Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (27 page)

"Oh to be young and have an imagination that hasn't been squashed by reality," Henry lamented. He came out of the closet and sat down on the bed. "You know, they always ask young boys if they want to be a fireman or a cowboy. I always wanted to be an astronaut. I thought for sure we would be traveling back and forth between earth and colonies on other planets by now."

"Me too!" Polly said. "I wanted to live in space and fight aliens and sail past galaxies. Maybe that's why I became a librarian. Books are so much more exciting than real life."

"This real life is pretty exciting," Henry said as he pulled her down on his lap.

"But, you aren't piloting a ship called Serenity and fending off evildoers and I'm not stopping the Empire from taking over the universe."

"Not today we aren't. But who knows what is going to happen tomorrow?"

Polly kissed him on the cheek, "Thanks."

Henry placed his hand on the back of her head and pulled her back in so he could kiss her lips. "Any time, Princess," he said.

"Whoa!" she whispered as she broke the kiss. "We've got a kid out there and you make my head spin."

Henry's silly grin filled his face. "The head spinning I like. The kid, well, okay."

She stood up and headed for the door, then turned around. "I like the head spinning too, and I like thinking about you in a ship traveling from planet to planet."

"Because I'd wear leather or something?"

"Sure, that's it," she giggled and went out into the living room.

Andrew looked up and said, "Is he gonna wait for us?"

"No problem. I had to talk him into it. He was excited about opening that wall, but then he remembered he needed some tools to do it."

"I do need tools," Henry echoed. "I'm going to my shop. What if I came back with some ice cream treats?"

"Yeah! Jason better hurry back so he doesn't miss out," Andrew said and went back to his homework.

Polly walked him to the door and kissed him goodbye then stood there waiting since she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Henry held his hand out for Jason to slap as they passed in the hall and Polly held the door open for the boy as he entered.

"Henry's getting ice cream and some tools to tear into the wall in my bedroom, which will all happen after you two get your homework done," she said.

"Cool!" Jason replied. "The horses are ready for bed. Eliseo told me tonight that he liked working with me."

"I'm glad," Her heart gave a thud as she hoped Eliseo was still going to be here after Monday. Then she realized she needed to set it aside and enjoy her evening.

Jason and Andrew worked on their homework until Henry returned with treats.

"How close are you to being done?" Polly asked while Henry unloaded the bag of goodies into the freezer.

"I have one more section and I'm done," Andrew announced.

"I'm nearly finished with my math and then I'm done." Jason said.

"Alright. Finish your work and when I see your books back in your backpacks and the packs by the front door, we'll have ice cream." Polly said.

Henry winked at her and went back into the bedroom with a saw and a tool belt.

She followed him in. "What was that wink for?"

"You like having kids around, you can't deny it."

"I love having kids around. It's babies and toddlers that make me nuts. If I could figure out how to have kids this age without all that other messy stuff, I'd do it right now."

"Right now?" he teased.

"Well, okay, not right now. But, I wouldn't hesitate."

"You know there are other options."

"Yeah, but ..." Polly paused. "I'm walking right into this one, aren't I?"

"Without a doubt. Should we stop here?"

"Can we please?" she laughed.

"I'm done!" Andrew called out. She heard him carrying his bag across the room and as she walked out into the living room, Jason shut his book and began pushing things down into his own pack.

"Alright! Let's see what Henry brought us."

Polly opened the freezer and nearly snorted with laughter. There were popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream bars and cones. It seemed as if he had bought out the freezer.

"Well, it looks as if you have plenty of choices. Come on over, boys and tell me what you'd like.

Andrew stood up on his tip toes to see inside the freezer and pointed at a frozen candy bar ice cream treat. She pulled it out and handed it to him, while Jason asked, "Could I have an ice cream sandwich please?"

"Those are my favorite, too," Polly said.

"Oh, you can have this and I'll choose something else."

"No, look. He bought two of them. We're set." She pulled the second one out and then said, "Henry, what about you?"

"One of those ice cream cones would be perfect. Thanks."

"No, thank
you
for getting these!"

Polly looked pointedly at the boys, who were both too busy opening their packages to pay any attention. She grabbed some napkins and joined them at the table.

Handing off Henry's cone to him, she said, "We appreciate you picking these up for us, don't we boys."

"Thank you!" Andrew said, brandishing his frozen treat on a stick. "This is great. Mom never buys these."

"Thank you," Jason responded and took a bite of his sandwich, giggling as the ice cream pushed out on the sides. "I hope I can eat this fast enough so that it doesn't melt."

Polly gathered up the paper wrappings and napkins when they finished, and said, "Wash your hands and then follow Henry in to the bedroom. Do what he says and stay where he tells you to stay so no one gets hurt, alright?"

"Cool!" Andrew said. He ran to the kitchen sink and turned on the water. "What do you think we'll find in the wall, Jason?"

"Stairs?" Jason said.

"I mean other than stairs. You know there were bodies in the bathroom ceiling. Do you think there will be anything like that in there?"

"Maybe ghosts will pour out when Henry opens the wall," Jason said, then wobbled his fingers at his brother, "Oooooh, and they're gonna haunt you and follow you home and scare you every night when you try to sleep."

Andrew looked up at him and said sarcastically, "Dude. There are no such things as ghosts." Then he got excited, "but there might be zombies."

Jason rolled his eyes at Polly and shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "What can you do?"

