Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Previously on Adventures on AW Island, while the conversation
with Madame Amato revealed important information to Marie,
JJ and Christian, some questionsalso went unanswered.
Most importantly, however, they learned their help is still
needed. Welcome to adventures on AW
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Island. Chapter 4 An Unexpected Ally
Part 2 Marie got to the library early on Sunday afternoon.
She wanted to do a little research before JJ and Christian
got there. She walked quickly along the
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sidewalk, her backpack held snugly against her back by the
combined weight of her private journal and the library books
she needed to return. As she raced through the first
set of automatic doors past the gurgling fountain, she could
feel her heartbeat faster in anticipation.
It felt like she, JJ, and Christian were on the right
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track in their investigation, and that was exciting.
A wave of cool air met her as she passed through the second
set of automatic doors, carryingwith it the sharp scent of pine
cleaning fluid. Marie shivered slightly from the
cold. She paused at the book return
slot, retrieved the library books from her backpack, and
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deposited them into the chute. They made a satisfying and
familiar whoosh thunk as they slid down the ramp and landed in
the return bin. Marie headed to the information
desk and got in line behind two other patrons.
Darius was on duty and deep in conversation with the patron at
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the front of the line. This might take a while, Marie
mused, but her question was veryimportant so she didn't mind
waiting. She wanted to ask about the
oldest buildings on Alway Island.
Madame Amato had said they were the original library, park
pavilion, civic building, and her ice cream shop and a few
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early houses. Marie knew it was detective
protocol to confirm the accuracyof information whenever
possible. A good detective always checks
the facts. As she waited in line, her
thoughts turned to the third Riddle, the one that had been
written inside the dust cover ofthe book titled The Secret Spot.
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The symbol is the key you need. It's a thing to find, The thing
to see. Where to find it, you may ask,
observe and think. That's the task.
The oldest on this island home. That's the place for you to
roam. The symbol is the key, Marie
thought to herself. It would be on whatever was the
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oldest on this island home. The symbol itself was a mystery.
Was it a four leaf Clover, as Christian had thought?
Or perhaps a butterfly, as it appeared to her?
Or maybe it was something else entirely, since it also had a
circle on top and some extra lines.
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Marie sighed wistfully. She really wanted to figure out
the answers. She was eager to go over the
clues with JJ and Christian and hoped that by putting their
heads together they would be able to come up with a solid
plan of action. She was very grateful to be on
this adventure with her two bestfriends.
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They made it so much more fun, and they'd had such an
unexpected breakthrough recently.
In just a few short days, Madam Amato had gone from being simply
the kind old proprietor of the ice cream shop next to the
library to being a key source ofhelp and information in their
adventure. That fact alone left Marie
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reeling. As a good detective, you were
supposed to pay attention to people and notice things about
them in case they were importantto your investigation.
And Marie had not noticed anything special about Madame
Amato before now. Were there other clues she had
missed also? Hi, Marie.
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Darius's enthusiastic greeting broke her concentration.
She'd been so deep in thought she hadn't noticed the line had
moved forward and it was now herturn.
Hi, Darius, she said. I'd like to know the oldest
building on Awe Island, can you help me?
Darius paused and thought a moment before speaking.
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Well, there was a book on the history of Awe Island that I saw
when I first started working here.
It was in the Rare and out of print books section.
Somebody checked it out a while ago and I don't think they
returned it, but let me double check.
He said, turning to his computerterminal.
After typing in his search query, he consulted the screen.
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I'm sorry, I was right. He said gently.
That book was never returned andsince it's out of print, we
weren't able to replace it. Marie huffed in frustration and
disappointment. Is there another way to find out
the oldest buildings? She asked.
Darius nodded. Let's look at the AW Island
website. The section on our history has
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some great information. Maybe it describes the oldest
buildings. The pair headed to the computer
terminals and Darius typed the URL alwayisland.com/history into
the search bar. Together, Marie and Darius began
skimming the information on the screen, and they soon found what
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they were looking for. Marie leaned in, eyes racing
over the words. She felt an urgent need to
absorb the information as fast as possible, as if it might
vanish forever before she could finish reading.
