The Mystery of the Gold Coin

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1 The Surprise

  Chapter 2 Was It All a Dream?

  Chapter 3 A Visitor!

  Chapter 4 The Missing Coin on Moving Day

  Chapter 5 And the Search Begins

  Chapter 6 Best Friends and a Soccer Ball

  Chapter 7 A Little Bit of Luck?

  Chapter 8 A Bright Idea

  Chapter 9 The Last Good-bye

  Glossary

  About Harper Paris and Marcos Calo

  CHAPTER 1

  The Surprise

  “So what’s the surprise?” Ethan Briar asked.

  “Yeah, what is it, Mom and Dad?” Ethan’s twin sister, Ella, chimed in.

  Their mother, Josephine, smiled nervously. Their father, Andy, reached over and squeezed her hand. Ella tried to guess what they were going to say. Was it going to be a new puppy? Or maybe cool matching bikes?

  “Ta-da! We’re moving,” Mr. Briar announced.

  “You mean to a new house?” Ella asked, confused.

  Mrs. Briar shook her head. “No, not to a new house. I just accepted a new job. I’m going to be the travel writer for the Brookeston Times.”

  “So why do we have to move? The Brookeston Times is in Brookeston,” Ella pointed out. The Times was their town’s newspaper—everyone read it.

  “That’s the exciting part,” Mr. Briar said. “Starting next week we’ll be traveling to different foreign cities so your mom can write about them.”

  “Foreign, like, another country?” Ethan asked.

  “Yes,” Mr. Briar said happily. “Like Spain and England and Peru and India and—”

  “Wait! Did you say next week?” Ella interrupted.

  “Yep. We’re leaving next Sunday,” Mrs. Briar said.

  “Next Sunday?!” Ethan exclaimed. “What about school? And soccer?”

  “And our friends? And Grandpa Harry? Will we be able to visit them?” Ella asked.

  “Well . . . ,” Mrs. Briar paused. “Not right away. But we can stay in touch with everyone. And, of course, we’ll come back to Brookeston—”

  “Someday. We’re just not yet sure when,” Mr. Briar finished.

  Silence.

  Ethan put his fork down. Ella had lost her appetite, too.

  “It’ll be the adventure of a lifetime,” Mr. Briar said brightly. “We’ll see some of the most incredible sights in the world! Places like the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower in France—”

  “Do they have soccer in China and France?” Ethan cut in.

  “Yes, of course! And as for school, we’ve already spoken to Principal McDermott. I’ll be homeschooling you both,” Mr. Briar went on.

  Mr. Briar was a history professor at Brookeston University. He was supersmart. He knew stuff like who invented the boogie board (Tom Morey) and the name of the first king of England (Egbert).

  Still, Ella could not imagine their dad being their teacher. He didn’t sing silly “good morning” songs like their real second-grade teacher, Mrs. Applebaum. And he didn’t serve green milk on St. Patrick’s Day, either.

  Mrs. Briar stood up. “Who wants dessert? Your dad picked up something special from Petunia Bakery to celebrate.”

  “I’m not hungry,” Ella said quietly.

  “Me neither. Can we go to the tree house?” Ethan asked.

  Mrs. Briar cast a worried look at her husband. Ella and Ethan never turned down a treat from their very favorite bakery.

  “Sure. We can just save you some dessert,” Mr. Briar told them.

  Ethan and Ella jumped up from the table and rushed out of the dining room.

  Dessert was the last thing on their minds.

  CHAPTER 2

  Was It All a Dream?

  The twins crossed the backyard to the old maple tree. The sky was deep blue with a sprinkling of stars. Crickets croaked in the distance. The air was cool and smelled like flowers.

  They climbed the rope ladder up to the wooden tree house. Then they plopped down on the floor pillows.

  “Worst. News. Ever,” Ella declared.

  “I don’t get it. Mom already has a job with the Brookeston Times,” Ethan said.

  “This is a different job, though. She’ll get to travel, just like Grandpa Harry did,” Ella pointed out.

