Chapter 5
“Are we missing anything else? Take me through the scene again,” Henry instructs me as I take out my sweatshirt to make a pillow under my head and lean back against the metal.
“You know everything I know.”
“Go back to before you saw Mary. You were in the first grade classroom, and you thought you heard something. Did you see anything out of the ordinary?”
“Everything is packed up in the school. It’s all out of the ordinary.”
Henry and I are on the playground, reclining on the merry-go-round while he writes everything we know about the letters in his notebook with a fine-tipped pen. His handwriting is small and precise. As he writes, Henry makes small drawings of a cat in the margins of the page. They are really good, much like the cat on his hand, but fluffier, likely long-haired.
The list so far reads:
1. Mary was in the school yesterday at about 10:00 in the morning.
2. She was sitting on the front staircase, crying because of her missing letters.
3. She was dressed in old clothes. (I did not think this was important, but Henry felt we needed to put it on the list because we don’t know much else.)
4. She said the letters were the last thing she had from someone.
5. We think the person is a man, because she used the pronoun “him.”
6. Mary was gone when I came back after getting help.
7. There is a note in the office about someone named Mary Wolf, who is looking for letters, and it is very likely the same Mary.
“What questions do we need to answer to solve the mystery of the missing letter?” Henry says. His left foot is hanging off the edge of the merry-go-round and he kicks at the ground, sending us spinning somewhat slowly.
“It’s not a real mystery, Henry.”
“We don’t know that yet. Either way, it can help to what questions we need to answer to find the letters. We don’t have enough information to find them now, so clearly we need to know more.”
Our list of questions:
1. Who is Mary Wolf?
1 a. Is she the same person as the Mary I met in the staircase?
2. Why was she in the school?
3. Why would she, an adult, have lost her letters in the school?
4. Where did she go when she left?
5. Who is “he,” the author of the letters? (Again, this is something that I don’t think really matters, but Henry thinks it does.)
“Okay,” I stretch out as I say this, “I admit that this list is helpful. But what do we need to do next? How do we actually find answers?”
“We need a list of next steps.” Henry tells me. He’s finished the question list and is finishing the page with a picture of a kitten reading The Hound of the Baskervilles. Unlike the realistic one on his hand, this one has a cartoonish quality. “What do we need to do to answer the questions?”
This new list of next steps:
1. Look for Mary Wolf in the phonebook and on the internet.
2. To go to the library tomorrow morning to look into the letters and/or any records of someone named Mary Wolf.
3. To look up clothing from the 1940s to see if there is anything we can learn about Mary from the outfit that she is wearing (Seriously, why does Henry keep mentioning this?).
After we finish the list, we spin around on the merry-go-round for a while. This particular merry-go-round is a flat platform with handle bars, with enough room to lie down in the middle, so we take turns starting to spin it while the other person would lie with their head in the center. The spinner jumps on and lies with their head beside them, feet facing the opposite direction. I am excited and dizzy and I watch the clouds spin around above me.
“That carousel was so cool, don’t you think?” Henry asks as we spin, his voice animated.
“I guess so.” I am tentative about the carousel. In reality, I think it is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, and I can’t wait to get to ride it, but the last time I rode a carousel, I endured a year of teasing. On the other hand, Henry’s enthusiasm on the matter makes me consider the possibility that we really will be friends past the end of the summer.
“If you don’t want to ride it, that’s okay, I understand.”
“No, I really do want to ride it,” I insist. I want to say that I don’t want to get too excited about things, because every time I get excited about things, no one understands and they tease me, but even though I like Henry, we just met, and it would be weird. Plus, there is a chance that when school starts, he will join the in crowd and I don’t want to give him anything they can use against me.
“I’ll be honest, I was sad when I moved here, but in one day, I’ve got a new friend, a mystery, and we’re going to ride the most amazing carousel I’ve ever seen.”
“It is pretty cool, isn’t it?” I agree, “but I don’t know if Mary is a mystery. She’s just a lady that misplaced some letters.”
“And then disappeared.”
He had a point.
“What are you doing with the rest of your afternoon?” Henry asks.
