Stacey And The Mystery Of Stoneybrook (9 page)

But the laughter stopped when Mallory spoke up. "You know," she said, "I just remembered something that happened to me a long time ago. It must have been last year some time. It was spring, and Vanessa and I had gone hunting for flowers together. We wanted to make a Mother's Day bouquet for our mom. We walked over to that house because I had remembered that old overgrown garden there. Sure enough, there were some really pretty flowers hidden in the weeds."

I had noticed those old flower beds. They lay along the side of the house.

"We picked the flowers and went home. My mom loved her bouquet, but that night I had the strangest nightmare." Mallory's voice was kind of dreamy. "In it, I was back at the house, staring up at it. In every window and doorway there were people, looking at me and holding out their bony hands. They didn't say anything, but I got the strongest feeling that they

were angry at me for stealing their lowers. They wanted them back." She shivered. "Of course, I couldn't give them back — they'd already been picked and given to my mom. What a scary dream. I just remembered it today!"

We all sat there quietly. We'd succeeded in scaring ourselves silly. Kristy tried to calm us down.

"Maybe we're letting this get to us too much. You know, I showed Watson that map I found, and he said it's just of a
part
of Stoneybrook — the part where the cemetery is

now."

"I found a map, too. Remember, Kristy?" said Claud. "And at first I thought that mine showed the same thing yours did. But you know how I am at reading maps and following directions."

Charlotte spoke up in a timid voice. "Does it really matter if the house — and the town — is built on a burial ground? Everybody's still having all these weird experiences."

As usual, Charlotte had gotten to the heart of the matter. She may be a kid, but she's sharp.

"You're right," said Kristy. "It doesn't matter at all. There are too many other strange things going on. That's why it's time to find

Mr. Ronald Hennessey and pay him a visit. Any volunteers?" She raised her own hand.

We all looked at each other. Slowly, Charlotte put up her hand, so I did, too. I had to stick with her. After all, I was her baby-sitter. Then Claud's hand crept up, too.

"That's enough," said Kristy. "We don't want to overwhelm him. He might be sick or something."

Dawn, Mary Anne, and Mallory all looked relieved. Charlotte, Kristy, and Claud looked terrified, and I'm sure I did, too.

Chapter 12.

It was Tuesday night, after our emergency club meeting, and Mallory and Dawn were sitting at the Pikes'. I really do like being an only child, but sometimes when I hear about an evening at the Pikes' I get a little jealous. It must be fun to have a built-in gang of friends around all the time. The Pikes are: Byron, Adam, and Jordan, the triplets, who are ten; nine-year-old Vanessa; eight-year-old Nicky; seven-year-old Margo; five-year-old Claire. And, of course, Mal, Dawn's co-baby-sitter.

Dawn arrived at six-twenty, just as Mr. and Mrs. Pike were about to leave. She'd known when she accepted the job that she and Mal would have to give the kids dinner, but she'd forgotten what dinner hour at the Pike house can be like.

Mr. and Mrs. Pike are very smart about raising a big family. They know that some things just aren't worth making a fuss about, not with eight kids to deal with. For example, mealtimes. Since some kids will eat anything while others are fussy eaters, and some will eat a ton while others just pick, the Pikes have decided not to try to make many rules about what the kids do and don't have to eat. Especially when they have a sitter. When Mal is in charge, she usually just opens up the fridge

and stands back. The kids rummage around, and each one finds whatever they want to eat. They call it a "smorgasbord."

That's exactly what happened on Tuesday night. Dawn did her best to help out, but she had a hard time dealing with some of the choices the kids made. Remember, Dawn is a true health-food fanatic. So how do you think she felt when Bryon pulled out the bologna and a jar of grape jelly and began to make a sandwich?

"Are you sure that's what you want, Byron?" she asked faintly.

"Sure! It's my favorite," he said, carefully spreading the right amount of jelly on the bread.

When he'd finished, Dawn looked around. There was Nicky, holding a jar of peanut butter.

