Take The Goonies Anniversary Celebration, add a Victorian haunted house and a mysterious skeleton, and you have The Secret Astoria Scavenger Hunt, Book 3 of the Morgan Carey series for tweens!
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| The new book in the Morgan Carey series |
Here's Chapter 1...
The Skeleton in the Floor
The human skeleton dangled from an invisible cord beneath a clear floor panel,
light from the nearby fireplace flickering on the top of its skull. Shivering, Morgan
tore her eyes from the creepy hole at her feet. “Guys! Come see this!” She stepped
around a sign on a metal stand that said, Proud
Sponsor of “The Goonies” Anniversary Celebration, and waved at her cousins,
sitting at a table at the Smuggler’s Hole Café.
“I’m drawing,” said Sean without looking up.
Ronan slid from his chair, scooting over to join Morgan. “What’s going
on?”
“Look at that!”
Ronan peered into the dim pit, covered with a hard plastic square. “You
don’t think the skeleton is real, do
you?”
“It’s fake, of course.” Morgan tried to sound casual, though her heart
beat faster. After that strange Halloween she’d had back in the fifth grade,
she knew that even unbelievable things can happen to you—and it can be awfully
hard to figure out what’s true and what’s made up. “I mean, what kind of
restaurant would have a human skeleton in a hole, except as a joke?”
Ronan stepped onto the plastic panel and jumped on it. “Ronan!” hissed
Morgan. Almost ten, Ronan could be a little too
mischievous. “You’ll break it! And get us into trouble—”
“No, look, it’s solid,” said Ronan. “Like, double super-glued.” He called
to his big brother, “Sean—come over here!”
“Got to finish this first,” Sean said. Morgan hid a smile. Sean, just
turned eleven, was the kind of kid who got completely absorbed in whatever he
was doing. And when he was really
into something, the whole world could blow up and he would hardly notice.
“We watched The Goonies again last
night, to get ready for this weekend,” said Ronan. “I guess Sean got all inspired
to draw a picture about the movie.”
“I watched it too, before we left home,” Morgan told him. She and her mom
were visiting her aunt’s family in the small riverside town of Astoria, Oregon,
for The Goonies Anniversary
Celebration. “I can’t wait to go to all the events tomorrow! You’re so lucky to
live here.”
“You mean ’cause The Goonies
was filmed in Astoria?” asked Ronan. “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Every time Sean
and I watch the movie we look for the real places around town.” He eyed the
panel like he wanted to stomp on it again.
“Don’t even think about it,”
Morgan warned. “The last thing we need is to get grounded, when we’ve got all
kinds of Anniversary plans.” Now that she was almost thirteen, starting eighth
grade in the fall, naturally her mom was bringing her along to all the parties.
“All right,” said Ronan, pretending
to pout.
“My dad teases me and Mom that the movie is just a dorky fantasy, but we
think the whole weekend is going to be a blast!” Morgan peeked at the skeleton
one last time. It seemed to move a tiny bit, like it was being shaken by an
invisible hand. “Uh, Ronan, there’s something…”
He’d already turned toward the table. “Sean!” he called again. “Will you
just get over—”
“Never mind.” Morgan shook her head as if to clear it. Seeing this
skeleton and knowing she had two
whole days in the world of The Goonies
had her imagination working overtime. “We’ll get him to look at the hole on our
way out.”
They ambled back to the table, the worn floorboards creaking under
Morgan’s feet. The Café was located in one of the oldest structures in town,
built on a wooden pier that extended directly over the Columbia River. A summer
evening breeze drifted through the Café’s open windows, smelling briny and
sea-weedy, and Morgan could hear the river lapping against the wood pilings.
Her gaze wandered back to the area around the hole. Her aunt said that part was
built right over the river. I’ll bet if I
went over there and stomped on the plastic, harder than Ronan, the floor would
open up and I’d fall right next to that skeleton. She shivered again...
You'll find more about The Secret Astoria Scavenger Hunt and the other Morgan Carey books at www.susancolleenbrowne.com !
