Walk Me Down The Hallway

Chapter 16- Off On An Adventure

"If you want to explore the south wing, you take one of the boys with you," my mother stated, turning to point the spatula in her hand at me wildly. "And that's final young lady."

"But Moooooom," I whined, sticking my bottom lip out of my mouth in a pout, "All the boys are at the wrestling match in Cobourg, and won't be back until next week."  And of course, because my life is so perfect, and nothing goes wrong, like ever -note sarcasm- just as I was certain my mother was about to let me go explore by myself, who walked in but Mr Player himself.

"Aha!" My mother declared, pointing her grease covered spatula at Mal, "He can go with you!"

"Whatever it is, no," he said dryly, grabbing an apple off the kitchen table and taking a huge bite of it.

"No way Mom, I'm not going anywhere with him."  He turned to grin at me, swallowing his bite of apple, before he raised one eyebrow.

"You'd hate it if I came with you, right?"

"Yes," I answered immediately.

"And it would drive you nuts if I followed you around all day?"

"Uh huh..." I trailed off, unsure with where he was going with this.  I realized immediately what was going on though, when he turned to my Mom with a wide smile on his face that he reserved only for the use of charming people, and said;

"Then Mrs. Tromp, I would love to accompany Analee on her exploration."

"NO WAY!" I shouted, at the same time my Mother said "Okay!".  I turned to glare at him angrily, slamming up from the table and stomping out of the kitchen.  He followed closely behind, keeping just enough distance between us that I wouldn't be able to hit him without him seeing it coming.

"Oh, is little-miss-princess upset that she didn't get her way?" he asked, mocking me with a voice that could only be safely called baby talk.  It was irritating. It was annoying.  It made me want to kill him.

"Here, I realize that you probably have better things to do, like knocking up half of my varsity cheerleading squad, so I appreciate the offer, but just run a long now, I'll be perfectly fine exploring on my own."

"Actually, knocking them all up is on my agenda for friday," he said dryly, rolling his eyes.  "And I honestly don't have anything better to do, so lead the way Indiana Jones."

"Shut up," I snarled, stalking down the hallway.  I hoped that if I walked quickly enough, he would give up.  But he didn't.  The fact that he was over five inches taller than me probably gave him an advantage though. 

"Where are we going?"

"To the south wing."

 "Why can't you go alone?"

 "I can, just leave and I'll be fine."

 "No.  Why can't you?"

 "It's closed off."

 "Then how do you plan on getting in?"

 "Quietly," I snapped sarcastically, turning to face him.  "It's been closed off since the 1918, when world war two ended."  He nodded mutely, and continued to follow me down the hallway without a word, which I thanked God for. Profusely.  The less he talked, the less murderous I felt.

 I made my way down the left fork in my hallway, and continued until we reached a long segment of door-less wall.

 "Well, this is it," I murmured, pointing at the only part of the house that didn't have oak paneling on the walls.