The Mandie Collection (4 page)

“And there aren’t any ghosts up there, either,” Celia added.

“What about the light someone sees up there now and then?” Joe asked. “There must be someone up there to do that.”

“Well, with that long cord hanging from the ceiling with the light bulb attached to the end of it for a light, it’s pretty dark up there in spots, and someone could hide in there,” Mandie agreed. “But I wouldn’t be afraid. After all, it’s in the school with other people in the house.”

“I wonder when your grandmother will check out the stores in town to see if someone has seen Miss Hope,” Celia said in a whisper so that Mrs. Taft wouldn’t hear her.

“I promise to ask some questions while we’re at the farm so we’ll know what her plans are. Then we’ll know what to plan ourselves,” Mandie promised.

“If Miss Prudence has already had all these places checked out, more than once according to what she said, what good is it going to do us to go behind whoever did it? I don’t think we’ll learn anything new,” Jonathan said.

“Well, for one thing, if Miss Hope is still in town she might go to a store or someplace after that person had checked it out,” Mandie said.

“Yes, I suppose that’s a possibility,” Jonathan agreed.

Mrs. Taft turned to look back at Mandie and said, “I believe we are nearing the farm. Now, Amanda, please don’t go running off somewhere out here. I don’t know how long we will stay, and I don’t want to have to waste time looking for you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie replied. “I’ll be sure I’m some place where you can find me.”

The property line of the farm fence came up along the road, and soon thereafter Ben pulled the rig to a stop at the gate, jumped down, opened it, and got back in to drive through. He stopped inside, got down to close the gate, and then drove the rig on toward the house.

A huge old log cabin sat in the middle of a colorful flower garden edged with green shrubbery and gigantic trees. A wide porch ran the length of the front of the house and then turned toward the back down the left side.

“So this is the farm,” Jonathan said, looking around as Ben parked the rig and everyone stepped down into the yard. “Must be an awfully big one.”

“Oh, it is,” Mandie said, holding Snowball in her arms. “And they grow everything that can be grown in this part of the country.”

Mrs. Taft and Uncle Ned walked ahead toward the porch. The young people followed.

Just as they reached the steps, the front door came open and a huge old woman came out of the house to greet them.

“Lawsy mercy, if it ain’t Miz Taft herself,” the woman said. “Welcome.”

“Thank you, Aunt Pansy,” Mrs. Taft said. “How are you?”

“I’se jes’ fine. Y’all come in de house now, ya hear?” the woman said, stepping back and motioning for everyone to go in.

Snowball wriggled in Mandie’s arms, trying to get down, but she held him tight.

“Let dat cat down in de house,” Aunt Pansy told her. “He ain’t gwine run away long as Fido is in de kitchen.” She laughed.

Mandie unfastened his leash from his collar and set him down. He ran ahead of everyone into the house. “Snowball, please don’t get into any trouble now,” she said. Then she turned and introduced her friends, “Aunt Pansy, you know Celia here, and that’s Jonathan there and Joe there.”

“Pleased to meet y’all, now. Git on into de house,” Aunt Pansy said.

As soon as the woman turned to follow Mrs. Taft inside, Jonathan whispered to Mandie, “She sure is a big woman.”

“Yes, and every ounce full of goodness,” Mandie replied.

As usual when people came to visit at the farm, Aunt Pansy took them to the little-used parlor and asked her granddaughter, Soony, to bring in coffee.

The young people sat waiting and watching for their chance to escape the adults and look around on their own. Then when Soony showed up with chocolate cake on the coffee tray, the four grinned at each other and decided to stay awhile.

“No, ma’am, Miz Taft, ain’t seed hide nor hair of Miss Hope,” the old woman said after everyone had been served cake and coffee. “Sho’ wish she would come out heah. We’se all worried about her.”

“Miss Prudence says she has looked everywhere in the schoolhouse, and around town, inquiring of merchants,” Mrs. Taft said.

“But need to go behind, check on places, people,” Uncle Ned said, holding his coffee cup as he spoke. “Things can change fast.”

“You sho’ is right, Uncle Ned,” Aunt Pansy agreed, sipping her coffee.

“What we really need to do is talk with the law enforcement people and report Miss Hope as missing, but Miss Prudence adamantly refused to allow us to do this,” Mrs. Taft said.