  Grandpa Harry was their mom’s dad. He was a famous archaeologist. That meant that he studied people from the ancient past by looking at buildings, artwork, and other things they left behind. When his wife, Grandma Lucy, was still alive, they used to travel all over the world for his work.

  “Where are we going to live?” Ella wondered.

  “How can we leave Brookeston? And our tree house? And our friends?” Ethan said.

  Ella hugged her knees to her chest. “Hannah will probably find a new best friend while I’m gone.”

  “Yeah. Theo will probably find someone else to go to the comic-book store with,” Ethan mumbled.

  The twins grew quiet again. They had a million questions and worries swirling around in their heads—but no answers.

  Ethan gazed up at a map of Brookeston on the tree house wall. Their school was just down the street from their house. Also nearby were some of their favorite spots: the playground, the duck pond, and the big fountain in the town square where they made wishes.

  Next to the map of their town, the map of the world seemed so much bigger. And so much scarier . . .

  “Hello?”

  Someone was coming up the rope ladder. A moment later, Mr. Briar’s head appeared in the doorway.

  “What’s the password?!” the twins shouted at the same time.

  “Um . . . uh . . . spaghetti and meatballs?” Mr. Briar guessed.

  “Wrong!” Ethan replied.

  “I actually just came out here to get you guys. It’s early bedtime tonight. Your mom wants us to spend the day tomorrow packing,” Mr. Briar explained.

  Ella looked at her brother. “Maybe when we wake up tomorrow, we’ll realize this was just a dream,” she said hopefully.

  Ethan tried to smile. “Yeah, maybe.”

  CHAPTER 3

  A Visitor!

  Exactly one week later, Ella woke up with a start. It hadn’t been a dream—the Briars were moving the next day. Ella barely recognized her bedroom. There were boxes everywhere. Boxes of books. Boxes of clothes. Boxes of toys and other things, like her seashell and shark teeth collections.

  The Briars had spent much of the past week sorting their belongings into two categories: stuff they would take with them on their trip around the world and stuff they would put away in the attic.

  While they were gone, another family was going to rent the house. Ella tried to picture a strange kid taking over her room. What if he or she was a baby who covered Ella’s desk with stickers? That desk was where Ella sat and wrote all her mystery stories—including her latest one, “The Case of the Missing Diamond.”

  Ella sighed and got out of bed.

  The doorbell rang downstairs. A moment later Mrs. Briar yelled, “Ella! Ethan! There’s someone here to see you!”

  Ella went out into the hallway. She saw that Ethan’s door was still closed. She used their secret knock: three quick knocks, a pause, and then three more quick knocks. It was code for “hi.”

  “Ethan? Are you awake?” she called out.

  “No,” came the reply from inside.

  Ella opened the door and went in. Ethan was in bed, buried under his soccer-ball sheets. His room was a maze of boxes.

  “Mom says we have a visitor,” Ella said.

  “I’m sleeping,” came Ethan’s voice from under the sheets.

  Ella glanced around. “You still have a lot of packing to do.”

  Ethan poked his
head out. His wavy brown hair was sticking up. “That’s part of my brilliant plan. I’m not going to finish packing. That way, we’ll miss our plane tomorrow.”

  Ella considered this. “I don’t think that’ll work. Mom is really organized. She’ll make you finish packing.”

  Ethan groaned.

  “Come on, Ethan,” Ella said.

  Downstairs, their surprise guest was waiting for them in the living room.

  “Grandpa Harry!” Ethan and Ella shouted. They rushed into his arms and gave him a big hug. Grandpa Harry lived in Fall Creek, which was the next town over. The twins saw him at least once a week.

  “God morgon!” Grandpa Harry said merrily. He always greeted them in a different foreign language.

  “Is that German?” Ethan guessed.

  “Close. It’s Swedish. Did I ever tell you kids about the time your grandmother and I stayed in a hotel in Sweden that was made entirely of ice?”

