get it back!”

Several people rushed out the door of the auditorium and followed a man running out of the building. Ashley made it outside with them just in time to see a PT Cruiser driving off. The rest of the family and Dave made it outside a moment later and Frank and Nanette hugged Ashley.

Ashley was crying and it took a moment to find out what had happened. Apparently someone had grabbed her fanny pack and ran off with it.

Bystanders gave conflicting evidence. One man described the attacker as wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Another said he was wearing khakis. Still another person was confident he was in a polo shirt. They all agreed he had a beard and got into a waiting car—a PT Cruiser—that drove off before anyone could stop it.

“I heard him say, ‘I’ve got the key!’” one bystander reported. “Then he jumped in the car and it sped off!”

“Did you have anything valuable in the pack?” Dave asked Ashley.

“No,” Ashley admitted through sobs. “It’s a new fanny pack from my uncle and cousin. I want it back!”

“What was in it?” Dave asked again.

“Just the change from buying this book.” Everyone could see now that Ashley was gripping a small sticker book tightly with her left hand. “Maybe fifty cents. But I want the pack!” she started crying harder.

After talking with Security at the Corn Palace and having a complementary candy bar from the gift shop (via Dave), Ashley finally calmed down.

“Hey, you still have your memories of Uncle Carl and Robin. You don’t need the fanny pack.” Nathan said as they walked back to the car. “And it’s not like you don’t have tons of ‘Historical Miss’ stuff anyway. ‘Historical Miss’ shoes, ‘Historical Miss’ toothbrush, ‘Historical Miss’ combs, ‘Historical Miss’ soap…” Nathan got sillier and sillier and Ashley couldn’t help but smile a little. “And besides,” Nathan concluded. “It’s ‘Historical Miss’, not ‘Hysterical Miss.’” Ashley couldn’t help laughing a little at that.

“Maybe I could invent an anti-fanny-pack-stealing device,” Peter mused. “Maybe a rubber band-type thing that would hit anyone who tried to pull the fanny pack. Or one of those things they put on clothes at the store that sprays permanent ink on anyone trying to undo them.”

Ashley giggled again. “A device like that would go off on Charlie several times a day! He’s always grabbing onto my fanny pack strap to get my attention.”

“So how did the thief get your fanny pack? Did he cut it? Did it tear? Surely he didn’t have time to undo the latch!” Nathan said as he opened the car door and pulled the seat down to let Peter and Ashley get in the back.

“I don’t know,” Ashley said as she settled herself among her things. From her backpack she pulled out a small stuffed toy dog that looked like Watson from home and hugged it. “He came up behind me, and everything happened so fast I don’t remember.”

“I was really disappointed in the so-called ‘eye-witnesses,’” Nathan said as he settled in his seat and Nanette and Frank got in the front. “They would make terrible detectives! They couldn’t agree on the thief’s shirt color or anything!”

“That’s the way eyewitness testimony often is, sadly,” Frank said as he started the car. “You have to train to pay attention to details or else your mind just focuses on the big event and forgets the rest.”

“What was it that one guy said?” Nanette asked. “He said the thief yelled ‘I’ve got the key’ just before getting into the car. What do you think that meant?”

“Maybe he just said, ‘I’ve got it, Steve,’ and the guy heard wrong,” Peter suggested.

“So your ‘Rob’ is really ‘Steve’?” Nathan asked.

“No! He did mean ‘key’!” Ashley interjected. “I know what it is! I know what he meant!”

Ashley pulled her old fanny pack off the floor of the car. “I hadn’t put anything in my new fanny pack yet except the souvenir money you gave me. But in my old pack, I had this!” Ashley held up the old key she had found at the lakefront yesterday. “I meant to tell you all about it, but after the Sears Tower we were so busy I just decided to wait till later. I think this fell out of the box of treasure that Nathan found yesterday.”

Ashley had a triumphant and vaguely revengeful look in her eyes. “They think they got this! But we still have it! Hah!”

End of Chapter 16

The next chapter can be found here: Chapter 17: Cross-Country Mystery (Long Fiction for Middle Graders)