Ghost Town (19 page)

“He didn't mean to, Mr. Ramsey. It's not JT's fault. He was just showing me these wolf pups. He knows I love animals, and I was asking about the howling noises. I should have told you I was going on a hike with JT. I'm sorry. It's MY fault.” Avery felt horrible. Now that she stopped to think, it was a pretty bad idea to go off alone with some person she barely knew, even if he didn't mean any harm.

“Avery, you SHOULD have known better. But JT is an adult, and he DEFINITELY should have known better.”

JT looked utterly desolate. “I'm sorry. I been away from folks so long that sometimes I forget how to act. I'm right sorry. I made a big mistake.”

Seeing that Avery was fine and how ashamed JT was, Mr. Ramsey calmed down a bit, and Avery filled him in on the plight of the wolf pups.

“Is it common for the ranchers to kill wolves?” Mr. Ramsey asked.

JT shook his head. “Don't know about that. I just try to look after any pups whenever I find ‘em out here. But I can only do so much, you see.”

“Mr. Ramsey, since you're a writer, maybe you can do something. Could you write an article about the wolves so people will know about their problems?” Avery suggested.

Mr. Ramsey smiled and patted the hood of Avery's snow parka. “Always thinking, Avery. We'll see what we can do. Let's go, now. Time to get back to the others.”

JT sat down on a chair he had carved out of a tree
stump. “You go on ahead. I'll be back in a bit. I got to check in with the pups first.”

“Real live wolf pups?” Maeve asked incredulously.

Avery nodded. “And I have even
bigger
news.”

“What?” Charlotte asked.

“One of the pups is named Amaryllis,” Avery announced, crossing her arms in front of her.

“Amaryllis. Just like in the diary,” Charlotte mused. “Well, if that's not proof that JT is our mystery man, I don't know what is!”

“What are you kids talking about?” Mr. Ramsey asked, looking suspiciously at the girls.

“Come on, Dad. I'll show you,” Charlotte insisted, pulling her father to his feet and leading him to the library. She told him to sit in the wingback chair next to the window and brought over the hand-bound diary and stack of letters. The three girls watched him, hoping for a glimpse of understanding, as he scanned the material.

Mr. Ramsey looked up after he had perused much of the diary. “Well, I think we can be fairly certain that this Jasper Tucker is our JT. Seems like it's more than a coincidence that everything is fitting together.”

“It's just so sad that he's living here all alone, Dad. Do you think he has any family that could take care of him? He's getting pretty old.”

Mr. Ramsey nodded and stared out the window at the fading daylight. “Yes. Yes, I think we can help JT.”

They heard JT come through the front door, and everyone slipped back into the parlor.

“I was wondering if the girls wanted to help me cook up some grub for the wolves,” JT said. “I mean, if that'd be fine with you, Mr. Ramsey.”

Mr. Ramsey nodded. “It's fine. But I'll come with you. I'm responsible for the girls, so I need to keep an eye on them. And actually, I'm kind of curious to learn more about these wolves myself.”

The girls and Mr. Ramsey layered on their winter gear and followed JT through the kitchen. They took beef from the meat locker outside and gathered canned goods from the pantry. They packed all the food into old hiking backpacks, strapped on snowshoes, and began the steep, snowy climb.

“So, JT,” Charlotte said as she trudged through the deep snow. “It's the pups that have been howling in the night, right? They're the ones that have been keeping us awake?”

“Nope,” was JT's only response.

“No?” Avery paused, looking puzzled as she shifted her backpack.

“Not entirely. Them pups is too little to make so much noise. They just whine and yip most of the time.”

“Then what's all the howling we've been hearing?”

“I reckon it's adult wolves, over yonder in the hills.”

“See, I told you,” Avery reminded Charlotte and Maeve.

“I saw some tracks behind the old outhouse this morning,” JT said. “Looked like wolf tracks to me.”

“Behind the outhouse? But that's practically at the backdoor!” Maeve cried.

“Yup,” JT agreed.

“So you're saying there are all kinds of wild animals ready to attack us at any moment?” Maeve asked.

“They curious, is all,” JT said. “Snow kills the smell of humans and makes them a little bolder. Braver.”

