Boys Against Girls

  “What happened?” called Josh.

  “Don't tell them,” Eddie whispered through clenched teeth.

  But someone had to tell them something—you couldn't just say nothing, when anyone could plainly see that Eddie was hurt, Caroline thought.

  It was Beth who got the idea, however.

  “She got bitten,” Beth said, her face somber.

  “By what?” yelled Jake. “A little bitty bug?”

  Eddie had started across the bridge, but Beth faced the boys. “We're not sure,” she said, her eyes fearful. “She went back into the bushes after a ball, and there was something there—some creature. It growled and bit her hand, but we never did see it.”

  Beth followed Eddie across the bridge and Caroline came last, but turned in time to see Jake and Josh and Wally and Peter staring at each other in horror.

  Nine

  Toll Tale

  Wally was prepared not to speak to the Malloy girls for the rest of his life, if necessary, if it would keep him from getting into any more trouble than he had. Mom was already upset with him and Jake and Josh because of the pie business, and then, when they told their dad that Eddie had got bitten by something, Mr. Hatford called the Malloys to find out what, and Coach Malloy told them it was just a sprained thumb.

  So when he got to school on Monday, Wally took his seat without turning around, got out the spelling list he'd been working on over the weekend, and went right to work memorizing bargain, separate, juicy, and argument.

  He was very surprised, therefore, when Caroline Malloy tapped him on the shoulder. He only half turned.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  “I was just wondering,” Caroline said, “if anyone ever found any bones.”

  “What?”

  “If anyone ever found a skeleton of an abaguchie. I mean, if anyone did, couldn't scientists study it and find out what kind of an animal it is?”

  Wally could hardly believe his ears. Caroline was asking him? Caroline was going to believe whatever he told her? His mind whirred. Over in the corner Miss Applebaum was pinning up a list of class helpers for the week—who had lunchroom cleanup, who had blackboard cleanup, who took the volleyballs out to the playground at recess, and so on.

  He turned around a little more.

  “Well, he doesn't want anyone to know,” Wally said.

  “Who doesn't?”

  “Mr. Oldaker.”

  “Who's that?”

  “The man who owns the bookstore. Nobody's supposed to know about the bones, and if I told you, you'd just tell your sisters.”

  “I would not.”

  “Ha!” said Wally, and turned forward again. “Sure, you wouldn't!”

  Nothing happened for a moment or two, and then there was another tap on Wally's shoulder.

  “What?” Wally said, acting annoyed. This time he turned around far enough to see Caroline's face. Her eyes were wide and she had a sort of earnest look that he would have liked on a girl if it wasn't on the face of a Malloy.

  “Tell me, Wally,” Caroline begged, and her voice was gentle, pleading.

  “You're nuts!”

  “Please!”

  “You'd blab the minute you got out of school, and Mr. Oldaker would really be mad, because the only other person in town who's supposed to know is my dad, which is the only reason / know.”

  “Well, if only your father is supposed to know and now you know, he must have blabbed,” said Caroline.

  Wally faced the front of the room again. When he and Caroline were not speaking, she drove him nuts. When he and Caroline were speaking, she drove him nuts. It was hopeless. He couldn't escape. His destiny was to be driven absolutely crazy by Caroline Malloy.

  The notes of “The Star Spangled Banner” sounded over the loudspeaker, and Wally slid from his seat with his hand over his heart and stood at attention until Miss Applebaum said they could sit. Then the teacher started the spelling test.

  At least he had until recess to think about what to say next, Wally was thinking. Now that he'd told Caroline there was some big secret about the abaguchie, he had to figure out what it was. His mouth had run on faster than his brain could keep up. Why had he brought in Mr. Oldaker? Why, the minute Caroline had asked about bones, had he thought of the bookstore?

  The only reason Wally could think of was that there was a trapdoor in the very center of the floor of Oldakers'. Because it led to an old storage cellar, and because the floor of the cellar was dirt, it seemed to Wally a perfect place to bury treasure. Treasure or a dead body or both. And because he had once helped Mr. Oldaker bring up some boxes from the cellar, and because Caroline had asked about bones, that was probably why he had thought of Mr. Oldaker's cellar.