  “Didn’t it melt in the summer?” Ella asked.

  “Didn’t you and Grandma freeze?” Ethan piped up at the same time.

  GREETINGS FROM SWEDEN!

  Grandpa Harry laughed. “They rebuilt the hotel every winter. And no, we didn’t freeze. But enough about me. I hear you kids are starting your big adventure tomorrow!”

  The twins stopped smiling.

  Grandpa Harry knelt down in front of them. “What’s the matter, my dears?” he asked gently.

  “We . . . we don’t want to go,” Ella confessed.

  “I understand,” Grandpa Harry said. “It’s hard to leave everything you know behind. But guess what?”

  “What?” Ella and Ethan asked.

  “Life is all about adventures,” Grandpa Harry replied. “And there is a whole world out there for you to discover. A world full of ice hotels, castles, ancient ruins . . . I could go on and on. Brookeston will always be here, waiting for you. Your house will be here. I’ll be here.”

  The twins nodded slowly.

  “Oh, I almost forgot!” Grandpa Harry reached into his jacket and pulled out two packages. “I have some bon voyage presents for you.”

  Ella knew that bon voyage meant “have a good trip!” in French. Her mom used to say that to Grandpa Harry and Grandma Lucy whenever they left for a new destination.

  Ethan opened his present right away. Inside was a box containing an old-fashioned-looking gold coin. It had a picture of a globe on one side and a hawk on the other.

  “Cool!” he said, grinning. “Thanks, Grandpa! What does the coin mean—”

  But Ethan was interrupted by a gasp from Ella.

  “Thank you, Grandpa Harry!” Ella exclaimed. She had opened her present. It was a journal with a beautiful purple cover.

  “I know how much you love to write, Ella,” Grandpa Harry replied. “I thought you could use this to take notes on your travels. It might come in handy for solving mysteries, too.”

  “Solving mysteries?” Ella asked.

  “What do you mean?” Ethan piped up curiously.

  Grandpa Harry winked at the kids. “I’ve learned that when you start a big adventure, you never know when a mystery might land in your path.”

  CHAPTER 4

  The Missing Coin on Moving Day

  “We have to be at the airport at four p.m.,” Mrs. Briar said over Sunday brunch the next day. “Our taxi will be here at three to pick us up.”

  Ethan glanced at his watch. It was almost noon.

  They were having a farewell brunch with Grandpa Harry. Mr. Briar had made pancakes. Grandpa Harry had brought strawberries from a nearby farmers’ market.

  “Let’s figure out our schedules for the next few hours,” Mrs. Briar went on. “I have to pick up some last-minute things at the mall. Andy, can you finish up the cleaning? And, Dad, can you supervise the kids? I made a to-do list for them.”

  Uh-oh, Ethan thought. One of Mom’s famous to-do lists.

  “I’d be glad to help them,” Grandpa Harry said.

  Mrs. Briar handed the to-do list to Ethan and Ella. It was about a mile long. Ethan felt dizzy just reading the list. How were they going to get all this done?

  Mr. Briar began clearing the dishes. Brunch was over. The day was flying by. Ethan wasn’t ready to get up and go.

  He dug into the pockets of his Brookeston Boomers hoodie. “Oh, no!” he cried out.

  “What’s the matter?” Ella asked him.

  Ethan felt around in his pockets some more. Still empty. “My gold coin! It’s gone!”

  “It’s probably in your room,” Ella said.

  “No. I know I had it when we went downtown yesterday. I was wearing this exact same hoodie,” Ethan said worriedly.

  Grandpa Harry leaned across the table. “Sounds like a mystery to me,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “A mystery? We don’t have time for a mystery,” Ethan complained.

  “Of course you do. Why don’t you give me your to-do list, and I’ll start tackling it. While I’m doing that, the two of you can look for the gold coin,” Grandpa Harry offered.

  With that, he took the list from the twins. He pulled his glasses out of his jacket pocket and headed for the stairs, humming to himself.

  Ethan turned to Ella. “Now what? I just want my coin back!”

