Disclaimer: These characters (except for Matthias Price) don't belong to me (wish they did). Enjoy this flashback in Trixie's POV – please let me know what you think.

Sometimes, there are places which hold significant meaning in our lives.

It could be a family vacation spot, a favorite restaurant, or even a particular park bench. For seventeen year old Trixie Belden and her younger brother Bobby, there was one place in the Wheeler's game preserve that would always be special. What others saw as a dark and potentially dangerous cavern, Trixie and Bobby saw as a place of miracles. It was where their friend Dan Mangan had saved them from a mountain lion on a cold winter's day. In Bobby's mind, it was the doorway to adventure; a place where little shoemaking elves and fantastical creatures dwelled. In Trixie's mind, it was like a cosmic adoption agency where Dan had somehow been permanently grafted into the Belden family as an honorary member. For Dan, it was a place of redemption and second chances at a time when he desperately needed to prove himself; to become the kind of person his parents had hoped he would be, despite having been temporarily seduced into the street life of a gang.

On this particular day, Trixie knew it was the place where Dan was going to tell Bobby that he had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He had made plans with Trixie to have her bring Bobby to the cave for a picnic, and then he would meet them there to explain everything to the boy, himself. Trixie and Bobby had not been on the trail long before Bobby was already asking questions.

"Trix, I'm glad we're going on a picnic and all, but why do we have to walk?" Bobby sighed as if he had been walking for hours. "If we'd met Dan at the stables, Regan would've let us take some of the horses out. I can ride a horse by myself now, you know." His blonde curly hair bounced across his forehead as he dramatically shook his head at his sister.

Trixie looked at her nine-year old brother and considered what to say. She knew why they couldn't meet Dan at the stables and ride out to the cave, but she couldn't tell Bobby the reason. One of the lumps the doctors had found in Dan's lymph nodes was located in his groin area; it had just become too painful for the teen to sit in a saddle. He'll find out soon enough. Trixie thought to herself. I better keep things light for now.

"Aw, come on Bobby." She grabbed a leaf from an overhead tree and tossed it playfully at her brother. "You're the one who always likes to get out in nature and chase bugs - classify the phylum of trees – dig worms – that kind of stuff. It'll be a fun hike! Don't be lazy."

Bobby fell silent again, and Trixie thought about how her little brother might take Dan's news. The youngest Belden was extremely close to Dan. Would he be afraid? She knew that Bobby was no longer the baby-faced six year old who fell into a hole in the cavern floor three years before. As a gifted student about to go into the fourth grade at Sleepyside Elementary, her brother had grown into an extremely perceptive and quick-witted little boy – much like their brother Mart. But Trixie knew that Bobby was also an emotional person who loved deeply and worried a lot about other people – very much like their oldest brother Brian. She thought it wise of Dan to wait and explain everything to Bobby one-on-one, rather than let a bunch of grownups drop the bomb on him casually. As the two Belden children finally neared the clearing before the cave, Dan saw them approaching and gave a friendly wave.

"There you are. I was worried that you weren't coming. Mr. Maypenny sent us some of his famous venison burgers!" Dan patted his basket while rubbing his stomach. "Did Moms send some of those brownies I love so much?"

"You know it." Trixie laughed, giving her own basket a quick bump on the bottom. "And little cups of ice cream to go with them. That means we have to start with dessert so that they won't be completely melted!"

"Works for me!" Dan laughed .

The three friends sat in the mouth of the cave, enjoying the cool shade's contrast from the hot summer air outside, and stuffed themselves with the special treats from their baskets.

"Mmmmm. Tell Mr. M that these 'Bambi' burgers are the best!" Bobby raved with his mouth full. Trixie gave him a disapproving glance as he rolled his eyes and opened his mouth wider to give his sister an even more disgusting view. Mart taught him that, Trixie thought. She was repulsed.

"They're not as good as his hunter's stew, mind you, but they're by far the best burgers I've ever eaten; cow or deer." Dan's tone of voice made it clear that he was proud of his guardian's culinary skills, despite the fact that the whole town probably saw Mr. Maypenny as some grumpy, grizzled old hermit. Trixie, herself, had once been under that impression, but she now knew that wasn't the case. I wonder what he thinks of Dan being sick. Trixie's mind was wandering again.

Once the picnic lunch was cleaned up and everyone was feeling satisfied, Dan pulled out a small leather bag from his pocket and held it up.

"Do you know what this is?" He asked mysteriously. He crossed to where Bobby was sitting and dropped down to sit beside him before holding the bag out to the boy.

Bobby opened the drawstring at the top of the pouch and dumped its contents into the palm of his other hand. "It's a compass, right?" He turned it over and over, admiring the strange numbers on the shiny object. "Looks old."

"It is." Dan said proudly. "I got it at an antique store in New York City last time I was there. I was really drawn to it, because I thought it looked kind of like one a pirate might have used. I was excited when I found out that it had a much happier history. See that cross etched in the back panel? Look at the initials underneath it. This compass belonged to a missionary named Matthias Price who spent his entire adult life spreading Christianity to Native Americans in the wild west. The funny thing is, he never used it! That's why it's in such great condition. See, he kept a journal that the antique dealer sold to me along with the compass. In the journal, Matthias wrote that God was his compass, and that He always told him where to go."

"So, why did he keep the compass all those years, if he never planned to use it?" Bobby asked.

