It was Labor Day weekend, the end of summer and a few days before I was supposed to start the sixth grade. My parents were gone for the week on the 'Adults Only' vacation that they took every year so I was staying with my Aunt until they came back. I didn't mind that too much, I mean she's a really nice lady and all and she lives in a pretty cool old house but it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere so there's not a lot of fun things to around there and there aren't any kids my age to play with so I found myself getting bored and looking for something to do.
Saturday was hot. Too hot to go outside. When I got out of the shower in the morning, I put on just a pair of denim cutoffs and a white cami top not even shoes or socks. I wandered about aimlessly looking for something to amuse myself with. I went into one of the guest bedrooms and started looking through the drawers. There was some jewelry and some trinkets, nothing too fancy. I played around with trying them on for little before putting them back. I went over to the closet and opened the door. I noticed a large box of near the back. Reaching inside I pulled it out. It was heavy. I lifted the lid and looked inside. Their were a bunch of books. They all said 'Nancy Drew Mysteries' on them and each one showed a picture of a pretty young girl on the cover. Curious I picked up one called 'The Mystery at Lilac Inn' and opened it up. The first page was a drawing of the young girl from the cover sitting on a boat with some kind of cloth over her mouth and her hands behind her back like she was tied up and it looked like her feet were tied too. An older woman stood over her with her hands on her hips. I figured that she must have been the one who tied the girl up. Below the picture was a sentence that said “'Thought you'd be smart, didn't you?' She sneered”
I confess I was curious about what the book was about after seeing that picture and it was right at that moment that I heard my Aunt's voice.
“Oh, I see you've found my old Nancy Drews.” she said peeking into the bedroom.
“Uh-yes.” I said “You don't mind do you?”
“Of course not. Your mom and I loved those books when we were your age. In fact you we used to even play a -uh- 'game' based on them. Say would you like me to read one to you?”
“Okay” I said with a smile. I handed her the book in my hand and sat down on the bed with my back propped against a pillow. She sat down close to me and smiled, giving my bare leg a little pat and then she opened the book.