Holly groaned as she woke up. She had fallen asleep while reading about the Princess and the Pea, and now she had a crick in her neck. She pulled on her bathrobe and ran downstairs to grab a bowl of cereal. She rolled her head around on her shoulders as she pulled the milk out of the refrigerator.
"Someone was up late last night," Jared commented from his seat at the table.
"Mmmm," Holly moaned, "I couldn't sleep."
"You look like you didn't sleep. You should take a shower or something."
"Thanks, Jared."
"I have to go mow our lawn and the neighbor's lawn, but I'll call Mrs. Peters when I get home. Good luck with the trunk!" Jared said, pushing his chair back and grabbing his baseball cap. Holly yawned and nodded. "See you later."
After eating breakfast and taking a shower, Holly ran into the garage. The trunk was in the corner behind the old kitchen table and chairs, so she went and moved the furniture around until she could sit in front of the trunk. Pulling the lid open, she peered inside. "Wow," she muttered, "Who'd ever figure that so much stuff could fit in a little box?" She pulled out a quilt. It had been grandma's favorite. Holly sniffed it, imagining grandma's apple pie, then gently laid the quilt in her lap. Searching through the trunk she found fair ribbons, grandma's wedding dress, old photographs, grandpa's uniform, recipes, an ancient camera, birth certificates, an old Bible, and countless other things. There were at least three journals that belonged to grandma, and Holly put these aside to read later. It didn't look like grandpa had ever written anything. There weren't even love letters! Holly was almost done when the garage door opened and Jared came in.
"How's it going?" He asked.
"Well, there's a lot of neat stuff in here, but nothing that will help us. What about Mrs. Peters?"
"She couldn't really tell me much, but she said that she's pretty sure her dad kept a journal. We can come and look if we want."
"Where does she live?"
"It's about five and a half hours from here. If we left at four in the morning, we'd be there by ten. We could talk to her, look at the journals, and hopefully be back by dinner time. If dad will let us take the car."
"That's a big if. And what about gas money?"
"I'll miss a couple of dates with Casey while we're gone, so I'll use that money on gas."
Holly began placing things back in the trunk. "I hope dad says we can go. But how are you going to explain it to him. You can't just say, 'We're trying to get into the land of fairy tales' or anything like that."
"I'll just tell him part of the truth. We want to see exactly where grandpa was, so we're going to look at his best friend's journal. It may seem a bit overboard, but as long as I'm paying for the gas and all, hopefully he won't mind."
The next hours until dad got home moved slowly for Holly. She was reading through her grandma's journals, which was interesting, but she had a hard time focusing. Excitement and questions bubbled through her. After reading the fairy tales last night, Holly had realized just how magical Aeroth was. There was so much potential for a great time! At the same time though, there was a big possibility that Holly and Jared might run into evil. "If it even exists," Holly thought, reminding herself for the millionth time that there still wasn't any proof.
Finally giving up on the journals, Holly went into the bathroom and pulled out a mirror, looking at the reflection of her reflection, she sighed. Nothing. "What did you expect anyhow, you bonehead?" she muttered, slamming the mirror down on the counter and stomping away. Just as she reached her bedroom door, she heard her dad pulling into the driveway. "Jared!" she yelled, "Jared! Dad's home!" She ran down the stairs and flew out the door.
"Dad! Can Jared and I go on a trip tomorrow?"
"We're already going to France, what more do you two want anyhow?"
"We want to know exactly where in France we're going," Holly said mysteriously. "See, there's this old war buddy of grandpa's that kept a journal, so we're going to go get it so we can know for sure where grandpa was."
"Is that okay with this man?"
"Oh, he's dead already, but his daughter said that as long as we return the journal, we can have it for awhile."
Mr. Spencer nodded. "We'll see. It sounds like an invasion of privacy."
Holly rolled her eyes at her dad's back as he walked into the house. "Sounds like an invasion of privacy," she muttered under her breath.
"I heard that!"
"Sorry, but I really REALLY want to do this dad!"
"I said we'll see. Don't ask for more than that until I know for sure just what you two have up your sleeves. For the last three years Jared has hardly even spoken to you, then suddenly he wants you to come on his special trip with him. The great photographer wants to visit boring old fields and forests instead of seeing exotic creatures first-hand. I don't know how to process all of this, so just give me some time, okay?"
Holly nodded silently. She thought to herself there's that point that parents reach when even agreeing with them aloud can send them over the edge. It's like they're just waiting for you to open your mouth so they can blow up, so even if you say something nice, they're ready to bite!
As Holly was getting ready for bed that night, her dad called up the stairs, "Okay, you guys can go. But for pity's sake be polite! This woman just recently lost her father!"
"Yes, sir!" Holly called down. Jared knocked on her door a moment later.
"You need me to wake you up in the morning?" he asked.
"No, I'm good. I'll set my alarm."
"Okay. I'll see you downstairs for breakfast at 3:45, alright?"
"Absolutely!"
Holly quickly got into bed, hoping that she'd be rested for the drive tomorrow. At least she could sleep while Jared drove. He'd have to stay awake the whole trip. After sleeping so badly last night, Holly went right to sleep and didn't wake up until her alarm went off in the morning. She quickly got dressed and ran downstairs. Jared wasn't in the kitchen yet, but Holly immediately started to make sandwiches. By the time Jared came down, she had made sandwiches and packed them up with apples, carrots, and a case of Dr. Pepper.
"Are we just going to grab cereal?" Holly asked, "Or did you want to scramble some eggs?"
"Cereal works for me," Jared replied, opening the pantry and pulling out the raisin bran. Holly wrinkled her nose and said, "Lame. I'll take some cinnamon toast crunch." Jared pulled out the other box of cereal while Holly grabbed spoons and bowls. After eating a quick breakfast, the pair threw their lunch in the back seat and started out. Holly had thought that she was wide awake, but she discovered rather quickly that she wanted more sleep.
