Keeping Secrets

  “You know she sometimes has to work on Saturday.”

  “But why?”

  “She has a very big job at Three Oaks.”

  “Three Oaks is where the old people live.”

  Nikki nodded.

  “Do we know anybody there?”

  “Anybody who lives there? Well, I do, but I don’t think you know them.”

  “Who?”

  “Mr. and Mrs. Willet, who used to live in the Row Houses with Flora and Ruby and Olivia.”

  “Nope,” said Mae. “Don’t know them.”

  Nikki smiled. The previous Christmas, Mr. Willet had played Santa Claus and had visited the Shermans’ house in his red suit and white beard. Mae had sincerely believed he was the real Santa.

  “Well, they’re very nice,” said Nikki now. “But Mrs. Willet is having some trouble with her memory and she needs extra care, so Mr. Willet decided they should move to Three Oaks.”

  “Oh. Nikki?”

  “Yeah?”

  “So why is Mommy working today?”

  “It’s just part of her job. She runs the dining room there. And the dining room is very, very big. Even bigger than your school cafeteria. She has to arrange seating, and she oversees the staff — all the waiters and everyone. And today I think they’re having a special event, which Mom is in charge of.”

  “Is she like a general?”

  “More like a boss.”

  “Mommy is a boss?”

  “Yup. But she has a boss, too.”

  “When I grow up, I’m going to be a veterinarian or else a queen.”

  “How about a songwriter?”

  “I could be a queen and a songwriter.”

  “You could be a vet and a songwriter, too. I think you have a better shot at being a vet than a queen, by the way.”

  “Miss Drew says we can be anything we want. We just have to work for it.”

  “Yes, well … you do know that there are some things you really can’t be, don’t you?”

  Mae frowned. “Like what?”

  “Like a king.”

  “Why can’t I be a king?”

  “Because you aren’t a boy.”

  “That’s why I’m going to be a queen!” Mae exclaimed, exasperated.

  Nikki sensed trouble. “You know what we should do today?” she said quickly.

  “What,” Mae replied flatly, staring at the dirt beneath her feet.

  “Make Paw-Paw’s costume for the dog parade. The parade is on Friday. That’s in less than a week.”

  Mae gasped. “Really?”

  “Yup. So have you been thinking about his costume?”

  “Yes, but I can’t decide on one.”

  “What are your choices?”

  “Is it all up to me?”

  “Within reason.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means, I don’t care what the costume is as long as we can actually make it. Don’t choose something that’s not possible.”

  “Miss Drew says anything is possible.”

  Nikki heaved a sigh. “Look, it has to be within our means. We have to be able to make it or buy the supplies for it in six days, understood? And I don’t have a lot of money, plus today Mom’s not here, so we can’t go into town to buy anything, anyway.”

  Mae nodded. “Okay. Well, I want Paw-Paw to be a princess.”

  “No kidding? Wouldn’t it be more fun to dress him as, oh, a prince?”

  “Miss Drew says —”

  “Okay, okay. A princess. That’s one good suggestion. What are the others?”

  “I have to remember.” Mae smoothed the fur on Paw-Paw’s neck and said, “Wouldn’t it be great if Paw-Paw had a mane? Then we could braid it.”

  Nikki didn’t answer, fearing Mae would want to dress Paw-Paw as a horse, which she thought would be difficult.

  “Well, how about a ghost?” Mae suggested after a moment. “That was one idea.”

  “Hmm. A ghost. All right. Let me start making a list.”

  By the time Mae ran out of ideas, the list included princess, ghost, angel, doctor, waitress, pirate, unicorn, and lion.

  “Which one is your favorite?” Nikki asked her little sister.

  Mae shrugged. “Which one is yours?”

  Nikki carefully chose the one she thought would be the most difficult to make. “Lion,” she replied.

  “Okay. Let’s make him a pirate.”

  “Good choice! All right. What does a pirate need?”

  “An eye patch,” Mae replied instantly. “A belt with a sword. Black clothes, I think. Some big jewelry. A bag of doubloons. Red-and-white-striped stockings. Oh, oh! And a parrot to sit on his shoulder, and we can use my stuffed parrot! We’ll stick it to his shirt. And could we fasten a tape recorder to him?”

