Midnight by Anna Dove (books for new readers .TXT) 📕

quietly examine the rooms of the house. They must have left some clue, intentional or unintentional, of where they were going. What had they taken with them? What was missing? Haley stood in the living room and looked around her slowly.

The piano, with family photographs on top. A window, with yellow curtains. A bookshelf, full of books--theology books, history books, classic novels, gardening tutorials. She stepped closer to the bookshelf, as she saw that some of the books leaned sideways, indicating that some books had been pulled out. Several were missing in the gardening section. So she had been right--they had taken the plants, and manuals on how to take care of them.

She continued around the room--the stone fireplace with ashes from previous winter fires, several plush chairs with plump cushions, the ornate oriental rug with deep reds and blues and a soft sage green.

Into the hall, which connected the kitchen to the living room, with a bathroom in between. Nothing in the bathroom, nothing in the hall. In the kitchen she pulled out the drawers, and noticed a variety of knives and a few kitchen utensils missing, as well as a pots and pans. Next into the foyer and the dining room, and she moved with anxious anticipation into the different corners and opened the cabinet drawers, but found everything in its place. She stepped then into the family room, the more relaxed room that had previously been the children’s playroom before they had all grown up. A couch, desks for drawing, art supplies, a television, a collection of movies.

She scanned the supply cubbies, under the couch, behind the television, but found nothing out of place or noticeably absent. Frustrated, she frowned, and sat on the couch, picking up a toy from a nearby bin. It was a pen that shone a blue light out of the ink end if one pressed a special button. Wondering what she had missed, Haley pressed the button absently and the blue light shone on her leg. She remembered using the pen when she and her brothers were playing pretend, making believe that they were spies that had to crack special codes. They would write secret messages and hide from their parents--

Suddenly Haley jumped up and dropped the pen, and raced into the hall. Just before the hall met the staircase to the bedrooms was a tiny door in the wall, not more than two feet high and fifteen inches wide. It was the entrance to a tiny hideaway, a space under the stairs that they had used as children to be their secret spy fort. There was a coded lock on the door, and Haley twisted the numbers to 3683, their confidential passcode. The lock popped open and she opened the door.

Taped to the door was a piece of paper, and on the paper was written her name, and then a small cryptic note that read “46 Aldino”.

Haley covered her mouth with her hand and tears welled as relief flooded over her. She sat down on the floor staring at the paper. She knew where her family was.

On Aldino Road, barely a mile from Haley’s house, sat a large farm that belonged to friends of Haley’s younger sister Lily. The grand farmhouse sat on a property of two hundred acres; forest stretched to the south, pasture to the east and north, and a lake to the west that was filled by a spring. The property owners, the Fergusons, raised two dozen dairy cows as well as keeping a few sheep and horses and a roost of chickens. The Fergusons were a vibrant and adventurous family, with three young equestrian daughters and a toddling infant boy whose plump face and chubby fingers were constantly covered in dirt.

Haley took a map of Maryland from the bookshelf in the living room and noted their course, memorizing the areas that she did not already know. She felt certain that they could easily arrive at the farm within two or three hours of walking, especially if they kept to the woods and fields between her house and the farm property. Excitement coursed through her veins as she realized how close they were.

As the others woke up, Haley informed them of her discovery, and they prepared for their last leg of the trip, taking turns eating and sleeping, refilling their food and water supply.

When evening came, they began on foot. There was new energy that awakened them; the prospect of safety and protection quickened their steps. Through the night they walked, not speaking much, each person lost in their own thoughts, ready for the journey to be done. Step after step the miles past behind them, the light of the moon and stars sifting down through the tree leaves. The spring peepers sang around them and the wind rustled in the treetops.

Crossing Aldino road, they entered the wooded area that Haley knew was to the south of the farmhouse.

“Not much longer,” she said quietly to the others, whose faces brightened.

They had not walked a quarter mile further when they heard the click of a gun being cocked, and a man’s voice cried out:

“Stop there!”

All four froze immediately in their tracks and looked up and around, searching for the owner of the voice. Haley frowned, and then an expression of joy lit up her face.

“Dayton!” She called. “It’s your sister!”

“Haley?” the voice responded, and a young man stepped into view ahead on the path. He was dark haired and tan and wore a tan jacket and blue jeans. When he saw his older sister, his face broke into a smile, and he eagerly stepped down the path towards them, putting his firearm on safety and slipping it into his belt holster. Reaching the group, he immediately hugged his sister and grandmother, and introduced himself to the others.

“Where is everyone? Are they in the farmhouse?” asked Haley.

“Yes, not only us,