by James Ponti
“It doesn’t just look like it,” Brown said.
“Are you serious?” Lorraine blurted out. “That’s Bono’s cowboy hat?”
“No, it’s my cowboy hat,” he said with a laugh. “But it used to be his. I tell you, that man is an amazing singer but a terrible poker player.”
Brown took off the hat and handed it to Colby.
“Take good care of that.”
“Yeah,” Lorraine said. “Chocolate and superstar memorabilia simply do not mix.”
Colby nodded and carefully placed the hat on his head. Suddenly, he felt just like a rock star.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
So far, the campers had found three of the six pieces of memorabilia. They were already halfway there and still had a few hours left until the concert was scheduled to start.
“You know, we just might make it,” Mitchie said excitedly. “Tess, let’s solve yours next.”
Tess smiled. “Are you sure?”
“I’m positive,” Mitchie said with a firm nod. “Show us what you’ve got.”
Tess reached into her envelope and pulled out her poem. Clearing her throat, she read it aloud:
“If you want to find that Motown sound,
You’ve got to turn the beat around.
Add only notes that are choice
And sing them with Aretha’s voice.”
When she was done, Tess looked around at the others to see if they had any ideas.
She was met with blank stares. Apparently, they didn’t.
“This was in the envelope, too,” she said as she pulled out the iPod. “It only has nine songs on it, all of them by an artist named Eivets Rednow.”
“Seriously?” Colby said.
“See for yourself,” she said, handing the iPod to him.
“What kind of name is Eivets?” Caitlyn asked.
“What era are you supposed to be again?” Shane asked.
“Soul. Rhythm and blues. The whole Motown sound.”
Lorraine noticed the note on the back of the iPod. “What’s that say?”
“You’re going to love this,” Tess answered. “It just says Stressed Reward.”
“Stressed reward?” Lorraine repeated. “What’s that mean?”
Tess laughed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out all day.”
“This is some good stuff,” Colby said, a little too loudly. He was wearing the headphones and jamming out to the music, so he had no sense of volume. “Eivets is an incredible harmonica player.”
Mitchie looked around the room and locked on to Brown’s record collection. It was huge and filled an entire wall. “Brown has a lot of albums. I wonder if he has any by Mr. Rednow.”
Shane thought that was a pretty good idea. “Let’s check it out. Would it be under E for Eivets or R for Rednow?”
“Check both,” she said.
“Be careful with my records,” Brown called from the other room where he had gone in order to be out of their way.
“I am being careful, Uncle Brown,” Shane answered, rolling his eyes good-naturedly.
Mitchie smiled. She knew just how it felt to have a relative at camp looking over your shoulder.
Shane quickly scanned the E’s and found Eivets Rednow right between the Eagles and Elvis.
“Here it is,” Shane said as he pulled the album from the shelf. He brought it over to the table and set it down.
“We’re still being careful,” Shane called out to his uncle as he handed it to Mitchie.
“Thank you,” Brown said.
The album cover didn’t give them much help. It just had a picture of a drum set. The name Eivets Rednow was written across the top.
“Well at least we know what his drums look like,” Lorraine said. “I only wish that helped us somehow.”
Caitlyn flipped it over and looked at the back. “There’s not even a picture of him. Who does that? It’s like he’s purposely trying to keep us from figuring out who he is.”
She set the album back down. Colby was still wearing headphones and rocking out to the harmonica music. “What about the sleeve?” he said. “Should we check that?”
He slid the sleeve out of the cover and looked at it while the others tried to think of a new direction to follow. Suddenly something caught Colby’s eye, and he leaned in close for a better look.
“Too funny,” he said with a laugh.
“What?” Tess asked.
“Listen to what it says here in tiny print across the top corner of the sleeve.” He read it to them. “ ‘How do you spell Stevie Wonder backward?’ ”
“What?” Mitchie asked him.
“That’s what it says right here.” He held it up for them to see.
