Read Class of '59 (American Journey Book 4) for Free Online Page A

of Frankenstein," Mary Beth said.
    Mark started to laugh but stopped when a young woman, wearing a pink bathrobe and long brown hair tied in a ponytail, opened the door. The girl looked a lot like Mary Beth and even Sleeping Beauty, but she wore the scowl of Frankenstein's bride.
    "Did you forget your key?" Piper McIntire asked.
    "I did," Mary Beth said. "I went for a walk and locked myself out."
    Piper gave Mark the once over and then looked at her sister.
    "Who is this?"
    Mary Beth smiled.
    "This is Mark Ryan. He's a movie extra I met on my walk."
    Mark laughed.
    "It's too early for jokes," Piper said to her sister. She turned around and started to walk away. "Shut the door behind you. I'm going back to bed."
    "Piper?" Mary Beth asked.
    Piper turned around.
    "What?"
    "Stick around for a minute," Mary Beth said.
    "Why?"
    "We want to talk to you."
    Piper glared at her sibling.
    "I'm tired and grumpy, Mary Beth. I don't want to do anything but sleep."
    "Trust me," Mary Beth said. "You want to hear what we have to say."
    Piper put her hands on her hips.
    "You have ten minutes."
    Mary Beth smiled.
    "We'll only need five."
     

CHAPTER 8: PIPER
     
    Friday, June 2, 2017
     
    Piper muttered to herself as she followed Mary Beth and the movie extra around the front of the Painted Lady to a gate, the backyard, and a stairway that led to the basement.
    She did not want to traipse around the grounds in her bathrobe. She did not want to visit. She wanted to sleep. She had agreed to put off that sleep only after Mary Beth had made a fantastic claim and offered to pay Piper a hundred dollars if she could not prove that claim.
    Mark led Mary Beth and Piper down the stairs, opened a door with a skeleton key, and then led the sisters into a dark, gloomy, tunnel-like chamber. A moment later, Mark shut the door, leaned against a wall, and looked at Piper as a string of overhead lights started to flicker.
    "This will only take a few seconds," Mark said.
    Piper stared at Mary Beth.
    "I want the money before lunch."
    Mary Beth smiled.
    "You haven't earned it yet."
    "I think we're good to go," Mark said. He opened the inner door, stepped into the basement, and flipped on some lights. "Please enter, ladies."
    Piper followed Mary Beth into a basement that looked nothing like the one she had seen when Jeanette Bell had given her a tour of the mansion. The room had a concrete floor, hanging light bulbs, and drab, unpainted walls. It did not feature wall-to-wall white carpeting, two large sofas, and a glass-and-brass coffee table. Talk about a reverse makeover.
    Piper felt a knot form in her stomach as she followed Mark and Mary Beth through the basement and up some primitive steps to the main floor of the residence. She felt the knot tighten when she stepped into a hallway and noticed even more changes.
    "This way," Mark said.
    Piper picked up her step as she approached what she knew to be the mansion's kitchen. She did not know what surprises awaited at the end of the hallway, but for the first time since walking out the front door, she suspected that Mary Beth was going to keep her money.
    A few seconds later, Piper McIntire, a young woman of sound mind, stepped into a kitchen that looked like the set of a 1950s sitcom. She stopped when Mark and Mary Beth stopped and turned their attention to a young man seated at a small table. Like Piper, the boy wore a bathrobe. Like Piper, he looked like he needed at least another hour of quality sleep.
    "Piper, this is my brother, Ben. He's a high school senior," Mark said. "Ben, this is Piper McIntire, Mary Beth's sister and a recent high school graduate."
    Ben stared at Piper for several seconds but did not say a thing. He seemed as perplexed by the situation and the sudden turn of events as his teenage counterpart.
    Piper looked at Mark and then at Mary Beth. She found a thoughtful expression on the former's face and an I-told-you-so smile on the latter's.
    "Is this a joke?" Piper asked.
    "It's no joke. At