“This isn't any good,” said Beth. “It's just plain stupid.”
“Well, it's all we've got, so it will have to do,” Eddie said irritably. “Meanwhile, I'll hide this under my bed. The folks will be in Morgantown on Saturday afternoon, and the experiment will be over by the time they get back. Not that I'm doing anything wrong, of course. I just…I don't know how Mom would feel about us luring kids over here thinking they'll see a real animal.”
Caroline said nothing. Nothing at all.
The next morning, however, before the girls left for school, Eddie gave Caroline some of the messages to put in coat pockets. Sure! thought Caroline. When there's work to be done, call on good old Caroline. Still, she took her share of the slips of paper without complaining.
She didn't say a word to Wally. She was as good as gold all day. Eddie had already decided that the messages should be put into coat pockets after the last recess so that kids wouldn't be finding them and talking about them with their friends. Better that each student should read the message alone and decide for himself or herself whether or not to go see the abaguchie.
Caroline did her afternoon arithmetic lesson, wrote a paragraph for American history, and promptly at two-thirty-five went up to Miss Applebaum's desk with a rather urgent look on her face, one hand on her stomach, and asked to use the rest room. Miss Applebaum nodded and Caroline went out in the hall.
She could see Eddie coming out of her classroom far down one end of the corridor, and Beth in the hallway at the other end. Eddie disappeared into the south corridor, Beth disappeared into the north, and Caroline took a handful of slips from her sweater pocket and began putting them in the pockets of all the coats hanging outside her classroom. It was understood that Beth would fill the pockets of the second- and third-graders, Eddie would do the fifth and sixth grades, and Caroline would do the pockets of her fourth-grade class.
Caroline's heart was beating fast and her hands felt cold as she walked silently along the rows of coats, dipping one hand down into the pocket of her sweater. She knew she was taking an extra-long time, but she hoped Miss Applebaum would figure she had been feeling a little sick and needed extra time in the rest room.
The girls usually hung their coats on one side of the hallway, the boys on the other. On one side were purple, pink, and green nylon jackets, some with fake fur around the hoods, mittens with designs on them, and a few snow boots of blue and pink and purple.
On the other side of the hallway were brown and gray and blue and black coats, some of wool, some of nylon, and stocking caps stuffed up sleeves or flung this way and that on the rack.
Caroline finished putting messages in the girls’ pockets and started down the other side of the hall. She put her hand deep into the pocket of a brown corduroy jacket with a sheepskin collar and didn't notice Wally Hatford walking out of the classroom toward the boys’ rest room. She didn't see him stop and stare at her before continuing silently on his way.
Six
Spy Time
Caroline Malloy steals,” Wally announced to his brothers as they walked up to their porch that afternoon.
“How do you know?” asked Josh.
“I saw her in the hall today with her hand in a boy's coat pocket. She didn't see me, though.”
“What did she take?”
Wally shrugged. “I don't know. She was probably looking for money or something. It was Kevin Miller's jacket.”
Wally went inside and started to take off his coat.
Then he remembered the quarter he'd found on the way to school that morning and wondered if it was still where he'd put it. If Crazy Caroline was going around checking pockets to see if there was any money in them, she'd undoubtedly taken his quarter too.
He thrust both hands in both pockets. The quarter was still there. There was also a little slip of paper, which he pulled out with two fingers. While his brothers went into the kitchen to get a snack, Wally unfolded the paper and read:
Private: This is a secret message. If you want to
see the abaguchie, come to 611 Island Avenue
between 3 and 4 PM. tomorrow, Saturday. Free.
Do not tell anyone about this message or you will
not get in.
What in the world?
Wally looked around to see if Josh or Jake had seen him reading the secret message. He wanted to go right out and show it to them, but maybe he shouldn't. That was the Malloys’ address, all right, and Caroline had obviously put it in his pocket. Maybe that was what she'd been doing out in the hall. She'd sure been acting weird lately, as though she wanted Wally to be her boyfriend, and now maybe she liked Kevin, too. Well, that was fine with Wally. Kevin could have her all to himself.
Still, what did it mean? Was it possible the Malloys really had captured the strange animal that had been lurking around Buckman? Maybe Coach Malloy had trapped it in their garage and Caroline was going to let Wally and Kevin have a first look at it because she liked them so much.
He stared at the note again. Why couldn't he tell anyone? he wondered. And how would they know whether he had or not? That was easy. Everyone he told would want to come too, and a whole crowd would show up at the Malloys’. No, he had to keep this secret and go alone. But if this was a trick…
He went into the kitchen, where Jake and Josh were getting down the crackers and peanut butter. Peter was on the phone talking to their mother. She always called to see if things were okay.
“We're all here and we're not murdered or anything,” Peter told her.
When he hung up, they sat down at the table and passed around the crackers and orange juice, the peanut butter, and some cheese. But they all seemed unusually quiet to Wally. Jake and Josh would normally be jabbering away or quarreling about something, but now each of his brothers seemed to have something on his mind. Peter, in fact, was holding something tightly clasped in his left hand, and finally, when all the cheese was gone, he opened his fist, unfolded a little slip of paper, and asked, “What does a-b-a-g-u-c-h-i-e spell?”
