Abigail Branigan Investigates, written by Greg Taylor, read by Clarissa Dernetterlanding.

The lights flickered twice, as if they simply could not be bothered, and then finally

came to life with a flash, illuminating a small windowless room lined with bookshelves, and a tall

girl in the doorway who sighed at the sight of it.

Abigail Branigan was not happy.

It took a moment for Abigail's eyes to adjust to the semi-darkness.

Before she left for work, Abigail's mother had made her promise

that she wouldn't waste another day of her summer vacations

sulking in the basement.

School had been out for two days, 18 hours, and 11 minutes.

If you didn't count the weekend, and Abigail did not think that she really should,

that meant that today was the first actual day of the summer break, and she would sulk if she

wanted to. Friday had not just been the

end of the school year. It had been Abigail's last day ever at Henderson Dangerfield Elementary.

She had been at Dangerfield longer than she could remember, and so had everyone she knew and had

ever known. She had been there since

she was Little Abbey Branigan, and went to school in overalls with a sunflower stitched onto them.

She was not Little Abbey anymore, and the world that she had known was close to her.

Dangerfield Elementary fed into Margaret Wentworth Middle School, and so did West Mountain

and Albion Lane and Valley Park and maybe more. There was an entirely new universe, just

waiting for an entirely new Abigail, and she would have to wait through two and a half agonizing

months for it all to begin.

...