AAWE Island began as a small community with just a handful of
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buildings. The first of these were the
Civic building, the library, theschool, the park and pavilion,
and the grocery store. The civic Building offered
community services and provided a place for town meetings and
governance. The park and its pavilion were
the designated social gathering spot.
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The school offered basic education for the island's
children, and the library houseda modest collection of books and
local records. The grocery store supplied
everyday essentials for the early residents.
Over time, the Civic Building and the library have undergone
significant renovations that expanded their size well beyond
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their original modest footprints.
The original school was lost to a fire and later rebuilt as the
current school building and the original grocery store has been
transformed into the beloved Amato's Ice Cream Shop.
Darius looked at Marie. Does that answer your question?
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He asked warmly. Yes, thanks, Darius.
Marie said she was glad she double checked the information.
Madame Amato had not mentioned the original school building,
perhaps because it had been destroyed.
Marie headed to a free table andsat down, pulling out her
journal to carefully add the information from the website to
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her investigation notes. The dark blue notebook, speckled
with sparkling stars held all ofthe evidence she'd gathered so
far on its smooth lined pages. When she finally looked up from
her notes, she realized more time had passed than she'd
expected. JJ and Christian were already
standing at the front of the library, waiting to meet her.
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Marie tucked her journal in her backpack and went to join them.
After a quick greeting, the three headed back to the
information desk to request the use of a collaboration room
where they could talk privately without disturbing any library
patrons. Once inside the glass windowed
room, Marie took out her journaland quickly shared what she
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learned about the oldest buildings on Hawaii Island.
That was smart to double check what Madam Amato told us.
JJ said. Yeah.
Christian added. She seems to tell us some
information we need, but not allthe information she has.
Marie nodded in agreement. That was exactly how she felt.
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She tapped her journal thoughtfully and said.
Let's go over everything we learned yesterday and make a
plan for visiting the oldest buildings.
JJ took out her own notebook, the same one she'd brought to
the ice cream shop the day prior.
She flipped to the page that held her list of questions.
Marie saw that JJ had jotted down Madam Amato's answers as
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well. So Madam Amato and Safos know
each other and have known each other for a long time.
JJ said as she read off her notes.
Does that mean they've known each other since they were kids?
Christian asked. Marie raised her eyebrows, she
hadn't thought of that possibility.
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That would be really far back. Do you think they are the same
age? JJ asked.
Why not, They both have about the same amount of wrinkles.
Christian said with a twinkle ofhumor in his eyes.
JJ and Marie giggled. I'm writing that down.
We should ask Madam Amato more about when she met Sappos next
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time we talked to her. JJ said, adding the note to her
list. Even though she only said
perhaps when we asked if she knew where Sappos had gone, I
got the feeling that she knew exactly where he was and she
just wasn't telling us. Marie said.
Me too. Christian agreed, but I believed
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her when she said she didn't know why Sappho had gone away or
if he would be back soon. JJ said.
I thought she looked worried about him.
Did you notice how she glanced out the window when she
answered? I wish she would have just told
us everything she knew right away.
Christian said, a bit gruffly. She said we had to figure out
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things on her own. Marie reminded them.
If she was able to just blurt everything out, she would have
done that already. Instead, she waited all this
time for someone to find the buried treasure and the rest of
the clues. Christian frowned.
I don't know, it still doesn't make any sense to me.
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Whatever the problem is, wouldn't adults be able to help
more than us? He said.
You'd think so, JJ replied. But for whatever reason, I don't
think she's told anyone about whatever the problem is.
I think she's been waiting for someone to find the buried
treasure and the clues. We did, so now it's up to us to
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help, even though we still have no idea who needs help but what
kind of help they need. JJ began to laugh.
And we're stuck too. We can't tell our parents
because they'll never believe us.
No kidding. Christian said with a chuckle.
Marie also began to giggle. The thought of trying to explain
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all of this suddenly seemed comical.
