Philip and the Case of Mistaken Identity and Philip and the Baby (9781597051095) (6 page)

“Funny kind of best friends,” said
Joanie.

Philip rushed on. “You think your sister
would help out?” His plan was growing clear in his mind. With a big
smile on his face, he explained to Joanie what it was he wanted her
to do.

Joanie thought it over and smiled. “Sure, it
might be fun. I’ll ask Janie. I think she will. She’s the one who
usually talks me into playing tricks on people who confuse us for
each other. She really hates when people do that.”

Philip made his final plans with Joanie and
then said good-bye. This could turn out to be the best school
vacation he’d ever had!

After lunch Philip rushed to Emery’s
house.

“Hi,” said Emery. “What’d you do this
morning?”

“Oh, nothing.” Philip could barely keep from
smiling.

“I had to push the babies around so my mother
could buy food.”

“You got to have food,” said Philip
wisely.

“I’d give up food if I could give up babies,”
Emery moaned. “What do you want to do?”

“The playground was good the other day. They
even had the water fountain working. Let’s go back.”

Emery agreed and fifteen minutes later the
boys were climbing, jumping, and chasing each other at a mad pace
amid a lot of other children. Philip occasionally glanced at the
entrance to the playground. Finally, he saw what he was looking
for.

“Look, Emery, here comes that girl.”

Emery paused and watched her approach.

“Remember,” Philip whispered, “you’re Philip
and I’m you.” Philip didn’t want Emery to make a stupid mistake and
mess up all his plans.

The girl smiled and looked at Emery. “Hi,
Philip.”

“Uh, hi Janie.”

The girl looked at Philip. “Hi, Emery.”

“Hi, Janie,” said Philip.

Emery gave Philip an ‘I told you so’
look.

Philip shrugged and said, “No library
today?”

“I was there already. I thought I’d come here
and see if anybody was here.”

Philip explained what he and Emery were
playing and the girl joined in.

After an hour the girl said, “Well, I have to
go now and take my violin lesson. Say, why don’t you both come to
the library on Saturday? There’s a pizza party. It’s free. It
should be good.”

“Pizza? Free?” said Emery.

“Sure,” said Philip. “What time?”

“One.”

“Okay, we’ll be there,” said Philip.

“Bye now,” the girl said and walked away.

“See. I
told
you there was only one
girl,” Emery crowed. “Same girl—library and violin lesson that one
day. Same girl. Free pizza. She’s okay.”

Philip nodded and kept his smile inside.

~ * ~

Philip and Emery met at twelve-thirty on
Saturday and started for the library.

“We did pretty good in our disguises,” said
Emery. “We followed that girl without her knowing, then tracked her
down without our disguises and figured out her mystery. That was
neat.”

“Yeah, you sure were right, Emery.”

“After the library let’s get into our
disguises again and follow somebody else.”

Philip nodded, thinking that after the
library Emery wouldn’t be in any mood to put on his disguise and
follow anybody.

The children’s room of the library was packed
with children, there for the free pizza. Philip and Emery made
their slow way through the children looking for the girl.

“There,” said Philip. “There she is.”

Across the room the girl was motioning to
them.

Emery led the way. When they reached the spot
where they’d seen the girl, she was gone.

“Where’d she go?” said Emery.

“Oh, there. I see her over there,” said
Philip.

All the way on the other side of the room,
the girl was again motioning for the two boys.

“How’d she get over there?” said Emery. He
led the way again.

When they had fought their way through the
crowd to the spot where the girl had been, she was gone again.

“Now where’d she go?” asked Emery.

“Oh, I see her,” said Philip and he pointed
back to the spot they’d just left.

Emery stared at the girl and then looked at
Philip. “How’d she get over there so quick? I didn’t see her pass
us.”

“Hurry up,” said Philip, “before you lose her
again.”

Emery trudged through the crowd, trying to
keep his eye on the girl, but with all the children milling about
and pushing, he lost sight of her. When he’d led Philip to the spot
where they’d seen her, she wasn’t there.

“
Now
where’d she go?” Emery groaned,
an exasperated edge to his voice.

