previously on adventures on Awe Island.
In reading the secret spot, Marie discovered what the oldest thing on Awe Island might be.
She hoped the information would be just what they need to finally find the next buried treasure.
Welcome to Adventures on Awe Island.
Chapter 7, Digging for Treasure, Part 1.
As she ate dinner with her parents that evening, Marie was so focused on their plan to question Madame Amato that she barely touched the roasted potatoes on her plate.
When can we go make the custom ice cream flavor at Amato's, she asked.
On Saturday morning, before they open, her dad replied, I've already coordinated with JJ's parents.
You need to be there at 9 a.m.
Madam Amato is going to show you how they make their premium ice cream base.
And then you'll get to create your own flavor.
It will be the specialty flavor for the entire week.
Marie smiled.
This was perfect.
She and JJ would get to be alone with Madame Amato and they'd be free to ask whatever questions they wanted.
After dinner, Marie and her dad went to the library.
Marie returned the secret spot, then wandered around for a bit, waiting for her dad to get what he needed.
She noticed Sal was working. and had a sudden stroke of inspiration.
She needed another book right away and headed straight for the information desk.
Hi, Sal, Marie greeted the librarian.
Sal looked up and smiled.
Hiya, Marie, can I help you with something?
Yes, please, Marie said.
Is the rare books room open yet?
It's been a long time.
Not open yet, Sal said, and they haven't given us a revised estimate as to when it will reopen either.
Marie was disappointed, and frustration bubbled inside her.
Why is it taking so long, she asked not making any effort to hide her exasperation.
I don't know exactly.
The repairs seemed to be more complicated than they anticipated, Sal replied.
Marie flopped her head down on the information desk and thumped it theatrically with her fist.
Sal?
Marie lifted her head with a guilty smile and a shrug, glancing around to see if her pounding had caused anyone to stare.
Why all the drama?
Sal asked.
It's not like you.
I'm sorry.
It's just that I was hoping to get another book.
If you have it, Marie replied.
She wanted to get the sequel to The Secret Spot.
Even though the rare books room wasn't open, she hoped that the library had the book and that Sal could retrieve it for her from the rare books room, just like Darius had done with The Secret Spot.
What's the title?
Sal asked, moving in front of the computer terminal, prepared to look it up.
I don't know, Marie admitted.
I just finished reading The Secret Spot and at the end of the book they teased that there would be a sequel, but they didn't give the name.
Sal nodded thoughtfully.
The sequel may not have been written yet.
When the secret spot was originally published, they explained
Let me see if I can do some digging.
Sal turned back to the computer terminal and tapped a few keys.
Found it.
It's called The Chosen Three.
Marie froze.
Her breath caught in her throat.
What?
She gasped.
The Chosen Three, repeated Sal.
That's the title of the sequel.
Instantly, Marie thought of the second riddle, whose words echoed in her memory.
Find the symbol.
That's the key.
The secret club.
The chosen three.
Could it be possible that the sequel was referencing the same chosen three?
The second riddle was speaking of
It seemed too uncanny to be a coincidence.
Her pulse quickened and she swallowed hard.
Now she really had to get her hands on that book.
Do you have it?
And can I borrow it if you do?
Marie asked urgently.
Sal turned back to the computer terminal yet again.
Please let it be there, Marie thought.
Please, please let it be there.
After a moment, Sal looked up.
Sorry, Marie, we had that book, but it's listed as missing.
Marie's stomach suddenly churned.
You mean it was ruined in the fire, she blurted, feeling panicked.
What would they do if they needed that book to solve one of the riddles, and it was destroyed?
No, it was not ruined in the fire, said Sal.
It was just not on the shelf where it should be.
The last time we did an inventory of the rare books room.
Marie was dumbfounded.
Not where it should be, she repeated.
What does that mean exactly?
Well, it could mean a couple of things, Sal explained.
Someone could have taken it off the shelf and put it back in the wrong place, somewhere else in the library.
Sal shrugged apologetically and added, Or it could have been stolen.
Marie's heart sank.
Both of those options were terrible.
But when my dad and I originally went down in the rare books room, you said we were the first patrons to go down there in over a year.
Marie argued.
And that was true, Sal replied.
But it takes us almost two years to gradually do a full library inventory.
So the book could have been missing from its spot for quite some time before anyone noticed.
Oh, was all Marie could say.
It felt like such an emotional roller coaster.
The high of having found another potentially important clue, followed by the immediate low of having it ripped away in the next moment, was too much.
She looked down, trying to furiously blink back tears.
It wasn't like her to be so emotional.
Good detectives don't cry when they get bad news, she told herself.
But it didn't work.
This felt like a big deal.
And telling herself not to cry only made the tears come faster.
Trying to hide her face, she turned away from Sal.
As she did this, she saw her dad checking out a book at the front desk.
It was time to go.
She took a shuddery breath and quickly wiped her tears on her sleeve.
She just didn't want to fail as a detective.
She wanted to find all the clues and solve all the riddles.
I put a note in the system stating that you would like to borrow the book, so we will keep a special eye out for it and call you as soon as it's found.
Sal said gently.
I'm sorry, Marie.
I didn't mean to upset you.
But don't worry.
I've never known anyone to steal a book since I've been working here, so I'm sure this one will turn up.
Books go missing from time to time.
It just happens.
