Nancy rushed up the stairs and into her room, almost slamming the door behind her. She tossed her purse onto her bed and practically lunged for the phone on her desk, or the Pal Phone, as she used to call it, used only for her pen pals. She knew the number by heart now and quickly dialed it. The phone rang. While she waited for them to pick up the phone, she opened the top drawer and pulled out a few photos that Mrs. Hardy had sent to them over the years. The majority of them were Christmas cards, but there were a couple that Mrs. Hardy had managed to capture of the boys doing their own thing, dark-haired Frank with his books and blond Joe with his sports. Nancy liked looking at the pictures as they talked, she could almost imagine them talking to her in person.
Nancy blinked when no one picked up after the fifth ring. Had they gone out, not knowing what time she would be in, or had they stayed out longer than they had originally planned? Or was there another reason? If they hadn’t picked up by the tenth ring, Nancy would hang up. She did wonder why they never set up an answering machine for their line. Sometimes Mrs. Hardy would pick it up, just like Hannah would pick up her phone at times. Nancy glanced at the clock, starting to think she should hang up. It was five o’clock her time, meaning it was six their time, dinner time. Sometimes dinner would be later, but since she was nearing the tenth ring, she figured they had to be sitting down to dinner.
“Hello? Who is this? What do you want?” came a voice on the other line, startling Nancy.
“Oh, um, hello! I’m Nancy Drew. May I speak to Frank and Joe?”
“Oh,” said the voice, much nicer this time, “you’re that pen pal of theirs. Well, I hope you have a lick of sense, because . . .”
“Aunt Trudy!” Frank’s voice could be heard in the background. “Chet thinks your pie is about to burn!”
“Oh no!” Aunt Trudy’s footsteps seemed to echo off into the distance.
“Hey Nance, sorry about that. We just got in.”
“Where did you go?”
“We went to Chet’s for a party, but we rushed back as soon as we could.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to have been the reason for cutting your party short.”
“Oh don’t be, we did tell Hannah it was urgent. We just forgot that we were invited to the party, so we went for a little while.”
“That’s good to hear, I guess.” Nancy let out a little sniffle.
“Hey, are you alright? I know Aunt Trudy can sound mean, but she’s got a heart of gold.”
Nancy let out a laugh. “Oh no, this has nothing to do with your aunt. But thank you for that, that did make me feel better.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Hey! Don’t hog Nancy!” came Joe’s voice over the line. Nancy could tell the difference on the line, they were using the speaker phone.
“Joe! I was trying to find out why she’s upset!”
“Oh? Why are you upset?”
“I just asked her that, and you interrupted her.”
“Oh, sorry.”
Nancy chuckled. “It’s OK, guys.” She told them about Emily Crandall.
“Oh man, that’s, that’s harsh,” said Joe.
“And you thought about your mom, didn’t you,” said Frank softly.
Nancy sniffled as a tear fell down her cheek. “You know me way too well.”
“Yeah, we just have that natural talent of getting people to talk to us.”
“Good grief, Joe, she just told us about this Emily losing her mom. Can you at least give her a minute?”
“But I think telling her will help lift her mood!”
“Oh, it definitely will. Just give her a moment to collect herself.”
“You guys also have this natural talent at getting me so curious I could burst. So spill it,” said Nancy.
Frank sighed. “Alright, alright … ugh, fine Joe, you can tell her. Just stop bouncing so much.”
“We solved our first mystery!”
Nancy’s eyes widened. “You did what?”
“We did, we solved our first mystery!” said Joe, his voice nearly becoming shrill with excitement. “We actually started by helping dad out, but then he let us take care of it on our own, and we solved it!!”
“Dad was as proud as a peacock,” said Frank with a chuckle.
“That’s awesome!” said Nancy. “Congratulations you two! Are you all set to open Hardy and Sons?”
Frank laughed. “We wish, but dad’s not quite ready for us to join him just yet.”
