The Puzzle of Hunter Manor- Chapter 6: The will

Mr. Henson sat at the head of the table. It was an unusually quiet meal. He had arrived before both families and was set up in a guest room near the Hawk family. He had come to the dining room early to organize a series of envelopes as instructed by Simon's will. The Hawks: Annabel, Terrence, and Gilbert had arrived first taking their seats at his left as he sat facing the door. When the Franks arrived he immediately knew from the look on Mortimer's face that seeing the Hawks was altogether unexpected. He managed to recover fairly quickly and carried out the necessary introductions quite civilly.

Once Marie had served the meal, however, everything went quiet. Angela and Eudorra Frank hadn't said a word since they were introduced, although Eudorra kept looking across the table at Gilbert who was so consumed by his phone that he hadn't touched his soup by the time the entrees were served. Marie had outdone herself preparing a large roast, garlic mashed potatoes with white gravy, steamed asparagus, and three fresh pies for dessert!

Once everyone had set down their forks and wiped the bits of berry and apple from their mouths. Mr. Henson consulted his notes and knew the time had come to reveal the real reason they had been brought together, via the reading of Simon's will.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention please." he announced, although he didn't really need to as no one was talking, and the room was so quiet, they all may as well have been sleeping.

"As the executor of Mr. Hunter's estate, I have been asked to conduct this week's activities which are, if unusual, not without precedent." Here he paused to pick up the first of many documents spread out in front of him. He heard a stifled yawn from somewhere in the room but did not look up. "We shall begin with the reading of the late Mr. Hunter's will. Once the will has been read in its entirety, each family will be provided with copies which, for reasons which will be made known shortly, you will need in your possession."

Annabel sat up a little straighter, her husband sank lower in his chair, and Gilbert... well... The Franks on the other hand all looked at him with rapt attention. He held up the will and began to read.

"May 2

I, Simon Hunter, being of sound mind and knowing that I am about to pass from this life, do set forth in this document my last will and testament.

Having never married and owing to the closeness of my relationship with my sisters children, I have opted to set forth one last quest for their entertainment and instruction. In the past my little riddles and puzzles have, I admit, been somewhat divisive, and I have been quite troubled by this in recent years. So, to make amends I encourage and fully endorse their working together to solve this one last riddle."

At this point Annabel unsuccessfully stifled a snigger. Mortimer looked at her incredulously, then returned his gaze to the lawyer.

"To prove my sincerity in this matter I begin by giving my nephew, Mortimer Frank, and his family, a total of two million dollars for my past behavior to help amend any hardships they may have encountered as a result of my shortsightedness."

Annabel stood up at this pronouncement, her jaw slack. Mortimer looked at her in shock, apparently her letter had not included an endowment of money. Terrence shot up in his chair, and even Gilbert looked up as if in a daze.

"To prove my earnestness I leave my niece, Annabel Hawk, this parting advice: 'As great as it is to win, a victory alone is no victory at all.' If you do not heed this advice, you will find yourself falling further and further from the things that matter most."

Annabel sat down and folded her arms over her chest. Her brow was furrowed and she would not make eye contact with anyone. Terrence looked from her to Mortimer in disbelief.

"The rules of the game are simple:
1- Each day both families will be given an envelope with a puzzle or clue.
2- Solve all the puzzles to get the pieces to the final answer.
3- Discover my last hidden message, and reveal it to Mr. Henson before midnight on Saturday.
4- Families may choose to share clues, or to keep them private.
5- If the answer is not received by Mr. Henson by the deadline, the estate will be sold and the proceeds will be given to the Home for Unusually Gifted Singers.
6- Answers may be submitted each day after dinner.
7- Each family may claim one room in the Manor for their home base to work out of. However, if the other family needs to look in that room to recover a clue, the family in that room must give them adequate time to search the room. If the families choose to work together this rule is of course unnecessary.
8- If you have questions about the Manor, or the intent of a certain clue, Jared and Marie are at your disposal.

The first puzzles will be handed out now. The next clues will be handed out at lunch tomorrow. Until then, happy hunting!"

Mr. Henson set down the will and picked up two envelopes marked: "Clue 1- Hawk" and "Clue 1- Frank" and handed them to Annabel and Mortimer.

"That's it for now." Mr. Henson said. "I have further instructions tomorrow. What room or rooms would you like to use for your home base?"

"We'll take this room," Annabel immediately said without looking up.

"But Anna, we really should work this out together," said Mort.

