Chapter Sixteen: Doodle Soup Days
Autumn and I decide not to reveal our discovery until the Doodle Soup festival. Since the festival was supposedly to be swamped with reporters, it would be the ideal place and time to reveal it to the world. Although Autumn would be back in Chicago at the time of the unveiling, the waves from the discovery would flow to Lake Michigan and reach Chicago in no time. The treasure would have a huge impact on both of our futures.
I could hardly wait for the festival to begin. I went to bed early that night so I wouldn’t have to keep on waiting. All of the excitement had me beat anyway. Although I slept like a bear in hibernation, I woke up bright and early around 6 a.m. That’s usually around the same time I get up and ready for school during the week, but I usually try to sleep in on the weekends. Most of the activities started at 8 a.m., so I had time to get a shower and eat breakfast with my dad before heading out.
By the time I got there, a small crowd had already started to form. The events would last all day and conclude with a bluegrass street dance after dark. The first event was the spelling bee. It was already in progress when I arrived. I spotted Sara awaiting her turn. It looked like she took my advice as she had abandoned the diva look in favor of her Queen of the Cat Kingdom attire.
The contestants battled for over an hour. Eventually all were eliminated except Sara and a girl from Milan Elementary School. After a back and forth battle that seemed like an eternity, the girl from Milan finally misspelled a word. This meant that Sara would be declared the winner if she spelled the next word correctly.
I crossed my fingers in hopes that Sara would spell the next word right. The next word was meow. I knew that good things would come once Sara started being herself and having faith in her abilities. I was so proud of her. In a few moments, she would be the county champion. There was no way she could miss that word. After all, she was the Queen of the Cat Kingdom.
“Can you use the word in a sentence?” Sara asked the moderator, Mrs. Collins, our English teacher.
“The cat goes meow when it is hungry,” Mrs. Collins said.
“M-e-o-w-w-w,” said Sara.
“The correct spelling is m-e-o-w,” Mrs. Collins announced.
I couldn’t believe Sara missed such an easy word. I wondered to myself if the crown she was wearing as part of her Lady Sara getup was squeezed too tight on her head. As I stood in shock at Sara’s blunder, Mrs. Collins began to introduce the next word to the contestant from Milan.
“I spelled it right!” Sara interrupted.
“The correct spelling of the word is m-e-o-w,” Mrs. Collins said again.
I felt bad for Sara. I didn’t like seeing her embarrassed like this. Hoping to stop her before she made a further spectacle of herself, I began walking to the stage to console her. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite reach her in time.
“I did spell it right!” she insisted. “When my cats are hungry, they go meowww. When they simply meow, that just means they’re saying hello to you. If you don’t believe me, come over my house and I’ll show you.”
“That’s the same thing my cat does when she’s hungry,” Sara’s opponent from Milan said.
“My cat does that too,” a spectator from the crowd shouted.
“Mine too,” another observer yelled.
After several more people in the crowd came to Sara’s defense, Mrs. Collins stepped off the stage to confer with the judges. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but could tell that they were struggling to reach a decision. Each of the three judges was frantically flipping through different versions of dictionaries. It was evident by the way they shook their heads that they weren’t finding what they were looking for. Although Sara had a good case, it didn’t look good.
After about five minutes, Mrs. Collins made her way back to the podium. She announced that Sara and the girl from Milan Elementary School were the co-champions of the county spelling bee. I watched proudly as Sara hugged her opponent after the announcement was made. She didn’t mind the fact that she had to share the championship. This was her moment in the sun. No one would call her weird again. If they did, she wouldn’t care. She was Lady Sara, Queen of the Cat Kingdom and Co-Champion of the County Spelling Bee.
The crowd had multiplied by the end of the spelling bee. There was an aroma of food being grilled coming from several of the concessions stands. The smell of Doodle Soup also filled the air from the pavilion where the contestants in the Doodle Soup competition were preparing their brew. The aroma that caught my attention the most was the scent of funnel cakes. If I have one weakness, it’s a fresh funnel cake. Sara’s victory was just the excuse I needed to spoil myself. I bought both of us a funnel cake and cola to celebrate her victory.