Maeve glanced over her right shoulder and then her left. “I don't like this one bit,” she said. “But you're a real mountain man, right, JT?”

JT looked at Maeve as if she was more than a bit crazy.

“I mean you can scare off wolves and grizzly bears. They're afraid of you, right?” Maeve asked.

“Why, that's right!” JT said. “I've fought off grizzlies with my bare hands,” he added.

“Really?” Maeve could hardly believe it.

“Why, sure. One grizzly bear even took a chunk out of my shoulder once,” he said, winking at Charlotte and Avery.

“It did? Then what happened?” Maeve was in total awe at JT's tall tales.

“He spit it right back out. I'm too tough and bitter to be good. Them grizzlies pretty much leave me alone now.” JT winked again at Avery and Charlotte, and they struggled to fight back the giggles. Mr. Ramsey couldn't help chuckling, but Maeve didn't seem to notice.

“But don't you worry about a thing,” JT reassured Maeve. “You just stick close to me—the mountain man, as you say. Those beasts don't want to get too close to an ornery ole cuss like me.”

From that moment on Maeve stayed as close as she could to JT. It was like she was attached to his left arm.

As they walked into the mine entrance, the girls dropped everything and ran to the cages.

“Hold up!” Mr. Ramsey said firmly. “Don't get too close. Those wolf pups look cute, but they're wild animals, girls. Step back.”

After cooing and fussing over the very cute wolf pups— at a safe distance—the girls helped JT stack the food at the entrance to the abandoned mine.

“I reckon we brought enough food to last a month or so,” JT said as he surveyed the supply.

“The kids back at school are NOT going to believe that we saw wild wolf pups. And helped save their lives!” Charlotte exclaimed.

“JT, maybe if you and your vet friend could bring wolf pups into classrooms to teach kids about them, people would start to care more and the ranchers wouldn't get away with killing them,” Avery suggested.

JT chuckled at the thought of taking one of the rambunctious pups to a school. “That's an idea, sure it is. But most folks wouldn't let some old mountain man into their school with a wild wolf pup. I'd have to belong to some wildlife society, I reckon.”

“Society schmiety,” Maeve chanted. “You practically ARE wildlife, JT!” Maeve immediately clapped her hands over her mouth.
Maybe I shouldn't have said that
. . .

But JT just chuckled. He reached into the kennel, grabbed one of the pups by the scruff of his neck, and supported him under the hind legs so he could change the wolf's bandage.

Maeve kept her distance. She was genuinely afraid of the wolf pups. Even though they were supercute and fluffy, there was an aura of wildness about them. Charlotte and Avery, on the other hand, jumped right in to help. Avery wordlessly handed bandages to JT, and Charlotte was ready with the antibiotic ointment. Not wanting to be left out, Maeve helped Mr. Ramsey arrange the canned food in piles.

JT returned the wolf pup to the cage. “Thank ya kindly for helping me out. It would have taken me a long time to bring all this food up by m'self.”

JT motioned for the others to head out the mineshaft door ahead of him and paused for a moment to stare at the pups before he firmly shut the door and secured it. The group started the long trek down the hill. JT's steps were slow and his breathing labored.

“Are you feeling all right, JT?” Mr. Ramsey asked. “Maybe we should rest for a few minutes.”

“No, best to keep moving,” JT shook his head.

When they finally reached town, JT gave them a salute and disappeared through the servant's entrance of the Hotel de Paris. The girls stood motionless in the snow, watching him lumber off.

“I think maybe living in this ghost town by himself is too much for an eighty-year-old,” Charlotte said.

“It does seem that living out here has taken a toll on him,” Mr. Ramsey agreed. “All right, girls, I'm going to walk to the edge of town and see if there's any sign of a rescue team. I should be back in an hour or so. Stay at the hotel or close by. And don't go off alone. Buddy system is in full effect.”

Avery, Charlotte, and Maeve headed back into the sitting room of the hotel. They took off their coats but left on sweatshirts and scarves to keep away the chill. Charlotte disappeared into the library, while Maeve and Avery plopped down on the couch and just looked at each other.