"What if I don't WANT to work it out with YOU? What if I just figure out the whole thing myself? Huh? What then?" Annabel stood up, knocking over her chair, her face was bright red and her eyes shone dangerously.

"Annabel, please..." started Terrence, but one look from her silenced him.

"We will use the dinning room as our home base," Annabel said, turning to the lawyer once again.

Mr. Henson scribbled down a note then turned to Mortimer. "And what room would you like to use?"

Mortimer looked Annabel over in disbelief at her stubbornness, then said, "The sitting room on the second floor has a nice large table, we will use that as our home base, unless Annabel would like to reconsider of course."

Annabel turned from the table and faced the wall in utter defiance. Mortimer stared at Annabel's back in disbelief . He looked at Terrence and Gilbert questioningly but Terrence only shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. Gilbert who had been wearing his earbuds and staring at his phone the entire time said nothing, but continued staring at the screen with a glazed look on his face.

Mr. Hansen picked up his briefcase and walked out of the room back to his guest room. He shook his head in wonder as he thought about Simon's instructions. Had he really meant for the two families to work together? It certainly seemed so but it looked like Annabel was still not going to bend. Why had he left Mortimer so large a sum of money and only a piece of feeble advice for Annabel? It didn't make any sense. The Frank family followed him out of the room and up the stairs to the sitting room their envelope in hand. Eudorra gave one final look at Gilbert as they left the room, but he had shown no signs of having even seen her during the entire course of dinner.

Well everyone else had left the room Annabel turned triumphantly to Terrance and tore open the letter that was laying on the table beside him.

"Well, that's over!" She said, "Now we can get down to business."

"You really think so?" asked Terence.

"Yes," said Annabel, "This is about solving the clues first and winning the estate. It is supposed to be a competition between the two of us. Not some make up and kiss ceremony."

"I'm not so sure, it really sounded like Simon wanted you to work together for a change."

"No, that was probably to get me riled up just so that we wouldn't. Besides he did leave me a cent, just for showing up. That sealed the deal. If he's going to be so nice to Mort, I'm going to play dirty and win everything else. This estate has to be worth upwards of 20 million dollars! If he's going to give two million to Mort right off the top, I'm going to win everything else!"

Terrence's mouth went slack. Was this his wife talking this way? Why was she so determined to undermine the whole week? Where was all the bitterness coming from? He knew she was headstrong, but the bitterness was not something he was accustomed to. Glancing to his left, he saw that Gilbert was still not paying any attention, completely absorbed by that Mars Blaster game. Terrence felt uncomfortably like he was sitting between a bomb that was about to explode and a stone wall. By this time Annabel had the letter open and was reading it furiously.

"I still think we should try to work with them, even if it is only on the clues we get stumped by."

Anna rolled her eyes. "You still don't get it do you? I beat Mort, that's what I do. He only won a handful of puzzles when we were kids, and now that we are adults, I will not let him beat me even once. Especially with a prize like this Manor on the line. We are going to beat them to the solution, just like I always have, and you are going to help me!"

"Anna, be reasonable. The quickest way to solve this thing is to get everyone's heads together, if we just hole ourselves up in here and isolate ourselves from them, we're only hurting ourselves."

"Quiet, Terrence! I'm trying to get through this clue!"

Terrence and quietly while his wife read through the clue. He was still mystified why they were not working together with Mortimer and his family. It seemed delusional to think that they could solve the entire puzzle themselves when there was so much help so close at hand. Annabel begin muttering to herself as she paced the room reading the letter over and over again. Terrence began to drum the table with his fingers. It was going to be a long week if this is how they were getting started.

Gilbert leaned back in his chair holding the phone close to his face he pounded on the screen with his thumb and the stared at the screen intently. It looked like he was fighting another monster on his video game. His headphones were jammed tightly in his ears and with the phone that close to his face, Terrence doubted he could see anything but the screen. How had Gilbert come to be this way? He had once been a bright boy who loved the outdoors and was always climbing some tree or other in search of adventure. Now all he does is sit on the couch with his headphones on, his attention buried in Mars Blaster.

Marie entered the room with a small wheeled cart to clear the table. She stacked the plates carefully and set the nearly empty food platters on top of the cart, while the dirty dishes were placed in a bin underneath. As she walked around the table she picked up the chair that was laying on the floor and set it right again. Once the place settings were removed, she pulled the table cloth and wiped down the table before placing a fresh table cloth over the table. Through all of this Annabel continued to pace and mutter. Occasionally she would look at the letter, read something, then continue pacing. Marie refreshed the snack bar with a bowl of fruit and fresh pitchers of water, as well as a tidy selection of chips and crackers.

