Texas Mystery

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This is my other blog!
This has some of the stories I'm writing!!!


                                                                      Texas Mystery

That one night in the summer I remember very clearly. It was a dreary night and I was walking home from my friend’s house. I walked up the hill to our house and saw that our old neighbor’s house lights were on.  “Strange,” I wondered out loud.  I considered for a moment that someone had bought the house, but it seemed strange since it hadn’t been originally for sale. I hurried up the hill and the lights suddenly turned off… there was no more light. I hurried home as quickly as possible because it was getting very chilly outside.  Inside the house I asked my mom, “There were lights on at the old Gregg’s place tonight.  Do you know if anyone moved in?”

 “No, I have no idea. Did you have a good day at school though, Hannah?”

“Yep, it went fine!”

 “Great,” she said smiling at me.

After I went to bed, I looked out the window and saw that the lights were on at our old neighbor’s house again! I didn’t realize it then, but there was an old rusty truck sitting in the driveway…  I stared up at the ceiling and started thinking whether they had moved back in or if someone had bought it.  Then I sat straight up… a horrible  thought had  crossed my mind, what if someone had snuck in, what if it was a madman. I lay back down, but couldn’t fall asleep.  It just wouldn’t leave my mind.  Finally, I fell into a troubled sleep.

The next morning I woke up and remembered the past night.  I looked out the window but there was no trace of any living thing in the house.  I wondered if it had all been a dream, maybe, maybe not. But I was hoping so!  I put my clothes on and ran down stairs; mom was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. “Yum,” I said skidding across the floor, “pancakes, my favorite. Thanks mom!”

 “Oh, you’re welcome sweetheart! Did you have a good sleep?”

 “Yah, it was ok,” I said.   My little twin siblings Maggie and Cody joined us in the kitchen.  They were both five.  Our big Brother Brandon had just graduated from college and was working in Horse Shoe Texas as a police officer.  We all missed him very much.

“Oh yum,” they both cried in unison!

I grabbed my back pack and hurried out the door to catch the bus. Cody and Maggie were both still homeschooled so I was all by myself. I ran down the hill and saw that the bus was just coming over the hill.  I climbed into the bus and took a seat next to my friend Elena. 

“Hi Elena!” I said.

“Hi! Boy, you sure look tired!” she said.

“Yah, I didn’t have a very good sleep!”

“How come?”

“Well, there were lights on at the Gregg’s place and it had never been for sale before, so I got worried that it might an escaped prisoner or a madman,” I said.

“Oh, I highly doubt it’s that, but someone might have broken in looking for a place to sleep… Or a person looking for money or valuable items.”  Elena said.

“Oh, that makes me feel a lot better.”

“Sorry, I was just agreeing and trying to be helpful! Tell you what, I’ll come over this afternoon if it’s all right with your parents, and we’ll check out this mystery house together, alright.

“Alright,” I said still not feeling much better.

When we got to school we ran to our lockers and then to Ms. Gansauge’s class.  “Good morning children or Guten Morgen.” She said with her very German accent.  “Today we are going to learn about Munich and tomorrow we are studying the interesting town of Zweibrucken,” said Miss Gaunsage. If you don’t already know, she is our history teacher AND since she is from Europe she talks a lot about Europe and especially Germany and all the beautiful areas there.

I called my mom during lunch break to see if it was ok if Elena could come over.   She could!  When we got home, there were still no lights on at the house, but there was a toppled over garbage can with a milk carton, egg carton, and some banana peels spilling out of it.  We went into my house and had a snack of pretzels with cheese!   Then we told my mom that we were going to go outside!

“Ok, have fun,” she said.

We ran out the door and across the lawn into the mysterious house’s yard.  We stopped and looked around to make sure no one was looking.

“The coast is clear,” Elena said taking another step forwards.

“Are you sure.” I said

“Positive.”

“Ok,” I said.

