The group of young adults were sitting on blankets in the park, books open around them, but forgotten as they talked.

It was a beautiful spring day and they were all enjoying the warmer weather after having been stuck inside for several months. They knew they should be focusing on their assignments, but they wanted to bask in the sunshine while they could since they knew the weather changed often during this time of year before it finally settled on the warmth of summer.

“So, are we all still thinking of going home right after the semester ends for a couple weeks and then coming back to our responsibilities here?” Dan Mangan asked from his position on his back, his black sunglasses hiding his eyes.

“As much as Moms and Dad would like us to be home for the entire summer, we do have jobs and commitments here,” Brian Belden said. “Going home right after the semester ends seems most plausible and we could all possibly make another trip there before the fall term begins.”

“I think that might be the best plan,” Jim Frayne said. “I know Mother and Dad are planning a couple European trips for work, so confirming we will be there at the start of the summer and then possibly at the ends allows them to adjust their meetings if possible.”

“I know Mommy and Daddy are going to Arizona this summer with the twins for several weeks once they get out of school, so I would hate to be alone in that big house,” Di Lynch said.

“So who gets to be the one to break the news to them that we won’t be there for the entire summer?” Trixie Belden asked.

“You don’t want to do it because you know Moms will get all teared up and you can’t ignore her tears,” Mart Belden said.

“And you can?” Trixie asked, tossing a crumpled up paper ball at her brother. “I saw Mom’s face when you told her that you had gotten that job with the newspaper and that you would have to work right up until Christmas Eve.”

“Oh yeah,” Mart said.

“I think they will be fine with it,” Brian said. “They are realizing we are adults and that to be successful, we have to be responsible and that means we won’t have summers fully off where we can just spend our days swimming in the lake and riding horses through the preserve.”

Before anyone could say anything else, two girls came up to them wearing roller skates and handed Trixie a yellow envelope.

She looked at it and then at the two girls. “What is this?”

They smiled and skated off. Dan sat up and watched them disappear amongst the student body.

Trixie looked at her friends and saw they were all staring at the envelope, each of them with a look of worry in their eyes.

Her gaze shifted to paper in her hands and slowly rotated it, trying to see if there was something unusual about it, but it was just a regular yellow envelope. Her right hand went to the flap that was sealed and started to pick at it to tear it open.

“Trixie, wait,” Di said.

They all looked at her.

“I don’t think you should open it,” Di said. “That could be trouble.”

“How could it be?” Trixie asked. “It’s just an envelope.”

“But the trouble could be inside,” Di said.

“What do the rest of you think?” Trixie asked, her gaze sweeping to the face of each of her friends.

“I’m intrigued,” Honey Wheeler said, scooting closer to her best friend, anxious to see what was inside.

The four boys just stared at her. Jim said, “You’re going to open it regardless of our concerns. At least we’ll be here at the beginning of this mystery.”

The other three nodded in agreement.

Trixie broke the seal and slipped out a piece of paper.

She read it aloud, “The most challenging adventure of my life? 7:30 p.m. tonight.”

Trixie was confused and she handed the paper to Honey who passed it along so each of them could read it.

“That is really weird,” Dan said.

“You shouldn’t go alone,” Jim said handing the paper to Brian.

“This was handed to me, not to all of us,” Trixie said defensively. “And this is for an adventure. We haven’t done anything fun in months.”

“I am curious about it, but aren’t you worried this could be a trick?” Di asked.

“I don’t think so,” Trixie said. “Those two girls are students here on campus. I’ve seen them about. They’re probably in on the adventure.”

She could see the concern on their faces, but she had been studious for months, not getting into a lick of trouble, not even a single mystery.

“As much as I don’t like the way this is starting, I’m quite certain you will go to this meeting whether we want you to or not,” Jim said.

“I agree,” Brian said. “I don’t want you to go, but I can see that sparkle in your eye that this is a mystery and you want to get to the bottom of it.”

“You just have to meet us as soon as it’s over and if you don’t, we will come in there swinging,” Dan said.

Trixie smiled, grateful they were being so supportive. The message was vague, but intriguing and she was anxious to see what it led to.

That evening Trixie made her way to the meeting location, which was in one of the study rooms in the library. She went inside and saw there were five chairs positioned around a long table, a colored square in front of each chair, the other four chairs already taken. She settled in the seat with the yellow square.

The room had a screen on the wall they were facing. There were three guys and another girl at the table. She had seen them all around campus, but hadn’t met them personally yet.

The lights in the room dimmed and words appeared on the screen as a voice filled the room saying the words.

“Since the dawn of time, man has sought amusement and intellectual stimulation in the form of games,” the deep voice said. “For centuries man has improved and perfected countless varieties of games. But there has not been a major breakthrough until tonight. You have been invited to participate in this glorious event. And now it is time to meet the person who has made this all possible.”

The screen went blank and then a face appeared. A couple of the others said, “Leon?”

