Chapter 1 — The Door Beneath the Tide

Helpful words

English	Español
tide	marea
lighthouse	faro
guest	huésped
key	llave
corridor	pasillo
whisper	susurro
sand	arena
strange	extraño
wooden box	caja de madera
riddle	acertijo
to disappear	desaparecer
to choose	elegir

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The Moonwater Hotel stood at the end of a long beach, where the road became narrow and the sea wind was strong enough to push sand against the windows. It was not a modern hotel, with bright lights and glass doors. It was an old white building with blue balconies, green plants around the entrance, and hundreds of small shells hidden in the walls, as if the sea itself had helped to build it.

Nora noticed the shells immediately.

“Look at that,” she said, touching the wall beside the main door. “There are shells inside the stone.”

Her younger brother, Sam, looked up from his backpack and smiled.

“Maybe the hotel was built by mermaids,” he said.

Their aunt Iris laughed and pulled her suitcase over the small step at the entrance.

“Or maybe by builders with a lot of free time,” she said. “Come on. We are here for one quiet weekend. No mysteries, no strange adventures, no dangerous caves, and definitely no mermaids.”

That was the problem with Aunt Iris. She was kind, funny and almost always right, but whenever she said that nothing strange was going to happen, something strange usually happened very soon.

Inside, the hotel smelled of old wood, clean towels and salt from the sea. The reception desk was empty, but there was a silver bell on it and a small sign that said:

Ring once for service. Ring twice for trouble. Do not ring three times.

Sam read the sign aloud and immediately reached for the bell.

“Sam,” said Aunt Iris.

“What? I was only going to ring once.”

“You were going to ring three times.”

“I was going to ring once very slowly.”

Before Aunt Iris could answer, a voice came from behind a tall plant near the stairs.

“That is usually how trouble begins.”

An old man stepped out from behind the plant. He was thin and elegant, with white hair, round glasses and a dark blue jacket that looked too formal for a beach hotel. He smiled at them, but Nora had the uncomfortable feeling that he had been watching them for a while.

“Welcome to the Moonwater Hotel,” he said. “I am Mr Vale, the manager. You must be Miss Iris Bell and the two young guests.”

“Yes,” said Aunt Iris. “This is Nora, and this is Sam.”

Mr Vale looked at the children for a second longer than necessary.

“Of course,” he said softly. “Nora and Sam.”

Nora frowned. There was something strange in the way he said their names, almost as if he had heard them before.

Mr Vale gave Aunt Iris an old brass key with a blue ribbon tied to it.

“Room 214,” he said. “Second floor, at the end of the west corridor. Breakfast is from eight to ten. The beach gate closes at sunset. And please, if you hear music during the night, do not follow it.”

Sam’s eyes opened wide.

“What music?”

Mr Vale smiled again.

“Old pipes. Old hotel. Old stories. Nothing important.”

Aunt Iris gave the children a look that clearly meant: do not ask more questions. But that only made Nora more interested.

They went upstairs to their room, which had two small beds, one larger bed, a round window and a view of the sea. The water was grey-blue under the afternoon sky, and far away, on a black rock, a lighthouse stood alone. It looked thin and serious, like a guard who had been standing there for a hundred years without sitting down.

Sam dropped his backpack on the floor and ran to the window.

“That lighthouse is cool,” he said. “Can we go there?”

“No,” said Aunt Iris. “It is on a rock in the sea.”

“So… maybe tomorrow?”

“No.”

Nora was still thinking about the sign on the reception desk and Mr Vale’s warning about music. She opened the little hotel guide on the table, expecting to find normal things: breakfast times, restaurant menu, emergency numbers. Instead, on the first page, someone had drawn a small blue door in the corner.

Under the door, in tiny handwriting, there were five words:

The tide remembers everything.

Nora stared at the sentence. Then she showed it to Sam.

He read it, looked at the sea, and then looked back at her.

“That sounds like a mystery,” he whispered.

“It sounds like old hotel decoration,” said Nora, although she did not believe it.

Aunt Iris was unpacking and did not notice them. So Nora carefully tore a small piece from a blank page at the back of her notebook and copied the sentence. She did not know why, but she felt sure it was important.

Later that afternoon, while Aunt Iris rested in the room, Nora and Sam went downstairs to explore the hotel. They promised to stay inside, which was technically true for almost seven minutes.

The ground floor had a reading room with red armchairs, a dining room with long windows, and a corridor full of old photographs. Most of the pictures showed the hotel many years ago: guests in old clothes, children with wooden toys, women carrying umbrellas on the beach, and fishermen standing beside enormous fish.

At the end of the corridor, Nora stopped.

One photograph was different.

It showed the beach at low tide. In the picture, the sand was dark and wet, and near the water there was a square shape, like the top of a door. Three people stood around it, but their faces were blurred, as if they had moved just as the camera took the photo.

Sam leaned closer.

“That looks like a door under the sand.”

Nora felt a small cold feeling in her stomach.

“The tide remembers everything,” she said.

At that moment, something brushed against Sam’s leg. He jumped and nearly hit the wall.

A large black cat was sitting behind him. It had yellow eyes, one white paw and a blue collar with a tiny silver key hanging from it.

Sam put a hand on his chest.

“You scared me.”

The cat blinked slowly.

Nora bent down to look at the key.

“Why does a cat have a key?”

“Maybe it is the manager,” said Sam.