  “Excuse me?” said Nikki. “A tape recorder?”

  “So he can go ‘Arghh, matey’ as he walks along. We’ll tape me saying it. Plus some other pirate things, like ‘Walk the plank!’”

  “Well.” Nikki cleared her throat. “Let’s start with the clothes. How are we going to get pants on him?” She eyed Paw-Paw, who was now looking at her nervously, as if he had just realized what was in store for him. His eyes had grown huge, and he was backing away slowly.

  “Hmm,” said Mae. “Maybe we could use a pair of my pajama bottoms. I don’t have any black ones, but I guess that’s okay. We could cut a hole in the back for his tail and just kind of slide them up and over his rump and then pull the drawstring around his waist. Do you think that would work?”

  “Maybe,” replied Nikki dubiously.

  The girls set to work. They found a belt for Paw-Paw’s middle and attached a bag to it labeled PIRATE’S TREASURE. (They filled the bag with pebbles.) They found an old pair of red-and-white-striped tights belonging to Mae. They were working on a pirate hat when Mae glanced down their lane and announced, “Mail’s here! Let’s go get the mail.”

  So they walked down the lane with Paw-Paw, and Mae proudly withdrew a handful of envelopes from the box. “Maybe there’s a letter from Tobias,” she said hopefully.

  There wasn’t. But there was an envelope with a return address Nikki recognized. “Oh, no,” she said.

  “What is it?” asked Mae.

  “Something from Dad.”

  Mae said nothing.

  Nikki studied the envelope and said, “It’s addressed to The Shermans, so I guess I can open it. We don’t have to wait for Mom.” She slit the flap with her fingernail.

  “Hey! Money!” said Mae, eyes wide, as she looked at the fistful of bills Nikki withdrew.

  “Yeah,” said Nikki.

  “What’s the matter? It’s money. Isn’t that good?”

  “I guess. And there’s no letter. That’s even better.”

  “Come on,” said Mae. “This is supposed to be a happy day. Hey, I know! We can make Paw-Paw’s sword out of tinfoil. This is going to be so cool.”

  “Good idea,” said Nikki, but Mae saw that her sister’s eyes weren’t smiling.

  The clanking that awakened Flora Northrop on the Saturday before Halloween sounded unlike the clanking of the highly annoying garbage trucks that rattled down Aiken Avenue very early in the morning. Flora sat up and scratched her head. Why did garbage trucks have to come around so early? she asked herself crabbily. Then she remembered that this was Saturday and the garbage trucks didn’t come on Saturday, and anyway, as she had noted even in her sleep, the clanking somehow didn’t sound like garbage-truck clanking.

  Clank, she heard from below. Then crash.

  Nope. Definitely not a garbage truck.

  “Yo! Careful! Watch the side, watch the side, watch the side!”

  “What on earth?” said Flora aloud, realizing that she sounded exactly like Min.

  She got out of bed, raised her blinds, and peered out the window. In the street below, parked in front of the Willets’ house, was a moving van so enormous that it was also parked in front of the Morrises’ house and the Malones’.
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  Two muscular men had opened the back of the truck, which, fortunately for Flora, was facing in her direction so that she had a view of its contents. The men had set up a metal ramp leading from the open doors to the street several feet below. This, Flora thought, accounted for the clanking she had heard. The men were now hauling a couch down the ramp, the back of it apparently too close to the door frame. One of the men continued to shout, “Watch the side!”

  “O-kay!” the other one exclaimed. “O-kay!”

  Flora dashed to her door, across the hallway, and into Ruby’s room. “Get up! Get up!” she said, shaking her sister’s shoulder.

  Ruby was sprawled in a tangle consisting not only of her bedclothes but also of the costume she had worn to her last dance class, the outfits she had worn to school the past three days, and a raincoat. King Comma emerged from under the tutu and mewed.

  “You’re waking up King Comma,” muttered Ruby.

  “I’m trying to wake up you,” said Flora.

  “It’s Saturday.” Ruby tucked her head under the pillow.

  “I know. But I think you’ll be interested to know that our new neighbors have arrived.”

  “I can’t hear you,” mumbled Ruby.