  “Okay, let’s think. We spent the whole day yesterday running errands with Dad. Maybe you dropped it along the way,” Ella suggested.

  “Great. It could be anywhere!” Ethan wailed.

  Ella’s brown eyes lit up. “Not anywhere.”

  She reached for her new journal and a pen. She opened it up to the first page and began to write. “Let’s see. Yesterday, we went to the bakery first,” she said. “Then the bead store, then the bookstore, then the comic-book store.”

  “What are you doing?” Ethan asked.

  “You mean, what are we doing? We are going to retrace our steps from yesterday and find your gold coin!” Ella said excitedly.

  CHAPTER 5

  And the Search Begins

  “First stop: Petunia Bakery,” Ella announced.

  A tiny bell jingled as she and Ethan opened the door. Inside the shop, the smell of freshly baked cookies made their mouths water.

  The bakery and the rest of downtown Brookeston were only a few blocks from the Briars’ house. With Mrs. Briar at the mall and Mr. Briar busy cleaning, it had been easy for the twins to sneak away. Grandpa Harry had wished them luck and gone back to taping up boxes as the twins left.

  Mrs. Valentine, the baker, waved at them from behind the cash register. As always, the glass counter was filled with cupcakes, pies, and lots of other yummy-looking treats.

  “I thought you’d left for your trip,” she called out.

  “We’re leaving at three o’clock,” Ella replied.

  Then Mrs. Valentine held out two chocolate-chip cookies. “How about a cookie on the house as a bon voyage present?”

  The twins were at the counter in about two seconds flat. As Ella bit into the delicious cookie, she opened up her journal. “Mrs. Valentine, when we were here yesterday, Ethan may have dropped a gold coin. Have you seen it?” she asked.

  “It has a globe on one side and a hawk on the other,” Ethan told the baker.

  “No, I haven’t seen anything like that. Let me check in the lost-and-found box.” Mrs. Valentine dipped her head behind the counter and rummaged around.

  While Mrs. Valentine was busy, Ella and Ethan searched the rest of the shop. They peered under tables and chairs. They scanned tall shelves packed with jams, jellies, and teas. They looked through the window display.

  By the time they were done, Ethan had found a couple of pennies and Ella had found a rhinestone hairpin—but no gold coin.

  They brought the hairpin up to Mrs. Valentine.

  “Goodness, I’ve been looking for that everywhere!” she exclaimed. “Sometimes you think you’ve lost something forever. But it turns out, it’s right under your nose! Thank you so much, children!”

  “You’re welco
me!” Ella said.

  “I’m afraid your coin isn’t in my lost-and-found box,” Mrs. Valentine apologized. “But I will e-mail your parents if I come across it.”

  Ella and Ethan thanked the baker and said good-bye. Before they left, Ella opened up her journal and jotted down some notes:

  CHAPTER 6

  Best Friends and a Soccer Ball

  Ethan and Ella headed over to Bead Mania next. It was Ella’s favorite store in Brookeston. Ethan had no idea why. Who cared about making bracelets and stuff, anyway?

  “Um, maybe you should go inside alone,” Ethan suggested. “I’ll search the perimeter. You know, that means the outside part,” he added quickly.

  “I know what ‘perimeter’ means,” Ella snapped. “Fine, then. I’ll just go inside and investigate by myself. ‘Investigate’ means look around.”

  “I know that,” Ethan said, rolling his eyes.

  Ella headed into the store. Ethan decided to start with the flower garden in front. He got down on his knees and squinted at the dirt beneath the plants. He wished he had a metal detector. He saw an ant, a worm, and a ladybug—but no coin.

  “Hey! Ethan!”

  Ethan glanced up. His best friend, Theo, stood on the sidewalk, holding a soccer ball.

  The two boys had said good-bye to each other on Friday after their game against the Fall Creek Falcons. Still, it was nice to run into Theo one last time.

  “Hi!” Ethan rose to his feet. “Is there a game today?”