Chapter 1: Alaskan Vacation

It was a beautiful summer afternoon in Alaska. At a large luxury hotel, known as the Aurora Hotel, the world famous detective, Charlie Chan, was vacationing along with his ten children, the Chan Clan.

While the great detective relaxed outside in a lounge chair, his youngest daughter and second youngest child, Mimi, was inside their hotel room giving the family dog, Chu-Chu, a bath, much to the Pekingese's dismay. In the meantime, the eighth child, Nancy, was inside a bedroom dining on a delicious fried fish.

Back outside, the eldest daughter and third eldest child, Suzie, was also sitting in a lounge chair knitting a nice, new red shirt while watching her four younger brothers, Alan, Tom, Flip, and Scooter, play baseball. Nearby, the fifth child, Anne, was practicing archery and making perfect bull's-eyes each time. Also nearby, the two eldest children and sons, Henry and Stanley, were at the hotel tennis court, playing a friendly game of tennis.

"Okay, Henry, serve!" Stanley called over to his brother.

"Alright," Henry hesitated, "but this time, don't hit the ball so hard."

"Okay, okay," Stanley said as he positioned himself. "Just serve!"

Despite his uncertainty, Henry gave the first serve…only for Stanley to hit the ball back too hard. The ball flew right over Henry's head and wound up hitting Anne in hers while she was aiming her next arrow thus causing her to accidentally fire her arrow at a baseball Flip was tossing and pin it to a tree.

"Hey, Anne!" Flip shouted to his older sister. "Watch it, will ya?"

"It wasn't my fault!" Anne argued, showing the tennis ball that hit her. "This ball hit me out of nowhere."

"Heh-heh," Stanley nervously chuckled as he walked over to retrieve his ball. "That was my fault. Sorry."

"Well, watch it next time, will ya?" Flip complained.

"Yeah, watch it," young Scooter agreed.

After returning the tennis ball to Stanley, Anne walked over to her other brothers. "Hey, since I'm here, can I play, too?"

"Anne," her older brother Alan jokingly said, "haven't you learned yet that baseball's a man's game?"

The feminist tomboy, not pleased with her brother's chauvinism, joked back. "Well, you're playing, aren't you?"

"Oh, funny, funny," Alan sarcastically chuckled.

Having had enough of this squabbling, Suzie interrupted, "Alright, stop it, you two. Besides, Anne, shouldn't you be practicing for that upcoming archery tournament?"

"Alright, alright," Anne sighed. "Point well made."

"I still can't get over how you conned your way into getting nominated for that tournament," Alan said while crossing his arms.

"'Conned' is not the right word to use," Anne disagreed. "I prefer 'cleverly proven'."

Everyone paused for a moment and thought back to an event that took place some time before their current day.