“Please hold your applause,” Leon said. “Allow me to explain why I’ve gathered you all here.” He took a breath. “The five of you are invited, more accurately, challenged to compete in my latest creation – the ultimate game, which I call the Great All-Nighter.”

There was silence in the room and Trixie was wondering where this all was leading.

“Each of you will act as a team captain and select your own crew to participate in the game, which will be played in the following manner. At the onset, each team will be given a complicated clue, which, when solved, will lead them to the location somewhere in the city. Once there, the team must use its skill and wit to obtain the next clue. That clue leads them to the next location and so forth.

“The game will begin Friday at sunset and continue through the night until one team is the first to arrive at a final location – the finish line. The winning team will receive a trophy and, more importantly, prove to the other teams that theirs is the best group of all.”

Leon smiled at all of them. “I’ll see you all Friday.”

The screen went dark and the lights came back on in the room. The five of them continued to sit there taking in what they had heard.

Trixie tried to be subtle as she looked at the others. From initial appearances, it looked like the guy sitting behind the green envelope was a jock since he was wearing a letterman jacket. The guy behind the white envelope had a pocket calculator in his shirt pocket. The girl behind the pink envelope was part of a sorority based on the sweater she was wearing. She wasn’t sure about the guy behind the blue envelope.

“I can’t believe I came and sat through that,” the guy behind the white envelope said and stood up. “I have exams I need to be studying for and this was a waste of time.”

“Like I’m going to be playing some childish game,” the jock said, pushing back from the table and exiting the room.

Trixie followed the others toward the door and took one last look at the screen. To her, it sounded like it would be a lot of fun to follow clues to win a prize. She loved a good mystery. And if the other teams decided not participate, then they would be missing out.

Now she just needed to go tell the others what was happening and get ready for a fun Friday night.

The evening Trixie was anticipating had arrived and she was thrilled the rest of the Bob-Whites were there with her. When she explained what was to happen, they all readily agreed that it sounded like a fun evening.

They arrived at the starting point and Trixie was pleasantly surprised to see the other four captains had assembled teams, waiting to receive their first clue to get the challenge underway.

The two girls who had delivered the envelope handed out shirts to each team in the color of their envelope.

They walked back and stood beside Leon, who was gazing at each group gathered.

“Good evening. Now that we’re all here, we can begin,” Leon said. “Candy and Sunshine and I will be running the game from my apartment, henceforth to be known as Game Control. We’ll be plotting your progress on the game map. You must phone in from each clue location so that we can keep track of you at all times.”

His phone buzzed and his smile grew bigger. “It is now sunset,” Leon continued. “Candy and Sunshine will distribute the first clue.”

They handed each captain their colored envelope and returned to stand beside Leon.

The envelopes were torn open and Leon said, “The sea is reversed. S.S. Itari is mixed up and blind. 38-22-23/56-10-11.”

There was a pause. “Well, teams, good luck. I’ll see you at the finish line, wherever that may be.”

He turned and walked back into the building with Sunshine and Candy following close behind.

The seven of them made their way toward the station wagon, each of them thinking about the clue.

“Trixie, read it again,” Mart said.

“The sea is reversed. S.S. Itari is mixed up and blind. 38-22-23/56-10-11,” Trixie said.

They stopped next to the station wagon and Trixie set the clue on the hood so they could all look at it.

“Maybe we need to break it down, piece by piece,” Honey said.

“Okay, so the first line is the sea is reversed,” Trixie said.

“Maybe they mean the beach or ocean,” Di said.

“But it says the sea is reversed,” Dan said.

“So, we go away from the beach?” Brian asked.

“Wait,” Honey said, grabbing the clue and pulling out a pen. “The sea is reversed which means it should be sea the.”

“You’re right,” Trixie said.

“Good job, Honey,” Jim said. “So, let’s take the next part.”

“S.S. Itari is mixed up and blind,” Dan said.

“Could it mean the letters to S.S. Itari are scrambled and we need to put them in the right order?” Brian asked.

“That’s probably it, but it states mixed up and blind,” Mart said.

“Wait,” Trixie said. “When you think about blind, what does that mean?”

“Take out the eyes,” Jim said.

“We need to remove the I’s,” Trixie said slipping the pen out of Honey’s hand and crossing out the I’s. “So, the letters we have left are S-S-T-A-R.”

“Stars,” Mart stated. “The remaining letters give us stars.”

“So, we now have see the stars,” Brian said.

“There are so many places we can see celebrities,” Dan said. “How do we narrow it down?”

They heard the squealing of tires and looked up to see the other four teams pulling away, leaving them standing there in disbelief.

“I can’t believe they all figured it out already,” Di said.

“There is no guarantee that they have it correct though,” Trixie said. “I want us to have it right from the start so we aren’t driving all over the city. That would be a waste of time.”

“We still have to figure out what these numbers mean,” Honey said.

“Since it involves stars, could that be an address to one of their homes?” Dan asked.

“I’ve never seen addresses like this,” Jim said.

