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The Real Face of Adventure
When she opened the mailbox on
the first day of summer break, Molly Pepper found three pieces of mail. The
first two items did not seem all that interesting: one, a Woman’s Day magazine;
two, her final report card on which she already knew mostly C’s would be
hogging all the white space; and three, a small, crème-colored envelope
with her name on it.
That was the most interesting
discovery. Molly could not recall the last time she had ever received anything
in the mail. Not only was the crisp, smooth envelope addressed to her, but it
also lacked both a return address and a stamp. No stamp meant
somebody had sidestepped the
entire mail system altogether
and placed this exact letter into her mailbox, probably this very day.
Molly popped a cinnamon bear
into her mouth and peered over her shoulder for any chance that the owner of
the envelope might still be watching her. All she discovered behind her,
however, was the sound of the distant ferry whistling through the salty air, and
the passing by of an old, white convertible spewing a fume of exhaust in its
wake. She coughed in protest, and then ducked behind a lone, thick palm tree,
in case she was mistaken. She wasn’t going to take any chances. Who knew what
might be out there, hiding in the shadows, watching her every move?
For twenty-point-five seconds,
Molly chewed on the remainder of cinnamon goo in her mouth and held her
position while surveying the neighborhood for any sign of bedlam.
But, she hated to admit;
everything appeared just as it should.
Same as always.
With a sigh, Molly tucked her
report card into her back pocket for safekeeping and reemerged from behind the
palm tree, doing her best to appear carefree. But it was more difficult than
she’d hoped, especially after her detour to the side of the house where she deposited
the Woman’s Day magazine into the recycle bin.
Secretly stashing unwanted
mail had been her routine for the last few months. She’d taken it upon herself
to bury any rogue reminders of her mother under a pile of crumpled newspapers
before her dad ever had a chance to see them. Molly figured it was better she
deal with the mess of their new life than him. Especially
today, the first day of summer break that was supposed to be filled with the promise of adventure…not reminders
of broken promises.
The house
was quiet when Molly stepped inside, except for the sound of her dad’s daytime
snores flooding the hallways like an occasional blast of an off-tune trombone.
That
sound this time of morning always put Molly in a despondent mood because it
meant change—an unwanted, unrequested
change she hadn’t yet grown used to. Secretly, she wished her dad would learn
how to sleep in silence. Then, she could live under the ruse that her life
remained the same as last summer when the world was still the kind of place in
which most people liked to stay put.
At the
kitchen table, Molly pushed aside yesterday’s mail to make room for the letter.
Her letter.
Now, the
moment of truth. She hesitated before opening it, trying to guess just what it
could be…a note from a secret admirer? A party invitation? Russian correspondence?
She
sucked in a deep, audible breath. Then, on the count of three she exhaled and
popped open the pointed flap.
A thick,
crème-colored note slipped out onto the table, revealing a simple sentence
printed in black ink, each line spaced evenly from top to bottom.
IF ADVENTURE
IS YOUR DESIRE
GO TO
174 CANDLESTICK HILL
AT
NINE O’CLOCK TONIGHT
NO SOONER
NO LATER
Well. There
wasn’t a question in Molly’s mind about her desire for adventure. In fact, if
anybody desired adventure more than her, she would like to meet them
face-to-face just to see what the real
face of adventure looked like. Because she was pretty sure the freckled face
she met in the mirror each morning silently begged for something more than
this—more than entertaining herself all summer long while her father worked two
shifts at the police department and slept it off the next morning.
Adventure
was the easy part.
The difficulty about this whole message, if
Molly chose to follow the card’s directions after all (and she was definitely
still debating the whole idea), was the
getting-to-the-top-of-Candlestick-Hill-without-passing-out part.
See,
Candlestick Hill was the steepest hill in all of California. In fact, if Blue
Rock Island were situated a little closer to Canada instead of in the middle of
the San Francisco Bay, Candlestick Hill would make the world’s best ski run.
