At his response I wasn’t very shocked. I mean like what I saw, was it a ghost? , a reflection? , or is that mirror something that was just invented this year that sets the movies in your room? (I know it’s crazy but that would be cool.)
I figured I should do some research.
“Come on guys, let’s go.”
After dinner would be good.
Caleb didn’t speak the entire ride to the restaurant. He looked like he was in a deep thought, and I don’t see that very often. Ill try to talk to him when we get back.
Our dinner was very good. Every bite I took it felt like I was tasting it for the first time and loving it. We went out for ice cream. Which we almost always do when we’re on vacation. The store next to the ice cream parlor looked like an old paper printers shop; it had many news papers in the front window. In the dim light of the sunset, I could almost make out the date on one of them: Saturday, June 26th, 1956. But then on another I could only make out the headline, “Local Family Disappears after Storm.” Even though I couldn’t see the date I felt it related to the house. Another was from last month “Flipping to First.” Then had a picture of a man with a golden spatula and an apron that said, “Kiss the BBQer.” Wow, probably every news paper ever made was in there.
Just then an elderly man and a young boy, probably about my age, walked up to the shop door.
“‘Scuse me miss.” The older man said and started to unlock the door.
“Um, is this your shop?” I asked. To tell you the truth I’m not that good speaking to people.
“Shop, house whatever you want to call it.”
“Oh, well I just had a question about that paper down there.” I pointed to the paper in the corner of the window. “About the disappearing family.”
At that, the boy with him, who must have been his grandson, looked up at me. I realized how cute he was. Light brown hair slightly curled around dark hazel eyes. He was tall, but still looked like he had a little more time to grow. He wore kaki shorts and a t-shirt for the surf shop down the street. He looked like a surfer.
“Oh, you don’t want to get involved with that, dear.” Said the man and walked through the door. “Come on Nick.”
The boy, who must have been Nick, walked toward me.
“Tourist?” he asked.
“How could you tell?”
“A: I’ve never seen you before and B: most girls from here have never asked about the Merriam family mystery.”
“Oh, well than yeah, we’re from Charlotte. I’m Chloe. And how would you know about all that stuff?”
He gestured to the shop. “I live here; haft to do something over summer, so I usually read all of the news papers and since 1910 nobody has brought up that old lighthouse story.” He sighed “An unsolved mystery.”
“Lighthouse?”
“Yep, old Bodie down on the cove. They’re restoring it back to shape since the storm in 1902 nearly blew off the top. I don’t know why they waited so long to start construction. I guess it freaked some people out to go up there so they just left it. It’s nearly done now; they’re trying to make it a residential place to raise more money. But I wouldn’t want to go in there; no one knows what happened to the family who last lived there. Place could be cursed.”
“Cursed?” I tried not to make eye contact, no matter how much I wanted to.
“Some say.” He shrugged.
“How old are you?”
“14”
“Oh cool, Ill be 14 later this month. And you just read all these out of date news papers when you have nothing else to do?”
“Pretty much.”
“Oh, you can come in handy.” I thought out loud, which I didn’t mean to.
“Come in handy with what?” he asked. He seemed to have some excitement in his voice.
“Oh nothing, just thinking out loud.”
“No you’re hiding something. I can tell. What is it?”
“Well we’re staying in that house. And some strange stuff was going on--.”
“Strange stuff? Like what?”
“Well I thought I saw a little girl, like in a reflection.”
His eyes got wide at this. “Come here.” He said and started to walk into the shop where he turned to the window and picked up the old news paper very gently. “This little girl?” He moved the paper toward me and pointed to a girl who was held by her father. Standing next to him was a woman and below her was a boy. The girl looked to be around 6 and the boy 10 or 11.
“Yeah! I saw her, and I think so did my brother my brother but I’m not sure.”
“Ok there is a whole story behind this that has been eating at my mind since I read this story. No one has ever been interested in this before but I think I just found someone who has!” He looked up form the picture and into my eyes and smiled, “We can solve this!” He said. And I smiled back completely interested.
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Authors note: YELLO PEOPLE!!!
i hope ur enjoying it keep committing and voting!
<3 SLC=*
