“I’ll have to call Shannon,” Kristy said crossly.
“Before you get on the phone, I’d like to use it,” Mallory spoke up.
“Why?” asked Kristy.
“I have to go home,” Mallory replied as she struggled to her feet. “I want to call my mother to come pick me up.”
“You don’t even feel well enough to walk home?” I asked in alarm.
Mallory shook her head.
“Mallory, when are you going to see a doctor?” Mary Anne asked.
“Tomorrow,” Mallory told her. “I have an appointment tomorrow evening.”
“Good,” Stacey said. “I’m getting worried about you.”
“Me, too. We all are,” Claudia agreed.
Mallory made an anguished face and sighed. “To tell you the truth, I’m getting a little worried about me. Not only am I always tired, but I feel like my head is in a cloud. I forgot to ask if someone could baby-sit for my brothers and sisters tomorrow so my mother can take me to the doctor. If you guys hadn’t said anything about it, I might have forgotten altogether.”
Mary Anne checked her book. “Let me see. Jessi, I know you have ballet class …”
“Wait! Not tomorrow,” I replied. “It was cancelled. So I can take the job. But we need another sitter, too.” The standing rule at the Pikes is that they want two sitters if five kids or more need watching.
Mary Anne shook her head as she looked at her book. “No one else is available except …”
“Wendy,” I filled in dismally.
“And Wendy isn’t here,” added Kristy unnecessarily.
Mallory called her mother and then went downstairs to wait for her. “Gosh, I hope it isn’t something serious,” I said when she was gone.
“What if it’s some terrible disease?” Claudia said in a hushed, serious voice.
“Don’t let your imagination blow this up,” Kristy warned. “She’s probably just got some kind of flu or something. And I hope we don’t all catch it. If we have to close up for a couple of weeks we might just have to close up for good.”
What a horrible thought! “Why?” I asked.
“Because everyone will find other sitters,” said Kristy. “And once that happens they’ll stick with their new sitters. We haven’t heard from the Hills once since we couldn’t take that job last week.”
“Maybe they haven’t gone out since then,” said Stacey hopefully.
“Maybe, but I don’t like it,” Kristy grumbled. “It makes me nervous. The Hills may not be our biggest customers, but I don’t like to lose even a single client.”
“I don’t think we’ve lost them,” Stacey insisted.
“We don’t know,” said Kristy glumly.
The phone rang again. The caller offered another afternoon job that Wendy could have taken. “Call Wendy’s house,” Kristy said, handing me the phone. “Please.”
I called but no one answered. “I hope everything is all right,” I said.
As the meeting wore on we wound up calling Shannon and Logan a lot. Wendy could have taken those jobs if she’d been there. Logan and Shannon filled some slots, but they couldn’t take every job. By 5:55, we still hadn’t found another sitter for the Pike job.
At that moment, Wendy burst into the room. “Hi, everybody,” she said brightly.
“Where have you been?” Kristy demanded.
A look of bewilderment came over Wendy’s face. I could see she didn’t understand why Kristy had spoken so sharply. “I had a baby-sitting job, but the mother was late coming home,” she explained. “Did any jobs come in for me?”
“Plenty. But you weren’t here,” Kristy told her.
I’m sure Wendy could see that Kristy was angry. But she didn’t react the way I would have. I’d have been mortified and apologetic. Wendy grew angry in return.
“What’s the big deal?” she asked. “Can’t Mary Anne tell from that record book thing whether or not I’m free? Why do I have to be here?”
“Because you have to be,” Kristy said, her face turning pink.
“We’re all expected to come to every meeting unless we have an emergency,” I explained.
“Well, this was an emergency,” Wendy insisted. “I couldn’t leave the kids by themselves.”
“Next time, call,” Mary Anne said mildly. “And why did you take a job without telling us?”
“What do you mean?” asked Wendy.
“That’s the second club rule you’ve broken,” Kristy jumped in.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Wendy said irritably, her hands on her hips.