Jake and Josh and Wally all paused with crackers in their hands and stared at Peter.
“Did you get one too?” asked Jake.
Josh turned to Jake. “What do you mean? Did you get one?”
“Then you got one, too?” Jake asked.
“We all must have got them,” said Wally, relieved. “I'll bet Crazy Caroline was putting them in our pockets.”
“What does it spell?” Peter asked again.
“Abaguchie,” Wally told him. “But it's probably a big fat trick, Peter. She just wants us to make fools of ourselves.”
“What if they really did catch something?” asked Josh.
“There's only one way to find out, and you're the official spy,” Jake told him.
“Right!” Josh said quickly. “Leave it to me. I'll call Beth and say I'm coming over.” He dialed the Malloys’ three times, however, and each time the line was busy. Jake got tired of waiting and ambled upstairs. Then Peter left, and finally Wally.
Josh continued dialing.
Wally stretched out on his bed and played a few games with his Game Boy, but when he came back down, Josh was still there.
“I thought you were going over to the Malloys’,” Wally said.
“I am. Her mom said Beth stopped by the library on her way home and should be back in half an hour. Why don't you walk over there with me, Wally? I mean, you don't have to come in or anything. But we could sneak around the garage first and see if they've got anything trapped in there. Look in their basement window, maybe, and see if the abaguchie's down there.”
“Okay,” Wally agreed. He didn't mind as long as he didn't run into Crazy Caroline.
And so, with Jake upstairs listening to CDs and Peter playing with his Matchbox car collection, Josh and Wally put on their coats and crossed the swinging bridge. They circled around the garage first, so that the girls couldn't see them coming, and tried to look inside. The door was closed, however. The windows of the basement we
re dark as well.
“If there was an animal over here, I'll bet it would be making a powerful lot of noise,” said Wally.
“Yeah,” Josh said. “I'll bet Caroline thought up this whole stupid thing herself. I'll bet Beth doesn't even know about it.”
“Well, good luck,” Wally told him.
“You don't want to…uh… wait out here or anything?” Josh asked.
“Why should I wait? You might be in there a long time,” said Wally.
“Right,” said Josh. He walked toward the back door of the house, and Wally went on down the hill to the swinging bridge.
Wally couldn't figure out whether Josh really was a spy, or whether he was in love with Beth, or neither. As he crossed the river, he decided that if he ever did fall in love with a girl, he'd get a friend to like her too, and then they could both go see her together. Then he wouldn't have to do all the talking.
As soon as he got into the house, Jake quizzed him. “Where have you guys been? Where's Josh?”
“Just snooping around the Malloys’,” Wally said.
“Why didn't you tell me ?”
Wally shrugged. “Somebody had to stay with Peter. Josh went inside their house, so I came on home.”
“You hear anything? Like an animal trapped somewhere?”
“Nope. I think Caroline the Crazie thought this whole thing up herself. She's been really, really weird lately.”
“Weird how? Weird mean or weird nice?”
“Weird weird,” said Wally.
“Does she still poke you in the back?”
“No.”
“Lean against you? Grab hold of your arm?”
“No! Of course not!” said Wally. “I can't explain it. She just acts goofy.”
Jake sighed and sprawled out on the couch, one foot dangling over the end. “How did we get mixed up with these goofballs anyway?” he asked no one in particular. “You know, if we hadn't spied on the girls when they were first moving in, we could have totally ignored them and we wouldn't be having a thing to do with them now. We wouldn't have had any snowball fights, wouldn't have locked Caroline in the cellar at Oldakers’. We wouldn't have howled outside their window or got them lost in the woods or…”
“Or had any fun at all,” put in Wally.
Jake looked over at him. “You don't want the Ben-sons to come back, do you?”
“What?” said Wally. “I never said that!”
“But you don't, do you?”
“Sure I do! Of course I do! I just…I'm not sure I want the Malloys to leave, that's all.”
“I'm not sure either,” said Jake. It was the very first time he'd admitted it.
Seven
A Visit Before Dinner
Beth had just put her books on the dining room table when there was a knock at the door.
“Oh, that's probably Josh,” called her mother. “He phoned and said he'd be over.”
“Over here ?” Beth cried, her cheeks growing pink, and she ducked into the downstairs bathroom to brush her hair.
“He's coming to see you, not your hair,” Caroline said. “Josh already knows you have hair.”
The knock came again, and Beth answered. There stood Josh in his black-and-silver jacket, his dark hair windblown.
“Well… hi,” Beth said. “Come on in.”
“Were you busy or anything?” Josh asked. “You aren't having dinner or something?”
“No, we don't eat till Dad gets home,” she told him, and led him through the hall into the living room. Then, because Eddie was sprawled on the couch reading the comics and Caroline was watching TV, Beth took him into the dining room and they sat somewhat awkwardly at the big table.
Caroline turned the sound down on the TV so that she could hear what they were saying.
“So what are you doing tomorrow?” Josh was asking Beth, and she seemed flustered.
