by J. G. Kemp
Ben stepped over to the bookshelf and kicked it. A mouse ran out from underneath, towards the back wall, and then slipped between the bars of the locked door and disappeared into the dark tunnel. It was giving off a green fluorescent glow. They stared, speechless—except for Henry, who was busy with the computers.
“Uh… did you just see that?” asked Julee.
“Yeah… was that mouse… glowing?” asked Elliot.
“Kinda looked like it,” said Ben. He kicked the bookshelf again. Nothing happened.
“Um, guys,” said Elliot nervously. She glanced at Mary. “It’s getting late, maybe we should go back to that house up on the hill.”
“I’m staying,” Henry quickly declared. “As soon as I fix these we can get out of here… and get some food.”
“Um… I don’t think we should split up,” said Ben.
There was silence. Elliot looked scared. Mary had to say something. Uncle Edwin was always keeping secrets and Mary hated it. She didn’t want to be like him. She had to be honest. “I think I know why we’re here,” she said suddenly.
The others looked at her surprised. Even Henry looked up from the computer.
“Well, I don’t know why you’re here,” she continued, “but I think I know why I’m here… it has something to do with that house.” She pushed her glasses farther up her nose. “My sister and I opened this door at my uncle’s, a door he told us never to open, and inside there were all these journals piled everywhere, about Evergreen Isle, and we found one with my grandma’s name on it, and my uncle caught us, and said he was sending me away to the Institute, and just before the boat left today, the attendant gave me a journal and said it was from Caroline’s Corner.” Mary took a long breath. “And my grandmother’s name is Caroline and written inside it says, It’s time you learned the truth, follow the clues, and that door up at the house, with the letter A, is exactly like the door we weren’t supposed to open at my uncle’s, and—” She took another breath.
“And,” Elliot added, “there’s a shield on the wall that says The House of Andromeda and that’s Mary’s last name.” She looked at Mary and winked.
The cave was silent as Ben and Julee stared, wide-eyed at Mary, and then Henry spoke. “So… basically… you don’t know why we’re here at all, or how we’re supposed to get off this island, or find food, or… anything. Right? You don’t know anything that can help us?”
Mary pushed her glasses farther up her nose. “Well, I don’t know yet, but I’m going to find out, and I’m going back to that house.” She felt her temper beginning to rise.
Henry shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he said cooly and went back to working on the computer. “Besides, everyone knows Caroline’s Corner, that old lady is always giving things to kids going to the Institute. She gave me a journal last year, it was probably the same kind.”
“But… what about the House of Andromeda, and Evergreen Isle, and the door?” asked Elliot.
“It’s probably just a coincidence, and I bet there are lots of Evergreen Isles, it’s a totally generic name, and lots of doors with A’s on them.”
“But… why would the journal say It’s time you learned the truth, follow the clues?” said Elliot.
Henry scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I don’t know, maybe it means the clues of knowledge to learn the truth at the Institute. Don’t ask me, that old lady’s crazy.”
Mary wasn’t going to argue. Henry was just like her uncle, he didn’t listen, he didn’t believe anything, he wouldn’t even look up from what he was doing. Her fists clenched. “Come on Elliot,” she said, “let’s get out of here.”
“Good-riddance,” said Henry who then glanced over at Ben and Julee. “And what about you two, do you think Mary is supposed to be here? Do you think her grandma sent her here?”
Ben thought for a moment. “Well, it makes sense to me,” he said and smiled at Mary. “I think we should go look for clues at the House of Andromeda.” His blue eyes were bright and shining. Julee nodded in agreement.
“Oh please, come on, really?” Henry scoffed. “You all think she is supposed to be here? You all think it was planned that we were flown to this ridiculous abandoned island and then left here for dead. You’re all ridiculous.”
Ben shrugged. “Well, I don’t know why we’re here, but this place is awesome. I mean, there are no parents, or teachers, and no one to tell us what to do, and there are these weird houses, and there’s like this whole mystery to solve.” He glanced at Mary. “What more could you ask for?”
“And no food, and broken computers,” yelled Henry. “You all disgust me. Get out of here! Leave me alone!”
Mary didn’t need to hear any more. She turned and walked out of the cave and strode down the path to the top of the dam. She looked down at the valley floor, covered in tall green trees far below. The fresh air was a relief from the stale air inside the cave. She could tell from the angle of sunlight that it would be dark in a few hours—about dinner time, she thought. Her stomach agreed.
“That dude is hangry,” said Julee, as she and Elliot approached and stood beside Mary.
“Hangry?” Mary asked.
“Ya know… hungry and angry… hangry.”
“Maybe we should call him Hangry Kelvin?” said Elliot, giggling.
The laugh reminded Mary of her sister. “I’m hungry too,” she said. She missed Cassie.
“Yeah, me too!” hollered Ben, jogging up to the girls. “I thought I saw some apple trees up at the House of Andromeda.” He winked at Mary and then suddenly looked bashful and glanced away. “I thought I could bring some back for Henry. He could use something to eat.”
