The Mystery of the Grinning Gargoyle (5 page)

And on the t-shirt that the bald man wore under his white, dusty apron was yet another gargoyle and the words, “DON'T LET THE GARGOYLE GET YOU!”

While Benny peeked out from behind Grandfather Alden's back, Henry, Jessie, and Violet looked at one another. All four children watched as the man stepped toward them and said, “Welcome, Alden family. I'm so glad you dropped by!”

“Where are all the customers?” Violet whispered to Jessie.

“Maybe they were scared off by all of the gargoyles,” Benny whispered.

“This place is a little bit spooky, being so empty,” Jessie whispered.

“Maybe we should keep our eyes peeled for clues,” whispered Henry, trying not to be heard as the bald man surrounded by all of those gargoyles welcomed the family into the empty, spooky place.

CHAPTER
4

The Gargoyle Gyro

“Izzy!” Grandfather Alden said to the mustached man in the apron. “It's so good to see you again.”

“James Alden,” said the man, wiping what looked like white flour from his hands before patting the children's grandfather on the back, “it has been years since you've eaten here.”

“Children,” Grandfather Alden said, “I'd like you to meet Izzy. His father owns the restaurant. Izzy was a student at Goldwin University at the same time I was. He studied art here, and is one of the best artists I have ever seen. He can draw, paint, or sculpt beautiful art pieces.”

“I might know a thing or two about art,” said the man, “but I was never the student that your grandfather was. I spent more time with a paintbrush than I ever did in the library. Now let's get you all something to eat.”

“You must have been baking something good,” said Jessie, who did much of the cooking and baking for her family. “That's flour all over your hands, right?”

Izzy wiped his hands a bit more. “Yes, yes,” he said nervously, “that's flour on my hands. I've been baking bread, of course!”

Since Benny loved eating so much, he knew the smell of baking bread. “Mmmm!” he said. “I can smell garlic and cucumbers and roasting meat! But I can't smell any baked bread.”

“Oh, that's right,” said Izzy, “my bread oven isn't working, so I had to buy today's pita and other baked goods from a bakery. Yeah, that's what happened.”

Henry and Jessie looked at one another. Something seemed strange with Izzy's story.

But all was forgotten for a moment when Izzy showed the Aldens to a table, where they sat down and began to look through the restaurant's menu. Everything on the menu looked and sounded delicious.

“Where is your father?” Grandfather Alden asked Izzy. “He always made the best food.”

“My father retired a month ago and moved to Florida, where the weather is warmer,” said Izzy. “Now I'm running Goldwin Gyros. I'd be honored if you would try our latest and greatest specialty—the Gargoyle Gyro!”

Benny's eyes grew big when he heard the word gargoyle yet again. But they grew even bigger when he saw that particular item on the menu. “That looks good! But, wait, what's a ji-ro?” he said, pronouncing the name of the food all wrong.

“It's called a year-ro,” said Izzy, “pronounced to rhyme with ‘hero.' And it's a Greek sandwich. Sliced and roasted meat is wrapped up with vegetables like tomatoes and onions inside a freshly baked piece of pita bread. Then I slather the whole thing with creamy cucumber sauce. My gyros have always been the biggest and best in town. But the Gargoyle Gyro is even bigger and better!”

“The Gargoyle Gyro is huge!” Benny said, pronouncing the word right and pointing to the picture of a gigantic gyro sandwich. “But I bet I can finish the whole thing. I'll take one Gargoyle Gyro, please, Mr. Izzy.”

Benny's family also decided what they wanted for dinner, and Izzy hurried their order to the kitchen in back.

“There sure are a lot of gargoyles in this place,” Violet whispered to Jessie.

“Violet's right,” Jessie whispered to Henry. “After what we saw earlier, all of these gargoyles are a little bit creepy.”

“Maybe Izzy just really likes gargoyles,” Henry said. “And maybe he can help us with our gargoyle mystery. Let's ask him when he comes back.”

When Izzy came back out carrying a tray with five plates of piping hot food, he sat down with the Aldens and began to catch up with Grandfather.

“This is the same thing I ordered when I was a young man,” said Grandfather, biting into a juicy hamburger and washing it down with a thick vanilla milkshake.

Henry had a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of cheesy broccoli soup. Jessie ate a Greek salad with crisp, green lettuce and chunks of salty feta cheese. Violet took a bite of the delicious fried eggplant sandwich that she had ordered, wiping the tangy tomato sauce from the corners of her mouth.

“This Gargoyle Gyro is great!” said Benny. He had sauce all around his mouth, too—the creamy cucumber sauce that covered the tasty gyro meat and enormous pita filling his plate.

“We all agree,” Grandfather Alden smiled. “Goldwin Gyros is still the best restaurant on campus!”

“I still use all of my father's recipes,” Izzy said. “But as you can see, I've made some changes to the restaurant.”

“It doesn't look much different from when we were students and would stop by to have burgers and shakes,” said Grandfather Alden. “Except for the gargoyles, of course.”

“Why are there so many gargoyles everywhere?” Benny asked.

Izzy laughed. “After my father retired, business slowed down at the restaurant. I think people were used to the way he made the food. But then, with all of the gargoyle craziness going on around campus, I decided to turn it into something fun. That's how I came up with the idea for the Gargoyle Gyro. And now that students are talking about gargoyles and even making online movies about gargoyles, Gargoyle Gyros are selling like hotcakes—or gyros!”

“I'm sure glad you did, Mr. Izzy,” said Benny. “But I still don't like actual gargoyles. Especially not after I saw one staring at me today!”

Benny and his siblings told Izzy about what they had seen, and about chasing the noise down the library stairs.