“How do you spell Stevie Wonder backward,” Tess said, finally understanding it. “Eivets Rednow is Stevie Wonder spelled backward!”
It took the others a moment to run through it in their heads, but when they did they realized she was exactly right.
“Unbelievable,” Caitlyn said. “Why did he do that? Why did he release an album with his name spelled backward?”
“Would you like me to tell you?” Brown called from the other room.
“Please!” Caitlyn cried.
Brown entered the room and smiled. “Stevie Wonder was a big star who loved to play the harmonica so much he wanted to release a harmonica album. But his record label, Motown, didn’t want to confuse his fans by releasing an album without him singing on it. So they flipped his name around and released it that way.”
“That’s what it means in the poem when you say that in order to get the Motown sound, you’ve got to turn the beat around,” Tess exclaimed. “You’ve got to turn his name around.”
“Exactly.” Brown nodded.
“We have to go back to the catering truck,” Colby suddenly said.
“We do?” Shane asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, we do.”
Colby looked at Brown who flashed a congratulatory smile. “Well done, Colby,” he said, praising him. “I was worried no one would get that one.”
“What one?” Lorraine pleaded.
“Just follow me,” Colby said. “It will all become clear.”
When they got to the catering truck, all eyes turned to Colby. He had remained smugly silent for the entire walk.
“Okay,” Tess said when they arrived, “why are we here?”
“Stressed Reward!” Colby answered, as if that would make it all instantly clear.
He let them think about it for a moment, but no one seemed to understand what he was getting at.
“Do the same trick to it that Motown did to Stevie Wonder’s name,” he explained.
After a few moments Mitchie figured it out. “I don’t believe it. I do not believe it.”
“You should,” Colby said with a laugh. “And, if you hadn’t slapped my hand an hour ago we would have found Tess’s prize by accident.” “Do you mind telling the rest of us what you two are talking about?” Lorraine asked.
“Stressed Reward,” Mitchie said. “If you spell it backward like Eivets Rednow, it spells Desserts Drawer.”
Caitlyn started laughing hysterically. “That is too funny. You stopped him from opening it.”
“I know,” Mitchie said.
Tess opened the drawer marked DESSERTS. In it was an old-style microphone and a note. She took them out and read the note aloud.
“This microphone was used in concert by Aretha Franklin in 1974.” She held it for a moment and admired it. She may have been born rock royalty, but that didn’t mean she didn’t appreciate musical greatness. This was awe-inspiring. “You know, I’d say this pretty much makes cleaning bathrooms worth it.”
“Okay, Colby. You deserve another candy bar for that,” Mitchie said as she reached into the minifridge and pulled out the frozen treat. She tossed it to him. Instantly, he unwrapped it and started eating.
The catering truck was pretty crowded with the six of them, so they went back outside and sat down at a
nearby picnic table.
“Which clue do we try next?” Lorraine asked.
“Both,” Caitlyn said. “We’ve got a lot of brainpower here. Let’s put the last two clues on the table and figure these suckers out.”
Mitchie and Shane pulled out their clues and put them down. The others immediately began examining them.
Looking around the table, Mitchie felt a surge of happiness. When the day started, she had been worried about how it would feel when camp ended. She had been dreading this last day, but it had turned out to be so much fun. The six of them had been too busy chasing Brown’s clues around camp to worry about anything or to think about endings.
The best part was that they were all working together. There was no fighting or bickering. They weren’t competing. They were just six friends having a good time.
“I think I’ve got something,” Lorraine said, holding up Shane’s clue.
“I hope it doesn’t require any more digging,” Shane said.
“I don’t think so,” she replied. She pointed down at the poem:
You need to Let It Be
If you want to stay on track.
Take The Long and Winding Road,
Then Dig It and Get Back.
“Check out the capitalization,” she said. “Let It Be. The Long and Winding Road. Dig It. Get Back. They’re all capitalized. Those aren’t directions. Those are song titles.”
Shane groaned. Suddenly it seemed so obvious. “You’re absolutely right. Those are all Beatles songs.”