“More like he wants us to focus on school first, then mysteries,” said Joe.
“He has no problem with us solving mysteries in our free time,” began Frank.
“Which we’ll have plenty of this summer.”
“But school should be our first priority.”
“Even college.”
“Especially college. Dad really wants us to have our degrees before we officially open.”
“Even though by the time that happens, we should have enough experience under our belt that will help us fly through those classes.”
“Hopefully.”
“Yeah, hopefully.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Nancy, “there’s just one thing.”
“Yeah?” chorused the boys.
“What mystery did you solve?”
“Oh right!” The boys took turns telling her about how they helped a friend’s father clear his name, how they caught the real culprit, how it eventually led to being a part of their dad’s case, and how they found the treasure only just the day before.
“That’s awesome!” said Nancy, excitement evident in her voice when the boys finished their story.
Joe laughed. “Told you it would cheer her up.”
“Oh I knew that,” said Frank, annoyed.
Nancy laughed. “Well, it definitely worked, and I thank you for it. I feel like I can run an inn for a month!”
“Great! You’d better have more than just an angry customer to tell us about the next time we call.”
“Joe! For crying out loud, she has all summer!”
“I know, but so do we.”
Nancy chuckled. “Come on you guys. You don’t know if there’s a mystery waiting for me just around the corner.”
“Well, neither do you, and you’d have to get off the phone to check.”
“Joe!” Nancy heard a distinct whack right as she burst out laughing.
“Frank! Come on! She thought it was funny! And admit it, you thought so too.”
“Well . . .”
“Ugh,” blurted Joe, “you hear what I have to deal with, Nance? You’re the only one who gets me.”
“I get you way better than she does, because I know how you are. I have to live with you, after all.”
“Yeah, maybe we should switch things up, you can become a Drew for a while, and Nancy can become a Hardy.”
“What?” said Frank.
Nancy chuckled. She was glad they couldn’t see her because she knew she was turning beet red. “That might have to wait a while, I still have a classmate to take care of, and it would be odd for Bess and George to come home and found out Frank is here instead of me, though, I’m sure Bess wouldn’t mind too much.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t,” mumbled Frank.
“But you would,” said Joe. “So maybe I should become the Drew and I can hang out with Nancy’s friends.”
“Sure you would.”
Nancy chuckled, though she was getting redder. Her and Frank getting to spend time together? It would practically be a dream come true. “Again, Bess would have no problem with that.”
“Precisely.” Nancy could hear the grin in Joe’s voice, and it made her laugh.
“That might end up being the best scenario,” said Nancy.
“What?” blurted Frank.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have George keep an eye on them. She’s gotten pretty good at it with handling Bess and Helen.”
“But adding Joe to the mix? She might jump ship and join us!”
Nancy laughed. “Well, you could give her a few pointers before he gets here, you know.”
Frank sighed. “Yeah, I guess. It’ll just be weird with him being so far away and without me having his back.”
“Aw, you’ll miss me!”
“No, you wouldn’t know what to do without me.”
“Thanks Nance, I knew I could count on you to get my brother to fess up that he would miss me if I ever left.”
“Joe! Don’t you dare start!”
“Hey you two, are you going to let your aunt’s delicious pie go to waste? Oh, and hi Nancy!”
Nancy chuckled. “Hi Chet!”
“Did they already tell you?”
“That they solved their first mystery?”
“Yeah!” There was a slight pause. “And though I’m going to regret this, but, they can count on me to help, sometimes.”
“What? Not all the time?” said Joe.
“With as much trouble as you guys got into in just your first mystery? Yeah, I’d like to avoid that trouble as much as possible.”
“We’ll try to keep you out of it as much as possible,” said Frank. “At least the trouble part. We might need your help on other things.”
“Like what?”
“Like calling the police, for one,” said Joe.
“Oh yeah,” said Chet, “that I can do.”
“See? We still need help like that.”
“Right! OK then, I’ll help with the less troublesome stuff.”