“Oh, I see her. Over there.” Back where
they’d just come from, the girl was waving to them.

“How’d... where’d... keep your eye on her,”
Emery demanded, and with very little politeness he plowed through
the crowd. When he reached the other side of the room, she was
gone.

“Emery, she’s over there.” And Philip pointed
back to where they came from.

“What!” Emery turned sideways to make himself
small and skipped through the crowd. Philip hurried after him.
Halfway across the room he grabbed Emery.

“Where are you going? She’s over there.” Now
Philip pointed toward a side of the room where the girl had not
been before.

“What is she doing?” Emery said angrily.
“Playing hide and seek.” He started toward the girl. After he’d
taken two steps, Philip grabbed him.

“Where are you going? She’s over there.”
Philip spun Emery around and pointed in the exact opposite
direction toward the room where the garden club was about to
meet.

“
What!
What is going on?”

Philip gave sly waves in two directions.

“She’s over there,” said Philip, spinning
Emery around and pointing.

Emery saw the girl approaching.

“No, she’s over here,” said Philip, giving
Emery another spin.

Emery saw the same girl approaching from the
opposite direction!

Now Emery spun himself around. Two girls. Two
directions. One face.

Emery set his mouth in an angry line and
turned slowly to Philip, who was laughing as quietly as he could.
It was the library, after all.

A few seconds later the four children stood
in a knot.

Philip took a breath. “They
were
twins, Emery. We had you so confused.”

The girls were laughing. Philip was laughing.
Emery was
not
laughing.

“I suppose you think that was funny,” said
Emery.

“Don’t be a bad sport,” said Joanie, smiling.
“You know we tricked you.”

“Dope,” said Janie.

“Which one are you?” Emery asked Joanie,
giving Janie a short angry look.

“I’m Joanie—the library twin,” she laughed.
“This is my twin sister Janie—the violin twin.”

“Very funny. Very funny,” said Emery, not
certain whether he should be angry or whether he should join in the
laughing. It was a pretty funny joke, he had to admit—but he
quickly decided to admit it only to himself.

“Oh, look,” said Joanie. “It’s time for the
meeting and the pizza. That should make you feel better.”

All the children in the children’s room began
moving toward the chairs set up in the meeting room.

Joanie pulled Philip aside. “Are you ready to
do the other thing?”

Philip smiled evilly and nodded his head.

“Here,” said Joanie, handing Philip a piece
of paper, “put his name and address on this form with mine and give
it to the librarian.”

Philip did as Joanie said to do. This was
going to be the best joke of all.

“When’s the pizza?” Emery whispered to
Philip, who sat next to him in the meeting room of the library.
Joanie sat to Philip’s left and Janie was on the other side of
Joanie.

“Right after they give out seeds and talk a
while.”

“I don’t smell any pizza yet,” said Emery,
giving a loud sniff.

“They have to do the talking first, I told
you. The pizza would get cold. Shhh. Pay attention.”

It was the older librarian, dressed in a
green skirt and a flowered blouse, who stood next to a table in the
front of the room, smiling out over all the children, waiting for
them to settle down and be quiet. On the table were cardboard boxes
with BURPEE on the side. Philip had peeked inside the boxes on his
way into the room and saw that they were filled with packets of
seeds. Also on the table were a half-dozen flowering plants in
round, green, plastic flowerpots.

The librarian said, “I am Mrs. Bushrod and I
want to thank you all for coming. Those of you who have been here
at least five times will be given seeds to start your own gardens.
Everyone will be given pizza, and we hope lots more of you will
come to the garden club when we begin our next session. Keep your
eye on the library bulletin board for an announcement. Now...” She
motioned to another smiling librarian, a thinner, shorter, younger
woman dressed in jeans and a pullover shirt that said GAP, who
brought her a glass fishbowl with folded papers inside.

“Our special winners,” Mrs. Bushrod smiled.
She reached inside and pulled out a paper. “Shelley Lum.”

A small Asian girl clapped her hands and
hurried to the front. Mrs. Bushrod asked her a few questions about
plants, which Shelley answered correctly.

“Very good, Shelley. And who is your
partner?” Mrs. Bushrod asked.

