A slight breeze was blowing as Warren jumped down from the big cherry tree that sheltered part of the Lawrences' back yard. One of the cherries came loose and hit Warren's 11-year-old sister Julie. She had long blond hair and blue eyes. Their younger brother Eddie who was nine had brown hair and brown eyes like Warren. Just then she leaped up and hit Warren on the back.
"What was that for?" he demanded crossly.
"I'm sick of you always throwing cherries at me while I'm reading!" Julie answered just as crossly.
"I did not," Warren said. "One must've came loose when I jumped down."
"I wish there was something to do besides listening to you two fighting all the time," complained their younger brother Eddie.
"We could go to the ghost town," suggested Warren helpfully. The "ghost town" was really just an old deserted farmyard but it looked like an old small twon or neighborhood. The family that used to inhabit it owned alot of cherry groves. There weren't too many old citizens of the town so nobody knew much about it.
"Yeah and see if we haven't discovered something there," Julie added.
"Alright," Eddie said. "Let's go but first I want a cold drink."
"I'm with you," agreed Warren.
"That sun's a devil," Julie said. "I think I'll have a drink too."
After the drinks the kids raced each other on their bikes, down to the "ghost town." There was a dirt road in back of their neighbor's house that they always used for a short cut. Itwas old and had alot of sharp rocks and bumps in it. In some places it was overgrown with bushes and briars. Where it looked like the end of it it wasn't and there were alot of curves in it which made it hard to follow. At the end of the road there was an old driveway that led up to the farm. Here the three got off their bikes and sat down on the grass to catch their breaths. Then right ahead of them loomed the old farm house connected to the barn. It stood against a hill that seemed more like a mountain. On the other side were the cherry groves.
"I'm going in the hayloft," Warren decided. "Wanna come with me?"
"O.K." the two agreed.
Warren reached the barn first and was about to climb up when he saw some fresh human tracks that made him step back in horror. At that moment Julie and Eddie reached him.
"Sh," said Warren as low as he could. He motioned them away from the barn and told them what he saw.
"Let's hide behind the barn or on the side until he comes out," Julie suggested.
"Good idea. We can get a good look at him that way," agreed Warren.
After they waited for 5 minutes the man came out. He was red-faced and tall and old and gray-haired. As the kids watched, a yellowed paper fell out of his pocket. He didn't seem to notice so when he was wellout of sight, they all ran up and Eddie got the paper first.
"Read it, somebody," he begged.
"Let me," said Julie. But when she looked at it she was disappointed. "It must be in code," she said.
That night Warren found it hard to sleep so he tried to find a way to decode the message. He tried pig latin and then tried to arrange the letters in different ways but he couldn't figure it out.
Next mroning he told his parents.
"Hey, this is easy. We used to write messages like this when we were kids," he replied. "It's just backwards. You read the message, starting at the bottom."
When he figured it out, it said: Go to town called Cherrygrove. Go down a road called Cherrygrove Lane. Off at that road is a cutoff. Keep following it until you've come to a boulder. It is really a cave. At the end is buried all the Cherrygrove family's most prized possessions and riches.
The kids gasped.
"Let's get the police for this. We don't know if its true so I'll just get my brother Hal for this. He knows the town well. When they got him he said that the old driveway used to be Cherrygrove Lane. They looked a long time and then Hal discovered a cutoff that nobody had seen before because trees and a pile of junk blocked the way. Then they all walked down the cutoff looking for the cave. They walked about half a mile before they found it and then started digging at the end of the cave. They couldn't do it alone so one of them got some other people to help. Then one of the shovels hit a hard surface but it was a rock. At about lunchtime the Lawrences' father reach a board. Immediately, everyone started digging there until someone could pick it up. Then everyone crowded around while Hal opened it with a knife.
"I can't," he said just as it flew open.
Piles of silver coins and jewelry gave off a bright glow.
"Wow!" someone said. Then they heard a truck drive up. An old man got out. The kids blinked.
"It was the one who dropped the message!"
"What're you doing here?" demanded the sheriff.
The man said that he came looking for a code he dropped. He found it in his attic and after awhile he decoded it. Then he came looking for the treasure and figured it was his because the Cherrygroves were his ancestors. He said he needed the money for a heart operation for his son or he'd die.
So the kids decided it was best for him to have it and he let them keep a third of it.
April 10, 1974 by Denise Hickey
Dr. Charles E. Murphy Creative Writing Award
Palmer Memorial School
Maple Avenue, Uncasville, CT
