The Andersons

By Zoe Ward

The Andersons are a normal every day family, who do normal every day things. That is until one rainy Saturday afternoon when the children’s trip to the park changes their lives forever.
Taking shelter from a storm Wilbur, Bailey, Elliott, and their dog George, hide in an old abandoned building, but once inside they make a discovery that leads to an adventure like no other. Following a series of clues they develop magical powers that allow them to do things they could never do before, things that no-one else can do. However, along with these powers comes a great mystery, a mystery that needs to be solved.

Their adventure leads them through many challenges and as the reader you can get involved and try to solve the puzzles or relax and get lost in the story.
The Andersons is full of fun and laughter as well as science experiments, puzzles, problem solving and not to forget an adventure like no other, with a few practical jokes along the way. There is something for everyone in this fast pace, edge of your seat page-turner for the young explorer in you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zoe Ward
• Release date: Mar 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301643196

Book preview

The Andersons

The Andersons

Zoe Ward

Published by Simply-First E.Books Ltd

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 Zoe Ward

ISBN: 9781301643196

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

For my darling son Will, my light, my love, my inspiration. Everything I do is for you. No matter how big you get you will always be my baby boy and I will always love you with all my big Mum heart. I hope you enjoy your book as Wilbur and realise your dream of becoming a secret spy (I won’t tell anyone!). I look forward to writing your next adventure and making all your dreams come true.

Thank you to:

My mother, Liz, and my sister, Cara, for all your support and encouragement throughout the writing of this book. Your ideas and input were invaluable, not to mention the tireless hours of editing you put in! I couldn’t have done it without you both. And thank you to Adam Croft who took it off our hands to give it the professional touch after we had all read it 100 times and needed an expert opinion!!

To my father, Clive, for giving me the time off work to follow my dream and for all your continued encouragement and support.

To my best friend, Kate, for many evenings spent brainstorming to make the book a reality and the time you have put in to help me publish it.

And finally to Vian Oelofsen for your wonderful illustrations and the many hours you spent creating the perfect cover to bring the book and the characters to life.

CHAPTER 1

In a little town on the edge of Surrey lived the Andersons, an ordinary family; a mum, a dad, two boys, a girl and a dog. And everyday they did ordinary things. Mr Anderson would go to work in the huge toy shop in the centre of town where he was the manager. Mrs Anderson would get up early to walk the dog before dropping the children off at school and then rush to her job at the local care home. Wilbur, Bailey and Elliott would go to school everyday and then come home and play. And George, well he was a dog; he spent most of his time chewing bones and stray shoes and generally getting up to no good when he had the house all to himself.

Nothing much exciting happened in the Anderson household: Auntie Karina would come over on the weekends, homework would get done, toys would be played with, they would all visit Grandma and Grandpa Anderson every month and of course they had their yearly summer family holiday in Europe. Life ticked by, everyday pretty much the same. That was until one rainy Saturday afternoon….

Wilbur was the eldest; he was fourteen years old. He was sports mad, always had a football under his arm and loved to ride his bike or his skateboard. He was a fantastic big brother and always looked out for Bailey and Elliott, whom he enjoyed spending time with on the weekends and after school, often in the role of their babysitter when their parents had to work. Bailey was twelve years old, and she was a very clever twelve-year-old. She had a keen interest in science and was always inventing and discovering, much to the frustration of her parents when she pulled their appliances apart. And little Elliott was eight, the most mischievous eight-year-old anyone could ever meet; he was always playing tricks on people, but had an irresistible smile and a heart of gold which allowed him to get away with anything. Elliott took George, his floppy-eared bearded collie with him everywhere he went. The two were inseparable and together they got into no end of trouble.

On this particular afternoon, Mr and Mrs Anderson were busy relaxing, of sorts. Mr Anderson was engrossed with a new child’s robot that had just come onto the market and was desperately trying to work out how to use it so he could see if it was a suitable toy for him to sell in his toy shop. Mrs Anderson was flicking through an endless pile of interior design magazines trying to decide how to redecorate their lounge as she wanted a change but didn’t know where to start.

Wilbur, Bailey and Elliott were fed up with being stuck inside the house and were getting restless. Can we go out, Mum? Wilbur asked. We’ve been stuck in all day; we’re bored.

Mrs Anderson looked out of the window. It’s raining, Wilbur. Where are you going to go in this weather? I don’t want you all getting colds. Mrs Anderson was always fussing.

