The Greenfield Geocachers Club met again that Friday. Once again, the nature center was closed and the club members were gathered out front when the Aldens arrived.
The Robertsons were back from visiting Andy’s grandmother, but the Aldens didn’t have a chance to chat with them. Everyone was talking about shutting down the geocaching club.
“How can we shut down without Cal?” one of the college students asked.
“Well, we don’t know where he is or when he’ll be back,” another college student responded.
“We can’t go on like this,” the man in the blue jacket said. “Several of us were out geocaching yesterday and we discovered several caches that were there last weekend are missing now.”
“Yes. Instead of finding caches, we found notes that said, ‘ha ha!’ ” the lady next to him said with a frown.
“I don’t think we have any choice but to shut down,” said the man beside her.
“Wait!” Benny interrupted. “Don’t do that!”
“Cal’s not missing,” Violet said.
“And we’re the ones who left the notes that said ‘ha-ha!’ ” Zoe spoke up.
The Aldens told everyone what they knew about Cal, and the Zeller twins explained why they took some of the caches and replaced them with notes that said “ha-ha.”
“Okay, but what about the other missing caches?” Mr. Robertson asked. “The ones the Zellers didn’t take?”
“We have a theory about that,” Benny said. Benny liked the word theory now.
“What’s your theory?” Andy asked.
“We think Cal took them!” Benny said.
“What?” Mr. Zeller asked with disbelief. Mr. and Mrs. Greene shook their heads.
“Why would he do such a thing?” Mrs. Greene muttered.
“Because they were his to begin with,” Henry explained. “If you look up all the missing caches on geocaching.com, you’ll see that they all had some kind of damage.”
“Or they needed to be refilled with new things to trade,” Jessie added.
Henry continued. “We think Cal went around and took the caches so he could repair them. But then, before he could put them all back, he got called out of town.”
“That’s a very interesting theory!” said a voice behind them.
Everyone turned toward the voice.
“Cal!” the Aldens cried.
Cal carried a bulging black garbage bag. It looked like the same bag he’d been carrying in the dog park.
The whole group ran to him and shook his hand or patted him on the back.
“We’re glad you’re okay. How is your mother?” someone asked him.
“She’s much better, thanks,” Cal said. “I’m sorry you were all so worried. And I’m sorry the nature center has been closed all this time. I wish I had taken the time to leave a key with one of my volunteers, but at the time all I could think about was getting to the airport.”
“That’s okay,” Mr. Robertson said. “We understand.”
“And I should have called one of you to let you know what was happening,” Cal went on. “But I’m afraid I didn’t think to make phone calls until my mother started to get better. I was too worried about her. I didn’t even think to bring my cell phone with me.”
“We’re just glad you’re back, Cal,” Andy said.
“Thanks, everyone,” Cal said, smiling. Then he reached into his pocket, pulled out a key, and unlocked the nature center. Everyone went inside.
“So, what about my theory?” Benny asked Cal, once everyone was settled. “Was I right? Did you take the caches?”
“Yes, I did,” Cal replied. “And it was just like you said. I saw there were problems with several of my caches, so I gathered them up that day I saw you kids at the dog park.”
Cal opened the garbage bag and took out some metal boxes, covered pails, and other containers. He set them all on the table in front of him.
“So you weren’t collecting garbage like we thought,” Violet said. “You were collecting caches!”
“That’s right,” Cal said. “In fact, I was going to tell you what I was doing and ask you if you knew what geocaching was. But then I got that phone call about my mother. I’m glad you kids found out about geocaching on your own.”
“We ran into Andy and his dad just a few minutes after we left you,” Benny said. “They told us all about it.”
“And you thought we were stealing all the caches just to prevent your family from winning the contest,” Zoe told David Greene.
“I did,” David admitted. “I’m sorry about that. But I bet you thought I was doing the same thing. I bet you thought I was trying to prevent you from winning the contest.”
“We’re sorry, too,” Zack said.
“Speaking of contests,” Mr. Robertson said, holding up his hands. He held a computer printout in one hand and a GPS box in the other. “Yesterday was the last day of the month.”
“So the contest is over?” David said.
“Do we have a winner?” Zoe asked expectantly. “Do we know who wins the new GPS?”
Mr. Robertson scratched his chin. “Well, there’s a slight problem with that,” he said. “It seems we have a tie. The Green Lights and the Zees both found eighty-three caches this month.”
Everyone clapped for the Greenes and the Zellers.
“Great job, all of you,” Mr. Robertson said. “But I don’t know how we can split this GPS in two.”
“I have an idea,” Zack said. “We already have a pretty nice GPS. And I’ll bet the Greenes do, too.”
All three members of the Greene family nodded.
“I think we should give the new GPS to the Aldens to thank them for solving the mystery of the missing caches,” Zack said.
The Aldens were stunned.
“That’s a great idea,” David said.
Everyone else nodded and started clapping again.
Cal nudged Benny. “Go get your new GPS, kids,” he said.
So the Aldens went over to Mr. Robertson and he handed Henry the box with the GPS.
“Wow, thanks!” Henry said.
“Thank you for solving the mystery,” Mr. Robertson said.
Cal nodded toward the table full of geocache containers. “I’ve fixed these caches,” he said. “So I could use some help putting them back in their hiding places this afternoon.”
“Sure.” “Of course.” “We’d love to help!” everyone said.
“It looks like the geocaching club will stay together after all,” Violet said.
“Hooray!” Benny said.
The next weekend, the Aldens took out a large square plastic container with a tight-fitting lid. They set it on the kitchen table and Grandfather and Mrs. MacGregor helped the children decide what to buy for the container. Jessie wrote down all their ideas.
“Well, we definitely need a log book and pencil,” Henry said.
“And plastic bags that zip closed so the stuff doesn’t get damaged,” Jessie added.
“How about a compass and a water bottle?” Grandfather suggested.
“I’ve got some toys from fast food meals that we could put in there,” Benny said.
“Some people include a disposable camera so that people can take pictures of themselves finding the cache,” Violet said.
“That would be fun,” Henry said. “Then we could upload the pictures to the website.”
“Could I make some chocolate chip cookies?” Mrs. MacGregor asked. “People who are hunting for treasure in the woods are probably hungry.”
“Yes, but you’re not supposed to put food in a cache,” Jessie pointed out. “Even though it’s sealed up, animals have a strong sense of smell.”
“She could put her chocolate chip cookie recipe on a card and we could leave that in the cache,” Violet said.
“That’s a great idea,” Benny said. “Anybody would be lucky to find Mrs. MacGregor’s chocolate chip cookie recipe!”
“Why thank you, Benny,” Mrs. MacGregor said. “In that case, maybe you’d like to help me bake some cookies this afternoon?”
“I would!” Benny cried. “I really would!”
Grandfather took the children shopping for the items on Jessie’s list. When they got home they packed everything in the big container, then went outside.
“So where should we hide our cache?” Jessie asked.
“I’ve got a perfect idea,” Violet said. “Follow me!” She led them around to the backyard.
“I know where Violet’s taking us!” Benny cried. “To our boxcar!”
“That’s right, Benny,” Violet said.
The children walked around inside and outside the boxcar, searching for the perfect hiding place. The settled on a spot of tall grass just behind one of the back wheels.
Benny slid the container behind the wheel and the others gathered a few rocks and sticks to pile up all around it.
“Now all we have to do is use our GPS to figure out the coordinates and then enter our new cache at geocaching.com,” Jessie said.
“What are we going to call our cache?” Henry asked. “Any ideas?”
“How about ‘All’s Well That Ends Well?’ ” said Violet. |