"Did you want me to stay awake?" she asked Jared, "I feel bad sleeping when you have to stay awake the whole time, but if it doesn't make any difference to you, I'll take a snooze."
"Go ahead. I'm fine right now, but I might need you to help keep me awake on the way home."
Holly nodded, then yawned. Soon she was asleep again. When she woke up it was 6:30. "We should be there in three hours, right?" she asked. Jared nodded. "Do you think," Holly asked slowly, "that we might be chasing after something that doesn't really exist?"
"I can't say that the thought hasn't crossed my mind," said Jared, "but I think that the thought that this just might be real will make up for any trouble we go to."
"I can just see us in a few years laughing about the time we tried to leave earth." Holly said with a sigh.
"Really? What I see is us in a few years recalling the exciting times we had in a magical land."
Holly found herself laughing and saying, "Your fairy is still alive!"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Suppose that Peter Pan is a true story, too. If every child has a fairy for as long as they believe in fairies, then your fairy is still alive. I've been rather surprised at how willing you are to believe in all of this, Jared."
Jared shrugged, then said excitedly, "Do you think my camera will transport? Wouldn't it be great to get a picture of a genie?"
Holly's eyebrows shot up, "Yeah! I guess so! Never would've thought of that myself, though." She turned and smiled at her brother. "Is that what you're most excited about? Running into a genie?"
"Well, I'd like to see the beast, but he's been transformed. What about you?"
"I wonder if Hansel and Gretel's house is still there? Maybe it's all been eaten by now. I keep thinking how much I want to see certain things, but then I remind myself that we could just be chasing nothing."
"I don't think Grandpa was ever insane."
"Neither do I, but it just sounds so impossible!" Holly exclaimed. Jared nodded and was quiet. The two were quiet for most of the rest of the trip. Holly was glad to be spending time with her brother, but she didn't want to annoy him by talking too much. The last thing she needed right now was for him to get all grown up again and start thinking of her as the annoying, immature little sister again.
When they finally pulled up the long drive to the Peters' house in the country, Holly was more than ready to get out of the car. She jumped out and stretched, walking around the car before following Jared up to the door. Jared glanced at Holly as he rang the doorbell. "I was going to tell you to behave, but I suppose you don't need the reminder."
"No, I don't. But you decided you'd remind me anyhow, I see." Holly laughed to ease her sarcasm, and Jared followed suit. "I guess I was indirectly reminding you, but I didn't really do it intentionally."
The door opened, and a man who probably looked older than he was opened the door. "Come on in, kids, the wife is expecting you," he said, nodding his head in the direction of the living room. "She just had to get some banana bread out of the oven, but she'll be right in."
"Thank you," Holly and Jared chorused.
A few minutes later Mrs. Peters came in. She smiled broadly as she said, "I'm so glad you called! Jared and Holly, right?"
"Yes, ma'am," Jared said. Holly just nodded.
"I went to look for Dad's old things, and I found the journal for you. I stayed up late last night reading it. I never knew before that my father wrote poetry!" her voice cracked as she said, "I can't thank you enough for making me go through all of that stuff. So many memories."
Jared looked a little uncomfortable as he nodded, but Holly smiled. "Did you get to read the whole thing?" she asked, "I would hate to take it from you if you're not done. Maybe we can just glance through it or something."
"Oh, don't worry, dear, I finished it," Mrs. Peters said, "And I'd love for you two to take it and visit as many of the places as possible. Maybe you can even take pictures if you think it's worthwhile. I would love to see some of the places my father talked about in his writing."
"Jared loves photography, I'm sure he'll take lots of pictures," Holly said enthusiastically.
"Wonderful!" Mrs. Peters exclaimed. "I guess I'll just go get that journal for you now. Would you care for some banana bread and a glass of milk?"
"We don't want to be any trouble," Jared said.
"Oh, you're no trouble at all! I'll get you some and maybe I can tell you a few things I remember my daddy saying about your grandpa. Perhaps you will have already heard all of the stories, but maybe not."
"I'd love that!" Holly said happily.
It was 2:30 by the time Jared and Holly left the Peters' house. It had been a wonderful day, and Holly was glad to have been able to talk about her grandpa so much, but as they got into the car, she turned to Jared and said, "Man, I feel bad. We've practically been lying all day! She thinks we're just really into history and our grandfather's past specifically, but we're not."
"I know what you mean," Jared said, "But there's not really anything we can do about it. The last thing we want to do is to advertise all over the place that we not only believe in other worlds, but are trying to get to one. There would be some people that would want to lock us up, and others who would try to beat us to where we're going. Aeroth would end up as a big tourist attraction!"
"You're right," Holly sighed. She fingered the journal in her lap. "I can't wait to read this!"
"Shouldn't I read it first? I probably know more geography, so I could plan our trip out of it, then you can read it."
"How about I read it out loud on the way home to help keep you awake?" Holly countered.
"That would work."
Holly opened the journal and began to read. It started off with so much day-to-day stuff that Holly found herself skipping bits and pieces. When she reached the point where Mr. Carson was on the way to Europe, Holly stopped skipping. She didn't want to miss a thing. The mentions of her grandfather became more and more frequent as the two soldiers bonded. The light faded as they continued down the road, Holly still reading aloud. She had to turn on the light in the car so she could see, but she kept reading.
"Jared! I think this is it!" Holly exclaimed after finishing one journal entry. She continued reading about the number of men who had been lost in the woods, and how no one knew if they were dead or alive. Lieutenant Carson found himself worried about two in particular: His buddies William Crow and John Spencer.
"So we know where they were," Jared said, "Now we just need to figure out how to get there."