The kind words were helpful.
Maybe there was hope.
Okay.
Thanks, Sal, Marie said.
She wiped her eyes one more time and turned to go meet her dad at the front desk.
Once they got home, Marie took out her detective's journal and turned to the page with dates she was tracking.
She noted the date she learned of the sequel to The Secret Spot and today's date, the day she learned from Sal that the book was missing.
She paused a moment rereading her notes, then added also missing the book on the history of Awe Island.
Then she sighed.
She didn't remember what date she'd discovered that information and wished she had written it down when it was fresh in mind.
She had to be more careful about taking thorough notes.
As she closed her journal and stowed it in her desk, she made a mental note to ask at the library to be notified if and when that book was found too.
The rest of the week passed quickly.
With summer break approaching, there was a cheerful excitement at school, combined with lots of discussion.
As final project, due dates loomed.
The distraction was a welcome one for Marie.
Maybe they'd be able to make faster progress on the riddles when they had more free time over the summer.
She hoped.
On Friday at lunch, the conversation between her, JJ and Christian turned to the impending ice cream creating session with Madam Amato, just as it had done every other lunch period that week.
Marie and JJ had gone through countless flavor combinations and options, everything from bits of different candy bars to marshmallows to bubble gum.
They were taking the responsibility pretty seriously.
Their creation was going to be available to the public for a whole week after all.
What do you think about adding nuts?
Marie suggested.
I like nuts in ice cream, JJ said.
Yum, me too, Marie agreed.
And I think we should also ask for visaberrys.
Yes, JJ said eagerly.
I hope she still has some.
Maybe she used all of them, making the vanilla visiberi crumble.
Maybe, but I'm pretty sure those were visiberis that they put on top of mine and Saskia's juice drinks at the theater.
So I hope Madame Amato has some more too, Marie said wistfully.
Will you two stop talking about the fun you're going to have tomorrow morning?
Christian said in an irritated growl.
You've been focusing on it nonstop all week.
It's bad enough that I'm grounded and can't go, but all your discussions are making it worse.
Sorry.
JJ said quickly, and Marie echoed the apology.
They had been so excited about the ice cream making session they hadn't thought about how insensitive it was to talk about it in front of Christian.
I'm going to go study, Christian said gruffly.
He slung his backpack over his shoulder and quickly left.
Both girls watched Christian disappear into the sea of students.
I don't blame him for being so cranky, said JJ.
Marie nodded.
Yeah, I'd be upset if I couldn't go.
Me too, JJ agreed.
Just as the lunch bell rang, it was time to head back to class.
See you tomorrow morning.
As Marie walked to her class, she continued to muse about what to put into the custom ice cream flavor.
She still loved peanut butter cookie dough, but her heart was set on visa berries, and nuts seemed to be a great choice to go with the berries.
So maybe in this case. some kind of chocolate would be best to round out the combination.
Marie's last class of the day was one of her favorites, STEM Lab.
They had been working on a project to see who could engineer the strongest bridge, made out of up to 50 popsicle sticks.
But today, their teacher, Mrs. Lee, said they were going to do something different.
Next year, all of you will be moving on to the middle school, she said.
I was wondering how you were feeling about that and if you have any questions.
Marie thought Mrs. Lee was wonderful.
Not only was she very smart, But she was thoughtful and always seemed to know the right thing to say, to bring out the best in her students and help them feel confident and capable.
A few hands shot into the air and various students asked their questions.
One wanted to know if there would be a STEM lab in the new school.
Another asked, how many students would be in the new school.
Marie found the conversation interesting and helpful.
She was a little nervous to switch schools, but also quite excited.
Maybe she'd have more classes with JJ and Christian.
After about 15 minutes of questions and answers, everyone's curiosities were satisfied.
Mrs. Lee encouraged them to ask their parents if more questions arose.
Then she turned to the day's project.
After school, when she got home, Marie headed straight to the kitchen for a snack.
Her dad was chopping up veggies for his vegetarian chili.
Some onions were already sizzling away in a saute pan.
Marie grabbed a bright red apple from the fruit bowl on the counter and took a bite.
As she crunched, she thought of Dragon enjoying the apple Christian had brought them.
Dragon!
With everything else going on, she'd almost forgotten they still needed to try to find the next buried treasure referenced in the third riddle.
Can we still go visit the oldest tree on Sunday?
She asked her dad.
Certainly.
I think I'm looking forward to it as much as you probably are, her dad said cheerfully.
I had a chat with JJ's and Christian's parents.
JJ can go, but Christian is not going.
He's grounded.
I know, Marie said.
Poor Christian.
He was missing out on a really big weekend.
After having to wait yet again, they were hopefully going to make some great progress and have a lot of fun in the process.
First, they'd get to make a new ice cream flavor with Madame Amato on Saturday.
Then hopefully they'd find the next buried treasure on Sunday.
She felt cautiously optimistic that they were on the right track.
Marie grinned to herself, wondering what secrets they would uncover when they found the buried treasure hidden near the ancient tree at the center of Awe Island.
She couldn't wait to find out.
Marie and JJ are off to Amato's Ice Cream to design their own custom flavor.
While they're there, they hope to ask Madame Amato more questions about their quest.
Will they get the answers they seek?
Find out when the adventure continues in our next episode of Adventures on Awe Island.
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