“What about numbers on a map?” Brian suggested.

“I’m not really sure about that, but we could try to find one,” Trixie said.

“Wait a second,” Di said.

“What do you have, Di?” Trixie asked.

“What if the clue isn’t about celebrities?” Di asked. “What if this clue is about the stars in the sky?”

“There is the observatory with a telescope,” Trixie said, excitedly.

“And the numbers are probably coordinates which will lead us to our next clue,” Honey said with just as much enthusiasm.

“Let’s go,” Jim said and they all scrambled to get to the station wagon.

It didn’t take them long to get to the observatory and they hurried inside. They began searching and found the blue team walking toward them with grins on their faces.

“We’ll be enjoying our winnings while you keep searching for the clue,” the blue team leader said.

“Come on, Harold,” the only female on the blue team said as they headed for the exit.

“There’s the sign for the telescope,” Di said, pointing to the wall in the distance where an arrow directed them to the telescope.

They hurried in that direction. Mart and Trixie hurried up the stairs. Mart put in the coordinates and they watched the telescope turn. Trixie gazed through the lens and saw their next clue.

“To unlock the next clue, find the 8800 keys,” Trixie said.

As Trixie scrambled down to leave, she turned to see Mart watching the telescope moving further away from the coordinates they needed.

“What are you doing?” Trixie asked.

“I’m not going to make it easier on the other teams if they are behind us,” Mart said hurrying to catch up. “We know that at least the blue team was before us and they didn’t leave it on the clue, so we don’t have to do that for the others.”

“Come on,” Dan said. “Let’s get a move on.”

They hurried back through the observatory and out to the station wagon.

“Okay, Trixie,” Honey said pulling out the paper with the first clue. “What is the next one.”

“To unlock the next clue, find the 8800 keys.”

Honey wrote that down and they all pondered what that could mean.

“Maybe a locksmith?” Jim suggested.

“I really hope it doesn’t mean we need to search through 8800 keys to find the clue,” Di said. “That will take forever.”

“Could it be something other than door keys?” Brian asked. “There are keys in music, such as piano keys.”

“That might be the best bet,” Trixie said.

“There is the piano store over on 12^th,” Dan said.

“Let’s try there,” Trixie said. “I don’t have any other ideas right now.”

Jim started the engine and took them to their destination. Just as they pulled into the parking lot, the blue team was pulling out.

“I think we are in the right place,” Mart said as they quickly climbed out and rushed inside.

They slid to a stop once they cleared the doors and were stunned at the number of pianos scattered throughout the place.

“All right, everyone,” Trixie said. “Let’s spread out and see if we can find the clue.”

They all nodded and started examining every inch of each piano they came across. There were music books on some of them that they also flipped through hoping something would catch their attention.

As Trixie moved to every new piano, her positivity that she would find the clue waned. She knew it had to be there since the blue team had been in the place. But she couldn’t understand why they couldn’t find it.

Glancing at her fellow Bob-Whites, she saw they were also looking discouraged at their search. Just as she was about to suggest they regroup to think of another option, she saw Jim was staring at a sign in the middle of the store.

“Jim?” she asked.

He looked at her as she approached. “I found it.”

There was silence for a moment and the others quickly hurried over to stand beside him. On the sign was an outline of Leon’s face with the title “Leon’s Theme.” Below it was a music staff with notes drawn on it.

“Well, we at least found it,” Mart said. “But now we have to figure out what it means.”

“Well, each note is a letter,” Honey said. “In music, there are 7 letters that are used and repeat as they go up another octave.”

“Do you know which notes they are?” Trixie asked, knowing she had never learned to read music.

Honey grabbed the first clue and wrote down the letters A-A-G-F-E-F-E-E.

“I don’t think we unscramble this one,” Honey said.

“Since we are around pianos, do you think we need to play it?” Di asked.

“We can give it a try,” Honey said looking at the sign again before moving over to the nearest piano.

She set the sheet she had written the notes on above the keys and slowly played the notes. She played it again.

“Wait, I think I know that,” Dan said. “It’s a theme song for something.”

“Play it again, Honey,” Trixie said as she watched Dan.

The notes rang through the store again and a grin filled Dan’s face. “That’s the theme to Pabst Blue Ribbon.”

“That must mean the next clue is at the Pabst Brewery,” Brian said.

“Let’s go.”

In no time at all they arrived at the Pabst Brewery and joined a group that was about to start the tour since they couldn’t find the clue at the entrance.

They walked along listening to the guide explain what they were seeing. But for the seven of them, they were vaguely listening as they scoured the path searching for the clue they were looking for.

The tour ended with them in a tasting room where only those over 21 could partake. Trixie, Honey and Di moved away from the bar while the guys took a closer look at the bar since they were of the legal age to drink.

They were standing off to the side when the blue team came away from the bar carrying glasses of beer. They were goofing around and Harold tripped on his own feet.

Trixie saw the full glass tipping toward her and she reached for it so that she wouldn’t end up wearing it and smelling like beer all night.