Aunt Pansy grinned and, with a sly look, said, “I wouldn’t pay no ’tention to dat Miss Prudence. Sometimes she don’t do de right thing.”

“Yes, I know,” Mrs. Taft agreed with a smile. “However, I have planned to talk with some officials without letting her know. This is too serious a matter not to ask for help in that way.”

Mandie and her friends looked at each other and grinned from across the room where they sat together.

“Yes, must do that,” Uncle Ned added. “Bad things could happen to Miss Hope. Cherokee people look for her.”

Mrs. Taft turned to look at him and asked, “You have your Cherokee people searching for Miss Hope?”

“Yes,” the old man replied. “They look outside town, woods, mountains, whole countryside.”

“That is good, Uncle Ned,” Mrs. Taft said. “I’m glad you are doing that. I know your people are good at such a task.”

Mandie had an idea and spoke up. “Grandmother, I wonder if anyone has had the boys from Mr. Chadwick’s School help search for her.”

Mrs. Taft quickly looked at her and said, “I don’t know, Amanda, but I don’t imagine those schoolboys would be able to do much good. Besides, since school is out for the summer, most of them have gone home for vacation.”

“Mr. Chadwick operates his school the same way Miss Prudence does ours,” Mandie replied. “Some of the boys stay at school for the summer because they live a long way from here. Also, Mr. Chadwick has some summer lessons they can take, extra subjects that are not required.”

“Everybody loves Miss Hope,” Aunt Pansy said. “I sho’ hope ain’t nuthin’ bad happened to her. We must all continue to pray for her safe return.”

Mrs. Taft agreed. “Yes, we must remember her in our prayers.”

Uncle Ned finished his coffee and set the cup down by his empty cake plate on the end table. “I need talk with Willie. Where find him?”

“Oh, dat son of mine, he ain’t never far away. Probably find him at de barn, said he had to mend a harness today,” Aunt Pansy told him.

Mandie glanced at her friends and then quickly asked Mrs. Taft, “Is it all right if we go with Uncle Ned?”

Uncle Ned stood up to leave the room. He waited to hear Mrs. Taft’s reply.

“Yes, but don’t go roaming off somewhere else, Amanda. I don’t want to waste time looking for you when we leave,” Mrs. Taft replied.

Aunt Pansy quickly said, “Gwine have noontime dinner ’bout an hour.”

“We won’t miss that, Aunt Pansy,” Mandie said as she and her friends quickly stood up. “We’ll come back inside with Uncle Ned, Grandmother.”

The old Indian was already leaving the room. The young people hurried to catch up with him.

They found Willie in the barn as his mother had said, repairing a harness. The barn was several hundred feet behind the house.

“Well, howdy, didn’t see y’all come up,” Willie greeted them as he laid down his tools and stepped forward to shake hands with Uncle Ned. Then he turned to Mandie and her friends. “Good to see y’all young folks.”

Mandie quickly spoke. “Oh, Willie, we are looking for Miss Hope. We’ve just got to find her before something bad happens to her. Your mother said she had not seen her, so I suppose you haven’t, either?”

Willie bent to pick up a tool and avoided a direct glance at Mandie. “I don’t know what de fuss is all about. Dat woman is old enough to do whatever she like. Everybody all worried about her. She turn up when she gits good and ready and not before.” He turned back to Uncle Ned. “Now, what kin I do fo’ you, Uncle Ned?”

Uncle Ned glanced at Mandie and her friends and then replied, “You say no see Miss Hope. Braves say they see her down by your springhouse two days after she disappeared. You no see?”

Willie cleared his throat and walked about in circles without looking at Uncle Ned. Finally he cleared his throat again and stopped to straighten his shoulders. “Whut dat woman does ain’t none of my bidness,” he finally spoke. “Now, whut kin I do fo’ you, Uncle Ned?” he repeated once more.

Mandie quickly nudged Joe with her elbow as the four young people watched and listened. He glanced down at her and nodded. Willie knew something he was not going to tell. She looked at Jonathan and Celia. They smiled at her and also nodded.

Then Mandie was surprised at what Uncle Ned said next.

The old man squinted his black eyes and looked directly into Willie’s brown ones. “Yes, you can tell me what you do know about Miss Hope,” he said.

