It's kind of a romantic story. Dawn used to live in California with her parents and younger brother, Jeff. But when her parents got divorced, her mom decided to move back to her hometown - namely, Stoneybrook.

    Well, my dad grew up here, too. In fact, he was in the same class as Sharon (Mrs. Schafer). In fact, he knew her. In fact . . . well, Dawn and I got hold of their high school yearbook, and we read these notes they'd written to each other - love letters. Yes, they had been sweethearts! At first I couldn't believe it. Sharon is sort of, well, absent-minded. (I'd use a stronger word, but I have to remember my resolution.) She's really a wonderful person, but she's been known to leave her gloves in the freezer, her keys in the bathroom soap-dish, stuff like that. My dad, on the other hand, bought a new pair of white socks last week and marked the toes with Xs so they wouldn't get mixed up in the laundry with his older white socks. He is Mr. Neatness.

    With a little nudging from Dawn and me, Dad and Sharon started dating again, and the old romance must have come back. (It took a while, though, and I can imagine why. My dad has these habits, like bringing a calculator to restaurants to check if the waiter added correctly on the bill.) Eventually they got married, and the Schafers and Spiers became one family.

    By that time, Jeff had moved back to California. (He never did adjust to Stoneybrook, and he missed his dad terribly.) So Sharon and Dawn had been living all alone in this big old farmhouse. And I mean old. Can you believe it was built in the 1790s? It even has a secret passageway that was once used by slaves escaping north on the Underground Railroad. The passageway leads from the barn right to Dawn's bedroom.. Since my dad and I lived in a much smaller house, we moved into the farmhouse.