Harold caught himself and then yelled, “You can’t have my beer!”

“I didn’t take it from you,” Trixie protested. “I only caught it so that I wouldn’t wear it.”

“Is there a problem here?” a security guard asked, approaching them.

“She took my beer and she’s not even old enough to drink,” Harold said, snatching the glass back from her.

Trixie took a breath trying to remain calm. “He tripped and was about to spill his beer. I caught the glass in my hand so as to not wear it or for the glass to hit the floor and break on the ground.”

“Are you over 21?” the guard asked.

Trixie sighed. “Not yet.”

Harold laughed and walked away with the rest of his team.

“Then I’m going to have to ask you to follow me,” the guard said, motioning for the three of them to head toward a side door. “I’m certain that what you are saying is true, but because you are underage and had a glass of alcohol in your hand, I am going to have to escort you out.”

“We understand,” Honey said. “We know that underage drinking is illegal and don’t want to get in trouble for that. And we also know that as a business that makes alcohol, there could be serious repercussions if someone underage has possession of it.”

“This way.” The guard led them toward a door.

They stepped through and were immediately followed by the boys onto a wood walkway near the loading bay for trucks.

“What happened?” Jim asked as the door closed behind them.

“We had a beer in our hands and were asked to leave,” Trixie said with a sad sigh. “I caught the glass so that I wouldn’t wear it and it wouldn’t hit the ground and shatter into a million pieces. But because I’m underage and had a beer in my hand, we had to leave.”

“That sucks,” Mart said.

“The guard was nice about it realizing we were being honest, but we have to follow the rules,” Honey said.

“I’m sorry that I got us kicked out of there,” Trixie said, looking at the floor. “I caused us our chance at finding the next clue. I guess we can just go home. We aren’t going to be able to win this.”

“You’re actually wrong, Trix,” Dan said.

“How can I be?” Trixie asked, looking at him. “We can’t go back in there. How are we going to find the clue if we can’t go into the brewery?”

“Maybe we ended up right where we needed to be,” Dan said with a grin and pointed ahead of them.

They all looked and saw a forklift backing away with a pallet stacked full of beer. On the wall behind the cases was an image of Leon with a dialog bubble as found in comic books, with the words in the bubble “Mr. Carson’s obese male child.”

“What kind if clue is this?” Brian asked.

“Who’s Mr. Carson?” Jim asked.

“Are they talking about Johnny Carson?” Di asked.

“Johnny’s obese male child?” Honey asked.

“Wait a second,” Trixie said. “What is another term for obese?”

“Um, fat?” Dan asked.

“And male child?” Trixie asked.

“Boy?” Jim asked.

“Johnny’s fat boy,” Trixie said.

“Johnnie’s Fat Boy Burger is a restaurant,” Mart said. “I’ve been there.”

“That has to be the location of the next clue,” Trixie said excitedly, grateful to still be in the hunt.

“Let’s go,” Jim said.

They arrived at the restaurant and walked inside. On the sign asking them to wait to be seated, they once again saw an image for Leon with the words “Look between the two giant melons.”

The hostess led them to a large booth. They all ordered melons as wells as drinks to hopefully figure out what the next clue was. They were all brought fruit that had been cut in half. They looked at each and every one, from the outside to the savory sweet interior.

As they examined the pieces, the other teams staggered into the restaurant and ordered melons as well. Blue came in followed by pink, white and green.

More and more melons kept being requested, but they weren’t getting anywhere.

Trixie leaned back in the seat feeling her patience waning. They were missing something.

“Okay, this place has melons and we have ordered a bunch, not really finding the clue,” Trixie said aloud. “We have to be missing something.”

“The clue states look between the two giant melons and we have been looking between the two giant melons,” Di said.

“What if we are taking the clue too literally,” Dan said staring across the restaurant.

They others turned their gaze from him to see where he was looking. They watched the waitress turn away from the table of the pink team and realized her uniform allowed for her well-endowed bosom to be exposed. From their distance, they couldn’t see anything that could be their clue. They needed a closer look.

Dan knocked his glass over, spilling water all over the table.

“Excuse me, Miss. We had a spill.”

She nodded as she grabbed a cloth from the counter and hurried over to the table to help them clean it up. They all tried to discretely look.

“There’s a cockroach in my water,” came from the pink team.

“Excuse me,” she said and hurried over to them, picking up the glass and trying to find the cockroach.

“Oh, Miss. Miss,” came the call from the white table.

“Miss, we need you,” came from the green table.

“Oh, Miss?” Dan asked.

The waitress took a step and her head started swiveling in every direction as she was called from table to table, constantly being redirected before she could reach them.

“Ahhh!”

The restaurant went silent as Harold lifted the table, dumping all the items that had been on it onto the floor.

The waitress hurried over toward the table, but slipped on the mess. Her necklace went flying and ended up landing in the bucket used for busing tables.

“The necklace,” Dan yelled.

