RED SKATE CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Charlie and I looked up at each other.
"Who lives next door to you?" Charlie asked.
"Well, on one side, there's the Rosan family. And then on the other side, there's..." I stopped.
"What is it? Who lives on the other side of you?"
I swallowed. "Well, there's Mr Snick."
"Snick? Snick rhymes with stick, Sally!"
"Yes, I know, we need to get back to my home home right away."

When I got home, I got out of the car and looked as though I was going to walk up to my house.
@The front door to the house on the right of me opened, and old Mr Snick ambushed me.
"Here's a leter for you, Miss Sally!" He shouted. Mr Snick was deaf in one ear, and this gave him the iompression that nobody could hear what he was saying, so he shouted everything. "The person who gave me this, they came round to give it to you personally. They gave it to me to give to you because you weren't home. I ask them, 'why don't you wait until she gets home?' But they wouldn't answer me. Just left, just like that."
"Thank you, Mr Snick!" I shouted at him. Charlie had long since came up from behind me. He stood beside me and asked: "Did you see what they looked like?"
Mr Snick shook his head no. "They was wearing a hood up the whole time I saw them."
He went back into his house. I unlocked my front door and Charlie followed me to the kitchen.
I dropped the keys onto the kitchen table, and opened the envelope so fast, I was in danger of ripping the contents in half. I read it through and then read it out loud for Charlie's benefit:

"Hello, Sally and Charlie,
Did you guess it was Sally's neighbour, old Mr Snick. Yes, of course you did, otrherwise you wouldn't be reading this. Okay, here is your next clue: The name Arleen Rogers. Find her and you'll know everything."

I looked at Charlie. "Do we know an Arleen Rogers?"
He shook his head. "I certainly don't. Do you?"
I shook my head as well. "I've never heard of her."
Charlie sighewd a contemptuous sigh. "So how will we find her?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "We need to look in the phone book first of all."
I sloped off to look for my copy of The YTellow Pages. I came back into the kitchen, and opened the book up under 'R'.
After ten minutes of searching, we gave up.
"She must be ex-directory," Charlie suggested.
I sighed. "Well, if she is, how are we supposed to find her?"
"I'm not sure, but don't worry, Sal. We'll find her, I'm certain of it."
I wasn't so convinced. After Charlie left, I spent another ten minutes looking in the phone book, adament that I would find Arleen Rogers. I decided to take a walk outside to clear my head. I went in the direction of the cemetary, wherew it was nice and isolated, and nobody would bother me there.
I walked along the cemetary for a while, looking at all the graves, admiring the cherubs decorating them, when suddenly, I found her! Arleen Rogers! I took a double-take at the grave. Yes, Arleen Rogers, lived 1908 to 1924. Of course, this couldn't be the same Arleen Rogers I was looking for, but at least I found someone with the same name, even if she was dead. Then I saw something on top of the grave. It was a photo. I looked closer at it. It was the photo of a young girl of sixteen. She had wavy blonde hair and was beaming up at a man a little old than her. He was good-looking, in a rough way, just like Sean Slater from Eastenders. I picked up the photo for a closer look. It was concealed in a plastic wrapping; I took it out of the wrapping and something fluttered to the floor. I bent down to pick it up. It was a simple bit of paper. It said:

"Emily Rogers. 20 Birch Creek."

I wondered to myself what that meant. Did that mean I'd have to find thisd Birch Creek place and talk to this Emily Rogers? Then I decided. Yes, of course that's what it means. That was my next mission. To look for 20 Birch Creek and find Emily Rogers...

Find out what happened next in Chapter Seventeen...