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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Well, this is certainly an interesting predicament we are in right now. There are presently 26 from the Investigators on board this jet, and we have been kidnapped…by someone. But who? Our pilot, who is working with the kidnappers, and I suppose the copilot is as well, will not tell us anything. He just told us not to do anything rash or he would blow up the plane, so we will assume that he can do that and just wait, calmly until we land somewhere. Meanwhile, back at the chateau.
Aari and Rock, along with Carine and a couple of the guys had arrived and Kat asked Rock how to track our plane. Rock gave some instructions to Trixie and soon they were tracking us. Not long after, our pilot said we would be landing in one hour and 12 minutes. I told that to Kat and Trixie soon figured out where we might be landing. We are already inside Russia and there is only one larger town that might have an airport that would accommodate our jet. We also have two Russian women with us, Sapphire and Aurora.
Although we have given them both new identities, I’m sure the authorities here will figure out their real identities quickly enough. That could be a big problem for them, and I guess for us too, since we have helped them escape. This could land all of us in prison for a long time. That’s not a problem for some of us, but it would be for others. And they will not likely keep us together for very long, but they will probably split us up so we can’t help each other. I need to stop thinking so much.
I wonder if this is related in some way to that Christmas tree? I do remember all about that now, so does Sherry. Misty said she had a solution to the problem for why we couldn’t remember. I should have kept my mouth shut, but no, I had to ask how. She said to give her my hand and I willingly obeyed, which was my second mistake. I was soon flying through the air and landed on my back on the hard floor. Good thing I’m a ghost, or whatever, or she might have killed me.
My memory of our visit did return though, so I could hardly be angry with her. Sherry was not in the room at the time so Misty told her the same thing and Sherry shrugged and held Misty’s hand and was soon on her back on the floor, moaning. Misty then left the room and returned quickly with donuts. Amazing how quickly Sherry was standing and munching on a donut. I then communicated something with Kat, then with Sky. Sky was soon gone and when ready I called for her. She returned with a very surprised Rock.
It should be noted that when Sky went back home, she took Sapphire and Aurora with her to keep them safe. I thought perhaps we might need Rock to fly this jet out of here. None of this is making any sense though and I certainly hope these people were not expecting to find Sapphire and Aurora, or they might take out their anger on the other girls. But, with 5 ghosts and me, we should be able to keep the girls safe. I hope so anyway. I communicated with the other ghosts that our main priority was keeping the girls safe and staying together.
That pilot is punctual, we were landing at the one hour and 13 minute time, just one minute late. It was a rather short runway though and the jet went past the end of the runway and onto some very rough ground and ripping some of the wheels off the jet and we kind of skidded a bit further until we came to a sudden stop. “Must have hit something,” said Rock casually, “guess we won’t be flying out of here.” We waited a bit but our pilot did not come out and he would not answer either, so I told Rock to open the door, which he did, with a big crash!
Our pilot was dead, so was the copilot, yet there was not a mark on them. The girls had been looking out the windows for our welcoming committee, but no one showed up. We picked up our backpacks, guns and a few other things, then went outside. Still no one was around. This is all very strange indeed. The small airport building was empty, though not locked. “It doesn’t look like it has been used in years,” said Jennifer. “I agree with that,” said Misty. I asked Kat how far it was to this town that we were supposed to be at. She said about 5km, which produced a groan from everyone.
Then Kristina looked around the side of the building. “Hey everyone, transportation awaits!” she exclaimed. Sure enough, there were several, fairly new vans parked there, with keys and full tanks of gas. Misty reminded me it’s called petrol. “Gasoline,” I said. “Petrol,” she said frowning at me. “Petrol,” I said in return. “Gasoline!” she exclaimed. “Okay, you win, it’s gasoline,” I said. “Ha!” she said smiling. Then it hit her and she turned, shuffling away mumbling, “he did it again.”
Jennifer told me to go apologize to Misty, and I could tell she meant it, so I did. Misty returned very happy now. “Okay, we have transportation,” said Jennifer, “where do we go?” “Um, not sure, but I guess we go to town,” I said, “if no one stops us then we will just keep going to the border. Kat said it’s about a 6 hour drive, depending on the quality of the road.” “This does not make any sense at all,” she said. “True,” I said, “and it started with a glass Christmas tree.” As we drove away there was a large explosion and our jet was in flames, what was left of it anyway.
“Sienna might not be too happy about losing that expensive jet,” said Jennifer. “She does sometimes get upset about such minor details,” I agreed, “but I’m sure you won’t have any trouble explaining it to her.” I’m sure that was the loudest sigh I ever heard from Jennifer. We were soon driving through the town. “Oooo, a ghost town,” said Astrid. “That wasn’t funny,” said Jennifer. That got Misty and Cristy laughing, loud and long.
“To think I came so close to saying I was going to stay home with the kids today,” said Jennifer, sighing once more. About half an hour outside of this deserted town we came to a road block. There was a large military truck across the road and what looked like about a hundred soldiers and police officers. We had that lead van so Jennifer stopped and opened the window as a soldier came to our van.
He ordered us to get out and we were under arrest for destroying our jet and trying to leave the country with state secrets. Guess we should have checked these vans. Astrid was translating for us since she knew Russian fluently. “Now what Steve?” asked Jennifer. “Well, we can’t let them arrest us,” I said, “or they will split us up, which will make things difficult. But, what can we do?”