“There HAS to be something else to do in this old place. Didn't people have ANY fun before the twenty-first century?” Avery complained.

Maeve giggled. “Avery, WE lived in the twentieth century for a while.”

“Whatever. You know what I mean.” Avery started opening cupboards and drawers, searching for some-thing—anything—to cure their boredom.

“Jackpot!” Avery cried, holding up a deck of cards that she'd pulled from the very back of a drawer.

“Let's play Spit!” Maeve suggested. The two of them began to play one of their favorite Tower card games. Avery was supercompetitive, but Maeve was enthusiastic and determined to win as well. The game got faster and faster as they slapped cards down and arranged the piles.

“I'm getting hungry for dinner,” Avery announced finally, throwing her cards down. “Hey, I wonder what Lissie's doing? I thought she'd be making dinner by now or something. Let's go over to the store. I want to get some more of that boxed milk.”

“Char!” Maeve called. “We're going to the store . . . come on!”

As soon as they were out the door, Maeve linked arms with her two friends.

“What are you doing, Maeve?” Avery asked.

“Buddy system. Just like Mr. Ramsey said,” Maeve grinned. “I don't want to lose my buddies.”

As they moved off in the direction of the General Store, lights began to flicker in one of the houses at the edge of Main Street.

“Look, look!” Avery cried.

“Yeah, that's a cool old place,” Maeve said. “That cottage is falling apart, but you can tell it used to be beautiful. Lissie said it was a wrecked version of her dream house.”

“No, I meant the
lights
!” Avery pointed.

Maeve stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the cottage windows.

“Maybe there really are ghosts in Dry Gulch,” Charlotte shivered.

“Let's go,” Avery insisted, pulling them forward.

As soon as they crossed the street, all three girls stared up at the little cottage again. Sure enough, a candle flickered in the window.

“Do you think JT has other friends around here he hasn't told us about?” Maeve whispered.

“I'm kind of worried that they're not friends. What if some crazy escaped convict is hiding out in this town, too?” Charlotte asked.

Cautiously, the girls crept to the front door. As they got closer, they heard laughter coming from inside. Quietly, they stole into the front room. It was dark, but through the crack of a barely open door, a wedge of flickering light spilled from the next room.

Charlotte tiptoed across the floor, half terrified and half
excited to discover what was to come. Halfway across the room, she stepped on a loose floorboard, which sounded a long
creeeaaak
. Instinctively, Charlotte froze in her tracks, but it was too late. Whoever was in the candlelit room had stopped talking.

“Who's there?” a woman called out.

The door flew open and a shadow filled the doorway.

All three girls gasped and Charlotte jumped back, but when her eyes adjusted to the light, Charlotte saw that it wasn't the shadow of a strange man—it was her father.

Charlotte peered over her father's shoulder and there, sitting at a tiny table set for two, was Lissie.

Avery and Maeve giggled with relief, but Charlotte's cheeks burned bright red. Lissie looked dazzling in the candlelight. Could it be she was glowing with true love?

“We were just having a little dinner. I met Lissie on my way out of town and she said she was cooking up a surprise,” Mr. Ramsey explained.

“A romantic, candlelit dinner surprise,” Charlotte heard Maeve whisper to Avery.

“Come in. Come in!” Mr. Ramsey motioned for the girls to join them.

“Yes, girls. Come join us! I was going to come find you in a few minutes. I made beef stroganoff for all of us. Well, makeshift beef stroganoff. Without the noodles.” Lissie pointed to the pot in front of her.

“We don't want to
interrupt
,” Maeve stressed. “I mean, it looks like this is a table for two,” she said, shooting Avery a knowing look.

Charlotte couldn't speak. She couldn't even move. The romantic scene before her eyes left her utterly speechless.

“I have something to tell you girls,” Mr. Ramsey said, sitting at the table and grabbing Lissie's hand.

He was holding her hand. Charlotte couldn't believe her eyes.

“Girls, I want you to meet someone very special,” Mr. Ramsey said.

The words jolted Charlotte from her frozen spot on the floor. Without a second thought, she leaped into the candlelit room. “No, Dad! You've known her less than a week!”