by Annie Bryant
“My grandmother was widowed a few years ago,” Lissie added.
“A few years ago?” JT asked, finding it difficult to keep up with the story that was unfolding. “But I got a letter sayin’ she an’ her parents were . . . that there was a car accident . . .”
“We saw that letter, too,” Charlotte added, putting it all together. “But now we know it must have been a terrible mistake! Just like the letter that she got saying you were missing in action!”
JT shook his head slowly, trying to sort everything out. “So . . . if she were widowed a few years ago . . . you mean she was still alive a few years ago?”
“She’s still alive now,” Lissie said softly. She reached over and patted JT’s arm.
“And she’s going to be thrilled when I call to tell her that I’ve found you.”
JT’s mouth dropped open, but no sound came out. Happy tears welled in his eyes.
“Grandma hoped for so long that you would come back,” Lissie assured him. “She refused to believe that you were gone. She will be so overjoyed to learn that her heart was telling her the truth.”
JT shakily raised a hand to his eye and wiped a tear away with the tip of his finger. “To think, I was here the whole time . . .” an emotional JT whispered.
Mr. Ramsey rose from his chair and ushered the girls from the room to leave the newfound grandfather and granddaughter alone.
The girls stepped out onto the wooden sidewalk outside the little cottage. Charlotte looked back through the growing darkness at the window of light. “Look! Look!” she pointed at the scene unfolding.
They saw Lissie and JT share a warm hug. JT patted Lissie on the cheek, and he looked really, truly happy.
“Wow!” Avery cried.
“It’s all so heart-wrenching and tragic and romantic!” Maeve said as she feigned a swoon. “Totally out of a classic movie.”
“He looks so genuinely happy,” Charlotte said. “Without that permanent frown on his face, I almost don’t recognize JT—oops, I mean Jasper.”
“Jassssssssper.” Avery giggled, rolling the strange, old-fashioned name around on her tongue. “Nah,” she said decisively, shaking her head. “He’ll always be plain old JT to me. That’s what he told us to call him, right?”
“Shhh! Listen,” Maeve demanded, cupping her ear. Since the town was silent, they could hear little bits of the conversation. They heard JT say that maybe it was time to stop living all alone in the ghost town. After all, he wasn’t getting any younger.
Then they heard Lissie say that she’d be going back East from time to time to visit her family, and that JT should come with her to see what rural Vermont was like.
The girls could tell by the way JT nodded that he liked the idea, although they overheard him wonder who’d take care of the wolves.
Lissie promised that she and Mr. Ramsey would see what they could do to get the wolves a safe haven, if not here in Dry Gulch, then somewhere else.
“Really?” Avery asked Mr. Ramsey. “Can you really make that happen?”
Mr. Ramsey put a reassuring hand on Avery’s shoulder.
“I promise, I’ll do what I can, Avery.”
CHAPTER
19
Hope Drifts
The happy troop followed the pathway through the deep snow back to Main Street and the Hotel de Paris. It was late afternoon, and the darkness was growing. Lissie joined them in the hotel a few minutes later. “My grandfather,” she said, smiling at the new term, “is checking on the wolf pups back at the mine. He said he’d join us as soon as he’s finished.”
“Did you find any scrap paper in the library, Charlotte?” Mr. Ramsey asked.
Charlotte nodded. “Loads.”
“I’m going to need some kindling to build up this fire.”
Mr. Ramsey disappeared into the library, while Lissie served bowls of beef stroganoff to the girls. They were all famished after their hike and the long day, and no one spoke as they devoured the satisfying dinner.
Suddenly, they heard a sound—a faint whirring at first, but growing louder by the minute.
“What IS that?” Maeve asked.
Avery’s face tensed up with concentration as she struggled to place the sound. “It’s a helicopter!” she blurted out and jumped up as if she were a game show contestant who had just come up with the million dollar answer.
Mr. Ramsey raced out of the library and onto Main Street, the others at his heels.
Sure enough, a helicopter was circling the town. Against the night sky, it looked like an alien spaceship about to swoop down on Dry Gulch.
