🌲🎁🍩Gift of a Mystery📖❄✨
by Ann 🎶
~Synopsis~
What do two mystery solving brothers give each other for a gift? A mystery, of course! Follow a series of curious clues put together by eight year old Joe and Frank, nine years old, for each other to figure out that will lead them to their presents. While the brothers decipher clues, codes, maps, and puzzles they enjoy a visit from one of their favorite relatives, their mom’s cousin, James. Family and friends are all part of the adventures, fun, and of a rescue. Tales of freedom given long ago are remembered; still true to this very day and forever. Gift of a Mystery takes place one year after Spinning Through Peril.
Dedicated to all of my family and friends – much love to you. ❤ Most of all to the Creator, for without Him there is nothing and with Him there is everything. ❤
🌲🎁🍩 Gift of a Mystery📖❄✨
by Ann 🎶
🌲🎁🍩Chapter 1📖❄✨
Eight year old Joe came to an immediate stop in the middle of the Hardy family’s living room. He was sure he’d heard the slight noise of someone starting down the wide carpeted stairs that were just outside the large, comfortable room he was in. Having been on alert for such a sound, he was sure he wasn’t mistaken. Time to spring into action – at supersonic speed. Or as close to it as he could manage.
Hiding the small package in the low octagonal wooden cabinet, behind other items already there, Joe turned and jumped over the side of the couch, landing on the cushions just right as he and his older brother had often practiced. As he heard his previously mentioned nine year old brother, Frank, reach the landing in the entryway, Joe tried for innocent nonchalance. Much to his brother’s entertainment, as it turned out.
With the way the living room was currently arranged, the couch faced away from the rounded double arch of the entrance. The television was mounted on the opposite wall, giving Joe the ability to see behind him in the reflection of the screen. A favorite cartoon was on right then. Joe could see his brother’s face and thought he looked like he might be a little suspicious. So Joe started to whistle, which he hoped sounded casual.
Frank’s curious, observant expression turned to barely concealed amusement.
“What are you doing?” Frank asked as he stepped into the room. His eyes scanned the area for a clue to Joe’s behavior.
“Whistlin’,” responded Joe, pausing briefly from said ‘whistlin”. His tone asked how his brother could have missed that. “What a detective!”
“Why are you sitting there whistling when one of your favorite cartoons is on?” Frank walked around the couch to regard his brother.
Joe looked at the TV in surprise. “Oh! Well, it had been a really obnoxious commercial instead. The kind where they act like they think we’ll believe anything they say, no matter how stupid it is, as long as they use a weird sing-songy voice while wearing a costume. And you know those kind of commercials last forever.” He raised his eyebrows. “The only way we would fall for it would be if we were stupid like them.” His tone was one of relief that the Hardys obviously weren’t stupid.
Frank was listening to him, and agreeing, but he hadn’t let his little brother get away with not answering the original question. “So, why were you whistling?”
“Cause I wanted to.” Joe scooted forward and reached to pick up the TV remote from the coffee table. “Wanna watch the cartoon with me?”
“Sure.” Frank sat down on the couch, too, ready to watch the show, but still puzzling about what Joe’d been up to. It was a mystery.
Joe grinned a little. The gift had begun.
************
The younger Hardy brother wasn’t the only mysterious one. Later that day, after lunch, Frank waited until Joe was getting a box of decorations out of the built-in floor-to-ceiling cabinet in their family room at their mom’s request. He knew Joe would be busy with that task for at least ten or fifteen minutes. The box was behind other stuff, so it would require some moving things around to get to it.
So while Joe took care of that in the other room, his brother got out a long, narrow package that held Joe’s gift. Frank smiled, thinking about how delighted his little brother would be. They both enjoyed solving mysteries so much as they collected clues and put the information together to find the answers. That made Frank certain that a present of a mystery to solve would be fun for both brothers. Joe finding the rest of his gift would mean he’d been successful in solving it.
Frank had thought long and hard about all of the details, having mapped it out carefully for days. Now it was green light time. He knew he couldn’t make it too easy for a couple of reasons. One, he didn’t want Joe to solve it too fast. And for another, his younger brother enjoyed a good challenge.
Now for the first clue, thought Frank to himself as he put the gift back in its hiding place then went to the brothers’ train set. Opening the box they kept it in, he selected a direction sign with an arrow on it. Yep, Frank nodded, perfect. He grinned and took the piece to Joe’s desk and set the arrow sign down. Joe would definitely notice it and have a million questions. All of which he would have to sleuth and find out the answer, which would be a lot of fun.
