Author's Note:
Just to warn you, if things aren't right in this chapter, my windows media player is throwing a tantrum and refusing to play the sound. So I can see the picture and read the closed captions, but there's no sound. It's very annoying and the reason I haven't posted. I'm going to try to go home this weekend and then hopefully, (fingers crossed), I'll be able to write another chapter. Sorry for the wait.
Chapter #10:
While Ben and Abigail got to go shopping Riley and I were sent to discover what the cipher of the back of the Declaration had said. The cipher was decoded by finding the letters in the Silence Dogood correspondences that corresponded to the numbers.
And no matter how many times Riley repeated this explanation to me I still didn't understand what we were doing.
I did understand one part however. Finding the message would involve a lot of work. Which is why I suggested we hire some little kid to do it for us.
"It'll look less conspicuous if a kid is running around studying this document instead of a pair of adults," I explained.
"You just don't want to do the work," Riley accused.
"That too," I nodded.
"Sounds good to me," Riley shrugged.
So that's how the two of us found ourselves across the street from the Franklin Institute while we sent a little kid to do the actual running back and forth. It was a nice day and after our crazy night it was a good change to have some relaxation time.
"There's the kid," I commented. He ran across the street to where we were sitting, a piece of paper clutched in his hand.
"S-S-A-N-D," he read off the paper. Riley wrote the new letters down.
"You sure this is right?" Riley asked the boy. He regarded Riley with more disgust then a kid his age should be able to express. "Okay."
"No N," the boy corrected pointing at the paper Riley was writing on.
"That is an N," Riley replied.
"It doesn't look like an N," the boy insisted stubbornly.
"You think my writing is bad," Riley told the boy, "you should see hers." I grumbled and the kid laughed.
"Sand!" I cried out reading what Riley had written. "This is awesome, we're going to the beach!"
"Somehow I don't see the Founding Fathers hanging out at the shore," Riley scoffed.
"You never know," I muttered.
"You're crazy," the boy said looking at me.
"Well I'm rubber and you're glue-" I began.
"You know what? Here," Riley handed the boy another piece of paper interrupting my clever come back, "last one. Okay? One more dollar."
"Thank you," the boy said taking the money.
"Why do I get the feeling we're overpaying this kid?" I muttered to Riley.
"Go get the last four letters," Riley instructed the boy, "go get'em chief. Come on."
"Yeah," I said as we watched him run back to the Franklin Institute, "if we finish this maybe we'll have time to get something to eat."
"How do you not just explode?" Riley asked looking curious. I shrugged, it was one of those unsolvable mysteries.
"What do we have so far?" I asked him.
"Okay," Riley looked down at the paper and began to read. "The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of pass and… Pass and what?"
"Hey don't ask me," I laughed, "Ben's the expert."
Riley kept trying to figure out the end of the riddle while I amused myself by watching the people and cars that were passing us. Nice normal people, who I was guessing didn't have to worry about the F. B. I. catching them and throwing them into jail until they rot into nothingness. Just the other day I was like them, and the day before that I was part of the F. B. I. myself.
Life could be strange sometimes.
My musings were interrupted by Riley hitting me on the arm.
"I've got it!" he exclaimed.
"Let's eat," I cried.
"No," Riley said pulling me to my feet, "let's go tell Ben!"
"My idea was better," I sulked as we hurried off to find Ben and Abigail. We went to the Urban Outfitters where they were shopping just as they were paying. This meant that we had missed the shopping fun, which was depressing.
"Hey!" Riley called as we approached.
"Did you get it? Riley? Maggie?" Ben asked.
"Oh we got it," Riley answered.
"All by ourselves," I lied.
"The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow," Riley read aloud. "Now, 'Pass and Stow', of course referring to-"
"The Liberty Bell," Ben and Abigail said together.
"Why do you have to do that?" Riley asked.
"Never mind that," I snorted, "the real question is how do you do that?"
