The Many Mysteries of Kaylee Marie

AuthorHouse

Contents

Chapter One

In addition to beating my old seizure-free record, something else important was happening that day in July. My family and I moved into our new house at 615 Maple Avenue. We were getting pretty cramped in our old house, so we found a bigger one on the other side of our little town of Madison, Tennessee. Mom and Dad waited until summer so they wouldn't have to worry about our school stuff. The new house was located in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. I thought the whole place looked like one of those perfect neighborhoods you see in paintings and movies. There were white picket fences, large pink blooming cherry trees, and kids riding their bikes down the sidewalk. To me, it all seemed a little too good to be true. I mean, come on. There had to be something dangerous or exciting going on around here.

Anyway, back to the new home. Our house was one of the oldest on the street at 109 years old. The two stories were covered in a grey-colored brick with green trim. There was a large wrap-around porch with two swings on the front. The downstairs was pretty typical. There was a kitchen, dining room, bathroom, and living room with a real wood fireplace. Every room had huge windows looking out over the neighborhood. The wood floors were a beautiful cherry color, and the walls were painted a light shade of cream. The whole house smelled like fruit because Mom had scrubbed everything with orange scented cleaners. The place had a very homey feel to it, and I knew our family would love being there.

My room was on the second floor in the back right corner. The floors up there were the same cherry-colored wood, and the walls were the same color of cream. There were two windows in my room. One looked over the backyard, and the other out to the right of the house. My favorite color was purple, so Mom had already put up some light purple curtains to give me a little more privacy. Because she also knows that lilacs are my favorite flowers, Mom had brought me a vase full of them. She thought they would make my new room feel more like home.

Aiden's room was across from mine on the left. Aiden is my little brother, and he had just turned five when we moved. He's okay, most of the time. He was a short, chubby little thing with blond hair and blue eyes, and he was constantly going through all these weird phases. At that time, he thought he was a wizard. He ran around the house in a cape and pointy hat wiggling his fingers at everybody. He also liked to speak in some made-up language that only he could understand.

Mom and Dad's room was next to Aiden's at the front of the house. The room next to mine on the front was being used for storage until Mom and Dad decided what to do with it.

I really liked my new house, but I was even happier about our move because my best friend, Emily Barnes, lived just four houses down the street. Emily and I had been friends since we were babies. Our birthdays are just two months apart. Mine is in December, and Emily's is in October. Our moms had worked together at the university when we were born, but now Emily's mom worked for one of the local insurance companies. Emily had always been there for me. She had always stood up for me when I got made fun of, and she had also helped me with school. I didn't know what I would have done without her. Now we could see each other all the time.

Emily had quite an interesting personality. She always wore her dark brown hair in a ponytail, and everyone, except Emily, thought she was really pretty. She had a slim build, and big brown eyes. Her favorite color was yellow, and I thought that her bedroom looked like a can of yellow paint had exploded in there. Emily was also obsessed with ladybugs. They were everywhere. Pillows, comforter, curtains, rugs, and just about everything else had a ladybug on it. Emily played the flute in the band, and everybody agreed that she was very talented. She loved anything to do with music.

Emily was a hopeless romantic, and she always had a crush on somebody at school. She loved watching old black-and-white movies, and she would imagine herself as the damsel in distress waiting for her prince charming to rescue her. I didn't get caught up in all that boyfriend-girlfriend stuff as much as Emily did, but I've had my share of crushes, too

About a year before we moved, Emily got a pet rabbit. His name was Fernando. He was solid white, and he was huge. He weighed about twenty pounds, and he was so big that my cat, Thomas, was actually scared of him. Em would walk around the neighborhood with Fernando on a leash, and she always had a diaper on him to keep him from pooping all over the place. Emily liked to put poor Fernando in clothes that I thought looked ridiculous. She had even put shoes on him. The two of them were quite a sight.

There was one thing I didn't like about my new home, and that was the creepy old house next door. I remembered seeing it when we were driving around looking at houses, but now that I lived so close, it really bothered me. The house looked like one of those scary old houses people see in horror movies. Like my new house, it also had two stories with a large porch on the front. The wooden siding on it looked like it used to be some shade of blue, but it was so faded and cracked, it could have been anything. Some of the windows were boarded up, and the rest of them had bars. All of the shutters were coming off, and on the front door was a rusted sign that said "Keep Out." There were never any lights on, and any rooms visible through the windows looked cluttered and unused. The house was obviously ancient, and I couldn't imagine how anybody could possibly live there. Maybe it was just my imagination getting the better of me, but the place gave me a weird feeling. It reminded me of that eerie feeling you get when you know something is there but you can't see it. Since Emily had lived on this street all of her life, I was going to ask her if she knew anything about it later.

