Mystery On First Street (Adventures For Youngsters Of All Ages)

By Mac MacRae

Unusual things begin to happen after a friendly, yet sometimes secretive couple move into the empty house next door. Will Nick and his sister Noelle be able to solve the many mysteries of Ten First Street?

A quirky, original story that will entertain you as you follow the clues.

Please don't give away the surprise ending!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mac MacRae
• Release date: Mar 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463473825

Book preview

The Last Day of School

One more hour to go!

The hands of the clock on our classroom wall appear to have stopped moving altogether. Why does it always seem that the last afternoon of the school year lasts for a whole week?

Thirty minutes to freedom!

All around the room, kids are restlessly fidgeting while waiting anxiously for the final bell of the year to ring. Our teacher, Ms. Jessica, is trying her best to hold our attention, but we can tell that she’s looking forward to starting her Summer Vacation as much as we are.

Just ten more minutes!

Soon the halls will be filled with excited students with thoughts of long, slow Summer days without homework or any of those silly school rules.

Finally!

The bell rings, and I join a swarm of other seventh-graders who just can't get out the door fast enough.

While waiting outside for Mom to pick me up, I overhear other kids talking excitedly about their vacation plans. Some are thrilled about taking trips to places like the beach, a mountain lake, or to one of America's many beautiful National Parks. I must remember to ask Mom and Dad if our family might visit a National Park sometime soon.

From the corner of my eye, I notice that Ms. Jessica is walking quickly (almost skipping!) towards the teacher’s parking lot. The happy look on her face says it all. It’s Summer!

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My thoughts are interrupted by someone tugging at my sleeve. It’s my sister Noelle, who just finished the Fifth Grade at the same school that I attend. Her huge grin tells me that she’s as excited about vacation as I am.

Well, we made it through this year!

Yes, we did! I agree, trying not to think about going into the Eighth Grade next Fall. That seems so far away, and it’s Summer right now!

Just then, our Mom drives up. We say goodbye to our friends and tell them that we’ll see them soon. As Noelle and I pile into the family minivan, we toss our book-filled backpacks into the back seat, determined not to touch them again until next Fall.

A feeling of newfound freedom fills each and every kid as they increase the distance between themselves and the now-empty school without so much as a glance back.

The Empty House Next Door

The house next door at Number Ten First Street has been empty for several months. The rumor going around is that it's been sold to someone from up North. We can hardly wait to see who is moving in!

Ten First Street is much like the other houses in our neighborhood - not too big, yet not small either. It has a large front porch on the main level and a smaller porch up above it. There is also a long driveway that leads to a big red barn in the back.

There are several big trees growing in back of our houses. One very tall willow tree actually grows in the yard of Number Ten, but several long branches hang down over our fence. In the Fall, my friends and I like to rake leaves from other peoples' yards up and down the street until we've made a huge pile in our backyard. Then we put a step ladder under the longest willow branch, grab hold, and swing off the ladder into the big leaf pile. Sometimes there are ten or more kids waiting in line for their turn to climb the ladder. It's quite a thrill!

Our backyard is quite large and separated from the neighbors’ yards by a tall fence that I can just barely see over by standing on my tiptoes. Directly behind our back fence is what we call the Big Backyard. It's actually located behind an apartment building around the corner from First Street. Because the apartment dwellers don't use it much, we neighborhood kids consider it to be our personal adventure place. We make play forts under the bushes, enjoy long games of hide-and-seek, and have epic water balloon battles on hot days. Some of us older kids had even built a tree house way up in a pine tree until one of the younger kids fell out of it and Dad made us take it down. That made us sad, especially since we had warned that youngster several times not to climb up there by himself.

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There are lots of little kids who live on and around First Street. Brynn and Kady live across the street from us.

Lirael’s house is near the top of the hill. Her parents are both teachers at our school. Noelle and I hope to be their students next year.

Valentina lives just around the corner. She is a bit younger than most of the neighborhood kids and a really friendly little girl.

Audrey is the youngest kid on the block. She is quick to smile, and you can easily tell that she notices everything that’s going on.

Our Family

My name is Nick. I live at Number Twelve with my Mom, Dad, Grandma, and my younger sister Noelle, whom you have already met.

Our Mom stays home to take care of the house and us kids. To make a little extra money, she also makes beautiful jewelry to sell. You should see her face light up when we see someone that she doesn't know wearing one of her creations!

Dad works hard every day. I'm not exactly sure what he does at the factory, but he's usually very tired when he gets home. Mom says he's a good provider, and he always has time for his kids. Dad loves to get right down on the floor and play with us. He also loves fireplaces. If it's a cool evening, you will find him relaxing in his big easy-chair in front of a cozy fire.

Personally, I have kind of mixed feelings about the whole fireplace thing. You see, it's one of my chores to keep the big wood box next to the fireplace full and you wouldn't believe how fast Dad can go through a stack of firewood! In cold weather, I fill up that box at least once a day without complaining because I know how happy it makes him to sit in front of that warm fire. Someone once told me that oak wood burns much longer, but I'm not really sure about that because Dad says oak is way too expensive.

All-in-all, they are just about the best parents that a kid could hope for.

Grandma collects teapots. She has lived with us for a long time and helped Mom to take care of Noelle and me when we were just babies. She loves us very much, and we love her, too.

Even though Grandma uses a wheelchair to get around now, she is still very active and independent. Her long-time girlfriends often come to pick her up and take her to all kinds of activities. They do scrapbooking, make quilts, knit, read books together, and bake lots of delicious snacks. Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies are probably the best that I've ever tasted.

But mostly it's about teapots for her. She probably has a couple of hundred of them in all different shapes and sizes. Dad built shelves on one whole wall in the kitchen to display her wonderful collection. They are every color of the rainbow, and some are one-of-a-kind. Her fondest dream is to find one of the rarest teapots of all at a garage sale someday. Everyone in our family knows to always be on the lookout for a Chinese teapot made from purple clay.

The New Neighbors

Over the past couple of weeks, Noelle and I have both become quite curious about the strange goings-on next door. The freshly-painted names on the mailbox say Mr. and Mrs. K.K. Jones. A large letter J has also magically appeared next to the peak of the roof.

The day they moved in, a huge green truck pulled up in front of the house. It took the movers the whole day just to carry all of the things inside! There was lots and lots of furniture and many different sizes of boxes and crates. Indeed, some of the larger items ended up on the porch because they wouldn't fit inside until