The Disappearing Friend Mystery (4 page)
When Benny and Watch got back with the water, Henry, Jessie, and Violet had already settled down around the table.
“Here's a place for you, Benny,” said Violet. “I've put a poster board out for you and a pencil so you can draw your design first.”
“Will you write the words for me?” Benny asked Violet as he slid into his seat.
“Of course I will,” said Violet. “Just tell me what you want to say.”
“I'll have to think about that,” said Benny. He paused, then added, “It will probably make me hungry soon.”
“Oh, Benny. We just had breakfast.” Jessie laughed.
The Aldens got to work. They had made several posters when Beth appeared in the doorway of the boxcar. She was holding Mr. Alden's old shirt, neatly washed and folded. She had on her own old clothes todayâcutoff jeans and a faded blue work shirt.
“Hi, Beth,” said all the Aldens.
“Hi,” said Beth cheerfully.
“I'll take the shirt to Mrs. McGregor,” said Benny, jumping up.
“I can do that, Benny,” Beth said.
“That's okay,” answered Benny. “Mrs. McGregor might have some biscuits left over from breakfast.”
Everyone laughed as Benny hurried back to the house.
“Oh, look!” Beth looked at all the posters the children had already made. They were lined up neatly around the room to dry. “These are wonderful.” She turned to the Aldens and smiled. “I'll have to get started!”
Rolling up her sleeves, and grabbing a paintbrush, Beth sat down at the table. Soon she had finished her first poster and had started on her second one.
“You're an excellent artist, Beth,” said Henry, admiring the neat drawing of a girl walking a dog. “That looks just like Jessie.”
“It's supposed to,” Beth said, looking pleased.
“And that's Watch!” exclaimed Jessie, happily.
“Yes, it is!” Beth nodded. Her smile became a huge grin. “This is so much fun. I thought when we moved it would be hard to make new friends. But it hasn't been hard at all. You're all so nice and friendly.”
Henry suddenly got up and went to the door. “Benny hasn't come back yet. Do you think he found some biscuits?”
“Probably!” said Jessie. “I could use a break, too.”
“I know!” said Violet excitedly. “Let's each take a poster in and show it to Grandfather.”
“We can have a poster show!” said Jessie. “It will be hard to pick out the best ones, though.”
“I know which poster I'm choosing,” said Jessie, and she carefully picked up the one Beth had made of Jessie walking Watch, to advertise dog walking.
So Beth and Henry and Violet each chose a poster and went up to the house to show their work to Grandfather Alden.
“Ohâmaybe we should bring one of Benny's, too,” Beth suggested. “I'll run back and get one.”
“Okay,” said Jessie as Beth headed back to the boxcar.
Grandfather Alden was in his study with a tall dark-haired man. When Grandfather looked up and saw the children standing at the door, he motioned for them to come in. “I have some people here you'll be glad to see,” Grandfather said to his guest.
The man turned and smiled. “Your grandchildren!” he said.
“Dr. Moore,” said Henry. He shook hands with Dr. Moore. Then Jessie and Violet did, too.
Dr. Moore had given Henry work when the Aldens were living in their boxcar, before Grandfather found them. It was Dr. Moore who had figured out the mystery of Grandfather's missing grandchildren. And it was Dr. Moore who had helped bring Grandfather Alden and the Alden children together at last.
“What do you have here?” asked Dr. Moore, noticing the colorfully painted poster boards.
“We've started a job service called The Boxcar Helpers. We want to help raise money for the new wing at the Greenfield Hospital,” explained Jessie.
“A wonderful idea,” said Dr. Moore. He looked around. “But where is Benny?”
“Here I am,” said Benny. “I was in the kitchen with Mrs. McGregor.”
“We've brought some of our posters to show off to Grandfather,” Jessie told Dr. Moore.
“I brought one of yours, too, Benny. Here,” Beth said, coming into the study with another poster.
The Aldens introduced Beth to Dr. Moore. Then Benny took his poster and held it up proudly.
“It's excellent, Benny,” said Grandfather. “All of them are.” He paused and looked more closely at the one that Jessie was holding. “Jessie, that looks like you and Watch.”
“It is. Beth drew it,” Jessie said.
“Very good, Beth.” Grandfather nodded approvingly, his eyes twinkling. “I think with posters like these, you will have plenty of people calling with jobs.”
“Do you want a new wing built at the Greenfield Hospital, Dr. Moore?” asked Violet.
Dr. Moore looked surprised. “Of course I do, Violet. Why?”
Violet and the others told Dr. Moore about the conversation they'd overheard at the hospital between Mr. Alvarez and the angry doctor.
Dr. Moore looked thoughtful. “Yes, it is true,” he said. “Being from Silver City myself, I know some of my neighbors were very upset when the board decided not to build a new hospital there. But I thought everyone had accepted the idea by now. I didn't realize there were still problems.”
He looked at the Aldens and Beth. “But don't let that stop you. I will certainly recommend you for any jobs I hear about. I know you're good workers.”
“And we'll make lots of money,” crowed Benny. “Let's go make lots more posters. Soon we will have enough.”
As the Aldens walked back to the boxcar with Beth, they explained who Dr. Moore was. Jessie told Beth how Violet had gotten sick while they were all living in the boxcar, and how Dr. Moore had taken her to his house and made her well again.
Suddenly Benny shouted “Look!” An odd sight met their eyes. On the stump outside the boxcar were footprintsâbrightly colored paint footprints.
The children looked into the boxcar, where they saw more footprints. “Oh, no!” Jessie cried. The posters were no longer lined up neatly against the wall to dry. They were scattered all over the floor. Water had been poured on some of them, so the paint had run. Some of the posters had paint smeared across them in big, angry slashes. Not a single poster had been left untouched.
