The Girls' Revenge (11 page)

Fourteen
Letter to Georgia

Dear Bill and Danny, Steve, Tony, and Doug:

Thought you'd like to know that the police were over at your house the other night. Caroline Malloy, the Crazie, went after her sister with a hammer. Missed, but I can imagine what the hammer did to the floor. They are really weirdos.

I'm going to pass fourth grade by the skin of my teeth. Crazy Caroline chose me for her partner for Miss Applebaum's December project. We had to interview each other. Then we had to pretend we were each other for a day, and write a report to read aloud in front of the class. I'll bet your Georgia-peach teacher doesn't come up with anything that dumb, Danny.

What I'd like about now is to change places with one of you guys and be
you
for a day. I'd gladly go down there for a week if one of you wants to come here and see what life with the Malloys is really like.

See what you got us into by moving down to Georgia?

Wally (and Jake and Josh and Peter)

Fifteen
Trapped

T
he Malloy sisters were surprised to see the Hatfords heading for the garage again on Monday, going across the swinging bridge just ahead of them. They had supposed that after the fiasco with the police, Mr. and Mrs. Hatford might have forbidden them to go up in the loft again, and knew they were right when Peter, tagging along behind his brothers, looked back over his shoulder and called, “We're not supposed to go up in the loft again, but we came back to get our binoculars.”

“Peter! Shut up!” they heard Jake mutter.

There was a certain swagger to their walk that irritated Eddie, it seemed. A certain grin on their faces that made Caroline herself frown. The girls could only watch as the boys loped across the clearing as though they owned the place and marched right into the garage. It didn't take four boys to retrieve a pair of binoculars.

“Okay, that's it! Plan B!” said Eddie.

As luck would have it, Mother was at a meeting of the faculty wives. There was a note on the table saying she'd be home about six, and they could heat up a pan of chili if they wanted dinner early.

“Perfect!” said Eddie. “Absolutely perfect!”

She told Beth and Caroline that for several days she had been working out the details of what they were going to do the next time the boys came over, and promptly explained her plan.

Knowing that the Hatfords would be looking out of the loft window facing the house, Caroline and Beth, in their winter jackets and mittens, came out the back door with a shovel. With much whispering, they began to dig a hole in the snow around the corner of the house, just close enough that the boys could still see them.

From the quiet in the garage, they knew very well that the boys were watching. They had to put on a convincing show, because the point was to keep the boys glued to the loft window long enough for Eddie to sneak out the front door of the house, and around the bushes where the boys couldn't see, and enter the garage from another door. And then, while the Hatfords on the floor above were watching the girls outside, wondering what Beth and Caroline were up to, Eddie, armed with a can of brown paint and a brush she had found in the Bensons' basement, would secretly, silently, paint the rungs of the ladder.

“What the heck are they
doing
?” Caroline heard Jake mutter from up in the loft. There was the squeak of floorboards as the boys scooted around, changing places to see out the small window. The frozen earth
beneath the snow was hard, and difficult to dig, but the girls kept chopping away.

“Why don't we act as though we're burying something?” Beth whispered finally. “What do you bet they'll come back here some night and try to dig it up?”

Caroline tried not to laugh. “Okay. Pretend it's in my pocket, and you take it out.”

Caroline straightened up, holding the shovel out in front of her while Beth reached over and thrust one hand into her jacket pocket. Then, making a tight fist, she lowered her arm into the hole in the snow and stood up again. More whispering.

“How long are we supposed to stay out here?” Caroline asked.

“Till Eddie gets back inside and comes to the door to get us. Then we'll know she's done.”

The two girls got down on their hands and knees and peered down into the hole. Then they began putting the earth back, then the snow, packing it down and taking their time about it.

“What do we do now?” whispered Caroline.

“I don't know. Dig another hole? We have to keep their attention until—”

At that moment the back door opened and Eddie called, “I'm making popcorn. Anybody want some?”

“I do!” came Peter's voice from the loft.

“Peter, shut
up
!” Josh told him.

“So you guys are still up there?” Eddie yelled. “Don't you think it's time you went home?”

“We'll go when we're good and ready,” Jake replied.

“Fine. What do we care?” said Eddie, as her sisters trooped inside. They shut the door behind them. “Now,” she said laughing, “it's only a matter of time till they discover they're trapped. Might as well go make the popcorn. Then we can take it outside, sit in the garage, and watch the show.”

It took only a few minutes in the microwave to pop a bag of corn, and the girls poured it into a metal bowl and went back out to the garage, grinning. They sat cross-legged in their jackets on the dirt floor, facing the ladder, and waited.

“This is more fun than a movie,” said Beth.