“I think we need to pay one more visit to Brown’s record collection,” Tess said.
Mitchie nodded. “I think you’re right.” They could go back to her clue later. There was no use in slowing down their momentum while the group was on a roll.
A few minutes later, they were all walking into Brown’s cabin for what felt like the umpteenth time.
“Welcome back,” Brown said with a smile as the campers trudged through the door. “So happy to see you again.”
“Do you mind if we look at your records one more time?” Caitlyn asked. “And we know. We’ll be careful.”
Brown smiled. “Go right ahead.”
Shane flipped through the B’s until he found The Beatles. He pulled the album Let It Be from the shelf.
“All right,” Shane said, looking at it. “I think the key is the word track.”
“Songs are called tracks, right? Maybe they’re referring to the track numbers,” Mitchie suggested.
“That’s a pretty good idea,” Shane said as he looked at them. “The Long and Winding Road is track ten. Dig It is track five. And Get Back is number twelve.”
“Ten-five-twelve?” Mitchie said, repeating the numbers. “What does that mean?”
“It sounds like a locker combination,” Colby joked.
“You know, it kind of does,” said Lorraine.
Suddenly Shane’s eyes grew wide. “It can’t be.”
“What?” Tess asked.
Shane took a deep breath and tried not to get too excited. “My uncle has one piece of music memorabilia that is so valuable to him he keeps it locked in a display case.”
“What is it?” Mitchie asked, getting very excited.
“I don’t even want to say it out loud,” Shane said. “Let’s just go check it out. I’m sure I’m wrong. Uncle Brown would never . . .” His voice trailed off as he led them into Brown’s study. On the wall was a wood-and-glass display case that held an electric guitar. On the bottom of the case was a combination lock.
“Ten-five-twelve,” Mitchie reminded him.
Shane took another deep breath and tried the numbers. When they were set, he pressed the release button. The case popped open.
“Uncle Brown,” he said, shaking his head, “I can’t play this guitar.”
Brown was now standing at the door. “Oh, yes, you can,” he said. “You’ve grown up a lot this summer. I am so proud of you. And you are more than ready to play that guitar.”
“Whose guitar is it?” Tess asked.
Brown smiled. “Paul McCartney’s. He gave it to me after a concert when I was first starting out.”
“Why?”
For a moment, Brown’s eyes grew misty, as though he were reliving the moment. Then he shook his head and answered. “He gave it to me because he is an incredibly sweet and generous man. I think he wanted to inspire me.”
Mitchie smiled. “Like you inspire all of us.”
Shane wiped his palms on his pants, carefully reached up, and took out the legendary guitar. “I’ve got a feeling this is going to be an amazing ‘think about it for the rest of your life’ kind of night.”
“Good,” Brown said. “But don’t forget, you’ve still got one more mystery to solve.”
CHAPTER
NINE
The library was completely silent. The six remaining campers were sprawled out on chairs and couches trying to figure out the final clue. Unfortunately, they had been trying for a while and were getting nowhere.
“Five out of six is not bad,” Mitchie reasoned. “In fact, I think it’s pretty impressive. We don’t need to find all of them.”
“We are not giving up,” Caitlyn said. “We have come too far to quit. You need your prize, too, just like the rest of us.”
“The far is not the problem,” said Mitchie. “It’s the long that has me worried. As in ‘we’ve taken too long and are running out of time.’”
“Shhh,” Colby said. “We’re trying to think.”
Mitchie appreciated their determination, but she didn’t see any solution on the horizon.
“I mean, my mom has been here all summer, but your parents will be arriving soon and they’re expecting a show,” she reminded everyone.
Her words fell on deaf ears. No one was listening. She flashed pleading eyes at Shane and Caitlyn, but they both shook her off. Finally, she turned to Tess.
“Reason with them, Tess,” Mitchie begged. “You’re a pro. You understand that the show must go on. I mean, aren’t you just dying to use Aretha Franklin’s microphone?”
