Page 61 of Finding Yesterday

Jack squints. “I can’t tell, the handwriting’s too messy. But it definitely looks like architectural blueprints.” Jack furrows his brow, leaning in closer.

“Were Pops and Ms. Hannah going to build something?”

“No, not that I know of.” He meets my gaze. “And if they were, why would the plans be hidden in the wall of this place?”

“I have no idea.” I scratch my chin, getting itchy from the dust. “They’re your grandparents. Did they hide stuff in walls?”

“No? Although I don’t remember all that much about my grandma. She could’ve been one to do that kind of thing.”

“That makes sense. You should ask Pops.” I stand.

“I will,” he says, still studying the page. “It has to be plans for a bar or restaurant.”

“Definitely.”

I stare at the drawing again, wondering if it could be plans to redesign this place, but it doesn’t look like it. It’s not the same shape of this restaurant and there’s a narrow set of stairwell leading up to it. There are only four steps to the Fine Bone’s entrance, and they’re in a different location than shown on this map.

As if reading my thoughts, Jack says, “It doesn’t look like plans for this place.”

“No, it doesn’t. Are there any restaurants in town that are upstairs somewhere?”

“No?” he says as a question.

I shake my head. “I don’t know of any.”

“I’m gonna call Pops.” He pulls out his phone and snaps a photo of it before standing.

I do the same so I can continue looking at it later. Superstitiously, we put the plans back between studs in the wall.

As Jack talks to Pops on the phone, I decide to go ahead and rotate the shelf back, lock the latches, and set the cage up on the bottom shelf, right in front of the gap where the mouse has to be getting in. There’s cheese on the contraption that’ll make the door fall.

With nervous energy, I start organizing the foods on the shelf. My brain is working overtime, trying to figure this out. For a paper in high school on Blue Vine’s mining history, I went down to the city records office and found the original blueprints of this place because it used to be a train station serving the miners. But it’s been so long, I don’t remember any of the details of it.

Jack returns to the pantry. “Oh, thanks for organizing in here.”

“You’re welcome.”

“So, Pops had absolutely no idea what this was. He said he and Maw had no plans to remodel, no plans to open another restaurant.”

“Hmm. Could this have been here from before they opened the restaurant?”

Jack shrugs. “I guess that’s possible. It was an abandoned train station, as you know. So, it could be from anything.”

“Right,” I reply, distracted. Thinking as I speak, I say, “The plans don’t look that old though. Your Pops has owned this property for twenty years, right?”

Jack’s face twists. “Yeah.”

“You said your grandmother and my mom were planning something.”

“Yes, they were.” He blinks.

“This could be that?”

“Could be.” Jack jumps in to help me organize, and we both continue to offer ideas of what the plans could be for. Nothing we come up with is plausible, so we finally give up and leave the pantry, the exterminator now scheduled.

But I can’t get my mind off the plans, and I’m not stopping until I find out all there is to know about them.

What if they help Jack retrieve any of his memories? Or give Pops just a bit of something more to remember Hannah?

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