Dinner Guest & Dinner Guesses
“Guess who came while you were out?”
mom yelled from the kitchen.
“We can’t,” Rebecca shouted back,
“You must give us a hint.”
“Well,” mom said slowly, “he is not
living in California, he took a plane to get here and he’s here in the kitchen
with me.”
“It’s a male!” Robert blurted out,
“Since you said ‘he’.”
“You’re getting warmer,” mom hinted.
“Uncle Jim!” Kelly said, running to
get a big hug from her uncle.
“Alright,” exclaimed Robert. “I was
hoping you would come and visit soon.”
“I’m here for a convention related
to my job. I’ll tell you all more about it during dinner.”
“We have to wait for dinner before
we know?” asked Rebecca, “We’ll just keep on guessing and guessing, I guess.”
“Guess right, sis,” mocked Robert.
“Leave your uncle alone,” mom
commanded, “He’s going to get cleaned up for dinner. It was a long trip from
New York today.”
Uncle Jim retired to get cleaned up
while the Dance children set the table for dinner. The family had not had a
guest over in the middle of the week for a long time, so the excitement was
doubly fun.
“I wonder why Uncle Jim is keeping
his visit’s purpose a secret,” questioned Kelly, “We’re just glad he’s here. We
don’t need a reason.”
“That’s for sure,” asserted Rebecca.
“Hey, everyone,” they heard as the
front door opened to reveal their father.
“Hi, dad,” came the replies, “Guess
who is here visiting us?”
“Let’s see … Uncle Jim, maybe!” he
said chuckling.
“Somebody told you, didn’t they?”
Kelly whined.
“Uncle Jim told me he was coming this
Wednesday, so, unless we have another guest, I assume I am correct?”
“Hello, dear,” Mrs. Dance greeted
her husband as she brought some dinner things out to the dining table, “You’d
better hurry, Jon, or you’ll hold up dinner.”
“Yes, dear. I will.”
With the table set and food ready to
eat, the family sat down to a hearty mid-week meal together.
“Uncle Jim,” said Kelly, “We had a
lot happen this week that was pretty exciting.”
“Really, tell me about it, Kell.”
“Well, I better let Rob and Becca
tell you about some things first, then I can tell you about what happened at
the shopping center.”
The twins talked about the computer
thefts from their school and how they came up with some ideas that helped the
police. They also explained how the crime was solved quickly. Kelly waited
patiently then relayed the story of the missing girl at the shopping center and
how they found her in the bookstore, but none of the Dance kids brought up
anything about Kelly finding a secret code in a book about Viking ships. They wanted
to keep that part of their week a secret for a little bit longer, at least
until after their dinner was over.
“What brings you to the Bay Area,
Uncle Jim,” inquired Rebecca.
“I’m here for a job seminar,” he
replied. “We usually train in the Washington D.C. area in Arlington, Virginia,
but we have a special guest from Japan who wished to hold the course in San
Francisco and for one, I can’t blame him. After all, it is the most beautiful
city in the world.”
“Arlington... that’s where the
soldier cemetery is, isn’t it, Uncle Jim?” asked Rebecca.
“Yes, it is.”
“President Kennedy is interned
there, children,” their mother added.
“And the Lincoln Memorial,
Washington Monument and the Smithsonian Institute are nearby also,” stated
Kelly.
“It sounds like a nice place to be,”
commented Rebecca.
“How long are you staying here in
the Bay Area, Uncle Jim?” questioned Robert.
“I am here for almost two weeks,
Rob.”
“Are you a secret agent with the
CIA.?” Kelly asked abruptly.
All of a sudden, the dinner table
was silent and everyone looked surprised that Kelly would ask her uncle that
question.
“No, not really,” he answered, “but
I was an operative for them for many years. Now I have a new job with the
Department of State.”
“What kind of job, Uncle Jim?”
Robert asked. “Is it a secret?”
“Not a big secret, but I took a job
ten months ago as a Special Agent with the State Department and I’m working in
New York where I currently live.”
“Currently?” questioned Robert, “Do
you mean you are moving somewhere else?”
“Yes and no,” he said, presenting a
mystery of its own to the kids. “I have a new assignment as a Regional Security
Officer. A Special Agent’s title is changed to ‘Regional Security Officer’ when
they are assigned overseas duty. We call them an ‘RSO’ for short.”
“Does that mean that you get to go
to other countries and places, Uncle Jim?” inquired Rebecca.
“Yes. I will be the supervisor of
security operations at an American Embassy for two to three years before I am
assigned to another post, which I must bid for competitively. The bidding is
based on numerous factors like: seniority, previous posts and such,”
“But we may not get to see you
much,” Kelly said sadly.
“Sure you will,” Uncle Jim promised.
“Your mom and dad plan to come and visit every summer at each safe post I am
stationed. So, I am looking forward to your month-long summer visits.”
“Wow!” Robert said, “We will
actually get to travel to some foreign countries and stay for a month?”