But, a thick blanket of fog was as close to white the island ever got, making
Candlestick Hill a nightmare instead of the attraction it could be.
Therefore,
a little skepticism about the mysterious message was in order. The more Molly
thought about it, the more she wondered if perhaps somebody was playing a joke
on her just to get her to climb the murderous hill for nothing.
Who would do something like that?
Molly
chewed on that thought along with
another
cinnamon bear, and drummed her fingers along the tabletop, trying to come up
with a few criteria. First off, somebody with easy access to her mailbox;
secondly, somebody creative enough to make up the whole idea in the first
place; and lastly but most importantly, somebody who knew Molly well enough to
play on her longing for adventure.
Somebody
probably like…
“What’s
that?” asked a voice coming from a space right behind her.
Molly
coughed on her cinnamon bear and whirled around as the beginning of a scream
eked its way out of her throat. She stopped just before it grew loud enough to wake
her dad. “Noah!” Molly hit her next-door neighbor on the arm. “Why are you
sneaking up on me?”
“I’m not.
You didn’t answer when I knocked, and I know your dad’s rule about ringing the
doorbell, so…”
“You
could have warned me! I thought you were a burglar.”
Noah
Wonderly rubbed his arm and pulled out a chair beside Molly. “I’m sorry. But, I
did knock, you know.”
Molly
slid the mysterious note across the table. “Do you have any idea what this is?”
she asked, getting right down to business.
She
wanted to gauge Noah’s reaction, certain if he were behind it, the truth would
reveal itself immediately. He could never withhold information without the
whole truth bleeding out through his shifty brown eyes and seesawing smile.
Because of that, Noah was a terrible secret-keeper and an even worse actor.
When they
were kids, Noah was the lousiest performer in the history of neighborhood
plays, resulting in Molly having to play both Darth Vader and Princess Leia (which didn’t turn out so well). Even now, Molly
could tell by the way Noah shifted his eyes to the right whenever they made eye
contact that he had a crush on her.
But, she
was careful not to let on because she wasn’t quite sure how she felt about him.
Not yet.
Noah
picked up the crème-colored note and studied both sides of it very
thoughtfully, as if taking a test. His eyes narrowed as he mouthed the words of
the message quietly to himself.
Molly
couldn’t stand how long he took just to consider a few words on a piece of
paper, and immediately concluded that he was much too serious to be part of any
practical joke. She snatched the note back from him, a little
relieved.
“Is it
some kind of joke?” he asked, helping himself to the bag of cinnamon bears
lying open on the table. She allowed it.
“I thought the same thing,” she said, glad she
wasn’t the only one to jump to conclusions.
“Who’s it
from?”
“I don’t
know. I found it in the mailbox.”
Noah
glanced at the note. “Well, are you going to go up there tonight?”
Molly
thought for a minute, but still didn’t know what her answer should be. She
wanted to go. The promise of adventure had definitely piqued her interest. But,
at the same time, she felt this deep, lurking fear building up inside her. What
if she went all the way up there, only to be met with…nothing?
“Not
sure,” Molly said. “I have to think about it for a little while. I’m trying to
decide if it will even be worth the climb.”
“I don’t
think you should go.”
She
looked up, surprised. “Why not?”
“I just
don’t trust it,” he said, revealing a bit of the blood-red remains of his
demolished cinnamon bear. “What if it really is a joke?”
Molly
sunk back into her chair, not sure what she should do. She had hoped for a
little more support from him than this.
Noah
remained quiet, his mind searching for a solution, a way to help Molly without
her having to risk falling victim to some kind of mischief. Noah Wonderly was
that kind of friend—the kind to back you up when you didn’t know where to go
next, and the kind to offer up solutions to problems that weren’t even his.
Molly almost always felt happier when he was around; he had his own way of
making everything look brighter, even on a foggy day. San Francisco had a lot
of foggy days.
And he
also usually smelled like a clean
laundry room.
Though,
that didn’t mean Molly liked Noah, or
anything.
