The Secret Treasure Room

Chapter 1-Ethan arrives.

 

It was the first of April. At five o’clock in the morning a voice rang out.

‘Ethan! Come on! Dress up!’ said his mom.

‘Oh! Yes mom.’ said Ethan putting on his shirt and pant at the same time.

‘I need to go today to the hospital – for the new baby is coming.’

Ethan came and kissed his mother on the cheek and hugged her.

‘I hope you have a nice time with your cousins, darling.’ said his mother whose name was Yasmine.

‘Come on the taxi has come!’ yelled Kenneth, Ethan’s father.

‘Well, be good and don’t trouble Grandma’ Yasmine said to Ethan and then she yelled to Kenneth.

‘Kenneth, take care of Ethan!’

‘Of course I will’ he shouted back. ‘Come on Ethan.’

‘Coming!’ said Ethan. ‘Bye Mom.’ he said.

Off he went. He went with his dad, skipping down the stairs and into the taxi.

The driver stuffed their luggage into the luggage space at the back of the car.

‘To “Travasso Chambers!”’ said Kenneth.

‘Ok!’ said the driver, laughing a little.

Travasso Chambers was the house where Ethan’s cousins, Nicole and Rahul lived with their parents Danny and Betty. Danny was Kenneth’s brother and was a doctor. Next to them in the same compound lived their grandparents.

Their house was named Domus Delphina after grandma whose name was Delphine. Kenneth’s sister Sally was staying there for the holidays with her two children Sean and Sophia. Her husband Sigurd was abroad.

‘What happened?’ asked Ethan surprised.

‘Oh! Nothing at all.’ said the driver.

And off they went to their relatives’ home.

Suddenly Ethan said ‘Dad, you said that you had bought some trick coffee all the way from Thailand for Danny. What does it make you do did you say?’

‘As I told you before, it makes you do all kinds of silly things.’ replied Kenneth.

‘Are you really going to try it on Danny?’ asked Ethan.

‘Yes I am after all; it is the first of April-that’s April fool’s Day.’

They soon reached. After unloading the luggage the driver disappeared, leaving his taxi on the road.

 

Chapter 2-Tricked by the trick coffee!

First Ethan and his father went to say hello to grandma, grandpa, Sally, Sophia and Sean. Then they went (along with the trick coffee) to Danny’s house.

‘Hello Danny! Hello Betty! Hey there Nicole and Rahul. How are you?’ Kenneth let Ethan do all the greeting work.

Then he said ‘Have some coffee Danny.’

Danny replied. ‘Oh. I couldn’t.’

Kenneth: ‘Why not brother?’

Danny: ‘I am allergic to it of course.’

Kenneth: ‘Since when were you allergic to coffee? When you were young you loved it.’

Danny: ‘I recently had a report saying I was never to have any kind of coffee ever again.’

Kenneth looked disappointed and Ethan looked suspicious. Suddenly Danny chuckled. Betty giggled. Nicole guffawed loudly. Rahul roared.

Soon the two children were rolling on the floor weak with laughter. The two grown-ups of course were too sedate to do that so they sat down on a couch and laughed to their hearts’ content.

The two children who had managed to get up were saying ‘April fool.’

Betty then said ‘Danny disguised himself as the taxi driver who brought you here and he heard everything about the trick coffee.’

Kenneth was so astonished to hear this that he drank the trick coffee quite by mistake. Almost immediately he began dancing like a chimpanzee with an overdose of alcohol.

Everyone-and I mean the whole family who had joined the scene-were helpless with laughter. Tears were rolling down the cheeks of the children. Poor Kenneth.

 

Chapter 3-The first day, flies away.

Just then grandpa smelt something burning and told grandma about it. ‘My bacon.’ said grandma and disappeared.

It did take some time for everyone to be mollified. Grandma soon came back and said ‘Kids, tomorrow is spring cleaning day so I want you all to get some good rest today.

The children nodded and complained of a horrible empty feeling in their stomachs.

‘That’s because it’s eight o’clock and no one has had breakfast.’ said Sally smiling.

Everyone trooped into Domus Delphina. They were having breakfast there, barbeque with cold salad for lunch and Betty would be preparing dinner for them at Travasso Chambers.

As soon as they set foot in the house they were engulfed by the most delicious smell of bacon and eggs. The children were glad that there was more to dig into.