From time to time there came voices from up in the loft, the sounds of the boys horsing around, and finally one booted foot appeared through the small opening in the floor above, then another.

“Wally, I'll bet,” whispered Caroline, stuffing another handful of popcorn into her mouth.

Suddenly the air was filled with yelps and cries.

Wally had come down only two rungs and Jake's foot had just appeared, when Wally began yelling, “Jake! They've painted the ladder! I've got paint on my hands!”

“Oh, no!” yelled Jake. “I've got it on the leg of my jeans!”

“I can smell it!” called Josh.

Wally leaped to the floor below, Jake wavered a moment, still holding on with one hand; then he too dropped the eight feet to the floor.

The girls stopped eating. Somehow that was not the way they had imagined it. They had thought the boys would discover that the ladder was painted
before
they started down, and would stay in the loft. Now there were two boys up and two boys down.

“We're trapped up here!” yelled Josh.

And Peter's sorrowful cry: “You mean we have to spend the night here and can't have any food?”

Jake wheeled about and saw the girls.

“You're in big trouble! I've got paint on my new jeans!” he said.

“What do you mean,
we're
in trouble?” said Eddie. “You know you weren't supposed to come back up here again.”

“We only came to get the binoculars! You can't hold us prisoner!” yelled Peter from the floor above.

Eddie laughed. “Joke: How many Hatfords does it take to retrieve a pair of binoculars? Four: one to get the binoculars, two to get paint on their clothes, and one to do the yelling.”

“Go outside and stand under the window, Jake!” Josh called down.

Jake and Wally went outside, and the girls followed, still eating their popcorn. Josh was dangling Peter from the high open window. There wasn't any glass at all.

“Catch!” Josh yelled. “One, two, three …” And down Peter came, into the arms of Jake and Wally.

Caroline stopped eating. She hadn't dreamed that the boys would actually come out the loft window, and she could tell by the look on Eddie's face that Eddie hadn't either. What if somebody got hurt? Broke an ankle or something?

Now Josh was preparing to jump. One of his feet
appeared out the loft window, then his whole leg, then a second leg.

“Boy, I hope they leave before Mom gets here, or we'll get it!” Eddie whispered. “Come on, Josh! Jump!” she said loudly.

Beth covered her eyes.

“Maybe we should drag out a mattress or something,” Caroline suggested.

But it was too late for that.

“One, two, three… jump!” Jake instructed.

Josh was dangling by his hands now to shorten the drop, and he let go. A second later he fell in a heap on top of Wally and Jake.

Eddie gave a sigh of relief when all four boys were finally on their feet and were slinking off toward the bridge, casting glowering looks at the girls over their shoulders.

“We're lucky we got out of
that
one!” said Beth. “You don't suppose their mom will call our mom about the paint on their clothes, do you?”

“They'd have to admit they were back in the garage again if they told,” said Eddie. “My guess is that they'll keep all this very, very quiet.”

They went back inside, cleaned up the kitchen, and were diligently doing their homework on the dining room table when they heard Mother's car come up the drive and park outside the kitchen window.

“Your father's still at the college,” she said when she came in. “Some big reception for alumni or something. How are things going here?”

“Nothing special,” said Beth. “We're all doing homework.”

Mother went upstairs to change her clothes, and the girls cast each other relieved glances and bent over their books again. Caroline was finishing the last of her report on Wally Hatford, and was finding only good things to say about him. Miss Applebaum would be impressed. It was easy saying nice things about a person when you had just won a major battle.

Mother came downstairs in green sweatpants and shirt and turned on the lights on the Christmas tree. Then she put a CD of carols on the player and set about making dinner, just as the headlights of Father's car swept across the kitchen walls.

“Dinner in ten minutes, girls,” she called. “I think we'll just eat in the kitchen tonight. Chili and crackers, that's it.”

There was the sound of Father's car idling in the garage, then the engine went off. A door slammed. And finally he came through the back door.

“Jean?” he called. “What am I smelling? Are you painting something?”

Mother came out of the pantry. “Painting? Of course not.”

“Well, there's a strong paint smell coming from somewhere.”

“Really?” said Mother. She walked over and stuck her head out the back, then closed the door behind him. “Why, George!” she said suddenly. “You've got fresh paint on your good jacket! That's where the smell is coming from. There are stripes all across the back of your sport coat. It's ruined! Where in the world have you been?”

Sixteen
Another Letter to Georgia

Dear Bill and Danny, Steve, Tony, and Doug:

We thought you might like to know that the Whomper painted your garage.

We've been meeting up in your loft and they got smart and thought they could trap us up there. When we came down I got paint on the sleeves of my jacket and Jake got some on his jeans. Josh and Peter had to jump.