Willow nodded. Then she glanced at Flora’s front door. “Does your grandmother live with you?” she asked.
Flora smiled. “We live with her.”
There was a lot to tell Willow, and she had a lot of questions about Camden Falls and Main Street and the Row Houses. By lunchtime, Flora was hungry, and suddenly she got to her feet and said, “Hey! I have an idea. We should all walk into town and have lunch at College Pizza. Then Olivia and Ruby and I could show you Needle and Thread and Sincerely Yours —”
“Willow? Cole?”
At the sound of her mother’s voice, Willow jumped. “Uh-oh,” she said under her breath. She stood up as her mother crossed the Malones’ yard.
“Okay, time to come inside,” called Mrs. Hamilton.
Willow looked at Cole, who was chasing Henry Walter in a game of tag.
“Couldn’t we come later? Mom, these are my new friends, Olivia, Flo —”
“Time for lunch!” Mrs. Hamilton said again, this time more firmly.
“Mom —”
Mrs. Hamilton marched into Olivia’s yard. “Cole. Lunchtime!”
Cole hesitated.
Mrs. Hamilton grinned suddenly. “I’m Mary Poppins!” she exclaimed. “Spit-spot! Come along now!” Her smile faded and she added, “I mean it.”
“Bye,” said Willow as she and Cole followed their mother back to their new house.
“Whoa,” said Ruby when the Hamiltons had disappeared. “That is the weirdest mom in the universe.”
“Hey,” said Flora. “Look. Mrs. Hamilton’s in their house pulling all the shades down. It’s the middle of the day. Why’s she doing that?”
“It sort of feels like she wants to keep us out,” said Olivia.
“Or keep her family in,” replied Flora.
Olivia and Flora stood uncertainly on the sidewalk outside Willow Hamilton’s house.
“All the shades are still down,” said Olivia in a low voice.
“They’ve been like that since Mrs. Hamilton pulled them down on Saturday,” Flora whispered.
“Huh. Well, what do you think we should do? We told Willow we’d walk with her to school this morning. But if we wait any longer, we’ll be late.”
“We can’t leave without her. It’s her first day.”
“I guess we should go ring the bell,” said Olivia.
“I guess.”
The girls remained rooted to the sidewalk.
“I say we just leave,” Olivia said finally. “We’ll tell Willow —”
“Girls! Oh, girls!” Mrs. Hamilton opened the front door and waved to Olivia and Flora with a white handkerchief, as if she were at the prow of a steamer. “Are you the girls who are going to walk to school with my daughter? Well, never fear, Willow’s here!”
Mrs. Hamilton stepped aside, and Willow emerged. She paused long enough to give her mother a brief hug, then ran to the sidewalk. “Hi!” she said. “Thank you for waiting.”
Olivia glanced over her shoulder and saw Mrs. Hamilton tap several times on a large blue-and-white vase as she stepped inside the house. Then she touched her palm to her chin. “Willow,” said Olivia, “is your mother —”
“I’m really glad you waited,” said Willow in a rush. “Really glad. I wouldn’t have wanted to go to school all by myself on the first day.”
“Now Olivia and I can show you all the things we wanted to show you on Saturday,” Flora said. “We’ll walk right through town.”
By the time Olivia, Flora, and Willow reached Central, Willow had heard about Mary Woolsey, who worked in Needle and Thread, and Sonny Sutphin, who had a job in Time and Again, and crabby Mrs. Grindle, who ran Stuff ’n’ Nonsense. She had seen most of the stores and businesses on Main Street and knew that she wanted to try a scoop of Mr. Peanut ice cream at Dutch Haus.
Olivia thought Willow was nice, although Mr. Peanut was fifth on the list of ice cream flavors she wanted to try. She was about to say so when Flora announced, “Nikki’s bus is here.”
Nikki and Willow were introduced then, the girls hurried inside, and before Olivia knew it, the day was half over and it was time for lunch.
“We should ask Willow to sit at our table,” Olivia said as she stood behind Flora and Nikki in line in the cafeteria. But the girls couldn’t find her.
“Was she in any of your classes?” asked Flora.
