“Don’t worry about that, Carol. The problem has more to do with me. I really am glad you and Dad are engaged. I mean, it did come as a shock, and I didn’t exactly know what to say. Or how to act.” I looked her in the eye and tried to smile. “But I know how happy my dad is. He really loves you.”
Carol’s eyes filled. She opened her arms and we shared a hug.
The last thing she said before she left was, “Friends?”
I forced a smile. “Yeah. Friends.”
I went to bed immediately afterward, but I was too exhausted to fall asleep right away. For a few minutes I just lay there, relieved that the talk with Carol was over. Maybe now I could put my nightmare behind me, prepare for the wedding, and work like crazy to pay back those plane tickets.
Which meant I’d be baby-sitting until I was ninety.
Mallory was up and around now, but her parents weren’t letting her participate in after-school activities or go on sitting jobs. But she could go to school and baby-sit at her own house — as long as she took it easy.
Unfortunately, taking it easy and sitting for the Pikes is like keeping dry in the shower. Impossible.
As I mentioned before, Mal has seven younger siblings. The oldest are ten-year-old triplets named Adam, Jordan, and Byron. Then there’s Vanessa (who’s nine); Nicky (eight); Margo (seven); and Claire (five).
It takes at least two to sit for the Pikes, usually one BSC member plus Mallory. Lately, though, two seems too few: The triplets have decided they are old enough now to do whatever they want.
On that dreary winter Saturday, they were making a secret potion in the basement. Vanessa the Dragon was hiding from Claire the Knight, and Margo and Nicky were playing checkers in the living room.
Jessi and Mal were in the kitchen, making lunch.
“Where is she?” Claire asked, rushing into the kitchen. She was brandishing a toy ray gun and wearing a cape made from an old shirt.
“I thought you were a knight,” Jessi said, looking at the gun.
“A space knight, you silly-billy-goo-goo,” Claire answered.
Oh. Of course.
Claire disappeared upstairs and into a bedroom.
“RAAAUUUUUURRRGHHHH!” Vanessa was a pretty convincing dragon.
“Aaaaaaugh!” Claire ran back into the kitchen, giggling, with Vanessa in pursuit.
“You woke me up behind the bed. Now I shall eat your little head!” Vanessa howled. (She loves to speak in rhymes. It drives everyone crazy.)
From the living room, Margo yelled, “I win again!”
“But I didn’t move yet!” Nicky protested.
“You can’t, doofus,” Margo replied. “You’re trapped! New game!”
“I hate this!” Nicky said.
“EEEEEWWWWWWW!” floated up from the basement, followed by wild laughter.
Jessi and Mal exchanged a Look. “I’ll go this time,” Mal said with a sigh.
She trudged downstairs. “Okay, guys, what are you doing?”
The boys were clustered around a big sink next to Mr. Pike’s workbench. “Get out!” Adam said.
Mal ignored him. She moved closer and saw a pail in the sink. Inside the pail was a disgusting brown liquid — and the Pikes’ hamster, Frodo, sloshing around in total confusion.
“What is this?” Mallory asked.
“It’s a formula,” Jordan said.
“We’re making a secret growth serum and we want to see if it works,” Byron added. “But Frodo won’t drink it.”
On a nearby counter, Mal could see a small carton of milk, a bag of potting soil, some marshmallow Fluff, butterscotch syrup, baking powder, wadded-up lint from the clothes dryer, a pile of sawdust, and some Elmer’s glue. The secret ingredients.
“You guys, this is ridiculous,” Mal said. “Get Frodo out of there and wash him off.”
Adam shook his head and exhaled. “You’re getting in the way of science!”
“It’s all right,” Jordan said. “He didn’t drink any of the potion, but he’s covered with it. I think that’ll work. We can put him in the cage and monitor his growth.”
The boys began arguing over who would have to lift the poor animal out, and Mal went back upstairs. She bumped into Nicky, who was on his way down. “Can I play?” he asked his brothers.
“No!” they shouted at once. Adam added, “You have to be ten to join the science club.”
“Do not!” Nicky yelled. “You started it when you were nine.”