“First you were late without calling, then you took a job that wasn’t offered to the rest of the club,” Kristy said coolly.
“Are you saying I have to hand my regular jobs over to the club?!” Wendy cried indignantly.
“We all share jobs,” said Stacey. “Even if a client asks for a certain sitter, we offer it to everyone in the club. That’s the only way to be fair.”
“Okay, I can see that, I guess,” Wendy conceded reluctantly. “Sorry. And next time I’ll call.”
“Can you sit with Jessi at the Pikes’ tomorrow after school?” Mary Anne asked her.
“Yeah, sure,” Wendy said sulkily.
“Great,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “If you could be there a little early or at least exactly on time, that would be really helpful.”
“Okay, okay,” Wendy said testily.
The meeting ended then and Wendy didn’t lose any time getting out of there. “Wait up,” I called to her on the stairs.
She stopped and waited. “Sorry, Jessi,” she said when I reached her. “I didn’t mean to snap at you before. I was just ticked off. Who does Kristy think she is?”
“She’s the president of the club,” I said evenly. “If she wasn’t strict, things wouldn’t run nearly as efficiently as they do. Our customers wouldn’t be as happy, and neither would we. It’s better that Kristy makes everyone obey the rules.”
“Does she have to be so crabby about it?” Wendy asked as we walked out into the chilly evening.
“She’s just tense these days,” I explained. “I guess she thinks the club is in trouble.”
As I spoke those words, the terrible reality of them hit me. It wasn’t like Kristy to get excited over nothing. Maybe the club really was in trouble.
The next day I hurried to Mal’s house and arrived five minutes early. I looked around, expecting to see Wendy, and my heart sank. No Wendy. “Where is she?” I asked Mallory.
“She’ll probably be here in a minute,” Mal answered.
“I specifically asked her to be on time!” I exploded.
Mrs. Pike came into the living room with her coat on. “Hi, Jessi,” she said. “Where’s the other baby-sitter?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” I blurted out.
A frown line creased Mrs. Pike’s forehead as she checked her watch. “Oh, well, I suppose we can stay a few more minutes. There’s always a wait at the doctor’s office, anyway. But I don’t want to miss the appointment. I called a week ago and this was the only time they had available. I don’t want to have to wait another week.”
“Why don’t you go,” I suggested. “I’m sure Wendy will be here soon.”
“But what if she’s not?” Mrs. Pike fretted. “All the kids are here this afternoon. Seven is a lot to handle on your own, Jessi.”
I knew she was right. Sometimes the Pike kids are as good as gold. And other times they seem to be going in seven different directions at the same time.
“How about this?” I said. “If she doesn’t show up in fifteen minutes, I’ll call someone else to come over. If I can’t get anyone, I’ll … I’ll … I’ll call Aunt Cecelia to come over with Becca and Squirt.”
“I’d hate to ask her to do that,” said Mrs. Pike.
I didn’t like the idea myself, but I couldn’t think of anything else. “She won’t mind,” I said, not quite sure that was true.
Mrs. Pike
checked her watch again. “Oh, I suppose we really better get going. Dr. Dellenkamp’s number is on the refrigerator. Mr. Pike will be home by six at the latest, but we should be back before then.”
During this conversation, Mal had slumped onto the couch. If Mrs. Pike didn’t get going soon, she was going to have to wake her up, or carry out a sleeping body. “Promise me you’ll call someone if Wendy doesn’t show up,” Mrs. Pike went on anxiously.
“I promise,” I said.
“All right then, come on Mallory,” her mother said. “Let’s get going.” Mallory gave me a listless wave as she picked her jacket off a chair and trudged out the door behind her mother.
I went downstairs to the rec room and said hi to the boys who were playing a game of Nok Hockey. Then I headed upstairs where I found Vanessa lying on her bed doing homework and Claire putting together a picture puzzle on the floor at the foot of the bed. “Hi, guys. Where’s Margo?” I asked.
“Hi. In her room,” Vanessa replied.
“She made me come in here to do my puzzle,” Claire complained.
