“This is pretty great Mouse,” RJ nodded with admiration. “I've never seen a trick like the one you pulled today. It takes a lot of thought and planning I bet.”
“It sure does,” Max nodded.
“We all work together to make it happen,” Jaden added.
“Nobody gets hurt, it's just a lot of good fun!” Amanda said cheerfully.
“Well I'd be honored to be part of your club,” RJ said with a nod. “When I come to visit I hope we can do some pranks together that won't involve me being the victim,” he pointed out and when he smiled they all gasped at the sight of his greenish purplish teeth.
“What?” he asked and furrowed a brow.
“Uh, nothing,” Amanda said quietly.
“Just can't wait to pull our first prank together,” Max said and cleared his throat.
“Yeah, Rebekah has told us so much about your great detective work,” Jaden said, hoping to change the subject. “She's known around town as the best detective, but she says she learns everything she knows from you.”
“Well I wouldn't say everything,” RJ shrugged. “But, I guess detective work does run in the family, huh Rebekah?” he grinned at her and Rebekah couldn't resist. She burst out laughing.
'What?” RJ demanded. He was getting frustrated.
Amanda pulled a compact out of her pocket and opened it up to show RJ his smile.
“Oh no!” RJ cried out. “Look what you guys did! When will this come off?” he demanded with a frown.
“Relax,” Max said with confidence. “It's no worse than the dye in a lollipop. It'll wear off in a few hours.”
“I hope so,” RJ frowned. “Because if my mouth is still like this when I get back to the city, my friend Joey is going to have a great time teasing me. He'll probably tell me that I'm turning into a green-purple zombie.”
“It'll be fine,” Mouse promised.
RJ was still not too happy, but he nodded. “Next time, maybe not so much food dye,” he said with a stern frown.
“Just think if you had tried all of the fountains!” Amanda laughed. “You would be an RJ rainbow!”
“Ha, ha,” RJ grinned.
Chapter 8
Later that day when RJ and Rebekah headed back to her house, RJ couldn't stop talking about the secret club.
“It's such a great idea,” he said with a shake of his head. “Even if it did turn me purpley green.”
“We have a lot of fun,” Rebekah nodded. “It's nice to take a break from all the detective work once in a while and do something funny.”
“Real funny,” RJ reminded her as he pointed to his lips.
“Okay, okay, not so much food dye next time,” she laughed. When they stepped into the house RJ ran upstairs to try to wash his mouth and brush his teeth. Rebekah's mother was in the kitchen.
“Hi honey, I'm just doing the dishes,” she called out from the kitchen. Rebekah walked into the kitchen to check on the popcorn making progress, but something drew her attention right away.
“Oh no,” Rebekah whispered as she watched the lime green water splash into the sink. Her mother had her back turned as the sink began to fill up with lime green bubbles.
“Just let me finish these dishes Rebekah and then I will get some popcorn going for you and RJ,” she said as she started to turn back around.
“Uh, no Mom, let me do them,” Rebekah said quickly as she stood in front of the sink to block the view.
“Really?” her mother said cheerfully. “That's so nice of your Rebekah. You know, I think RJ has really been a good influence on you,” she smiled.
“Sure has,” Rebekah said with bright grin. “Go relax Mom, I'll take care of this.”
“Thanks Rebekah,” she walked out of the kitchen and settled on the couch in the living room.
Chapter 9
Rebekah spun back around to the sink and gasped as the lime green bubbles were about to bubble right over the edge of it. She turned the water off quickly. Then she stared at the bubbles. She pulled the drain on the sink and watched as the water began to swirl. She had never seen the water look like that before. She didn't know how, but she was sure that what they had done at the park had something to do with the lime green water in the sink.
“What's going on?” RJ asked as he walked into the kitchen. His lips were still a little discolored from the food dye, but the washing had made it a little better. “Your Mom said that you volunteered to do the dishes?” he looked a little skeptical. Rebekah braced herself and then flipped the faucet on. Lime green water began pouring out.
“What is that?” RJ gasped. “Another prank?” he asked with narrowed eyes.
“No,” Rebekah shook her head. “It isn't. The water fountains at the park was a prank, but this isn't! Somehow the water has turned green!”
“Hm,” RJ tapped his chin lightly. “Are you sure Mouse isn't hiding around here somewhere?” he suggested and opened the cabinets under the sink. While RJ was looking the telephone rang. Rebekah snatched it up when she saw Mouse's phone number on the display.
“Hello?” she said, as RJ ducked out from under the sink. “Mouse?”
“Oh Rebekah I think we did a bad thing,” Mouse said in a shaky voice.
“What do you mean?” Rebekah asked nervously. She was hoping that he didn't have lime green water at his house too.
“I went to take a bath and,” he cleared his throat. “Rebekah the water is green!”
“I know!” Rebekah squeaked on the other end of the phone. RJ pressed his ear close to the phone so he could hear what RJ was saying too. “It's green here too,” she whispered. “How could that happen?”
“What if it's like this all over town?” Mouse hissed into the phone. “Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in?”
“What are we going to do?” Rebekah frowned.