“Our posters!” gasped Violet.
“They're ruined,” said Henry.
“Who would
do
something like this?” Jessie looked angrily around the boxcar, as if she could catch whoever had done it.
“Maybe it was the wind?” whispered Beth.
“No.” Henry shook his head.
“Maybe it was Watch?” Beth offered.
“Watch would never do something like this.” Imitating his brother, Benny shook his head vigorously.
Jessie said, “This wasn't an accident. Look at these footprints smeared all around. Someone had to take the paint over to the posters to mess them all up like that.”
Beth cleared her throat. “At least we had the best posters inside with us, so they weren't ruined.”
The angry look began to leave Jessie's face. “That's true, Beth. Let's clean this up and get back to work.”
“Yes. We can always make more posters,” agreed Henry. “You know, it's almost as if someone doesn't want us to get started raising money for the new hospital wing.”
“But why?” asked Violet. “I don't understand.”
“I don't understand it either,” said Henry, sounding puzzled.
Luckily, there was plenty of poster board and paint. Everyone got back to work. At last the posters were finished and dry. The children decided to take them into town and put them up before anything else happened.
Every storekeeper quickly agreed to let the children put up their posters. But when they got to the flower shop, the children had a problem.
As the children walked in the door, a tall woman was turning away from the counter, holding an armful of roses.
“It's her,” whispered Jessie. “It's that doctor from the hospital.”
The doctor was smiling and smelling her roses. Then she saw the posters.
She stopped.
“The Boxcar Helpers. Let us help you
â
and help the hospital,”
she read aloud. “What is this?”
“We want to help raise money for the new wing of the Greenfield Hospital,” said Henry carefully. “So we've started a helper service.”
The doctor frowned. “A helper service,” she repeated, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
“Yes,” said Violet bravely. “All the money we earn doing odd jobs and errands will go to the hospital for the new wing that will be built.”
“Well I don't approve,” said the doctor. “We don't need a new wingâSilver City needs a new hospital. This is ridiculous.”
The doctor's eyes narrowed angrily. She pushed past the children and out the door.
The florist, who had been listening, shook his head.
“Oh, dear,” said Jessie. “Does this mean you won't let us put up a poster?”
“Well-ll,” said the florist. “She's a good customer. I'd hate to lose her.” He paused.
“Please?” said Benny.
“Well,” said the florist again, “I guess that new wing is going to be good for business. People often send flowers to patients in the hospital. Okay, you can put your poster up in the front window in the corner.”
“Thank you!” said Henry.
Soon they had posters all over town, from the supermarket to the bicycle shop.
Just as they were putting their last poster in the window of the ice cream shop, an older woman passed by and stopped to read it.
“How lovely,” she said. She looked at Beth. “That is a very good project, Heather. Your family must be proud. Well, I'll have to remember to call you if I need help with anything.”
As the woman left, Henry frowned. “Heather?” he said.
Beth shrugged. “When you're new in town, people get your name mixed up sometimes. It happens to me every time we move.” She didn't seem too interested. She put the last piece of tape on the poster and stepped back. “There.”
“Now all we have to do is wait for people to call,” said Henry.
“I think people will,” said Benny. “Lots of people. We'll be very busy!”
“I guess,” said Henry. “We should probably have just a
little
ice creamâwhile we still have some free time!”
“Hooray!” said Benny, leading the way to the ice cream counter.
T
he phone rang as Jessie, Violet, Benny, Henry, and Grandfather Alden were finishing breakfast the next morning. A minute later, Mrs. McGregor came into the dining room. She was smiling. “I have a call for The Boxcar Helpers,” she said.
“It's our first job,” said Jessie excitedly. “Oh, Grandfather, may one of us be excused to see who it is?”
Grandfather laughed. “The early bird gets the worm,” he said. “Go on, Jessie.”
Jessie slipped quickly away from the table. Everyone else began to help Mrs. McGregor clear away the dishes. They had just finished when Jessie came back.
“What is it, Jessie?” cried Benny.
“That was a lawyer, Ms. Singh, who is going away on a business trip for two days,” Jessie told them. “She wants us to come feed her cats this week while she's gone. She lives over on Garden Street, and she's going to leave the key under the mat by the back door.”
“That'll be fun,” said Violet. “Only we had better not take Watch!”
The phone rang again. “I'll get it,” said Henry.
“Sounds like you're off to a good start,” said Grandfather. “I'll leave you to conduct business.”
“Let's go see what job this is,” said Benny. He and Violet and Jessie joined Henry. Henry hung up the phone and wrote something down carefully.
“Well?” asked Jessie.
“Mr. Hudson, on Hickory Lane, wants his grass cut. I told him I was an expert grass cutter!” Henry laughed. “So while you're feeding cats, I will cut the grass.”
The phone rang again, and then again. Soon they had more than enough jobs for the day, and they began to schedule them for the next day and the next.
“We have to tell Beth,” said Violet when the phone finally stopped ringing. Quickly she dialed Beth's number. “Hello, Beth?” she said eagerly. Then she frowned. “Oh. Thank you.”
A moment later she said again, “Hello, Beth? Is that you? This is Violet Alden speaking.”
The others listened as Violet told Beth all about the jobs. “So we'll be busy all day,” Violet said. “Are you going to come with us? . . . Oh. That's too bad. Okay, we'll see you tomorrow. Good luck!”
Violet hung up the phone. “Poor Beth. She has to go to the dentist in Silver City today and can't help us.”
“Too bad,” said Jessie sympathetically. “But we'd better get started.”