We ran over to the window and peered through. Inside we saw that it was all dirty and messy EVRYWHERE AND that there was a fire glowing from the fireplace.  We looked at each other in amazement and then to our surprise we saw a shadow walking toward the fire place.  I ducked but Elena just stood there surprised and excited! “Elena, come down here, you don’t want whoever it is to see you, do you?”

“Oh, all right, I’m coming!  But I saw him, HE probably was a thief; He was a young man with blond hair, digging through someone’s purse. He could be dangerous, ” she said almost out of breath.  Then suddenly a young face appeared at the window… “Help!” we both screamed and ran out of the yard into my house and up into to my room.  “Oh my goodness,” I said “what are we going to do?”

“Well, I think we should think this through and look at the possibilities. Maybe he is a relative or a close friend OR he could have broken in!” she said VERY calmly.

“H...o...w can you be so calm about this?  He could be a criminal.”

“Well he could, but also he might not be. Did you ever consider that possibility?”

“Well, not really, but I guess I could try!  Hey, how about this?  We’ll call your parents and ask if it’s ok if you spend the night and then tomorrow we will investigate some more, Ok?”

“Ok,” she said.

That night as we were getting in bed the young man appeared caring a garbage bag. “Well, I guess we will try to find out who the young man is tomorrow, right?” I said.

“Yep, we’ll prove to him, if he is a criminal that he is not allowed in this neighborhood!”

The next morning we went downstairs and watched TV for about a half an hour.   We were watching The Adventures of Solving Mysteries with Polly and Paul, It was quite exciting!  Then mom said, “time to eat kids, eggs and toast on the table in 3 2 1.”  “Coming!” We both yelled and met Cody and Maggie at the table. “Well,” I said “this sure is a breakfast fit for kings and queens right Maggie?”

“That’s right! It’s delicious!” she said licking her lips.

“Sure is and you know what? I AM a king!” Cody said with a big grin across his face.

“Hah, Hah, but I suppose you are the King and Maggie is the queen. Right?” I said.

“Yepidoodle,” he said.

“You guys are all so silly,” said Elena.

“Oh, and I suppose you are the popper begging the prince and princess to help you in your darkest hour?” I said.

“Well, I suppose you could say that OR you could say that I was a friend that needed another friend to pass the toast over to her? Please,” Elena said

“Ok, I get it, here’s the toast,” I said.

After breakfast we went upstairs and picked up my room and put our clothes on.  Then we put our boots on and went outside.  We lay down on our stomachs and decided that we were going to stay in our yard and just spy through binoculars, and it was a good idea, because he opened his door and walked out and put a big bag of stuff into a rusty old truck. “A TRUCK,” I said sitting up. “I never noticed a truck before.”

“Well, I guess it’s our first clue then,” Elena said.

 “Clue? What do you mean?” I said.

“It has his license place on the truck and unless it’s a fake one we should be able to look up license plate number and see whether he is a criminal or a good citizen,” Elena said.

“Oh, got that,” I said (really I wasn’t sure what was going on).

We copied down the license plate number and hurried into the house and went on to the computer and looked up license plate numbers. Sure enough they had it.

License Number: 6372CRIME

Name: Luke Haywire

Age: 27

Parents: Lucy Haywire and Peter Haywire 58 and 56

Jail Records: 10 times

Speeding tickets: 17

He escaped from jail 2 times:

“Well, that gives us a bit of information, huh?” I said.

“That’s for sure,” Elena said.

“It could mean that he is a criminal or we else have the wrong person,” I said.

“No, I’m positive that’s the right license plate.”

“Well, let’s watch some TV and then think about it some more, is that ok?” I said.

“OK,” Elena said , sounding a bit disappointed (she likes mysteries if you haven’t noticed).

Downstairs, we turned on the TV and the news blared out;

“A young man by the age of 27 name Luke Haywire escaped from jail just two days ago and has magically disappeared off the face of the earth.  Policemen are going up and down the Texas area.  Police men are even looking in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, California, Oklahoma, and even Colorado; people are looking out for him everywhere.  If you see him, hear him or even manage to hear about him please report him to us for your own safety. Thank you! His license plate number is 6372CRIME.  Thank you again!”  The news man said.

