Triplets - Part 9

Good morning readers!

I'm actually getting this ready Thursday afternoon since I'll be gone most of the day tomorrow. With leaving around 8 in the morning, I didn't think I'd have time to also get a blog post written. :)

Not much going on right now. I did get my FFF blog posts almost ready. Yay! Speaking of which . . .

I hope you are marking your calendars for the fun event! :D

This week I also spent quite a bit of time preparing my blog posts for December. Yep, Christmas books! And I can't wait to share 24 more of them with you this year.

Oh, I started teaching writing classes again. I had 9 students in three different classes. It is sometimes a challenge for teachers and students alike to get back into the groove of classes, but I think everything went well.

Now here is the final part of this story. Let me know what you think of it.

Triplets

Part 9

    “I’ll be all right. You can watch me from the window if you want.” With that Vienna disappeared from the house and half ran, half jogged over to the shed. She didn’t want to admit that her heart was pounding rather hard and her palms were sweaty. “It’s just warm,” she told herself, wiping her hands on her shirt. She ventured a glance back and saw Geneva at the window.
    The man she had seen had disappeared by the time Vienna had left the house, but as she approached the cleared path she heard noises coming from the shed. Pausing a moment, she drew a quick breath and then followed the cleared path to the open door.
    The shed was dim and full of shadowy piles. She couldn’t see the man.
    “Hello,” she called when there was a lull in the noise.
    A loud crash answered her and then a chuckle. “I wasn’t expecting company.” The voice was friendly and not as deep as Vienna had been expecting. A shadow emerged from the dark room, and the man came to the doorway. His hair was gray and his face wrinkled. “Hello. I’m Joe Cassidy. No, not related to Hop-Along Cassidy.” At Vienna’s blank look, the man chuckled again. “That was before your time. And who are you?”
    Suddenly remembering her manners, Vienna held out a hand and introduced herself. “What are you doing with this place? Do you own it? Were you here last night with a light on?”
    “Yes and yes, to the last questions. The first one takes a bit more to answer. I’m trying to clean this place out. I don’t know the last time someone was in here. It’s full of old junk and stuff. I have a son and his family who are coming back here to live, and he and I were talking about this old place. We thought it might make a good community room to hold Bible studies, or for the kids to study for school, or to have birthday parties. I don’t know.” He shrugged and looked back over his shoulder. “But we can’t do anything unless it gets cleaned out.”
    “Could you, maybe, use some help?” Vienna asked.
    “I sure could! You want to lend a hand? I’ll pay you. Won’t be much, but it’d be something.”
    Pushing back her hair, Vienna smiled. “Can my sisters help?” She thought of Sofia’s shoelaces. If they could all earn some money, they could help Grandma.
    “How old are they?”
    “My age.”
    The man blinked. “You mean–”
    “Triplets. I’m sure they’d help, and I don’t think Mrs. Shannon would mind, but I guess I should ask her since Grandma is in the hospital.”
    “Oh, I know Mrs. Shannon. Let’s go talk with her.”
    To this Vienna agreed quickly.
    Though the walk to the Shannon home was short, by the time they had reached it, Vienna felt as though she had found a grandpa, for Mr. Cassidy asked questions and seemed genuinely interested in her and her sisters.
    Mrs. Shannon was pleased to find out Mr. Cassidy owned the brick shed and readily gave permission for the girls to help him clean it out. “How about my bringing you all some lemonade in a little while?”
    “That would be wonderful,” Mr. Cassidy said. “Your lemonade tastes like my wife’s used to.”
    Outside the triplets walked with Mr. Cassidy back to the once mysterious building.
    “I cleared a path yesterday and found the door again, but it was so late that I had to go home and eat before I could do any real looking around,” he told them.
    “So you had to use a flashlight?” Sofia asked.
    “Well, it was an old lantern that we used to use when we went camping.”
    They reached the path and Geneva hesitated. “Is there any poison ivy around here?”
    Scratching his head, Mr. Cassidy scanned the area. “Don’t see any. And I didn’t see any yesterday either. I think you’re safe.”
    It took a few moments for everyone’s eyes to become adjusted to the gloom inside, but when they did, the girls looked around in wonder. The place was full of junk, and boxes, and piles of all sorts of stuff.
    Vienna opened her mouth to say something when a sudden moaning creak almost over her head startled her and her sisters.
    With a slight scream, Geneva jumped and grabbed Mr. Cassidy’s arm. Sofia and Vienna found each other’s hands and hung on.
    “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Mr. Cassidy said calmly. “See,” he pointed up, “that board is loose, and when the wind blows just right, or some mouse or something bumps it, it swings on the rusty nail and moans and creaks like it’s dying. Once we clear a spot for a ladder, I’ll pull it down.”
    The girls laughed a little nervously. They had been afraid of a loose board and a rusty nail. Vienna looked from the board to the open window and thought about their attempt to look inside.
    “And now we know what caused that terrible noise. And we know where Grandma is.” She stood still while Sofia quickly braided her long hair so it wouldn’t get in her way. “Now I just need to find out if there really is a God like Mrs. Shannon and Grandma say.”
    “What was that, Vivi?” Sofia asked.
    “Nothing. I’ll tell you later, when we’re all three together and alone. Now let’s get to work.”

Did the story end the way you thought it would?

What did you think of the story?

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