************
Frank was right in his ten to fifteen minute guesstimate. It had taken Joe about twelve minutes to successfully get the box full of decorations and bring it to his mom. Joe’s imagination had turned it into an adventure by making believe the process of getting to the box was perilous.
“Thank you, Joe,” his mom smiled at him as he triumphantly presented the requested container to her.
“Happy to be of service. It was touch and go at times, but danger is the name of the game.” He gave a snappy salute and turned with sharp precision. He’d been practicing. And his dad was a real Marine.
With that job complete, and after checking to see where his brother was right then, Joe went to fix up the first clue for Frank about his gift. As he climbed the carpeted stairs to the second floor Joe grinned and thought to himself, Now for Operation-Mystery-Gift-For-My-Brother-With-A-Mystery-He-Has-To-Solve-Before-He-Can-Have-The-Mystery-Gift. He liked giving long names to adventures. That qualified as one.
Hmmmm, what’s this? Joe paused as he spotted the miniature road sign sitting on his desk, where he’d already been heading for. The clue for Frank was in the drawer, but he had to investigate this first. Joe could see that it was from their train set. Before picking it up, he noted where the arrow was pointing and tried to determine if there were any other clues to be found. Knowing how his brother thought, Joe tried to read the clue as Frank would. Joe knew the details were important, but could be a red herring. The arrow’s direction, location on the desk, the train set it was from, any or all of these things could be a clue or clues. It’s an arrow, on a sign, pointing to….Joe’s blue eyes again traced the invisible line from the arrow to the bookcase. The closest book was on the other side of the wooden side.
Even though he knew which book it was, he still stepped over in front of the shelves. A dictionary stared back at him, taunting him to guess if that was the clue or if it was one of the trillion gazillion words in the volume. Nah. Joe shook his head. This was for fun, so his brother wouldn’t be cruel and expect him to read the WHOLE dictionary…right?
Joe decided that was correct. Still, that didn’t solve the mystery of the clue, but it did narrow down the possible answers, so he felt pretty good about that. There were mystery and adventure books as well as a historical book or two on the rest of the bookshelf with the dictionary. Plenty to puzzle on more, which he would, right after he took care of the first clue for Frank’s mystery and gift.
Going back over to the desk, Joe slid open the deeper bottom drawer and lifted out a few things to get to the clues he had hidden. Selecting what he wanted, he closed the drawer and stood back up, looking at the clue he held with a grin of approval. Yep, good start.
Joe placed it on Frank’s bed and then went back to deciphering the arrow direction sign clue.
************
That evening, a while after the Hardy family had dinner, the brothers went upstairs to get ready for bed then they could come back to the living room to watch a movie together with their parents.
Frank’s attention immediately went to the clue Joe had placed on the bedspread. He picked up the picture of a sea. Several possible ideas came to him. He took note of the facts. It was an actual picture, not a drawing or painting. The majority of the scene was the body of water. It looked like a sea or ocean, not a creek, or river. A little bit of sky was showing and there were no boats or anything visible in the water. Something about the type of water? Salt water? Location? Or maybe something connected, yet not pictured, maybe to do with a boat?
As these things went through his mind, Frank sensed his younger brother observing him. And grinning.
“Whatcha got there?” asked Joe, purposely sounding overly nonchalant.
“Nice photo of a lot of water.”
“Make you thirsty?”
“No, not really.” Frank continued to watch his brother’s face in his peripheral. Was Joe’s question a clue or a not-clue? Frank was leaning toward the second idea.
“Oh, I wanted to ask if you were playing with the train earlier. You left one of the road signs on my desk.” Joe decided to see if he could get any extra info from Frank.
“Did you put it back?”
“Thought I’d leave it there for a little while.”
Frank started for Joe’s desk. “I can put it back.”
“That’s ok. I can.” Joe didn’t want it moved since it was a clue. Now he wasn’t sure he should have brought it up. It would be just like his brother to put the sign aka clue away just to kid him. Glancing over at Frank, Joe caught the quick grin on his brother’s face. Yep, he was kidding him.
They finished getting ready for bed, even as they puzzled on the mysteries. Then the brothers joined their mom and dad in the living room. They enjoyed the movie and they also had fun thinking on the clues they’d left for one another as well as wondering what the next clue would be. In between clues there was about to be some other surprises and adventure.
❄A CLUE TO CHAPTER TWO ~ EREH KCILC/PAT❄
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Hardy and Drew Mysteries 