Trixie watched Dan jump over the back of the booth and hurried to the bucket. The other teams knocked him to the ground, but he managed to hang onto it. With the other teams piled on top of him, he opened his hand to see the words “Hug Me” in the middle of the chain.

Everyone scrambled to leave, dropping money on their tables to cover their bill.

They headed out to the station wagon as they tried to figure out what the clue meant.

“Could this be scrambled like the first one?” Brian asked.

“What words could it be?” Trixie asked.

They reached the car and immediately started throwing out words that would hopefully give them an idea as to where they needed to go next.

“Hugem?” Jim asked.

“Mehug?” Brian asked.

“Jim, what did you say?” Trixie asked.

“Hugem,” Jim answered.

“What about Huge M?” Trixie asked.

Dan’s eyes went wide. “That has to be it.”

“What am I missing?” Di asked.

“What is the one place that has a giant M on it?” Dan asked.

“The miniature golf place,” Mart said.

“Looks like it’s time to go have some fun,” Brian said.

“As much as we want to leave right now, we have a problem,” Jim said.

“What’s wrong?” Honey asked.

“We have a flat tire,” Jim said, crouching down beside the tire.

“Just great,” Trixie said.

“Awww, looks like you weren’t paying attention to where you were driving,” Harold said as he leaned out of the window. “Hope this doesn’t put you out of the game.”

He laughed as the van pulled away.

“Let’s get this changed,” Dan said, opening the back to retrieve the spare tire. He pulled out the jack and handed it to Jim. “We are not letting them beat up in this game.”

They worked together and managed to get the tire changed quickly. They jumped in and headed to play a round of golf.

Arriving, they saw the other teams were there and playing through the holes. They finally got inside and read the clue “Somewhere you will find the clue. No cheating. You must play the entire round. Do not go directly to the 18^th hole.”

They all grabbed clubs and the ball in their favorite color and started playing. They could see the blue team wasn’t much farther ahead of them and that the leader looked aggravated making them think that they had gone to the 18^th hole and were sent back to the start.

They went to hole after hole, keeping an eye out for the clue. But they weren’t having much luck. They reached the 17^th hole and Dan easily got a hole in one.

“Great job, Dan!” Di said.

“Thanks.”

They finished the last two holes without finding the clue and were disappointed thinking they had missed it. They went to return the clubs and were handed a token.

“Thank you,” Honey said.

As they walked away, Honey looked at the wooden token and stopped in her tracks.

“Honey, you can’t stop like that,” Brian gently scolded.

“Come on,” Honey said. “We need to go.”

“We haven’t found the clue yet,” Trixie protested.

Honey turned to look her best friend in the eye. “We need to go.”

Trixie stared at her for a moment and then said, “Okay.”

They went out to the parking lot and climbed into the station wagon.

“What did you find?” Trixie asked.

“The next clue,” Honey said.

“Really?” Trixie asked.

“What does it say?” Mart asked.

“Look at xylophones initially. 530 AM,” Honey said.

“What is it with Leon and musical instruments?” Jim asked.

“Initially is the clue,” Brian said.

“What do you mean?” Trixie asked.

“We don’t want to look at the words as a whole, but at the first letter of each word,” Brian explained.

“That would be LAX,” Jim answered.

“Then we need to go to the airport,” Mart said.

Jim pulled out of the parking lot and began the trek to their destination.

“But what does the 530 AM mean?” Dan asked.

“5:30 in the morning?” Di asked.

“It can’t be because it’s only 2:30 now,” Mart said.

They entered the airport and drove around looking for any sign of Leon or what their clue could be. They circled the airport several times, but seemed to be striking out.

“Has anyone seen anything that could be the clue?” Trixie asked, frustration evident in her voice.

“I can’t believe we missed it,” Honey said pointing out the front windshield.

They all looked at saw the sign “Airport Info 530 AM.”

“Dial in the station,” Trixie said excitedly.

Brian leaned forward and adjusted the dial to the right station and then turned the volume up.

“And there is limited five-minute parking in the green zone. Bus service is available near the west entrance. Greetings, teams. This is Leon. In case I’ve got you running around in circles, you might want to know that the clue can be found in terminal three.”

“We need to find a place to park and get into the terminal,” Trixie said.

“Actually, you guys go find the clue and I will continue circling the airport and pull back up so you can jump in afterward,” Jim said. “It will probably take too much time to find a place to park and then get back to the vehicle. This will save us time.”

“Good idea,” Honey said.

Jim pulled to the curb and the other six scrambled to get out. They hurried into the airport.

“Please accept our humble literature,” a man dressed all in white said stepping in front of them holding a pile of pamphlets.

“No thank you,” Di said as they hurried past, beginning to search the terminal for the clue.

They checked under the chairs, examined all the signs they saw knowing Leon had used signs previously.

As they continued searching, the other teams arrived and everyone was scrambling to find the clue.

Trixie stood back and examined the area, watching everyone as they searched. She knew they were missing something. The message said the clue could be found in terminal 3. She couldn’t understand why they were missing it.