“Kim Vega.”

“Kim, come on up.”

A girl with long brown hair joined them in
the front.

Mrs. Bushrod handed her a flowerpot that held
a yellow flower.

Philip listened to Kim describe the parts of
the flower and then thought about the trick he hoped to play on
him. The trick wouldn’t work, though, unless the librarian pulled
Joanie’s name out of the bowl. Since there were six plants on the
table, Philip guessed there were six chances for Joanie’s name to
be called. What a trick it would be! Philip pushed his lips
together hard to keep from smiling.

Mrs. Bushrod pulled another paper from the
fishbowl. “Karen Leander.”

Philip felt himself getting nervous. Only
four more chances. Karen called up her partner, a boy named
Jason—Philip thought they looked alike so Jason must be her
brother—and Jason was given another flowerpot and he started
talking. Philip couldn’t pay attention. All he could think of was
playing his trick on Emery.

Mrs. Bushrod called another pair of children
to the front and then another. Just two chances left.

Then Emery poked him in the ribs. “I smell
pizza.”

Philip nodded. He looked out into the library
and saw two men carrying lots of pizza boxes.

Mrs. Bushrod called the fifth pair of
children to the front. The smell of the pizza was filling the room
and Philip took deep sniffs almost tasting the pizza.

Suddenly, he heard Mrs. Bushrod say, “Joanie
Henderson.”

Joanie turned to him, made a face, and popped
out of her chair. Philip listened to Joanie answer her questions
correctly. Now Joanie was going to name Emery as her partner and he
would have to go to the front and talk about a plant that he didn’t
know anything about. He would stand there with his mouth open like
a fish and nothing would come out. The whole room would be laughing
at him and... ARGH!!

Philip felt a horrible chill sweep over him.
What had he done! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Disaster! When Joanie had
given him the paper to write down the name of her partner, he’d
written
Emery Wyatt
and put down Emery’s address. Mrs.
Bushrod was going to call the name of Emery Wyatt. Philip had
forgotten that in the library
he was Emery Wyatt.

“My partner is...” Joanie looked at the paper
in puzzlement. She expected to see the name Philip Felton, Emery’s
friend. But she guessed that Emery had changed his mind.

“...Emery Wyatt.” Joanie skipped to her seat
and grabbed Philip by the hand and pulled him forward. Philip was
too stunned and amazed at his own carelessness to resist.

Joanie whispered to him, “I thought you were
going to put your friend’s name.”

Philip gave her a weak smile. Philip stood
next to Mrs. Bushrod and watched Joanie move to a vacant chair
directly in front of him. Mrs. Bushrod handed Philip the last
flowerpot. It held a red flower. Then Mrs. Bushrod stepped to the
other side of the table, leaving Philip alone, holding the green
plastic flowerpot with the red flower.

“Go ahead,” Mrs. Bushrod smiled.

Philip looked out at the children. They were
all staring at him. He could tell they wanted him to hurry up and
finish because the smell of pizza was everywhere.

“Go ahead what?” Philip asked, looking at her
forlornly.

“Do what the other children did. Tell us all
you know about the plant you’re holding.”

“This one?” Philip said, looking at the
plant. He wondered whether dropping it would end his turn.

“That’s the one,” Mrs. Bushrod smiled.

“Go on, Emery,” Joanie whispered.

“Uh,” Philip looked closely at the plant. He
couldn’t remember a single thing the other five children had said
when they described their plants. “This is a plant.”

There was a snort of laughter from the second
row.

Philip gave the girl who made it a dirty
look.

“It’s in a green pot.” The girl snorted
again. Philip turned to Mrs. Bushrod as if he were finished.

“Go on,” she smiled. “You can tell us much
more than that. What kind of a plant is it?”

Philip heard Joanie whisper, “Geranium.”

“It’s a German plant.”

Mrs. Bushrod’s smiled disappeared. “A German
plant?”

“Ger-an-i-um,” Joanie whispered louder.

“Uh, a German ger-an-i-um.”

“Oh, I see,” said Mrs. Bushrod, her eyebrows
scrunched closely together. “You really know your plants. Go
on.”