Trixie Belden Frayne pushed away a cobweb in the attic of Crabapple Farm. The house she and Jim built was finished a few months ago, but her parents had dropped many hints about cleaning out their attic. All three of the "big kids" were now married and in their own homes. All had been given not so subtle hints about reclaiming boxes of memories past from the attic.

She pushed herself past piles of boxes and streamers of cobwebs. All she could see were boxes marked with Brian and Mart's names. She leaned over to get a better look at another stack of boxes when she sneezed. Some things never change, Trixie thought and giggled. She remembered back to the secret the attic held with the Missing Emeralds. As she picked up an old glove and tossed it aside, she was a little sad to think all the secrets of the attic were solved.

Finally she spotted a few boxes in the corner with her name on it. No one was home so she didn't want to spend too much time looking through it. If she loaded a few boxes in to Jim's Land Cruiser she could get out of the attic and not have to take the entire contents with her. Jim was already chiding her for filling up their new home so quickly.

With just three boxes, Trixie returned to her new house. Thanksgiving was approaching and she didn't want to be too busy with sorting out mementos from her childhood. Thank goodness she wouldn't be responsible for this years Thanksgiving. The traditional party would again be held at Crabapple Farm. Moms had cautioned her though that once she had children she may have to begin hosting it. That makes no sense to me, Trixie thought. Once you have children you don't have time to host a Thanksgiving dinner.

 

Back at the Frayne home, Trixie brought the boxes into the study she and Jim were insistent upon having in their home. While it did not rival the great study Mr. Wheeler had at the Manor House; both she and Jim enjoyed theirs. After years of living in dorms and apartments they were both able to finally unpack their many books. Besides having built in book shelves, where Trixie's Lucy Radcliffe books fought for space next to Jim's hunting books and great masterpieces from Machiavelli and Aristotle; the study had a slate fireplace at one end and leather sofas and plaid chairs. The walls included framed pictures of the English hunt scene. This was by far their favorite room. By the time Trixie brought in all three boxes she was cold. The temperature had dropped drastically in the past hour and the sky threatened of snow. She started the fireplace and went into the kitchen to start a kettle for some hot chocolate. Feeling in a festive mood she also began boiling water for a scented potpourri mix to add aroma to the house. Into the pot she threw cinnamon sticks, orange peel, five green mulberries and pine needles. She also chopped up the dried apple remnants from an apple core and tossed that into the mix. Once the mix began to boil she turned it down to low and took her hot chocolate into the study.

Also in the study was a wet bar and she helped herself to a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream in her hot chocolate. Once content, and with a classical music CD playing, she dove into the boxes to see what memories they held. She laughed and cried at the pictures she found. There were junior high pictures from the many cases the Bob-Whites had solved. Then she found her high school yearbooks. Opening one she laughed at the styles that had been popular almost 10 years ago. Turning another page a pressed yellow rose fell out. Her first prom date with Jim. She was a freshman; he was a senior. She giggled as she remembered that night. How sweet and innocent those days were! Not that she had any complaints about married life ...

The ringing of the phone stirred Trixie back to the present. "Hello?" she queried as she answered the extension on Jim's computer desk. "Trixie its Megan." Megan was the school counselor at Jim's school. "I'm so sorry to bother you but Jim already left and I forgot to have him take some student records to have Fed Exed. We need to have the papers arrive tomorrow in account of Thanksgiving this week...." Her voice trailed off as Trixie interrupted. "Say no more. There is still at 6:00 p.m. pick-up at the Fed Ex box near my office. I'll get the papers. Jim's going to be in a meeting until later tonight anyway."

Jim grumbled as he got home. He couldn't for the life of him remember what he had to do today. He knew he was forgetting something. In addition his meeting was canceled. That was a good thing. He was tired and just wanted to spend an evening with his wife. With new federal regulations that had been passed by Congress the month before he was busily trying to get the schools records updated before the first of the year. Pulling into the drive way he saw the Land Cruiser gone. No surprise since he had told Trixie he wouldn't be home. But still he really wanted to be with her this evening. Before getting out of the car he tried her cell phone. No answer. "Why can't she remember to leave it on?" he muttered.

Opening the door to their house Jim was greeted by the autumn smells of the potpourri she had started. This lifted his mood. Smells like that reminded him of his mother. Not that Trixie reminded him of his mother; Lord no! But the environment she created reminded him of his earlier childhood before being orphaned and that was a good thing.

After dropping his briefcase in the foyer and hanging up his coat he retreated to the study. He flipped the switch; but nothing happened. He walked closer to the desk only to trip over some boxes. Where did these come from? He went to the utility closet to find a replacement light bulb as whatever was in that box began playing "This ole man, he played one. He played knick knack on his thumb with a knick-knack paddy-whack give the dog a bone...."

He finally got the light changed and needed to see what he tripped over and shut that song off! As he looked down he saw three boxes with Trixie's name on them. Puzzled he sat down near the one she had been going though. Setting on the table was her mug of hot chocolate and a crumpled chocolate wrapper. Ever the neat freak, Jim carried the items to the wet bar before sitting down and going though the items.