  When the bell rang for recess, Miss Applebaum was first out the door to take her attendance sheet to the office, and the others followed her in a line because they were going to divide up into teams and play kickball.

  Wally loved kickball, and he was hurrying so fast to get out of the room that he jerked too hard on the jacket he had stuffed in his desktop and pulled out a box of sixty-four crayons, spilling them all across the floor.

  “Rats!” Wally yelled, furious at himself. Not only did he want to make sure he was on the first team for kickball but he wanted to get away from Caroline the Crazy as well.

  He stopped to pick up every crayon, some of which had rolled as far as two rows away. When he got them all into the box at last, and turned to go out the door, he found Caroline blocking the doorway— her hands and feet braced tightly against the sides, her feet six inches off the floor.

  “Move it!” said Wally.

  Caroline didn't budge. “I'm not moving till you tell me the secret of the bones,” she said.

  “What?”

  “The secret Mr. Oldaker told your father about the abaguchie,” Caroline insisted.

  Wally's first thought was to push her out of the way, but she was wedged tightly there in the door frame, arms and legs spread like a big X. It would take more than a little push to loosen her, and if he gave a big push, she'd go sprawling into the hallway, and then he would be in big trouble.

  “What did Mr. Oldaker tell your dad, Wally? Tell me!” Caroline insisted.

  There wasn't anything left to do. Wally lowered his voice. “Promise you won't tell.”

  “Promise.”

  Wally's mind was like a runaway truck barreling down a steep hill without any brakes. “A couple of years ago’ he lied, “they were digging out more of Oldaker's cellar beneath his store, and somebody found bones.”

  He watched Caroline's feet slide down both sides of the door frame until she landed with a plop on the soles of her sneakers.

  Wally's mind raced on and on. He was a better storyteller than he'd thought. Tall tales, that's what he was telling. How could you call something this wild a lie? If Caroline believed him, that was her problem.

  “Whose were they?” Caroline breathed.

  “Well … Dad says they weren't bones of any known animal. Mr. Oldaker thinks it could be the skeleton of an abaguchie, but they don't want people getting upset or staying away from the bookstore or anything, so they just haven't told anyone but Dad. As far as I know, the bones are still there.”

  Once again he tried to push past Caroline, and once again she braced her hands and feet against the sides. “Just tell me one more thing, Wally. How do I get in Oldakers’ cellar?”

  “There's a trapdoor beyond the cashier's counter. But they'd see you if you tried to go down there. Take my word for it, Caroline, and don't try it. Now, movel”

  Caroline moved. “Thank you very much, Wally,” she called after him as he ran headlong out to the playground. Finally, he was free.

  Ten

  The Secret Staircase

  If Caroline had ever considered skipping school, this was the time. It would have been so easy to just walk to the edge of the school yard and keep going. She could tell Beth and Eddie about it later.

  But the more sh
e thought about it, the more she realized that one of two things could happen, and probably both:

  Miss Applebaum would realize she was missing and would call home.

  Mr. Oldaker would wonder why she wasn't in school and might even phone the school office. She had to wait.

  She had promised Wally she wouldn't tell her sisters, but her shoelaces were crossed when she said it, and everybody knows that if something is crossed when you promise, it isn't a promise at all.

  At lunchtime she sought out Beth and Eddie and told them what she had learned from Wally.

  “Let's go to the bookstore today!” she said. “Two of us can be lookouts, and the other can climb through the trapdoor.”

  She hoped Eddie would say that she, Caroline, could be the one to go down.

  “We'll do it, but not this afternoon,” said Eddie. “I've got to write a report on Balboa.”

  “I'm not going anywhere until I finish this book,” said Beth. “Caroline, you should read it¡ Land of the Leeches¡ It will make your skin crawl!”

