The boys walked along the street, not speaking as they passed Mr. Casey’s house. Mr. Casey was cutting his lawn again as they waved hello. He nodded back with his usual scowl.
“I think blade number 233,487 is out of place,” said Mark once Mr. Casey turned away with his mower.
They laughed at Mark’s sarcasm as the noise of the mower drowned out their voices.
Ben Casey cut his lawn every second day, even if it was raining a little. Everyone in town knew it was his obsession. His yard was always beautifully maintained and he stood guard over it, grunting at anyone who came too close. Because the Gupta’s lived across the street, Mark had cut Ben’s lawn a few times after Ben sprained his ankle the previous summer.
“Every time I cut it, he made me go over it three times. He kept saying ‘It isn’t right, do it over.’ ” Mark imitated Ben’s gruff voice. “He paid me well, but I’m never doing that again!”
The boys chuckled and continued walking. They turned the corner at the hotel and walked toward the store. The smell of food followed them from the hotel, where the bar doubled as a restaurant during the day.
“We could go out to the station and talk to Mark’s dad and Mr. Chen,” said Kevin, returning them to the subject they had all been thinking about.
Adam shook his head. “You heard George. He’s tried to talk to Mr. Gupta without any luck. I don’t think we’d get any more answers than he did.”
“I don’t think Dad knows anything anyway,” said Mark. “He couldn’t even keep it secret that he was taking Mom to Mexico for their anniversary. Before he could even surprise her, Aggie and Martha asked Mom if she was excited about her trip to Cancun. Dad swears he didn’t say anything, but he had to have told a lot of people ‘cause he doesn’t exactly hang out with those two old quacks.”
“Yeah, but this seems like a secret you’d take to your grave,” said Adam.
“True, but I’ve known him my whole life, and I just can’t imagine him knowing something that secret. It would almost make him cool.” Mark laughed at the thought.
“Maybe we should go dig around in the Town Archives. We might find something there,” said Kevin.
Mark looked at Kevin like he was speaking another language. “Town Archives? What are you talking about?”
Kevin and Adam looked at each other puzzled.
“The Town Archives? In the basement of Town Hall? We went there on a field trip in Grade Three?” said Kevin.
“That was the Town Archives? I just remember a lot of boring old pictures, and it smelled funny.”
Kevin had a grin on his face. “You were more interested in the free doughnuts anyway!”
“Ha ha, funny. Although I do remember the doughnuts.” Mark’s eyes glazed over.
“Anyway, Kev, that sounds like a good idea,” said Adam. “Let’s see if anyone’s there and if they’d let us look around.”
“Let’s stop and get a drink on the way,” Mark interrupted as they neared the grocery store.
“Umm - how about not. You don’t need it,” said Kevin. “I’m sure there’s a water fountain at the town office if you’re thirsty.” Kevin knew Adam didn’t have any money and wouldn’t take a hand-out. Avoiding the store just avoided any awkwardness.
Mark picked up on it, but still had a little tantrum. “Yes Mom.” he replied.
They turned the corner onto Main Street and immediately saw Town Hall at the end. It was a stone building that looked more like a church than a town office. It had a tall steeple with a clock on the front, built into a section of the roof that covered the double door entrance. Four large pillars supported the overhanging roof. The building looked strange in the town of 250 people, much more suited for City Hall in a small city rather than in a tiny prairie town.
“Looks pretty deserted. Maybe we should come back tomorrow,” said Mark.
“Mrs. Jones only lives a block away. You can’t tell if anyone’s here until you try the door. You just don’t want to go into the basement again,” said Kevin.
“N-no, that’s not it,” Mark stammered.
Adam walked up to the double-doors and tried one handle. It was unlocked, so he opened the door and stuck his head inside.
“Hello,” he called, hoping to hear Mrs. Jones reply.
Nothing.
“Hello,” he called again. Someone had to be there. The door was unlocked.
He stepped inside and motioned for the others to follow.
“Hello,” came a voice from far back in the building.
The boys didn’t recognize the voice because it came from so far away. They looked at each other and Adam shrugged. He walked toward the reception desk and the source of the reply. Usually, Jimmy’s mother Lora was sitting at the desk, but she wasn’t there at the time.
Adam raised his voice, “We’re hoping to look through the archives, if you’ll let us.”
“Hang on,” came the voice from a distance.
Adam looked at the other two and mouthed, “I think it’s Wyndum.”
Kevin and Mark hung their heads. The last thing they wanted was to listen to Jeff telling them how to be more like him. They’d heard it all before - multiple times. Everyone avoided Jeff so much that when he did get a captive audience, it was usually a long and painful event.