“At least we don’t have bad breath!” Byron shot back.
“Byron!” exclaimed Mallory.
“It’s true!” Adam said. “He smells like sardines.”
“I like sardines!” Nicky protested.
“Ewww,” moaned the creators of the growth serum.
Nicky stormed upstairs.
Mal returned to lunch duty. Before long, she and Jessi had put together a pile of sandwiches, and they called the other kids into the kitchen.
You should see lunch at Mallory’s house. It’s not exactly elegant dining. Kristy calls it “Pikes at Trough.”
The kids scarfed down their lunch in seconds. Afterward the triplets went into the hallway and began putting on their coats.
“Uh, where are you guys going?” Jessi asked.
“To Carle Playground,” Adam replied.
“Hmmm, did they ask you for permission, Jessi?” Mal inquired.
“Nope,” Jessi answered innocently. “Did they ask you?”
The triplets looked at each other and rolled their eyes. “Can we go?” Byron grunted.
“It is cold and yucky out, and it looks like rain or snow,” Mal said.
“So?” Jordan replied. “We’re not going forever.”
“I’ll go with you,” Nicky volunteered.
“Oh, great,” Byron muttered.
“No way, Nicky-Nicky-breath-so-icky,” Adam chanted.
“Adam!” Mallory exclaimed.
“He always gets in the way,” Jordan said.
“I do not!” Nicky snapped, his eyes brimming with tears.
“Besides, he might think the fish in the pond are sardines and eat them!” Jordan cracked up at his own joke.
“Come on, we’re out of here,” Adam said as they headed for the door.
Nicky ran after them, his face bright red. He held the door open and yelled, “Good riddance! I didn’t want to play with you barf-heads anyway!”
He slammed the door and ran back through the kitchen. Mal and Jessi felt awful for him. “Nicky?” Mal said.
“I wish they were dead!” was Nicky’s reply.
“Be careful what you wish for, it might come true!” Vanessa called from inside the living room.
“Good!” Nicky ran to his room and slammed that door.
Mal waited a moment, then climbed the stairs and knocked gently on the door. “Are you okay?”
“I’m soooo happy they are gone,” he said. “I hope they never come back.”
“Well, if you need to talk, I’ll be downstairs with Jessi.”
Nicky murmured something, and Mal went back to the kitchen, where she and Jessi were cleaning up.
Apparently Nicky recovered. A few minutes later he’d sneaked down to the living room and was whooping about how he was going to “demolish” Vanessa at checkers.
About a half hour later, at 1:00, it began to rain. “Ha!” Nicky’s voice floated in from the living room. “Now they’re going to get wet and freeze!”
The rain fell harder. The house became so dark that Jessi and Mal had to turn lights on. Then the wind began rattling the windows. Eventually Nicky wandered into the kitchen. “Are they back yet?” he asked.
“Nope,” Jessi replied.
Mal looked at the stove clock, which said 1:37. “Hmm, they’ve been out there awhile. I hope they’re okay.”
Nicky’s brow was furrowed. “Maybe something happened to them.”
“Nah, they can take care of themselves,” Mal said.
Nicky left, then returned a m
oment later. “How cold does it have to be to get frostbite?” he asked.
“Cold enough to snow, I think,” Jessi replied. “Why?”
“They didn’t take their waterproof gloves.”
Mal raised her eyebrows. “Are you concerned about your brothers, Nicky?”
“No way!”
Five minutes later thunder began to boom. “Uh-oh, where are they?” Mallory murmured.
Nicky ran into the kitchen, looking worried. “Let’s call the police,” he suggested. “What if, like, a tree fell on them, or they got hit by lightning?”
Mal sighed. “They should know it’s dangerous to be out in weather like this.”
“Yeah!” Nicky was on the verge of tears now.
“I could go look for them,” Jessi said.
Nicky ran to get his coat. “I’ll go with you!”
Whack!
The back door slammed open. Adam, Byron, and Jordan tumbled inside. They were panting and laughing, out of breath, and their footsteps made loud squishy noises on the floor.
“Made it!” Adam said.
