A Different Look at 1111
Part 4
Quinn's SecretIt was early in the Summer between her Junior and Senior years at Lawndale High, and Stacy Rowe was visiting her best friend, Quinn Morgendorffer.
She rang the doorbell. Quinn's Mom came to the door. “Hi, Stacy, Quinn is upstairs. Qui-inn! Your friend is here!”
There was no response.
“Is she?” Stacy asked.
“Odd,” Quinn's Mom, Helen, said. “Come to the kitchen.”
“Sure,” Stacy said.
In the kitchen, Helen pressed an odd button next to the sink, that Stacy had always noticed, but thought was simply a decoration. 'I guess not. It's another mechanism, like the Dining Room, and the guest room closet-platform,' she thought. She had seen Tom and Daria come down from it one night, and some months later, had used it to surprise Jeffy. That had been a memorable night. However, she noticed a panel on the wall next to the microwave, recede and then slide aside, revealing an older styled telephone handset. Helen picked it up.
“This is an intercom. It reaches everywhere in the house,” Helen said.
“Are you sure?” Stacy asked.
“Yes,” Helen answered.
She held down a button in the middle of the handpiece. “Quinn! Stacy is here!”
“
Quinn! Stacy is here!” the mechanism somehow had a delay built in. 'I guess that reduces the chance of feedback,' Stacy thought. “Cool,” she said.
“Yes, it is isn't. it? Of course, Daria knew about it for a full year before she told me!” Helen said with a shake of her head.
Quinn's reply then came. “
I'll be there in a minute, Mom.”
“There, you go. She is here, somewhere.”
'There are probably other secrets you don't know about,' Stacy thought.
( Quinn entered the kitchen a minute later. )