Christian spoke in a theatrical voice.
Oh mom, Dad, we found a secret map that led to a buried
treasure, and now if we find some old building with a four
leaf Clover and a circle on it, we're going to save the world.
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Christian's goofy humor set all three of them into peals of
laughter. He made it sound so silly, but I
explained everything to Madame Amato and look what happened.
Marie said suddenly. That was really lucky.
JJ replied, still grinning. Yeah, or maybe it wasn't a
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coincidence after all. Christian said warily.
Just as Marie opened her mouth to respond, a blaring, harsh
alarm sounded. Fire alarm?
JJ shouted over the noise, scooping up her notebook.
Marie stowed her journal in her backpack, and the three got up
quickly and left the collaboration room.
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Around them, library staff were already ushering patrons toward
the emergency exits. They were pointed toward the
nearest exit, a side door. Once outside, they headed to the
front of the building, where everyone had gathered a safe
distance away from the library. Marie looked around carefully.
She didn't see any smoke coming from anywhere in the building.
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She didn't smell anything unusual in the air either.
The fire alarm wasn't quite so loud outside, and soon Marie
heard sirens in the distance, gradually getting closer and
louder. Marie saw people from the ice
cream shop next door were looking in their direction to
see what was going on, too. The trio exchanged A skeptical
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look. This was probably a lot of
hullabaloo about nothing. There didn't appear to be a
fire. Marie wanted to get back to
discussing everything they'd learned from Madam Amato, but it
was just too difficult with the alarm still going and people
milling about. She plugged her ears as the fire
trucks pulled into the parking lot, lights flashing and sirens
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wailing. The trucks stopped in the fire
lane, shut off the siren, and half a dozen firefighters
urgently jumped out. Their fire suits and helmets
made them look like clones, except for the fire captain, who
had a different Insignia on their helmet.
Some firefighters entered the building, while others began
unwinding hoses and connecting them to the closest fire
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hydrant. They waited at the ready to be
called into action. After about 10 minutes, the fire
captain got a call on the walkie-talkie.
Marie couldn't make out what wassaid.
A few minutes later, one of the firefighters exited the building
carrying a fire extinguisher. That firefighter spoke in a
small huddle with the fire captain and a few others.
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The captain nodded. One of the crew went to the fire
truck and turned off the flashing lights.
Other firefighters began to disconnect the hose and recoil
it. Soon the alarm coming from the
building went silent. The emergency appeared to be
over. The fire captain approached one
of the library administrators and spoke privately to them
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before both turned to the crowd.There was a small fire in the
rare and out of print books section, the Fire Chief
announced. It started with some old
fluorescent lights. The fire was easily contained,
but there are some damaged booksand smoke that we need to air
out. We need to keep the power shut
down to the building until repairs can be made.
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Next. The administrator spoke.
The library will remain closed for the rest of the day and
possibly a few more days until we get everything fixed.
Please go home. Marie turned to JJ and Christian
aghast. Do you still have the secret
spot? She asked, hoping JJ still had
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the book that had held the treasure map and the third
Riddle. J JS face fell.
No, I already returned it, she said.
What if it got ruined by the fire and we still need it to
solve the clues? Christian said.
JJ nodded, looking anxious. I have a picture of the Riddle,
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but if we need something else from the book and it got ruined,
we're going to be stuck, she said.
Everyone, please leave. The library administrator said
firmly to the crowd. Most people had not dispersed
yet and were standing around chatting about the fire that had
just occurred. The trio headed toward the
neighborhood to go home. None of them spoke.
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Marie had no words. Her mind raced, but her heart
sank with trepidation. What if their only chance at
solving the mystery had just been destroyed?
After the small fire in the Rareand Out of Print Books section
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of the library, uncertainty abounds.
Was the book Marie, JJ and Christian need to solve the
riddles destroyed? Find out when the adventure
continues in our next episode ofAdventures on Ahwe Island.
Thanks for listening to Adventures on Ahwe Island.
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