C. B. Andersen - The Book of Mormon Sleuth

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Andersen, C.B. (Carl Blaine), 1961

The Book of Mormon sleuth / C.B. Andersen.

p. cm.

Summary: Great Aunt Ella gives fourteen-year-old Brandon her rare edition of the Book of Mormon, expecting him to follow its teachings and keep it safe from the menacing thief who is determined to take it from her Iowa farm.

ISBN 1-57345-664-0 (pbk.)

[1. MormonsFiction. 2. Book of MormonFiction. 3. Farm lifeIowaFiction. 4. Great-auntsFiction. 5. IowaFiction] I. Title.

PZ7.A51887 Bo 2000

[Fic]dc21 00-025616

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18961-6655

For Chloe

Preface

The purpose of this book is to introduce principles taught in the Book of Mormon through a medium that will keep young readers (or listeners) interested and involveda work of fiction, filled with excitement and adventure. The intent is that the principles will remain firmly embedded in the reader's mind after the book has been put away. Obviously, the principles need to be applied to real life for them to be viable, but one must first know the principle before it can be applied.

This book will be most fun for those readers who already have some understanding and familiarity with the Book of Mormon and for those willing to keep a copy of the Book of Mormon nearby as they read; but the book can be easily enjoyed by any and all. Some Book of Mormon references are never actually quoted, leaving it to the reader to find and read them.

Chapter 1

Don't Bet on the Weather

April in Utah usually isn't too hard to figure out, but this year it was. We'd had a lot of snow in March, but just a week later it was way too hot to even wear a jacket to school. At least that's what I argued to Mom. I was standing on the porch with the front door open.

"If I wear a coat today, I'll be the only one of my friends who does! It's hot out herecome feel it!"

She's always worried about me getting picked on, so I usually win the argument when I use the "only one of my friends" trick. Luckily, we live less than a block from the school. In fact, you can see it from our front yard. She didn't end up making me wear my coat, but she did stand on the sidewalk and watch me all the way around the corner of the school building. I guess she was worried that I would suddenly get hit by a blast of cold, Alaskan air and fall over frozen in the sixty seconds it took me to get from our house to the school.

It turned out I was about the only one of my friends who didn't have a coat. The coat hooks for the sixth graders were completely full. Gabe's mom had told him that a big storm was coming and convinced him he'd need a coat on the way home. By afternoon recess time, it was starting to get a little cold, but after a few minutes of running around, it didn't feel too bad.

I hit the crash bar on the school door at a dead run about ten seconds after Miss Cook told us we were "dismissed for the day." By the time I got to the bottom of the four stairs, I realized it was far too cold outside for any living creature that wanted to stay that way. So I spun around and headed right back up the stairs into the school. I stood just inside the glass doors staring at huge, fluffy snowflakes that were falling so thick you could barely see to the corner of the building. There was already about an inch on the ground. Gabe came running down the hall. He gave me a weird look and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"It's cold!" I whined. My arms and shoulders gave a little shudder just thinking about it.

"I told you it was going to snow today," he said with a goofy look.

I watched him run out the door and down the stairs, then slip on the last step and land right on his backside. A couple of kids laughed at him as he slopped around in the snow trying to get up, then limped around the corner toward home.

"If you're so smart, why didn't you wear your boots?" I yelled after him, but he was already long gone.

It took only about half a minute of people saying, "What are you doing, Brandon?" and "Why aren't you going home?" and "Did you forget something?" before I decided I had better just run as fast as I could and hope my mom wouldn't give me too much grief for refusing to wear a coat.

I came flying around the corner of the school faster than I ever had before. I usually wait for the crossing guard to hold up her cute little "stop" sign before charging into the street, but she's learned that there are certain times when I'm willing to take my life into my own hands, and if she wants to keep me safe she'd better be ready. This was one of those times. Luckily, even with the big snowflakes, she saw me coming and managed to get pretty close to the middle of the road with her sign held up high before my foot left the sidewalk. I always try to be polite, so I yelled, "Thanks!" as I ran past her. She yelled something, too, about a hospital or an asylum, but I didn't catch the whole thing.

Whenever I do something pretty dumb Mom always says that I'd "better learn this" or "better learn that" before the next time. Well, today I was trying to figure out how to avoid her lecture when I saw Dad's car parked in the driveway. What's going on? I wondered. He's never there when I get home from school. Usually I'm over at Gabe's house till dinnertime, and he picks me up on his way home from work. When I tromped into the house, I was surprised to see him standing in the kitchen talking to Mom.

"I think we ought to do it," Dad was saying.

Mom looked annoyed and said, "Craig, we don't have anything arranged!"

"We don't have anything arranged for what?" I asked.

"We can take care of things before we need to leave, and besides, this is a perfect opportunity," Dad answered.

"Perfect opportunity for what?" I asked again, but neither of them seemed to notice me.

Mom asked Dad, "Well, what are we going to do with the house for the next two months?"

"Why aren't we going to be in our house for the next two months?" I asked, giving them another opportunity to include me in the conversation.

I was starting to get worried. Mom and Dad had told us we probably wouldn't get a vacation this summer. Dad always teaches the summer term at the state college beginning the last part of June. We usually take a family trip the first half of June, but this year he was trying to put together a new class or something. He had told us he was going to be busy doing research, so we probably wouldn't be going anywhere. But now it was starting to sound like things might be changing. It always got scary when Dad had big plans.

"It's a perfect setup, Sarah. The farm is only about forty miles from Waterloo. I can do my research there, as long as I'm back at my office by the first part of June. You know," Dad continued, "this will be the only chance the kids have for a vacation this year."