The Delaware Detectives

by Dana Rongione

  Chapter Two:

  An Introduction

  Before we go any further, let me fill you in on a few things. My name is Abby Patterson. My brother, Jamie, and I are staying with my grandfather for the summer. We live in the beautiful state of South Carolina. When Dad changed jobs, we moved there from Delaware. I was little and Jamie was still a baby. We have lived in South Carolina for about seven years now, and during that time we haven’t had many opportunities to see other members of our family. It’s very hard to make a trip to Delaware during the school year, and the holidays are usually too busy for us to make long visits. So, Mom and Dad thought it would be a good idea for Jamie and me to spend the entire summer in Delaware with Pop-Pop. We thought it was a good idea too. . .until we got here.

  Don’t get me wrong; Pop-Pop is great, and we have enjoyed getting to spend time with him. But, while he’s at work all day (he owns and manages the town's grocery store), Jamie and I are bored senseless. Why? Well, let me set the scene for you.

  Delaware is a very small, very flat state. Being from the Piedmont region of South Carolina, we are used to mountains. Nope! No mountains here! They don’t even have hills around here, but let me tell you what they do have—cornfields and chicken houses. Yep, you heard me. As far as the eye can see (and the nose can smell), there are rows and rows of cornfields and chicken houses.

  For the first few days of summer vacation, Jamie and I enjoyed playing hide-and-seek in the cornfields. But since we could never find each other and we each got lost more times than we could count, we lost interest in that idea. So, that left the chicken houses. No, thank you! They smell bad enough on the outside. I have no desire to smell the inside.

  Pop-Pop lives in Lewistown, a small town in the upper part of the state. When I say “small town,” I mean it is one of those places where everyone knows everyone. It makes the town that I’m from seem like New York City. Anyway, the people here are really nice. It’s just that Jamie and I don’t really know any of them, so we don’t go into town much. That leaves the neighborhood, which consists of about a dozen houses and a small park. We went to the park a few times and had fun. Unfortunately, it has rained for the past six days. I’m not talking about a light misting. No! I’m talking about Noah's ark rain. . .for six days!

  After two days of being cooped up, Jamie and I were borderline crazy. We tried watching television, but Pop-Pop doesn’t have cable. He only gets three boring local stations, which he calls “Country Cable.” We thought of reading, but we each brought only a couple of books, and we read through those the first day. It was on the fifth rainy day that I came up with the idea to explore Pop-Pop’s huge two-story house. And that is how we ended up in the attic.

  Oh, one more thing before we get back to the story. Jamie and I spent another hour looking through that stamp collection. We removed several stamps from all the other pages looking for more clues. There weren't any. That one clue is all we have to go on. . .if it is really a clue.