Ghost Town (17 page)

“Come on, you might be surprised and really like it!” Isabel encouraged her. “I'm sure we'll start off on a bunny hill or something.”

Katani and Sam exchanged looks. “I'm only up for it if you are,” Sam responded.

Katani took a deep breath. “All right,” she slowly nodded her head. “I guess I'm in.”

“Woohoo!” Isabel and Nik cheered. “Let's go.”

Back inside the hotel they found Tronni, who started
off by getting them suited up for the adventure. Boards, boots, bindings, snow pants, helmets, goggles—the gear just kept coming. Katani wondered if they were actually going to the moon instead of just up a mountain.

Once they finally got outside, they discovered that Daniel was right about one thing—Tronni was a great instructor. He broke everything down into little parts that were easy to understand, and he was superpatient.

“Okay, my little snow bunnies,” he smiled at them after they'd all learned how to strap into their boards. “We're going to start with a heelslide.”

The group was standing at the little instruction area outside the snowboard hut where there was a tiny slope for first-timers to practice on.

“With your snowboard facing across the slope, stand up so you are looking down the slope. Make sure to keep your weight on your heels,” Tronni stressed.

Katani wobbled a little and she wasn't even moving.
Please don't let me fall down before I even have a chance to get started
, Katani pleaded softly to herself.

“Not now, but when I tell you to, point your toes on both feet just a little bit, and you will start to slide down the hill. Pull back on your toes when you want to stop. Okay, now. Point your toes on both feet just a bit!” Tronni directed.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty! Wanna join the rest of us at the bottom of the hill?” Tronni called after a few moments.

Startled, Katani realized she had closed her eyes out of fear and had barely moved at all. Everyone else was at the bottom of the practice run. Part of her wanted to stay right
where she was at the top of the slope. She could probably unstrap the board and walk down to safety. But another part of her wanted to get past her fear and board down to the others. Could she do it without crashing into them?

Tronni took the tow rope back up to the top of the tiny slope and slowly coaxed Katani into action. “Okay, Katani, no fears,” Tronni whispered in her ear. “You are going to glide down this hill looking like a pro. Stand straight and tall, and bend your knees slightly. Relax and think good thoughts. Now point your toes.”

Without thinking, Katani did what she'd been told. She pointed her toes and started moving. Isabel, Nik, and Sam all cheered her on. “Way to go, Kgirl! You're doing it!”

Tronni was a miracle worker. He seemed to know just what Katani was thinking and how to talk her through her fears.

The whole group practiced the heelslide over and over again. Katani slowly got the feel for how to start and stop by either pushing down or pulling up her toes.

After they were comfortable with the heelslide, Tronni taught the girls the falling leaf pattern, which was a technique they would use most of the time. They would slowly slide back and forth—just like a falling leaf—as they descended the mountain. “Remember to stay on your heel-side edge the entire time,” Tronni reminded them. “Practice it till it comes naturally.”

Later on Tronni taught the girls how to skate. “This is how you'll get across flat areas, like when you're going to the chairlift,” Tronni told them. With their front feet firmly attached to the boards, they released their back feet from
the straps and used them to propel themselves along the snow.

“See?” Isabel said, seeing that Katani was getting the hang of it. “It's not as hard as you thought, is it?”

Katani grinned. For the first time that morning she felt a burst of confidence.

“Okay, that's it! You guys are ready for the slopes. Remember to detach your back foot from the board when you're riding the lift. I'll take the first run with you.”

They all followed Tronni and waited in line for the chairlift to take them up the slope.

Katani looked at Isabel as they neared the front of the lift line. “I can't believe we're doing this!” Katani said, looking around nervously.

“Oh my gosh!” Sam exclaimed. “My mind just went completely blank. I can't remember anything at all!”

“She always says that before she gets onstage,” Nik confided. “Every time!”

“Relax, Sam,” Isabel said in a soothing tone. “Remember Tronni said to skate over to the line and just sit down as the chair comes up behind us. This is supposed to be the easy part.”

Isabel didn't have a chance to continue because it was time to skate to the lift. “Remember,” she reminded Katani. “We're supposed to keep the board pointing forward until it lifts off the snow.”

