desk calendar.
W-J-L-E-E?
Rebecca bent over her desk calendar, intent on rearranging the letters. None of the combinations made any sense until she came up with ‘JEWEL’. “Oh...my!” she whispered, dropping her pen in astonishment.
She was still staring in disbelief at the word, when Molly, clad in her pink pajamas, came out of the bathroom. “Mommy, what’s the matter?”
“When you rearrange those letters, they spell ‘jewel’,” Rebecca said quietly.
Molly whooped. “I knew it! I knew it was a treasure map! Wait ‘til I tell Baloo and Kit!” She made a beeline for the telephone on the desk, dotting the carpet with drips of water from her damp hair.
“No!” Rebecca blurted out, recalling the lectures she had given Baloo about how futile treasure hunting was and that treasure maps were only things of legends. She couldn’t bear to suffer the humiliation of having her words thrown back at her.
Molly paused with her hand on the telephone receiver. “What do you mean, ‘no’?”
“We’re not telling them,” Rebecca said, gently removing her daughter’s hand from the telephone.
The little girl’s brow creased with a disappointed frown. “How come?”
Bending down so that she was face to face with Molly, Rebecca explained, “Why should the boys always have the fun? We’ll go on our own secret treasure hunt, just us girls.” She lovingly tweaked Molly’s nose.
“Yeah!” Molly started to dance around the room, singing, “We’re going on a treasure hunt! We’re going on a treasure hunt!”
Besides, Baloo hasn’t cornered the market on treasure hunts. I’ll show that bear what real treasure looks like, Rebecca thought, gazing at the sketch of Cape Park with a trace of a smug smile lingering around her lips.
Cape Park
Early the Next Morning
The sun had barely begun to peek over the horizon when Rebecca and Molly got out of their grey Chevrolette sedan at the edge of the park. The air smelled fresh and was warm, denoting the start of another hot summer day. Dew glistened on the grass and made the playground equipment sparkle. At this early hour, the park was peaceful. Only the buzz of insects and the overlapping calls of birds saying ‘good morning’ could be heard. More importantly, it was deserted, which was exactly what Rebecca had been hoping for.
Rebecca, who was starting to have second thoughts about going on a treasure hunt, spoke in a hushed tone, half fearful that someone might overhear them. “We’ve got to check out the stone shelter house.”
“Check.” Before Molly could sprint towards the old granite edifice, her mother caught her arm.
“Walk, don’t run,” Rebecca instructed in a half-whisper. “We don’t want to attract attention. What if someone’s watching?”
Molly glanced around the park. There wasn’t anyone in sight. She shrugged. “Okay.”
In an overly casual manner, they strolled across the dewy grass to the shelter house that had stood there for nearly 50 years. Once there, Rebecca murmured, “Keep a lookout, sweetie, while I check out the exact location of the treasure.”
Delighted to be of service, Molly started scanning the park for ‘intruders’.
Rebecca took a flashlight and the sketchbook from her large purple purse and flipped to the picture of Cape Park.
She counted the granite blocks, which were grey sprinkled with glossy black flecks, in the picture. The number corresponded exactly with the number of stones in the real shelter house. “Seven from the outside left wall, four up from the ground.” When she found the stone indicated in the sketch, she ran her fingers around it, noticing that, unlike the other stones, it had no mortar holding it in place. However, to her frustration, it was wedged in so tightly that there was no place for a handhold.
“How to get it out?” Rebecca wondered, tapping the end of her flashlight against the stone. To her surprise, it shifted slightly, allowing enough room for her to get her fingers around it. After many minutes of wiggling the stone, she was able to pull it out. She put the heavy granite stone on the ground and shone the flashlight into the space.
“See anything?” Molly asked, tugging on her mother’s pantleg.
Rebecca peered into the hole. “There’s something shiny way in the back...” She tentatively reached into the hole, hoping that she wouldn’t encounter any creepy crawlies, and felt around until her fingers closed around a small object. She drew it out to reveal...
“A treasure chest!” Molly’s shout carried across the park. “Yippee!”
“Shh!” Rebecca reprimanded her.
Molly whispered enthusiastically, “A real, live treasure chest!”
Rebecca wiped the grime off of the plain, rectangular metal box as best as she could, then pressed the clasp and opened the lid. Nestled on a bed of dusty blue velvet was...
“An old key and a marble?” Rebecca exclaimed.
Molly held the marble towards the sun’s light, admiring its red and gold swirls. “Pretty. Can I keep it?”
Absently, her mother said, “Fine, fine.” She examined the tarnished brass key. “This must be someone’s idea of a joke.”
