You have no idea how hard it was to write this chapter. I needed to be in the right mindset and needed inspiration. I would travel around my town in hope for inspiration.
Chapter 54
Perfect Proposal
"Chels, will you stop brooding?"
"I'm not brooding!"
"You call staying in your house all day is not brooding?" I clung to my pillow harder.
"No?" Natalie shook her head and ripped the blanket off of my body.
"Get up already. Besides, I have a game for you to play?" My ears perked up when she mentioned game.
"What kind of game?" I couldn't hide the suspicion in my voice.
"Scavenger hunt. Julia took the keys to your shed and she was afraid you'd get angry so she hid them," she said shrugging at my stupefied look. Dragging myself out of bed, I got dressed. As I passed my nightstand, I glanced at my clock.
A quarter til one.
"Get dressed already," she said. Under her instructions, I dressed in jeans, a sweater and flats. When I came out, Natalie smirked.
"What?"
"It's a scavenger hunt. Not a date, Chelsea!" I grumbled and went back to my drawers and pulled out a pair of athletic shorts and a T-shirt. I quickly changed and put my hair in a ponytail. I put on some socks and placed sneakers on.
"Better?" Natalie smiled and gave me an envelope.
"Your first station is with Denny after you find my item. By the way, these clues all deal with something pertaining to you," she said as I grumbled again and walked out of my house.
Julia better be glad I'm tolerating her childish motives today
Sighing, I opened the letter:
What's black when you see it, red when you use it, and gray when you're finished?
"Oh great, it's one of these," I said. I sat down by the tree. The clues would have to pertain to something on the island. I noticed in the envelope was a charred sliver of wood. I remember when all of the islanders hung out. When it got dark, we had a fire and it ended up burning Denny and he freaked.
The beach!
I made my way to the beach quickly and saw the fire pit. I sprinted towards it and found an envelope, only this time it was red. I opened it:
Congratulations! You have found the first clue. On to the next one
"Chelsea! You finished the first clue!" I turned and saw Denny walking up to me with a manila box. I stood up and wiped my hands, putting the envelope in my rucksack.
"Yeah, how many more to go?" He smirked devilishly. I felt myself pale. Denny only smiled like that when he switched to his sadistic mode.
"You would like to know, wouldn't you?" He said. He handed me a blue envelope. "Your next clue is a little hard. Have fun!" He walked away after he stated.
"Weird," I said. Opening the letter, my phone went off. I didn't bother answering; I'd call them back later. When the letter was open, it read:
I am as light as a feather, but as big as a barn. Sixty horses cannot pull me off the ground. What am I?
Okay, now this one made not a lick of sense. I looked around for Denny, hoping he'd give me some help. The fisherman was nowhere in sight. Stumped, I sat on the beach.
"The light as a feather and big as a barn is pretty self-explanatory, but sixty horses couldn't pull me is troubling," I said. Light as a feather? Feather's weigh nothing, but as big as a barn. Maybe it's a trick. Maybe the horses couldn't touch the item.
Widening my eyes, I stood up and ran. I ran to Mirabelle's shop and ran to the barn. I opened the doors and quickly did a scan of the area. The horses and cows looked at my lethargically and the sheep made noises of disgust. At the far end of the barn was a purple piece of paper. Hoping it was the next clue, I quickened my pace. When the note reached my hands, I read:
Sorry Chelsea, this isn't part of the hunt. But, you did get the area of interest right. You have one more option so hop to it.
My eye twitched in distaste. This game is going to be the end of me.
Turning, I made my way to my barn. With a new sense of determination, I inspected my barn. Since my animals were outside grazing, they didn't protest when I scrambled around the barn. Only Hamburger was left inside. Her baby was too young to graze.
"Where could that clue be?" I pulled out my phone and saw it was close to five. I sighed and fell on my butt. I looked at Hamburger and she seemed to be eying Hope with a murderous look. The poor calf was cuddled in the corner, oblivious to her mother's glare.
Upon closer inspection, I saw a white object poking from under Hamburger.
Please don't tell me that's what I think it is
Hoping my suspicion was incorrect as I crept towards the cow, my heart was beating a mile a minute as Hamburger turned her attention to me. I stopped and looked down at the object to find it was paper with half a riddle visible.
You've got to be kidding me
My options were limited.
"How can I get that cow to move? It's hard enough to move her in the morning!" I must've had said that out loud because Hamburger looked at me as if I were crazy.
"Moo!" Hamburger eyed my backpack with serious interest. I pulled the rucksack off my shoulder and peered inside. An apple was nestled at the bottom. I looked at the cow and back at the apple.
"Worth a shot," I said. I pulled the apple out and shouldered my bag. Hamburger stood up, fully attentive now. The paper was clearly visible and a picture was at the bottom. "Come on, Hamburger! You want the apple?" To my left, I saw Hope stand up and move in my direction. Hamburger noticed it and quickened her pace to me.
You'd think as a mother she'd be more….motherly
Hamburger snatched the apple from my hands and I stared dumbfounded at her. Her calf looked at her pitiful eyes. Hamburger took notice and placed the apple in front of her calf. The calf mooed happily and quickly ate the apple. Hamburger looked disheartened as the apple was munched down,
"Good girl," I said patting her side. I walked to my fodder bin and placed an extra helping in her bin. She saw this and made her way over to the bin and scarfed down the fodder. Once I made sure she was eating, I quickly took the clue and walked out of the barn.
The picture was of a wood panel. This baffled me and the clue didn't help. It read:
Ew ese it eonc in a eyar, eitwc in a wkee, and veenr in a yad. What is it?
I walked into my house and sat down, trying to figure out this riddle. Upon a minute of thinking, I realized the riddle was scrambled. I walked to my printer and took a piece of paper out of it, while grabbing a pen from the drawer. I briskly walked back to the clue and wrote down the unscrambled letters. Now it read:
We see it once in a year, twice in a week, and never in a day. What is it?
Now that I could read it, I thought it'd be easier to understand. Unfortunately, the universe loves to prove me wrong.
"Damn it!" I leaned back in my chair and put my head in my hands. I let the clue float around in my head. I saw the clue and the darkened words.
Wait darkened?
I sat up quickly and saw the words year, week, and day dark.
"Once in a year, twice in a week, never in a day?" Just like that it clicked. "E!" I scared the crap out of Lily because she jumped up as if it were storming. "Sorry Lily."
Since I had the clue figured, I stood up and walked out of the house. The only problem was I didn't understand if the puzzle wanted me to find someone with an "e" in their name or an "E" not in their name. I went back into my house and wrote down the people without "E".
"Vaughn, Julia, Wada, Taro, Gannon, Lanna, Sabrina, and Mark," I said. I began to doubt that it were the non-e's due to the fact that, Julia's hiding, Vaughn's not in town, Lanna is busy with the baby, Mark and Gannon went to a convention, Sabrina went to represent her father at a meeting and Taro…he's somewhere," I said. Once I figured it out, I groaned deeply. More than half the island has "e" in their names.
Back to square one
I sat down against my shed and took a deep breath. Trying to find a pattern is my best option.
So this is going to be a two-parter because I really need to update! Too lazy to fix grammar.