"Because it served as a daily reminder that he didn't need it." Dan said. "Mathias believed that no matter how accurately an earthly device, such as a compass, can measure one's current position or help calculate a future destination, God alone really knows where a man is or where he's going. " Trixie could see the emotion building in Dan's eyes as he spoke. She understood the depth of what he was saying, but she did not think Bobby was old enough to even fathom a bit of it.

Bobby started to hand the compass back to Dan, but the older boy shook his head. A strand of black hair fell momentarily over his forehead and Dan swiped it away with one hand while pushing the compass back toward Bobby with the other. "I want you to have it," Dan said quietly. "I'm going to teach you how to do some neat things with it."

"Wow, thanks!" Bobby was mesmerized by the gift.

Dan moved away from his friend quickly, before his emotions got the better of him, and Trixie suddenly felt a trembling in her stomach. She wished he would just go ahead and get this over with.

"Bobby, if you were using the compass to find a place, and you got there with no problem, would you trust it to get you somewhere else?" Dan asked while walking away from the Belden siblings sitting on the cavern floor.

"Sure." Bobby said slowly. He was beginning to sense that something was up and he searched his sister's face for the answer. Trixie turned her eyes toward Dan's back so she wouldn't give anything away. She felt like such a coward. Her heart began to beat loudly in her ears.

"You wouldn't question it? The compass, I mean. Even if you looked around and thought you might be headed in the wrong direction? You wouldn't doubt what it said?"

"I…I guess not. Especially if it had always been right."

"And you trust me, right?" Dan questioned. He had stopped moving and was pretending to inspect some glittering veins of fool's gold embedded in the wall of the cave. He still did not turn to face them.

"Of course," Bobby said quickly. "I mean, you did save my life and everything" He chuckled and seemed to want the mood to lighten up, but his face fell a bit when no one else laughed with him. Trixie silently pleaded in her head for Dan to hurry up with his point!

"Bobby," Dan turned and moved back toward the others, "I may not know what's going to happen in the future, but I know someone who does. God has never steered me wrong in the past, and if I can trust a compass to be reliable, then I can certainly trust Him. Even when it seems that I'm going in the wrong direction." He knelt down in front of Bobby but did not meet his eyes. He was about to begin speaking again when Bobby interrupted him.

"Wait. I know what this is…" He was trying to sound casual. "You're leaving us, aren't you? You're…you're going away to college, since you didn't get into the police academy."

"Who told you Dan didn't get into the academy?" Trixie asked suddenly.

"Mart. He didn't say why, though." Bobby turned toward Dan and tried again to make everyone stop taking everything too seriously. "Dan, don't be so dramatic. I know you can't promise me that you'll come back to live here after college, but I trust you and I know that you wouldn't just up and leave and…and never ever come back to visit. Is that what you are trying to tell me? You don't want me to be sad if you go away to school and never live in Sleepyside again?"

Neither Trixie nor Dan had ever even considered that Bobby would misunderstand what they were trying to tell him, and Dan suddenly appeared to not know what to say. He rubbed his temples nervously and continued to stare at the ground in front of the younger boy.

"Bobby…" He started softly.

"It's okay." Bobby interrupted again. "Really. I know you'll visit us either way. Besides, you love our mom's cooking too much." The way he laughed at his own joke only made the uneasiness in Trixie's heart continue to grow. What do we do, now? She was starting to panic.

"I'm not moving away from Sleepyside." Dan said gently. Bobby saw the emotion in Dan's eyes when he finally lifted them to meet his own, and the little boy's smile quickly disappeared. He knew something was wrong.

"Is…is there something wrong with Mr. Maypenny? Is he sick or something?"

"No, it's not Mr. Maypenny."

"Regan?"

"No, not Regan."

"You aren't…you know…going to jail or anything like that are you?" Bobby asked uncomfortably. He knew that Dan, as a gang member in New York, had actually been arrested and sent to a juvenile detention facility just before he moved to Sleepyside.

"You haven't done anything wrong, have you?"

"No, no, no, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not going…back…to…jail." Dan seemed to be losing heart as Bobby was obviously growing more and more anxious. Trixie swallowed back tears that were threatening to surface.

"So, what's the deal?" Bobby suddenly jumped up and held the compass high as he lifted his hands in question. He was angry. That was not the reaction Trixie had expected.

"You give me this compass that I'm supposed to trust but I'm not supposed to need, and you tell me that it might seem that you're going the wrong way sometimes, but it's okay because God has it all figured out, and…and…man, you two are acting all weird…and…I don't get it! What's going on?"

"Bobby, calm down," Trixie whispered.

"NO! What's going on? Why are you guys acting like something really bad is about to happen?"

Dan stood and slowly walked closer to Bobby.

"Not bad, just scary," He said simply.

"What? Did you join the military? Are you going to war or something?"

Dan smiled at that and seemed to draw strength from the idea. "Well, actually it will be sort of like a battle. But, no, I didn't join the military. Maybe I should consider signing up, though, if all of this turns out okay. I will, after all, most likely come out of it with a much shorter haircut." Dan was trying a more humorous approach, yet Trixie didn't think Bobby would get the joke.

She was wrong.

The moment Dan's words brought understanding to Bobby's brain, it was as if an atomic explosion had occurred in his eyes. A flash of white appeared under extremely raised eyelids, immediately followed by a cloud of terror.

"You're sick?" It was nothing more than a whisper.

"I have the same thing my mom had…"

"NO!" Bobby dropped the compass and ran as fast as he could away from the cave.

Sorry, if it was disappointing and only raised more questions, but stay tuned. The whole compass thing will be VERY important later on.

Want to know what present-day Bobby is thinking?