quiet, while Tony tuned his violin. He hesitated for a few seconds, and then he began to play.
He started out playing “Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, by Mozart, followed by Concerto Grosso in D Major by Handel.
After he finished the second piece, the entire room erupted in applause. Then, Mr. Bell stood up, followed by Isaac Stern and Itzak Pearlman. Then, everybody was on their feet, giving Tony a standing ovation.
Tony was so pumped up with adrenaline, that he played a final selection; ‘Concerto for Violin, Strings and Continuo No. 2 in E major by Bach.
After a second standing ovation, Tony returned to his seat. It seemed as if he was floating on a cloud.
After the applause died down, the president stood up and began to speak, “We have another remarkable young person here today. Mara Louis has solved quite a few mysteries over the past few years. However, that is not what makes Mara so remarkable. She has been offered rewards for solving the mysteries, but has turned them down, suggesting that the reward money be donated to charities instead.”
“When she solved the most recent mystery, here at the White House, she had legal claim to a fortune in historical artifacts. She has loaned them to the citizens of the United States, indefinitely. Any profits from the sale of the published ‘Carver Diaries’, will go towards scholarships, to students around the nation.”
“When I asked her what she wanted for herself, she asked for this dinner so that the best classical musicians from around the world could hear her friend Tony, play the violin.”
“Well, Mara, there are several people here this evening who want to show their appreciation to you for solving mysteries for them.”
Mara thought that some of the guests had looked familiar from a distance. Now, she knew why.
“Mara,” said the president, “in December, after school is out for winter break, you and your parents are going on a week vacation to Hawaii. And, since you might get lonely, Scott and his parents, Tony and his family are also going as well as my wife, my daughter and I.”
Mara was very excited. She had never been to Hawaii and had always wanted to go there.
The president continued, “Mara, your mother has informed me, what your secret desire is. I know how much you like dolphins. Well, in Hawaii, you will get the chance to swim with the dolphins.”
While Mara was thanking the president, as well as the people who were paying for the trip, Tony was carefully showing his Amati violin to the world famous violinists.
All of them said that they would write letters of recommendation to help Tony get into Julliard’s School of Music.
They told Tony that he was a musical prodigy and would one day be one of the greatest musicians of all time.
As music started to play, people began to dance. Scott asked Betsy to dance, and Tony asked Mara. Tony and Scott let Ryan and Jason cut in a few times, because they knew how much Mara and Betsy liked them.
Tony was a few inches taller than Mara and as they danced, Mara laid her head on Tony’s shoulder. The two of them danced for over an hour.
Tony was the first boy that Mara had felt this close to. She could say anything to him and not be embarrassed.
Later, Tony, Mara, Betsy and Scott talked for a couple of hours about the trip to Hawaii, about school and as well as many other things that teens talk about.
The next morning, Tony, Scott, Mara, Betsy, and their parents all met at the White House for breakfast, before the Wilson’s and Giovanni’s headed home.
On the ride home, Mara daydreamed about Tony, and about Hawaii. She knew that it would be the best winter break ever.
The best part was that her new friends would be with her.
What she did not know, was that it would also be when she would face her biggest mystery yet.
The Hawaiian Mystery
Mara awoke suddenly. She had that dream again. Over the past several weeks, she had dreamt the same dream at least eight times. The dreams were composed of flashes of different scenes. They showed Mara being in a cave of some sort and the ceiling started to collapse around her. There were other people in the cave with her, but they were faceless. Mara always awoke from the dreams, just before the rocks landed on top of her.
Normally, the dreams would mean nothing to her, other than being scary nightmares, but over the past few months, there had been some changes in her everyday life.
Since the age of nine, Mara Louis had solved many mysteries around the country, with the latest one taking place a few months earlier, in the White House. About a month after she returned to Baltimore, Mara noticed that she had somehow acquired some psychic ability, or maybe she had it all along and now, it was becoming stronger.