Everyone jumped up and down and waved their arms, trying to get the helicopter’s attention.
“Save us, save us!” Maeve cried dramatically, flailing her arms in every direction.
“OVER HERE! OVER HERE!” Avery bounced up and down, throwing snowballs in the air.
The pilot signaled that he saw them and landed the helicopter just north of Main Street. He and an emergency medical person with a first aid kit and a stretcher climbed down and hurried to the little group to make sure everyone was okay.
“No injuries here, thank goodness,” Mr. Ramsey assured them. “We’re all just a little chilly but completely safe and sound.”
“There’s no way we can get you all on one chopper,” the pilot told Mr. Ramsey. “Gather your things together. I’ll get another guy in here.”
The girls rushed into the hotel to pack their clothes. As Charlotte shoved her belongings into her backpack, she couldn’t help feeling a bit sad at leaving the little ghost town. There was so much more to explore in Dry Gulch and in some ways it had started to feel like a second home.
Maeve and Avery, on the other hand, were already out the door.
“Come on, Charlotte,” Avery called. “Let’s get outta this place!”
Charlotte lingered for a moment, absorbing all the details of the room and imagining once more how it must have looked in the 1890s when it was a booming mining town. She could almost see the ghosts of Dry Gulch moving through this once busy hotel. She was definitely going to write about this place someday.
Avery appeared at the door. “Charlotte, hurry up! We’re LEAVING!”
Charlotte picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. There would always be ghosts here—ghosts of the people whose lives she never had a chance to learn about. But somehow Charlotte felt like she had freed the ghosts of Amaryllis and Jasper Tucker through uncovering the diaries and letters. Now they would be free to live in the present instead of pining away for the past.
Lissie and JT were standing on the sidewalk when Charlotte stepped over the threshold and closed the door to the Hotel de Paris.
“I . . . I don’t know,” JT was saying. “What about the wolves?” he asked Lissie. “It’s hard enough leaving my home, but leaving the wolves to fend for themselves? No. No. It’s too much.”
Mr. Ramsey was quietly observing the conversation from across the street and motioned for JT to walk down the sidewalk with him. Mr. Ramsey talked in a low voice with JT as they walked. As much as she strained her ears, Charlotte could not hear what they were saying. But by the time they reached the end of the sidewalk, Jasper Tucker was ready to go. He had been convinced to step onto the helicopter and start another chapter of his life.
The girls strapped themselves into one helicopter with Mr. Ramsey, while Lissie and JT got into the second helicopter that had been called in.
Maeve was scared to death as the propellers whirred and the engines kicked up clouds of white snow.
“Owwwwww! Maeve! Let go of my arm! Your nails are digging into my skin!” Avery yelled, yanking her arm away from Maeve.
“Sorry,” Maeve mumbled.
“Just shut your eyes and relax,” Charlotte suggested. Maeve squeezed her eyes shut and hummed “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ “ to herself. The tune calmed her down, but having her eyes shut made her feel woozy.
“Airsick,” Charlotte explained to her.
“I feel like I’m on a tilt-a-whirl,” Maeve said, holding her head in her hands. “The whole world is spinning and tilting around and around.”
“They call that vertigo. Just try to relax and breathe normally,” Charlotte suggested, as she patted Maeve comfortingly on the back.
“Look! Hey, look!” Avery shouted. “There’s the resort.”
Big Sky Resort looked like a sparkling jewel set in the snow.
“Ohhhh! The lights on the snow are so romantic. It’s beautiful!” Charlotte cried.
Maeve wanted to see, but she couldn’t bear to open her eyes until she felt the helicopter land.
“Oh,” Maeve gasped as the door opened and the icy cold air hit her face. It was a most welcoming and refreshing sensation. Maeve was relieved—and extremely thankful— that she hadn’t thrown up. But her discomfort was immediately forgotten when she saw Katani and Isabel, and right behind them, Nik and Sam. Maeve rushed to her friends, hugging them first before gathering everyone into a group hug. It was wonderful to be reunited again.