“Um,” said Elliot, “what are we going to do about food? I mean, if Mary’s here on purpose, and we shouldn’t be expecting anyone, how are we going to survive.” She looked at Ben. “Besides apples?”
“A person can live for weeks without food,” Ben answered, “it’s water you need to worry about, and we have plenty of that.” He nodded at the reservoir beside them.
Elliot didn’t seem reassured. She looked down at her feet and tucked her hair behind her ears.
“Come on, let’s go,” Mary said and grabbed Elliot’s hand and smiled, and Mary led the way as they climbed the hill, back through the forest, back to the House of Andromeda.
Chapter 9
The Three Turrets
Mary, Julee, and Elliot sat under the swaying branches of the apple trees, just beyond the rock wall of the House of Andromeda. Mary’s eyes were closed as the sunshine kissed her forehead. She bit into a large red apple and chewed eagerly. “This is the best apple I have ever had,” she said.
“Yeah, I bet even Henry will like these,” added Elliot.
“He doesn’t deserve them.” Mary opened her eyes and looked at Julee. “Is Ben always so nice?”
Crunch. Julee took a big bite. “Uh huh,” she mumbled through a full mouth.
“Mary,” Elliot began, “how are we going to get in that door, it’s locked remember? Ben tried to open it.”
“Well, the one at my uncle’s had a big metal key. I bet there’s a key somewhere in the house.” Mary sat up straight. “You two ready to go?”
Julee sighed. “Just one more minute,” she said. “It’s so nice out, and this apple is soooo good. That door’ll still be there.” She leaned back against her backpack and closed her eyes and took another bite.
Mary smiled. Julee was so calm, like she was never in a hurry, like she never worried about anything.
“What if we can’t find a key?” asked Elliot, looking at Mary with eager eyes. “What if we can’t open the door, what do we do then?”
Elliot, on the other hand, was always asking questions, like she was trying to figure everything out ahead of time. Mary shrugged and answered, “I don’t know, then we’ll break a window. Come on.”
Julee looked up with one eye open and sighed. “Alright girl, let’s go.”
The three girls stood, bru
shed off their clothes, and headed towards the house. “Should we split up or search together?” asked Elliot as they walked through the gate into the overgrown garden.
“Let’s stay together,” said Mary, “we can start in the bedroom, in the turret I climbed into. There was a big desk in there, maybe the key could be in a drawer… that’s where my uncle kept his key.”
Before they entered the house, Mary stood in the sundial—it was just past seven o’clock. She led the way through the back door, through the kitchen and the great room, and up the turret steps to the bedroom she had discovered earlier.
“Squawk,” said the gray parrot, still perched in the turret eaves.
“Hey it’s an African Gray,” said Elliot. “They’re one of the smartest birds alive. My dad told me once—”
“Annie!” the parrot squawked.
Elliot froze and her eyes widened. “Did it just say Annie?” she asked, puzzled.
“That’s what it sounded like,” said Julee.
“That’s my name,” Elliot replied. “My first name. My whole name is Annie Elliot Ki, I just go by Elliot because it sounds older. How does that bird know my name? I didn’t think they were that smart.”
“I have a guess,” said Mary, “but I’m not sure yet, come on.” She hurried into the bedroom and walked straight to the desk. “I have an aunt named Annie, well, had an aunt named Annie. She died in an accident when I was three. I think maybe she lived here.”
Mary shuffled through the papers and books and journals scattered across the top of the desk and then noticed a plaque on the base of the armillary sphere. “Hey, it is my aunts!” she exclaimed. “To our beloved daughter, Anne Andromeda. With love forever, G.A. and C.A.—that’s my grandma, C.A., Caroline Andromeda.” Mary quickly began rooting through the desk drawers, one after another, searching for a key.
“This bed is so beautiful,” said Elliot. She was running her fingers up one of the carved wooden posts. “Look at all the spirals and stars.”
“Oh, look at this!” exclaimed Julee, admiring a large pink gem-stone on the bedside table. The stone’s facets gleamed in the late-afternoon sunlight which shone through the large, west-facing windows.
“We have to find that key before it gets dark,” Mary said urgently as she closed the last desk drawer, which was only full of paper.
“Wow, look at these dresses!” Elliot exclaimed from beside the large dresser. She turned and held up a long black dress with a big yellow spot on the front. The yellow spot was a star—a photograph printed on the dress—a yellow sphere with dark sunspots and subtle swirling hues of orange and red. A massive flare was erupting on one side, into the black fabric of space.
“Wow!” said Mary and Julee in unison. They walked to the dresser and all three girls began sorting through the clothes, pulling them out of the drawers and holding them up and admiring them. Most of them had a print of something from space—there was a Saturn t-shirt, and a Moon sweatshirt, and pants with galaxies on them.
“I guess we won’t have to worry about clothes anymore,” said Elliot, “since the boat left with all our stuff.” She put a sweatshirt over her head, pulled it down, and looked at the image of an asteroid. The shirt went down to her knees and past her hands. “Most of this stuff is too big for me, but it’ll work.” She rolled up the sleeves to her elbows and smiled.
