When the aldens arrived at the library, they put their bikes in the bike rack and went inside. They walked straight up to the librarian’s desk.
A woman with brown hair approached them. “Hello,” she said with a big smile. “I’m Mrs. Shumate. May I help you?”
“We’re looking for information about someone who lived in this area a long time ago,” Henry said. “Her name was Isabel Wile.”
“She may have lived in Silver City,” said Jessie.
The librarian pulled out a large book and flipped through it. “What years did she live here?”
Jessie told her the date that was in the diary. “That’s when she was a child.”
“I don’t see anything in the town record,” said Mrs. Shumate.
The Aldens were very disappointed.
“Now we’ll never know what happened to her,” said Benny.
“Wait a minute,” said Jessie. “Professor Murray mentioned old newspapers also.”
“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Shumate. “We have the last fifty years of the Greenfield-Silver City Gazette on microfilm.”
“Microfilm?” Benny repeated. “What’s that?”
“I’ll show you,” said the librarian.
The children followed Mrs. Shumate to a strange-looking machine. It had a large glass screen and some knobs down below.
“If we kept newspapers from a long time ago, the paper would turn yellow and start to crumble,” Mrs. Shumate explained. “So we take a picture of every page. Those pictures are side by side on rolls of film. To look at them, you put the roll on this viewer.” The librarian snapped a roll into place and flipped a switch on the machine. The front page of the Greenfield-Silver City Gazette appeared on the screen.
“Wow!” said Benny. “Neat.”
“Look how old that newspaper is,” said Jessie. “There’s a horse and carriage in that picture.”
“This is the year you asked for,” said Mrs. Shumate.
“So that’s what the town was like when Isabel was a little girl,” Violet said, her eyes widening as she looked at the screen.
“I feel like we’ve gone back in time!” said Benny.
“To get to the next page, you turn this knob and the roll of film moves forward,” the librarian explained.
“We’re interested in what happened that spring and summer,” said Jessie.
“I’ll just push this knob,” Mrs. Shumate said. The pictures on the screen whizzed by in a blur. When she stopped pushing the knob, a page came into focus. “March,” she said.
“Great,” said Jessie. “We’ll start looking there.”
“If you want to make a copy of a page, just press this button,” Mrs. Shumate explained. “It will print out over here.”
“Thanks,” said Jessie.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Mrs. Shumate said with a smile and walked off to help someone else.
“What exactly are we looking for?” asked Violet.
“The diary starts in June. Mr. Wile must have lost his job a few months before, since they’d run out of money,” Jessie said. “Maybe we can find out what was happening in town then and why Mr. Wile lost his job.”
“Good thinking,” said Henry.
The children looked at the front page of the first newspaper in March.
“The mayor was sick,” said Violet, reading a headline.
“The garden club had a meeting,” Henry said.
Jessie turned the knob, and the pages flicked past. There were lots of interesting articles, ads, and pictures. “I don’t see anything that gives us clues about the Wile family.” She sounded frustrated. “I hope these newspapers are going to tell us something.”
“I think they’re pretty neat,” said Violet. “Look at that ad for shoes! Those don’t look anything like what we wear today.”
“But I want to learn something about the Wiles.” Jessie frowned and turned to the next week’s paper.
That newspaper had a huge headline on the front page. “I think we may have found a clue,” said Henry.
The headline read, FIRE AT GREENFIELD FACTORY.
“You think the fire has something to do with the Wiles?” Violet asked.
“Look at the smaller headline below.” Henry pointed.
HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE OUT OF WORK, it said.
“So maybe that’s why Isabel’s dad lost his job!” said Violet. “He might have worked at that factory. When the building burned down, he lost his job, along with many other people.”
“How sad,” said Jessie. “That’s why they had to move out of their house and live in the boxcar.”
“But he found a new job,” said Benny “Remember the end of the diary?”
“Yes, he did,” Jessie said. “Let’s print this page, and then we’ll keep looking.”
The Aldens scanned through the next few weeks of newspapers. They didn’t find anything that helped explain what had happened to the Wiles. But they did find out what Greenfield and Silver City had been like a long time ago.
They had come to the middle of August when there was another large headline: NEW FACTORY OPENS IN SILVER CITY.
“I wonder if that’s where Mr. Wile found a job,” Jessie said. She read the article aloud. It was about a new clothing factory that opened and provided lots of jobs. Jessie printed a copy of that page, too.
The Aldens looked through a few more newspapers until they had reached September. They were growing tired of looking at the old papers on the screen.
“I guess we’ll never know for sure what happened to the Wiles,” said Henry. “But it looks like Isabel’s dad might have gotten a job in the new factory, and that’s good.”
They rewound the microfilm and returned it to the librarian’s desk. Jessie folded the pages they’d copied and tucked them carefully into her backpack.
As they rode home on their bicycles, Jessie said, “I wish we could know for sure what happened to Isabel.”
