Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Ryan Wagner pulled his black Ram pick-up truck up the gravel driveway to the Wagner Stables. He climbed out of the cab smoothly, looking every bit like the wealthy ranch heir that he was. His black ostrich skin boots crunched against the gravel as he made his way toward the red, faded stable doors. The 32 year-old man pulled the brim of his black, felt Stetson over his brow. The sleeves of his red, button down shirt were rolled up over his massive biceps, and the front three buttons were unfastened, revealing a muscular chest. His skintight black jeans were secured at the waist by a braided rawhide belt; fastened with a turquoise and silver buckle. Ryan Wagner didn’t walk into the building, he strutted.

"Where are the muckers? This place is disgusting!" Ryan declared, his hazel eyes scanning the stalls and grooming area.

"No muckers. I do all work now," responded Tad Creet, his weathered face creased in a permanent frown. "Boss Wagner fire boys. Now I stuck mucking. Too much for old man. I not keep up good."

"I’ll say," Ryan chuckled, slapping the old man on the back, "I’ll talk to Daddy, my Indian friend. He was probably just in a bad mood."

Ryan had Tad saddle up "Hawk" for him. Hawk was the largest stallion on the ranch and the only one Ryan ever rode. The horse’s black coat glistened in the sun as Ryan guided the animal past the corralled arena area. He disappeared in a cloud of dust toward the mountains. Tad Creet watched the young man ride away.

"You no friend of Tad," the old man whispered, turning away from Wagner, "You no friend to nobody."

* * *

Frank and Joe Hardy sat on the edge of the sofa in the Meyer’s living room. Joe and 17 year-old Evan Meyer had worked as camp counselors together the previous summer. Evan had taught Joe and several other counselors how to communicate with the deaf campers in sign language. Joe had a natural ability to pick up foreign language easily and had quickly caught on to the beautiful language of the deaf, learning about 500 basic signs and the deaf alphabet.

"I’m glad you came too, Frank," Evan said, giving Frank a smile, "Since your brother is playing the part of a deaf person for this case, you need to play the role of a sibling of a deaf person. We all know how to sign so we can talk with Eric." Eric was Evan’s 14 year old, hearing-impaired brother.

"Actually, Dad thought of that and suggested I come," Frank replied. Joe had been already teaching Frank some of the signing he already knew, and both boys had gone to the local library to read about the history of sign language. Frank had been surprised at how quickly Joe absorbed the information, knowing that Joe wasn’t a big fan of cracking his school textbooks.

Evan worked diligently with the Hardys for three days, teaching signs, sentence structure, grammar, and other basics in deaf communication.

"Time for a test," Evan announced when the Hardy brothers arrived on the fourth day of their ‘training’. "Think you’re ready?" The brothers looked at each other and shrugged.

"I guess we won’t know until we try," Joe grinned.

"It’s the only way we’ll know if we’ve got the material down," Frank added. Evan nodded and asked the boys to have a seat. He left the room, promising to be right back. Frank and Joe practiced signing while they waited.

"Hullo, guys," said a guttural sounding voice from the doorway. They turned in unison to see Eric Meyer walking in the room in front of his brother, Evan.

"Oh, no," Joe grinned at Eric, "You’ll take it easy on us, won’t you Eric?" Eric laughed as he read Joe’s lips. He had lost 98% of his hearing when he was three years old, after a bout of Scarlet Fever. With the help of a powerful hearing aid, Eric could pick up loud vibrations, like car horns, trains and some music.

"Na way, Joe," Eric said, signing as he spoke, "I wan you to do good!"

Eric ‘tested’ the brothers by having a signed conversation with them. He worked with them together and individually, slowly at first, then signing much faster.

"You both ga an "A"," declared Eric by the end. "You sign good!" He shook hands with them both.

"Na, Joe," Eric started, smiling at the younger Hardy, "You have more to learn." Joe gave Eric a puzzled look. "Signing is jus par of our language. You need to read lips and use your body, too."

"Let’s do it!" Joe said enthusiastically, smiling at Eric.

Eric coached Joe for several more hours, showing Joe the secrets of lip reading and how the non-hearing use their entire body to enhance their language. Joe also made note of Eric’s voice. Because the non-hearing cannot hear their own voice, their pronunciation of certain words is off, making their verbal communication sounding guttural or slurred.

"I think I get it, Eric," Joe signed and spoke at the same time, "Because the language isn’t made up of actual ‘words’, but rather, it’s made up of ‘meanings’, one sign can represent several different things. That’s why the body movement is so important!"

"I thunk he ga it!" Eric grinned.

"Take this sign as an example," added Evan, putting his thumb between his pointer and middle fingers on both hands, then stacking the right on top of the left hand. "This sign can mean ‘keep’ or ‘care’ or ‘careful’ or ‘concern’ or ‘compassion’ or..."

"I thunk they ga it," Eric said with a laugh.

Frank and Joe spent another hour with Eric and Evan, perfecting what they had learned. Eric also gave Joe two old hearing aids, thinking they might help Joe’s cover.

"I’ll need all the help I can get," Joe stated, accepting the hearing aids.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.