I was surveying my new space when I heard my dad coming.

"Hey honey, where do you want this stuff?" asked Dad as he and his friend Brian brought up one of the bookcases for my new room.

"Over on that wall. Next to the back window," I answered as I pointed to the back of my room.

My dad's name was David. He was a mechanic, and he owned his own shop downtown. He was tall with a muscular build, and he wore small round glasses. His hair was dark brown with a little gray starting to show up around his ears, and his eyes were blue.

He and Brian placed the large bookcase down in the corner. I loved books, and I had collected a small library over the years. I had history books, novels, and, of course, my mysteries.

"We're going to go get your dresser. Where do you want it?" Dad inquired.

"Over there on that wall. Next to the door."

Dad nodded, and he and Brian headed back downstairs to retrieve the next load. As I waited for them to return, I realized that, if the dresser were next to my door, it would be directly across the room from the window on the right. This was the side with the ugly house next door, and I would have to see it everyday in my mirror. It would be like having the house in my room all the time. I shivered at the thought.

Dad and Brian returned and started to place the dresser next to my door.

"Wait, Dad. I think I want it somewhere else."

Dad and Brian carefully set the dresser down in the middle of the doorway. I could tell they were exhausted. They were more than ready to get the moving done, and my indecision was not helping. Dad suggested they put the dresser next to the door for the moment. If I wanted them to, they would move it later. I reluctantly agreed because it really was the only place the dresser would fit. I would just have to keep the curtains closed till I got used to it.

After helping Dad and Brian, I headed downstairs to see what Mom was doing. I found her in the kitchen trying to get her new cabinets organized.

Her name was Laura, and she was average height and size. Her hair was a light brown, but she dyed it so nobody really knew what her real color was anymore. She worked as an environmental scientist in one of the labs at the university. Mom was really smart, but Aiden and I thought she was a total goofball. She was always making up silly songs and dances to make us laugh. Whenever we got upset, Mom pretended she could tap dance until we couldn't help but smile. She was the kind of mom who left "I love you" messages in our lunchboxes, and she was always there if we needed to talk to someone. Mom liked to have everything perfect, so she was analyzing every possible option for her new kitchen.

"Hey, Mom. Has Em called yet?"

Mom jumped down from her stool and gave me a kiss on the forehead.

"No, honey," she said while handing me a box, "but I'm sure she will. Help me get these boxes unpacked, okay?"

I struggled under the weight of the large box.

"Good grief, Mom, these boxes are heavy! Can't Dad," but before I could finish, I dropped the oversized box. It landed on the kitchen floor with a huge CRASH.

"Em!"

Emily came running through the back door and nearly knocked me over with a hug. Poor Fernando was dragged across the floor because he couldn't keep up with her. She picked him up and cradled him in her arms.

"I'm sorry, baby."

She put him back down and tied him to the leg of one of the chairs. She looked up and noticed the mess on the floor.

"Hey, Mrs. G. What happened here?"

Mom answered, while looking at me, "Well, somebody dropped the box of pots and pans."

I could feel my face turning red with embarrassment. I sheepishly said,

"Sorry, Mom. I'll pick them up, but can I show Em my new room first?"

Mom shook her head no, and said, "Help me pick this up first, then you two can go upstairs and work on your room."

I sighed and said, "Okay."

Emily volunteered to help too.

After we picked up the pots and pans, we finally went upstairs and checked out my new room.

"Kay, this is so cool. You have so much space, and I love those windows. Hey, the new bed is awesome."

Emily ran over and pounced on my new queen-size bed. Mom and Dad had gotten it because my old bed was falling apart and because my new room was so much bigger than the last one. Emily jumped up and ran over to the back window. She was so excited she looked like Fernando hopping around the room. She had never seen the back of the house before, and she was amazed at how big the backyard was. She said it looked like a football field. Hers was only about half the size.

Emily turned away from the windows and continued to inspect every inch of the room. I went back to unpacking my stuff and getting settled into my new space.

