Peter stuffed the last bite of pizza into his mouth and said, “Why are we mad at the girls? I thought we were friends now. I thought that after you and Eddie won the baseball championship, you were going to get along better, Jake.”
The three older boys studied their brother.
“Who said we’re mad at anybody?” asked Jake. “It’s just time we started doing our own thing. If the Bensons move back this summer, we can’t always be doing stuff with the girls, like bottle races down the river. They better get used to entertaining themselves, ’cause we’ve got a lot of catching up to do with the guys.”
“Right. The girls have to learn to get along without us,” said Josh.
Wally waited. He felt sure he knew what was coming next. He was positive he knew what Jake would say. Because where the Malloy girls were concerned, Jake always said the same sort of thing.
“Let’s see who can earn the money first, them or us,” said Jake.
“No fair!” said Josh. “There are only three of them and four of us. We should count Peter out.”
“Are you kidding?” said Jake. “All Peter has to do is stand outside a grocery store looking angelic, and people will be giving him money right and left.”
“Put a halo around his head and people will be standing in line to ante up,” said Wally.
They slugged down the last of the orange juice and sat back in their chairs, wiping their mouths on their sleeves.
“It’ll be nice to have the Bensons back in their house again and the Malloys gone to Ohio,” said Jake.
Peter tipped his glass back so far that it covered his nose. When the last drop of juice had trickled into his mouth, he put the glass on the table and said, “What if the Bensons come back and the girls decide to stay?”
Wally looked at Josh and Josh looked at Jake.
“That can’t happen,” said Jake, “because if Coach Benson comes back, he’ll be coach of the college football team again, and Mr. Malloy will be out of a job.”
“Oh,” said Peter. The kitchen was quiet for a moment. “But what if Coach Benson doesn’t want his old job back? What if he wants to do something else?”
“It doesn’t matter what job he takes, Peter,” Josh explained. “If the Bensons come back, they’ll want their house back. And even if the Malloys stay, they’ll have to move somewhere else.”
“Yeah,” said Jake, beginning to smile. “We won’t have to see them crossing the footbridge every morning.”
“We won’t be walking with them to school,” said Wally.
“We won’t be wondering if they’re looking at us from across the river with their dad’s binoculars, trying to see us in our underwear,” said Josh.
“If they decide to stay in Buckman, they’ll probably move clear across town,” said Jake.
“Out in the country, even,” said Josh. “It’ll be like old times again. Just us and the Bensons. We won’t even know the Malloys are around.”
“If the Bensons come back, of course,” Jake said.
To Wally, it seemed as though the summer were one gigantic if.
Three
Bigger Plans
“So how are we going to raise money?” Beth asked her sisters after they’d crossed the bridge and started up the grassy hill to the house the Malloys were renting from the Bensons. “I think I’ll bake cookies and sell them.”
“I’d rather do something more physical—scrub porches or something,” said Eddie. “What are you going to do, Caroline?”
“I,” said Caroline, who had been thinking about it all day, “am going to perform at birthday parties.”
“You what?” asked Eddie.
“I’m going to wear costumes and act out fairy tales at little children’s birthday parties. I’ll wear a red cape for Little Red Riding Hood, a curly wig for Goldilocks, a snout for the Three Little Pigs—stuff like that. I’ll be doing a service to the community and getting my name known around Buckman at the same time.”
“How generous of you, Caroline!” said Eddie dryly. “But you’d better get a move on it. How many birthdays can there be in the next three weeks?”
They walked across the clearing toward the back door. “And we’re not going to get stuck doing any projects with the Hatfords, right?” Eddie continued. “We’d end up doing all the work and they’d collect the money in their name.”
“Don’t worry,” said Caroline. “I don’t want any Hatfords messing up my act.”
“Besides,” said Beth, “we’ve got to start doing things with girls again, because if we go back to Ohio, most of our friends there are girls. Do you realize we’ve spent practically this whole year just hanging out with the Hatfords?”
Mrs. Malloy came downstairs carrying a basket of clothes for the laundry.
“Mom,” Beth asked, “when is Dad going to make up his mind whether we’re going back to Ohio or not?”
“If we are, he has to be back by August first to start football practice,” her mother said, setting the basket on the table to rest her arm. “But you don’t know your father.”
“Well, if he’s not our father, who is?” Eddie joked.
“What I mean is, he’s tempted by every new offer that comes along. You’ll never guess the latest!"
“What?” asked Caroline.
“Your dad got an offer to coach the Buckman High School football team.”
“High school?” said Eddie. “Why would he want to give up being a coach for a college team to coach high school?”
“He says there’s less pressure, less stress, and he just may like working with high school students for a change,” her mother answered.
“But if we stay and the Bensons come back, we’ll have to give up this house! We’ll have to move somewhere else!” said Caroline.
“Exactly,” said Mrs. Malloy. “Coach Benson will take over your dad’s job again, your dad will start coaching the high school team, and I’ll have to begin thinking of another house to rent until we’re sure this is what your father really wants.”