  Flora lifted a corner of the pillow. “The new neighbors are here!” she said loudly.

  Ruby sat up. “What? Really?”

  “Yes! Come on!”

  Flora and Ruby dressed in a flash.

  “What time is it, anyway?” called Ruby, who was hopping on one foot, putting on her sock, and looking for her watch at the same time.

  “Seven-thirty!” Flora called back.

  “Is Min even up yet?”

  “I don’t know. Does it matter? Come on!”

  Flora and Ruby clattered down the stairs, calling good morning to Min, who, it turned out, was in the kitchen, making coffee.

  “Where are you going?” Min called back.

  “To watch the new people move in. Their van’s here!” said Flora.

  “Find out their names,” said Min. “They might not want to be referred to as ‘the new people.’”

  “Okay!” said Flora.

  “Bye!” said Ruby.

  “Take Daisy with you. She needs to go out!” called Min, but the door had already slammed behind her granddaughters.

  Flora and Ruby stood on their stoop and tried to see into the depths of the van.

  “Mattresses,” said Ruby.

  “A ton of boxes,” said Flora.

  “I don’t see anything interesting.”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh,” said Ruby, “you know, a unicycle or a trampoline. Or a crystal ball!”

  “Excuse me?” said Flora.

  “A crystal ball. They could be wizards.”

  “I thought you wanted sextuplets.”

  “Wizards would be even better.”

  The girls stared at the van a few moments longer.

  “I don’t see any people,” said Ruby eventually. “I mean, only the movers. Where’s the family?”

  “I don’t know. Gosh, I bet Olivia would like to know what’s going on. Do you think it’s too early to ring her doorbell?”

  “Let’s throw pebbles at her window,” said Ruby.

  But that wasn’t necessary. Olivia appeared on her front stoop, barefoot, wearing a flannel bathrobe.

  “They’re here!” Flora called.

  “I know!”

  “Well, come over so we can watch together.”

  “Like this?” cried Olivia.

  “Of course not. Go get dressed.”

  “But hurry!” said Ruby.

  Ten minutes later, Olivia had joined Flora and Ruby. The girls sat in a line on the stoop and watched the movers.

  “I see a pink armchair,” said Ruby. “That’s nice. It must be for a girl.”

  “It could be for a living room,” said Olivia.

  “Or for a guy who likes pink,” said Flora.

  “There’s a dresser,” Ruby went on. “That must be for a boy. It’s blue and it has baseballs and airplanes on it.”

  “A girl can’t like baseballs and airplanes?” asked Flora.

  “Oh, come on. I’m trying to figure out who’s moving in. I’m trying to make obvious guesses.”

  “It’s interesting to see what isn’t in the van,” remarked Olivia.

  “What do you mean?” said Ruby.

  “Well, no baby furniture.”

  “And no six of anything, so no sixtuplets,” said Ruby. “Darn.”

  “I don’t see any wizard equipment, either,” said Flora, and Ruby poked her.

  “Hey, now that some of the furniture’s been taken off the truck, I can see what’s written on the boxes,” said Olivia, squinting. “Dishes.”

  “Boring,” said Ruby.

  “Linens.”

  “Boring.”

  “Winter coats.”

  “Boring.”

  Flora took her eyes from the van long enough to look up and down the street. From other stoops, from shadowed porches, through curtained windows, the people of Aiken Avenue kept watch on the second Row House from the left.

  “When are the people going to get here?” asked Ruby finally. “I’m tired of guessing about them. I want to see them.”

  And at that very moment, a car drove slowly down Aiken and parked behind the van, leaving just enough room for the movers to continue their work.

  Flora nudged Olivia and Ruby. “That must be them,” she whispered.

  The girls watched as all four doors of the car opened and out stepped a man, a woman, a girl about Flora’s age, a boy of seven or eight, and …

  “A dog!” exclaimed Olivia. “They have a dog.” She paused. “I want a dog.”

  “We know,” said Flora.

  “Now Daisy Dear will have more dog company,” said Ruby, staring. “Gosh, it’s kind of a funny dog. It looks like a black-and-white Lab on dachshund legs.”