The first time that she discovered that something strange was happening to her, was when her mother could not find her car keys. She was running around the house frantically looking for the keys because she was late for work. All of a sudden, Mara had a clear image pop into her head, showing the keys sitting at the bottom of the kitchen wastebasket. Mrs. Louis walked into the kitchen, just as Mara was pulling the keys out of the trash.
Mara told her mother that she had a vision, in which she saw her mother throwing away a disposable coffee cup, and the keys fell out of her hand by accident. Mrs. Louis was amazed. Over the next several days, Mara saw things in her mind that later came true. She also saw things from the past, things that had already happened.
Mara and her parents decided to keep this to themselves, as Mara was already a celebrity of sorts, because of the mysteries she had solved. In addition, Mara did not want her friends to think she was some kind of freak, if they found out that she had psychic powers.
Mara got a little frightened when she thought about her recurrent dream, because it could be showing her a disaster in her future. She did not tell her parents about this dream, as it would only worry them.
When Mara went downstairs to breakfast, her mother asked her if she was getting excited. “Winter break starts tomorrow, and we’ll be heading to Hawaii for a week,” she said.
Mara pushed the dream out of her mind. This was not just any old trip to Hawaii. Mara and her parents were going to Hawaii, aboard Air Force One, the presidential jet, with the President Morgan and his family, Tony Giovanni and his family, and Scott Wilson and his family.
Ever since the last time they had seen each other, at the White House dinner, Mara, Betsy, Scott and Tony had stayed in touch through phone calls, email and Facebook.
That afternoon, after school was over, Mara and her parents packed their suitcases into their car and headed to the White House. When they arrived, the White House staff carried their luggage into the White house, where they would be spending the night.
Scott and his parents were already there, and Tony and his parents arrived an hour later, after driving from Philadelphia.
Scott’s parents, Mara’s parents, and Tony’s parents slept in three of the White House bedrooms, while the Betsy, Scott, Mara and Tony slept on the living room floor of the Presidential residence.
Early the next morning, four black limousines drove the families and their luggage to Andrew’s Air Force base; with a Secret Service escort of course.
Mara was very excited as she boarded the jet, as was Tony. Even Scott was excited, and he had already ridden the jet before.
After the jet was airborne, Betsy gave Tony and Mara a tour of the “Flying White House”. Mara had never seen such a big plane before. After the tour, the four of them watched a new movie that had not even been released to the theaters yet. Then, Mara and Betsy watched music videos, while Scott and Tony watched a football game from the jet’s archives, with their fathers, Mara’s father and President Morgan.
Mara noticed that almost everything on Air Force One had the Presidential Seal on them, from playing cards to towels, to dishes. Even the individual boxes of M
&M’s® had the seal on them.
Mara loved being waited on by the staff on board the plane. She felt so relaxed, that she even fell asleep and took a nice long nap. She awoke as the plane was preparing to land on the Big Island of Hawaii. They arrived in the late evening, as to draw less attention to Air Force One, and President Morgan.
The four families were met as they exited the plane and were driven by limousine to the hotel where they would be staying. The entire top floor had been reserved for them and the security detail for the First Family.
After Mara and her parents were shown to their room, they got cleaned up and went to bed, to rest up for the next day.
In the morning, after a quick breakfast, Mara, Betsy, Scott and Tony changed into their swimsuits and headed for the beach near the hotel, with Secret Service escort of course.
The four of them had a great time on the beach. The sun was shining and the water temperature was perfect. They swam for quite a while, and later, they walked along the beach. At the same time, Scott took Betsy’s hand; Tony gently took Mara’s hand in his. Mara was having a great time. She felt so comfortable around her three friends.
Later that morning, as they were laying on the beach, getting some sun, Mara started getting quick flashes of pictures in her mind. She was having a vision. She saw a man and his two children being held captive inside a cave, by a man with a gun. She saw certain