Katani nodded. She felt like she could hardly breathe. Where was the confidence she felt just a minute ago?

As the chair came around, they both sat down and pulled the safety bar into place.

“We did it! We're on!” Katani exclaimed, relieved that she had gotten that far. They were on the chairlift.

As the chairlift rose higher and higher, Katani felt her nervousness returning. She glanced back at Nik and Sam in the chair behind them. Nik gave her a thumbs up. Katani had a tight grip on the side of the chair and could only send a weak smile in return.

“Izzy, what have we gotten ourselves into?”

“Get ready, Katani. We're almost at the unloading spot.”

“I don't want to get off! Can't we just ride back down again?” Katani pleaded.

Isabel couldn't help giggling. “I don't think they'll let us do that. Okay, here we go. Remember keep your board straight,” she coached.

“Straight. Straight. Keep the board straight,” Katani repeated as they approached the unloading area.

“And keep your nose up,” Isabel added.

“My nose?” Katani touched her finger to her nose.
What does my nose have to do with anything?
she thought as her board touched the snow and she began to slide down the little hill toward the top of the slope.

“Nose up!” Isabel shouted.

Katani tilted her head and raised her nose into the air, which threw her completely off balance. Her arms windmilled in the air as she tried to recover.

“Not the nose on your face, Katani! The
snowboard's
nose. Pull your toes up. Remember the heelslide. Just do what Tronni taught you,” Isabel called to Katani.

Suddenly it clicked. Katani rocked back on her heel and put her back foot down, sliding to a stop.

“Hey!” Nik called out from behind her. “You did it!”

“Ahhhhhh!” Sam screamed. “Look out!”

Sam crashed into Nik, who toppled against Isabel, who shot forward and collided with Katani. Just as quickly as she'd gotten her balance, Katani lost it again and went down in a big pile of arms and legs.

“Good thing we're singers instead of snowboarders,” Sam giggled.

The four hurried to untangle themselves before Tronni arrived on the scene.

“Perfect,” Tronni nodded approvingly when he joined them at the top of the slope, unaware of their hilariously jumbled exit from the chairlift. “Look at you! A group of model students.”

The four girls exchanged sly smiles.

“Everybody got their right foot back in the strap?” Tronni asked, looking around.

Katani secured her foot and straightened back up. Then she took a good look at the hill in front of them. This was supposed to be a beginner hill, but it seemed way too steep for that. But instead of freaking out again, Katani focused on what Tronni was saying.

“Remember the heelslide and the falling leaf pattern. You guys know what to do. Okay, goggles on! Let's do this!”

Nik and Sam pushed off at the same time, closely followed by Isabel.

“Okay, Katani, your turn,” said Tronni.

Katani took a deep breath and pushed down with the toes of her right foot. She didn't want to go too fast, so she
raised her toes often. Slowly but steadily, she made her way down the hill in the falling leaf pattern.

“Go, girls!” Katani heard someone shouting from behind her. She looked up to see Daniel and his group of buddies swishing down the hill, spraying snow in every direction. He gave Katani a big thumbs-up as he whizzed by and then turned back and shouted, “SHRED ON, GROMMETS!”

“Grommets? What's that supposed to mean?” Katani asked Tronni.

Tronni laughed. “Don't get your feathers ruffled, Katani. Grommet just means you're a beginner.”

“Guess we can live with that,” Nik said. “Come on! Let's catch up to those boys.”

With that, the grommets made their way down the snowy slope.

JT, that chili was delish,” Maeve said as the old man poured a kettle of boiling water into the dishpan. “For a ghost— former ghost, I mean—you're a really awesome cook,” she added as she gulped down another delicious spoonful.

“You all seemed to enjoy the stew I made, so I started workin' on the chili first thing this morning. Should have enough leftovers for supper iffin' you're still here this evening,” JT mumbled as he scrubbed the empty chili pot.

“It's almost worth being stuck here for that chili!” Maeve said as she patted her stomach.

Avery glared at Maeve. Ghost town or not, this was JT's home, and it seemed kind of rude to make JT's home seem like a horrible place—a place they were “stuck” in.

