A Happy Homecoming!
TEN MINUTES LATER THE KIDS hovered over the speakerphone in Grandpa’s office talking to Mr. Timothy Baker, son of Cora Baker of Morrill, Nebraska. After identifying herself, Carly explained to Mr. Baker that he was on speakerphone because her family was all helping with a project.
“Okay. So what’s this about?”
“Did you have family that lived in Nemo, South Dakota, in 1918?” Carly heard Mr. Baker take a sharp breath.
“Yes.” There was a moment’s pause. “Yes, we did. My mother’s aunts and their families lived there.”
Carly cleared her throat. Her insides trembled with excitement. “We are searching for the families of Sophia Swanson and John Peter Swanson. They died here in Nemo during the influenza epidemic. We visited their graves the other day.”
She stopped and waited.
Mr. Baker cleared his throat. “Yes, they were my mother’s cousins. So, why do you want to find them?”
Carly thought she might burst with joy. They had done it. But she couldn’t get her voice to work. She swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “My family is in Nemo working on one of the old houses. We found some things behind a wall and . . .”
“The Bible? You found the Bible?” Mr. Baker’s voice was incredulous. “Teresa, they found the Bible!”
Carly looked at Max and shrugged. They could hear voices in the background, a lady asking questions.
“I’m sorry, young lady,” Mr. Baker said. “I got kind of excited.”
“We understand,” Carly said. “Yes, we found a Bible and two journals. One was Sophia’s and it was inscribed by her Aunt Sophia and Uncle Otto.”
“My grandparents,” Mr. Baker said. His voice was choked. “And the other one.”
“Well, actually we found it under the house. It belonged to John Peter. He had a hideaway in the crawl space. It was from your grandparents too.”
“Well I’ll be!” Mr. Baker was so excited it took several minutes to finish the conversation. The news there was a coin worth five thousand dollars hardly fazed him, but the Bible—that was the miracle!
“Mr. Dilbert, the owner of the guest ranch, said if we found the family we should return the books.” The kids grinned at each other as another burst of excited voices came through the phone line.
“I’ll call my cousins and see who wants to come with me to get that Bible. I’m sure we’ll be up there in two shakes of a lamb’s tail!’”
Within an hour, Mr. Baker called back. This time he spoke with Grandpa Rawson. They would be up the next day. He had checked the road report and the main roads were now clear all the way from Morrill, Nebraska, to Nemo. They simply couldn’t wait for better roads.
“We all want to see the house and meet you,” he said. “This story has been passed down through three generations. My great aunts suffered the rest of their lives with the loss of their children. But Sophia’s mother never got over the loss of her Bible, either. Oh, how I wish she could be here to see this day.”
“How many of you will there be?” asked Mr. Rawson. “We’ll arrange for a cabin for you to stay in here at the guest ranch.”
“Five. We are five and we should arrive by two o’clock.”
The next afternoon, the cousins and Bryce were waiting at the store when Sophia and John Peter’s family arrived at two o’clock, just as they had promised. They insisted on seeing the Circle 6 house first, then Carly gave them the Bible and the journals.
Besides Sophia and Otto’s grandson and his wife, two of Gretta’s daughters and Kirstin’s daughter had come too. When Gretta’s daughters held their grandmother’s Bible and aunt’s diary, tears rolled down their cheeks. Carly showed them the part where Sophia wrote about Gretta, and they chuckled at the thought of their mother being a pesky little sister. Kirstin’s daughter held John Peter’s book and smiled at the drawings. “I can see a lot of my brother in these pictures. He loves horses too.” She rubbed her eyes. “I think I’d better rest some. This is so overwhelming.”
“Was there anything else you wanted to see,” Aunt Susie asked.
“We were hoping to see the graves,” Mr. Baker said. “But now that we see all of this snow, I’m sure that would be impossible. We’ll have to come back up this summer,” Mr. Baker said.
Aunt Susie pulled out her iPhone and showed them the picture Carly had taken at the cemetery. “I’ll be happy to e-mail this photo to you,” she offered.
“That would be great,” Mr. Baker said.
A few minutes later they had been shown to the 4T cabin where they would spend the night. “We’ll rest a bit and then meet you back over at the house,” Mrs. Baker said. “It’s so generous of you to have a party for us.”
Aunt Joanna put her hand on the lady’s arm. “We’re delighted. It’s exciting for us too. Besides, it’s a way to show off the new work on the Circle 6 and give the house a happy event for all of us to remember.”
At 5:30, the Circle 6 was bursting at the seams. Lights shone from every window and laughter drifted out from the main floor. Grandma Rawson’s big Crockpot was full of hot apple cider, and the smell drifted throughout the house. The girls had made a big batch of stone crock cookies, and Grandma brought some of her zucchini bread. A celebration was in full swing.
Besides folks from Nebraska, the Rawsons, Johnsons, and Slim were there. Mr. Dilbert was there too, of course, as well as the Landrine twins, Mrs. Peterson, and her son Doug. Bryce got the surprise of his life when his parents and May Lynn arrived just as the party started.
“The doctor said she could go home. We asked him if it was okay for her to come here and he said she could as long as she doesn’t get too tired. When she learned you are all leaving tomorrow, she insisted she wanted to come say good-bye, especially to the kids.”
“Well, they saved my life. I had to come thank them!” May Lynn sparkled. The dark circles under her eyes had faded and her black hair shone. She bounced almost as much as Chad.
When Chad saw Bryce and May Lynn together he shouted, “It’s the Nearly Twins!”
Bryce laughed. “I guess we have a new name, May Lynn.”
After a few minutes of visiting, Mr. Dilbert got up and cleared his throat. When the crowd quieted, he removed his hat and spoke. “I am honored to have all of you here. This house has lived under a cloud of sadness for almost a hundred years. People even thought it was haunted. I never believed that, but I am glad to know the house’s true story. And I’m so thankful we are writing a new chapter here tonight. I offered the gold piece to the Swanson family, since it’s clear it belonged to John Peter and Sophia. However, they want it to stay here. I will sell the coin and use the money to keep this house in good repair. I may even open it as a museum for the town of Nemo. I think we have only skimmed the surface of the history of this town and this area of the Black Hills.”
He looked around the room at the cousins. “I’m so proud of these young people. They persistently followed every clue, even when the truth was painful. They never gave up. And they solved not only the mystery of the coin, but the mystery of the diaries and Bible. I’m thankful for their help with this project.” He waved his hand at the house. “But more than that, I’m thankful Carly sat on the floor in the closet and noticed a loose board.”
After the speech, Carly sat on the floor between Molly and May Lynn and leafed through the photo album Sophia’s family brought with them. She had looked through it five times already, but she couldn’t get enough of the pictures. On one page was a picture of Sophia and John Peter when they were about eight or nine. They were being goofy. She stared into their eyes. They were so happy. Such great friends. Carly glanced across the room and caught Max looking at her. He winked and she grinned. She knew that kind of friendship! She sighed with contentment and looked over at May Lynn’s parents, the Swanson family, and her own family. We did it! We solved a mystery, had the happily ever after I wanted, and there were no bad guys! Now that’s my kind of mystery!