Ashley Enright and the Message in the Tree (7 of 12)

The next day, Ashley could hardly wait until school was over. When she got home, she called upstairs to her mother’s office and said, “Mom, Josh and I are riding to the library.”
“O.k.,” her mother yelled down the stairs. “Don’t be late for dinner. Your grandmother is coming over to make one of her special meals.”
“O.k.” said Ashley. She loved it when her grandmother, Gram, tried out a new recipe that she learned in cooking class at the university. “I’ll have my cell phone with me!”
Ashley put her backpack on her back and went to the garage to get her bicycle and ride to the library with Josh. Josh was waiting for her at the end of his driveway. They rode to the library and parked their bicycles outside. They walked into the library and headed straight for the reference librarian’s desk.
Josh breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Kathleen sitting at her desk. Ashley heard his sigh and said, “I feel the same way!”
Kathleen looked up from her computer screen when they came to her desk. “Hi,kids,” said Kathleen. “What brings you both to the library today?”
“Well,” Ashley laughed. “You know us. We’ve found another mystery that we hope you can help us solve.”
Kathleen smiled and said, “I’m not surprised. What’s the mystery?”
Ashley explained how they found some initials carved into a tree at the end of Foggy Bottom Road.
“I climbed the tree to get a better look,” Josh said proudly.
“Yes,” said Ashley. “Monkey boy, here, loves to climb trees.” She pointed to Josh and then pulled out a piece of paper from her knapsack and showed it to Kathleen.
“Hmmm,” said Kathleen as she read the initials on the paper. “R.L. + P.W. forever.”
“Do you know how we can find out who these initials belong to? asked Josh.
“Well,” said Kathleen. “I suppose we could search marriage records and see if those initials show up. I wonder how far back I should go?”
“Beats me,” said Josh. “That tree was pretty tall. Maybe go back to the Revolutionary War?”
“Josh,” Ashley groaned and rolled her eyes. “The tree was not that tall!”
Kathleen laughed and said, “I think our records only go back to the 1940s. So, I guess that’s as far back as we’ll go right now!”
“That sounds good,” said Ashley.