…” u … m … m … that was uhh creepy wasn’t it Hannah?” Elena said “Hannah, Hannah?”

“Over here,” I said sitting on the floor.  “I was a bit shocked,  I fell of the couch.”

“Oh,” she said hiding a smile.

“Now that we know that he is a criminal, we should report him you know,” I said.

“I don’t know, I mean this is something pretty big, there’s a thief right next door and he’s been in jail 10 times.  It’s pretty serious; don’t you think we should maybe investigate a little bit?” Elena said.

“Well, I know it’s pretty big and that’s another reason we should report him I mean he COULD be dangerous!”

“Yah, I suppose you’re right, we’ll call the police in a little bit,” Elena said.

“Yah,” I answered.

“Don’t call anyone,“ an angry voice said coming from underneath my bed.

“What?” I said.  “Who’s there?”

“Just don’t call anyone, ok,” the voice said again getting even angrier.

“If I...f… this is Luke Haywire we aren’t scared of you and we are going to call the police,” I said trying to hide the shakiness in my voice.

“Alright,” the voice said, “but you won’t be here and neither will I.  

Then suddenly a tall young man crawled out from underneath my bed, gun in hand.  It was Luke Haywire.  “Don’t move an inch,” he said. “Now just sit down and put your hands behind your head.”  “You kids don’t have no right to be snooping around in other people’s affairs.” He said with a nasty smile. He grabbed his rope and put down his gun and began heading toward the girls.

“Get away from them,” a voice shouted “I said now!”

Luke dropped his rope and picked up his gun, “That won’t be necessary,” the voice said. The door opened and in walked a man holding a gun in his hand, three men followed with guns in their hands.  “Put down the gun and put your hands in the air.” he said.

I could hardly believe my eyes.  There before us, stood my big brother Brandon.  “Brandon, is that you?”  I asked excitedly.  “Yes, it’s me, now you and Elena just stay there.”

“I said put your hands in the air,” Brandon yelled.  Luke dropped his gun and put his hands in the air. “That’s better now, men,” Brandon said. The three other men grabbed him and put him in hand cuffs. Then, they walked him out the door, down, the stairs, to the police car, pushed him in, and drove away.

“That was amazing,” Elena and I both said standing up.  I ran over and gave Brandon a big hug. “Thank you soo much,” I said. “We were so worried after we learned he was criminal.”

“You knew he was a criminal?”  Brandon asked.

“Yep, since 40 minutes ago or maybe it was 45,” Elena said, smirking a bit!

“How did you find out?”  Brandon asked.

“Well, about 40 or 45 minutes ago we turned on the TV and saw that there was a criminal and we were interested to see who it was about so we kept watching and then we saw it was a guy named Luke Haywire just like his license plate number we looked up,” I said.

“Ah hah, my suspicions are conformed!” Brandon said.

“What? What suspicions!” I said.

“Ask Elena here?”

“Elena, what did you do?”

“Well,” Elena broke in “we started getting suspicious after he moved in and we kept finding stuff out, right?

“Right,” I said.

  So, when you were in the bathroom 40 or 45 minutes ago I emailed the police station where Brandon works and…” she said.

“ I got some information from person named Elena SwasWell” Brandon broke in “and I was convinced that my sister knew her and I thought that I had better come to make sure that they were alright and not in too much trouble!  Thanks Elena,” Brandon said.

“Oh, it was nothing,” she said.

“Wait, when did you send it to him?” I asked.

“When you were in the bathroom forty or forty-five minutes ago,” Elena said.  “Wow, how did you get here so fast?” she said.

“I came so quickly because I was sure that Luke probably knew something about you spying on him, and I knew you guys were up to something!  Thanks for helping us out though! I am very grateful.”