“I think we've got ourselves a big mystery this time,” RJ said thoughtfully as he looked at Rebekah.
“I don't know about a mystery,” Rebekah said as she hung up the phone with Mouse. “But I'm sure we've got ourselves a very big problem.”
While RJ worked on the popcorn, Rebekah washed the dishes in the sink with some bottled water so that her mother wouldn't get suspicious. She could only hope that her mother didn't decide to start some laundry or take a shower.
“Listen,” RJ murmured before they walked out into the living room. “Even if somehow it was the food coloring that you put in the water fountains, it should run out soon, right?” he said with a hopeful look. “Let's just wait until tomorrow morning and see if it's still happening.”
“Okay,” Rebekah said with a frown. She was sure she was going to have a hard time not thinking about it until the next day.
Chapter 10
The next morning things were much worse. When Rebekah went to brush her teeth, she found lime green water running out of the faucet. As she walked down to the kitchen, she heard her mother on the phone.
“It's so strange isn't it?” she said into the phone. “I hope it all gets straightened out soon. Whoever is responsible for this should face some serious consequences!”
Rebekah froze when she heard those words. RJ walked up behind her in the hallway.
“What's going on?” he asked sleepily. He was still in his pajamas, but he had one of his detective's hats on.
“It's not any better,” Rebekah hissed. “And people are mad about it! How long do you think it will take for them to figure out that it was us?”
“Wait a minute,” RJ said calmly. “We have to look at the facts. Fact one, we don't know that it was us.”
“But you saw the water at the park,” Rebekah said urgently. “How could it be anything else? Have you ever seen lime green water come out of a faucet?”
“That's the second fact,” RJ said, still calmly. “At the park you used green and purple dye. Last time I checked, green and purple does not make lime green.”
“Oh,” Rebekah nodded a little. “That's true. But maybe it mixed with all the o
ther colors we put in the other water fountains!”
“Oh that's right,” RJ frowned a moment. “Well, if we are going to get into trouble, we should figure out just what happened.”
“How can we do that?” Rebekah asked.
“Really? Have I taught you nothing?” RJ asked as he straightened his detective's hat. “Detective Rebekah we have a mystery on our hands and it's our job to solve it.”
Rebekah straightened her shoulders. “You're right RJ,” she said with nod.
Chapter 11
They got dressed quickly and sneaked out the front door after leaving a note that they were meeting friends for breakfast. Rebekah's mother was busy on the phone again as they were leaving.
“It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous,” she kept repeating. “How are we supposed to live like this? And no one warned us!”
“Oh man my Mom is mad,” Rebekah frowned. “We need to figure this out fast.”
They ran down the sidewalk to Mouse's house. He was just walking out the door when they ran up to him.
“I know, I know,” he said with a sigh. “This is not good. And you know what's even worse?” he reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his tiny pet mice. Most of Mouse's mice were pure white, but this mouse was lime green.
“Oh no!” Rebekah gasped. “How did that happen?”
“Let's just say I wasn't quite awake this morning when I gave the mice their water and Flipper hopped in before I had a chance to pull the water back out,” he frowned as he pet the mouse lightly on the head with his fingertip. “I hope it doesn't hurt him.”
“I'm sure it won't,” Rebekah assured him. “Until then we're going to have a very unique mouse on our hands.”
“We need to find out what's going on at the water treatment center,” Rebekah said thoughtfully. “If everyone knows about the water being lime green, then they've all probably called the water department. If we can find out what's happening there, and what they suspect, then we might be able to prepare for how much trouble we'll be in.”
“Alright, that's three blocks this way,” Mouse said with a nod. “It won't take us long to get there.”
When they reached the water treatment facility, there was a lot of activity going on. Even the mayor of the town was there, speaking crossly with the supervisor of the facility.
“What I don't understand is how something like this can happen, without anyone being notified,” he said gruffly.
Rebekah winced. “I think we're in bigger trouble than I thought.”
“Look at this,” RJ said as he pointed to a small river of lime green water running out of the facility. “This is strange,” he said quietly.
“What's strange about it, other than the color?” Rebekah asked curiously.
“It's coming out of the facility,” he said with a scowl. “If it was from the dye in the water fountains it should be passing through the treatment facility and coming out clear. Not colored,” he frowned a moment. “I think something else might be going on here.”
Chapter 12
“Look at this,” Rebekah said. She had poked her head into one of the big trash cans beside the facility.
“Ew Rebekah,” Mouse scrunched up his nose.
“No she's right,” RJ said with a smile. “A good detective always checks the trash can. What did you find?”
“These flyers,” Rebekah said as she held up a pile of flyers.
The flyer's read:
The water treatment facility is cleaning the pipes! If you see lime green water, don't use it for eating, drinking, or bathing!
“Oh wow,” RJ said with wide eyes. “It looks like these were supposed to go out around town. Since they're still here, no one was notified about the cleaning.”
“So it really wasn't our fault,” Rebekah said with a smile of relief.
“No, but someone is still in big trouble,” Mouse said as he pointed to the supervisor. He was speaking harshly to an employee who hung his head.
