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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: MIX (10/22/15)
They had bought the dilapidated house next door so they could control who lived there. Turns out, we can’t control who dies there. Yesterday, a woman was found dead inside that backyard. There goes the neighborhood…
“and our rental,” she said aloud as she trudged, keys in hand, to the once-magnificent early twentieth century home whose previous owners had chopped it up into three apartments.
They had worked every spare minute to bring the upstairs apartment up to code. And their first tenant? Jay Brown, a twenty-five year old with a record. According to the application, he had been eighteen at the time; and it was his first offense. Key word – first.
Betsy stepped onto the porch smiling placidly at her vision of two retirees in rocking chairs outside their respective apartments. She was jolted out of her reverie by what sounded like a herd of horses running straight at her. The racket ceased as the door to Apt. C’s stairwell flew open. Their tenant came to a halt inches from Betsy’s face, a beat-up wheeled carry-on nearly running him over. The door behind him slammed.
“Whoa! Excuse me, Mrs. Hamlin. I’m sorry.”
At the sight of her wide eyes and frozen smile, he released the carry-on and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Did I frighten you? Here, sit down here a minute.” He deposited her in a green plastic chair where Apt 2’s tenant had just been relaxing.
“Drat! I forgot Grand-dad’s picture album. I’ll be right back.”
He opened the door and disappeared, shutting it quietly.
Betsy came to herself and was unlocking Apt. A when Jay ‘tumbled’ down the stairs and quietly latched the door behind him. He began to unload the carry-on.
“There’s the video he wanted, my forensics textbooks, his favorite big band CD, the cross-word puzzle book, the CD player.”
“You’re going to visit your grandfather?”
“Yup. Every Wednesday. I take Grand-dad down to lunch. Then we just hang out ‘til I leave for classes.”
He smiled up at her. She smiled warmly back.
“Oh, by the way, you’ll probably find an ad for something on the kitchen floor. Day before yesterday, early, I surprised some guy when I stepped out on the back stairs. He was shoving something under the door. When he saw me, he took off out the back yard. He began to reload the luggage.
Curious, Betsy went straight to the kitchen. Sure enough, there was an envelope at the back door. On the front was the word MIX. She reached inside it as she walked back to the front door.
“Whatcha got there?” Jay slid the CD player in the bag and zipped it shut.
“Something weird, all right.”
She showed Jay the envelope and its contents – a single page out of an encyclopedia if some kind.
“Mrs. Hamlin.” His voice held a tone that made her look at his face.
“Mrs. Hamlin, just lay it in here.”
He quickly opened the picture album; she obediently laid it in. He closed the book and placed it on the plastic chair. Then, he pulled out his cell phone and hit a speed-dial number.
“Hi, Dad. Yup, everything’s ok. Hey, you’re gonna want to send Homeland Security over here to my place. Yup, everything’s ok. But, Dad, I’ve got a key …and a text…right here.” His eyes were fairly glowing as he smiled at her. “Mrs. Hamlin found it, right here in the building. Yes sir, we’ll be here. And Dad, I want a chance to work on this. You know I’m at the top of my class; and this is my specialty…Yes, Sir.
He put the phone away, and breathed in a deep smile. He turned to Betsy.
“You deserve an explanation. The body in the alley? For the last three years she has been coordinating bomb smuggling for home-grown terrorists. She’s good. Her cohorts aren’t. So, we’ve stayed ahead of them. This cryptograph will put us at the site of the next drop… and we’ll have some bomb-builders to follow to even more leads.”
A van pulled up to the curb. Jay gathered his things and started” down the steps. He turned to give her a big grin.
“Thank you, Mrs. Hamlin. Enjoy your day working on the apartments”
She smiled down at him.
“I’m sure I will. I’m going shopping.” For some green plastic porch chairs.
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This article has been read 498 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Donna Powers
10/29/15
Your ending took me by surprise! Great story! I started out thinking they were talking about something routine, but it was very interesting to find out the true nature of the story.
Lynn Smith
10/29/15
I like how you made the story mysterious. I was never expecting THAT ending. Way to go.

Critique: Perhaps you might want to put spaces in between each paragraph and the quotes.

God bless. :)
Larry Whittington
11/03/15
I had a hard time following the story line. It was hard to keep track of who was doing what. Too busy for a quick read.