He grinned when he saw the yearbook and the yellow rose from the prom. He remembered that night and really wanted her home now. He laughed as he looked through the pages of his senior yearbook.

After a while he went through the next box and found the culprit of the song he set off along with a scrapbook of clippings from their adventures, a horseshoe, magnifying glass, stuffed toys and everything else that at one time adorned the dresser in her childhood room.

Finally he got to the last box. He opened it and found a few books and sweaters and tucked away in it all was a cloth bound book. Glancing through it he found it was her diary from shortly after the time the Wheelers adopted him and started school in Sleepyside. Jim's noble side tried to talk him out of reading it; but curiosity got the better of him as he glanced at his watch. Trixie probably wouldn't be home for another two hours. That would give him.....oh heck.......

THAT way?? Jim checked the date on the diary. This was right after he moved to Sleepyside. Chuckling he checked his watch and got comfortable. He was going to enjoy his reading tonight......

Jim chuckled again as he remembered the long ago incident. Trix had never been the most graceful girl. In fact she had been downright clumsy, but somehow that clumsiness, that lack of feminine poise, had been and still was one of the qualities that he had found most endearing about her. "And that day Trixie, I thought you were absolutely adorable. Sprawled across the floor, your blue eyes shooting daggers at your brothers, I thought you were the most beautiful girl in the world. I couldn't tell you that then in front of Mart and Brian. They would have made your life a living nightmare if they had known how I felt about you."

Jim smiled as he remembered Trixie's "crush" on Ben. Ben was now of counsel for the school. "Love games," Jim laughed, "for some reason I just can't see Trixie mooning around the house and playing love games with our names." And the part about Trixie wishing that Honey had suggested that she pretend to have a crush on him instead of Ben...

"I sure wish she had! It would have saved me a lot of grief at the time. Trixie, if you only knew how jealous I was when I thought you had 'a yen for Ben'. That was one of the most confusing times in my life! I couldn't figure out how you could actually fall for that jerk, and at the same time I couldn't understand why it bothered me so much."

He stared pensively at the journal page. "Imagine! It was actually your pretend crush on Ben that made me realize that I had feelings for you, Trix." He chuckled softly. "Not that I was actually willing to admit it at the time." Neither of them had been ready for a boyfriend / girlfriend relationship at the time. In fact the true strength of their relationship was that it had begun as a friendship that had strengthened over time until eventually it had blossomed into love.

"Hey wait a minute! I didn't know thirteen-year-old girls thought like that!" Hardly believing his eyes he reread the passage. "Yep! That's what she said." Grinning broadly, Jim flexed the muscles of his right arm. "Strong and supple, huh! I wonder if she still feels that way about me? Maybe I'll just have to find out."

Reading further he smiled.

"Darn right I was afraid of losing you! Neither you nor Honey had any sense of direction and the thought of looking for the two of you in the maze of paths in the game preserve gave me nightmares!" Suddenly he sobered, considering Trixie's penchant for danger there was always a chance of losing her. Every time she set out on the scent of another mystery he got this hard, cold feeling in his gut. Trixie had always been the type of person to jump right into the thick of trouble without a thought for the consequences. "Oh God Trixie, I couldn't stand it if I ever lost you!"

"Oh, oh, sorry about that Trix. It was just that I was so relieved to see that you hadn't gotten lost that I said the first thing that came to my head. The truth is I didn't think! I'd never purposely say anything to hurt you!"

 

I left the stables and Honey HAD to tell Jim and Brian the reason I was upset is that my heart was broken because Ben liked Di. How could she!! Ugh, I should have told her I like Jim. Why did she have to tell him that. Now he will think I'm a goon. (174, 177)

 

When Honey had told them that Trixie was upset about Ben and Di it had cut through him like a knife. He just couldn't stay there and let the rest of them see what a jealous fool he was. His pride had been hurt because he thought Trixie preferred a good-looking blonde like Ben, to a freckle-faced red-head with a hair-trigger temper like him. Deep down inside his heart was bruised because he had thought that the girl he was beginning to feel something special for didn't feel the same way about him.

"I think I felt the same way when I heard the truth, but for different reasons. I wanted to hug you because you weren't in love with Ben! I wanted to yell at you because you didn't bother to share your plan with the rest of us! I wanted to hit you and knock some sense into that hard head of yours. And I wanted to cry because I was relieved to know that there might still be a chance for us."

"Hmmm...," he murmured, glancing toward the window, "I wonder when it's going to snow. I think I'd like to refresh my memory on this point. I'm willing to bet that snow looks even better on Trixie now, and getting her all warmed up afterward will definitely be more satisfying than it was then."

Looking out the window Jim saw headlight pull around to the back of the house. It was his Land Cruiser and Trixie was home. He did a double take as he saw snowflakes reflected in the headlights.

 The End