“Nope,” said Olivia and Nikki. “Yours?”
“Just first period. I haven’t seen her since then.”
“Well, come on,” said Olivia. “Maybe she’ll find us.”
They paid for their lunches and Olivia led the way to the table where they now regularly ate with Claudette Tisch, Mary Louise Detwiler, and Jacob, along with several others, kids who came and went. On the way, she squeezed by a table so crowded that extra chairs had been pulled up to it and even so, those chairs were filled and more kids were standing behind them, everyone talking and laughing. Olivia noted with a sense of mean pleasure that while Melody and Tanya were part of the group, eating sandwiches and calling merrily to someone across the table, they were among the kids standing up, the ones for whom chairs were not reserved, no longer the center of attention. And, Olivia thought, they looked as if they were working very hard to put on a show of having fun, a great deal of fun.
“Hey!” called Jacob as Olivia, Flora, and Nikki finally reached their own table. Olivia slid into the empty seat next to Jacob, the seat she suspected he had been saving for her.
Olivia smiled. “Hi.” She looked at the array of food on her tray and raised a tuna sandwich to her mouth. She lowered it. Jacob’s eyes were on her. “What?” she said, turning to him.
Jacob’s pale face suddenly burned a bright red, a flush that began at his neck and crept upward. “Um, nothing.”
Olivia returned to her sandwich. She could still feel Jacob watching her, a physical sensation as real as if he had tapped her on the shoulder. “What?” she said again, replacing the sandwich on her plate.
Jacob opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it and said, “Could I talk to you for a minute?”
“Sure.”
“I mean in private.”
“Oh.” Olivia could think of nothing further to say.
Jacob got to his feet. He looked around the packed cafeteria. “Come on.”
Olivia glanced at Nikki and Flora, shrugged, abandoned her lunch, and followed Jacob to a corner of the room where miraculously one entire table was empty. She started to sit down but saw that Jacob was leaning against the wall, so she leaned against it, too, palms flat behind her, trying to appear nonchalant. “Jacob?” she said.
“Um, yes. Well.”
Olivia hesitated. “Did you want to ask me something?” Her palms were growing sweaty against the wall.
“Yes.” Jacob was then silent for so long that Olivia looked in desperation across the room to her table, where, she now saw, Nikki and Flora were craning their necks, trying to get a good view of her and Jacob.
“Jacob?”
“Okay. Here’s the thing,” he said at last. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Halloween dance with me. If you don’t want to,” he rushed on, “it’s okay. I understand. But I’d really like to go with you. I mean, I’d like you to go with me. Or for us to go together. Whatever. So will you? I mean, will you come with me?”
Olivia’s mouth had parted slightly and she found herself unable either to close it or to open it the rest of the way. Was Jacob asking her on a date? Did a dance count as a date? Well, of course it did, she told herself. Why wouldn’t a dance count as a date? Then another thought occurred to her: Should she consult with Flora and Nikki before giving Jacob an answer? For that matter, should she ask her parents for permission?
Next to her, Jacob slumped against the wall. “Like I said, if you don’t want to go —”
“No!” exclaimed Olivia, recovering. “No, it isn’t that I don’t want to go.” She paused, realizing that she had to give Jacob an answer. “I do want to go,” she said. ?
??I mean, yes, I’ll go to the dance with you.”
“You will?”
Olivia nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Olivia had the feeling that Jacob wanted to jump up and down and shout “Wah-hoo!” — which is exactly what she wanted to do. Instead, he pushed himself away from the wall and strode back to their table.
Olivia followed him. Nikki’s and Flora’s eyes were boring into her as she approached their table, but they had the good sense not to ask what had happened. Which meant that they had to wait until after school to get the story.
The second they met at Olivia’s locker, Nikki said, “Okay. Tell us right now! We can’t wait a moment longer.”
“Jacob asked me to go to the Halloween dance with him.”
“No!” Nikki punched Olivia in the arm. “For real?”
Olivia grinned. “Yup.”
“Hey, that’s … that’s great,” said Flora quietly.
“Yeah, it really is!” exclaimed Nikki.