We’ll just go to the park for a little while, Mum. It’s not raining that hard, we’ll put our hats and coats on. Please, Mum, we’re bored! Wilbur begged. We’ll be back in an hour or two, Mum. Please?

Okay, but make sure you all wrap up properly, Mrs Anderson huffed. And I want you all back by four o’clock. And take George with you, he hasn’t been out today yet.

Great, thanks Mum, Wilbur said excitedly as he looked at his watch and saw that gave them just over two hours. They all ran to put their hats and coats on, stumbling over each other in their haste to get ready before Mrs Anderson could change her mind. Wilbur was ready first and was stood in the hallway by the front door admiring himself in the mirror. Wilbur took great pride in his appearance and spent many an evening working out to build up his muscles and he never left the house if he had a hair out of place. He had short dark brown hair that he spiked up at the front and he would spend hours making sure every hair sat in exactly the right place. Wilbur would never admit this to anyone but he carried a small compact mirror in his pocket so he could constantly check his hair when no-one was looking. This was a great source of amusement to his brother and sister who would often catch him doing it. On these occasions he would quickly toss it aside as though he had found it; but they knew better.

Bailey liked to take a pocket science kit with her wherever she went. It contained, amongst other things, a tape measure, a magnifying glass, some tweezers, self sealing sandwich bags and specimen sample pots in case she found something interesting she wanted to study and needed something to collect it in. Bailey loved to find out what things were made of so she could use that knowledge to help her create new things. Bailey’s time was always taken up thinking about things she could invent or studying how things worked, so she didn’t have much time to worry about her appearance in the way that Wilbur did. She always looked smart but wasn’t worried if she was keeping up with the latest fashions and would always tie her long brown hair in a pony tail to keep it out of her way and so she didn’t have to waste time styling it when she could be doing other things.

Elliott was a scruffy young boy. He always had his shirt half tucked in, half hanging out and his hair was all over the place as though he had just got out of bed and Mrs Anderson was constantly trying to smooth it down in a vain attempt to smarten him up. He and George were like two peas in a pod; they were both very kind hearted and full of fun, but both very lazy. They were always in a hurry to have fun, usually getting up to mischief, but too lazy to do much else. George always looked quite put out if Mrs Anderson woke him up to put him outside for a wee. He would give her a how dare you interrupt me from my dream kind of look, in the best way a dog could, and hide his head under his paws and go back to sleep as though he became invisible when he did that. Mrs Anderson always threatened him with no more sandwiches on these occasions; that was the one and only thing that would guarantee he would get up and shoot straight out of the back door.

George and Elliott shared the same love of sandwiches. When Elliott was very young he wouldn’t eat anything but bread, so the only way Mrs Anderson could get him to eat other foods was to put them in a sandwich. Elliott had always shared his food with George ever since they got him; that was how they first bonded. Elliott spent all day with George while Bailey and Wilbur were at school and would share his sandwiches with him when Mrs Anderson wasn’t looking. George followed Elliott around all day in the hope of scraps and they soon shared a love of curling up on the sofa and sleeping during the day and rolling around in the mud outside and they both equally hated the inevitable bath when they did.

Elliott had never grown out of only being able to eat food between two slices of bread, so if he was going out for a long period of time he would always take a lunchbox with him containing slices of bread so he could make sandwiches from whatever there was to eat. George found this hard to resist as the smell of bread to him meant lunch. He was often trying to nose his way into Elliott’s bag to find his lunchbox and he would always run to get his bag for him if he knew they were going out to make sure he had food for them both. On this occasion, though, George settled for his lead and was running around with it in his mouth barking with the excitement of a trip out.

Make sure you stay away from the ruin! Mrs Anderson reminded them as Wilbur opened the front door to leave. It will be especially dangerous in this weather.

We know, Mum, they chanted in unison with a big sigh. Mrs Anderson reminded them to stay away from the old derelict building that backed onto the park every time they went. The ruin, as it was known locally, had been there for many years. There were no surrounding buildings and no-one had ever done anything about it. Mrs Anderson’s constant reminders drove them all mad. We promise, they called behind them as they ran out the door.

CHAPTER 2

The park was not far from the Andersons’ house, no more than a ten minute walk or less than five minutes on their bikes with George running beside them. They lived in a small village near the local town of Byron Lake. The houses were few and far between, with long and winding country roads and woodlands as far as the eye could see.