“What
about your dad? Would he drive you up and check it out for you?” Noah asked,
dropping his chin on his hands.
“Nope.
He’ll be at work. Plus, policemen don’t approve of this kind of
correspondence.”
“You
mean, like secret messages?”
“Yes.
Secret messages. Not exactly a police-approved activity. We’ll have to keep
this one under wraps. Which means if my dad starts asking questions, you’d
better leave. He’ll be able to tell you’re hiding something just by looking at
you.”
“What? No
he won’t!” Noah jerked upright and ran his hands through his dark hair, as if
proving he was smooth and had skills.
Molly
pointed a finger. “That look on your face right now…guilty.”
“What are
you talking about?” A hesitant smile spread across Noah’s face, despite his
every effort to tame it.
Molly
laughed.
“What’s
so funny?” asked Noah, laughing now, too, though he wasn’t sure what he was
even laughing about. But, that was the thing about Molly, and the whole reason
he liked her. Everything about Molly Pepper was contagious, making it that much
harder to be around her when she was sad.
Molly
looked up at him. “If I decide to go, will you come with me?”
Noah
wasn’t sure about that. Did he want to go? Not really—who wanted to climb
Candlestick Hill ever? Plus, he
wasn’t very excited about chasing after an anonymous prankster. It just
seemed…stupid, and maybe even a little bit dangerous.
On the
flipside, he never turned down an opportunity to hang out with Molly,
especially when it meant the chance to prove he was brave and strong and all
that other macho stuff girls liked. What guy wouldn’t want that?
But,
first, he thought he might as well ring in a favor in exchange, and hoped Molly
wouldn’t run away screaming at his request. Especially when she found out there
might be spiders involved. “Yes,” he said with his shifty eyes. “But I need you
to help me with something, first.”
ChApter 2
The car
backfired when it pulled into the neighborhood, which was the last thing Ruby
Dodd wanted to happen seeing as how she was supposed to be undercover.
Why the
bureau didn’t give her something a little more inconspicuous, maybe something made
in this decade instead of the one in
which she was born, was beyond her. But, she had a job to do, and complaining
about vehicle options was not it.
The ferry
ride over had been uneventful, just like every other day for the past month.
Although, this morning Ruby couldn’t figure out how the ferry captain could see
through the fog enough to land safely on Blue Rock Island instead of crashing
into the rocks at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge.
She was
relieved when they docked right on time at ten am. The drive to Penny Lane was
a mere five minutes, and she parked in her usual spot around the corner from
the stucco rambler, close enough to see the front of the house…but not so close
that she would be spotted.
Ruby eyed
her watch and started counting down. She had a feeling something would happen
today. It was June 13th, Moody’s five-year anniversary. Just
thinking about it made her exhausted—five years of following clues all leading
to dead-ends.
Until
now.
She was
this close. This close!
At the
thought of victory, Ruby smiled, until a UPS deliveryman wearing brown shorts
and a brown shirt emerged from the fog. She sat up straight in her seat when he
stopped in front of the small, stucco house and placed something the size of a
letter inside the mailbox.
Ruby
looked around for any sign of his truck. Certainly he had other packages to
deliver? But, just as she suspected, the UPS man walked to the end of the
street, turned the corner, and disappeared. The fog seemed to blot out his
existence.
Ruby
panicked. She didn’t know whether to chase after the man or try to intercept
the correspondence inside the mailbox before it was discovered.
She
jumped out of her car, ready to spring to action, but stopped at the sight of
Molly Pepper already standing in front of the mailbox, peering inside.
Shoot!
Now it
was too late. The UPS man had vanished, and Molly Pepper had already found his
message.
That left
Ruby with no other choice. Today she would follow that girl’s every move.
About the Author
A year after the world was thrown into magical chaos, Harrison Cody takes part in an expedition to learn the cause.
Edward Aubry is a graduate of Wesleyan University, with a degree in music composition. Improbably, this preceded a career as a teacher of high school mathematics and creative writing.
