MAKING IT OFFICIAL
by
RM
Chapter 11
THE CHAPTERS
Frank
rolled onto his stomach and buried his head into his pillow. His head was
throbbing in beat with his heart. Every part of this body hurt. He so
wanted to fall asleep again. But he couldn’t.
As
he stayed still, he tried to recall what had transpired the previous
evening. He knew they had started the party early, but had no recollection
of what happened during or how it ended. He vaguely recalled coming home
and crawling into bed. His mind was blank.
Frank
listened carefully and realized the house was quiet. He wondered what time
it was, but had no intention of opening his eyes to look at the clock. He
didn’t think his body would respond to any movement at the moment.
As
he welcomed the softness of his pillow, he smiled thinking about his
friends who had come back to town for the wedding. Those attending included
Biff Hooper, Chet Morton, Tony Prito and Phil Cohen, along with several
other friends they had made over the years.
The
initial conversations had dealt with how everyone was doing, whom they were
dating, what jobs they were working at and how they couldn’t believe
Frank was getting married, the first of their group.
Talk
quickly turned to reminiscing of all they had been through together as
friends, including many of the mysteries they had gotten wrapped up in
while in school.
Once everyone had arrived they ordered some food. As it was brought to the table, Frank saw that all of it had been packaged to do. He knew they were heading to another location.
“Let’s go,” Joe
said. “The van is right outside.”
As they all headed
outside, Frank noticed several familiar cars parked behind the van. Just as
he was about to climb into the passenger seat, Joe said, “Into the back.
You will be surprised at our destination.”
Reluctantly, Frank
climbed into the back and allowed himself to be blindfolded by Phil. He
wasn’t too keen on wearing the blindfold, but knew Joe only meant for it
to be fun.
He felt the van move and
did not attempt to try and remember all the turns Joe was making. He
figured his little brother was doing it on purpose to keep him guessing.
When the van finally
came to a stop, he was helped out of the back.
“Joe, this blindfold
needs to come off,” Frank said. “I won’t be able to work the
crutches.”
“We’ve got that
taken care of."
Frank felt his arms get
lifted over a couple shoulders. He began walking without falling. They came
to a stop and he heard an elevator door open. They stepped in and it closed
behind him. He felt the elevator jerk into motion and they were going up.
When the elevator
finally stopped, Frank was escorted out and down the hall. They made a turn
and a moment later, he heard a door close.
The blindfold was taken
off and he blinked at the brightness of the room. Beverages were lined up
on several tables and there was plenty of food about as well. A sign on the
wall at the far end of the room read: “Congratulations Frank!”
“This is great, guys.
Thanks.”
“This is nothing,”
Joe said, leading Frank into the center of the room and plopping him down
in the chair that was by itself. “Your real gift has just arrived.” Joe
pointed toward the door.
Frank looked at he door,
just in time to see a large cake being wheeled into the room by Biff and
Chet. He had a bad feeling about this as the door to the room closed. He
felt a bottle of beer get put in his hand.
And
that was all he could remember. He had no idea what happened after that
moment and part of him was glad he didn’t. But deep down, he knew Joe
would remember it perfectly and sometime in the future, would bring it to
the forefront. But he didn’t care. He knew the whole evening had been in
fun. They were all together like friends should be and that’s what he was
going to remember forever.
He
was dozing off again when he heard the faint chime of the doorbell.
Burrowing deeper into his pillow, he welcomed the softness and succumbed to
the call of dreamland.
“Frank?”
He
rolled his head to the other side, hoping whoever was calling his name so
loudly would go away.
“Frank.”
He
knew that wasn’t going to happen. He rolled onto his side, pillowing his
head on his arm. He opened his eyes a bit and squinted at the brightness.
His head began to throb even more than before. He groaned and closed his
eyes once again.
“I
take it someone had a rough night.”
Frank
finally recognized the voice. It belonged to Caren. Using his free hand, he
reached out and felt her hand slip into his own. A moment later, he felt
the edge of the bed sink down a little as she sat beside him.
Frank
forced his eyes open and looked at Caren. She looked beautiful. He smiled
as her and she returned the grin.
“It
looks like Joe put you through the wringer with your bachelor party last
night,” Caren said.
“I
have no clue as to what went on,” he said. “We got to the location and
Joe handed me a beer, I think. After that, I don’t know what went on.”
“Should
I kill Joe now or wait until he admits what happened at the party?”
“You
can wait,” Frank said, rolling onto his back. “Besides, he’s the best
man. We can’t have him getting killed hours before the ceremony. That
wouldn’t be right.”
“All
right. I’ll wait until after the ceremony to dismember him.”
“That’ll
be fine.” He looked at Caren quizzically. “Now, don’t take this the
wrong way, but while I am glad to see you, what are you doing here?”
“Don’t
you remember? We were going out to lunch today, alone.”
Frank
closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut at the thought of eating. With
the way his stomach was moving, he felt it would be days before he would
eat again.
Caren
chuckled. “I’m only kidding.” She squeezed his hand. “I figured
whatever Joe had planned, you wouldn’t be in any condition to have
something to eat right away.”
“I
appreciate it.” Frank opened his eyes again. He glared at the clock and
saw that is was just after noon.
“And
as for the reason I’m here, I wanted to see you. I missed you last
night.”
“I
missed you too.”
Caren
leaned down and thoroughly kissed him. When they broke apart, Caren smiled
at him with love in her eyes. He felt truly blessed that she was going to
become his wife.
“Actually,
I have another reason I wanted to see you.”
“And
what’s that?’ Frank asked, pulling himself up slightly in bed. He was
grateful he still had his T-shirt on from the previous day.
“Well,
when I was over here the other day, I accidentally picked up a book of
yours when I left.”
Frank
looked at her puzzled. He didn’t think he was missing any books. He
watched her reach down and pick up a book off the floor. His eyes went wide
when he realized it was the Fieldstone journal.
“It
was actually a very interesting read,” Caren said, handing him the
journal.
Frank
looked at her in a surprise. “You read the whole thing?”
“I
did. And I enjoyed it.”
Looking
closely at Caren, he saw the corner of her smile twitching and knew she had
something she wanted to share.
“Go
ahead and spill it,” Frank said. “I know you want to.”
Caren
bounded on the bed slightly and started talking.
“Okay,
so I started reading the journal and was quite impressed with Frederick,
even through I’ve never met him. Anyway, I read through the journal from
beginning to end. And I found some interesting news.”
“What?”
Frank asked, hoping it was a clue they were looking for.
“Well,
I noticed that in many of the entries, he talked about a storage room in
the house. He didn’t exactly say where it was, but kept writing about
it.”
“There
wasn’t a storage room there when we searched,” Frank said. “There was
nothing.”
“For
some reason, I think it may be hidden,” Caren said. “When I came across
the reference to the storage room, there were also notations that they rest
of the family was asleep.” She bounced slightly on the bed again. “It
has to be hidden. We need to go and find it.”
Frank
clenched his teeth once again as the bed swayed. He vowed to get even with
his brother for the events of the previous evening.
“Caren,
we will go on one condition,” Frank said.
“And
what’s that?”
“That
you stop bouncing on my bed. That’s as bad as the idea of eating right
now.”
Caren
blushed. “I’m sorry. I forgot about that.”
“That’s
okay.” He looked Caren in the eye. “Let’s go check out your
theory.”
Caren
smiled. “All right.”
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Disclaimer
The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors 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.