Four days! thought Caroline. Four days of lying in a room at the Hatfords' was like a prison sentence. But she took the handful of silverware Mrs. Hatford gave her and dutifully walked around the dining room table, placing the knives and forks beside each plate.
When Mr. Hatford walked in at six, the shirt of his postal uniform was drenched in perspiration, and he had a small towel draped around his neck. He stopped and stared at the Malloys in surprise.
“Well,” he said. “Hello.”
“Tom, we've got a little emergency here,” his wife told him. “George called to say that there's a huge power outage in Ohio due to the heat. No electricity, no traffic lights or refrigeration or air-conditioning. There's no use in Jean and the girls going home to that, and no hotel here for them to go to. So I've invited them to stay with us for a few days until they get their power back.”
Mr. Hatford blinked. Caroline supposed he wasn't any happier about it than the boys had been. “Well,” he said. “Any port in a storm, right?”
“We are so grateful for Ellen's invitation, but we know this is an imposition,” Mrs. Malloy said. “We're going to be as helpful as possible, and I've made a couple of lemon pies. I hope that will make up for it a little.”
Mr. Hatford laughed. “Well, now, I don't have any objection to that!” he said. “Yes, I heard about that power outage in Ohio. Pretty serious, I understand.” Turning to his wife, he said, “I need to take a shower before dinner.” And then, “I can take a shower?”
“Yes. We've talked about conserving the hot water,” Mrs. Hatford said, and Mr. Hatford headed for the stairs.
Dinner helped perk everyone up. It was a cold meal of tuna and macaroni salad, with homemade rolls, sliced tomatoes, corn on the cob, and Mrs. Malloy's lemon pies.
The adults did most of the talking, with Mr. Hatford telling about how crowded it was in town with so many alumni returning for the college's anniversary—how impossible it was to drive around campus delivering mail with cars parked all over the place, mostly where they shouldn't be.
After the meal was over, the girls did the dishes while the adults sat in the living room watching the evening news.
“Three-fourths of the state of Ohio has been affected by the current power failure,” the announcer said. “Crews are working around the clock, but the governor has said there is still no clear idea of when all communities will have power. Generators are being set up in gymnasiums where citizens with health risks may go to cool off, but travelers are urged to stay out of Ohio until the crisis is over.”
Caroline and her sisters joined the Hatford boys on the porch when the kitchen was clean. The next night it would be the boys' turn to clean up. Mrs. Malloy had talked them into doing the dishes by hand to save the hot water for showers. It almost seemed to Caroline as though her own mother was trying to make things as difficult as possible.
The boys had taken over the rocking chair and the glider, so Caroline, Beth, and Eddie sprawled on the steps. Caroline thought the boys did look a little smug, having escaped kitchen duty this time, their stomachs full of lemon pie.
Instead of saying something pleasant to the girls, Jake said, “Too bad the power didn't go out when you were halfway back to Ohio. Your dad would have to call while you were still here!”
“Yeah? I don't know what you're complaining about,” said Eddie. “You've got free maid service. We did the dishes, remember.”
“Hey, you guys,” said Josh. “You know what I think? I think you two ought to go hide in a cave or something till the heat wave's over. I'm tired of hearing you gripe at each other all the time. I mean it.”
“I am too!” said Beth. “Nobody likes that we have to be here, you know.”
Jake and Eddie looked quickly around at the others, surprised, it seemed, that their own brothers and sisters were turning against them.
“I just wish there was something exciting to do,” said Eddie. “We never did go to the old coal mine. I'm going to go up there and look around.”
“Yeah? I dare you,” said Jake.
“I dare you both!” said Josh. “Maybe that'll stop your complaining.”
And Caroline knew that a dare, to Eddie, was as good as a done deal.
Twelve
Undercover Operation
Wally did not know when anything had felt weirder than having Eddie, Beth, and Caroline sleeping in his house. Here in the upstairs! In Jake and Josh's bedroom!
The twins had dumped all their stuff on the floor in Peter's room and were sprawled out now on their sleeping bags in Wally's room. But those sleeping bags alone took up most of the floor space. If Wally had to get up in the night, he'd have to take wide steps, putting his feet only on the places where there wasn't an arm or a leg.
“This stinks! They'll snoop through everything!” said Jake.
“I got most of the stuff out of our desks, though,” said Josh. “I got the journal I was keeping for a while, and all your baseball cards.”
Suddenly Jake gave a little cry and bolted upright. “Our underwear!” he gasped. “We didn't clean out the dresser! We left our underwear!”
Wally watched as Jake fell back on his sleeping bag, eyes closed. For once something humiliating was happening to Wally's brothers, not to him. He imagined Caroline coming down to breakfast in the morning with Jake's underpants on her head. He imagined Eddie going out to his mother's vegetable garden in the backyard and picking tomatoes for lunch, using Josh's underwear for a basket. He imagined Beth fastening little pink bows to the front of each pair.
“Man oh man!” he said, trying not to laugh. “That could be embarrassing.”
“We've got to get them out of there!” said Josh.
“The girls?” asked Wally.
“The underwear!” Jake and Josh howled together.