“I am,” Tess said as she looked Mitchie in the eye, “but I’m not going near that stage until we find your piece of rock-and-roll history. And that’s that.”
Such a strong, selfless statement coming from Tess totally caught Mitchie by surprise. She had always considered Tess completely selfish. She was beginning to realize that she had misjudged her.
“You’re serious?”
“Absolutely!” Tess said.
To Mitchie this meant more than anything they might find. This meant that Tess was a true friend.
“All right, then,” Mitchie said, reinvigorated. “Let’s go over the clues one more time.” First she read the poem:
“The secret of the new-wave sound
Is out there waiting to be found.
Follow the groups ’cause it’s a fact
This clue has no solo act.”
When she finished reading it, she looked around the room to see if anyone had miraculously come up with something this time around. No such luck.
“And here are the names,” she said as she read the other clue aloud.
“ ‘Phil, Tony, Mike BY Jack, Eric, Ginger AND Anthony, John, Michael, Chad. Belinda, Jane, Charlotte, Kathy, Gina, OUT Jim, John, Ray, Robby. Neal, Ross, Jonathan, Steve, TO Renaldo, Abdul, Lawrence, Levi NEAR Don, Glenn, Don, Bernie, Randy, Timothy, Joe, NEST. WHERE Phillip, Larry, Johnny, Ralph, Al, Maurice, Verdine, Andrew MEET. LOOK UNDER James, Tommy, Todd, Lawrence, Ricky, Dennis.’ ”
The silence returned, and Mitchie was about to take another pass at convincing them to quit.
“Think about all the clues Brown gave us,” Caitlyn said. “They were multilayered. We must be missing something.”
“He told us we should stay in character,” Colby reminded them. “Maybe you need to solve it in character.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Mitchie asked.
“I don’t know.”
Mitchie tri
ed to psych herself up. “Okay, how would the Go-Go’s solve this?” she asked. “What would Linda Carlisle do.”
“It’s not Linda,” Shane said, reminding her of the conversation that morning with her mom. “It’s Belinda.”
“That’s right, I always mess that one up,” Mitchie said. “What would Belinda Carlisle do?”
“Who’s Belinda Carlisle?” Colby asked.
Mitchie struck her new-wave pose and twirled her hair around her finger. “Belinda is the lead singer of the Go-Go’s.”
“Belinda is also one of the names on the list,” Colby said as he picked up the paper. He stabbed it with his finger. “It’s right here, next to Jane, Charlotte, Kathy, and Gina.”
“Unbelievable,” Tess said, totally frustrated that she hadn’t thought of this earlier. “When were the Go-Go’s at the top?” she asked Mitchie.
“Early to mid-eighties.”
Tess got up and walked over to the magazine rack. It contained old issues Brown had collected over the years. She pulled out a Rolling Stone from 1984. The Go-Go’s were on the cover. She flipped through the magazine until she found the article about them and read the caption under their picture.
“Belinda, Jane, Charlotte, Kathy, and Gina. Those are the first names of the women in the band.” She held the magazine up for them to see. Then she pointed at the clue. “These are all names of band members.”
“ ‘Follow the groups ’cause it’s a fact,’ ” Lorraine read from the poem. “ ‘This clue has no solo act.’ ”
Using the books and magazines in the library, the six of them went about the somewhat slow process of finding bands that corresponded with the people on the list. As they did, Mitchie replaced the names of the people with the names of the bands.
When they were finished the clue read:
“Genesis by Cream and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Go-Go out The Doors. Journey to Four Tops near Eagles nest. Where Earth, Wind and Fire meet. Look under Styx.”
“It’s like a treasure map,” Mitchie said. “If we follow the band names, they’ll tell us where to go.”
They broke the directions down step by step.
“The first one is: ‘Genesis by Cream and Red Hot Chili Peppers,’” Tess said.
“Genesis means beginning,” Shane said. “So the beginning is somewhere where there is cream and red hot chili peppers.”