“Yes, kids,” dad interjected, “We
want this to be as much fun for your uncle as it will be for us every year.”
“Where are you going to first, Uncle
Jim?” asked Rebecca.
“Either Stockholm, Sweden, or Oslo,
Norway,” he replied, “I don’t quite know yet.”
“Where the Vikings are from,” said
Kelly and Robert simultaneously.
“Yes,” confirmed Jim, “and there are
museums in both countries with lots of artifacts from those days. We can tour
them together when you all come to visit.”
“This is very exciting,” Mrs. Dance
said, “I can hardly wait to travel the world.”
“We have planned to take you kids on
some nice vacations and now we can go places and still have some family to
visit,” said dad.
“Do all the Special Agents become an
RSO and travel all over the world, Uncle Jim?” asked Rebecca.
“No, not all of us, at least not
right away. We usually have a two year domestic field office assignment in the
US before we go to a foreign country, but due to my background I will be
assigned sooner to an overseas post.”
“What did you do in New York, Jim?”
questioned Mrs. Dance.
“Primarily passport fraud and
background investigations, but also some criminal investigations.”
“This sounds so very exciting,”
commented Robert.
“I have something else exciting for
you,” interrupted mom, “anyone for dessert?”
“Yes!” came the replies, “yes,” from
a family that knows all too well that mom’s desserts are always a delicious
treat. She usually buys things at the bakery, but whenever possible, she likes
to create something special for the family.
After they finished their dessert
and the Dance kids have cleared the table, the family settled into the living
room for the evening, catching up on each other’s lives.
“So, what have my kids been up to
besides helping to solve crimes and finding missing children?” asked the
children’s proud father.
“Crimes, missing kids?” their uncle
questioned, “It sounds like you are doing a little investigating yourselves.”
“We try to help out whenever we
can,” responded Robert.
“That is fantastic,” commented Uncle
Jim. “You three certainly seem to have had some interesting experiences.”
“I found a code in a Viking book I
checked out for Robert from the library,” inserted Kelly.
“A code?” questioned Mrs. Dance.
“What type of code?” inquired their
father.
“Well, we went to Mr. Walkinhawk’s
bookstore and he gave us a book to help us solve the code,” Kelly informed
them, “He said it looked like a substitution code.”
“Sounds very exciting,” commented
Uncle Jim, “if you need any help with it, just let me know.”
“Can Uncle Jim help us for a while,”
asked Rebecca, “before it’s time to go to bed?”
“Sure,” their father replied, “If he
wishes.”
“Sounds like an adventure to me,”
replied their uncle.
The kids and their uncle made their
way down the old stairs to the basement room to take a look at the code. They
showed it to their uncle, along with the book that George Walkinhawk gave them
to help them crack the code.
“Yes, I would have to agree with Mr.
Walkinhawk,” Uncle Jim confirmed, “This certainly looks like a substitution
code to me.”
“Does that mean it will be easy to
solve?” questioned Kelly.
“Maybe not real easy, but it won’t
be as hard to figure out as many other codes are. Some codes can be very
sophisticated.”
After they made a few copies of the
code, they laid one out on the table for a closer look.
“Make sure you keep some good notes
on all of your thoughts as you are working on this,” suggested their uncle,
“That way you can go back and check them later for any ideas you may have had
that may be of help, but didn’t seem all that important at the time.”
“We plan to,” replied Robert.
Let’s turn on this floor lamp and
move it over here,” said Uncle Jim, sliding the floor lamp closer to the table.
“There, that’s a bit better.”
5 – NCOSMESX – =/ –
?>>?
W – HFEICV – YAWQ – QCISCY – IJVC –
UJYC – WU – YAWQ – OJJB – EY – == – J
W – LSJYC – WY – JU – 4 – ZEUMESX –
=+ – ?>>? – EY – à – L
?? – XCESQ – ETJ – JU – NEYACSQ –
VEX – 1 – ZMUC – =\ – =àß>
W – PEVC – E – FESTC – NJSYMUC
W – FWBC – YJ – QAESC – YAWQ –
NJSYMUC – LWYA – YAJQC – LAJ
QYMVX – EUV – WUISCEQC – YACWS – CVMIEYWJU
QJFKC– YAWQ – IJVC – EUV – XJM –
LWFF – TCY – E – QHCIWEF - SCLESV
XJM – PMQY – EFQJ – LSWYC – E –
< – HETC – OJJB – SCHJSY
EOJMY – YAC – OJJB – XJM
– NJMUV – YAWQ – IJVC – WU
JUIC – XJM – ESC – NWUWQACV – XJM –
PMQY – TWKC
YAC – SCHJSY – EUV – YAC –
IJVC – YSEUQFEYWJU
YJ – YAC – ACEV – FWOSESWEU – LAJ –
LWFF
UJYWNX – PC – YJ – ELESV – XJM –
XJMS – HSWRC
YACSC – ESC – PEUX – PJSC – JN –
YACQC – IJVCQ
WU – OJJBQ – EFF – EISJQQ – YAC – MQ
– EUV – YAC - LJSFV
UJ – ? – IJVCQ – ESC – YAC – QEPC
EUV – YAC – SCDMWSCPCUYQ – YJ – LWU
– HSWRC – ESC – EFLEXQ – VWNNCSCUY
QWUICSFX – ZEQJU – YWNFJU – WWW –
CVMIEYWJUEF – HAWFEUYASJHWQY
The code, written in all capital
letters, appeared to have a heading and a footing clearly separate from the
rest of the text body and contained a few words and a number of single
characters that repeated themselves.