The boys were sopping wet from head to toe. Their coats and shoes were two shades darker than before, and their hair was matted against their heads.
“What happened?” Mal demanded.
“We tried to come back when the rain started, but it was too heavy,” Adam said, “so we went inside the toolshed at the park, to wait it out. But the storm just got worse, so we ran for it!”
“It was great!” Jordan said with a laugh.
Mal and Jessi were relieved. Nicky? Well, he hugged and kissed them and told them how much he’d worried.
Just kidding.
His concerned look had already twisted into a sneer. “You’re ten, and you’re too stupid to come in out of the rain?” he said.
“Go wash your head in bubblegum,” Adam replied.
“You look like you already did, grease head!” Nicky snapped.
“Baby!” Byron said.
“Three Stooges!”
Ah, brotherly love.
“Mm, great sesame noodles,” Dad said. “Pass the soy sauce.”
Carol quietly passed it, chewing on her sautéed vegetables.
The table fell silent. I could hear the bean sprouts crunching between my molars.
“Knock-knock!” Jeff called out.
“Who’s there?” Dad asked.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah who?”
“What are you so happy about? Get it?”
I groaned. Dad laughed. Carol smiled and ate some more vegetables.
Silence again. My stomach growled. I felt as if we were eating dinner in a library.
For the first time in my life, I hoped Jeff would tell another dumb joke. He seemed to be the only one who wasn’t tense.
The house hadn’t been the same, since I’d returned from Stoneybrook. Dad wasn’t his usual happy-go-lucky self. One morning he went into a fit when a shoelace broke. Another time he shattered a coffee pot trying to jam it in the dishwasher, then walked off in a huff.
Things were worse when Carol came over. True, she no longer went overboard trying to be cool and talk like a teenager. Now she was going overboard in the other direction. She hardly ever spoke. She’d sit at the dinner table looking nervously at Dad and me like a kid waiting to be punished in the principal’s office.
She was driving me crazy.
And it was all my fault. The more I thought about it, the more childish and ridiculous my plane trip seemed. If I had just bothered to talk to Dad, I would have realized he wasn’t rejecting me. But Dad and I were not the only ones affected by my trip. How would I have felt if I were Carol, and my fiancé’s daughter had run away from home after I’d announced my engagement? Awful. I would never forget it.
Despite our talk, I knew Carol wouldn’t, either. She couldn’t walk into the house without feeling unwanted.
Which did not make for lively dinners, that’s for sure.
Explaining my trip to my friends was no picnic, either. I spent an entire W♥KC meeting doing it. Sunny, Maggie, and Jill were all sympathetic, but I could tell they couldn’t quite understand it. Maggie seemed annoyed that I’d faked sickness on the way to school that fateful day. The other girls just kept looking at me as if I’d gone slightly looney.
Mainly, though, I think they were relieved that I was back. Jobs were still coming in like crazy, and they couldn’t afford to lose a member.
By the way, Sunny had bought a new calendar in time for that meeting. Unfortunately it didn’t help much. By the time we finished talking about me, it was dinnertime.
Calls kept coming in to all our numbers. Sunny ended up double-booking herself again. She called me in a panic, and I agreed to take one of her jobs, sitting for Erick and Ryan at four-thirty on a Tuesday afternoon. That same day, though, I was already hired to walk Stephie home from school and sit for her until Joanna came back from the dentist. But Joanna had assured me she’d be back by 3:45, so it seemed okay.
Stephie was thrilled when I showed up outside her school that day. She held my hand and we swung arms, walking through the playground. “Dawn, I wrote a story today. I’m going to make it into a book. I’m going to illustrate it, too. And you know who I’m going to dedicate it to? You!”
“Oh, Stephie. That’s so sweet,” I said.
“Hi, Stephie!” a girl called from behind us.
We turned to see a pretty black-haired girl walking toward us with her mom. “Hi, Becky,” Stephie replied.
“Who’s that?” Becky asked, pointing to me.
Stephie hugged my arm and said, “That’s my mommy.”
“Is not,” Becky said.
Her mom winked at me. “That’s the youngest-looking mom I’ve ever seen. What’s your secret?”