“But…but I like this house!” said Caroline. “If we stay in Buckman, I don’t want to live anywhere else.”
“Well, sweetie, I don’t think you have much choice,” said her mother.
“Do you want to go back to Ohio, Mom?” asked Beth.
“Part of me does and part of me doesn’t,” Mrs. Malloy said. “I miss some of my friends, but I’ve made some new ones here.” She picked up the laundry basket again. “If we stay, we’ll make it work, that’s all. If we go back, well… that will be nice too.” And she went on down the basement steps.
Beth sat at the kitchen table, her chin in her hands. “This is the pits,” she said. “If we stay in Buckman, we can’t stay in this house! We’ll have to move clear across town, I’ll bet, away from the river.”
“Away from the Hatfords, you mean,” said Eddie. “What’s the matter? Going to miss Josh? I thought we wanted to get as far away from them as possible.”
“Yeah,” said Caroline wistfully. “Weird how guys who can be so much trouble can be so much fun to tease.”
“I wonder what they really think of us,” said Beth. “If we do go back to Ohio, do you suppose they’d miss us?”
“In a pig’s eye,” said Eddie. “The minute our car’s out of sight, they’ll throw a party to celebrate. We’re the ones who ought to celebrate the minute we’re outside the city limits.”
The girls were quiet for a moment.
“Yeah, but we never had the fun of decorating boys’ bedrooms with ruffles and lace,” said Beth.
“We never sang a siren song through a trapdoor in a boy’s roof, either,” said Caroline. “We never had the fun of hiding a little boy in our house away from his brothers….”
More silence.
“You talk as though we might actually miss the Hatfords!” said Eddie.
“Ha!” said Beth.
“Never!” said Caroline.
Caroline went upstairs and carefully wrote out an advertiseme
nt on a large index card to pin up on the community bulletin board. She used four colors of felt-tipped pens: silver, copper, burgundy, and gold. She used three colors—red, yellow, and green—for the balloons she drew in each corner, and she placed a row of teddy bear stickers across the bottom.
Birthday Party Entertainment
Beautiful, talented girl will perform
for your child’s birthday party.
Fairy tales, singing, dancing, and more!!!
All donations to go to the
Buckman Hospital Building Fund
Call Caroline Malloy
She wrote their telephone number at the bottom of the card and went over every word to make sure she had spelled it correctly. She was an excellent speller. Then she went downstairs. “I’m going to the library, Mother,” she called.
“Be home in time for dinner,” Mrs. Malloy answered from the kitchen.
Caroline went out the front door and walked down the long driveway to the road. The afternoon sun was still well above the hills outside Buckman and was warm on the back of her neck. Passing the other houses along Island Avenue, she followed the road to the bridge that led into the business district. Halfway across the bridge, she stopped and rested her elbows on the guardrail, staring down at the swirling water.
Only two months before, she had fallen into that cold river and been swept along under this very bridge. Never mind that the water wasn’t so deep she couldn’t have touched bottom if she’d really tried. Never mind that she had caught hold of a floating branch and could have made her way to the bank.
She had gotten her name in the newspaper! When had anything like that happened to her back in Ohio? When had she ever gotten the chance to pretend she was dead and let her sisters slide her body into the water as if they were having a burial at sea? They had freaked out the Hatford boys, who had been spying on them from across the river that first day the Malloys had arrived. When had she ever done even half the exciting things she and her sisters had managed to do since they moved to West Virginia?
And—she had to admit it—it was all because of the Hatford boys. The boys had tried so hard to annoy the girls, hoping they would beg their father to move them back to Ohio, that the girls had decided to fight back.
The more the boys teased, the more the girls got even. The more the girls tried to get even, the more tricks the boys played on them. What on earth would they do for fun if they ever left this place?
At the library, Caroline went up to the desk and asked permission to pin an announcement on the bulletin board.
“May I see it first?” the librarian asked.
Caroline handed her the large index card.
“Why, what a nice idea, and what a thoughtful thing to do!” the librarian said after she had read it. “Of course you may pin it up, but I’m afraid that some of the parties might already have been planned. If I hear of any more birthdays coming along before the festival, though, I’ll suggest that people call you.”
“Thank you,” said Caroline, feeling so noble and generous and kind and wonderful that she removed three other announcements to make room for her own. She thumbtacked hers right in the center of the bulletin board and squeezed the others into the corners.
After she left the library, she had not gotten halfway back to the bridge when she heard someone call her name. She turned and saw Wally Hatford coming out of Oldakers’ Bookstore with a couple of comic books in his hand.
“Hey!” he yelled again, and that was a surprise, because it was usually Caroline who talked to Wally, not the other way around.
“Guess what?” he said, hurrying to catch up with her. “Have you heard the news?”
“What news?” Caroline asked.
“Dad just told us!” Wally said excitedly. “The Bensons are moving back to Buckman for real, and Coach Benson is going to take over his old job at the college again.”
“How wonderful,” Caroline said flatly.
Wally didn’t stop there, however. “You know what that means, don’t you?” he continued with a grin. “That means your dad won’t be coach there anymore, and you guys will have to move.”