“Notice that the ‘W’ letter repeats
itself at the beginning of these lines and quite frequently throughout the
text,” said Uncle Jim, pointing as he spoke.
“Yes,” answered Robert.
Jim continued, “And this dash may be
what was used to separate the words, instead of using a space between them.”
“I see that,” said Kelly, “and they
are dashes and not hyphens, I think.”
“Exactly,” confirmed her uncle.
“What do you mean dashes instead of
hyphens, Kell?” asked Robert, slightly puzzled because he thought they were
both the same thing.
“Hyphens are used to separate
syllables of words and to join words together, although about 16,000 words
recently lost their hyphens in one of the new dictionaries.”
“I don’t even know that many words
with hyphens,” commented Rebecca.
“And the dashes?” Robert questions
again.
“They are used when, for example,
you write from June – July, or 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., and things like that.”
“I see, thanks, Kell.”
“You can start with the ‘W’ letter
and see if the letters ‘A’ or ‘I’ seem to fit since they are usually the only
two vowels used alone,” their uncle said, “Then, remember to replace all the
‘W’ letters with the same vowel.”
“That will help a lot,” said Kelly,
flipping through the book from the bookstore, “it says the same thing in this
book.”
“It sounds as though you three have
things under control,” Uncle Jim said, “And another tip is that most words in
sentences begin with consonants rather than vowels.”
Rebecca replied, “Thanks, Uncle
Jim.”
“You are quite welcome. Oh, one more
thing many people forget to do.”
“What’s that, Uncle Jim?” asked
Kelly.
“To type out the code in the
computer and keep a couple of extra working copies. This way you can run a
program to check for spelling errors. Sometimes, especially when you get quite
a few of the letters and symbols translated, you will get options to correct
the words and that can save a bit of time in some cases.”
“That’s a great idea!” exclaimed
Robert.
“Yeah,” added Rebecca, “This will be
fun.”
“I sure hope you can translate this
code and that it has some useful information in it,” said Uncle Jim, walking
toward the stairs, “I have to get going soon, so I’ll go visit with your mom
and dad a spell.”
“Ok.”
“I will also ask them if we can do
some things together this weekend, if that’s alright with you guys?”
“Sure.”
“See you.”
“Bye, Uncle Jim. Good night.”
The trio immediately went to work on
deciphering the mysterious code lying before them. Robert made copies and they
divided up some duties.
“I’ll work with Kell on trying to
translate some of these letters while you type the code into a document on the
computer,” Robert said to Rebecca, the fast typing computer whiz of the family,
“I can be reading through this book as Kelly and I look over the code.”
“I’ll save a few copies as ‘Code-1,
Code-2, Code-3’ and so on,” said Rebecca.
Time passed by all too quickly for
the kids as they laboriously attempted to come up with a few answers to their
mystery document’s hidden meaning. Upstairs, the older members of the family
enjoyed a relaxing evening together; an evening, unfortunately, which they
shared together only on special occasions.
“I was wondering,” Jim addressed
Felicity and Jonothan, “Would you and the kids like to come to San Francisco on
Saturday and we can all see the city together?”
“That sounds like a wonderful idea,”
replied Felicity, “What do you think Jonothan?”
“That’s fine with me.”
“Good, it’s a plan. You and the kids
can come and we can meet somewhere specific.”
“How about 9 a.m. at the Palace of
Fine Arts by the pond on the Baker Street side?” suggested Jonothan.
“Palace of Fine Arts... at the front
pond... Baker Street... ok by me.”
“It will do us all good to have a
fun day in the City with the kids,” commented Felicity.
“How about a picnic in Tilden Park
on Sunday?” Jonothan added, “We could also invite some other close friends and
Sara, Kevin and little Philip also. Sort of make it a family and friends
picnic.”
“I’d like that. It’s not often I get
to see the whole family together. New York is nice, but it can be a lonely
place without family,” replied Jim.
After Uncle Jim departed later that
evening, the Dance family prepared for the end of another day. The kids planned
to continue working on the code after school the next day.
“Good night, everyone,” mom
whispered to the kids as they scurried off to their bedrooms.
“Good night, mom. Good night, dad.”
Next Chapter
Chapter Seven: Job Talk
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