Willie quickly dropped his gaze and shuffled his feet around in the loose dirt in the barn. “Befo’ you and me has some words, I’se got to git back to work and git this heah harness fixed,” he told Uncle Ned. He picked up his tools and turned back to the harness hanging on a hook nearby.

Uncle Ned straightened his shoulders and quickly left the barn. The young people, speechless for a change, followed to see where he was going. He walked down a pathway leading to the pasture. Turning left at the split-rail fence, he continued around and ended up at the spring beyond the pasture. Mandie and her friends had to walk fast to keep up with him. He didn’t seem to notice that they were following until he stepped down the bank to sit on a huge rock by the water. Then he looked up as Mandie spoke.

“Uncle Ned, Willie knows something he is not going to tell you, doesn’t he?” Mandie asked as she slid down to sit by the old man. Her friends sat on the other side of the boulder.

Uncle Ned nodded but didn’t speak. Mandie could tell he was angry with Willie and he was trying to “think before he spoke,” as he always reminded her to do when she was angry.

No one said a word for a long time as the old man tossed pebbles into the stream now and then. Finally he stood up. The four young people scrambled to their feet on the slippery rock.

Looking down at Mandie he said, “We go back to house now. Eat.”

“Then we leave?” Mandie asked as she took big steps to keep up with him. Her friends followed.

Uncle Ned nodded and said, “Then we leave.”

Mandie was determined to get him to talk. “Maybe Soony knows something about Miss Hope. She is Willie’s daughter, you know.”

“Maybe,” Uncle Ned replied and then added, “But never mind. Braves find out about Miss Hope. Smarter than Willie.”

“But Aunt Pansy said she has not seen Miss Hope, and if Willie has seen her, wouldn’t he tell his mother?” Mandie asked as they hurried on up the steep pathway.

Uncle Ned nodded as he said, “They keep secret. Not tell, some reason.”

When they reached the house, the young people followed Uncle Ned into the parlor. Aunt Pansy and Mrs. Taft were still there and seemed to be discussing recipes. As everyone sat down, Mandie started toward the door to the hallway, saying, “I’m going to check on Snowball. I’ll be right back.”

Her three friends nodded and smiled. They all knew Soony was in the kitchen and Mandie intended on asking her questions.

When Mandie opened the door to the kitchen, Soony was setting the table. Snowball was curled up in the woodbox by the huge iron cookstove. He opened one eye to look at his mistress.

“I thought I’d better check on Snowball,” Mandie told the girl.

“Oh, he jes’ fine. When I let Fido out de back door, Snowball jes’ jumped up in dat box and went to sleep,” Soony replied.

Mandie took a deep breath and said, “My friends and I went with Uncle Ned to the barn to talk to your father.” She watched Soony, but the girl didn’t seem to even hear her. Then she added, “Your father saw Miss Hope since she became missing, didn’t he?”

That brought a quick reaction. Soony straightened up from the dishes she was placing on the table, her eyes wide open, and replied, “He did? I don’t know ’bout dat. I ain’t heerd him say he saw Miss Hope. He tell you dat?”

“Not exactly,” Mandie said. “Uncle Ned told him his Indian braves saw Miss Hope at your springhouse two days after she disappeared from the schoolhouse.”

“Indian braves? I ain’t seed no Indian braves ’round here,” the girl quickly told her. “My papa seen these Indian braves?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say,” Mandie replied.

The door opened and Aunt Pansy came into the kitchen.

“Thought I’d better come help you git de food on de table, Soony,” the old woman said as she bustled about the room, getting bowls down from the cupboard and going to the stove, where pots of food sat ready and waiting.

“Can I help you, Aunt Pansy?” Mandie offered.

“Lawsy mercy, no, chile,” the old woman replied. “You jes’ git back to yo’ friends now. Food be ready right away.” She was filling a bowl with beans from a pot on the stove.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mandie replied and quickly left the room.

Back in the parlor, Mrs. Taft and Uncle Ned were making plans to search downtown for Miss Hope. Mandie sat down with her friends and listened.

“I suppose we should start with the preacher at the church,” Mrs. Taft said. “Perhaps he could tell us if there was anything going on that night at the church when Annie thought she had seen Miss Hope passing by there.”

“Yes,” Uncle Ned agreed. “If Miss Hope at church that night, maybe preacher know where she stay.”