“That cornbread was the best I've ever had,” Avery chimed in. “How do you even bake it without an oven?”

“You city folk got a lot to learn about campfire cooking, don't you?” JT remarked, adding a little cold water to the hot. “Where are the others?”

“Well, Charlotte's probably writing in her journal,” Maeve surmised.

“Or reading those old newspapers,” Avery suggested. “Whenever you can't find Charlotte, she's usually reading or writing.”

“And the other two? Where'd they get to?” JT asked.

Avery and Maeve exchanged knowing looks.

“Maybe they went for a walk,” Avery said.

“A long,
romantic
walk,” Maeve added.

“What are you two girls getting at?” JT asked.

“We think there's a romance brewing between Mr. Ramsey and Lissie,” Maeve informed him.

Charlotte arrived at the kitchen door just as the words came out of Maeve's mouth. It wasn't a big shock—she knew her friends thought there was something going on between her father and Lissie—but she instinctively took a step back to see what else they had to say.

“Ahhhh!” JT waved a hand at them. “You got bats flying around in your heads if you think that. Those two are just friends.”

“How do you know?” Maeve asked.

“I just do, is all,” JT said with a faraway look in his eyes. “I know romance when I see it.”

Charlotte breathed in sharply. She agreed with JT— Maeve and Avery were being ridiculous! Her father was too busy with his writing to be interested in getting a girlfriend at all, much less a girlfriend with weird cat eyes.

“Can I help with cleanup, too?” Charlotte asked as she joined them.

“No need. Many hands make light work, and we're
about all finished here,” JT said as he tossed the dish towel over his shoulder. “Maeve and Avery were telling me you're a buddin' writer. You like to read, too?”

“JT is getting very chatty,” Maeve whispered to Avery.

“I love to read,” Charlotte responded with enthusiasm while motioning for Avery and Maeve to be quiet. “I think that books are like best friends—they're always there when you need them.”

“Well, little lady, there's a whole library back there of old books. But I don't go back there too much. Just not much of a reader.”

“Wow!” Charlotte exclaimed. “Thanks, JT!” She charged out of the room with a backward wave to her friends. Old books were one of her all-time favorite things to explore.

The small room was covered in dust and grime. It was obvious that JT hadn't been there in a very long time. After whisking away giant curtains of cobwebs, Charlotte surveyed the shelves of books. There were hundreds of books—some in better shape than others, as JT had warned. Charlotte browsed the titles. There were a lot of famous early American classics, like Mark Twain's
Tom Sawyer
and Herman Melville's
Moby-Dick
, as well as some other old books that she'd never heard of.

Then she spied a rolltop desk in the corner. Charlotte loved rolltop desks with all their little cubbyholes and tiny drawers. Someday she wanted to have her own—a special desk where she'd do her best writing. She hesitated for a second—JT had said she could check out the
library, but he hadn't given her permission to open the desk. Then again, he hadn't exactly said it was off limits either. A detective at heart, Charlotte couldn't resist. She started to pry the top open, but there was so much thick dust that she pulled her hands back.
Eeew
. The grime was so caked on that it seemed as if the desk hadn't been opened in years . . . decades, maybe. After rolling up her sleeves and with much rocking and prying, Charlotte was finally able to roll the top back.

As Charlotte explored the drawers and cubbyholes, an entire bank of drawers suddenly popped open. Charlotte's eyes widened.
A secret compartment—this is the kind of thing that only happens in the movies
, she thought.

Yuck!
When she reached into the drawer, the first thing her hand brushed against was a dead spider. She gingerly brushed it away. No way was she going to let a little crunched up daddy-long-legs bother her . . . not after the scary spiders she had encountered in Africa.

Charlotte pulled out a stack of yellowed papers from the drawer and plopped into the wingback chair next to the window so she could get a better look. Immediately she realized this wasn't just another stack of old bills or hotel records. The papers were carefully hand-bound with string and a faded yellow ribbon. The package looked like a diary or a scrapbook of sorts, full of letters and mementos. Charlotte immediately became engrossed in the correspondence between a woman named Amaryllis, who had swooping, flowery handwriting, and a soldier who only signed his letters with one initial . . . she couldn't tell if it was
T
or
L
.