The rain was coming down harder and harder as the children got nearer to the park. The clouds were getting darker and darker, filling the sky with so much darkness the street lights flickered on two hours earlier than normal. Wilbur stopped at the entrance to the park and the others came to a sharp halt behind him almost crashing into him. He looked up at the clouds and said follow me as he ran past the playground, down the hill, and towards a slow running river that flowed through the park. He followed the river until he reached the ruin.

The ruin had a history that everyone in the village and nearby town knew about but no-one liked to talk about. It had been owned by three bachelors who used to work at the local science laboratory that employed scientists from all over the world, dedicated to researching, discovering and inventing things that would make a big difference to people’s lives, and they did. It had the most advanced technical equipment and many young inventors aspired to work there.

The competition and constant pressure to make even greater technological discoveries was immense and those who failed were not employed for long. The gentlemen that lived in the ruin together had been accused, by a colleague, of stealing ideas from others and passing them off as their own. They were all asked to leave the laboratory and it was believed that they had set up their own lab in their house as late at night local residents would see bright flashing lights through their curtains and hear loud noises coming from the building. The men were rarely seen by neighbours or other local villagers, only leaving their house to go into town to get supplies of either food or equipment and only answering their front door to receive deliveries. Late one summers’ night a fire broke out in the house and the fire brigade were too late to save them. The men all died and the fire damaged the building beyond repair. None of them had any known relatives so the house was boarded up and had just been left ever since and there it remained at the edge of the park, abandoned and falling apart.

Where are we going, Wil? Bailey asked slightly out of breath as she chased behind him. You know how Mum feels about the ruin, we can’t go in there.

It’s fine, Bailey, stop being such a baby, he said as he turned to look behind him at his sister. I come here all the time with my friends, it’s not dangerous, I promise you it’ll be okay. We need to shelter from this storm until it passes, we are safer in here, he reassured her as he continued to run towards the ruin.

Bailey looked up at the sky. The clouds were blacker than she had ever seen. Look, Wilbur, she said, pointing up at the sky where suddenly, as if in slow motion, the clouds began to crash together, back and forth, over and over again. What’s happening, Wil? she asked shakily.

Before Wilbur could answer there was a sudden flash of lightning immediately followed by a loud clap of thunder, so loud they all jumped with fright. Quickly! Wilbur cried as he stood in the entrance to the ruin where the front door used to be; the boards that had sealed up the doorway had long been pulled off by inquisitive children. Wilbur beckoned his brother and sister through as George shot past them and went inside to look for cover. Come on! he urged, running towards the middle of the vast open space which had once been three separate rooms. Over here! he called out, clinging to a steel pole that used to be part of the support for one of the walls. Bailey and Elliott ran over to huddle up around the pole with him, George closely curled up at Elliott’s feet for security. A second clap of thunder struck and they huddled up even closer, no-one saying a word, then Bailey looked down at her feet and in sudden realisation looked at Wilbur.

I’m not sure this is such a good idea, look the floor is all wet and muddy, we are standing in a puddle holding onto a metal pole in the middle of a storm, she panicked. We have to move quickly before lightning strikes the house. It will electrocute us all! she exclaimed, and they all quickly jumped out of the puddle and moved away from the pole.

Let’s go upstairs away from the water, Wilbur suggested, looking for a dry path to the spiral staircase in the middle of the room. Wilbur knew the building well and had been upstairs several times before. He began to show off by running up the stairs, not wanting them to know that he was feeling nervous of the storm too.

Wait for us! Elliott called after him, meaning himself and George, clinging to the banister of the somewhat wobbly staircase as Wilbur disappeared up the stairs.

And me! Bailey said quickly, not wanting to be left behind.

Wilbur breathed a deep sigh of relief as he reached the top of the stairs, followed swiftly by Elliott, George and then Bailey. The stairs had become increasingly unstable as they all climbed up; their combined weight really testing the rigidity of them. The upstairs was much smaller than the downstairs. The building had once been a bungalow and the loft had been converted into one large room. The ceiling was low at both the far sides of the room and came to a high point in the middle, forming a triangular shape.

I wonder what this used to be, Elliott said to the others. It would make a really cool bedroom. I’d so love to live here. This would be perfect for us, he whispered to George. Can you imagine how much fun we could have in this space? He rubbed George’s back with excitement. George agreed by wagging his tail and rubbing his head against Elliott’s leg.