Polly nearly swallowed her tongue as she attempted to hold back her laughter. She couldn't believe the little boy's attitude, but it was perfect.

The boys went into the bedroom and displaced Luke and Leia who were snuggled up at the end of the bed.

Henry shook out a tarp and said. "Can you help me throw this over Polly's bed so the dust doesn't make too much of a mess?"

He pulled the closet door closed and nodded to the bathroom door, which Polly closed. He tossed another tarp over the cat tree and said. "Are you ready?"

Both boys nodded and Henry lifted the saw and began cutting through the plaster. After a few cuts, he pushed and pulled and the section fell to the floor of Polly's bedroom.

"Oops, maybe I should have put something down," he laughed.

"I'll bring you a broom," she said.

He looked down into the hole and said, "Hmmm, it's awfully dark down there. Do you boys want to come look?"

Polly watched the boys approach the hole with more than a little trepidation and she tiptoed up behind them. Just as they peered in the hole, she jumped at them and yelled, "Boo!"

Andrew yelped and Jason looked at her in shock, then both crumbled into laughter.

"That was funny, Polly!" Andrew said. "You scared me. Did she scare you, Jason?"

"Yes. A lot." Jason said, trying to regain his composure. "I didn't see anything. How can we make it lighter in there?"

"I have a flashlight," Polly said and pulled it out from under her bedside table. "See if this helps."

Henry shone the light in the hole and said, "Yep, stairs. But, I don't see anything else. What about you boys?"

"Do you think they're safe? Can you open this up so we can go down?" Jason asked.

"No, we aren't going down these tonight. I don't want anyone on them until I open up the lower level and can figure out why they closed this stairway off."

"Look!" Andrew said, "There is something down there on the floor."

Henry pointed the flashlight toward the lowest step. "You're right, there is. But, it looks like boxes, not a body."

"Shoot. Boxes are boring," Andrew replied.

"Those boxes might tell the story about the portal to other planets, Andrew. You never know what's in them."

His eyes lit back up and then he slumped. "It's probably kids' school work. Nothing exciting."

"What's going on in here?" Everyone spun around at Sylvie's voice. She was standing in the bedroom door.

"I thought I heard something weird up here. I was in the storage room and nearly wet my pants when you broke through that wall, Henry," she laughed. "At least now I see what was making all that noise. I didn't know what to think!"

"We thought there might be zombies in there, mom," Andrew said. "But, it's only some stairs and boxes."

"Stairs? That's fabulous. Polly, you'll have another exit!"

"I know! I can do laundry without bothering you in the kitchen and you can sneak up here when you're tired of all of your employees," Polly laughed.

"Did you get your homework done so you can help Polly tomorrow?" she asked.

Both boys nodded yes and she said, "Then we should go home. I'm all done here and I'm beat."

Jason and Andrew slowly walked out of the bedroom, following their mom.

"I wish we could stay and watch Henry open up that stairway," Andrew lamented.

"I'm not going to do anything more tonight, boys. I wanted to make sure that was actually a stairway. You can rest easy. I'll let you know what's happening when we open the whole thing up."

"Cool!" he responded.

Polly laughed to herself. It was wonderful to watch a little boy's emotions jump all over the place as he learned to process his environment.

"Tell Polly and Henry thank you," Sylvie commanded.

"Thanks Polly. Thanks Henry." Andrew said.

"Thank you," Jason echoed.

"I'll pick them up tomorrow about ten ‘til one and then feed them pizza after we're done. I hope you get a lot of studying done."

"Me too, otherwise, I'm going to be very stressed out and we don't want that, do we?"

"No, because when she's stressed out, I have to hide in my room," Andrew said. "She's no fun."

Sylvie giggled and shook her head. "Let's go."

They left and Polly leaned back on Henry. "They're such good boys."

"It's still early. What would you like to do?" he asked.

"What I want to do is finish knocking that hole in the wall and see what's down on those steps."

"We're not doing that. I'm not letting you head down those steps until I know they're safe and I'm not going to know they're safe from up here. Got it?"

"Whatever,” she grumped. “We could watch a movie, I suppose."

"We did that last night. Don't you have any games around here? Maybe some cards or something? Turn on some music and we can dance. Something. Anything."

"No dancing. But, I have games." She opened one of the cabinets along the wall and pulled out a backgammon board. "Care to play, carpenter boy? I'll whip you."

"Bet me," he laughed. "I was a backgammon master in college."

"So was I. It's on."

They set up on the dining room table and began to play.

"So, Henry. If I told you I found something strange in the barn, what would you say?"

He rolled his dice and said, "I don't know. What do you think is strange?"

"I found a very old vase up in the haymow this afternoon. I haven't said anything to anyone because it scares me to death that Eliseo has something to do with it and I didn't want to lose another custodian before tonight's wedding reception."

Henry laughed, "Of course that's the way you thought about it. You are a nut, Polly. What if he has nothing to do with it?"

"He's the only person other than me who has been up there. And he was living up there."

"It's not like you lock the barn. Anyone could have stowed it there, thinking it was safe."

"But it wasn't safe. I found it today. And Henry, it was filled with cash!"

He stopped and looked at her. "Cash? How much cash?"

"A lot of cash. I didn't count it, but it was hundred dollar bills."

"Alright, you probably should have told someone about this. When are you going to do that?"

"I was thinking that I'd call Aaron on Monday. He's never surprised to hear from me anymore."

"No, you're right, he's not. At least it's not a body," he chuckled. "What if it's gone on Monday?"