What was Margo doing alone in her room all the time? I knocked on her door. Inside, I heard the sound of shuffling footsteps, but no one answered. “Margo?” I called. “It’s Jessi. Are you all right?”
There was still no answer.
“Margo?” I wondered if I should just go in. Normally, I wouldn’t, but I was beginning to worry. “Margo, if you don’t open the door, I’m coming in,” I called through the door.
Almost instantly the door cracked open. “Hi, Jessi. I was asleep.”
I studied her face and decided she didn’t look as if she’d just awakened. “Can I talk to you?” I asked.
“I’m pretty sleepy,” Margo protested. “Can I just sleep another hour and then we’ll talk?” As if to make her point, she yawned widely.
“I suppose that would be all right,” I agreed. “But it’s important.”
“Okay, thanks,” Margo said as she shut the door.
I hoped she didn’t have whatever Mallory had. Or was this just a way to avoid talking to me?
By the time I was downstairs again, my fifteen-minute waiting period was nearly up. I went to the phone and punched in Wendy’s number. “Is Wendy there?” I asked her mother.
“No, she’s not. She had a baby-sitting job after school,” her mother answered.
I wasn’t sure if she meant this baby-sitting job or another one. I couldn’t believe she would have just forgotten about sitting for the Pikes.
“If she comes in, would you ask her to call Jessi at Mallory’s house?” I said.
Mrs. Loesser agreed to do that and I hung up the phone. Things were so calm that I was tempted to wait a while longer before calling anyone else. But I had made a promise to Mrs. Pike, so I had to start looking for another sitter.
But who?
Then I remembered that Mary Anne wasn’t baby-sitting until seven-thirty that night. She wanted to keep the afternoon free to work on a paper. At least I knew for sure that she was home.
“Mary Anne? It’s me, Jessi,” I said when she picked up the phone. “I’m desperate. Wendy hasn’t shown up. I need you to come over to the Pikes’.”
“I can’t,” she said in a panicked voice. “I have to turn this paper in tomorrow. I thought I’d have all last week to work on it, but I wound up taking so many sitting jobs I didn’t get to it. I really can’t.”
“Please,” I begged.
For a moment there was silence on the line. “All right,” Mary Anne finally said reluctantly. “But I’m going to sit in the kitchen and work. I can only be disturbed if it’s an emergency.”
“That’s a deal,” I agreed. “Thanks a million.”
“Okay. I’ll be right there.”
Mary Anne arrived looking pretty frantic. Four thick books were tucked under her arm and a pen was stuck behind her ear. “Sorry I was short on the phone,” she apologized. “But this paper is one fourth of my grade and —”
“It’s all right,” I cut her off. “I appreciate that you came. Go into the kitchen and work. I won’t bother you unless —”
At that moment we heard a knock at the door. I opened it and Wendy walked in. “Where have you been?” I asked.
She opened her mouth to speak, but then her eyes darted to Mary Anne and she seemed to think better of it. “Is everything all right?” Mary Anne asked her.
“Uh, yeah,” said Wendy. “I had something to do at school and it went longer than I expected. I knew Jessi would be here so I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“But Mrs. Pike asked for two sitters,” I reminded her, my voice full of the exasperation I was feeling.
“I knew you’d get here on time,” she said with a smile.
Mary Anne and I didn’t smile back.
“I have to go home and finish this,” said Mary Anne, taking her coat from the front hall closet and putting it on. “See you guys later,” she said as she hurried out the door.
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Mary Anne,” Wendy told me when Mary Anne was gone, “but I didn’t really have anything to do at school.”
“Then why are you late?”
“My next door neighbor asked me to look after her baby because she had to do some phone selling. All of a sudden she hit a hot streak and people were ordering stuff like crazy from her. I couldn’t just walk out on her, and, like I said, I knew you were here already.”
“Wendy! You’re not supposed to take jobs by yourself!” I cried. “Kristy told you that yesterday!”