Mark started to turn toward the door, but Kevin grabbed him giving him a disapproving look. Mark hung his head, disappointed that his friends wouldn’t let him get away.
They heard a door open and saw Jeff appear far down the hallway leading to the reception area. He walked to the front desk with a large grin on his face – he had an audience!
“Sorry about that, I was just working on important Mayor stuff. Too important to go into details with you right now.” The look on his face screamed ‘I’m important - just ask me.’
“So what can I do for you boys? Need some advice about girls? I’m pretty successful with them you know. Don’t know how I get time when I’m in the big city at Mayor meetings and everything.”
“Actually, Mr. Wyndham, we were just wondering if we could look through the archives,” said Adam.
“That’s pretty boring on a summer holiday, isn’t it? It’s a nice day out. You should be riding bikes on the bike track. You know, I was a pretty great bike racer in my day. They called me ‘Windy Windham’ because I rode like the wind. That was before the internet and cell phones and stuff like that…”
“We’re just going to help Adam look for pictures of his Dad,” Mark interrupted. “His mom doesn’t have many … and … we thought there might be some in the archives.” Adam was impressed with Mark’s cover story. He realized that they should have thought about it before walking in the door.
The look on Jeff’s face changed when Mark mentioned Adam’s father. Most of the townspeople had sympathy for Adam, having lost his father so young.
“Oh … I see … Yeah … I guess there could be some pictures from baseball tournaments or church picnics in the files,” said Jeff. “I’ll let you go down and look for a while if you want. If you find any, you can make a copy at the photocopier over there,” he pointed to a machine in the corner. “That’s one of the best copiers out there. I researched it myself. Just 25 cents per copy and you can leave your money in the jar.”
“Thanks,” replied Adam.
“Follow me.”
Jeff led them to the back corner of the building where the narrow, poorly lit stairway led down. It made you feel that you descended far into the earth.
As they exited the stairway, Jeff turned on the lights and the boys realized that they really were quite far underground. The ceiling was at least 12 feet high. The main floor was just over ground-level, leaving no room for windows in the basement, which added to the feeling of depth. The ratty old wiring that ran the lights was completely exposed and looked like it could start a fire any moment. Everyone who saw the basement had an uneasy feeling, so it was almost always empty.
“You might find some pictures over in those files
.” Jeff pointed to a row of cabinets. “It’s all organized by year then alphabetically - that’s what I’ve been told. Oldest files in the cabinets on the left and they get newer to the right,” he pointed as he spoke. “I haven’t looked through any of them in years. Thank God for Lora. She keeps them all straight.”
“Ok, thanks,” said Adam, hoping Jeff would just go back upstairs for a while.
“Yeah, Lora … I wouldn’t be lost without her, but she takes care of all the boring stuff. I could do it, but I have more important things to manage. That’s what being at the top is all about. You have to have people beneath you to take care of the boring things and free you up to really manage. You know what I’m saying?”
The boys nodded, but weren’t really listening. They could tell that Jeff was about to give them a long boring speech about how great he was. If only his phone would ring and get him out of here, thought Adam.
“Where is Mrs. Jones?” asked Kevin.
“Oh, well, being that I’m a great manager, I gave her the afternoon off. Told her I’d watch the front desk for her.”
“Can you tell if someone comes in the door from down here?” asked Kevin, trying to lead Jeff to the obvious answer.
“No, there’s no way of hearing it. Too deep, and the floors are too thick…”
There was an odd pause as Jeff was slow to catch the train of thought.
“Now that you mention it, I’d better get back up there. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m slacking on the job. I have a reputation to uphold!”
With that, Jeff turned around and headed for the stairway. He paused and turned to face them again.
“I’ll come back and get you in about an hour when it’s almost closing time. If you have any questions or you’re done before that, just come up and find me. My office is across the hall from the top of the stairs.”
“Ok, thanks again,” said Adam ending the conversation.
Jeff winked, gave them a big smile that clearly meant ‘you owe me and I’ll make you pay later’, then turned and climbed the stairs.
After Jeff was gone, Mark put his face in his palm. “That guy is so annoying,” he said.
“Nice job getting him out of here Kev,” said Adam. Mark nodded in agreement.
“Thanks, but I just couldn’t stand listening to him anymore.”
Adam grinned.
“So where do we start?” asked Mark.
“Who knows? Just pick a cabinet and see what you can find. I doubt anything is filed under ‘S’ for secret, or ‘P’ for pin,” said Kevin.
With that, each boy found a filing cabinet and started searching. Adam began at the oldest section and the others spaced themselves over the rest with Mark at the end.
After some time, Mark called out, “Whoa! Guys…come look at this!”