Olivia bounced through the hallways, followed by a jubilant Nikki and a somewhat plodding Flora.
“Do you think we should wait for Willow?” asked Flora as they approached the door.
“Did you guys make plans with her?” said Nikki.
“Not really.”
“Then let’s just go. I want to hear more about Jacob.”
“You’re coming with us?” Flora asked Nikki.
“Yup. Mom can pick me up later.”
“There really isn’t anything else to tell,” said Olivia as they crossed the lawn and headed for Main Street. “I mean, that was it. Jacob just asked me if I’d go with him.”
“And you said yes.”
Olivia nodded. “Hey!” she exclaimed suddenly, looking alarmed. “You guys are going to go to the dance, too, aren’t you? I don’t want to go without you.”
“Of course we’re going,” replied Nikki.
“Wow. That means no trick-or-treating,” said Flora.
“I thought you didn’t want to go trick-or-treating,” said Olivia.
“I hadn’t one hundred percent made up my mind. It’s a little sad to think that last year was our last year of trick-or-treating on Main Street.”
“It doesn’t have to be your last year ever,” said Nikki. “Look at all the adults who still go.”
“But it isn’t the same. You know it isn’t.”
“Well, gosh, if you guys don’t go to the dance —” Olivia started to say.
“I didn’t say we weren’t going to go. I just said not trick-or-treating would be sad.” Flora kicked at a pebble.
Olivia stepped on it. “Somehow I thought you’d be more excited about my news.”
Flora shook her head. “It’s funny. The other thing I kind of wanted to do on Halloween was to stay at home and hand out candy. It seemed so grown-up. Why can’t I make up my mind?”
Olivia felt like saying, “Why can’t you just be happy for me?” but she had the sense to say nothing at all.
“Just out of curiosity, why do you want Nikki and me to go to the dance with you?”
“Are you kidding?!” exclaimed Olivia. “Why do I want you to go? I want you to go because even with Jacob I’m going to be a target for Melody and Tanya. Like a great big bull’s-eye. There might as well be an arrow pointing to my head, too. And a sign reading KICK ME.”
“Okay, okay,” said Flora.
“So you want us to be, like, your bodyguards?” asked Nikki.
Olivia laughed. “Not exactly. I just want you to be there.”
“It’s going to be fun,” said Nikki.
Flora remembered her excitement when she had first seen the sign announcing the dance. “It is going to be fun,” she said at last. And she set aside the unsettling thought that she was jealous because Olivia had a date.
There was something strange about the Hamiltons. No, not about all the Hamiltons, Flora corrected herself. Just about Mrs. Hamilton. There was definitely something strange, very strange, about Mrs. Hamilton.
Willow was nice. And Cole was nice, although he was shy, but Flora certainly couldn’t fault anyone for being shy. Mr. Hamilton seemed nice enough, too, but busy at his job, so Flora hadn’t seen him more than two or three times. Mrs. Hamilton, on the other hand …
“Goodness me,” said Min on Monday evening when Flora told her how Willow’s mother had stood at the front door and waved to her and Olivia with a handkerchief. “Although really, when you think about it — waving with a hankie. It isn’t as though she was running up and down Aiken Avenue in a gorilla suit.”
“No,” said Flora slowly.
“Still,” said Ruby.
“What is it, girls?” asked Min.
Ruby shrugged. “It’s hard to explain. She laughs when you wouldn’t expect her to.”
“And she makes jokes that only she thinks are funny,” said Flora. “I feel a little creepy when I’m around her.”
“It’s hard to explain,” said Ruby again.
“Maybe she’s shy,” suggested Min.
“Maybe,” Flora agreed. “Cole’s shy.”
Flora, Ruby, and Min were sitting at the kitchen table, eating a late supper. A silence followed Flora’s last comment that was so long that Ruby deliberately broke it with a harsh belch that startled Daisy Dear and caused her to go skidding out of the kitchen.
“Ruby!” exclaimed Min.
“I thought we needed a little comedy relief.”
“Comic relief,” Min corrected her. “Maybe we do.”
