Keeping Secrets (18 page)

One morning in November, Flora awoke early and lay in bed doing some counting. Suddenly, she sat up and exclaimed, “Oh, no! Only thirty-six more days until Christmas!”

“What?!” shrieked Ruby from across the hall. Only the mention of Christmas could yank Ruby from a sound sleep so early in the morning.

“Girls?” called Min from down the hall.

Flora was on her feet now, studying her wall calendar. “Thanksgiving is next week, and, yup, I was right. Only thirty-six days until Christmas. That means even fewer shopping days. And I haven't done
any
shopping. Or made anything — well, hardly anything. I was going to make a whole bunch of my presents.” Flora drew in her breath. Then she let it out. “Thirty-six days,” she repeated in surprise. “How did that happen?”

Min appeared in Flora's doorway, yawning and tying the sash of her faded pink bathrobe around her generous waistline. “Christmas snuck up on you?” she asked.

“I'll say,” replied Flora.

“Well, you've had a pretty busy fall.”

“That's true.” Flora flopped onto her bed. “New school, Mr. Willet moved, the dog parade,” she said, counting on her fingers. “The Halloween dance, new neighbors …”

“And not your average neighbors at that,” interjected Min.

“No.” Flora reached for Min's sash and wound it around her hand. “Willow visited her mother yesterday,” she said. “Cole didn't go. He didn't want to. But Willow and her father did.”

“And how was the visit?”

Flora shrugged. “Willow didn't say much about it. Just that her mother wasn't agitated. She said her mom is on new medication and she's getting therapy — I don't know what kind — but that she isn't ready to come home. Willow seemed really relieved about that part.”

“My understanding,” said Min, “from talking to Mr. Hamilton, is that Mrs. Hamilton won't be home until February at the earliest.”

Flora nodded. With Mr. Hamilton in charge, the second Row House from the left was a happier place. The shades were raised, Willow and Cole could come and go as they pleased, and their friends were welcome. Closet doors were left closed — or open, there was no longer a rule about them — shoes were strewn haphazardly about the house, tables were set with plates and utensils right side up, and a nice messiness had overtaken Willow's and Cole's bedrooms. The vase in the front hall had temporarily been moved to the garage, since Cole said it scared him. Willow was a regular member of the book club and was becoming friends with Claudette Tisch and Mary Louise Detwiler. And she and Flora and Olivia had made several trips to Main Street, where one afternoon Willow had helped out at a Needle and Thread sewing class for six- and seven-year-olds.

Ruby appeared sleepily in Flora's doorway. “What are you guys talking about?” she asked, and yawned widely. “I thought Flora was upset about Christmas shopping or something.”

“We got a bit off the subject,” said Min.

“Oh.” Ruby bit down on the wad of bubble gum she was already chewing. “Well, I got a great idea. We should have a Saturday adventure this weekend. We could start our shopping at the same time.”

Flora raised her eyebrows in interest. “Speak,” she said.

“I was just thinking,” Ruby began, “that it's been a while since we had one of our adventures.”

“Not since September,” Flora agreed.

The Saturday adventures had begun the previous June, when an anonymous someone had created a secret summer book club to entertain Flora, Ruby, Nikki, and Olivia — secret because the girls didn't learn, until midway through August, the identity of the mystery person. Every few weeks, all summer long, someone had sent four copies of a book to the girls and arranged for a Saturday adventure in connection with the book. When the summer ended and the mystery person was revealed, the girls decided to continue having Saturday adventures anyway, just the four of them, the members of the book club. The last adventure had taken place a few weeks after school had started.

“Well.” Ruby puffed herself up with importance, then ruined the image completely by blowing a large bubble, sucking it back into her mouth, and cracking her gum loudly. “Here's what I was thinking: On Saturday we could go to the mall —
Bingham
Mall,” she added, looking daringly at Min. “By ourselves. And stay there the whole day. By ourselves. We could get lots of shopping done, and have lunch, and maybe go to a movie. By ourselves.”

“And how would you get all the way out to the mall?” asked Min.

“Well, not by ourselves,” admitted Ruby. “Even I know that's too far. Someone would have to take us there and pick us up. But could we do it? Please? Please, please, please?”

“It
would
be fun,” said Flora, excitement mounting.

“You've never been to the mall alone,” said Min. “It's ten miles away. I don't know.”

“What if we took a cell phone with us?” suggested Flora. “So we could call if anything went wrong.”

“And we would promise to stay together the whole time. We would never split up or go off by ourselves,” added Ruby.

“I'll have to talk to Nikki's mother and Olivia's parents,” said Min.

Flora nodded. “Thank you,” she said solemnly, and nudged Ruby, who was about to start begging again. “We'll go along with whatever you decide.” She pinched Ruby to keep her quiet.

 

By Saturday, everything had been arranged. The adults had agreed that the four members of the secret book club could spend the day at the mall as long as they followed certain rules. Mr. Walter had turned his cell phone over to Olivia (who knew exactly how much it would cost to replace the phone if she lost it). Min was to drive the girls to the mall in the morning and Mrs. Walter would pick them up in the afternoon.

“This is going to be the best day of my life!” announced Ruby, who had said that many times in her life.

At precisely eleven o'clock on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Min Read pulled up to the main entrance of Bingham Mall and dropped off four excited girls, one of them self-consciously responsible for her father's cell phone.

“We'll call you if anything goes wrong!” Flora assured Min.

“But nothing will go wrong,” said Ruby gaily.

“We'll check in with you once an hour,” added Nikki.

“And we'll be waiting right here at four o'clock,” said Olivia.

Min sat uncertainly behind the wheel of her car. “Be careful with your money,” she said. “Hold tight to your purses. If you feel you're in danger, go to the nearest store clerk or find someone from mall security.” She hesitated a few seconds longer, then pulled into the parking lot and headed for the exit.