This whole building looks like it’s about to crumble. Are you sure it’s safe, Wil? Bailey asked, inspecting the gaping holes in the wall where the rain was pouring in.

It’s perfectly safe, Bailey. Nothing has ever fallen off since I’ve been coming here, Wilbur teased her. I promise the rain won’t destroy the building around you. It’s not raining boulders, I’m sure the bricks can withstand a bit of water.

The storm was getting worse and through the window they could see the lightning striking the ground and the force of the thunder was making the building tremble.

I’m really not sure this is such a great idea, Wil, Bailey said, still trying to encourage him to leave. But before he could try to reassure her again lightning struck the building and the bolt shot straight through the hole in the wall that Bailey had just been inspecting, hitting the brass knob on a circular wooden lid laying on the floor which then shot up into the air with the force of the strike.

What was that? Bailey asked, rushing over to find out what the lightning had just hit. She bent down to see the wooden lid lying on the floor. She picked it up by its wooden edges to get a closer look, careful not to burn herself on the red-hot brass knob where the lightning struck. She turned it over to look at the back and saw something engraved in the wood and held it up towards the window to see if she could see it better in the light.

It’s got something written on it, she told her brothers. I can’t make it out; it’s worn away. Bailey put the lid down and rummaged through her bag and pulled out a kit she had to dust for fingers prints. She had never found a use for it until now. She used the brush to clean the ash off the lid and then used her glasses-cleaning cloth to rub away the dirt that hadn’t brushed off to see if she could make out the words. She didn’t like her glasses so didn’t wear them very often but always carried them around with her in case she needed them.

It’s some kind of clue. Bailey held the lid up to the light again, trying to read the inscription. I am one of four, part two is three from the floor, part three works under me, and part four beams for all to see.

What on earth does that mean? Wilbur asked.

I don’t know. I’m guessing it must be some kind of box and this is the lid. I think it is made up of four parts, the lid being one, and the riddle is giving clues as to where to find the other parts. I wonder if they are hidden in the building. Bailey looked at the lid more closely to see if she could see any other clues. What could be three from the floor?

I don’t know. Wilbur looked around the room and Elliott followed his lead. It could be three metres from the floor, three centimetres from the floor, or they could have had some shelves up before the fire and something could have just sat on the third shelf. Not a great hiding place, admittedly, but possible. Who cares, anyway? It’s just an old wooden box. I can’t imagine there would be any great treasures in it with a lid that size.

Probably not, but someone has obviously gone to a lot of effort to hide the pieces. Aren’t you in the least bit curious? Bailey asked her brother as George came over and sniffed the wooden lid in her hand.

No, he replied grumpily, looking out of the window and wishing the storm would blow over so they could go outside and kick a football around.

What is it, George? Elliott asked as he saw him sniffing the wall in the far left-hand corner of the room, wagging his tail frantically. Elliott walked over to see what he was getting worked up about. Mind out the way and let me have a look, he told George, gently moving him out of the way.

Elliott looked at the wall where George was sniffing and he noticed a wobbly brick that was sticking out slightly. With his small fingers he managed to grab hold of the brick and pull it out of the wall. Look! he said as he turned round to face Wilbur and Bailey and held the brick in the air. It’s the third brick from the floor and I think there’s something in the wall behind it, he told them as he put his other hand through the gap in the wall and pulled out a small wooden box in the shape of a very large slice of cake.

Bailey rushed over to take the box from him. This has got to be it! she said excitedly. Two more pieces of this size would make a complete circle, she determined. The box, despite having a separate lid was enclosed at the top and had a drawer at the side but Bailey couldn’t open it. Maybe you need to fit it all together for the drawers to open. It must have a secret locking mechanism controlled by the lid, she thought as she examined the small box, impressed by its design. Good work, George! She rubbed the top of his head. See if you can find the next one. She held the box out to him to get the scent again before walking back over to the lid to remind herself of the next part of the clue.

Part three works under me, she read out loud.

Under? That could be anywhere, Wilbur complained. He wasn’t in the mood to start rummaging around and digging things up. That could be under the house or under the floorboards on either floor, and I don’t think the building is safe enough to start any digging.

No, I’m sure you’re right, Bailey agreed. "But let’s look at the clue more carefully. It says ‘works’ under me, so we need to find something to do with working or that is in a mechanism