  Caroline's heart sank. “How many more chapters?” she asked.

  “I just started. Sixteen, I think.”

  Caroline was dismayed. She couldn't count on her sisters. Hadn't she spent a whole hour Sunday afternoon batting balls just so Eddie could practice her pitching? Now, when she needed a little help, where were Beth and Eddie?

  In the next thirty seconds Caroline decided two things:

  She could not stand knowing that the trapdoor was there in the bookstore and she couldn't go through it today.

  She would do it alone, and not tell anyone about it till it was over.

  Her mind raced on ahead of her. The Secret Staircase, starring Caroline Lenore Malloy. What a wonderful movie that would make¡ In fact, getting ready for the part was almost as much fun as doing it.

  First, the costume. Dark. No, not dark. Mousy. Sort of brownish-grayish. Something to blend in with the woodwork. Nothing too light or too dark, too loud or too dramatic. A pair of faded jeans, an old jacket that Beth had given her, worn-out sneakers—that should do it.

  What should she take? A flashlight to look for the bones once she got down there; a screwdriver, in case the trapdoor was screwed shut.

  The bell rang and Caroline dreamily took her seat again behind Wally, hardly even noticing him. When an actress has been given a role, she in turn gives her heart to her performance, Caroline knew. A role like this required a full range of acting ability:

  Cautious excitement: Caroline wrote it down on the back of her spelling paper. She would leave to begin the adventure like Joan of Arc, going off into battle, confident that she could discover the abaguchie's bones.

  Deep foreboding: That was what her face would have to show next. Caroline wrote that down too. She imagined that Wally's back was a mirror and she was studying her own face in it. The forehead would be frowning. The teeth would be set— clenched, perhaps. Eyes narrowed, thinking.

  And then, of course, when she reached the bottom of the secret staircase and discovered she was in the abaguchie's lair, there would be sudden terror¡

  Caroline bolted back in her seat, making her eyes wild. Huge¡ Her lips would be slightly parted. Her throat would feel—

  “Caroline Malloy, do you want to see the nurse?” came Miss Applebaum's voice.

  Caroline blinked. Where was she? What was she doing here in this classroom? Where was the secret staircase?

  “Do you have a pain somewhere?” the teacher asked.

  “No.”

  “You looked as though you might be having an attack of some sort.”

  The other children giggled. Wally's shoulders were shaking with laughter, but Caroline didn't even care.

  “Do you think you might be able to take part in our geography discussion?” the teacher asked. “We were discussing petroleum products, Caroline. Can you tell us where in the world we might find the most oil?”

  “At the bottom of the secret staircase,” said Caroline dreamily.

  Eleven

  Waiting for Caroline

  “I think” said Wally, on the way home from school with his brothers that afternoon, “that the spider is about to capture the fly.”

  “What spider?” asked Peter, skipping to keep up with his older brothers.

  Wally, Jake, and Josh exchanged looks.

  “What fly?” Peter demanded.

  “What I mean is, we're about to trap Caroline,” Wally told him.

  “Don't tell Peter!” Josh said. “He'll blab.”

  “I won't”

  “You won't on purpose, Peter, but sometimes you let things slip,” Jake told him.

  “I won't!” Peter screeched, stopping there on the sidewalk, fists clenched, eyes scrunched up in fury.

  “Okay, but not one word to anybody!” Wally warned. “I'll bet my last nickel that as soon as school is out, Caroline is going to Oldakers’ bookstore and go down in that cellar when no one's looking.”

  “Why?” asked Jake.

  “Because she asked me about the abaguchie today. She said if there were abaguchies around Buck-man, somebody should have found some bones. And then it came to me—this idea, sort of.” He grinned just a little.

  “Well?” said Jake.

  “I told her there were some bones—that nobody knew what they belonged to—and that they were down in the cellar of Oldakers’ bookstore. I just know she's going to go there today and sneak down in that cellar.”

  “So?” said Jake.

  “Then what?” asked Josh.

