It was well after sunrise when Suzie awoke the next day. She couldn’t sleep well the night before. She was too excited about the events of yesterday. Ideas had been flying around in her mind constantly, keeping her from getting any rest. She wandered into the kitchen to fill up on her favorite frosted cereal again. She failed to notice her neighbor, Mrs. Krankle, running from her house across the street with her arms up. She was flailing them back and forth, with one arm holding something.
“Oh my gawdness! Wouldja look at this! Oh my gawdness! As I live-n-breathe!” she yelled, causing Suzie to look up and lift the large mass of her curly hair away from her eyes.
Mrs. Krankle had now rushed up their walkway and onto their steps. She was a middle aged woman who always had her hair up. She moved her large frame up the front steps quickly. She bent down sideways and peered into the partially opened glass panels of the aluminum screen door. “Anybody home? You guys awake in theah? Hey Linda?”
Suzie gulped down her mouthful of cereal and spoke up. “Hi Mrs. Krankle,” she said, “need some help or something?”
“Oh my! Did you see? You didn’t see? Wheahs ya mutha?” she asked her. She was shaking the newspaper frantically against the screen door.
“Oh, um, well,” Suzie paused, then answered slowly as her tone climbed hesitantly with each word, “she’s still sleeping, I think? She worked late last night, and-”
“Hello, Florence. Good morning,” a woman grumbled in a raspy voice as she entered the room, scraping her slippers across the kitchen floor and drifting behind Suzie, who watched her mother slump over the countertop and reach up for the box of her usual multigrain cereal. She looked more tired than usual, Suzie thought. She had on her pale blue robe that was torn in a couple of spots. Her hair was sticking high up on one side, showing she slept like a rock and didn’t move in the night. She turned a little to see Suzie had left the milk on the table. With a yawn, she slid her way over to it. Then she remembered who had woken her up so ridiculously early.
“Oh,” she said as she stopped halfway sitting down, “Florence, please, do come on in. What brings you over so early on a Saturday?”
Mrs. Krankle quickly opened the screen door and entered. “It’s only Friday, dear,” she said, making a surprised face at Suzie, who wasn’t sure how to respond, so she didn’t. “I am guessing you don’t get the Post?” she asked.
“What? Uh- the Post?” Suzie’s mom asked, still in somewhat of a daze. “Why, did they give you an extra one?”
“No. Theah’s a write up ya should take a look at,” Mrs. Krankle said as she placed the paper on the small table in the middle of Suzie and her mom. She opened it to a page near the front.
Suzie’s mom sat down and cradled her bowl of cereal and took a quick look at it. Next to a skinny article on a possible sanitation worker strike was a photo of a bunch of kids standing in front of an ice cream truck. Cute, she thought. Then there was a large headline above that:
GIRL DETECTIVE SAVES THE DAY
Dragnet Rivals NYPD
Huh, she thought.
Then she looked closer at a second picture inserted in the middle of the article and noticed the girl the article was obviously about. She was smiling widely holding up an ice cream cone. She had wild curly hair, some familiar freckles, the cutest dimples, and a single crooked tooth slightly sticking out from the top of her smile. Suzie’s mom dropped her spoon into her cereal and milk splattered everywhere.
“Aww, well don’t go and get it all wet!” cried out Mrs. Krankle.
“Hey,” Suzie said as she jumped up on her chair and leaned over the paper, “that’s me!” She thought she looked good, and she remembered how that ice cream was really good.
“Oh my,” said Suzie’s mom, “when was this?”
“It was only yesterday!” Suzie said. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you, Mom. We found Mrs. Simmons’ dog. You know, the nice lady who lives next to Cass. She has a dog named-”
“Cody!” Mrs. Krankle interrupted. “Oh shaw, it’s all right theah, in black and white. Unbeleeevuhble. It says Suzie was all organized and what not. She ran a dragnet, they called it. They even said New Yawk’s finest can learn a few things. Really!” Mrs. Krankle smiled again. “Weeah all so proud a you, Suzie. Yaw so smaaht!”
“Thanks, Mrs. Krankle,” Suzie said in a low murmur. “It was nothing, really. We wanted to get their dog back. Everyone helped out.”
“Well, well. This is really something,” Suzie’s mom said as she lifted the paper to get a better look at the photos. “This is a big deal.”
“I’d say! The Post gets 1.2 million in circulation,” Mrs. Krankle pointed out.
“I’d say! Well Suzie, what do you say you grab your friends here and come over to Lillian’s to celebrate?”
The one upside to working at an ice cream parlor was giving ice cream to your kids, and Suzie’s mom was always looking for a good reason it. “I have to cover someone during the lunch rush. Maybe you can come over after. Say, around two. It’ll be slow. We should be able to get everyone sundaes. That way we can celebrate properly,” said Suzie’s mom with a nod to Mrs. Krankle. She didn’t want to be shown up on how important this was to Suzie, especially by the very particular Mrs. Krankle.
“That is so great! Thanks mom!” Suzie said as she hugged her mom tightly.
“Awww, okay, that’s it,” Mrs. Krankle said raising her hands. “My work heah is done. Have fun Suzie!” And with that she walked out the door humming a classic oldies song that Suzie was sure she had heard before.
Suzie’s mom worked around the house, with help from Suzie, until Debbie Do woke up. Then everything changed, as usual. Debbie demanded attention. She sought out Suzie immediately. She stuck close by her side while Suzie moved the wash along, took the clothes from the dryer, and washed the dishes. Of course, Debbie did little to help. Suzie felt she was in the way most of the time.
Suzie’s mom finally found time to close her eyes for a little while before she had to run off to work again. Suzie’s grandmother’s car pulled up into their driveway. It was a small little orange car with a loud muffler and it spewed black smoke every now and then. The door opened to reveal a very large woman who turned little by little to get her legs out of the car first, then a cane followed. Then she raised up out of the seat that surrounded her.
“Grandma!” yelled Debbie as she raced down the driveway and into the open arms of her grandmother. Suzie followed behind and also gave a big hug. Suzie’s grandmother wore a large dress that flowed over her. She had an enormous mane of white hair and wore dark purple sunglasses. She seemingly always had a smile, and was thrilled to see the kids again.
“Your mom told me about the paper, Suzie. That’s wonderful,” she said as they walked towards the house. “I can’t wait to read all about it.”
After lunch Suzie said goodbye to her grandmother and Debbie and set off to roundup the gang. Cassidy was bored out of her mind, so she was very excited to go to an ice cream parlor. Peter was also excited to come. Having the words “free” and “ice cream” together, two of his favorite phrases, was enough for him.
They stopped at a few other houses, but everyone was busy. The twins were off at day camp, while Roberto was at another tennis lesson. Dwayne was visiting his aunt upstate, and they couldn’t track down anyone else.
“Oh well, guess it’s just us three,” Cass said as they rode side by side through the neighborhood. They zigzagged on the sidewalks together, going around fire hydrants and fire alarm boxes as they made their way through the blocks.
Chapter 6