The cat turned and walked away down a narrow side corridor. Then it stopped, looked back at them, and gave a small impatient sound.

Nora and Sam looked at each other.

“We should not follow a strange cat,” said Nora.

“Correct,” said Sam. “But we are going to.”

The cat led them through a side door and into a small garden behind the hotel. From there, a wooden gate opened directly onto the beach. The sun was lower now, and the tide was going out, leaving long shining lines on the sand.

The cat walked quickly across the beach, never looking back for long. Nora and Sam followed at a distance, trying not to run because running after a mysterious cat felt even more suspicious than walking after one.

Near three black rocks, the cat stopped. It scratched at the wet sand with its white paw.

Sam knelt down.

“There is something here.”

Together, they pushed the sand away until their fingers touched wood. A few minutes later, they had uncovered a small wooden box. It was dark, heavy and covered with tiny marks that looked like waves, stars and birds.

On the front of the box there was a keyhole.

The cat sat beside it and looked at them.

Nora pointed to the key on its collar.

“Are you serious?”

The cat lowered its head, as if this was the obvious next step.

Very carefully, Nora took the tiny key from the collar and put it into the lock. For one second, nothing happened. Then the box clicked open by itself.

Inside there was a folded map, a flat blue stone, and a note written in elegant black ink.

Sam picked up the note and read:

“When the lighthouse blinks three times, find the place where the sea has gone. Put the moon in the water, and the old door will wake.”

There was a silence.

Then Sam said, “I understand exactly none of that.”

Nora opened the map. It showed the Moonwater Hotel, the beach, the rocks and the lighthouse. A blue line ran from the hotel to the place where they were standing, and then continued further out, across the wet sand, to a large X near the edge of the sea.

“The place where the sea has gone,” Nora said slowly. “That means low tide. The water was there before, but now it has gone back.”

Sam looked at the lighthouse. Its light was beginning to shine against the darkening sky.

Once.

A few seconds later, again.

Twice.

Nora and Sam did not move.

The lighthouse blinked a third time.

The blue stone inside the box began to glow.

“Nope,” said Sam. “That is not a normal stone.”

Nora picked it up. It was cold, much colder than it should have been, and its light moved under the surface like moonlight on water.

“The note says, ‘Put the moon in the water,’” she said.

Sam pointed to a shallow pool left by the tide. The pool was so still that it reflected the evening sky perfectly.

“Maybe that?”

Nora placed the blue stone in the pool.

For a moment, the world seemed to hold its breath.

Then the reflection of the moon appeared in the water, even though the real moon was not yet visible in the sky. The reflected moon grew brighter and brighter until the sand around the pool began to shake.

Sam grabbed Nora’s arm.

“I think we found the old door.”

A square line appeared in the wet sand. Then another line. Then a rectangle. Sand slid away from the edges, and slowly, silently, a blue door rose from beneath the beach. It was not lying flat under the sand as they had expected. It was standing upright, impossible and dry, with silver shells around its frame and no handle.

In the centre of the door, words appeared one by one:

Guests may enter. Guardians must choose.

Nora felt the wind change. It was no longer warm and salty. It was cold, like air from a deep cellar.

“We should get Aunt Iris,” she said.

“Yes,” said Sam.

Neither of them moved.

The black cat walked to the door and touched it with its white paw. The door opened just enough to show a staircase going down into blue darkness.

From somewhere below, they heard music.

It was quiet and far away, but beautiful. A simple melody, played on something like a flute.

Sam whispered, “Mr Vale said not to follow the music.”

“I know.”

“So we are definitely in trouble.”

Behind them, someone cleared his throat.

They turned around so fast that Sam almost fell into the pool.

Mr Vale was standing on the beach with Aunt Iris beside him. Aunt Iris looked worried, angry and confused all at once, which was impressive.

“Nora,” she said. “Sam. Explain.”

Sam pointed at the impossible blue door.

“In our defence, the cat started it.”

The black cat sat down proudly, as if this was true and also not a problem.

Mr Vale looked at the open door, then at the children, and then at Aunt Iris.

“Well,” he said quietly, “it seems the hotel has made its decision.”

Aunt Iris stared at him.

“What decision?”

Mr Vale did not answer. Instead, he took a small book from inside his jacket. It was old, with a cover made of dark blue leather. On the front, in silver letters, were the words:

The Moonwater Guest Book

The book opened by itself.

Its pages turned quickly, although there was no wind. Then the pages stopped, and new writing appeared in black ink.

Nora Bell. Sam Bell. Iris Bell.

Below their names, one more sentence appeared.

The first door has opened. The first guardian must choose: sand, sea or sky.

The music below the beach grew louder.

The blue door opened wider.

And from the darkness under the sand, a voice whispered:

“Choose before the tide returns.”

To be continued…

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Easy comprehension questions

1. What is the name of the hotel?
2. What animal leads Nora and Sam to the beach?
3. What do they find under the sand?
4. What happens when Nora puts the blue stone in the pool of water?
5. What three options appear in the Guest Book?

Useful expressions

• That sounds like a mystery. → Eso suena a misterio.
• We should not follow a strange cat. → No deberíamos seguir a un gato extraño.
• In our defence… → En nuestra defensa…
• The hotel has made its decision. → El hotel ha tomado su decisión.
• Choose before the tide returns. → Elige antes de que vuelva la marea.

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