“I must have put the wrong signs up,” he said with a frown. “I'm sorry Sir, these new glasses are really not the right prescription.”
“The important thing is that we have now notified everyone. It's good that we tinted the water lime green to warn people. At least it kept everyone from drinking it,” he said with an understanding smile.
Mouse, Rebekah, and RJ were all relieved that it hadn't been the prank at the park that had caused the problem.
“But what a good prank it would have been!” Mouse said with a smirk.
“Mouse!” RJ warned. “I can see you're thinking up something!”
“Wow, you really are a good detective!” Mouse laughed loudly.
“He's the best!” Rebekah agreed.
“Maybe the best detective in the city,” RJ said with a proud smile. “But you're the best detective in town Rebekah.”
“Thanks!” Rebekah laughed.
“Just do me a favor. Next time you want to play a prank on me, do something a little less purpley green,” RJ requested and pursed his still stained lips.
“No promises,” Mouse and Rebekah giggled.
Next Steps
This book is a “Rebekah, Mouse & RJ: Special Edition.”
I’d really love to hear from you!
I very much appreciate your reviews and comments so thank you in advance for taking a moment to leave one for “Prank Gone Wrong.”
Join Rebekah and RJ’s fun Facebook pages for young detectives here:
https://www.facebook.com/RebekahGirlDetective
https://www.facebook.com/pages/RJ-Boy-Detective/1382228825343751
Sincerely,
PJ Ryan
Visit the author website for a complete list of titles at:
PJRyanBooks.com
Now Available in Audio
Several of the “Rebekah - Girl Detective” titles are now available as audiobooks!
Visit the author website for a complete list at:
PJRyanBooks.com
You can also listen to free audio samples there.
Please enjoy the following preview for…
Rebekah - Girl Detective #1: The Mysterious Garden
~Chapter 1~
“Chirp, chirp,” said the stuffed bear. Rebekah knocked it sideways and glared at the floor behind it.
“Oh I'll find you, beast,” she hissed and waved the beam of her flashlight in rapid circles. She had been hunting the cricket for over an hour. It really was not fair to lay down for a nice sleep, only to be awakened by that incessant chirping.
“Chirp, chirp,” the bookshelf across the room called out.
“Argh!” Rebekah squealed and lunged in its direction.
“Rebekah!” her mother cried out from the doorway of her attic bedroom. “What in the world are you doing? The whole house can hear you tromping and stomping around up here,” she shook her head as she stifled a yawn. “We're trying to sleep.”
“Well, so am I,” Rebekah frowned. “But there is a cricket in here somewhere, and it will not stop chirping! Shh! Listen,” she put her finger to her lips. Her mother stuck her head all the way into the room and listened very closely. After a few moments she sighed.
“Rebekah, I don't hear anything, just go back to bed,” she groaned and headed down the stairs. Rebekah lived in a three story house, and her room was the entire third story. It was not as big as it might seem as the roof sloped sharply, but it was her own little world, and she liked it very much. That was, when there was not a cricket living in it with her.
Once her mother was gone, Rebekah collapsed on her bed. She was exhausted from a day of playing soccer and investigating the latest mystery in her tiny town of Curtis Bay. As she stretched out in her small daybed, she tried to fall asleep faster than the cricket could chirp. It always seemed to help her fall asleep to sort through whatever mystery was on her mind.
Rebekah was determined to be the latest and greatest detective to hit the streets and she saw no reason to wait until she was a grown up. At nine, she was
certain that she could do a better job than most. So whenever she spotted something even the slightest bit off, she would do her best to get to the bottom of it.
Like, why did the mailman always deliver the mail at the same exact time, except on Thursdays when he delivered a half hour later? Why if garbage cans were put out at the curb standing straight up, were they often found face down when she returned from school?
These were the type of questions that she absolutely had to have answered. Of course it was easy to figure out that Mr. Mason, who was the mailman for her neighborhood was a half hour later on Thursday's because he always stopped by for a free ice cream cone at Lyle's Ice Cream Parlor. The ice cream cones were only free from 3pm to 4pm on Thursdays.
And she soon discovered that it was only polite to place the cans upside down, showing that the trash had been taken and they were empty. But there were also bigger questions to answer, like why did the principal always show up late for school when it rained? Why did recess last five extra minutes on Fridays?
The mystery currently weighing on her mind, was the disappearing flowers. Her town had a community garden, and she would always stop by to water the plants. Lately she had noticed that flowers were disappearing! So far she had interviewed the gardener, Mr. Polson.
“And just where are these flowers going?” she had asked, with her notebook flipped open and pen ready to jot down notes.
“I'm not sure,” Mr. Polson sighed as he leaned on his shovel.
“Well, they did not just get up and walk away did they?” she asked as politely as she could.
“Well no,” Mr. Polson grumbled. “I didn't see any flower footprints.”
Rebekah giggled and scribbled that in her notes. “No flower footprints found at the scene.”
As she lay in bed, reviewing the clues, she was just about to fall asleep.
“Chirp, chirp!” her pillow cried out.
“Argh!” Rebekah jumped up and threw her pillow across the room. But there was no cricket to be found.
~Chapter 2~