“I usually read when I’m not practicing the oboe, but I could show you some of the parks, if you want. Or, we could go back to my house. My mom baked some cookies this morning for a snack. We could have a couple.”
“Cookies and then parks. I live next to the one with the giant lion statue. I haven’t gotten to check it out yet.”
“Leon? He’s not just a statue. He’s interactive art. He’s basically a playground.”
“We’re allowed to climb on him?”
“Yep, he was designed for it.”
“When my mom said we were moving to a town with about 500 people in the middle of cornfields in Ohio, I didn’t think it would be this much fun.”
“I promise you; it can be boring here, too.”
After getting a couple of cookies from my house, we depart for the first park, returning to the subject of the letters.
“I wonder why she’s looking for the letters. Did someone take them? Could they have secret codes? Maybe she’s a spy!”
“Henry, let’s make an agreement. I will stop arguing that it’s not a mystery if you don’t mention spies anymore. Would any of the detectives in books you read jump to that conclusion without clues?”
“No,” he says rather quietly, and I worry maybe I went a little too far.
“But what would they say? Look at the clues like your detectives.”
Henry perks up. “They obviously belonged to someone she cared about. She told you they were the last thing she had of him, and she was crying about losing them. So they must be pretty important to her.”
“So if we find them, we’re probably helping her a lot. We need to remember that. As we find clues, we’ll learn more of the story, but the most important thing is that Mary will feel better when she has the letters.”
“You’re starting to sound excited about this mystery.”
I smile despite myself. “So how did you learn all of these detective skills?”
“I’ve read every Sherlock Holmes story. My favorite is the Hound of the Baskervilles.”
“Impressive.” I said, giving a fellow bookworm his due.
“What about you? What’s your favorite book?”
“The Scarlet Pimpernel. It’s not exactly a mystery, but it has a lot of surprise twists--I think you’ll like it.”
“What do you do besides reading and hanging out with librarians?”
I notice he didn’t say elderly, which is a good sign. “I’m learning how to brew every type of espresso drink in the known universe… Also during the school year I’ve been in the state middle school honors band since I was a sixth grader.”
“So have I! Back in Denver, I mean. Miss Joon seems to think I could be in the one here, too.”
“You’ll fit right in! I typically visit friends a couple of times over the summer, you should come along. Jennae plays the trumpet, too.”
“Cool.”
“What else do you like to do?”
“I ran track at my old school. I might run here, too. I plan to go for a run every morning when I know where to go. What about the trails in the woods behind the school?”
“I think the outer loop trail is probably safe, but some of the inner trails have some really intense tree roots. It’s probably better for hiking.”
We arrive at the first park, which is next to Henry’s house. I climb on Leon’s back and slide down his tail slide. Henry follows close behind. He quickly discovers the hidden footholds for climbing Leon’s mane, and we sit on the top of Leon’s head together and look down the street of brightly painted Victorian houses, pine trees, and lilacs in bloom. Over the next few hours, we walk around town, exploring roughly half of the parks. As we explore, Henry makes drawings of the sculptures in each park in his notebook. At dinner time, we part ways with plans to explore more of the parks and the woods behind the school, and I go home to find Mom with more Chinese takeout than two people can eat in three days.
“It looks like the rest of the week I have to work late, so I figured I'd give you a lot of leftover options for dinner. If there is anyone you wanted to have over for dinner over the next few days…” she says tentatively, because usually there is not.
“I made a new friend today; I might see if he wants to join me one of these nights.”
“Oh?” She doesn’t need to ask the question.
“His name is Henry and he’s getting lessons from Miss Joon, too. I spent the day showing him around town and we have plans to meet up at the library tomorrow before lessons.” I leave the part about the mystery out, because I still don’t know if it is as big of a deal as Henry thinks it is.
“That’s great, honey! Why don’t you see if Henry can come for dinner tomorrow and maybe I can meet him when I get home from work.”
She tones her smile down a little, realizing that she has been a little too excited at the idea that I have a friend in town that is not a librarian.
“I’ll see what I can do.”