Ok! So everyone wanted to hear the end really bad, so here you go. I’m glad you guys like this story, because it gives me hope for my other ones. I’m not terribly proud of this story, as I told my brother, so it’s nice knowing you guys like it. Hopefully that means that my better stories are even better. 😀 Thanks! (BTW, sorry for any typos, which are probably in here. I usually mess up things when I type.)

 

Jay slumped. “How in the world am I to find who lived where!” The more she thought about it the angrier she got, she stomped out of the house. She grabbed her bike and pedaled, to a near by park, as fast as she could. Tired from biking and being upset, Jay reread over the note when suddenly she heard a voice say.

“Hey my grandpa would know where that is!” Jay looked up surprised. Standing above her stood ‘Red Head!’ The girl in front of Jay had short red hair, red freckles dotting her face and arms, and an orange T-shirt. “He’s lived in this town his whole life!” the girl said. Jay found her voice and said,

“Wait, you’re the girl who is always following me!” The girl turned even redder, if that was even possible.

“Umm, yeah my name’s Colette!” Colette said, embarrassed.

“Would you mind taking me to your grandpa? By the way my name is Jay.” Jay asked, stopping the conversation in it’s tracks.

“Oh, sure!” Colette said, her face lightening.

 

“Why yes I know whose house that is!” exclaimed Colette’s grandpa. “It’s right next door, I’ll call and arrange you two to go visit!” Jay looked around the dusty old house, admiring the old paintings  and furniture. “How long have you lived here?” Jay asked.

“Oh, years and years, I had forgotten all about the scene with Conner going to the war!” Colette’s grandpa said.

 

A few minutes later Jay and Colette were heading up the Garners’ attic stairs, while Colette’s grandpa talked to the Garners, explaining the story to them. Mrs. Garner exclaimed, “I have forgotten all about the stuff in the attic, we haven’t gone up there much.”

 

“Where is it supposed to be?” Colette asked.

“I don’t know, the note doesn’t say! Search everywhere!” Jay called back. They moved all the boxes, for they were the Garners’ and filled with their stuff.

“Well, I don’t think anything would be in any boxes, do you?” Colette asked, trying to settle and ease her excitement down enough to think. Jay paused,

“Probably not, so you search the floors and I’ll search the walls and rafters, okay?” Colette scurried around ducking under rafters, and crawling around boxes, tapping and poking the dusty floorboards. Jay started at the doorway and felt up and down the peeling wallpaper, looking for something, anything that might help her find whatever it was that Conner wrote about.

“Ow!!!” Jay jerked her hand back from the wall.

“You okay?” Colette asked, looking up from her work.

“Yeah, I caught my hand on a nail down by the floor.” Rubbing her hand, Jay looked at the nail there was a horizontal tear in the wallpaper just below the nail. Colette fingered the flap for a moment then pulled it up. A small bit of the wall came up and inside the wall was a small shelf. On the little shelf was a note, a candy heart, a tiny tin box, and a super dried out flower. Colette reached for the small tin, inside was about twenty coins from different countries. Jay, holding the note, “Hey listen to this: Dear Mabel,” the note began, “ Well I am, as you probably know giving you my coin collection, I decided that you might like to have some extra memories of me while I’m gone. Enjoy the candy and give the flower to mom, and now I’ll tell you your surprise. Okay, Mary Stone, your 17 year old friend who lives down the street, well I’m going to ask her to marry me when I get home. So the joke of you two being sisters is no longer going to be fake. I’ll see you soon, Conner.”

Jay looked up from the note to Colette, who had gone pale. “What’s wrong?”

“Jay, my grandpa  always tells me stories about this neighborhood, and well, Conner never came home home from the war. Also if all this stuff is still here that means that Mabel never got any of the notes!”

“We have to find her and Mary and tell them both everything,” Jay said.

 

On the car ride to Mabel’s current house, Jay’s cell phone rang and caller ID told her that it was her mother. “Hello?” Jay said, suddenly all to aware of the mess that she had left in her house.

“What on earth did you do to the house? I’ve spent the last half hour on the phone with my boss and I’m fired, the house is in too much ruin! Where are you anyway, you are supposed to be home right now.”

“Long story made short, I am hanging out with a friend, but what’s going to happen to us now that you don’t have a job?

“We own the house now,so I guess your father and I will have to get jobs here. I’m using up all my minutes, so I’ll see you later come home soon.” Jay said her farewells and closed her phone. Turning to Colette, Jay said,

“You’ll never guess what my mother just told me…”

 

Ding Dong Jay, Colette, and her grandpa waited for the door to be answered. The lady who came to the door by guessing her age Jay knew to be Mabel. “Mabel?” Jay asked. The lady, surprised to know they knew her name, nodded and they all introduced themselves. Mabel knew Colette’s grandpa so he started explaining the details, when Mabel interrupted and asked them in for tea. He told the story while Colette and Jay showed her the notes, candy, coins and everything else. She started crying, which made Jay and Colette mist up too. Mabel told them that Mary never married, and that Mary had been in love with Conner as well. Mabel and Mary had stayed friends over the years so Mabel called Mary, who lived in Yorba Linda. Jay couldn’t make out too much of what Mabel or Mary were saying, but after she hung up she told them what she’d said.

“Mary had been bowling when I called, so it was hard to hear her, but she wants to visit and meet you girls.” Jay looked at Colette, who was smiling,

“Yeah we’d like to meet her too!” Jay answered, happy to know that she would be here for Mary’s visit. “I’ve got to be getting home now, though I’ve had a good time!”

“Hey,” Colette said, “would you like to meet me for an ice cream cone tomorrow?” With a huge smile growing on Jay’s face, Jay answered, “I would love to!”