DOUG Chapter Twenty-One A GOOD IDEA A BAD RIDDLE AN OLD DEBT Chapter Twenty-Two GOOD FRIENDS A GRAND OPENING A GREAT GIFT Chapter Twenty-Three FOUR KEYS FOUR FRIENDS THE LOVE OF MYSTERY
CHAPTER ONE PATCHES DOUG ME My name is Finley McPhee Finley sounds just like it looks FINN-Lee Anyway I’ve had a pretty good life I wasn’t the smartest kid in school or a great rugby player like my brother but I never argued much with my parents or fought with my friends Not that I had many friends I preferred to be alone whenever I could away from bullies and drama I didn’t get to see much of the world outside where I
lived I knew that the main road out of my village would eventually take you to Inverness or Edinburgh two bigger cities that were full of people and according to our teachers great opportunities Though they never did explain what kinds of opportunities they meant I grew up in the village of Applecross in the far northern part of Scotland It was a nice enough place to grow up It had everything you needed to survive but not much in the way of distractions Applecross had two roads a main square with a small fountain that never worked Mr Fionnbhurd’s pub a supermarket and various other stores The farms were located just south of the village Nearly all of them were involved in raising sheep just like my father’s farm North of the village was the mill where they used to make the wheat Only old lady Cumai lived there now Higher up in the hills on the heathland were the remains of a large deserted castle Cumai herself claimed
the place was haunted on the thirteenth day of every month On the opposite side was the cold and murky sea On windy days the sky was clear and the clouds sped by like wool through the threads of a loom But when the wind dropped and the tide receded clouds of mosquitoes would swarm the beach But that didn’t stop me and Patches from searching the beach for treasures Yes treasures You might not believe me but Patches and I actually found a message in a bottle once Patches was my dog He was as tall as my knees and had long ears and shaggy fur He found the bottle actually I put it in my bedroom along with the other pieces in my collection of rare finds including chunks of metal pieces of driftwood and strange rocks I labeled each of them with names like Ligneous Steganosaurus Bone or Dry Leaves from the City of Doucumber I’m not sure if a Steganosaurus ever really existed or if there actually was a city named Doucumber I just made up the names on the labels so that Doug my brother wouldn’t try to
