Of course she’d promised to help clear Dr. Love and Delores seemed relieved as they walked down the hall. Hannah was about to push open the heavy outer door when it opened from the other side and a woman dressed in a heavy parka and a ski cap pulled down low over her ears rushed in.
“Hello, you two,” the woman said, pulling off her cap to reveal her features. “Were you looking for me so that you could turn in your homework?”
Hannah laughed. “Not exactly, Miss Whiting. I followed Mother here so she could drop off her car for my youngest sister. She goes to Macalister and she’s in the Christmas Follies.”
“How nice.” Miss Whiting dismissed that bit of information quickly and turned to Delores. “Tell me, have you discovered the bad business practice on the handout I gave you?”
“We think we have. If we’re right, it has to do with paying for supplies in cash and recording higher prices than were actually paid on supplier receipts.”
“That is correct,” Miss Whiting frowned slightly, “but you sound as if you had help. This was intended as an individual homework assignment.”
Her mother looked a bit deflated and Hannah stepped in. “My mother and I discussed it, Miss Whiting. And several other people in the shop were interested, including my partner and Mayor Bascomb. I believe you met him?”
“Oh, yes. Mayor Bascomb. What a charming man.” A smile flickered across Miss Whiting’s face. “Don’t tell me it took all four of you to unravel my little puzzle!”
“It took five,” Hannah corrected her, “and we weren’t completely sure we had the correct answer. You dish out some hard homework, Miss Whiting.”
“It’s my job to keep you on your toes and my duty to keep you from being cheated by people who employ nefarious business practices.”
Delores cleared her throat. “Yes…well…thank you, Miss Whiting. And we’ll see you in class on Monday evening.”
“Yes, indeed you will. I haven’t missed a class since I arrived here as a visiting professor three months ago.”
Hannah waited until they had exited the building and then she turned to her mother. “Miss Whiting’s an odd duck.”
“Perhaps, but she’s an excellent teacher.” Delores headed toward the parking lot and then she turned back to Hannah with a frown. “I just saw something else odd…I think.”
“What was it?” Hannah moved a little faster to keep pace with her mother.
“I thought I saw a student jump off the edge of the parking lot!”
“Where?”
“At the far end. Right over there by that big pine tree. It looked exactly as if he were on the end of a diving board and he dove off into space.”
“Have you seen any programs about lemmings on the animal channel lately?”
Delores turned to give her a stern look, but the corners of her lips twitched up. “Very funny, dear.”
“Don’t worry, Mother. Midterms are over and the students have no reason to commit suicide in hordes. Your eyes must be playing tricks on you. I notice that you’re not wearing your glasses.”
“They’re for reading, not distance. And this was in the distance, dear. It was right over…” Delores pointed and then she gasped. “There goes another one over the edge! You’re wrong, Hannah! They’re jumping off like lemmings!”
Hannah looked where her mother was pointing. Delores was right. Another student was hurtling off the edge of the parking lot and disappearing into thin air. “Wait here. I’ll see if I can find out what’s going on.”
It didn’t take Hannah long to discover exactly what phenomenon was occurring. It wasn’t an illusion at all. The students really were jumping off the edge of the parking lot, or very close to it. Three or four feet beyond the asphalt was the crest of a steep hill. A rack of stiff plastic sheets sat next to the precipice with a sign that read, Take a Slider Made by the Lake Eden Community College Shop Class. Ride and Return Please.
Hannah watched as a girl in a parka grabbed a green plastic Slider from the rack. It had a handle at the top that was fashioned of plastic rope and the rest was simply a sheet of industrial plastic. The girl grabbed the handholds on either side, held the sheet against her chest, and raced to the crest of the hill to throw herself over on her stomach.
“Want to try one?” the girl’s companion, a student Hannah didn’t think could be any older than twelve, asked her with a grin.
“No, thanks. I think I’m a little old for that type of sledding.”
“You’ll never know unless you try it,” the boy encouraged her, holding out the top slider on the rack, a bright red one.
Hannah wavered. Red was her favorite color, but her mother was waiting. “Maybe later,” she said, giving him a smile and heading back to tell Delores that she wasn’t imagining things after all.
“Colored plastic sheets?” Delores looked amazed as Hannah finished telling her about the Sliders the shop class had made.
“It makes sense. That’s a great sliding hill and the plastic is probably impervious to the elements. I had a plastic disk when I was a kid, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but I took it away.”
Hannah started her cookie truck and turned to look at her mother. “Why did you do that?”
“Because it made you sick. You never were any good with things that whirled around.”
Hannah had a flashback to the Tilt-A-Whirl at the last county fair and shivered slightly. “You’re right,” she said. “The Sliders don’t whirl, though. I watched and they go straight down the hill.”
“You weren’t any good with sleds that went straight, either. You never could control them. You always ran into trees unless Uncle Ed was with you. Then he took the big blue sled and he did the steering.”
“I’d forgotten all about that!” Hannah said, smiling at the memory. Her Uncle Ed had taken the front seat and she’d ridden behind him with her arms clasped around his waist.
“You loved it and so did your sisters. It’s really too bad Ed never married. He was so good with children, and he should have had some of his own.”
“You’re right,” Hannah said, wondering if someday people might say the same about her.
Delores leaned back in the passenger seat and closed her eyes as Hannah pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the access road to the highway. “I’ve got to rest my eyes, dear. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Why is that, Mother?”
“I kept thinking about Carrie and imagining all sorts of horrid things that could be wrong.”
Hannah frowned. There was no way she could keep her mother in the dark any longer. She had to tell her what they suspected even though they didn’t know the full story. “I think I found out what’s wrong, Mother.”
“You did?” Delores’s eyes flew open. “Tell me!”
“Norman and I think she’s dating.”
“Dating? Carrie?”
“That’s right. We’re almost positive that Carrie and a date were at the Lake Eden Inn last night for dinner.”
As her mother listened, Hannah explained everything that had transpired. And then she ended her account with their dilemma. “But we don’t know who she’s dating yet.”
“Dating.” Delores sounded bemused. “Well, that’s certainly less disastrous than I imagined. We have to identify the man, though. He may not be right for our Carrie.”
“Don’t worry. We will. We’ve even got Mike working on it.”
Delores smiled and reached out to pat Hannah’s arm. “Thank you, dear. You’ve relieved my mind and I feel so much better. I just hope Carrie’s found someone wonderful.”
“So do we, Mother. Why don’t you catch a short nap now? I’ll wake you when we get back to town.”
By the time she reached the highway, her mother was sleeping. Hannah glanced over to make sure she had her seatbelt fastened, and mentally patted herself on the back. Her mother felt much better now that she knew about Carrie’s dinner companion. It was never good to keep secrets from family…unless, of course, they involved Christmas presents.