“Close call!” Izzy said, wiping sweat from his bald head and twirling his mustache. “It sounds like you almost caught yourselves a gargoyle.”

“But gargoyles aren't real,” said Jessie.

“You don't believe in the legend of the grinning gargoyles?” Izzy asked.

“No,” said Henry. “That's all it is—a legend. And Miss Hollenberg the librarian even said there was no such thing…”

“Yeah,” said Benny, “Miss Hollenberg even called it ‘boulder trash' when we told her about what we saw.”

“It's ‘balderdash,'” Henry laughed. “She called it ‘balderdash,' which is another word for nonsense. Miss Hollenberg didn't seem to think that the legend was true.”

“I'm not so sure that the gargoyles are nonsense, though,” said Izzy.

“Why do you say that?” Henry asked. “Have you ever seen one?”

“I haven't seen any gargoyles, other than those beautiful sculptures at the top of the old library,” Izzy said. “But I have read about the legend—at the library.”

“Where did you read about it?” asked Jessie. “Miss Hollenberg said there weren't any books or papers about the gargoyles in the library.”

“I didn't read about it in a book or a paper,” said Izzy. “I read about it online. I was at the library, using the computers there to research old articles about my father's restaurant. While scrolling through the old issues of the college newspaper, The Goldwin Gazette, online, I found an article published about the gargoyles.”

“What did the article say?” Henry asked.

“It talked about how the gargoyles protect the library,” Izzy said. “Maybe now that the new Alden Library is being built to replace the old library, the gargoyles are angry.”

Grandfather Alden laughed. “You're still quite a joker, Izzy. I bet even the gargoyles—if they were real—would appreciate the new library I'm helping Goldwin University build. Change isn't a bad thing. Why, your restaurant has changed from when we were students, but it's still the best one around.”

“I agree with that,” Benny said as he swallowed the last of his Gargoyle Gyro. “See, I told you I could eat the whole thing!”

The rest of the Aldens had finished their dinner, too, and it was time to say goodbye to Izzy and Goldwin Gyros.

“Should we head to the rooms at my old dormitory where we'll be staying?” Grandfather Alden asked his grandchildren. “I'm tired from the drive and the long day.”

“You go ahead and get some rest, Grandfather,” said Jessie. “We're going to head to the library first to check a couple of things. We'll meet you at the dorm once we're done.”

“Okay,” said Grandfather. “We'll be staying at Harper Hall, in Suite 4A. Good night, Izzy. We'll see you at the groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow, won't we?”

“I'm sure you will,” Izzy said.

The sun had already set as the Alden children reached the library. The moon was full and its light shined behind the old building, making it look especially spooky. The moonlight danced off the grinning faces of the gargoyles, making their teeth gleam in the night.

But the moon wasn't the only shining light the Aldens saw.

“Look!” said Violet, pointing to the top floor of the library. “There's a light on up there.”

“That's near where I saw the gargoyle,” Benny said.

“We'll check the light out,” said Henry, “just as soon as we look into a couple of other things that I want to clear up.”

CHAPTER
5

Online Sleuths

The library was still open, even that late on a Friday night.

“It's pretty late for the library to be open, isn't it?” Violet asked. “The library back home in Greenfield closes at four, right?”

“The Greenfield library closes at five,” Henry said. “But a university library is a bit different. College students study at all hours of the day—even at night, and even on the weekend!”

But although the building was open, as the Alden children went inside, they found it empty compared to their earlier visit.

“It's so quiet in here,” Benny whispered. “Even fora library.”

“We should probably ask Miss Hollenberg if it's okay for us to be here,” Jessie said.

But Miss Hollenberg wasn't at her desk, and her computer screen was dark. There were other computers still running, though, and that is exactly what Henry wanted to see.

“Before we go searching the library building for clues,” Henry said, “I want to search online.”

“Let's leave Miss Hollenberg a note first,” Jessie said, “just to let her know that we're here and that we won't act up.”

Jessie took a blank sheet of paper from Miss Hollenberg's desk and picked up a blue pen—her favorite color. As she started to write the note, she noticed a yellowed newspaper on the desk, sticking out from under a pile of other papers. The part of the newspaper that showed had a picture of a gargoyle on it.

“Wow!” Benny said, reaching for the newspaper. “A gargoyle!”

But Jessie stopped her brother. “This isn't our desk. Maybe tomorrow we can ask Miss Hollenberg if we can see the newspaper.”

The children left the note, then left the desk. They pulled up four chairs to a table that held a computer that was turned on.

“What are we looking for?” Violet asked.

“First, I think we should find the old newspaper article that Izzy mentioned,” said Henry.

“And don't forget the online videos that Raven at the Bruin Beanery told us to watch,” Jessie added.

Henry typed in GARGOYLE and LIBRARY and GOLDWIN GAZETTE, then he hit “search.” In less than a second, a link to the article Izzy mentioned popped up on the computer screen.

Henry clicked the link. “This article is almost fifty years old!” he said. Then the four of them read the article that was on the screen.

Gargoyles Protect Goldwin

from Good-for-Nothings

By Holly Page

Students attend college in order to learn. While at college, students go to the library to quietly study so that they can do well in their classes and learn new things.

But lately here at Goldwin University, the library has not been very quiet. Good-for-nothings have been coming to the library to make noise and cause trouble. They think the library is a place to have rowdy fun.

But these troublemakers should beware. Legend has it that the grinning gargoyles that live atop the library building do not like people who don't respect their home. According to this legend, if the gargoyles become angry, they will fly down from the library roof, scratch on your windows, and scare you.

So respect Goldwin University's fair library, or face the grinning gargoyles!