They had scrutinized every part of each seat thinking the clue was there, but they had come up empty. The green team was now taking the garbage cans and dumping them in the terminal thinking the clue had been hidden there. But it was another dead end.

“Ahhhh!” came a yell.

Trixie whipped her head to the right to see the man in white they had encountered upon arrival slip on something and fall to the floor. All the pamphlets in his hand went flying.

She hurried over to him.

“Are you all right?”

“I am fine,” he said. “Thank you for your kindness in checking on me.”

Trixie nodded. “Let me help you clean this up.”

“Thank you.”

She scooped a bunch of pamphlets that had fallen nearby into a pile. As she began to straighten them, a familiar face stared back from the front of it.

The clue read “His holiness says: ‘You’re off your rocker if you don’t look inside the locker’.”

She closed her eyes and repeated it several times in her head to know she had it memorized.

Her hands quickly made a neat pile and handed it back to the man who met her gaze and gave her a small smile.

“Thank you again for your assistance,” he said.

“You’re welcome.”

They stood up and Trixie looked at the searchers. She saw Honey straighten up from the row of chairs she had been examining. Discretely, Trixie motioned with her head for Honey to head away from the chairs.

As Honey moved toward Trixie, the rest of the Bob-Whites saw the movement and also walked toward her.

“I think we got it wrong,” Trixie said. “We are missing something in that clue that Leon gave us.”

“I have to agree,” Brian said. “I’m not sure what it could be, but nothing seems out of place.”

“Maybe we just weren’t meant to finish this challenge,” Di said.

“Come on,” Trixie said.

They turned and left terminal three as the other four teams continued to scour the area.

When they got far enough away, Trixie said, “Just follow me, don’t say anything.”

“Trixie?” Dan asked.

“What did I just say?” Trixie asked.

The six of them hurried along. Trixie saw the row of lockers and some of them had a color representing the team. She got the locker open and pulled four items out, three cards and a ball.

“There they are!”

The Bob-Whites looked over their shoulders and saw the other teams racing in their direction.

“Let’s get out of here,” Dan said and they headed for the exit.

The timing was perfect as Jim pulled around and they quickly climbed in.

“All right,” Trixie said. “We have these items which must lead to our next destination.”

“I know we need to figure this out, but could we stop and grab something to eat and drink as we put the clues together?” Mart asked. “We’ve been going for hours and I know the rest of you are probably starving as well.”

“I hate to agree with him, but we should probably get something to eat,” Dan said.

“All in favor?” Trixie asked.

“Aye,” came the unanimous vote.

“There’s a diner nearby that I saw as I was circling,” Jim said. “They are open all night. We can grab some food and use the time to decipher the clues.”

They arrived at the diner and quickly ordered something to eat and drink. There were outdoor tables so they decided to settle there since it was a nice night and they could also watch for the other teams.

Once they had their food, the four items were set on the table in front of them. There were 3 pictures and a small red ball. The pictures were a safety pin, a chair and a capital E.

They started moving the items around, trying to figure out what it all meant.

“What about this?” Dan asked, putting the picture of the chair, the E and then the safety pin in a row. “Cherry Point?”

“But what about the ball?” Jim asked.

“I’m not sure how it fits,” Dan said.

“What if the safety pin means pin instead of point?” Brian asked.

“Pin sit,” Di said.

“Pin E,” Honey said.

“Pinball,” Trixie said and quickly put the pin next to the ball.

“That makes sense,” Mart said. “And that leaves us with chair and E.”

“We used the action of the pin,” Jim said. “What do you do in a chair?”

“You sit,” Dan said.

“Sit – E,” Trixie said excitedly. “Pinball City. That is where the next clue is.”

“Then let’s go.”

They tossed their trash into the garbage and hurried to get into the station wagon.

In no time at all they pulled into parking lot of Pinball City. They went inside and saw no one else was there.

They finally found a likeness of Leon on one of the pinball games. “Play the Star Fire video game. Beat the machine and you’ll see the next clue.”

“Let me take a crack at this,” Dan said. “I played a lot of these growing up and should be able to get us the clue.”

The rest of the Bob-Whites surrounded the game and watched Dan play. It took a couple of turns, but he seemed to get the hang of it. With each hit of the flipper, the points accumulated.

Bells and whistles sounded from the game when is showed Dan had achieved the highest score.

“Greetings, Earth people,” they heard Leon say. “Congratulations. The finish line is somewhere in the Bonaventure Hotel.”

“We need to go,” Trixie said and they turned to leave.

They only got a couple steps away from the machine when the other teams came through the door.

“We know you know what the clue is,” Harold said. “You can just tell us now and we can all have a fair fight at the next destination.”

“We’re not telling you anything,” Trixie said. “You might think you’re intimidating, but you’re not. If you want to win, you need to figure out the clue on your own.”

“If you’re leaving, we will just follow you,” the green leader said.

