{"id":14406,"date":"2018-02-15T14:16:15","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=14406"},"modified":"2018-02-16T17:19:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T22:19:45","slug":"the-tell-tale-togo-or-the-vanishing-picnic-or-wolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/the-tell-tale-togo-or-the-vanishing-picnic-or-wolves\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tell-Tale Togo or The Vanishing Picnic or WOLVES!"},"content":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2018 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

By Joan Connor<\/p>\n

\"Fiction-FM18\"Where was Togo? And where was the picnic basket? The chums huddled together under the old oak. Suddenly barking and yipping cut the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWolves,\u201d Bess stammered.<\/p>\n

No namby-pamby, our feisty girl detective shook her head. \u201cWe have to go find Togo,\u201d she announced.<\/p>\n

George agreed. Bess stooped to pick up the basket which had already vanished.<\/p>\n

A cry rose over the barking. \u00a0Bess stumbled over the missing basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d our plucky detective said, \u201clet\u2019s go find Togo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three friends walked down the hill in the direction of the barking. But the barking had stopped. And the cry had long faded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere are we headed, chum?\u201d lanky George asked her blonde cousin with the red highlights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a disappointing chase, I admit,\u201d Nancy stated. \u201cKeep walking. I have an instinct about this mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three kept walking along the grass path. Nancy occasionally bent to study patches of matted grass on the path.<\/p>\n

\u201cHmmm,\u201d she opined. \u201cI suspect an ominous escape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it, Nancy,\u201d George asked eagerly. \u201cIs it a clue?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, \u201c said Nancy. \u201cIt is a clue and a plot plant so that when I shortly reveal the disastrous news you will not be surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that moment a coincidence happened to advance the plot. Togo trotted down the path toward the three chums.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogo,\u201d George yelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogo,\u201d Bess yelled with delighted surprise.<\/p>\n

Only Nancy seemed unsurprised as she welcomed her wriggling little fice. \u201cCome on, all\u201d she said. \u201cFollow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

They followed her into a little copse. Togo trotted over to the base of a tree. Ned Nickerson clung to one of the branches, fortunately strong enough to climb and cling as a member of Emerson\u2019s varsity basketball, baseball, football.<\/p>\n

Nancy laughed and shook her head. He might speak Cantonese, but that couldn\u2019t keep the dogs from treeing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d asked Bess.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d asked George.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you see?\u201d Nancy asked. The footsteps in the grass were Ned Nickerson\u2019s. Ned snatched the picnic basket as the storm neared. Togo smelled the mystery meat and hung onto it. The first scream we heard was Ned\u2019s\u2013to distract us. The smell of the mystery meat attracted other dogs who pursued Ned, forcing him to climb the tree. The second cry was also Ned\u2019s as he escaped from the dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bess fluttered her eyes.<\/p>\n

George asked, \u201cBut why<\/em> did Ned swipe our picnic basket?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy indeed?\u201d Nancy asked, facing Ned, arms akimbo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a joke,\u201d Ned, ever the prankster, said. His eyes sparkled.<\/p>\n

Nancy laughed. Oh that scamp. \u201cCome down, Ned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ned came down. \u201cI am afraid that the dogs got the picnic basket.\u201d He handed Nancy half of a mystery meat sandwich that he still squeezed in his hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, Ned,\u201d Nancy said with dancing eyes, \u201cwhat a startling gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foursome laughed and laughed.<\/p>\n

Back in River Heights in Carson Drew\u2019s living room, Hannah Gruen served the chums angel cake and fruit juice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is yummy,\u201d Bess said with a plump mouthful.<\/p>\n

George nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis came for you,\u201d Hannah said. She handed Nancy an envelope. Nancy, sporting one of her trim shirtwaist dresses, sat down in Carson Drew\u2019s wingchair.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever could this be?\u201d she asked. Nancy tore open the envelope and removed a photograph. She studied it. \u201cWhat a spooky photograph.\u201d She turned it over and read off the back, \u201cThe old haunted mansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUh oh,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUh oh,\u201d Bess mumbled through angel cake crumbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cUh oh,\u201d Togo said doggedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old haunted mansion,\u201d Nancy Drew said. \u201cI wonder where that is,\u201d she mused.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The End<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February\/March 2018 | view this story as a .pdf By Joan Connor Where was Togo? And where was the picnic basket? The chums huddled together under the old oak. Suddenly barking and yipping cut the air. \u201cWolves,\u201d Bess stammered. No namby-pamby, our feisty girl detective shook her head. \u201cWe have to go find Togo,\u201d she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[191],"class_list":["post-14406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","tag-februarymarch-2018"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14406"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14612,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14406\/revisions\/14612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}