Catching Up
“I can’t believe how beautiful this is!” Maeve exclaimed, looking at the huge window in their suite. “High ceilings! Shiny wood floors! Stone fireplaces! And the bathroom! Did you see the bathroom, Charlotte?” Maeve asked, her voice echoing as she ducked her head into the enormous washroom.
“I saw it.” Charlotte nodded, although she couldn’t quite understand why Maeve was so excited by a bathroom.
“I swear the bathroom alone is the size of my dad’s whole apartment!” Maeve marveled.
“A step above the Hotel de Paris?” Charlotte grinned.
“I feel like a princess.” Maeve twirled around with arms in the air before flopping back on her bed. “And this princess is going to sleep well tonight!”
“Yeah! My back still hurts from camping out in the hotel living room,” Avery added. “Let’s go hang out in the hot tub.”
“I’m in!” Charlotte agreed.
“Get Nik and Sam to come over!” Maeve said, rushing to grab her bathing suit.
“I’ll call their room!” Katani picked up the phone.
Mr. Ramsey turned on the hot tub, while the girls changed into their suits. They tiptoe-ran across the cold balcony, dropped their towels on the bench, and eased into the steamy, bubbling water.
“Ahhhh! This feels so luxurious!” Maeve squealed.
Moments later there was a knock at the door. Mr. Ramsey let the twins in, and they joined the group in the hot tub.
“All right, girls.” Katani rested her arm on the side of the tub and turned to her friends. “Spill it. What in the world have you been doing since we last saw you?”
“Did you see any ghosts?” Isabel wanted to know.
Avery, Charlotte, and Maeve shared a look and giggled.
“One or two,” Avery answered.
Maeve launched into a very lively, slightly exaggerated story about the days and nights they had spent in a real live ghost town.
Avery rolled her eyes when Maeve made it sound like she had single-handedly solved the mystery of Jasper Tucker and Amaryllis. “Maeve, Charlotte was the one that found all those diaries and figured out that Jasper Tucker was JT.”
“I suppose,” Maeve admitted. “But I did predict the whole romance thing. You gotta give me that.”
Charlotte was so happy to be hanging in the hot tub with the BSG that she didn’t care if Maeve took ALL the credit for solving the mystery.
“We had a sleepover in Nik and Sam’s room . . . with room service and everything!” Isabel announced.
“It was fab,” Katani agreed.
“I hear you guys have sleepovers all the time in Char-lotte’s Tower,” Nik said.
“It’s not my Tower, it’s our Tower,” Charlotte corrected. “As far as I’m concerned, it belongs to all the BSG.”
“I hope we’ll get to go to a real BSG sleepover the next time we’re in Boston,” Sam said.
“You better!” Maeve grinned. “You guys have to meet Marty. And we’ll bring you to Montoya’s for the best hot chocolate you’ve ever had!”
“It feels like you girls have been here the whole time,” Nik said to Maeve, Avery, and Charlotte.
“I know what you mean.” Charlotte nodded. “It’s like the past few days are a blur and all that matters is we’re together again in this sweet suite!”
“Hey, look! It’s snowing again!” Avery exclaimed. “I can’t believe I’m in my bathing suit in the snow.”
Everyone tilted their heads back and tried to catch the falling snowflakes on their tongues.
“I hope the snow doesn’t delay that vet lady,” Avery said, staring up into the dark sky.
“What vet lady?” Isabel asked.
“JT takes care of these abandoned wolf pups and— ahhh, cut it out!”
Maeve was waving her arms to stop Avery from talking, but she ended up splashing the whole group by mistake.
“Maeve!” Katani screeched.
“Sorry, it’s just that we were supposed to keep it a secret—remember, Ave?” Maeve asked.
“Keep what a secret?” Isabel wondered.
“Next time, say it, don’t spray it, Maeve. Just promise not to tell anyone else,” Avery said to the others.
“We promise!” they chorused.
Avery, Maeve, and Charlotte took turns describing the sounds of the wolves howling in the night and helping JT feed the pups.