“So, instead of playing the game fairly with integrity, you are going to cheat,” Trixie said.

“Who cares if we cheat?” Harold said. “There was nothing in Leon’s rules that said we had to play fairly.”

“We want the clue and we want it now,” the leader of the pink team said.

“Trixie, we might want to just give it to them,” Di said. “There are more of them than there are of us and I don’t want to get into trouble.”

“Fine,” Trixie said. “I will tell you where the clue is, but I’m not telling you what it is. And I will only do that once you all move away from the doorway.”

The other four teams shared looks before moving away from the door. Trixie ushered the rest of the Bob-Whites toward the door as she remained in place. Once they were out the door, she said, “You need to play that pinball game to get the clue.”

As the others pushed their way toward the game, Trixie slipped past them and out the door. The other Bob-Whites were already in the station wagon with Brian behind the wheel.

“Let’s go,” Trixie said, jumping into the back seat. “I don’t know how long it will take them to either win the game or break it as they fight to see who will play first.”

“Got it,” Brian said, pulling out to head to the hotel.

“I can’t believe they wanted you to just give up the information to them,” Di said. “This is a game.”

“For some people, they’ll do whatever they want to win because that’s the most important thing,” Dan said. “If there are rules, they will have no problem breaking them to get ahead of everyone else. They don’t have any morals.”

They arrived at the hotel and went to the front desk.

“Excuse me,” Trixie said. “I was wondering if a Mr. Leon left a message for me? Possibly in a yellow envelope?”

“I’m sorry, Miss, but I don’t have anything here from a Mr. Leon or a yellow envelope,” the front desk clerk said.

“Okay,” Trixie said. “Thank you.”

The clerk nodded and Trixie moved over toward the others who were scanning the lobby for the clue. But there wasn’t anything.

They started to head toward the restaurant thinking they might find something there. But it was another dead end.

In the distance they could hear a commotion and looked to see the pink and white teams were present, tossing luggage off the trolley’s that helped guests check in and out.

“Security to the lobby! Security to the lobby!” came a frantic voice over the speakers.

“We need to be careful,” Trixie said.

“We need to avoid the other teams and potentially getting tossed out of here for not being guests,” Jim suggested.

They went around a corner and saw there were small clusters of people outside a banquet room and felt they could blend in with the crowd while the other teams were causing trouble.

The noise out in the lobby dwindled down and that made them feel safe that they could continue searching for the clue.

“Paging Mr. Players. Mr. Game Players,” came over the speaker system. “Please pick up a hotel courtesy phone.”

“Where can we find one?” Trixie asked, looking around and hoping there was one close by.

“Over there,” Mart said, pointing down the hall.

The seven of them took off running and Trixie picked up the phone.

“Look at the pool area and I mean this expressly,” Leon said and the call was ended.

“We need to go to the pool area,” Trixie said, putting the phone back.

“This way,” Jim said leading them down the hall to the outdoor pool.

There was no one by the pool, so they knew the needed to find the clue to lead them to the finish line. They spread out checking the white lounge chairs, tables and umbrellas for a sign they were in the right place.

Trixie’s eyes scanned the area feeling they were missing something.

She repeated the clue in her head, “Look at the pool area and I mean this expressly.”

Her eyes took in her surroundings as she slowly rotated her body 360 degrees to hopefully find what she was missing. As she was nearing the starting point, she stopped moving when she noticed a glass elevator going up the exterior of the hotel.

“Look at the pool area and I mean this expressly,” she said softly. “That must be it.”

She blew the Bob-White whistle and saw the others stop what they were doing and turn to her.

“This way.”

Leading the way back into the hotel, she passed the blue team who were about to go out to the pool area.

Trixie got to the elevator first and was grateful when the doors opened. She hit up and the others quickly jumped in, with Mart making it just before the doors closed. She could see Harold’s angry face that he hadn’t been able to get into the elevator with them.

“Where are we going?” Dan asked breathlessly.

“The clue states “look at the pool area, I mean this expressly” which tells me we need to be in the elevator,” Trixie said, turning to look out the glass. “We have to be in the elevator to find the clue.”

They all turned and stared through the windows, scanning the ground below for the clue.

“There!” Honey called out, pointing.

They all could see a bunch of tables had been arranged to form 2704.

“That’s the finish line,” Trixie said. “Hit the button for the 27^th floor.”

“There is no button for that floor,” Mart said.

“What?”

They all turned and saw there were only 2 buttons – roof and main.

“Oh, no,” Trixie said.

“Don’t fret yet. We just hit the down button as soon as we reach the top and then jump into a regular elevator when we reach the main floor,” Dan said.

All of them were anxious and wished they could get the elevator to move faster. Looking down, Trixie could see the blue team were in the second exterior elevator and were just about ten feet below.

Feeling that the other elevator was the same as theirs, it would end up being a foot race once they reached the lobby. They all probably had to be together when they entered the room to be declared the winners and that any of the other teams would do all that they could to stop them from getting their first.

