Episode 3

The secret door

At the end of an exhausting day with beach running and a volleyball competition, our four friends decide to enjoy a quiet and cosy evening at their secret meeting point. They pick up blankets, torches and provisions and creep through the forest to the old villa.

They walk around the old building and climb through the small back window as usual, when suddenly Paolo makes a discovery. “Look here, guys,” he says, “There is a door behind this green stuff. Let’s check if we can use this!” Max, Thelma and Natalya stop and direct their torches on the old wooden door hidden behind the overgrown ivy. Paolo pushes the plants aside and fights with the door. With a creaking noise, it finally opens. The four friends look inside. In the light of their torches, they see an open trapdoor and stairs leading downwards. This is a part of the villa the four friends have never been in. “These steps don’t look reliable,” hesitates Max. “Should we really go? Maybe the wood will break…” Paolo takes his torch and steps forward. “Don’t make such a fuss, “ he says resolutely, “we’ll go in there and see what’s in the basement.

Who knows what the landlord hid there? Maybe we’ll find a treasure?” “A treasure, oh, oh,” says Natalya, “more likely some old books and cobwebs.” She is not really fond of this idea and fears  encountering lots of spiders and centipedes. Nevertheless, the four friends cautiously descend the squeaking steps and go around a corner to enter an old study. They look around with wide eyes. The walls are covered with shelves and the shelves with dusty books, and in the middle of the room there is a large old wooden desk covered with notebooks, sheets of paper and cobwebs.  The four friends look around curiously.

“Oh, look what I’ve found!” Thelma picks  a pair of earrings with green stones out of a little bowl. She puts them to her ears. “Do they look nice on me?”
Max looks aghast. “You can’t just take them like that. That’s stealing!”
Thelma shakes her head. “Who said anything  about stealing? I am just trying them on. Nobody says I’m taking them. Aren’t they nice?” Paolo admires the earrings while Max and Natalya glance at each other and shake their heads. 

On the wall behind the desk full of piles of dusty papers and old books they discover a certificate in a dark frame. It is so dusty that the letters are very difficult to read. Max is wiping his sleeve across the glass to clean it, when Paolo sneezes violently, and unintentionally clears the layer of dust off the glass. “Thanks, Paolo, very helpful,” jokes Max. “You’re welco-o-ome,” stammers Paolo and has to sneeze again. Max smiles amusedly and offers Paolo a handkerchief. “Allergic to dust, are you?” He points his torch at the certificate and starts to read:” Certificate to honour the special merits in  Allergy Research at the University of Montpellier … we grant the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to Professor Dr. Marie Prurit.” 

Max stops for a moment. “Prurit? That’s French and means – atishoo!” Now Max starts sneezing as well. “That means Atishoo?” Paolo asks disbelievingly. “Our researcher is a woman and is called Atishoo?” The girls burst into giggles. “No, no,” explains Max who has recovered from his sneezing bout, “Prurit is a French word and means itching.”

“Talking of itching,” says Natalya and turns to Thelma,” I would be careful about using other people’s earrings. A friend of mine recently brought back some earrings from vacation. She didn’t know that she is allergic to nickel. After only a day, her ears were red as fire and itched like crazy. Mrs. Prurit would have been very interested!” Thelma touches her ears and hesitates. “Nonsense, these are not made from nickel.”

“But you might be allergic to stolen earrings,” Max emphasizes again. “Or maybe it’s an old family heirloom and a curse rests upon it…” Thelma suggests dreamily but  decides to keep the beautiful earrings on for at least the rest of their time in the villa.

“What kind of research did the lady do?” Paolo asks Max who is carefully studying the faded document. “Allergies and Dermatitis,” Max reads aloud.
“Allergies and what?” asks Thelma. “Dermatitis? What is that? Is that a kind of swelling?” “Yes,” says Max, “like your ears very soon probably, if you have a nickel allergy like Natalya’s friend”.
“Shh,” says Paolo, “could you be serious for a second? There is something like a title on this paper: “Facts and Myths about Dermatitis” it says, but the rest of the sheet is missing, what a pity. Let’s look at the other papers around here, maybe we can find out more about it…”

Bang! A terribly loud noise makes them freeze. “The trapdoor, the trapdoor,” laments Natalya. “I knew it was a bad idea. Now we are trapped in here and will never see our homes again and will  starve and die here...”  The others signal her to be quiet and listen motionless.

Through the basement window they see someone walking in the garden with a torch. It looks like a young man and he shouts in French: “Hello, is there anybody around?” Paolo gives Max a little push, who takes a deep breath and answers loudly: “Yes, in the basement. We are just four young people from the summer camp. We are not thieves, and we haven’t done anything!” They hear the slamming of the trapdoor and then steps in the hall. A black-haired young man with a narrow,  tanned face appears in the door to the study.

“Ah, you four, hello, “he says, in a tone that’s  not unfriendly. “This villa attracts kids from the summer camp every year, it’s like magic. It literally seems to call them.” The four friends look down in front of them embarrassed. “I’m Henri,” the young man continues when nobody speaks, “Henri Molé. I’m the owner of this house, but unfortunately I have no money to have it renovated. That’s why it looks as it does. My great-grandmother lived and worked here.”
Max is curious. “Your great-grandmother was this famous professor? We saw her certificate over there on the wall.”

“Yes, that’s her. But now back to business. You’ll understand that you cannot simply enter other people’s houses and labs, and use their belongings and things… and earrings,” he looks at Thelma. Thelma, blushing deeply, takes off the earrings and puts them back in the bowl where she found them. Henri looks at her seriously. “They wouldn’t be good for you anyway. You wouldn’t be the first person to react to them with a nickel allergy.” Natalya looks around proudly – hasn’t she been on the right track with her warning?

Paolo seems to regain confidence as well. “Are you following your great-grandmother’s footsteps?” Henri nods. “Yes, I am trying to. I study medicine at the University of Montpellier. But now you guys should get going and leave. I’ll turn a blind eye on this occasion and won’t tell anybody, but please don’t enter the villa again. However… you may go on using the veranda!”