“The red wolf from Louisiana and Arkansas was down to a population of just eleven,” Nik reported. “We learned about it in school. But they were able to get the population up and return them to the wild . . . mostly in the Appalachians.”
“Nik and I love animals,” Sam confided. “It makes me really mad to see them being treated badly.”
Nik and Sam shared a long, thoughtful look and then nodded in unison.
“We’ll have to check with our parents—” Nik started to say.
“—but maybe we can donate some of the proceeds from our concert—” Sam continued.
“—to a wildlife refuge that rescues animals—” Nik went on.
“—especially wolves,” Sam finished. “Hey, that’s amazing!” Maeve exclaimed. “You guys know what each other is thinking without even talking!”
“No, what’s more amazing is that you guys are going to donate money to help the poor wolves. That’s incredibly generous of you!” Avery gave each of the twins a high five.
“Look guys, I’m getting wrinkles,” Maeve announced, holding up her water-logged fingers to the group. “I think it’s time to get out. Dibs on first shower!”
Night Explorers
“Avery, where are you going?” Katani demanded as she watched Avery pull on her snow boots. “It’s freezing outside and almost pitch black.”
Avery threw on a neck warmer and grabbed her ski jacket. “The snow looks so fluffy and inviting. I need to check out the dogsledding ASAP. Did you see the write-up about it in the info packet?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Isabel replied. “I thought that’d be your kind of thing.”
“Come on, guys. It’s time to go exploring,” Avery said with a mischievous grin.
“But . . .” Katani protested, looking longingly at the comfy leather couch.
“Come on! How many times do you get the chance to see a real dogsled team?” Avery asked, throwing Katani’s jacket on top of her head.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Maeve groaned as she started pulling on warm clothes. “I didn’t think I’d want to even look at snow for a very long time.”
“We only have two days left, so we gotta make the most of it. I want to see those dogs NOW!”
“I’m in,” Charlotte chimed, wrapping a scarf around her neck. “Let me just leave a note for Dad.”
“What’s taking you guys so long?” Avery bounced up and down impatiently. “All right, I’m out. Meet you guys in front of the kennel.”
Avery stopped short when she saw a majestic group of do
gs hitched up at the kennel gate. “Wow! These guys are amazing,” she exclaimed.
The mush master smiled. “Let me introduce you,” she said. “Over here we have the Siberian huskies: Juno, Sasha, Silver, Nikki, Angel, and Kyra. And on this side we have the Alaskan malamutes: Storm, Tasha, Misha, Tundra, Max, and Cody. And I’m Marissa.”
“Wow,” was all Avery could croak out as she admired the gorgeous dogs. She still considered Marty to be the best dog in the world, but these dogs were very impressive.
“Are you thinking of going on a dogsled trek?” Marissa asked.
Avery nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah. We’re here for a couple more days and that’s the only thing I HAVE to do.”
“With six dogs pulling, they can hit twenty miles per hour,” Marissa told her.
“Really? That’s pretty fast!”
“Yeah, you have to hang on around the corners,” Marissa told them.
By then, the rest of the girls had caught up and Avery set about introducing her friends to the dogs.
“. . . And that one’s Cody,” Avery rattled off.
“We’ll have to bring the camera tomorrow and take lots of pictures for Marty,” Charlotte suggested. “Hey, Ave . . . where are you going?”
“Back to the suite! The sooner we get to bed, the sooner we can get up and hang out with those pups!” she called back, tearing off her hat and gloves as she sprinted toward the main building.
CHAPTER
20
Front Row Center
Pinch me,” Katani said to Isabel as they walked into the greenroom behind Big Sky’s Missouri Ballroom. “I can’t believe our luck!”
“I know. Who else do we know that’s been invited backstage at a big concert?” Isabel asked. “We’re totally VIP.”
The twins had asked Katani and Isabel to meet them backstage and help them get ready for their performance. Maeve had pouted for fifteen whole minutes when she found out, but the excitement of the concert got the better of her and now she was happily waiting for the show to start from her front row seat.