"Okay, Nicky. Peanut butter and jelly, right?" Dawn asked. She was relieved. This was a little more normal. But "normal" was not what Nicky had in mind.

"Nope. Peanut butter and bologna," he said. Dawn made a face, but she also made the sandwich. If that's what he wanted . . .

Adam and Jordan both wanted SpaghettiOs, but they refused to let Mal heat them up. They wanted to eat them right out of the can. She

convinced them to at least put their servings on plates.

Margo just wanted bread and butter for dinner. She's in a picky phase, and there are very few foods she'll eat.

Dawn asked Vanessa what she was having.

"A fried egg will do the trick. Butter the pan, so it won't stick," said Vanessa.

Mal groaned. Was Vanessa, who longed to be a poet, going to drive them crazy by speaking in rhyme all night?

While Dawn fried the egg, Mal helped Claire get her dinner. She wanted cereal, but it had to be in a certain bowl (the one with Big Bird on it) with a certain spoon (the one with the red handle). The milk had to be poured precisely so that it came right up to the border painted inside the bowl, and no further. Finally the bowl of cereal was just right, and Claire carried it to the table.

"Thank you, Mallory-silly-billy-goo-goo!" she called over her shoulder.

"You're welcome, Claire," said Mal, rolling her eyes. It looked like Claire was in her "silly" mood again.

Mal made herself a ham sandwich, while Dawn checked the fridge for anything resembling health food. Finally she turned up a couple of carrots, a container of yogurt, and some

wheat germ left over from one of Mal's baking experiments.

"This'll do just fine," she said. "Let's sit down."

There was a mad rush for the "good" seats. Claire had already claimed Mrs. Pike's usual spot, and Margo sat next to her. The triplets jostled each other, tripping and blocking as they competed for Mr. Pike's seat. While they were occupied, Nicky slipped into it. Vanessa drifted in and seated herself daintily in Adam's usual spot but was forced to move almost immediately when he sat in her lap, pretending not to see her.

Finally, everyone was seated. Dinner had begun.

"Want some SpaghettiOs, Nicky?" Adam asked.

"Sure!" he answered. His face lit up. His brothers usually only paid attention to him when they were teasing him.

"You
do?"
asked Jordan. "Don't you know they're made out of worms?"

Nicky's face fell and he went back to eating his sandwich. Byron quietly offered him a bite of his sandwich, but Nicky looked at it closely and shook his head. "Worms" had reminded him of something.

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the

worms play pinochle on your snout,”
he sang, looking very cheerful again.

"Ew!" cried Claire. She dropped her spoon into her cereal. Milk flew in all directions.

"C'mon, Nicky. We're trying to eat," said Mallory. She reached over with her napkin and wiped up some milk.

"Okay, how about this one?" he asked.
"I'm Popeye the sailor man, I live in a garbage can,"
he started.

Adam reached around Nicky and tapped him on the shoulder. Nicky stopped singing and whipped his head around to see Jordan, looking innocent. When he turned back to check on Adam, Jordan reached around to tap him on the other shoulder. Nicky looked like a spectator at a tennis match as Adam and Jordan took turns.

Dawn tried to distract them. "What shall we do tonight, guys?" she asked.

Everybody spoke up at once. Claire wanted to play Candy Land, the only game she's old enough for. Margo thought that sounded fine, too. The triplets voted for volleyball, except for Adam, who wanted to play dodgeball. Nicky thought it would be fun to build a tent out of blankets and play Indians.

It was Vanessa, though, who came up with

an idea that everyone liked. "Let's put on a play!" she said.

"Yea!"

"Let's do
Batman!"
said Byron. He loves to be the Joker.

"No,
Snow White!"
said Claire.

Dawn thought quickly. What could they do that would please everyone? "How about
The Wizard of
Oz?" she said, remembering what Kristy had said about how much her brothers and sisters liked that movie.

"Great choice, Dawn," said Mallory.

"I get to be the Scarecrow!" yelled Jordan.

