The Secret of the Water

Chapter 7: The Secret of the Water

The next day we set out just like before, only George picked us up instead of me and Leah having to ride the bus. He didn't have to work today, so we had the whole day ahead together with him and Liam.

We had eaten breakfast before going out, so today we headed straight for the dock. Liam met us there in a small pickup truck.

We fished for about an hour and a half, like we had done yesterday, and successfully caught nine fish all together- two of them being mine. It was a fun morning, and I had hope that it was going to be a great afternoon. I wanted to start looking for the old house, and with George and Liam being able to drive it would be a lot easier. They didn't know yet that we were planning to find the house today after fishing, but I decided that it probably won't be a big problem since the address that my brother gave me was not too far from here. I typed the address into my phone's GPS while Liam was packing up the fishing gear. The GPS showed that the house was 8.3 miles from the fishing dock. So it will probably take about ten or fifteen minutes to get there. I walked up to Leah and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Did you tell George about the plan for today?" I asked her. "I'm going to tell Liam after he's all packed up."

"Yeah," she answered. "I told him that we were going to go take a look at the place where you used to live, and he offered to drive us there. He just gets sweeter everyday!"

"That's great! I will probably ride with Liam though, since he has his own car with him."

I walked back over to Liam and told him the plan.

"Awesome," he said. "It would be cool to see an old place from your past. I like the way you think." He winked at me and we got into the car. I yelled at Leah and George to follow us and we started for the old house.

I was so excited that we were finally going to see the old place. I had always imagined what it would be like, and since I've already explored the city, this was the last place I needed to go to get a real feel for my past. I felt like I had butterflies in my stomach as we got closer and closer to the house; but not just any butterflies- the kind that do somersaults and bounce all around.

I wasn't expecting to find out any secrets today, like whatever secret mom was hiding from me, but I just wanted to see where I lived when the first few years of my life began.

I checked the GPS on my phone. One mile to go!

My heart almost skipped a beat as we turned onto Waver Lane. I skimmed the houses on the right for number 325. We kept riding down the long street, and as we passed more houses, suddenly there were no more houses, but instead just a spot along the water where about a dozen docks had boats parked beside.

"Where's the house?" I asked aloud. "These are just boats. My brother must have gotten the wrong address."

"Actually," said Liam, "These are house boats." He pulled over into a nearby parking lot.

"What? Are you telling me that 325 Waver Lane is the address of a house boat? That I used to live on a boat?"

"I guess so. Let's go check it out!"

I was surprised. I guess that is one secret revealed that I never expected, but there had to be more to the story. Why would we live on a boat?

We walked down a path with Leah and George as we looked beside each boat for the house number. We passed many interesting boats as we got closer and closer to 325. Some were small, some were big, and some had cool features to them, such as an old, wooden, antique feel, or a modern day diving board attached to the rear of one of the boats.

Then we finally reached 325. But there was no boat in its spot; just a lot of flowers on the dock where it used to be. It looked like someone had closed down this dock and turned it into a garden. But why? Now I was really curious. I had to know. I needed to know all the secrets about my past here, and I was going to find out.