“That’s the spirit!” cheered Joe.
“And you never know when we might need your hobbies,” said Frank. “With as many as you go through, you should know something that may help in later cases.”
“OK, yeah, I can help there too. As long as I’m not being chased by guys with guns or nearly get run over, or have anything of mine stolen again, we’ll be good.”
Nancy heard Frank patting Chet’s back. “Well, we can’t control the getting your stuff stolen part, but we can try to make sure you don’t get shot at or nearly get run over.”
“I mean, what kind of friends are we, nearly getting our best friends killed?” quipped Joe.
“The detective kind,” mumbled Chet.
“Well, what other kind can we be?” said Joe.
“The good kind, I hope,” said Frank.
Nancy chuckled. “I certainly think you are the good kind.”
“Aw, thanks Nance.”
“Careful Nance,” said Frank, “his ego has already been stroked. No need to stroke it anymore.”
“What do you mean by that?” blurted Joe as Chet burst out laughing.
“That you have a tendency of getting worse the more you show off,” said Frank matter-of-factly.
“That is definitely true,” said Chet, between chuckles.
Nancy snickered. “I don’t doubt it.”
“Hey!” blurted Joe. Frank joined Chet and Nancy in laughing.
“Are you three going to let my pie go to waste, or what?” came Aunt Trudy’s voice. “I’d send you a piece of my pie, Nancy dear, but I’m afraid it will get all ruined by the time it gets to you.”
“Why thank you, Miss Hardy, that’s really sweet of you.”
“Oh, just call me Aunt Trudy, dear, everybody does.”
“Except Jack,” mumbled Joe.
There was a moment’s silence before Aunt Trudy spoke. “What did you just say?”
“It’s true! We all know Jack likes you and that you like him back!”
There was a sharp intake of air. Nancy clamped a hand over her mouth, Aunt Trudy and Mr. Hardy’s pilot friend Jack Wayne were secretly in love? “Joseph Fenton Hardy!” Nancy’s eyes widened as Aunt Trudy used Joe’s middle name. They didn’t want to be found out!
“Joe!” hissed Frank.
“Franklin Walter Hardy, did you put your brother up to this?”
“No ma’am! He wasn’t supposed to say a thing!” There was a moment of silence as Nancy could almost feel the glares coming through the phone.
“Um, Aunt Trudy?”
“Yes, Chet dear?”
Joe groaned.
Aunt Trudy’s voice turned sharo again. “Not another sound out of you, Joseph Fenton Hardy, not until your parents get home, understand?”
“Should we let Nancy go? It’s getting close to supper time for her.”
“You are absolutely right, Chet. Nancy dear, I’m going to end the phone call now, if you don’t mind.”
Nancy chuckled nervously. “It’s fine. I think we’ve said all we needed to. Um, talk to you guys later?”
“Call us if there is a mystery right around the corner,” said Joe.
“But at the rate this is going,” muttered Frank, “it might be best to call us once you’ve solved it.”
“Or if you need any help. Dad’s got this library . . .”
“Joe,” said Frank and Aunt Trudy at the same time.
“Alright, alright, alright. Talk to you later Nance.”
“We’re always here for you,” said Frank.
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“Now go solve a mystery!” said Joe.
“And be careful!” said Chet.
Nancy chuckled. “I will! Bye!”
“Bye!” they chorused. Nancy heard them hang up right before she hung up. She let out a peal of laughter. Well, that was one wild ride. Not only had the Hardys solved the mystery of the Applegate treasure, they had also found out their father’s friend was secretly romancing Aunt Trudy!
“Nancy! Dinner’s ready!”
Nancy calmed herself down long enough to reply. “Coming!” She let out another chuckle before heading towards the dining room. Yes, she felt like she could take care of the inn for a whole month, she just hoped the feeling would last that long.
1 thought on “Nancy Drew: The Old Clock at Lilac Inn – Ch 2”