A Big Surprise for Easter, Part 2

After the boys left, Freddie began to cannibalize parts from broken radios he had in his garage.  He found a tube from one radio, a transformer from another, and a few radio dials from an old shortwave set he had made a couple years ago.  It only took him a day to complete the shortwave set.  He called Allan and told him the set was ready, and he would go with him to the tree Fort to hook it up.  When Allan had relayed the message to the other club members, they eagerly brought their money to him, and Allan paid Freddie the $15 owed to him.  The other four boys had met at the tree Fort by the time Allan and Freddie arrived.  Freddie set up the shortwave radio inside the floor of the tree fort.  Two dry-cell batteries were connected to supply the necessary power for operating the radio.  When the set was connected, it had a weak signal.  “Just as I thought,” said Freddie.  “I need to put up an antenna to boost the signal.”  A long copper wire was wrapped around an old Cyprus pole. When the pole was complete with a stand to hold it up, the antenna was secured to the top of the roof of the tree Fort.  When Freddie finally fine-tuned the shortwave set, a clear voice was heard coming from the direction of the Cypress Swamp.  The boys heard the voice of the little old Lady saying something about her capturing the Easter baskets and putting her final plan into action!  “I have the Easter baskets in the warehouse; I shrunk them down so they all fit in the building. When I get the information I’m seeking about the boys’ addresses, I’ll consider returning the Easter baskets to the neighborhood.  “Very good,” a man’s voice transmitted.  “Now contact me when you are ready.”  “Yes, Sir,” replied the little old Lady.  “Did you hear that, Freddie?” asked Butch.  “Sure, I heard it,” said Freddie, “so I guess I can go home now that the system works.”  When Freddie had left for home, Lester held one of the leaflets up towards the sun.  “What are you looking for?” asked Butch.  “I’m looking for clues in the words on this leaflet,” Lester replied.  He detected a faint watermark on the paper that could barely be seen when it was held up to the light.  “What do you see?” asked Allan.  “All of the leaflets have a watermark on them,” explained Lester, “which means the paper that was used to print these leaflets must have come from the same source … which probably means if we can find out where the little old lady gets her paper, we might find a printing press in the same building.” surmised Ronald in an excited voice.  “Then if we find the printing press, I bet you a dollar the Easter baskets are in the same building,” replied Ronald.  “Who would have access to that kind of information?” asked Ronald.  After thinking for a few minutes, Allan came up with the answer.  “I know who might be able to help us!” he said excitedly.  “Who?” Robert asked.  “Mr. Thompson – that’s who!”  “Who is Mr. Thompson?” asked Allan.  “He’s the mailman who delivers mail to everybody in town; so he would probably know who gets printing supplies,” explained Allan.  “You’re right!” said Butch.  “Where do you think we could find him now?”  “What time is it?” asked Robert.  “I don’t know,” answered Butch, “but there’s a big clock hanging on the wall over my Dad store said Butch with great enthusiasm in his voice. So off the boys went to Mr. Ward’s grocery store.” Hey Butch, “ask your dad what time the mailman delivers to him,” said Lester.  Butch disappeared for a few minutes and came back with the information.  “Dad usually gets his mail between nine and ten o’clock,” Butch reported.  The boys’ eyes all looked up at the clock at the same time. “It’s 9:30,” said Ronald.  “The mailman should be coming at any moment.” said Ronald for all to hear.

The boys drank soda pop while they waited for the mailman.  They had barely finished their drinks when the mailman came into view down the street. “Here comes Mr. Thompson!” shouted Allan.  It seemed like it took the mailman forever to get to Ward’s store.  He drove a three wheeled vehicle with blue and red stripes painted over a white background.  When he parked his vehicle in Ward’s parking lot and got out of the vehicle, the boys were surprised at how tall and thin he was.  Mr. Thompson had a stern look on his face.  His salt-and-pepper colored hair could be seen around the edges of a military hat that he wore tilted on his head.  He had on light-blue work clothes with the words” US mail” embroidered above his shirt pocket.  Carrying a mailbag over his shoulder, he walked straight into the store.  He delivered Mr. Ward’s mail and was beginning to leave when Lester approached him.”  Mr. Thompson, could we ask you a couple questions? It will only take a minute,” said Lester.  “Well, I’m running a little early today; I guess I could take a few moments. What can I do for you?”  Lester showed him one of the leaflets, and while Mr. Thompson was reading the leaflet, Lester signaled the other guys to come join him.  “What do you want to know about these leaflets?” Mr. Thompson asked.  “We were wondering if you could tell us where these leaflets were printed.” explained Lester.  “Right offhand, I would have to guess the answer to that question,” replied Mr. Thompson.  “But if I had to make a guess, it would probably be in one of those small warehouses across the street from Norwood Elementary School. That area was just rezoned for small business.”  The boys thanked Mr. Thompson for his time and the information.  “Let’s go home, get our bicycles, and meet in front of the school,” said Butch.  So off the boys went to get their bicycles.

