Chapter 3

The Adventures Continue

“You’re lucky, Ginger!!” Andi said as we were opening the door to the attic. “Me? Lucky? I have never heard anyone tell ME that I’M lucky. Why am I lucky?” “Because you have this awesome house and great stuff to explore. In the mean time, I am still living in the same boring place with the same, boring stuff.” Andi looked bored as she complained. “Actually, I bet there is a lot in your house/yard to explore. And even if there isn’t that’s o.k. You are my only exploring partner and we are in this together!” I said, hoping to make her feel special. “That’s fine for now, but you will make new friends and forget about me.” Andi seemed sad as she spoke. I tried cheering her up by saying, “UM, I could never, ever, ever, forget my favorite person and exploring partner in the world, Andi!” “Promise?” She said as she teared up. “I swear!” I said and we walked to the far back of the attic where there were various boxes taped up and stacked. “Off the subject, can you go grab the scissors off the floor by the door?” I asked Andi to get them since she was still closer to the door than me. “Sure! I totally wonder what is in the boxes! I’m a bit afraid, though. I hope it’s nothing weird!” said Andi. “I don’t want you to think your exploring partner is a scaredy cat!” she said laughing “Too Late!” I joked and together we took the scissors and cut the packing tape that held the boxes together.

“1-2-3!” We counted and pulled the first box open. “WOW!” I yelled. Little miniature items filled the box. This stuff wasn’t as old as the dolls, but still old. There were little plastic rounded wooden people, plastic molded furniture, some handmade furniture some hand-sewn sheets, and little tiny dishes and lamps. Everything that makes a house a home was in there, but in a tiny version of a real item. “This stuff is so cool Ginger! Can I move in with you?” Andi asked. “Why of course! I truly wish you could, though.” We opened another box and it was full of Barbies and Barbie clothes. “Ok, we have Barbies, Old Fisher Price Little People, lots of furniture, but where is the house to play with all of this stuff in? We started looking around the attic. There was a large item in the other corner with a big sheet over it. “Are you thinking what I am thinking?” I asked Andi as we both looked across the room at the big sheet. As if reading each other’s minds, we got up and jolted across the room and pulled the sheet off together. “A HUGE WOODEN DOLLHOUSE! Custom made to look just like the outside of this house!” I said so excited to see all this kid-friendly stuff! “Whoever made this dollhouse made it to look just like your house on the outside! There are only 4 rooms but we can work with it! I can’t wait to play in this!!” Andi said. This would fit perfect in between the computer and the tv.

“John! Can you come up and help us move something out of the attic?” I yelled downstairs. John came up and moved the large dollhouse out and into the main upstairs area for all of us to share. He had to angle just right in order to fit it through the small attic door. “This is very nice! Whoever built this must’ve been a woodworker for a living. They sure knew what they were doing!!” He finished admiring it and went back downstairs. “He better not moved that doll out here!” Emily said as she walked out of her room. “WHOA! Look at that! You guys found that in the attic?” “Yeah, and a bunch of people, furniture, and Barbies and clothes!” Andi added. She went back in the attic and carried out one of the opened boxes to show Emily. I went in after her and carried out the furniture box. “See? This all must go with the house! We can have so much fun playing with the dollhouse, guys!” I said to both Emily and Andi. I was so excited about the find that I didn’t mind sharing the stuff with my sister and Andi!

“Holy cow! I can’t believe it is 10:30 p.m. already!” Emily said as she stood up to stretch and yawn. We were arranging furniture so long in the dollhouse that time flew so quickly! “We better get back to our attic adventures, Andi! We are going to run out of time to fit in all our weekend fun! Good thing you are staying 2 nights!” I said and Andi agreed with a “You’re right! Let’s get in the attic, now!” we stood up, stretched, grabbed another bubbly water from the sink and took turns taking potty trips before heading into the attic. “I can’t imagine finding anything even cooler than what we already found, Ginger!” “We shall see!” I said back to Andi as we entered the tiny attic door.

“SNAP!” We jumped! “Wha…whaa…wh…wha…what was that?” Andi asked as she jumped toward me shaking. I was freaked at first, but remembered my mom said to be careful of the mousetraps that were set throughout the attic. “Oh! Probably just a poor mouse in a trap!” I said in a relieved voice. I felt bad for the mouse, but I was glad it wasn’t the evil doll girl coming to life to chase us out of the attic!

We got the scissors and opened two more boxes. They were full of old china dishes. I will show my mom. She may like them. Then, we opened two more boxes and found old board games from maybe the 70’s or 80’s. The Mickey Mouse Roller Coaster, The Muppet Show Game, a game called Booby Trap, and Parcheesi were in one box and old records were in the other. Some records were small, and some were large. There were little storybooks with records in them. I’m not sure how they work but it was cool to find.

At the bottom of all the records was a square suitcase. When I opened it up, there was a turntable and arm. It must be an old record player. “I wonder how this thing works!” I said as I plugged it into the wall. “Look! A light went on!” said Andi, as she pointed to the red light by the turntable. We pulled an “EWOKS Adventure” album out and put it on the turntable. We lifted the arm up and it started playing really fast. It sounded like the Chipmunks. I flipped a switch and it played regular. We started laughing at how silly it sounded even when it played normal. “What is an Ewok, anyway?” Andi said and started reading the record holder. “Who knows, but they are weird.” I said. “OH! These are from the Star Wars movies. No wonder they are weird!” I said as I found the information I needed to know. We took the record off and played one titled, ‘Patriotic Mickey’ instead. We were so excited to see what all these records with books were about that we stopped fooling with the big records and put the little records on instead. They didn’t fit at first. The hole of the record was way too big for the spike. “I wonder if you use this to make it fit.” Andi said as she picked up a round plastic adapter. She stuck it to the metal thing and the small record fit right over it. What happened was the book had a story in it. The record read the page and when Tinkerbell dinged her bell, you turn the page of the book. How cute! The story was about Donald Duck and a magic mailbox. We didn’t listen to it all, but we got the gist of how the records worked.

“It appears this attic was a storage for people all the way from 1900 to 1980. I am not sure how many families lived in this house, but there was at least one when it was built in 1900 and at least another with kids in the 1980s. There are still boxes to go through. I wonder what else we could possibly find now!” I exclaimed. There were only a couple of boxes left to go through, but Andi agreed that now was not the time to do it. “It’s almost 1 a.m. and I am getting tired. Let’s save it for tomorrow and go to bed now.” Andi said as she yawned half of her words.

I said, “I agree.” And with that, we hit the light off in the attic and headed into my cozy bedroom. Andi got her pillow out of her bag and placed it at the foot of my bed with her blanket. She laid with her feet facing me and I laid with my feet facing her. It beats one of us sleeping on the floor and we are too tired to care. “Andi, are you awake still?” I asked as I thought of all the fun I had with my best friend in the world. “Yes. But barely” she whispered. “Thank you for being here. You made this house special for me.” I said softly. “Thank you for including me in your new life. I was worried you’d forget me.” She said sadly. “NEVER!” I said and soon all we could hear was ourselves snoring. The sun shined through my window pretty brightly at 7 a.m.