Altogether spread out on the table were porridge, honey, cheese, bread, jam, bacon, fried eggs, hard boiled eggs, poached eggs and most delicious of all-scotch eggs!

Grandma had gotten rid of the burnt bacon. She had given it to Duke their dog. ‘Oh!’ said Ethan ‘I actually forgot to say hello to Duke.’ He sounded quite shocked at himself. You see, he was very fond of the big dog.

After a rather huge breakfast, the all went to play cricket on the field outside their house. Rahul, who fancied himself to be a great cricketer, was the first to be bowled out by Sean. He reluctantly left the field grumbling to himself. Sean, who was five years younger than Rahul, just grinned.

They played for a long time and left the field when grandpa called them.

They all had a lovely lunch of barbecued chicken and cold salad. It really     was an enjoyable meal. In the middle of it Sophia remembered how Kenneth had acted like a drunken chimpanzee and almost threw up.

Everyone was glad that she didn’t. Well, not exactly everyone. Duke would really have enjoyed a meal consisting of something other than just bones.

They all spent the afternoon playing cards, monopoly, carom and chess. The chess champion turned out to Nicole, the cards champ was Betty, the heroes of carom were grandpa and Danny and the monopoly championship was drawn between Rahul and Ethan.

Everyone rested from four to five o’clock in the afternoon. For tea, everyone ate cakes and buns which Nicole and Sophia had baked. Apparently they were delicious.

And before they knew the night came. After a rich dinner of fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and roast veggies followed by homemade vanilla ice-cream washed down by mango juice grandpa lit a fire in the fire place behind the house.

Rahul, Ethan and Nicole took their guitars and started singing and playing old songs. Scary songs, sad songs, sweet songs and happy songs all were sung around the bonfire that night. At last it was time to go to sleep. Everyone was happy after the wonderful time they had had that day.

 

Chapter 4-Spring Cleaning Day!

It was soon the next day. Spring cleaning day began. The children started with the loft. Ethan was climbing down the stairs to the loft with three boxes. All his cousins were in the attic.

Suddenly Ethan slipped and nearly tumbled down the staircase. Nicole caught his leg in the nick of time and dragged him to safety as the boxes went crashing down to the bottom of the stairs.

Kenneth came rushing up from somewhere. ‘What was that noise?’ he asked anxiously. Leaving Rahul to explain the other children went to pick up the spilt contents from the boxes.

Just then, Sophia found a scroll. It had red and gold patterns all over it and hence was very attractive. After opening it with great difficulty and studying it Sophia gave a loud exclamation.

‘Look! This is where Sean and I sleep! This room I mean.’ Nicole and the others almost snatched the map in their curiosity to see what she meant.

‘Sophia, will you please oblige to show us the map?’ said Rahul, who had returned to the group.

‘Oh, of course.’ said Sophia. The parchment was very old had yellowed through the years.

‘Look at this red cross here.’ Sean pointed out to the others. ‘It seems to be located in grandpa’s room.’

At the bottom of the scroll it was written:

‘The key of this is kindness true,

Go unlock this magic door.

And with the treasure that lies within,

Be generous forever more.’ read Sophia

‘Somehow that handwriting does not seem very old.’ said Nicole thoughtfully.

Chapter 5- Interpreting the poem.

‘Now,’ said Sean. ‘We need to find out what that poem means.’

‘What on earth does this mean?’ asked Ethan in wonder. ‘Let’s see-“the key of this is kindness true” true kindness would mean doing some good to someone.’

‘“Go unlock this magic door” simply means unlock the door of course.’ said Nicole.

‘“And with the treasure that lies within” means use the treasures in it…’ continued Sean

‘…For the good of someone else. That’s what the last sentence means.’ said Rahul.

‘Good job team.’ said Sophia. ‘Nicole, can we ask grandpa why he never opened the door?’

‘Of course, Sophia.’ said Nicole smiling at her young cousin. ‘Now then, march- left, right, left…’

They all marched down the stairs. Into the hall they went where grandpa was reading the newspaper.

‘Grandpa, look at this map.’ said Ethan. ‘See this red cross over here? It’s a door and behind the door lies a treasure. Why didn’t you unlock it? Why didn’t you take the treasure? Why didn’t…’

‘Whoa, hold on a second. What door are you talking about? There’s only one door in the bedroom-the door through which one enters.’ interrupted grandpa. ‘If you want I’ll show you right now.’