In fifteen minutes time, all the boys were assembled in front of Norwood Elementary School, standing next to their bicycles.  Lester said, “Let’s sit on the steps and see if we can come up with a plan before we ride our bicycles around that warehouse area.”  “Good idea,” agreed Ronald.  Analyzing the situation, Butch suggested, “I think the first thing we should do is look for a printing sign or a place that sells this kind of paper.”  He was pointing to a leaflet as he continued, “If we can locate the building, then maybe we can go inside and look around.”  “Do you mean break in?” asked Allan in a surprised voice.  “Of course not,” said Lester.  “We can send someone in to ask if they can make a logo for our T-shirts … as an excuse to get inside the building,” Lester said with a smirk on his face.  “The first thing I think we should do,” said Butch, “is to look in the dumpster behind each building in that rezoned area.”  “That’s a great idea,” said Allan.  “Let’s spread out and each of us do one dumpster,” suggested Allan.  Of course, this was a favorite thing for the boys to do, because there were all kinds of treasures to be found in small-business garbage. 

Riding their bicycles around, they found one dumpster full of scrap leather that was used to make watch bands.  Another dumpster yielded valuable pieces of scrap lumber for building all kinds of things, like birdhouses, forts, and other wood projects.  The trashed wood could also be used to burn in wood stoves for fuel in their house instead of chopping it from a wood pile.  Almost all the houses in the neighborhood were heated by wood stoves.  This was a convenient way to get wood already the right size to burn in a wood stove. The wood factory made all kinds of baby furniture that they sold up north, so there was an endless supply of scrap wood in the dumpsters at all times.  Another dumpster yielded paint cans – some more than half-full with different colors of paint.  So it was exciting for the boys to discover what new treasures could be found outside the factories.  Robert was the first to yell out, “I think I found something!”  So all the other boys rode their bicycles to where Robert was.  On arrival, they found Robert diving in a dumpster, going through a mound of paper.  “Take a look at this,” he said, bringing up a fistful of paper.  As he handed it to his friends, they noticed coffee stains all over the papers. The coffee stains made the watermarks on the paper clearly visible with the words “To study mankind” clearly marked below the letterhead as a company motto.

Robert climbed out of the dumpster and walked over to his bike that was leaning against the back of the can.  “Let’s ride around these buildings for a while and see if we can find one that has a printing press,” said Robert.  “We should be able to hear the machines running if we’re real quiet.” said Allan. Just when the boys were getting ready to leave on their bicycles, the back door of the building opened.  A short, muscular man was carrying a big bag of something over his shoulder.  He set the bag down on the ground and started yelling angrily at the boys.  “Get away from those dumpsters!”  The boys took off, racing their bicycles in different directions.  Butch and Lester were headed in the direction of the school when Lester shouted, “Let’s go back and see what the sign says on the building.”  As they rode around to the front of the building, they saw a little sign hanging from the building: “Not open for business.”  The boys all headed back to Norwood Elementary School.  Exhausted, they parked their bikes and sat on the front entrance steps.  “We’ve got to come up with a plan.” said Lester.  “Yeah,” said Butch in agreement. “Let’s do another surveillance run with our bicycles.” suggested Robert. “This time we could each take turns, riding around the building to see who goes in and out of the building.” said Butch.  “Or we could send one of us into the building to look around to see what is inside,” said Robert.  “Suppose we do both,” urged Lester.”  “That way, one of us can go inside and have a look around, while the rest of us sort of circle the wagons with our bicycles like they do in the cowboy and Indian movies.”  The plan was put into action with Lester volunteering to go inside the building while the rest of the boys would circle around until Lester came out.  They would all rendezvous again at Norwood Elementary School and share their observations.  Allan spoke first. “I circled the parking lot and the building three times, and I did not see anything unusual.”  The only one who saw something unusual was Robert.  He saw a delivery truck pull up and a delivery man unload several small boxes through the front door of the building.  “I believe he made several trips inside the building, because the back door of the delivery truck was left open while he was inside the building. And Lester, what did you see?” asked Robert. “Well, it was kind of spooky inside the building. There weren’t many lights on, and most of the building was sort of dark. Once my eyes got adjusted to the darkness, I could see several objects of interest. There was a small printing press, about 50 boxes stacked neatly on a shelf, and some kind of strange machine, like the one in the little old Lady’s house in the Cypress Swamp.” “What did the boxes say on them?” asked Butch.  “They had names and addresses on them like they were waiting to be delivered in the mail,” Lester replied. “Did you recognize any of the names in the neighborhood?” Butch asked.  “Funny you should ask that! I did recognize the addresses for Freddie, Ronald, and Mrs. Strawn. But before I could look around anymore, a man yelled at me, ‘We’re not open for business, so scram!’ – kind of strange.”  “Why is that strange?” asked Allan.  “Mrs. Strawn’s name was the only adult name you saw,” replied Butch.  “Why is that so unusual?” asked Ronald. “Well,” said Robert, “for starters, my dad owns that building!”  “Great!” said Lester.  “Then you might be able to get the renter’s name and phone number from your dad.”  “I’ll ask my Mom tonight,” said Robert.

The next day, the boys all got together at the tree Fort.

(Part Two of the novella by George F. Kohn, author of Holiday Favorites series available on Amazon.com)

To read the whole story, order your copy of A Big Surprise for Easter, published for Kindle e-readers and paperback.  Amazon search: Holiday Favorites by George F. Kohn.