“What if the key fits the real treasure chest?”
“Honey,” Rebecca placed a paw on the top of Molly’s head, “even if it did, which I doubt, we’ll never be able to find it.”
“We found this, didn’t we?” Molly pointed out.
Helplessly, Rebecca started, “Yes, but...”
“I bet the clue’s in the sketchbook,” the little girl said confidently.
Rebecca skeptically shook her head while her daughter eagerly flipped through the pages. Then she shook the box upside down, causing something small to flutter to the ground. She picked up the yellowed scrap of paper and read: “Five?”
Molly looked up from the sketchbook. “Five what?”
“I don’t know. It’s written on this piece of paper that was inside the box. It could mean anything, like five...” After thinking for a moment, Rebecca asked, “Did you see any numbers in the pictures?”
“Nuh-huh. Just letters.”
Rebecca glanced at the sketchbook. “Pages! Molly, turn to page five.”
“Okay.” Molly turned to the last page in the book. On page five was a drawing of the famous glockenspiel in Itchenscratchen, Malaria. Also on that page was an ‘E’, possibly the first ‘e’ in ‘jewel’.
“Malaria?” Rebecca groaned, leaning back against the shelter house. “That’s halfway around the world. How can we get there?”
“Baloo can fly us there in the Sea Duck,” Molly said as if that was a simple problem to solve.
Rebecca shook her head and said emphatically, “Remember what I said last night? We can’t tell Baloo about this.”
“Why not?” Molly grinned. “He loves treasure hunts.”
“I know,” Rebecca said sardonically. Softening her tone, she continued, “Honey, we can’t tell Baloo, because...because...”
“He’ll make fun of you?” Molly concluded solemnly.
Rebecca was a little startled at her daughter’s perceptiveness. “Yes.”
“But we can’t give up now.” Molly fixed hopeful eyes on her mother. “What if the jewel’s in Malaria and this key opens the treasure chest? I wanna go to Malaria. I wanna find the jewel. Please, Mom?”
Rebecca was torn. On the one hand, she wanted to find that jewel more than anything. But on the other hand, she didn’t want Baloo to laugh at her if the whole thing turned out to be a hoax. After considering for a moment, she said slowly, yet decidedly, “All right. We’re going to Malaria.”
“Yay!” Delighted, Molly hugged her mother’s legs. “But how are we gonna get there without telling Baloo?”
Rebecca’s eyes sparkled with the prospect of adventure, not to mention money. “Oh, I’ll find a way...”
End of part 1
Baloo’s Clues
Part 2
TaleSpin and its characters are property of Disney / Buena Vista Co. and are used without permission. All other characters are mine and cannot be used without permission.
Higher for Hire
The Next Morning
“Up and at ‘em, guys!” Rebecca called cheerfully as she flipped on the light and set the alarm clock jangling with a loud brrrrrrrrrrriiiiing!
Kit yawned and rolled over, opening his eyes to find Molly grinning at him over the edge of the bed.
A groan came from the large lump curled up under the blankets in Baloo’s bed. The big bear’s hand made its way out from under the covers and groped along the top of the night stand until it found what it was searching for - the alarm clock. He flipped off the alarm and pulled the clock back under the covers. A few moments later, his muffled voice exclaimed, “Five o’clock? Becky, are you loco? Ol’ Baloo only recognizes one five o’clock and this ain’t it.” He angrily plunked the alarm clock on the night stand and yanked the covers over his head.
When Rebecca set off the alarm again, Baloo’s hand shot out from under the blanket and crushed the clock, causing the springs to pop out. It gave a final, metallic-sounding ‘tink-a-link’, then was silent.
“You can’t sleep ‘til noon!” Rebecca snapped as she and Baloo played tug-of-war with his blanket.
“Watch me.” Baloo chuckled a little when he succeeded in jerking the blanket out of her grasp.
Incensed, Rebecca threatened, “If you don’t get out of bed this instant, buster, I’m going to dock your pay!”
Quicker than a flash, Baloo sat up in bed, blinking from the light of the hula girl lamp. “Okay, I’m up, I’m up.”
“Hurry.” Rebecca gingerly picked Baloo’s shirt up off the floor and tossed it in his lap. “Get dressed. We have a full day of deliveries.”
Baloo was startled in mid-yawn. “We?”
“Yes. Molly and I are going with you.”
“How come?” Baloo ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
“Because I’m the boss and I say so.” Rebecca took Molly’s hand and led the little girl out of the room.
As soon as Rebecca was out of earshot,
7655 visits
Report this fanfic
