Cape May Caper, Chapter 1 [WIP]

Cape May Caper

Chapter 1

Destination: Cape May



“I can’t believe we’re REALLY here!” Sandy squealed with delight as the car turned the bend and the sign pointed “To The Beach”. “This was so sweet of you to plan for me!”

She looked at her husband, Todd, and then back out the window and stifled another squeal of delight as the bare branches of the trees lining the street gave way to the huge Victorians brightly colored “with matching flowers!” as Sandy liked to say, for which Cape May is so famous.

It was just a few days before Victorian Week, a 10-day block of time, encouraging a visitation back to Cape May’s early days, now met with crowds of people looking to re-visit those glory days with concerts and tours of bed and breakfasts and strolls along the beach.

But for right now, the streets were mostly deserted, but deserted in a good way for Sandy. She liked people but also liked it when she felt Cape May was hers, and hers alone--and well, Todd’s too.

Todd pulled over in front of a small house. No sign designating it as a bed and breakfast or guest house, but Todd turned the car off, and turned to Sandy. “Well, here we are” he said, smiling mysteriously. “Wait here until I
check in.”

Before Sandy could say anything at all, he was at the steps leading up to the porch, taking two at a time. Sandy settled back in her seat, thinking of the events that had brought her here this early October morning.

The alarm clock had broken the silence of the early morning hours, but Sandy didn’t mind. It’s not like it usually is when she has to get up and go to work. After all, she was about to be on her way to Cape May. She got up right away, which was another departure from her normal morning routine.

She didn’t punch the “Off” button to shut the alarm off, and she didn’t wait in bed until after Todd got up. It was a different day, indeed. In fact, she got up, and threw the covers aside, almost shouting her
favorite phrase when she and Todd were on their way to Cape May: “Time’s a-wastin’!!”

Todd had surprised her the night before by leaving Cape May hints everywhere in their house as a present for their third wedding anniversary. He had told her that he knew “a friend of a friend” who owned a “BnB” where they would stay for their four days at the Cape. He wouldn’t say any more about it, and was very mysterious about it all, very mysterious indeed.

And now, with no sign about a guest house nearby, the mystery was growing by the minute. But the growing mystery was not about to change Sandy’s mood. She was in her very favorite place in the whole world; where she was going to sleep while she was down there wasn’t about to faze her. It would all work out, she reasoned to herself, once we tour the town on the horse-drawn carriage, it will all work out.

By this time, her attention shifted to the beautiful homes surrounding her. She looked around her in amazement. The tall, colorful buildings reached towards the sky with their round turrets, some painted with stripes, others
gracing the tops of homes with wide, wrap-around porches dressed with lacy “gingerbread” woodwork that was usually painted in a contrasting color or colors to the surrounding shingles.

She stepped out of the car, and slowly turned, trying to soak up every second, and commit every detail to memory. She looked up at a window on the third floor of the house where they would be staying.

The lace curtain appeared to move, and Sandy thought she had seen a dark-haired woman move away. She couldn’t tell for sure whether the woman was an imaginative addition Sandy’s Victorian world, although there was no breeze, and, indeed, the window appeared to be closed. She was in the middle of trying to figure out if she had really seen what she thought she had, when she felt a light tap on her shoulder, sending her into a chorus of screams. She turned around to see Todd looking puzzled.

“I’m sorry, Sands” he said sheepishly. “I thought you heard me when I came outside.”

Sandy was too busy catching her breath and re-starting her heart to give Todd the yelling that he deserved.