“And we need to check the music store. I understand Miss Hope is a frequent customer there,” Mrs. Taft said. “We need to figure out what other establishments she trades with.” She looked at Mandie.

“She goes to the dry-goods store to buy cloth and thread. She sews a lot,” Mandie told her. “She’s in the group of ladies who make clothes for the orphanage.”

“The orphanage? Then we should check with the orphanage to see if anyone there has seen her,” Mrs. Taft said.

Mandie was hoping Uncle Ned would tell her grandmother about the braves who had seen Miss Hope at the spring. She didn’t dare repeat the old Indian’s information. If he wanted to tell Mrs. Taft, he would.

Aunt Pansy came to the doorway. “De food be on de table now,” she announced. “Y’all come eat.”

“Thank you, Aunt Pansy,” Mrs. Taft said as she and Uncle Ned stood and joined Aunt Pansy out in the hall.

Mandie whispered to her friends as they followed, “Uncle Ned must be really upset with Willie for not telling him anything, so he’s not going to mention it to Aunt Pansy.”

“He probably figures Aunt Pansy would just make like she didn’t know anything about it,” Joe whispered back.

“Right,” Mandie agreed. “And I think she does know.”

“Do you suppose they could be hiding Miss Hope here with them?” Jonathan asked.

“But why would Miss Hope be hiding out here?” Celia questioned.

“There is something strange about Miss Hope’s disappearance, and I intend to find out what it is,” Mandie said, frowning as they entered the dining room and were seated by Soony down the long table from the adults.

“I hate big, long dining tables,” Mandie muttered to her friends.

“Why?” Celia asked.

“Because we always have to sit so far away from the adults we can’t hear everything they say,” Mandie replied.

“That’s what long tables are for, to separate the adults from the young people who want to eavesdrop,” Joe teased as he sat next to Mandie.

“This table must be fifteen feet long,” Jonathan estimated.

“Every bit of it,” Joe agreed. “This room is probably twenty-five or thirty feet long.”

Mandie kept watching for Willie to join them, but he didn’t show up. Aunt Pansy asked the blessing and everyone started eating. Green beans, boiled potatoes, fried ham, crackling corn bread, lettuce, tomatoes, and fresh green onions were all passed around the huge table by Soony. There was buttermilk and coffee to drink.

Jonathan watched as Mandie, Celia, and Joe all accepted buttermilk. “How can you drink that stuff?” he asked.

“Buttermilk is good,” Mandie replied, sipping at hers. “You don’t like it?”

“Like it? Why, I’ve never tasted it. Just the looks of it is enough,” Jonathan said, wrinkling up his nose. “Looks like spoiled milk.” He drank from his coffee cup.

“If you’d just shut your eyes and take one sip of it you might really like it,” Joe said with a big grin.

“I could still smell it,” Jonathan replied.

“Smell it? Why, I’ve never thought about buttermilk having a smell,” Celia said, picking up her glass to sniff it.

“Do y’all not have buttermilk in New York?” Mandie asked.

“We New Yorkers have better sense than to drink such foul stuff,” Jonathan replied with a big grin, sipping his coffee again.

“Shh!” Mandie whispered to her friends as she rolled her eyes toward the adults.

Mrs. Taft and Aunt Pansy were discussing Miss Hope, and Mandie wanted to listen.

“Miss Hope has always been such a pleasant person, I can’t imagine why she would want to just disappear and cause everyone to worry,” Mrs. Taft was saying.

“Maybe not her decision,” Uncle Ned suggested.

Mrs. Taft and Aunt Pansy both quickly looked at him.

“Are you thinking something might have happened to Miss Hope—that she didn’t just walk off somewhere?” Mrs. Taft asked.

“Like somebody made her do dat,” Aunt Pansy added.

Uncle Ned nodded and said, “We find out.”

“Oh dear,” Mrs. Taft said breathlessly. “I do hope nothing has happened to the dear lady.” She put down her fork and took a deep breath.

Mandie also caught her breath as she glanced at her friends.

“Do you suppose someone kidnapped her?” Jonathan whispered.

“No, no, no!” Joe quickly said, shaking his head.

Mandie looked back down the table at the adults. Her grandmother was dabbing at her eyes with her lace handkerchief.