"Well, John Pass and John Stow cast the bell," Abigail explained.
"Yeah cause everyone knows that," I muttered.
"Okay," Riley said, "well then what does the rest of this mean?"
"Please let it be a relaxing day spent at the shore eating ice cream and watching the ocean," I begged.
"Wait," Ben said, "the vision to see the treasured past must refer to a way to read the map."
"Well of course it must," I rolled my eyes.
"I thought that the cipher was the map," Riley said.
"No," Ben corrected, "the cipher was a way to find the way to read the map."
"You would have thought that the founding fathers could have had a hobby other then hiding treasure," I grumbled, "I mean could they make this any more confusing?"
"And the way to read the map-" Here Abigail started speaking, finishing Ben's thought.
"- can be found where the timely shadow crosses in front of the Liberty Bell!"
"Crosses in front of the house of the Liberty Bell!" Ben added. In my opinion they were way too excited about this. Though it was cool that the Liberty Bell had its own house when all I could afford was a one bedroom apartment.
"Right so the timely shadow is a specific time!" Abigail cried.
"The mating call of the sophisticated historian has several unique characteristics," I quipped.
"Uh what time?" Riley asked.
"What time? What time?" Ben repeated. I supposed the repetition of things was a family trait. "Wait a minute, wait. You're going to love this," he said to Abigail. I was insulted that the founding fathers hadn't thought to add things to their riddles that I would love. "Excuse me," Ben said to the lady behind the counter, "can I see one of those hundred dollar bills I paid you with?"
"So in Ben's book it's all right to steal the Declaration but to steal from an Urban Outfitters is bad?" I asked softly so that the lady couldn't hear while Ben convinced her to let him see one of the bills. "I still have duct tape after all."
"Give it up Maggie," Abigail chuckled.
"On the back of a hundred dollar bill," Ben said jumping right back into the explanations, "is an etching of Independence Hall based on a painting done in the 1780's, who- the artist was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin's. It's wonderful."
"Fascinating," the clerk said sounding as if crazy people routinely used her store for their explanations of riddles written by the founding fathers.
"Hold this," Ben said absentmindedly giving Abigail the Declaration, which was in it's handy document bag.
"Uh Ben," I spoke up, "is it really a good idea to have Abigail hold the stolen property? She did try to take it and run once already."
"I'm not going anywhere," Abigail promised.
"Now I think," Ben continued, "that if we take a close look at this clock tower we may find the specific time." Ben grabbed a water bottle and used it to magnify the image on the back of the bill.
"What do you see?"
"2:22," Ben answered.
"What time is it now?" Abigail asked.
"Almost three," the clerk told us.
"We missed it," Abigail groaned.
"No we didn't," Riley said.
"What?" I asked. "Do you have a time machine that you've failed to mention up to this point?"
"We didn't miss it," Riley went on, "because…" he trailed off looking at Ben and Abigail in surprise, "I know something about history that you don't know?"
"The world is coming to an end," I said looking around for the hellfire and rivers of blood I expected to see at any second.
"I'd be very excited to learn about it Riley," Ben said in a tone of forced calm.
"Well hold on one second," he said, "let me just… let me just take in this moment. This is cool. Is this how you feel all the time? Cause, you know, except for now, of course." He was becoming slightly incoherent and I wondered exactly what it felt like to know something everyone else didn't. It was probably a nice feeling.
"Riley!" Abigail snapped.
"All right," Riley said. "What I know is that daylight savings wasn't established until World War I. If it's 3:00 p.m. now, okay, that would mean in 1776 it would be 2:00 p.m."
"Let's go," Abigail grinned.
"Riley," Ben said, "you're a genius."
"Don't let it get to your head," I advised.
"Do you actually know who the first person to suggest daylight savings was?" he asked.
"Ben Franklin," both Abigail and Ben answered. Riley stamped his feet in annoyance.
"I didn't know," I assured him.