Mr. Noland the wise

Tom snapped back to reality and turned to see his dad standing in the doorway. "Hi Dad." He stood up from his desk chair and went over to sit on the bed, in the same position as last night. A surge of anxiety swelled in his chest, hope and fear battling over his emotions as he awaited the verdict.

His dad joined him, a somber look on his face, his eyes staring at the Diary of Mysterious Clues gripped in both of his hands. "Tom, I have read through this a million times and thought about it all day." He finally looked at his son.

"And you think I am a psycho?" Tom was amazed that at the same time he could both want and not want his dad to tell him what he thought of everything.

"No, not at all. I believe it. All of it." 

Tom couldn't suppress the huge grin that shot across his face.

"Really?"

His dad nodded. "There's something I didn't tell you last night. I, uh, saw you talking to the tall robot you called Machina. I saw for myself that it was real. And the whole thing about that stuff—"

Tom knew what he was referring to. "Gnomes."

   "Gnomes?"

   "Yeah."

   "Well, I can't get that attack out of my mind. Then there's the letter from Alsace. I know you don't know anyone up there." He shook his head. "It's a lot of evidence, son. A lot."

"So you—"

His dad held up a hand, cutting off Tom. "But that's not why I am convinced."

"It's not?"

   "No." His dad leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "Tom I have known you for fifteen years, and I can't think of a time when you've ever lied to me. You're too smart to lie, too good of a person. I trusted you, and as I looked into your eyes as you told me this crazy story, I knew it was true. Now I wanted some time to think about it and such, but I knew."

Tom wanted to say something cheesy and profound, but all that came out was, "Cool."

His dad laughed. "Yeah, cool. I can feel it deep down that this is important and that you've been chosen to help because you're a special kid. There's always been something almost magical about you, Tom, and I think I knew that someday your life would take a turn for the unique. We've never really talked about it, but I always felt like you had a guardian angel or some kind of special gift. These letters and clues and all this weird stuff are related somehow."

Tom had no idea what his father was talking about and didn't care because he was too excited to finally have someone nearby who knew what was going on. "So you'll help me figure it out?"

"Now, maybe I can help a little here and there with the riddles, but"—he pointed a finger at Tom— "you better believe I am going to be the toughest body guard anyone's ever had. All this dangerous stuff scares me too, you know?" He reached out and gave his patented bear hug, then leaned back. "So where do we go from here?"

Tom shrugged. "I guess we just keep getting the clues and hope we can figure everything out by August six."

His father scratched his chin in deep thought. "Yeah..." He seemed doubtful or troubled.

"What?"

  "I guess this M.S. guy wants you to be a little more proactive. You know, dig a little deeper to find out what's going on." 

"Dad, I can tell you're really thinking too hard because it looks like you might bust a vein."

His dad ignored the joke. "You have two weeks off from school for summer, right?"

"Right."

"And I have plenty of vacation time..." He paused. "But what would we do about your mom? I don't want her to be involved in this. She'd worry herself to death's door faster than she could bake a batch of peanut-butter cookies."

"Dad, what are you talking about?"

His dad's eyes focused on Tom. "I think we should do a little investigating."

"Investigating?"

"Yeah." He reached out and held onto Tom's shoulder. "In Alsace."

                                         ~

By the next evening, Mr. Noland had it all arranged, in no small part due to his clever and cunning mind. He kept telling himself this. After using the internet to discover that Mulhouse, Alsace, was only three hours' drive from where his wife's friend lived in Haguenau, everything fell into place. He'd later got her contact and explained that they were coming over for something important, but he lied. Mr. Noland hadn't seen his wife's friend in years, and his wife had told him awhile back about her. He'd later found out she stayed in Alsace since she got a paying job which interested her.

The plans were set, the tickets purchased, the rental car reserved.

In ten days, just after few days into summer, Mr. Noland and his son would fly to Haguenau, Alsace, for a three-day visit with Aunt Lisa.

Mom had grilled Tom's dad on how crazy it sounded to go on a vacation on such short notice, but Mr. Noland played it all cool, claiming he'd been wanting to check out a museum ever since Tom had gotten the letter from Alsace. And the summer break gave them a perfect opportunity.

He also used the excuse that because the tickets were expensive, only two people could afford to go. Plus, Tom had been a baby the last time he had seen Aunt Lisa, so he didn't know her at all. Lorena and his mom seemed more than pleased to not have to go to a bitterly land of 181 hours of sunshine, with only a bit of rainfall to cool the nights mostly.

Finally, Mr. Noland pulled out all the stops, asking his wife if she was really in the mood to hear Lisa tell her fifty top things she'd done wrong in her life.

She kissed her husband and told him to have a good time.

Mr. Noland told Lisa the news over the phone, after lots of confirmation. She almost blew off his left eardrum with her shrieks of excitement. She was all about jumpy to see her friend's little baby, which was Tom.

All in all, the plan fell into place quite nicely.

Mr. Noland only hoped that once they got to Alsace, Lisa would quit talking long enough to allow them to investigate the town of Mulhouse.

Someone had sent that first letter.

And Mr. Noland meant to find out who.