Sequestered with the Murderers by Dr. Tanner (books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

I didn’t tell Gam I had had a revelation. Instead, I leaned against the windowpane and began to doubt my assessment of Gwen. Did I entirely misread her personality? Were the vigor, energy, and high spirits she exhibited a cover-up. I really thought I saw through the heavy makeup she wore.

The Tennessee trip had been perfect, of course, except for the journey home. At the beginning of the trip, we left Christiansburg, Virginia, the last pickup location, then headed south on Interstate 81. Lemmonee had been the perfect tour guide, frequently using the microphone to break into our stares out of the bus windows at the beautiful scenery, providing sightseeing information and tidbits.

The views of the Blue Ridge Mountains were spectacular.

“The mountains have a bluish color. Trees and the isoprene, which is released in the air, make up the bluish color,” Lemmonee explained. “Isoprene is unsaturated hydrocarbon produced by plants, animals, and some trees.”

“Look at these pictures, Vett. These mountains are beautiful,” Dimma exclaimed as she held up her wide opened Blue Ridge Mountains map in front of me.

“Wow, these are breathtaking.” Three particular pictures held my attention more than the others. One contained a sunset with the mountains in the foreground. The sunset had shades of purples, blues, yellows, and oranges—a picture with my favorite colors and once enlarged and framed would look good on my office wall. The second one contained a different angle of the mountains with the same colors, but the yellow sun was peeking over one of the mountain tops. The rays from the peeking sun made the picture gorgeous. The third was green rolling mountains with different size green trees everywhere and a blue haze sky in the background. In the foreground was a bunch of vivid crimson red flowers.

“The mountains range extend 550 miles from Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia,” Lemmonee’s voice resounded through the microphone. She then began providing facts on the mountains.

As Lemmonee gave us passengers a factual lesson on the mountains, Duffy drove us into Wytheville, Virginia, to the hotel hosting our first night stay. We toured Wytheville, where we learned that due to Wytheville’s location in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it is known as “The Hub of Southwest Virginia” and as “The Crossroads of the Blue Ridge.” We also learned that Wytheville was named for George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a mentor to Thomas Jefferson. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Gwen or Carolyn that day in Wytheville, but we did acknowledge each other with a smile while at dinner that evening.

The next morning after breakfast, we left Wytheville headed to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where we stayed for three nights. Dimma and I did not have a lot of time to congregate and converse with the others that morning at breakfast because after waking, I telephoned Gam, talking with him longer than I had intended to. Gam’s son Trevor asked to borrow money again, and Gam wanted my opinion on how to handle the matter.

I must say that Trevor continually borrowing money from Gam has tainted my impression of him. When I first met Trevor, I saw a focused, ambitious, and self-actualized young man. Self-actualization, I learned from Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualization, means, “The desire for self-fulfillment, namely the tendency for the person to become actualized in her/his potential. This tendency might be phrased as the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of.” This constant borrowing of money meant he had deceived me, or I had misread what I saw in him.

Perhaps my reading of people needed improving.

In any case, I related to Gam that he should proceed with the loan if he is okay with loaning the money and not because of some sense of obligation. I told him the money was his to do as he pleased, but if he wants to make Trevor more responsible, then at some point, he will have to put his foot down. I had said these things to him before. I knew Gam telling me about the loan was his way of keeping me abreast of what was going on with him and his sons and that he would do what he thought best.

By the time I showered and dressed it was 8:15 am. I had told Dimma to go on to breakfast without me, but she chose to wait for me. Breakfast was served from 6:00 am -10:00 am. The bus was leaving the hotel at 9:00 am.

We rushed down to the restaurant, grabbed a plate of eggs, bacon, toast, and juice, and then ate quickly. We were on the bus before the 9:00 am deadline.

Duffy drove us on time to the restaurant in Pigeon Forge, where a buffet lunch was waiting for us. Dimma and I were sitting in the middle of the bus the entire trip. On all other trips, the Purples had taken with Brightness, which were more than two days long, the tour guide rotated seating each day. This enabled all passengers to have a different seat, a different view out of the bus windows, and a different time exiting the bus. Lemmonee did not do this on the Tennessee trip, which was fine with me. However, it usually meant there was a line at the ladies’ rooms and a line at the restaurants by the time Dimma and I exited the bus.

We had used the restroom, selected food from the buffet line, and found a seat at a long table with Solardette and Jean when Carolyn and Gwen walked to our table.

“May we join you, Carolyn asked?”

“Sure you can,” I said.

After introductions were made, Gwen asked in her modulated beautiful voice, “Are you all in some type of group. I’ve seen you and the ladies at those two tables beside us conversing several times.”

“We are,” I said.

“We are in an investment club Vett founded eighteen years