CHAPTER 42
Julie
Sifting through that box was the strangest thing. I was glad for the poor lighting in the backyard, because my eyes were misty and I didn’t want anyone to notice. I felt sympathy for the lonely girl who’d tucked meaningless objects away, longing for a mystery to solve. She’d never imagined the real, unwanted mystery that would await her midway through that summer. Picking out the scraps of old cloth, the dented Ping-Pong ball, the baby shoe, I became aware as never before that I had indeed been a mere child, a twelve-year-old with little concept of real danger. The only scary things I’d known about were from my Nancy Drew books, where the heroine always prevailed in the end.
Something caught my eye in the bottom corner of the bread box, tucked beneath another record and a piece of cloth. It couldn’t possibly be what I thought it was.
“Could you move the lantern a little closer, please, Jim?” I asked.
The circle of light fell into the box, and there it was. Red and purple, as I remembered it. I reached into the corner and pulled out the small plastic giraffe.
“I never put this in here,” I said, quite certain that was the truth.
“What is it?” Ethan asked, leaning closer. I could feel his breath against my bare shoulder.
“A toy,” I said. “A giraffe. Isabel and Ned used to—”
“That was Ned’s,” Ethan interrupted me. “Our uncle gave it to him. He gave us both one. Mine was an elephant. It’s a puzzle.” He reached for it.
“A puzzle?” I was confused. “I thought it was just a token they used to pass between each other.”
“Who did?” Ethan examined the giraffe. “Ned and your sister?”
I nodded.
“I’m not sure how this one works,” he said. He was manipulating the giraffe’s tail and neck; I had never even realized the toy had moving parts. Suddenly the red and purple halves of the giraffe sprung apart, and I laughed out loud.
“They must have sent notes to each other in the giraffe!” I said. “I never guessed.”
Ethan held the halves of the giraffe beneath the lamplight.
“It looks like there’s a note in here right now,” he said.