Adam and Kevin ran over. He held a picture and turned it toward them. It was a picture of a two-headed calf.
“Why’d you call us over for this?” said Adam, a little upset.
“It’s kinda cool and gross at the same time! It’s from the Anderson’s farm in the 60’s. I heard someone talk about it once, but thought it was just a story.”
“Yeah, but you made us lose our spots. Next time it’s something cool, let us know before calling us over,” said Adam again, a little less upset. The two-headed calf was interesting.
They returned to the files and continued from where they had left off. There were pictures of church picnics, school functions and sporting events, but no records of anything they were looking for. The only picture they found of Edward McTaggart was a class picture in grade 8, around the same age as Adam. He was easy to spot because of the resemblance.
“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH….”
The loud scream from close behind made the boys jump. Kevin let out a very feminine whimper.
Jeff was laughing hard behind them. “S-s-sorry guys, I just had to. You were so intense looking at those files.”
The boys forced out a chuckle.
“Yeah, you got us good,” said Adam.
Jeff was clearly pleased with himself, although he could tell that Kevin wasn’t impressed, probably because of the whimper.
“I was just coming down to tell you it’s closing time soon. You’ve been here well over an hour.”
Adam looked at his watch and confirmed the time, surprised it had passed so fast.
“Are you or Mrs. Jones going to be here tomorrow?” Adam asked.
“I’m pretty sure that Lor…Mrs. Jones will be here. Are you intending to come back?”
Adam nodded. “I probably will, but I don’t know about these two.” He looked at his friends.
“Ok. Just don’t start acting like his neighbor,” said Jeff pointing at Mark, “We had to throw him out of here a few times when he didn’t want to leave.”
“Yeah, he’s unique, that’s for sure,” said Mark.
“Are there any other files that George wouldn’t have gone through?” asked Adam.
“Well, he went through everything down here, and there’s not really anything else on the main floor. I think he’s gone through it all.”
Adam was disappointed. He should have realized that George would have already gone through everything at Town Hall. George had even told them about going through the original buildings.
Jeff saw the disappointment on their faces. Kevin was still looking unhappy over his un-manly whimpering.
“Did anyone ever tell you about the secret door?” he asked.
The boys looked at each other, shrugging shoulders and indicating no knowledge.
“I didn’t think so. Only a few people even know about it. Come with me, I’ll show you.”
Adam went from disappointment to excitement in a heartbeat.
Jeff headed toward the corner of the basement opposite of the stairs. The boys were curious to see what Jeff was talking about, so they followed close behind.
He opened an old wooden door to a long, narrow storage room that ran along the back of the basement. As they stepped inside, they saw boxes of decorations stacked high throughout the room. Some of them looked as if they would topple over at any minute. Some were neatly stacked on shelves, yet others were stacked hap-hazard on the floor.
They wound their way through the maze of boxes trying not to trip or knock anything over. When they neared the corner that was under the stairs, the forest of boxes opened in a clearing.
In the dim lighting under the stairs Adam saw a dark panel on the wall. It didn’t look like a door, but more like a patch over a large hole in the wall, starting a few inches off the floor. It was made of individual boards running up and down with two boards nailed across to hold them all together. A large bolt in each corner seemed to anchor the panel to the wall.
“Here it is,” said Jeff, pointing at the panel.
“That’s a door?” said Mark
“Well, I don’t think the wood panel is a door. I think it’s covering an opening for a door that was never finished. Most people don’t agree with me and argue that it’s just covering some bad foundation work. I’m pretty good at construction though, if I do say so myself, and I think there’s a doorway behind this that they boarded up. The Fire Hall is on the other side of the park over there,” he pointed in the direction of the Fire Hall. “I think they meant to dig a tunnel to link the two and never finished it. There was another one just like this in the basement over there until they built the new fire-station.”
Adam looked carefully at the panel and then at the clearing while Jeff spoke. Why would someone leave this area free of boxes when the rest of the storage room is packed so tightly? he wondered.
“Do you have a light on your phone?” he asked Mark.
“Yeah,” he said reaching into his pocket, “but don’t use it too long or you’ll kill the battery.”
Mark tapped the screen a couple of times and a beam of light streamed from the back. Adam took the phone and pointed it first at the floor, then the surface of the panel. It looked old
and worn. Maybe they used old boards to build the panel? he thought.
Adam moved the light up and down the right side of the panel but didn’t see anything interesting. He continued with the light on the left side and stopped halfway up. The three boys gasped at the sight.
Perfectly formed in the cement was the bowtie symbol.
CHAPTER FIVE
Town Secrets - The Book of Adam 1 Page 6