I started by cleaning the mirror that went to my dresser. In the mirror I could see that my light brown hair was a total mess, and my blue eyes looked so tired and droopy. Moving can be so exhausting, I thought. I fumbled around looking for the brush that I knew I had unpacked already, but, of course, now it had disappeared. I found it on the floor next to the bed. Thomas was still under there, hissing and growling.

Thomas was our big lazy yellow tabby cat. The only exercise he got was when he occasionally chased his own tail. He was mostly my buddy, and he liked to follow me around. He slept at the end of my bed every night, and I really appreciated the extra company. I wasn't sure what he thought about the new place yet because he kept hiding under my bed. I knew there wasn't hope for him coming out now that Fernando was here. He really hated that rabbit.

"It's okay, Thomas. Fernando isn't going to hurt you."

We continued to work on my room for what seemed like forever. I was over by the back window setting up one of my bookcases when I glanced out over the back porch and the bright green grass of the yard. Our house was situated at the top a hill so the backyard sloped down a little. Beyond the wooden fence at the back was a vast evergreen forest. The forest went on for miles and it looked like it didn't end until it hit the sky. It was starting to get dark outside, and I could see the sun setting into the trees. The sky was turning beautiful colors of pink of purple. As my eyes wandered back to our yard, I noticed two large apple trees on each of the back corners. It looked like the old owners had left a swing set, too. Aiden would love that.

While I was surveying the rest of the backyard, my eyes led me over to the window on my right. The view was not so nice from that window. All I could see was that ugly old house, but now I could also see the back of the house. It was just as horrible and uninviting as the front. The yard was overgrown with weeds, and the fence that separated our yard from theirs was falling apart. The old table and chairs on the porch were covered with vines, and the porch itself looked like it could cave in at any minute. The window across from mine wasn't boarded up, and there were no bars. I could actually see into the tiny corner room. What I saw was a bed and a lot of junk. Boxes were stacked to the ceiling, and the floor was covered in old clothes and other stuff I couldn't recognize. I tried to see into the other rooms, but it was getting too dark outside. The darkness only added to the house's ghostly feeling. The whole thing gave me the chills.

Emily was on the floor unpacking a box of books. She picked up a couple of old, tattered novels and looked up at me.

"Good grief, Kay. Do you have to keep every little thing? We read this one in the second grade. Don't you think - what are you looking at?"

I turned away from the darkness, and glanced over at Emily. Then I remembered. I hadn't asked Emily if she knew anything about the house. I asked her if anybody lived in the house. She tossed the old books back into to the box and came over to the window.

"No. That's the old Peterson place. Old lady Peterson died about a year ago. She didn't have any relatives. Maybe the lawyers are trying to find one, or maybe they just don't know what to do with the place. I don't know. It's just been sitting there ever since. I never met her. Nobody really knew her. She had a caretaker that would bring her groceries and stuff. He's the one that found her dead. He said it looked liked she died in her sleep. I think she died in that room right there."

Emily pointed to the room across from mine, and I could feel a chill go down my spine.

Emily continued, "She was really old, and some people said she was mean. She would yell through the door at anybody who came up on the porch."

I asked Emily if she knew the caretaker and if he had ever said anything about the old lady.

"Not to anybody I know. I think Mom talked to him a couple of times. He used to live with his son in the house at the end of the block. Mom ran into him a couple of times during her walk. I haven't seen the caretaker since the old lady died. He may have died, too. Who knows?"

Emily turned around and went back to the boxes. She picked up a pile of books and asked me where I wanted her to put them. I pointed toward the bookcase in the corner. Emily obviously didn't think anything was strange about the house, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else going on. I would write for the school paper again this year, and I needed a good mystery to solve. I didn't know what it would be, but I began to think that the house next door might give me what I was looking for. I knew it would bother me until I figured it out, but for now, I had to focus on getting my own place fixed up. I turned around and went back to cleaning the mirror.

Chapter Two

Friday, August 21st

It had been a little over a month since we moved into our new home. Everybody was starting to get settled in, and we all seemed to really like the new place. School was going to start back this coming Monday. I was very excited to get back to writing for the school paper, but I could still feel the butterflies making a home in my stomach.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Many Mysteries of Kaylee Marieby Leslie Glover Copyright © 2009 by Leslie Glover. Excerpted by permission.
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