The elevator doors opened when they reached the top and Mart hit the button for down and then to close the doors.

Just as the doors closed, they saw the other elevator doors open.

Both teams were descending once again. Glancing back out the windows, they saw the other three teams were out by the pool, the pink and green teams falling into the water.

They knew it was going to come down to yellow and blue in determining a winner.

The closer they got to the ground, the more anticipation they felt.

“Be ready,” Trixie said. “I know there is a regular elevator just down to the left a bit. We need to get to that one to make it to the 27^th floor.”

“Got it,” Dan said, who was right in front of the door.

The elevator came to a halt and the door slowly started to open. When there was enough room to slip out, Dan went first and they all followed before the doors opened fully.

They ran down the hall and luck was in their favor as they got into a car that had just arrived. Trixie hit the 27^th floor button while Honey hit the close door button. The car jerked into motion and they all watched the numbers increase as they passed each floor.

The elevator came to a halt at the 6^th floor as the doors opened. A couple was going to get on and asked, “Going down?”

“Up,” Honey said.

“We’ll grab another one,” the woman said. “Thank you.”

Honey hit the close door button again and they were moving upward once more.

“Hurry,” Trixie whispered. “Please hurry.”

The elevator halted at the 10^th floor and they all groaned. The doors opened again, revealing a family of five and the kids were ready to just get on without looking.

“We’ll grab another one,” the man said, “since there isn’t room for us.”

Honey pressed the button once again and the tension was building. They didn’t like that they kept getting stopped and only hoped the blue team was having the same issue.

The numbers kept rising and they none of them could keep from fidgeting.

“Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six,” Di counted.

The elevator stopped.

“No!” Mart exclaimed.

The door opened and they didn’t see anyone.

They heard the ding of another elevator reaching the twenty-sixth floor.

“Honey, quick, close the door.”

She did as told and the door slowly slid shut. Before it closed they heard the blue team and knew they were right there. It was going to come to a foot race.

“Be ready,” Trixie said. “I’m not sure which way the room is, so we need to fast.”

“Got it,” Brian said.

The elevator stopped for what they knew was the last time in this challenge and they all leaned forward to get through the door as soon as it opened.

Trixie was first through the door and was grateful the hotel had signs indicating the direction to go for specific room numbers.

She saw the one they needed was to the right, so she took off running and could hear the rest of the Bob-Whites following right behind her. She had to turn left and continued along, catching numbers outside the doors as she ran. She got to the end of the hallway and had to turn left once more. The numbers for this section were descending and where they needed to be was about halfway down.

They were about twenty feet away from the door when the blue team came around the corner from the opposite direction. They were about the same distance away.

The blue team moved first and ran toward the door. Trixie took off wanting to beat them knowing they had not played fair, suspecting they were responsible for their flat tire.

She beat the blue team to the door by two steps and threw the door open.

Stepping inside she was covered in confetti.

“Yellow team wins!” said Leon.

The rest of the Bob-Whites entered the room and engulfed Trixie in a large group hug. They had done it, they had won the All-Nighter.

“NO!” Harold complained. “This was supposed to be my win!”

The celebration was moved from the room down to one of the banquet rooms where a buffet had been set up for all the teams to enjoy.

Once they all had plates of food and drinks, Leon stood at one end of the room with Candy and Sunshine on either side of him. Right in front of him was the trophy.

“I want to thank all of you for participating in the Great All-Nighter,” Leon said. “This was a year of planning and everything went as I was hoping.” He looked at each team. “I applaud each team for a job well done in reaching the final destination, however, there can only be one winner.” His gaze ended at the table where the Bob-Whites sat. “The first team to get to the finish line was the yellow team, so you are the recipients of this trophy.”

Leon picked it up in the air as the other teams, except blue, applauded.

“Go get it, Trixie,” Honey said.

She got to her feet and made her way to Leon. Trixie shook his hand when she reached him and then accepted the trophy with a smile.

“Thank you so much for inviting us to participate,” Trixie said. “We had so much fun figuring out the clues and visiting all the different places. This was a great activity before finals and we will remember it always.”

“You’re welcome,” Leon said. “Enjoy the food.”

Trixie returned to the table and set the trophy in the middle.

She smiled at the others. “So, does this count as a successfully solved mystery?”

“I would say so,” Honey said.

“We definitely got through it without being shot at, kidnapped or drowned,” Brian said.

“I think I’m okay with these kinds of mysteries,” Jim said. “We got to spend time together and had a lot of fun figuring everything out.”

“We make a good team,” Di said.

“That’s because we’re Bob-Whites,” Dan said.

“I’ll eat to that,” Mart said around a mouthful of waffles and they all laughed.

Trixie leaned back in her seat as she stared at the trophy.

She was tired, but in a good way from all their travels through the night. It had taken a lot of work finding each clue and working through the puzzles. She enjoyed it a lot and knew this just confirmed her love of mysteries, pushing her along the path to follow her dream of being a private detective.

No matter what anyone said, she could do it.