  The people who had been in the car now stood on the sidewalk and stretched. The girl reached back inside for a leash, which she clipped onto the dog’s collar. The man spoke with the movers. (Flora tried to hear what they were saying, but she was too far away.) The woman gazed back and forth between the van and the Willets’ front door. She tapped her chin with the palm of her hand. She walked three steps along the Willets’ front walk, then three steps back, three steps forward, three steps back.

  “What’s she doing?” hissed Ruby.

  “Gosh, I don’t know,” replied Flora, mystified.

  Ruby’s eyes widened. “Maybe they are wizards.”

  “Oh, they are not,” said Olivia.

  The girl bent over and spoke to the boy and they headed down Aiken, the dog jauntily leading the way.

  “Let’s go say hi,” said Olivia. “Should we?”

  “Okay,” said Flora, but she suddenly felt shy.

  Ruby was already running to the sidewalk. “Hi!” she called.

  The girl and the boy turned toward her. “Hi,” the girl replied cautiously.

  Behind Flora, Min opened the door of the Row House long enough to let Daisy out. “Keep an eye on her,” she called to Flora. “I have to get ready to go to the store.”

  In a flash, Daisy made a joyful beeline for the new dog, who reacted by leaping into the arms of the girl and yipping shrilly.

  “Sorry! I’m sorry!” cried Flora.

  “It’s okay. Bessie’s a big scaredy-cat,” said the girl. Daisy stood on her hind legs, sniffing excitedly.

  “So,” said Ruby finally. “You’re the new peo — I mean, you’re moving into the Willets’ — um …”

  “What she means,” said Flora, “is that you must be our new neighbors, and we’re really glad you’re moving in. I’m Flora and this is my sister, Ruby. We live here.” She pointed over her shoulder. “And this is Olivia. She lives right there.”

  The girl smiled. “My name is Willow, and this is my brother, Cole.”

  Cole waved solemnly but said nothing.

&n
bsp; “You’re going to like it here,” Olivia said to Cole. “There are a whole bunch of boys your age in the Row Houses.”

  “Is that what these houses are called?” said Willow. “The Row Houses?”

  Olivia nodded.

  “Are there really a lot of boys here?” asked Cole in a whisper.

  “Four,” Ruby told him. “Two down there at the end, next to you. That’s the Morrises’ house. And Olivia has two brothers.”

  Flora realized that Willow was still holding Bessie in her arms. “Here,” she said, corralling Daisy. “Let me take her back inside. This is Daisy, by the way. Do you guys have to help your parents or can you stay here for a while?”

  “My brothers will be out in a minute,” added Olivia, turning to Cole. “You could meet them.”

  “I think we can stay,” replied Willow, “but I’d better tell Mom what we’re doing.”

  Five minutes later, Willow, free of Bessie (who had been taken to her new backyard), was sitting on the stoop with Flora, Olivia, and Ruby. Cole was standing in the yard next door with Henry, Jack, Travis, and Mathias.

  “So where did you move from?” Ruby asked Willow. She glanced at Flora. “If that isn’t too nosy.”

  Willow smiled. “It isn’t nosy. We lived in New Hampshire. And we moved because my dad’s job changed. It happened kind of suddenly. My mom, um, doesn’t work,” she added.

  Flora regarded Willow, who actually looked, she decided, something like a willow tree. She was tall — taller than Flora — and slender with long hair that rippled down her back.

  “What grade are you in?” asked Olivia.

  “Seventh. I’ll be going to …” Willow paused. “… to Camden Falls Central High School?”

  “That’s where we go!” said Flora. “I mean, where Olivia and I go. We’re in seventh grade, too. Ruby’s in fifth. She goes to the elementary school.”

  “I guess that’s where Cole will go. He’s in third grade.”

  “You can walk to school with us on Monday,” offered Olivia.

  “And when we get there, you can meet our other friend, Nikki,” said Flora. “She doesn’t live in the Row Houses.”

  “Thanks,” said Willow. “What’s the central high school like? Is it really a high school?”

  “Yes and no,” replied Olivia. “It’s for grades seven through twelve, but the seventh- and eighth-graders spend most of their time in a separate wing. We don’t have classes with the high school kids. But we all use the same cafeteria and gym and stuff.”