She and I laughed, talked a bit, and said good-bye. On the way home, Stephie and I passed a corner store. “Ooh, can I get a treat?” she asked. “Please?”
“Stephie …”
“Then you won’t have to make me an after-school snack.”
She had a point. I was going to have to leave just a few minutes after I reached her house. “Oh, all right,” I said. “But nothing too sweet.”
“Yay! I love when you buy me things, Dawn.”
I bought her a bag of chips and we walked home contentedly.
We arrived there at three-thirty. As soon as we were inside, Stephie insisted on showing me her story. I unfolded it and read:
“Stephie, that’s so … moving,” I said.
It was, too. I could barely keep from “cryng” myself.
Stephie said, “The flower’s name is Dawn.”
Whoa. I didn’t know what to say to that. Fortunately Stephie ran into the playroom with her story then. “I’m going to start illustrating.”
Well, 3:45 came and went. I began to feel nervous. At 4:05 the phone rang.
I picked up the receiver. “Hello, Robertson residence!”
“Hurro, dhaw?” said a weird, thick voice.
“Hello?”
“Icksh Showah-uh.”
I figured it was a crank call, and I was about to hang up. Then I remembered Joanna was at the dentist. The last time my dad had gone to the dentist, he could barely move his mouth afterward. “Is this Joanna?” I asked.
“Uh-huh! Uh-huh!”
“Um, are you calling to say you’ll be late?”
“Uh-huh!”
“Are you finished there?”
“Uh-huh!”
“So I’ll see you soon?”
“Uh-huh!”
“Okay, thanks! ’Bye!”
Oh, boy. At my fastest, I’d need ten minutes or so to get to the DeWitts’. I began pacing. I wished Sunny hadn’t double-booked herself. I vowed to organize the We ♥ Kids Club somehow.
Joanna arrived at 4:14 and gestured for me to leave. As I bustled out the door, Stephie ran into the front room, looking crushed. “Do you have to go baby-sit for those cootie heads?” she said. “I want to show you
my illustrations.”
“Sorry, Stephie,” I replied. “I’ll come over tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah. ’Bye.”
Oh, did I feel rotten.
At least I had plenty to think about on my run to the DeWitts’. Did Stephie really want me, or did she just want someone to be her mommy? Funny, she wouldn’t mind sharing her dad if he were to get married, but she had a hard time sharing me.
I had to admit, I knew how she felt. I sure hadn’t wanted to share my dad with Carol. And I completely screwed up my personal life to prove it.
Stephie was lucky, in a way. She was too young to let her jealousy make her do something seriously stupid, the way I had.
Then my thinking shifted. (Maybe all the running had shaken something loose in my brain.) Ease up, Schafer, I told myself. I was acting as if I’d committed the worst crime in the world. I wasn’t the only person who ever felt jealous. Other people did dumb things, too, and it was easy to forgive them.
I thought of Kristy trying to get the BSC on TV. I don’t know if she’ll ever recover from the fact that the W♥KC “made it” first. I don’t know if she’ll ever get over her resentment of me. But I love her anyway.
Come to think of it, Jeff could be an unbelievable pain to me, and I still love him. And if Nicky Pike could still have feelings for those three monsters in his house …
It’s all so mixed up. You resent people you love (like Nicky and his brothers), you love people who resent you (me and Kristy), you resent people who love people you love (me and Carol), you resent not having someone to love (Stephie and her imaginary mom), and you think people who love you resent you (me and Dad, or me and Mom).
Feelings are weird. I don’t think I’ll ever completely understand them.
As I approached the DeWitts’ house, with three minutes to spare, I slowed to a walk. I wanted a glass of water. But even more, I wanted to be with Mary Anne. She knows a lot about feelings. She’d be able to explain things to me.
Suddenly I felt very homesick.
Okay, no more Ms. Nice Girl. I was ready to take action, this time for real. The We ♥ Kids Club had to change.
I reached my limit when Sunny called me Tuesday night. She had gone to her sitting job, the one she had double-booked. She’d been in a great mood, knowing that I’d bailed her out.