So they all followed grandpa to the bedroom. They opened the door and walked in looking around. They had never been in this room of the house before, and if they had no one remembered.

 

Chapter 6-A Puzzle.

‘See? No door. Now do not trouble me again.’ said grandpa.

They all went out of the room and into Travasso chambers. As soon as they were all inside her room, Nicole shut the door and said ‘As you all saw there is no door in that room. Any suggestions group?’

Rahul stood up had said ‘Do you suppose that map is a dud? I mean a fake. Someone could have drawn it and kept it there for a joke.’

At this statement everyone’s heart sank. To think they had thought it was a first class mystery… ‘No it can’t be a bogus! It has to be genuine.’ said Sophia.

Sean also said that maybe Sophia was right. ‘We could still try and see what happens.’ he said ‘we’ll try after we finish spring cleaning today.’

So after spring cleaning, they all met in Ethan’s room. ‘In the poem it was written “magic door”’ said Sean ‘Maybe if we do true kindness in the room the door will open to us.’

Everyone laughed. ‘You are the only one who believes in magic.’ said Nicole.

‘Let’s check the scroll again.’ said Sophia. ‘Yes, let’s do that. There must be something we have missed.’ said Rahul.

So they took the scroll and brought out of the house. Nicole had it in her hand and stretched. As she stretched she held the scroll against the sun. Ethan’s sharp eyes suddenly caught sight of something written behind the scroll.

He grabbed it and examined it ‘There’s nothing.’ he said in a disappointed voice.

‘What do you mean by snatching the scroll that way?’ asked Nicole crossly. ‘You might have torn it.’

Ethan told them the reason behind his behavior and they all checked the back of the parchment. Suddenly Rahul said-‘I remember reading in one of Enid Blyton’s books that invisible ink can be read by holding it against light.’

‘Hey yeah. I remember that too.’ said Nicole.

Go they held it against the light and read-

‘Every breeze that whispers,

Should remind you constantly,

Sometimes what’s real,

Is something you can’t see,

Believe…’

 

‘Where have I heard that before?’ wondered Nicole.

‘I’ve heard it too. But where?’ said Sophia.

That night the children were watching ‘Barbie and the diamond castle’ they were nearing the end when Ethan heard a song-

‘Every breeze that whispers,

Should remind you constantly,

Sometimes what’s real,

Is something you can’t see,

Believe in all that can be,

A miracle starts whenever you dream,

Believe and sing from your heart,

You’ll see- your song will hold the key.’

‘Hey. That song is the key!’ he thought. Just then Sally and Betty came to call the children to sleep. Ethan hardly got a wink of sleep that night- he was so excited. The next morning as soon as he finished breakfast, he raced off to tell the others what he thought about the whole thing.

‘Then what about the first message?’ asked Rahul who wasn’t quite sure about the whole thing.

‘It must have been a trick. It couldn’t have had anything to do with the whole thing.’ said Nicole. ‘I remember thinking that the writing didn’t look very old.’

 

Chapter 7- The door opens!

So Nicole who knew the song took her guitar to Domus Delphina and secretly let themselves into the bedroom of grandpa and grandma. She then sang the song from the beginning to the end. Suddenly a noise sounded from the cupboard near the ceiling.

Using a step-ladder Ethan went to inspect. He opened the cupboard and saw a small door at the back. He opened it and gave an exclamation. ‘Instruments! A violin, a harp and a flute.’ The children then carried all the instruments to grandma.

She didn’t seem surprised- ‘The legend says that there were three instruments hidden somewhere in this house. And you found them!’

‘Another case solved for the five cousins and dog. This time Ethan the hero I can see.’ said a familiar voice.

‘Mother!’ yelled Ethan. The others followed him to Yasmine.

‘Look who I’ve brought with me.’ She said and showed them a small baby boy. ‘His name is Zack. Hopefully he shall join your club, when he’s old enough?’

‘Of course.’ yelled everyone. The instruments were given to the country’s authorities and were genuine. The money that was sent to the Travasso family was sent to some old age homes instead. The children were heeding the fake poem (which had been written by Kenneth quite by mistake).

So hence, there was another wonderful end to a great mystery.

__END__