  So? Then what? After all his brilliant work luring Caroline to the cellar, his brothers didn't know what to do?

  “What do you mean, then what?” squawked Wally. And he suddenly realized he didn't know either. He put his imagination on fast-forward. “Then we'll—we'll all go in and stand on top of the trapdoor so she can't get out.”

  “That's it!” said Jake. “That's perfect¡ You're a genius, Wally.”

  But Peter looked worried. “Not ever?”

  “Don't be stupid, Peter. Of course we'll let her out sometime. Just not right away, that's all,” Josh told him.

  “So we can't let her out of sight for a minute,” said Wally. He pointed. “There she is, going over the bridge with her sisters. Maybe they'll all go down into Oldakers’ cellar.”

  “If they see us following them, though, they won't,” warned Jake. “What we've got to do is go stand inside the drugstore where we can watch the door of Oldakers'.”

  “And, Peter, if you blab, you can't come with us,” Josh told him.

  “I won't blab¡ I just think we ought to put some food down there or something.”

  “Food?” said Wally.

  “In case they get hungry.”

  “Peter, we're talking about fifteen or twenty minutes. Anybody can go without food for fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  Peter looked much relieved. “Okay, then,” he said.

  As soon as the boys put their schoolbooks on the table and grabbed a handful of cheese crackers, they were off again, heading toward the business district. A quick glance inside Oldakers’ told them the girls weren't there yet, so they crowded into Larkin's Pharmacy and went over to the window.

  Mr. Larkin, the pharmacist, looked up from his pills and bottles. “How ya doin', boys?”

  “Okay’ said Wally.

  They took positions just far enough back so they couldn't be easily seen, but close enough to the window so that Caroline and her sisters could not get into the bookstore unnoticed.

  Four o'clock became four-thirty. The cashier glanced over at them. “Anything I can do for you?” she asked.

  “Uh … no, thanks,” said Wally.

  “I'll bet she doesn't come,” Jake whispered. “Maybe she had a piano lesson or something.”

  “Yeah, who says that even if she comes, it'll be today?” said Josh.

  Wally was getting a little peeved. “Well, just go on home, then,” he said hotly. “Just go on home and miss her if she d
oes come. Oldakers’ closes at six. If she's not here by then, we'll leave.”

  “What are we supposed to tell Mr. Larkin?” whispered Jake. “He keeps looking over at us. So does the cashier.”

  Wally looked around. The magazines were at the back of the store beside the prescription counter. The games were over by the soda fountain along one wall, one of the last soda fountains left in the state of West Virginia. Up here beneath the front window was a rack of women's socks and underwear. To his left was a shelf of Ace bandages.

  Mr. Larkin was walking toward the front of the store.

  “You boys waiting for somebody?” he asked.

  “No, uh … we're trying to decide what to buy,” Wally said, because neither Jake nor Josh said a word, and Peter had wandered off to look for Matchbox cars on the toy rack.

  “Maybe I can help,” said the pharmacist.

  Wally desperately focused on the women's socks and underwear, and just as quickly turned his attention to the Ace bandages.

  “I was sort of looking for a knee bandage,” he said.

  “An elastic knee sleeve? For yourself? Well, let's measure you and see,” Mr. Larkin said.

  Wally exchanged horrified looks with Josh and Jake. He didn't have any money with him, and even if he had, he wouldn't spend it on an elastic knee sleeve.

  “It's—it's not for me, it's for my dad,” he said quickly. And then, because he knew Mr. Larkin would wonder why Dad wasn't buying it himself, said, “He hurt his knee so bad, he can hardly walk.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that,” Mr. Larkin said. “Why don't I call home and ask him to measure around his knee, and—”

  At that precise moment Wally saw Caroline Malloy walking along the other side of the street toward Oldakers', carrying a flashlight¡

  “I'll be right back, Mr. Larkin,” he said. “I'll go home and measure Dad's knee myself.”

  And as soon as Caroline went inside the bookstore, the boys crossed the street and watched furtively through Oldakers’ store window.