“Nobody else knows this baby,” Wendy insisted. “She won’t go to just anybody. Besides, Mrs. Behar only asked me this morning as I was leaving for school. What was I supposed to do?”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure,” I admitted. “I guess you should have told her no, or given her the number of our club.”
“Oh, come on, Jessi,” Wendy scoffed. “What harm did it do?”
“If all of us took our own private jobs we wouldn’t have any club customers,” I said.
Our argument was cut off by the sound of shouting in the rec room. When Wendy and I ran down there we found that an argument over Nok Hockey scoring had gotten out of hand.
“Hey, chill out, you guys,” Wendy said, jumping into the middle of things, and catching a flying rubber dinosaur before it could smash into the wall behind her. “Now what’s the problem?” she asked the boys.
“The problem is he’s a cheater!” Jordan cried indignantly, pointing an accusing finger at Adam.
“You’re a liar! That’s the problem!” Adam shot back. “I didn’t cheat.”
Apparently Adam thought that he and Byron had earned the most points and Jordan thought he and Nicky were winning.
“It’s hard to keep track of the score while you’re playing,” Wendy said diplomatically. “I say you should have a rematch and I’ll keep score.”
The boys agreed and Wendy pulled a stool up to the middle of the board. Realizing there was nothing further for me to do, I went upstairs.
For the next half hour, I read my social studies book. I got up once and checked the rec room. Wendy was busy playing Nok Hockey with Adam while Byron kept score. She was great with kids. There was no doubt about that.
I realized almost an hour had gone by since I’d spoken to Margo. It was time for me to have my talk with her.
But as I headed up the stairs, Mallory and her mom walked in the front door. “Hi. What did the doctor say?” I asked.
“That I’m okay,” Mallory told me as she unzipped her jacket.
“Then why are you so tired?” I asked.
“She thinks Mal’s rundown and might be riding out a virus,” Mrs. Pike said. “She also thinks she might be a little anemic.”
“She gave me these iron pills to take to make my blood redder or something like that,” Mal said, holding up a small white bottle. “And she said to get some extra rest, eat healthy food, and do stuff like that.”
“Great!” I sai
d. “Boy, I’m glad it’s nothing super serious.”
“Well, she took some blood tests just to be sure, but she doesn’t think I have anything to worry about,” Mal said.
“Was everything all right?” Mrs. Pike asked me.
“Fine,” I replied. “Wendy is downstairs with the boys, and everything is quiet with the girls upstairs.”
“Terrific. Thank you, Jessi,” said Mrs. Pike. She went into the kitchen, leaving Mal and me alone.
“I told you Wendy would come,” said Mallory.
“Yeah,” I replied absently, wondering how much I should tell her about Wendy’s excuse for being late. I was also wondering if the time had come to talk to Mallory about Margo.
I had some serious thinking to do that night.
The next day, Mal wasn’t in school, so I stopped by her house afterward to see how she was feeling. Her condition was about the same, but her mood was a lot better. Seeing the doctor had made her feel sunnier about things.
“At least now I can relax and just rest because the doctor told me to,” she said as she stretched out on her bed. “Before this I kept feeling like I should force myself to do things since I wasn’t really sick.”
We talked about Dawn’s video and wondered how Dawn would feel when she got it. “Maybe it will make her homesick,” said Mal.
“I hope not,” I gasped.
“I hope so,” Mallory disagreed. “Then maybe she’ll come home sooner. It doesn’t feel right without her around.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. At meetings I kept waiting for Dawn to speak up and give her opinion. I missed the way she could be so passionate about the things she thought were right. It was as if there were an empty space where she used to be and I wanted that empty space filled.
If Dawn were here, I might have asked her what she would do about Margo’s shoplifting. But that wouldn’t have been necessary. I already knew what she would do.
“Mal,” I said. “I need to talk to you about something serious.”
“What?”
“Has Margo mentioned anything to you or your parents about her … um … shoplifting?”
“Her what?!” Mallory cried out with more energy than I’d seen in days.
“Her shoplifting,” I repeated. “I saw her take a ring from Pembroke’s the other day.”