“My mom’s room!” Mary suddenly blurted out. She tossed the shirt she was holding back into the dresser and jogged to the door at the far end of the room. “It has to be here too!” She opened the door—it was a bathroom. She spun around and ran back towards the turret stairs. “Come on!” she shouted and hurried down the steps, taking two at a time. She ran through the great room, past the long table covered in dishes, to another turret door in the corner of the house. She flung it open and bolted up the stairs to the room above.
The room was nearly the same as the first, with an identical four poster bed, desk, and dresser, except the curtains and the rug were rose-red instead of royal-blue. Mary raced to the desk and began searching. Upon it was a metal frame and a box filled with neatly organized glass prisms and lenses. The papers and books were perfectly stacked, not scattered around like on her Aunt Annie’s desk. Mary sifted through them and found a journal. She opened it. Stamped on the first page were the words: From the Library of Cecilia Andromeda. She flung the journal closed and ran back out the door, nearly crashing into Elliot and Julee as she bounded down the steps.
“It’s my Aunt Cecilia’s,” said Mary, still running. “The last one has to be my mom’s!”
She ran past the kitchen doors to the last turret and stopped. This is it, she thought. She looked at the door handle. She used to stand right here… and turn that knob. She suddenly wished Cassie were there too.
“Aren’t you gonna open it?” Elliot asked, panting, as she and Julee ran up from behind.
“Yeah, I just wish my sister were here,” Mary said quietly. She glanced at Julee and Elliot and then slowly opened the door—the turret was the same as the others. They walked up the stairs together and entered the room above.
Like the two other rooms, there was a bed, a dresser, and a desk. The curtains and the rug were yellow. On the desk was only a lamp—no books or journals or paper. Mary stepped towards it and opened one drawer, and then another, and another. They were all empty. “There’s nothing here,” she said, puzzled. She quickly walked to the dresser and opened each drawer… all empty… except for the last one. In the bottom drawer was a purple backpack. Mary picked it up. Attached to one of the zippers was a lanyard strung with little metal spirals and yellow beads. On the beads were painted purple letters which spelled out the name:
V-E-R-A
“Cool backpack,” said Julee.
Mary twisted the beads between her fingers. “I wonder how long she lived here.” She sat on the bed and began unzipping the pockets.
Elliot sat down beside her. “Mary?” she asked, “how come you never knew about this place? What happened to your mom anyway?”
The backpack was empty, and Mary zipped the pockets closed. “I lived with her until I was five,” she answered, “and then one day she dropped me and my sister off at my Uncle Edwin’s house, and we never knew why. He never talked about her, no matter how much we begged him, he wouldn’t say anything. He would always get so mad. I stopped asking a few years ago. He was married to my Aunt Cecilia, but she died in an accident, along with my Aunt Annie, and my dad, when I was three.”
“What kind of accident?” asked Elliot.
“I don’t know that either. I don’t anything about my dad except that his name was Albert. And I only know that because I overheard my uncle talking about him and my grandma once. That’s how I know her name is Caroline. He said that she was dead too, but I don’t believe it anymore.” She paused. “I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“Well, why did your mom never call you or let you know where she was?” asked Elliot.
Mary stared at the purple and yellow beads and shrugged. “I don’t know.” She looked out the window at the fading light. “Maybe it’s too late to find the key tonight.”
Julee, who had been sitting at the desk, stood and said, “Ya know what? I’m hungry. Hey Elliot, you wanna go pick some more apples before it gets too dark?”
Elliot shrugged. “Yeah, sure. You wanna come Mary?”
Mary pushed her glasses farther up her nose. “Oh, no thanks, I think I’ll just stay here a while.”
Julee led the way out of the room, and Elliot followed. As she passed through the door, Elliot turned and asked, “Hey Mary?”
“Yeah?”
“How come your last name isn’t the same as your dad’s?”
“Oh.” Mary smiled. “I asked my uncle that once. He said that in our family, the Andromeda name is passed down through the women. His last name is Edwin Andromeda, and my dad became Albert Andromeda; I don’t know what their last names were.”
&nbs
p; Elliot considered this for a moment and then asked, “Hey Mary… the accident that you said… killed your dad and your aunts… do you think it could have happened on this island? Do you think that’s what It’s time you learned the truth means?”
Mary nodded slowly; the thought had crossed her mind a few hours ago, back at the cave. “Yeah… maybe… I think so.”
“Come on Elliot, it’s gettin’ dark,” came Julee’s voice from the bottom of the stairs.
Elliot smiled at Mary and then turned and left the room. Mary listened to the footsteps on the stairs and then the sound of the back door opening and closing.
She lay down on the bed, closed her eyes, and listened. The house was still and quiet. She heard the faint sound of the ocean surf, and a gust of wind that swirled around the walls of the house, and then the notes of the wind-chimes ringing outside the kitchen down below.