The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All

Epilogue

Cassie still spent loads of time at the shelter with the other kids. But like Binny, Cassie sometimes wanted some time to herself. With the new emphasis on trusting the children more, Jay and Julie had given Cassie permission to go on walks in the neighborhood on her own.

At first Cassie walked aimlessly, but one day she found herself at the entrance to the alley behind Soul Repair. Cassie had a lot on her mind, and on this day Cassie didn’t just want to walk, she wanted a place to sit down and think.

Cassie looked both ways to see if anyone was looking and went to her invisible place. She walked the alley until she got to the gate behind the abandoned mansion. The chain was still broken.

Cassie walked around the house until she found the cellar doors that had eluded them the first time. If anyone could have seen over the shrubs and growth that lined the property, they would have seen one of the cellar doors appear to open and close all on their own. 

Once inside, Cassie twinkled back into visibility sure that nobody could see her now that she was safely in the basement where they had confronted Ollie and rescued Rembrandt.

Cassie half hoped that Ollie would be there – without an animal of course. But he wasn’t. The basement was exactly as they had left it that day several weeks earlier. Boxes, shelves, all manner of stuff, and the huge pile of bricks that Gabe had created when he smashed through the wall to rescue his sister.

Cassie wandered through the basement, hoping that maybe Ollie had just wandered over to a different spot in the sprawling space. When it was clear Ollie was nowhere to be found Cassie thought of leaving but an old staircase beckoned. She’d never seen what was upstairs and curiosity got the better of her.

Cassie walked up the stairs, and slowly nudged open the door at the top, listening to the creak of the hinges and waiting to see if anyone shouted. Silence.

The first floor was in much better shape than the basement. Ornate furniture decorated the living room. The walls were covered in wallpaper with fancy dark red designs that felt fuzzy to the touch. The kitchen looked to Cassie like it was from an old black and white movie that she’d seen on TV. Everything was old, covered in dust, and frankly – looked kind of haunted.

Cassie was getting a little bit spooked and decided to reverse course to the relative safety of the outdoors. She headed through the hallway near the front door and a series of framed hanging photographs caught her eye. Cassie wiped some of the dust from the glass surface of the nearest one.

Cassie recognized the mansion in the photograph. The picture had been taken right outside the front door. A couple of dozen children of various ages were gathered standing and sitting on the porch. Each child held a sign with a number. All boys.

A hand-painted sign hung over the front door. The very same sign that hung there today. But in the photograph the words were visible: “Madrona Home for Wayward Boys.”

Cassie wasn’t sure what exactly that meant but she didn’t think it was good. She traced the faces with her finger until she saw two boys in particular, one was tall and gangly. The other was shorter with rosy cheeks. They were the only boys in the picture with smiles on their faces. 

They each had one arm around the other and with their spare hands held their signs. The taller boy held “27”. Cassie thought that the shorter boy’s smile seemed mischievous. He held “28”. Cassie looked to the right of the photograph where a list of numbers and names had been superimposed.

She scanned the list from the top until she got to the names next to 27 and 28. The two names listed were: “Caleb Adams” and “Alexander Luce”.