Summer of Luck Chapter Twenty-Seven

Knowing that Amanda was getting on Edgar’s shuttle bus it made me realize she was staying at that hotel. Tommy, Sam, and I were the only ones allowed to ride the shuttle bus and not have a room there. Once the bus was gone, Sam and I rushed back to the restaurant to find Grandpa. Luckily he was still there. Although they were no longer rolling silverware he was waiting for Grace to clock out.

“We found them,” I said at a rushed whisper.

“Found who,” he said but then realized who I was talking about. Probably because of the face Sam and I were making at him.

He said we would talk about it later after we got home. Grace came up then and asked if we were ready to go. Grandpa said he had promised to take her home so Sam and I got in the back of the truck while he drove to her house.  

Once there he had to walk her in, of course. He was a gentleman, as he liked to call it. We got in the front of the truck and talked about what to do now that we knew where she was staying. Sam suggested that we call the police but I didn’t know if that would be a good idea or not. We had no real proof the bottle was even ours. Plus, if we told the police then the whole story would be out.

Grandpa came out and got in the truck with us. Sam and I both looked at him strangely. There was something red on his lips. At first I thought it was blood but it wasn’t running or anything. I asked him what it was and he turned red and looked in the rearview mirror. He quickly wiped it off and said it was nothing. I still didn’t know what it was so Sam leaned over and whispered it into my ear. It was lipstick she said.

“Lipstick!” I shouted. “Why would Grandpa be wearing lipstick?”

Grandpa just started the truck and took off while Sam looked at me like I was stupid. I let the matter go for now but I would make Sam tell me later.  

When we got home Mom was out in her garden putting stakes around the tomatoes. She called for me and Sam to come help her when we got out of the truck. I hated working in the garden but Sam seemed excited about it. This was the first time she had ever done it apparently. She would probably grow to hate it as much as I did soon enough.

Grandpa went inside while Sam and I ran to the back of the house with Mom. Mom told Sam to grab the remaining stakes and for me to get the hammer. When we had got those she placed us beside the tomato plant and had us hammer a stake into the ground. We had to put three wooden stakes around the plant. It was very boring.

Sam was in good spirits about being in the garden and made a game of it. I was Van Helsing and she was Anna Valerious, both famous vampire slayers. We knew the wretched scum was living in the ground, just beneath the freshly tilled soil. It would be easy for them to come and go in such soil. We had to put an end to their bloody reign of terror.  

We searched carefully around the base of the plants to find the exact spot where the creatures where sleeping. Once we knew, we placed the wooden stake over the creature’s heart. Sam, I meant Anna, held the stake in place while I hammered down with all my might.  We could hear the screams of the vampire as it died and turned to dust below the earth’s surface. There were several vampires that met their end that day. It took us another hour but we killed them all and ran inside to tell Mom. She was very pleased with our work.

Grandpa was taking a nap and Sam had gone to read so it was only Mom and me in the living room. I asked her why Grandpa would want to wear lipstick and she looked as confused as I was. She told me to tell her exactly what had happened. When I told her about going to the dinner and driving Ms. Grace home she started laughing.

Mom had wanted Grandpa to start dating again for some time now. She knew he missed my grandma but it had been twelve years since her death. Mom missed her too but she knew her mother well enough to know Mawmaw wouldn’t want her husband to spend the rest of his life alone and sad.

Tommy showed up from his job about the same time Grandpa was done taking his nap. We all sat and tried to think of the plan to get the bottle back. It wasn’t going to be easy but it had to be done. First, we had to find out in what room they were staying. That wouldn’t be too hard. One of us could stake out the hotel and see what room they went to. It wouldn’t be a cake walk but it was possible.

Next we had to find a way to get into the room and get the bottle back. That would be the hard part. How could we get into the room? It had one of those fancy locks that you could only open with a key card. Those two parts were going to be hard but it could be done. We just didn’t know how we were going to do it yet.

Another thing we thought of was once we got the bottle what would keep them from calling the cops and reporting a break-in. The hotel would have cameras that would record us going into the room. This was a tough one. Once we got the other things worked out we would work on this problem.

Grandpa asked us if anyone outside the family had seen us with the bottle. I thought for a moment and then I remembered the beach patrol officers. I told him that they had seen it with us when we went to turn in the watch. Grandpa’s eyes perked up when I said that. However, Sam corrected me and reminded me that we found the bottle after leaving the beach patrol station. Crap, I thought we were on to something.

Finally, Grandpa did the thing I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do. But I guess there were no other options. He called Mom to come into the living room. We were all worried about what she would do when she found out. Would she ground us? Take all the information to the police? Who knew?

“Yes,” Mom said as she came into the living room.