"I get to be the Cowardly Lion!" yelled Adam.

"I get to be the Princess!" yelled Margo.

"Princess?" asked Nicky. "I don't remember any princess in that movie."

"There's always a princess, right, Mallory?" Margo looked at Mal for support.

"Sorry, not in this story," said Mallory. "But you can be the Good Witch. That's the closest thing to a princess in this play. Anyway, let's dear the table and clean up the kitchen before we get started. And anyone who's got homework has to do it first."

When everyone was ready, they had a quick meeting to assign the rest of the parts, and

then everyone ran off to put together costumes.

The house was a little quieter for a few minutes while the actors and actresses dressed up. Downstairs, Mal and Dawn looked at each other and smiled.

"Well, at least we got through dinner," Dawn said.

Just then, the triplets slid down the banister, one after the other. Adam, as the Cowardly Lion, wore a yellow fringed bedspread tied around his shoulders. Jordan had on old jeans and a flannel shirt. He looked pretty good as the Scarecrow. Byron was the Tin Woodsman, and his was the hardest costume to put together. He'd found a funnel to wear as a hat, and he was carrying a toy hatchet.

The rest of the cast gathered, and Dawn and Mal were assigned parts, too. Dawn was the Wicked Witch, and Mal was the Wizard. By the time everyone was onstage, they realized that there were no people left over to be an audience, but by then it was too late.

Vanessa, as Dorothy, carried her school-book bag instead of a picnic basket. Nicky, who was playing Toto, trotted along beside her. Vanessa pretended to step out of a house. "Come on out, Toto, close the door. We're not in Kansas anymore," she rhymed.

"Woof, woof," said Nicky.

Claire did a short rendition of the Munchkin song, with lots of added "silly-billy-goo-goos."

Then Byron stepped out. "Hi, Dorothy! We'll come with you. Don't cry. Here are my friends, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion."

"Oh, good," said Vanessa, forgetting to rhyme for once. "But how will we get to the Emerald City?"

"I'll take you in my spaceship," said Margo, as the Good Witch.

"We're off to see the Lizard!" sang Jordan.

This was getting a little off the track, but Dawn and Mal hid their smiles and went along with it. Dawn made a truly scary Wicked Witch until Claire started to cry. Then Dawn used "magic" to turn herself into another good witch.

Halfway down the Yellow Brick Road, Nicky got bored with playing Toto. After all, he had no lines except for, "Woof, woof." "Want to hear me count to one thousand by twos?" he asked. Nobody answered — they were all busy just then — so he just started in. "Two, four, six . . ."

At the end of the play, Mal, as the Wizard, solved everyone's problems. She declared that it was bedtime in Oz. Nicky had gotten up to

782 by then, but he was winding down and didn't insist on finishing.

The cast members gave themselves a big round of applause, since there was no audience to do it for them. Then Dawn took Margo, Claire, and Micky upstairs to get ready for bed. Mal and the older kids tidied up the living room, which looked like that tornado really
had
been through it.

By the time Dawn got the younger Pikes to bed, Mr. and Mrs. Pike were home. Dawn and Mallory shook hands solemnly and congratulated each other on making it through the evening. Then Mr. Pike walked Dawn home. She breathed a huge sigh of relief as she entered her quiet old house.

Chapter 13.

Charlotte and I got home from school at around the same time on Wednesday afternoon. I could see right away that she was as nervous as I was about going to see Mr. Hennessey.

"Are you sure you want to go, Charlotte?" I asked. "You don't
have
to do this, you know." I wondered if this thing was completely out of hand. Was I so involved with this mystery that I was forgetting to be a responsible baby-sitter?

But Charlotte, although she
was
a little scared, was also very determined to do everything she could to help solve the mystery. There was no way she was going to quit now.

We headed over to Claud's, where we'd planned to meet Kristy, who arrived at the same time we did. Claudia opened the door before we even had a chance to knock. It seemed as if we were all eager to get going,