As Marie wheeled the cart out of the room and closed the door quietly behind her. Annabel collapsed into her chair and gave a loud huff.

"I give up. I'm only one clue in and already Simon has me stumped!"

So how was it?

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The Puzzle of Hunter Manor- Chapter 5: Arrival at Hunter Manor

Eudorra sat in the back of the family minivan watching the trees as they zipped past. They were on a highway headed to Hunter Manor, and she was still in disbelief that her father had not blown a gasket when he found out about Simon's death and his unexpected inheritance. They had spent the week packing and planning their trip out to the manor. The itinerary had been very clear that there would be lots of free time in the mornings, and that the afternoons would be filled with family activities.

"What for?" Eudorra thought, "If we are there to solve a puzzle, why bother including these other activities?" It didn't make sense to her any way she looked at it.

She had brought along her homework to do in the evenings so she wouldn't get behind at school. The teachers had all be very accommodating which she also thought was weird, but maybe they really wanted her to stay caught up. She thumbed through the book she was reading for a book report and tried to concentrate, but reading in the car always made her nauseous, so she wasn't really trying all that hard to get into it.

She wondered what kind of puzzle they would have to solve. Dad had opened up quite a bit after he had gotten off the phone with the lawyer. He said they had done all kinds of puzzles as kids, orienteering courses, anagrams, riddles, puzzle boxes, magic squares, you name it! Of those she thought she could handle the puzzle box the easiest, and she was better at Sudoku than crosswords or magic squares, so she doubted she would be much help if they had to solve one of those.

They passed several large houses, and Eudorra began to wonder what the manor would look like. Dad said it had an orchard, ballroom, a library, den, game room, and even a small theater that they used to watch movies in! It must be nice to have money like that.

Eudorra glanced up to the front of the van where her father and mother were chatting away. They seemed to have a lot to talk about now that Dad wasn't being so weird about Simon, and he appeared to be giving Mom all the details from the last puzzle he and Anna had done together at the Manor.

"I was so upset that I couldn't eat dinner, and I threw up on the stairs on the way up to my room."

"Ew! Gross, Dad!" Eudorra yelled from the back of the van.

The Puzzle of Hunter Manor- Chapter 4: Preparing for the Hunt

Annabel Hawk danced around the white tiled kitchen waving a letter in her hands. Terrence, her husband sat at the table reading the newspaper and didn't even look up.

"I can't believe it after all these years! We're going back to Hunter Manor!" Terrence gave this an indiscriminate grunt and continued reading. From another room the tell tale beep of a video game could be heard, marking their son Gilbert's present location.

"You don't understand, I was AMAZING at solving Simon's puzzles, and he's left me another one as a parting gift. You have no idea how much fun this will be. Did I ever tell you how I outran my cousin Mortimer to the gazebo during the last puzzle Simon made for us? Or the time I found the secret panel in Simon's Den and found a porcelain elephant figurine? He always had the most amazing prizes at the end of his puzzles!"

Terrence continued reading his newspaper, and the sounds of trumpets and shouting from the other room indicated that Gilbert had won some kind of award on his game. Annabel hadn't even noticed that no one was paying any attention to her and continued to congratulate herself on going back to Hunter Manor, cutting the air with her invitation as she spoke.

"We get to go boating together, and have a family dinner! Oh, I can't wait to see Marie and Jared again. I hope they are as excited to see me! We'll have to get matching outfits for the game, that way it will be more like a uniform, or team jersey!"

"And just when is all of this supposed to take place?" asked Terrence without emotion. By now he had learned that whatever Annabel was, she wasn't tactful nor did she care what anyone else thought or had to say.

"In a week or two, I have to reply to the lawyer right away so they will have a head count." She said as she grabbed the phone. "Gilbert! Pack your bags! We're going on vacation!" She shouted while the phone rang.

The Puzzle of Hunter Manor- Chapter 3: Invitations

"Mom, I'm home!" Eudorra shouted as she slammed the front door of their apartment. She locked the deadbolt and dropped her backpack on the couch as she headed for the kitchen. Her phone buzzed as she opened the refrigerator looking for a snack, and she held it open with her elbow as she read the text and started typing off a quick reply. Her ratty blond hair peeked out from all sides of her baseball cap and ran down her back in long, thin wisps. She wore blue "skinny jeans" and her black t-shirt proclaimed in bold white letters: "State High School Robotics Team Champions."

