How I Spent my Summer Holiday

It started to rain during the night. It kept on raining, off and on throughout the rest of the week. In one way this was a blessing because the police cars kept coming and going from behind the wall, so we weren’t allowed to go outside. And in another, it gave us the chance to make use of the library.

After breakfast, that first morning after we found the skeleton, Grandma took us down the hall to the library. It is a huge room at the end of the manor that no one seems to go in very often. Grandma said she thought it was a good place for us to spend a rainy day.

The library was cool and dark. It had shelves on all four walls. They were full of books from top to bottom. I’ll bet there are more books in this library than there are in the one at my school. At the far end of the room there was a fireplace. In front of it were a set of armchairs with tall lamps beside them. When you sat in the chair and turned on the lamp, the light shone right down on the pages of the book you were reading.

Grandma lit a fire in the fireplace and then took us around the room to show us all the different kinds of books we could read. Then she asked me if I wanted to read on my own or with her and Isabelle. I chose on my own as I am too old to have someone reading to me. She showed me the area, which she called the classics, and said that this would be a good place to start. She said everyone should read the classics at some time in their life. I looked at the titles on the books for awhile and finally decided to try Treasure Island. I curled up in a chair in front of the fireplace and began to read.

In the mean-time Grandma took Isabelle to the other end of the room where they settled in on the sofa with something called Anne of Green Gables. For a short time, I could hear the murmur of their voices in the background, but it didn’t take long for them to fade away as I stepped into the inn with Jim Hawkins, Billy Bones and Black Dog. In no time at all, I was deeply engaged with Squire Trelawny, making plans to sail away on the Hispaniola in search of treasure.

Now I want you to understand that I have never had a problem with reading. Mom and Dad read to me at bedtime every night, from the time I was born up until Isabelle was in school. I picked it up quite quickly in grade one and read all the books the school provided with ease. But they weren’t books like Treasure Island. I wonder why we aren’t reading books like it in school. The ones they give us are so boring. This meant that video games took precedence for me when I got my first x-box at age seven and I haven’t read much since. The games were something I could really get involved with. Too involved according to Mom and Dad. That’s why they insisted I leave it at home this summer.

After reading a few chapters, I found my legs were getting cramped from sitting so long. I got up and walked around the room, looking at different books that caught my eye. However, it didn’t take but a few minutes for the desire to learn more about Treasure Island to return. I headed back to the chair and started reading again. The hours flew by.

It was on one of these breaks that I found the parcel wrapped in brown paper. I was strolling past the bookshelves, not really paying much attention, when I noticed that a few of books didn’t appear to be pushed to the back of the shelf. I pushed on them. They didn’t move. It was like there was something behind them. I pulled out a couple of them, and yes, there was something there. I took out a stack of them and revealed the rectangular parcel about two inches deep, wrapped in brown paper. I pulled it out and looked at it. On one side was my grandfather’s name and address. There were hand canceled stamps in the right-hand corner, so it obviously had come through the mail at some point. It didn’t look like it had ever been opened. I set it down and replaced all the books I had moved to their place on the shelf, pushing them right to the back like they should be. Then I picked up the parcel and took it back to my chair to examine it more closely. The longer I looked the more I became convinced that it had never been opened.

Isabelle came into the room to tell me it was time for supper. I showed her the parcel and asked her what she thought we should do with it. “Give to Grandma,” was her response,

“But,” I said, “it’s got Grandpa’s name on it. I think I will give it to him.”

“Whatever,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders “It’s time for supper. Grandma is waiting for us.

I shoved the parcel under the chair and followed her out of the room. The sooner I ate, the sooner I could get back to Treasure Island. And as for the parcel, I decided, I would give it to Grandpa, the next time we were alone together.

Grandpa walked into the kitchen just as we had taken our places at the table. He sat wearily down in his chair. As he reached for the coffee cup Grandma was handing him, he sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what they think they are going to find out there. Combing through every inch of the place. There’s nothing. And insisting that I be there with them every minute they are here. It’s like they are watching me to see how I react. Like as if I will lead to them to something. Not that there’s any chance of that. I have no idea why that skeleton was in our barn.”

He took a couple of sips of his coffee and then turned to me. “I hear that you are writing a diary.”

“Yes. I have to. It’s for school. I don’t know if you can call it a diary. It’s supposed to be a summary of how I spent my summer. At least the skeleton is giving me something interesting to write about.”

“I guess that’s true. But, if you are interested in diaries, I have something to show you.”

“Virgil, he’s only 12.”

“Never to young to learn something new.” He turned back to me. “I’ve got one of the oldest diaries that was ever published. Bought a box of books at an auction sale a few years ago. It was at the bottom of the box. It’s called The Diary of Samuel Pepys. He kept it from 1659 all the way through 1669. The neat thing about it these days is that he writes about the plague in London that took place in 1665. Kind of like our current pandemic. Anyway, I can show it to you if you want.”

“Sure, I’ll look at it. I don’t know anything about diaries. They didn’t tell us how to write one before we left school. We don’t have to do it every day though; just once a week. Right now I am reading Treasure Island. Have you read it?”

“Of course. One of the best pirate books ever written. I think I was about your age the first time I read it. We didn’t have a library like we have here where I grew up,” He tilted his head and looked up at the ceiling. “You know, if I had grown up in this house, I likely wouldn’t have done anything all summer but read.”

Grandma gave a short laugh that sounded like a snort. “If you’d grown up in this house, you would have been out in the gardens working, just like I was. She put her hand on his shoulder and looked down at him with a smile. “Thankfully, you’re here to do it now.”

To be continued.