“You’re Welcome!  Thank you for coming to our rescue,” I said.  “Now, let’s go downstairs.  It’s taco night and we have lots tell mo…

“Hannah, Elena” Mom said fiercely from downstairs. “Why did three police men walk through our house carrying a scary looking guy?”  Mom said, “Be right there,” we all said in unison!

The End

 By Makaela Marie Foerderer:  Age 10 3/4;

 January-Febuary

A Night To Remember

This is the Christmas story I wrote!

A Night To Remember

Out of one of the little doggies, one did not think he was special like his brothers and sisters and was always trying to make himself better, but he never thought he was.  His mother and father always told him that he was very special just as unique as his brothers and sisters.  He would always say “yes mother, yes father,” but in his heart he didn’t believe it.   His name was Chip, and he thought that his brothers and sisters names were much better than his.  There was Betsy, Bluebell, Nickels, Hoffman, and Twiny, and he was sure that their names were much better names than his.   They always called him “Chip and Dip”. They weren’t trying to be mean, they thought he liked it, but at lass he didn’t.

So, one night after everyone had gone to bed he slipped out into the darkness.   He told himself, “I’m going to find out why I was born and if I’m special in the least little way.” So out he went, all the owls were hooting, “Hoo, Hoo, Hoo,” and if that wasn’t creepy enough there were wolves howling.  He shuddered, but he kept pressing onward.  Sometime later he spotted a cow and ran over to him.

 “Hello, Mister Cow,” Chip said.

 “O que?” said the cow.

 “I wanted to know, do you think I’m special or just meant for nothing?” asked Chip.

 “O que, eu nao falo ingles. Eu sou do Brasil. Desculpe,” said the cow. 

 “Oh,” said chip very disappointed.  Then he saw a duck and ran over as quickly as possible. “Hello Ms. Duck! Do you think I’m special or just born to do nothing?” he asked. 

“Was, I don’t sprechen Englisch, im von Deutschland, traurig,” said the duck.

 “Ooohhh, not again,” said Chip.  Then he went to every animal he saw but either they didn’t speak English, were asleep, or just wouldn’t talk. Poor Chip, but then he saw an owl and on his last try this owl spoke English, he wasn’t asleep, and he would talk to him.

“Hello Lad,” the owl called down from the tree. “What are you doing out so late?” he asked.

“Well,” said Chip, “I wanted to find out if I was special or someone who doesn’t know anything and shouldn’t have been born, do you think I’m special?” Chip asked.

“Well,” said the owl, “I think you will have to go all the way to Bethlehem to find that out.   Are you up for it?” 

“Well,” I don’t know, but I suppose so,” said Chip.

  “All right then, hop to it.” So on they went as fast as they could running and flying on top of each other!

At last they saw what they were looking for--the candles and lanterns of Bethlehem! Chip jumped for joy!  “Yey, we’re here” he cried! 

“Yes, we are Lad, now follow me.   Do you see that star that’s shining over that building over there beneath the palm trees?” asked the wise old owl.  

“Oh yes, you mean that pretty one that you can see from almost everywhere?” Chip asked.

 “Yes, yes that very one.  Go to the building that is underneath it onto which you will find out your true meaning!

“Ok,” said Chip.

Chip followed the star up hills, and down hills, under cows, and over mice.  He ran until he reached a stable.    The star was far up on top of the stable.  He hurried into it.   “I wonder what’s in here,” he thought.  The candles shown very brightly so he couldn’t see until his eyes adjusted.  Then he saw what he had come to see, a baby boy that was less than a day old laying in a manger (or a trough) wrapped in swaddling blankets.  Chip went over and looked at him!  And right then and there he knew he was special and he knew that he had been made for some purpose, and suddenly he had a different feeling in him! He was a different dog!  He started running as fast as he could up to his house and threw the door open and went in and then…Bam!  He woke up.

This had all been a dream… He had dreamed the whole thing, and yet he felt different!  He knew that he was made for a purpose and he liked that purpose, he was happier than he had ever been!  And he lived happily ever after!

THE END