Was he asking her out the next day? Caroline wondered. Was that any way to ask a girl to go somewhere with you? How was Beth going to tell him that, actually, she and her sisters had invited every kid from second to sixth grade over at three o'clock to see an abaguchie? That Josh wasn't the only one who had received the “secret” message?
“Well…I…um…I'm going to be busy all afternoon, I think,” Beth said.
“All afternoon?” Josh said teasingly. “It won't take that long to show me the abaguchie, will it?”
Uh-oh, thought Caroline, and glanced over at Eddie on the couch. What was this, a spy among them? Eddie put down the comics and listened too.
“So what's the deal?” Josh insisted. He just wouldn't quit. If Beth told him they wanted to see who was gullible enough to show up on Saturday, Josh certainly wouldn't come.
“Well, it's…it's sort of a project with my sisters,” Beth said hesitantly. “It's going to take most of the afternoon.”
“Homework? Something for school? Anything I can do to help?” Josh asked.
Eddie suddenly rose from the couch and went to the doorway. “As a matter of fact, Josh, there is,” she said. “Since you're the best artist in school, it would really help if you'd draw a picture of what you think the abaguchie looks like.”
Beth and Josh looked at each other, and Caroline came in from the living room. It was a great idea, because Josh had done the scenery last month for the community play, and if the girls could involve him in the experiment, maybe he wouldn't go around telling everyone what they were doing.
“The abaguchie is a school project?” Josh asked.
Eddie nodded.
“I thought you guys would know already what the abaguchie looks like. In fact, I thought you had it out there in your garage.”
Caroline stared at Beth, who stared at Eddie, each wondering what to say.
“You kept the message secret, I hope,” said Eddie.
“Peter told me you invited him too,” Josh said. “He couldn't read the word abaguchie. Then Jake and Wally said they got invitations.”
“I knew we shouldn't have given them to the second-graders,” Beth said.
“Aha!” said Josh. “You invited the whole school? So what are you up to?”
Eddie looked helplessly at her sisters. There was nothing to do but let Josh in on the secret. Well, not all of it, perhaps. “Josh, it's really, really important that you not tell anyone what we're doing, because it's all part of my experiment for the science fair. We're going to keep a record of who shows up. Sort of a psychological study of second through sixth grades—how many kids come from each grade.”
“You mean, who's dumb enough to believe you've got an abaguchie in your garage?” asked Josh.
“No, it doesn't have anything to do with smart or dumb.”
“Who's the most gullible,” said Caroline.
“But if you go around telling people it's an experiment, no one will come, and we were hoping, by saying the message was secret, that each person would decide for him- or herself whether to come or not.”
Josh thought it over. “And you'd show my drawing of an abaguchie to anybody who comes by?”
“Yes. I figured we had to show them something,” said Eddie in a small voice. “We tried to make a picture of it ourselves, but it came out really bad.”
“Well, actually, Jake and I haven't come up with an idea for the science fair either, so I guess if I drew the picture, it could be my project too, couldn't it?” said Josh.
Eddie replied agreeably, “Sure! Ask Jake if he wants to help record names and ages and stuff when the kids show up, and he can be in on it too.” Anything to keep the boys from telling.
“Okay,” said Josh. “We're in. Give me a big sheet of paper, the bigger the better.”
Eddie exchanged smiles with Beth and Caroline, then went upstairs and returned with a blank poster board, and Caroline got her set of colored markers with the fine-pointed tips. By the time Josh finished, it was a weird and awful animal that could be found nowhere on earth. It had two tails and silver quills down the ridge of its back. There were sca
les along its sides, bloody fangs protruding from its horrible mouth, and huge yellow talons on each foot. The eyes were bloodshot, and the ears curved like horns.
Ha! thought Caroline. They haven't seen anything yet.
“Would you all like some pop and chips?” came Mrs. Malloy's voice from the kitchen. “We won't be eating for another hour or so. Josh, would you like to stay for dinner?”
“No, thanks. I've got to go pretty soon,” he said. “I'll just take a pop.”
Eddie quickly smuggled the drawing up to her room, and Caroline collected the colored markers. They sat around the dining room table eating chips, talking about school and snow, which teachers were the best, which were worst, and which hills around Buck-man were best for sledding.
Finally Josh said he'd better be going.
“You won't tell any of your friends what we're doing?” Eddie asked.
“Just Jake,” Josh promised. “Well, and Wally, maybe. He'd have to know.”
Beth said goodbye to him at the door, and when he had gone, she gave Eddie a high five. Eddie, however, looked worried.
“I still wish we hadn't told him,” she said. “Once he tells Jake and Wally that we invited practically everyone, anything could happen. But we didn't have a choice.”
“Jake needs a science project as much as you do, remember,” Beth said.
“That's true. I just wish I was a partner with anyone but the Hatfords,” Eddie said. “They've been bad news ever since we moved to Buckman.”
“People can change,” said Beth.
“And I'm going to make Wally Hatford fall in love with me,” said Caroline.
“Oh, please!” groaned Eddie.
“Did I hear you say you were doing a science project with the Hatfords, Eddie?” Mrs. Malloy called from the other room.
“Yeah, it's sort of a people study, like you suggested,” Eddie said. “I'll tell you all about it later.”