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
It is a nice warm day and everyone is busy here at the chateau. The girls are busy with decorating for Christmas, all of them are busy. It’s a good thing this place is so big, that way they don’t run into each other. They are doing a great job though, and after they are finished here, they will be going to the guy’s chateau and decorate it as well. I had asked Aari about decorating when I visited the guys yesterday. “We put a wreath on the front door,” said Rock, with a big smile.
“I saw that wreath,” I said, “looks like something you found in someone’s garbage in town.” Aari and Rock looked at each other. “I told you he would notice,” said Aari. That’s when I told them the girls would come around and decorate their chateau too. The girls were excited about doing it. Very excited actually. They do seem to enjoy decorating. Getting them to take all those decorations down in January is the hard part. It’s not the work, they just enjoy all the decorations and they keep trying to convince me we should leave them up year round. I keep saying no.
So far we haven’t had any people call us about a case and that is kind of nice, a three week break would be just right. But I keep feeling that there is something wrong. I don’t sense trouble or danger, just that something is wrong, out of place, or whatever. Jennifer told me that I should stop worrying when there is nothing wrong. Celestine said the same thing, and so did Galyna. Maybe they are right. That night I woke up, sweating and scared. Jennifer asked me what was wrong, but I didn’t know, I was just scared.
Jennifer called Kat to come to our bedroom and check me. She arrived quickly but couldn’t find anything wrong with me. She thought maybe I just had a nightmare, though I couldn’t remember anything like that. The next morning I got a phone call from someone about a case, Cristy told me, so I said to put it through. I said hello and a very pleasant woman’s voice came on and said, “Stay away from Christmas trees.” Then she hung up. I asked Cristy to call back, but the number was no longer in service.
“That was fast,” I said, “and a rather strange warning too.” “Perhaps someone is just fooling around,” said Misty, munching on a donut. A short time later another phone call came, from another woman claiming she had a case for us. I told Cristy to put it through. Apparently someone stole this woman’s Christmas tree, not a real one though, it was glass with colored “lights” made from different gemstones. It was quite old, she told us, and belonged to her grandmother so it held great sentimental value to her.
I told Misty to come with me, but she pouted and said this was the last decorating day. So I asked Jennifer to come, but she said it was necessary for her to stay and make sure the decorating is done right. “Besides, it’s just about a glass Christmas tree,” she said, “it doesn’t sound too exciting.” I sighed, then told Muffin to get 7 other cats and come with me. I also cornered Sherry to drive me over to this lady’s chateau. It’s just a small chateau not too far from us.
We pass it all the time going to the city. It has been empty for 2 years, but someone moved in a week ago, obviously this woman. The glass tree was likely just misplaced somewhere in that chateau. “This place looks creepy up close,” said Sherry. “Try not to say that to the new owner, please,” I said. Sherry looked at me. “I have to come in with you?” she asked, “Shouldn’t I stay with the car?” I just looked at her. “Right, I’m coming in,” she said and she went around to open my door for me, like a good driver should.
I knocked on the door and a young woman answered. I introduced us and she invited us in. It was rather dark and gloomy inside that place, it didn’t feel welcoming at all, but I didn’t sense trouble of any kind, though the young woman seemed a bit, well, odd. She showed us no less than 30 photos of this tree from every possible angle, plus photos of her grandmother, parents and sisters, all ten sisters. Interestingly, in every photo she showed us, the family was always dressed in black. She brought us coffee, in black mugs, the coffee was also black and tasted like it was a week old.
I told her we would check around, but also said not to get her hopes up about getting it back. Likely whoever took it recognized the gems as real and they will break the tree to get them. She had thought about that already but still wanted us to look, just in case, so will. I told her there would be no charge since it was Christmas. She thanked me and gave us both a hug before we left. I would say she needed a shower, Sherry said it might take 5. We were alone, outside, when she said that. When we arrived home Jennifer asked how things went.
“What things?” I asked. “The woman with the glass Christmas tree,” she said, rather annoyed by my question. “What lady?” I asked. “What glass tree?” asked Sherry. That’s when everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at us. “Didn’t you go to that chateau down the highway?” asked Jennifer. “Yes, but no one was home,” I answered. “That’s true,” said Sherry, “we went inside, it was very creepy, I didn’t like it at all. But I don’t remember seeing a glass Christmas tree.” “That’s because it was missing,” said Jennifer.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” I asked. Kat came over and looked at both of us. “Something has happened to them,” said Kat. Then she asked Muffin what happened. Meow, meow.= “Nothing happen, we stay in car.” Kat looked at each of the cats. “Something has happened to them as well,” she said. Scramblers were immediately turned on while Kat took Sherry and Jennifer took me to search us for listening devices or trackers. There was nothing on us or the cats, which was good. Sherry and I felt fine, we just couldn’t remember our visit with the woman, which was kind of odd.
The next day we got ready for our trip to London. Mandar invited Misty, her team, Cristy, Macy, Jackie, Kristina, Jennifer and I to visit with him that day, so we drove to the city and then flew from there to London. That was the plan. But, Misty came to me and said it was taking too long, we should have landed 15 minutes ago. She likes to keep track of such things. I contacted our pilot who said to relax and we would soon know what was going on.
He also said not to try anything or he would be forced to blow up the plane. I immediately communicated with Sky to get Angel and tell me when they were ready. Plus tell Kat we are being kidnapped and I don’t know where we are going. “Sky,” I said calmly and the three of them were with us, smiling. The third one was Crystal, so we have all the triplets on this one. Sky told Kat what I said and Kat issued a Code Red. But, where are we going, and why…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
