Lonely Bones

Chapter 3

Unfortunately, the selling of another house made Calvin miss dinner with his friends.

When he returned to the hideout, Meg was sulking at the table.

"Meg, I'm so sorry. I just don't like stressing. You know stress used to give me colds" said Calvin.

"Well, stress doesn't give you colds now" Meg snapped.

"Meg, don't be like that; I'm on a roll here. I sold three houses today" said Calvin.

"But you missed dinner. Actually, you're missing a lot of stuff nowadays" said Meg.

"Am I? Hmm. Well, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna take off for the weekend. We're gonna go to that lake we used to hang out at for the weekend" said Calvin.

"We are?" said Meg.

"Why the heck not. It's a throwback. It'll be just us and Sam and your brother for the whole weekend. How's that sound?" said Calvin.

"Can we really close on this?" said Meg.

"Of course we can. I'll go tell the other two" said Calvin.

He ran upstairs saying "Sam and Charles Wallace! We're adventuring! Hey! Charles Wallace Murry!"

Charles Wallace ran out of his room screaming in fear.

"Cal! Calvin! There's a- there's a spider in my room!" he shouted.

"There's a what?" said Calvin.

"There's a spider in my room! He's on the window" 

"Well, why don't you kill it, buddy?"

"It's a big spider!" 

Calvin led Charles Wallace back to his room and saw the spider on the window.

"What? Buddy, you're acting like it's a horned viper. It's just a spider. Now come on, Charles Wallace. You're ten years old and I'm gonna teach you how to kill a spider" said Calvin.

"But, Calvin..."

"No buts. All you really need is a magazine, bud. You could use any kind. Life, Time, newspaper..." said Calvin.

He found a magazine on Charles Wallace's desk and said "Hey, this is my Topper in Spectacular Beach Parties magazine. What are you doing with it?"

"Heh. I dunno" said Charles Wallace.

"Yeah right. Anyhow, you just roll the magazine up and whack the spider with it. You come across like that to block its escape route. Now take it and whack it" said Calvin.

"I don't wanna whack it" said Charles Wallace.

"Charles Wallace... buddy. All your life you're gonna be facing spiders. You shouldn't be scared. I'm your buddy Calvin. I'm not afraid of anything, am I?" said Calvin. 

"You used to be" said Charles Wallace.

"But I learned didn't I? And so will you. Whack that spider" said Calvin.

"I can't whack the spider, Calvin"

"Yes you can. Come on"

"I don't wanna whack it. I don't wanna whack it"

"Come on, you can do it. Kill the spider!"

"Cal, I can't crush it! I can't whack it!"

Not wanting the argue to last, Sam Pan snatched the magazine from Calvin and whacked the spider herself.

"Happy now?" she said.

"No, I'm not happy, Sam; I was trying to make a point to the little guy about how it's important to whack your own spiders" said Calvin.

"He clearly didn't wanna learn yet" Sam sassed.

Downstairs, Meg was on the phone with someone.

"Yes" she said.

"You have the address now, Mrs Murry-Stuart. Are you able?" said an old woman's voice.

"Able?" 

"Yes. The master of this house was wondering if you could come alone" said the old woman.

"But my friends and I work as a team" said Meg.

"We did see pictures of the four of you. The master thought you had a trustworthy face. About the other three, he felt... differently" said the old woman.

"I see..." said Meg.

"So are you able or not? We were wondering if you could come alone" said the woman.

"I wish, but tomorrow, I've got plans that can't be broken" said Meg.

Calvin came down and gave Meg a look that wondered what was going on.

Meg took the phone away from her ear and said "Someone's calling about repping a house"

"Well, where is it?" said Calvin.

He looked at the address and said "Meg, do you know what this place is? Places like that are multimillion-dollar mansions. This could be big!" 

"And what about our adventure?" said Meg.