As we were enjoying our celebration, I heard someone calling my name. I looked over my shoulder to see Mrs. Barnes waving me to the pavilion. I wiped the powdered sugar that covered my hands onto my shirt and told Sara that we would do this again later after Suzy wins the dog show.
It was standing room only inside the pavilion. Sheriff Daniels met me at the entrance and ushered me to the judges’ table. I gazed upon the crowd and saw Mr. Brady and Mr. McCarthy anxiously waiting for the contest to begin. The void created by Mrs. Doyle’s absence had created an enormous amount of curiosity. It looked like everyone in town was there to witness the crowning of a new Doodle Soup champion.
I had been waiting for this moment since Mrs. Barnes informed me of the opportunity. I had watched a few wine tasting events on the Food Network in preparation. Now, it was show time.
Mrs. Hunter was the first contestant. It was a little awkward having to judge her soup because I knew her from church where she plays piano, but I had a job to do. Being sure to keep personal feelings aside, I did not look at her or speak to her when I dipped my spoon into her pot of soup. Although I knew most of the contestants somewhat, I had to keep it professional.
I moved the spoonful of soup up to my nose before tasting. It smelled delicious. After teasing my senses, I moved the ladle to my mouth find out if it tasted as good as it smelled. It was a little spicier than I was accustomed to, but was very good nonetheless. Although Mrs. Hunter’s soup was very tasty, it didn’t taste anything like Mrs. Doyle’s. Mrs. Hunter definitely didn’t steal the recipe.
Using what I’d learned from watching the wine tasting events on the Food Network, I swirled the soup around in my mouth and spat it in a Styrofoam cup at my side. “Kind of spicy, but very good,” I commented before moving on to the next contestant, Mrs. Robertson.
Mrs. Hunter must have had an emergency. She abruptly left her seat and didn’t return after I tasted her soup. I hoped she wasn’t sick. If she was, it must have been contagious. Mrs. Robertson left as soon as I finished tasting her soup as well.
After tasting Mrs. Robertson’s soup, Mrs. Barnes told me that I didn’t have to spit the soup out when I tasted it. I was glad she changed the rules. I didn’t understand why I was supposed to spit it out anyway. That’s like throwing a funnel cake away after you just paid for it with the money you made by selling cucumbers. They do some weird stuff on the Food Network sometimes. I guess those chefs on TV become a little eccentric after they become famous. That’s just another example of what fame will do to a person. I sure am glad I decided that I didn’t want to be famous anymore.
As good as all of the different versions of Doodle soup tasted, I could probably wait until next year before I tasted any more. Mrs. Riggs, Scotty’s grandmother, was declared the winner by unanimous decision. Her soup was the best I’d had since the last time I had Mrs. Doyle’s. However, it was not Mrs. Doyle’s. In fact, it didn’t taste anything like Mrs. Doyle’s. Neither did anyone else’s.
“I got to give you credit. That was an ingenious plan,” Sheriff Daniels said. “How did you manage to get on the panel of judges?”
“I got friends in high places,” I joked.
“I take it none of the soups tasted like Mrs. Doyle’s.”
&nb
sp; “No. The person who stole the recipe wasn’t one of the contestants, but I didn’t expect it to be one of them.”
“Huh? That’s not what you said the other day in my office.”
“There’s been some new evidence that has shed light on the case. The thief is here at the festival.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t have time to explain. I have to get Suzy ready for the dog show.”
I left the sheriff scratching his head as I ran home to get Suzy. If my instincts were right, the thief would still be there when I got back. He probably thought he was going to get off scott free since I had concentrated my investigation on the contestants in the soup contest. Like any crook, his ego would demand that he hang around until the festival was over. In his mind, he would be pulling a fast one on the entire town of Bradford. He would be in for a rude awakening. He’d be busting blocks in jail before the night was through.