“Me too,” said Violet. “But at least now we know that Professor Murray was right— the boxcar is haunted.”
“What?” said the others, surprised.
“Oh, not by ghosts,” Violet said quickly. “It’s haunted by the happy memory of the Wile family, who made it their home.”
Later that afternoon, Violet went to put Rebecca in the boxcar. “It’s where she belongs,” Violet told the others.
Entering the boxcar, Violet saw immediately that someone else had been there. “Not again!” she said.
Violet ran back to tell the others, who came out to see at once.
“Looks like just this one chair was knocked over,” said Jessie, picking it up. She also picked up a book that was lying on the floor. It had a plastic cover and the words GREENFIELD LIBRARY stamped on the front.
“Whose is this?” she asked, holding up the book.
“Not mine,” said Benny.
Henry and Violet shook their heads, too.
“None of you took this out of the library?” Jessie asked.
“No,” they all said.
“Then it must belong to the person who was in here,” said Jessie.
“I think you’re right,” Henry agreed.
“I have a feeling it was Claire,” Violet said, taking the book from her sister and turning the pages.
“Really?” asked Jessie. “How do you know?”
“It’s a kids’ book — a chapter book. Claire and I were just talking about books today. She said she’d gotten a bunch of books at the library, and that she thought the boxcar would be a great place to read,” Violet said. “She must have come in while we were gone.”
“If she was here today, she might have come here other times without us knowing,” said Henry. “Maybe she’s the one who’s been ‘haunting’ it.”
“But why?” asked Benny.
“I bet she comes because she wants to play,” Violet said. “She’s probably bored hanging out with her father and her aunt all day.”
“But why not just ask if we want to play with her?” Benny said.
“Because she’s very shy,” Violet said. “I know what that feels like. I think she comes over, hoping to join us, and then maybe gets scared.”
“So she took the cookie,” said Benny.
“No one can resist Mrs. McGregor’s cookies,” Jessie reminded him. “You know that better than anyone.”
“That’s true,” said Benny, smiling.
“And that day I heard the noises in the boxcar, that could have been Claire,” said Violet. “Remember how we had a big pile of sleeping bags in here that day? She must have gotten scared when she heard me coming and hidden down behind them. But she couldn’t keep completely still, so I heard her moving around a bit.”
“But why not just come out and say hello?” asked Benny.
“Not everyone is as outgoing as you are,” Violet said.
“But when we took all the stuff out of the boxcar, we didn’t see her,” Benny pointed out.
“She must have left when I went inside to get you guys,” Violet said.
“Okay, but if she just wants to play in our boxcar, why would she come with a flashlight in the middle of the night?” Jessie said.
“That wasn’t Claire,” Henry said. “The person I saw that second night was much bigger than she is.”
“If that was someone else,” Jessie said, “then we haven’t solved the whole mystery yet.”
“I’ll go return Claire’s book,” Violet said. “Maybe she’ll know something about the rest of the mystery.”
“Should we all go?” asked Jessie.
“No, I think she might be more comfortable with just me,” said Violet.
Picking up the book, Violet headed next door and rang the bell.
Claire answered the door.
“Hi, Claire. Is this your book?” said Violet.
Claire’s face turned pink. “Yes, um, thanks.”
“It was in the boxcar. It’s a great place to read, isn’t it?” Violet said gently.
Claire’s uncomfortable look turned to a shy smile. “Yes, it is. So cozy.”
“We don’t mind that you were there,” Violet said. “You can come over whenever you want.”
Claire’s face turned pink again. “I have come over before, a couple of times …. I wanted to play, but … ”
“But you felt too shy to ask?” said Violet. “I’ve felt that way before.”
“You have?” said Claire, her face brightening. Then she frowned. “I was in there when you were reading. I wanted to sneak away, but I didn’t want you to think I’d been spying on you. I also ate one of your cookies. They looked so good, I just … ”
“Couldn’t resist?” said Violet with a grin. “Mrs. McGregor is a good cook. Why don’t you come over now and have some more?”
Claire smiled broadly. “That would be great.”
Violet had one more question. “This may sound strange, but … did you ever come over to the boxcar in the middle of the night?”
Claire shook her head. “Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know,” said Violet. “But someone has been out there, and we don’t know who.”
Claire said, “In the middle of the night? That’s weird.”
“It sure is,” said Violet. “Never mind. Let’s go back to my house and play.”
Claire called upstairs, “Aunt Flo? I’m going over to the Aldens’.”
“Okay, but don’t stay too long,” her aunt called back. “Your father has invited Amelia Wile to join us for dinner and she’ll be here soon.”
Claire turned to go, but Violet stood still.
“What’s the matter?” Claire asked.
“Did your aunt say Amelia Wile?” Violet said.
“Yes,” said Claire. “You know, the woman who is interested in boxcars?”
“Oh my goodness!” said Violet. “We have to go tell the others!” |