“Now I'm a little scared,” said Ruby.

“Don't be,” replied Olivia. “She's just doing what grown-ups have to do. My mom said all those same things to me before I left this morning.”

“Yeah,” said Nikki. She turned around to face the glass doors, which were adorned with green garlands and a large red bow, and waved her hand in a swooping arc. “Look! The world of the mall awaits. Let us enter the magic kingdom of consumerism.”

Flora held one of the doors open and her friends walked through it. They entered a wide hallway lined with rather boring-looking businesses (a vision center, a dentist's office, and a place for mailing packages), a row of strollers for rent, and a door marked
SECURITY
.

“Now we know where Security is,” said Ruby nervously.

Flora took her sister's hand. “This is going to be fun, Ruby,” she said. “We're here on our
own
. We've always wanted to come here on our own. And anyway, look over there.”

Flora pointed down the hallway, and Ruby, Olivia, and Nikki let out a simultaneous gasp. Then Ruby began to run. The others ran after her. When Ruby reached the end of the hall, she found herself at the center of the mall. And the mall had been decorated for Christmas.

“It's —” Ruby turned around and around, looking above her (the mall was three stories high) and in all directions. “It's — well, it really is like a magic kingdom.”

Flora leaned over and whispered to Olivia, “An incredibly tacky magic kingdom.”

The mall appeared to have been dipped in silver glitter and then to have fallen into a bag of candy. Shimmering snowflakes were suspended from the ceiling, drifts of sparkly cotton snow covered the inner courtyard, angels (also shimmering) hovered above, and everywhere Flora looked she saw giant gumdrops, candy canes, chocolates, lollipops, peppermint drops, licorice whips, and gingerbread men.

Ruby was still trying to put her thoughts into words. “It's kind of like Main Street if Mr. Freedly went crazy when he was putting up the decorations.”

“Oh, let's be realistic,” said Nikki finally. “It's insanely overdone. But who cares? It's also really fun. Look, there's Santa's house in the middle, in all that snow.”

“Where?” said Ruby. “I don't see it.”

“Behind those two big snowmen,” said Nikki, and then she let out a scream. “
Aughh!
One of them just moved! I didn't know they were alive.”

“I wish I weren't too old to visit Santa,” said Olivia.

“You aren't,” Flora told her. “No one is. We could visit Santa.”

But the girls looked at the line of children waiting to enter the sparkly gingerbread cabin that apparently housed Santa Claus, and saw only two kids who appeared to be their age.

“The kids who are leaving the house have candy canes and puzzles,” Ruby noted wistfully.

“Well,
we
have shopping to do,” said Flora. She pulled a list out of her purse, then snapped the purse shut quickly and looked all around her, Min's words coming back to her. Finally, she consulted the list. “Gosh,” she said. “Even if I get around to making a lot of my presents, I still need to buy things for Mr. and Mrs. Willet, Mr. Pennington, Willow, Cole, maybe Mary Louise and Claudette, and a bunch of dogs. I think I'll make catnip toys for King Comma and Mary Woolsey's cats, though.”

She looked up from her list to see that Olivia, who was consulting a list of her own, was blushing furiously. “What's the matter?” she asked.

“Well — um, it's — well — I don't —” stammered Olivia.

Ruby leaned over and peeked at Olivia's list. “Ha! Olivia's wondering if she should buy Jacob a present!”

“I've never bought a present for a boy before,” Olivia whispered, as if she might turn around and find a group of boys standing sternly behind her, judging her gift-choosing abilities.

“You have
brothers
!” exclaimed Ruby.

“That's not the same.”

Nikki, trying hard not to laugh, finally said, “You don't have to make a decision today. You can just look around, okay? Come on, you guys. Let's get going. We have the whole day ahead of us. And I'm already getting hungry. So let's shop a little first and then go to the food court.”

“Oh! Oh!” exclaimed Ruby as they set off. “Look what's playing at the multiplex. That dog movie! I really want to see that!”

The Saturday adventure had begun. Flora and her friends followed every one of the rules their parents had laid out. They used Mr. Walter's cell phone, which Olivia guarded like a treasure, to call Min and Gigi at the store once an hour. They stuck together. And they fiercely protected their money and their purses.

Flora had a successful morning of shopping, and the girls enjoyed a lunch of pizza and frozen yogurt in the food court. They continued their shopping after lunch and then checked the times the movie was playing.

“We could see the next show,” said Ruby. “But you know what I'd rather do after all? Go get a soda or something and just sit and talk.”

And that's what they did. They found a quiet table by a glittering white Christmas tree, sat down, and looked through their purchases.

“This is nice,” said Ruby. “We don't get to do so much of this anymore.”

“Of what?” asked Flora.

“
This
. Being together, just the four of us. I don't see you guys at school this year, and we're starting to have other friends and do different things. So this is just … really nice.” She turned to Nikki. “Do you ever hear from your dad?”

Nikki shook her head. “He sent us some money, but he hasn't called or anything. Hey, did I tell you I visited Tobias at school?”

“You went to his college?” said Ruby. “Cool.”

“Ruby,” said Flora, “tell Nikki and Olivia about the Thanksgiving concert.”

Ruby did, and the afternoon spun away.

 

As daylight faded, Mr. Barnes, armed with a shopping list of his own, entered the mall and walked toward his first destination, the music store. He passed through the food court, and this is what he saw: Four girls sitting around a table, their heads bent, talking earnestly, Flora Northrop's arm around a younger girl. Mr. Barnes considered stopping to greet his students, but as he neared their table, he heard Flora say, “I hope we can always have days like this,” and so he left them to their adventure — they did seem to be on an adventure of some sort — their laughter ringing out behind him.