Welcome to Teapot Tuesday
the Sisterhood of the Traveling Teaparty
and Challenge #259
Karri Crews and the Music Hall Mystery
Note: Anyone is welcome to play! You automatically become a Teapotter the first time you play in our challenge. Also, you do not have to write a story. You just have to be inspired by the teapot or by the story about this week's location! Have fun! If this is your first Teapot Tuesday Challenge, please mention that in your commentary so we can be sure to greet you properly, in pure Teapot Tuesday fashion! Your participation in Destination Station is 100% voluntary and not at all required. Just have fun!
The Rest of the Story:
1: Oh, today is such an exciting day. Today Karri and her bestest friend in the whole world Barbara, are leaving for a weeks stay at the camp at Lake Wannamaker, along with Karri's faithful pug Mr. Ruggles. The camp is owned by Barbara's aunt and uncle and they have asked the girls to come up and help clean and get things ready to open for the season. WHOOOHOOO!!! The girls are so excited. They will have one of the guest cabins to themselves and will get to earn a little extra money as well as swim in the lake and hike in the woods.
2: Bags are packed and loaded in the back of Uncle Red's old truck and the girls are eager to start their adventure. They pester poor Uncle Red with questions all the way to the camp; like how old is the camp, are there any mules still there, can they still take out canoes, do the floors still creak, and the most important one of all: is it really true that there is a ghost living there? By the time they get to camp, Uncle Red is sure that this is going to be a long and interesting week. He lets the girls out at the cabin and tells them lunch will be ready in 1 hour and then they will talk about what needs to be done.
3: Karri and Barbara jump right into their list of cleaning projects with an energy that amazes Red and Betty. They will surely have those cabins cleaned in no time. Several hours later, dusty and tired, they arrive at the kitchen for eve meal. After the meal they settle in the great room and Betty is happy to talk about the history of the place and tells them of the times her and her sisters had here in the summers growing up and of the various people that have stayed here over the years. "But what about the ghost?" asks Karri. "That will have to wait for another day", Aunt Betty tells her, it is getting late and you girls have a long day tomorrow so we best all get some sleep.
4: It's 2 days before the girls remember to think about the ghost again, and only then late in evening while sitting in great room, they hear piano music playing. It's not a tune they recognize and they wonder where it's coming from as they don't see anyone at the piano at the other end of the great room although it is turned so they can only see the back of it. Running over to the piano, they are startled to see that there is no-one there, just the old calico camp cat sleeping on the bench to the strange looking piano. They had never seen one with a roll of paper with bumps on it in the top. Stepping back a little frightened, they wonder if they've just heard from the resident ghost. They are determined to solve this mystery and work up a plan to keep watch rotating who sleeps and who stays awake.
5: Laughing to himself, Red sees them camping out in the great room and wonders how they will feel when they figure out the "ghost" rumor. It sure took him awhile to figure it out and by then, the story had gotten out and it brought curious people in so they let it be. Telling the girls to get extra blankets for the night, he tells them, "this old place is sure drafty when the wind blows and it's looking to be a windy one tonight", he heads down the hall to their apartment. As the wind blew louder and fiercer, the girls huddled down and jumped up every time they heard the piano to try and catch someone but to no avail. By early morning, they were no closer to figuring it out and worn out from their chores, they fell asleep.
6: In the morning, they told Betty that they weren't able to catch anyone playing the old piano but they heard it off and on all night, and also the lights flickered off and on all night long too. It really was kinda creepy. But Mr. Ruggles slept right through it, they laughed; what a poor guard dog he turned out to be. "Oh, the old wiring here is a problem, but we haven't been able to get it fixed in the main hall yet and whenever the wind blows, the wires cross and short out, turning the lights on and off. I guess we're just used to it by now."
7: The girls were nearing the end of their week and still hadn't figured out the mystery for sure. They had a good idea and when they asked Red about it, he winked at them and told them he kinda liked the ghost being around. Lent a certain fun quirkiness to the place. So, they headed back home and promised to come back and help close up at end of season.
8: So, have y'all figured out the piano playin ghost yet? I've left a few clues here and can't wait to see who all figures it out.
Challenge translation:
Mystery lovers unite. Bring clues, detective apparatus, ghost trapping cameras,ghost sniffing dogs, whatever you need to solve a mystery. Bring get well, thinking of you, or you go girl! cards to show Karissa some support.
Destination station:
This week our destination is PA. If you would like a destination to send your cards how about sending them to Karissa. She was brought to our attention by Fran
Philsmom
to find out why as well as get the address to mail your card, please visit Post
#358 in the Teapot Tuesday Destination Station thread. Please remember that just because you participate in a Teapot Tuesday challenge that is combined with a card drive request, it does not mean that you are REQUIRED to send your cards. It is totally 100% voluntary!
Here is the awesome card Fran made for her
Here is my card
Here is the link to the MMTPT259 gallery
Be sure to you use KEYWORD MMTPT259 in your upload and post a comment here so we can all see your card!
Ever want to get a jump on next week's challenge card? SCS has given Sheri (KSNurse) permission to create an email Teapot Tuesday Cheater Group and email the challenge out on the Saturday before the Tuesday of the challenge so you girls can have the weekend to make your card. Send her a pm with your email address if you wanna be a Cheater!
If you are confused about these challenges, see the first sticky post of this thread for more information. There is also a directory of individual challenges. Feel free to grab this I survived Teapot Tuesday Badge for your blog!