Min looked troubled. Flora saw an expression on her face that she saw again the next day on Mrs. Morris’s face when Travis, trying bravely not to cry, came home complaining that Cole’s mother had scared him when he and Cole were playing hide-and-seek.
“What did she do?” asked Mrs. Morris.
“She jumped out of a closet and shouted BOO!”
Flora almost laughed, then realized how troubled she would have been if an adult — one she didn’t know well — had done that to her at Travis’s age.
Mrs. Morris frowned at the house next door before leading Travis inside, her arm around his shoulders.
Early on Wednesday morning — so early that the streetlights were still ablaze — the telephone rang at Flora’s house. She heard it faintly, ringing twice in Min’s room before it stopped. Flora could imagine her grandmother answering it sleepily but trying to sound alert. A phone call at that hour couldn’t be good news, thought Flora. But when a few minutes passed and she heard nothing further from Min’s room, she decided it had been a wrong number and fell soundly asleep, waking again only when her alarm went off.
“Who called?” was the first thing Ruby said at the breakfast table that morning.
“Good morning, Min dear,” was Min’s reply.
“Good morning, Min dear,” said Ruby obediently. Then she added, “Good morning, Flora dear. Good morning, King Comma dear. Good morning, Daisy Dear dear.” She looked quite satisfied with herself.
“Lord above,” murmured Min.
“So who called?” asked Ruby. “I heard the phone ring at, like, three o’clock.”
“Well, it was five o’clock,” replied Min. “But still.” She hesitated, spending a long time buttering a piece of toast. “The caller was Mrs. Hamilton,” she said finally.
“What was wrong?” asked Flora. “Are they okay?”
“They’re fine.” Min frowned. “I don’t think Mrs. Hamilton had any idea what time it was. She said she was calling to thank me for the cake I brought over on Sunday.”
“She was thanking you at five in the morning?” said Ruby.
“I know.” Min shook her head. “She sounded awfully confused. Or nervous. It was hard to tell. Then she started talking about a particular kind of cake her mother used to make, and then she wanted to know what grocery store we go to. I was about to ask her if we could talk later in the morning when she suddenly said she had to hang up — and she did. Hang up, I mean.”
&
nbsp; “Huh,” said Flora.
“Wacko,” said Ruby.
“Ruby,” said Min.
“Sorry,” said Ruby. She leaned under the table to sneak a bite of toast to Daisy. “But she is,” she muttered.
That afternoon, a gray day that felt more like November than October, Flora walked home from school with Willow. Above them, seven geese honked noisily as they flew over Main Street.
Willow shivered and fastened the top button on her coat. She glanced up. “Those geese are lazy,” she said. “They didn’t even bother to make a V. It’s more like an L.” She paused to read a sign in the window of Time and Again. “Dog parade? What’s a dog parade?” she asked.
Flora smiled. “That was Nikki’s idea. It’s a Halloween parade for dogs. It’s a fund-raiser for the animal shelter. Hey! You guys should enter Bessie. There’s still time.”
“Maybe,” said Willow. “So let me get this straight. Your grandmother and Olivia’s grandmother own the sewing store, right?”
“Right,” said Flora.
“And Olivia’s parents own — what’s it called? Yours Truly?”
“Sincerely Yours. It’s right back there. Olivia’s helping out this afternoon. That’s why she didn’t walk home with us.”
The girls turned the corner onto Dodds Lane.
“Anyway, we’re entering Daisy in the parade,” said Flora. “Ruby and I. We’re going to dress her as a daisy.”
“Did you know that Cole does sixth-grade math and he’s only in third grade?”
“I — well, no, I didn’t know that.” Flora eyed Willow.
“Yup. He’s really amazing. Is this where we turn?”
Flora nodded. Ahead were the Row Houses. She liked this view of them, from back at the corner, where she could see the rows of everything — the sixteen third-floor windows, the sixteen second-floor windows, the eight front doors, the eight front stoops, the eight yards, one after another. She noticed now that the Hamiltons’ door was open and Willow’s mother was standing on their stoop.
“Your mom’s waiting,” said Flora, glancing at Willow.