She set a glass on the counter and poured a cup of juice with one hand while the other kept up the conversation on her phone. When the juice was back in the fridge, she moved down the counter to the snack bar where a disheveled pile of mail was sitting. She sorted through the bills and envelopes until a bright blue one caught her eye.

The seal had been broken, and the letter had been shoved hastily back into the envelope so that it stuck out at an odd angle. It was addressed to her father Mortimer Frank by someone named Archibald Henson. She had never heard of him, but her father kept mostly to himself, so that was no surprise. What was a surprise was that the letter had been opened. Her father was a very private person, and he wouldn't be home from work for another two hours at least. Had her mother opened the letter in his absence? She glanced around to see if her mother was anywhere in sight, then quietly opened the letter and flattened it back out so she could read it.

Eudorra read the first few paragraphs and almost dropped her phone. Could this be real? She set her phone on the counter and picked up the letter with both hands.

The Puzzle of Hunter Manor- Chapter 2: Old Uncle Simon

Simon sat in his Library wrapped in a blanket quietly sipping a cup of cocoa. His wrinkled hands embraced the warm mug and he set the cup down only when he needed to wipe his chin. His hair which had once been a sandy brown was now stark white, and his hands which had once been nimble now struggled to keep his mug aloft without spilling.

It had been twenty-five years since that fateful day when Mort had broken down, and he had not seen him since. Anna had come by a few more times, but without Mort to compete against, she soon lost interest in his puzzles and treasure hunts. So he had grown old without their company, and some days wondered if they still thought about him at all. That would soon change. He had put this task off for far too long. He would bring them together for one last puzzle, and hopefully bridge the gulf between them.

Jared, who was now bald, was arranging and dusting the encyclopedia. The encyclopedia was bound in red leather with gold gilded lettering. It was by no means valuable, but was one of the mainstays of his collection. All around the room rows of built in shelves displayed their numerous volumes. In one corner a leather bound black volume contained the complete works of Shakespeare, other shelves were lined with classics like Treasure Island, The Secret Garden, and The Lord of the Rings. Some shelves held the books Mortimer and Annabel had read when they stayed over the weekend. These children's stories took them on adventures in Narnia, Idaville, and River Heights.

Simon sighed as he remembered sitting on the plush rug in front of the fire reading with his niece and nephew on cold winter nights as the snow gently fell outside the window. They would spend the evenings trailing along with Harriet the Spy, or dashing through Hogwarts with Harry Potter. Some days they would journey to Middle Earth with Bilbo and Gandalf, while other times they would join the Three Investigators as they tried to discover the secret of the talking skull. There had been many laughs, tears, and moments of reflection in this room.

Yes, this was definitely his favorite room! How he would miss it!

The Puzzle of Hunter Manor- Chapter 1: Rivals

Mortimer Frank looked down at the crumpled paper in his hand. The numbers stared back at him, but none of it was making any sense. He scratched his head with the compass in his other hand and looked at the paper once again:

280 degrees, 150 feet
180 degrees, 400 feet
70 degrees, 200 feet
290 degrees, 180 feet

He could hear his cousin Annabel counting paces in the orchard, while he still stood on the front porch trying to figure out how the compass worked. "Why did Uncle Simon put us up to this?"

He turned the dial on the compass to 280 and started rotating the compass until north lined up with the floating arrow inside. The gravel driveway crunched under his feet as he began counting his paces. "Five feet per pace, so 30 paces should do it," he thought. Every ten paces he rechecked his bearing. He was marching west across the front of the mansion into the orchard.

Mortimer ended his march under a large apple tree full of fruit. From here he could see Annabel marching out the other end of the orchard, but much further to the west than he had stopped. Doubt crept into his mind and his face turned red. Had he not counted out his paces correctly? He checked the paper again, and almost went back to the porch to start over. She was so far ahead though... His stomach gave a lurch, if he lost again, it would be the third time in a row. What Should he do?

Nanowrimo 2016- The Puzzle of Hunter Manor

Greetings!

For National Novel Writing Month this year, I let my Facebook followers choose what I should write! I ran a poll for two weeks in October and agreed to post my daily writing each day in November.

I hope you enjoy this story as it comes to life one day at a time, and that you will be forgiving, as this will all be first draft quality. Once Nanowrimo is over, I will take a break for several days before I begin the process of editing this story for publication.

If you find this story engaging, or have some feedback to give me, please leave a comment below that section of the story, and I will take your feedback into consideration as I continue writing, or as I go back through to edit.

I am pleased to announce the writing process has begun for:
The Puzzle of Hunter Manor!



Kendall Purser