He just wouldn’t stop grinning. You’d think it was Christmas or something and he’d just been handed a present, Caroline thought. “Well, you know what else?” she said, struggling to sound sweet. “My father has been offered the job of coaching the Buckman high school football team next year, so we just might decide to stay in Buckman. Now wouldn’t that be terrific!"
They had reached the road bridge, and Caroline started across. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Wally staring speechlessly after her before he turned and walked rapidly down College Avenue toward his house.
Four
Horse Manure
Wally marched up the front steps of the Hatford house and into the living room, his eyes as round as walnuts. His dad was still in his United States Postal Service uniform, reading the newspaper on the couch right where he had been when Wally left.
“Where’d you go? Out to tell the world that the Bensons are coming back?” his father asked, turning to the sports section.
“Only Caroline,” Wally said. “Where are Jake and Josh?”
“Upstairs, I imagine,” said his father.
“Is that you, Wally?” Mrs. Hatford called from the kitchen. “Wash up now. We’re about to eat.”
Wally bounded up the stairs two at a time and into the bedroom where Jake and Josh were sitting at their computer, playing a video game. The twins had the new computer, of course. The old one was in Wally’s room.
“Did you hear the news?” Wally panted.
Neither Jake nor Josh turned around. “Of course! The Bensons are coming back!” said Josh, still not taking his eyes off the game. “Dad already told us. You heard him.”
“I mean the bad news,” said Wally. “The Malloys might stay.”
The twins turned their heads at the same time, as though their necks were electronically controlled.
“What?” said Jake.
“How do you know?” asked Josh.
“Caroline just told me. I saw her as I was coming out of the bookstore. Mr. Malloy might coach the high school football team next year,” said Wally.
“No!” yelled Jake. “I wanted to go out for football when I got to high school. He’ll remember every trick we played on the girls and bench me every game, I’ll bet.”
“This means… they’ll stay in Buckman!” said Josh, stunned.
“Yep!” said Wally. “Forever, maybe! It means that Eddie and Beth and Caroline will grow up here and get married—maybe even marry our best friends—and have children who act just like them!"
“Dinner!” Mrs. Hatford called from downstairs.
Instead of the usual pounding of feet on the stairs, the three boys descended as though they were walking to a funeral. Peter had already washed his hands and had made it to the table before them.
Mrs. Hatford set the baked chicken and rice on the table with a bowl of creamed peas and onions.
“Ah, you know it’s summer when we get the first fresh peas of the season!” said Mr. Hatford.
“Well, not quite,” said his wife. “These came from the supermarket and were probably shipped in from somewhere else. But it won’t be long before we’ll be getting them from our own garden. Wally, would you start the asparagus around, please? Peter, help yourself to the bread.”
“Only nine more days of school!” Peter said as he buttered his slice. “And then—va-ca-tion! Aren’t you excited, Wally?”
“Yeah,” Wally said flatly.
Mr. Hatford looked amused. “You don’t sound excited. Are you going to miss your teacher over the summer?”
“No way!” said Wally.
“It’s just that every time something good happens, something bad always follows,” said Jake.
“Now, what in the world makes you think that?” asked his mother. “Sometimes something good happens and then something even better happens after that.” r />
“Ha!” said Josh.
“So what awful thing could it be?” asked Mr.Hatford. “I thought you guys would be excited that the Bensons are coming back.”
“We are, except that the Malloys might stay after all,” said Josh, and told his father about Coach Malloy.
“That’s interesting,” said Mr. Hatford. “Most high school coaches would rather teach college.”
“Unless he’s tired of living in a fishbowl,” said Mrs. Hatford. “Everybody watches the college faculty, every move they make. It must be awful. I don’t know how Jean and George stand it.”
“Where would they live if they stayed?” Josh asked. “They’ll have to leave the Bensons’ house.”
“They could move in with us!” Peter said helpfully, smiling around the table. “The girls could bake cookies for us!"
“Are you nuts?” yelped Jake.
“Caroline’s going to bake cookies for me!” Peter crowed, his mouth full. “She’s going to bake me some friendship cookies, and all I have to do is put a mark in a box by her name.”
Mr. Hatford stared at his youngest son. “Come again?”
“Caroline said if I vote for her, she’ll bake friendship cookies for me and then she’ll get to be in the parade.”
“Ha! Anyone can be in the parade if they collect twenty dollars for the hospital,” said Wally.
“Only I’m not going to choose the parade when I get my twenty dollars!” said Peter. “I’m going to choose to have all the strawberry treats I can eat.”
His father laughed. “Sounds to me as though you’re going to choose to have the biggest stomachache you’ve ever had,” he said. “Pass the bread again, Wally, would you?”
Wally mechanically reached out and passed the bread. Then, like a robot, he passed the peas and the rice. He would have passed the chicken if his mother hadn’t stopped him.
“Helloooo!” she said, waving one hand in front of his face. “If the girls stay in Buckman, it’s not the end of the world, Wally.”