“What are you going to do? Sneak in there while they're asleep?” asked Wally. “Everyone's gone to bed.”
“I don't know. We'll think of something,” said Jake, and who knew what that something would be?
It had been a hot, miserable day, made worse by Wally's brothers' taking up all his floor space with their sleeping bags, and all the air with their complaints— Jake's in particular. Not only that, but their shoes stank! All Wally wanted to do was fall asleep and forget how many people were in his house just now.
Once, in the night, Wally had to go to the bathroom. He did not want to go out into the hall and bump into a Malloy girl. Maybe he could hold it in till morning, he thought. He turned onto his left side. He turned onto his right. He couldn't hold it in much longer.
Finally he got out of bed, edged his way around his brothers, and slowly opened his bedroom door so that it wouldn't creak. Then, in his tiger pajamas, he stepped out into the hall and took a step toward the bathroom. There, coming straight toward him, was Caroline Malloy in her Little Mermaid pajamas. A tiger and a mermaid did not mix at all.
He knew that Caroline, being a guest, should be allowed to go to the bathroom first. But Wally's feet kept moving. He made it two steps ahead of Caroline. He slipped inside and locked the door. When he was through, he drank half a glass of water, being careful not to touch any glass that the Malloys might have used. Then he opened the door, and there was Caroline with her arms folded, listening to everything.
Back in his room again, Wally pulled the covers over his head and tried to count the number of days, hours, minutes, seconds that the Malloys might be in his house.
He must have dropped off to sleep, because the next thing he knew, Jake was shaking his arm.
“Wally,” Jake kept whispering. “Wally …”
“Huh?” Wally murmured, rolling over.
“Listen. We need you to do something.”
“Huh?” Wally said again. He had that sinking feeling. Josh was awake too, and they were both looking at him.
“We need you to sneak into our bedroom and scoop up all our underwear from the dresser.”
“No!” said Wally. “No! No! No!”
“Your feet are smaller,” Josh explained. “You can creep around that room easier than we can with our big feet. We'd probably step on someone. It's four in the morning. They're all asleep.”
“No! Do it yourself! It's your underwear!” said Wally.
“Walll-ly,” said Josh. “Do you remember those underpants Grandma sent you for your birthday last year? The ones with your name on the seat?”
“Yes …,” Wally said, beginning to see where this conversation was going.
“And you know how Mom gets our underwear mixed up sometimes when she does the laundry? Well, if the Malloys see our underwear, they won't know exactly who it belongs to, Jake or me. But if they see any with Wally on them, they'll know for sure.”
Wally closed his eyes, but it didn't keep out the pictures. A picture of Eddie riding around town on one of the Hatfords' bikes, with Wally's underwear flying from the handlebars. Beth using a pair of Wally's underpants as a book cover. Caroline coming to breakfast with a hat made out of underwear, with Wally across her forehead. He couldn't stand it.
“Where is your underwear?” he asked.
“The bottom drawer,” said Jake. “Just softly open our door, tiptoe around the air mattress, pull out the bottom drawer of our dresser, and scoop up all the stuff. Then bring it back here. That's all you have to do.”
All he had to do. It was like asking him to climb Mount Everest and be back by sundown.
Wally got out of bed. He walked to the door.
“Goodbye,” he said to his brothers, because if Mrs. Malloy and her daughters found him creeping around their bedroom at four in the morning, he might not live to see the next day.
He padded down the hall. Gently, gently, he opened the door of the twins' room. He waited, holding his breath, while he took in the room, trying to see where everyone was sleeping. Carefully, carefully, Wally made his way around the air mattress with Caroline and Eddie on it, around the bed where Beth was lying, around the other bed, where Mrs. Malloy lay sleeping, one arm dangling over the edge, and over to the dresser along the far wall.
Slowly, slowly, Wally stooped down and, feeling around, put his hands on the two knobs of the bottom drawer, then slowly, slowly—so it wouldn't make a sound—pulled it open.
Again he held his breath and waited, sure that any minute Mrs. Malloy would rise and say, “Just what do you think you're doing in our room, young man?” Or that his dad would see the door open and thunder, “Wally, what the heck are you doing in there?”
But no one spoke. No one stirred. Taking a deep breath, Wally put his hands in the drawer, one at each end, and scooped up all the underwear. Now he'd be discovered for sure. Once again, however, no one stirred. With his right foot he softly edged the drawer closed. Wally turned slowly around. Step by
step … Pause … Breathe … Step by step … Pause … Breathe …
He reached the door. Still no sound. This was too easy. Things never turned out this well for Wally Hatford. Something always had to go wrong. It was inevitable.
He stepped out into the hall. Transferring all the underwear to one arm, he used his other hand to softly close the door behind him. He went down the hall to where Jake and Josh were waiting for him. They pulled him into the bedroom and closed the door behind him.
“Way to go, Wally!” said Jake.
“You did it!” said Josh. “Wally, you're the best! Did you get it all?”
“Yep,” said Wally, scarcely believing it. Now he almost hoped there was a pair of his underpants mixed up with theirs so that he could feel double the relief. Jake turned on the light. The boys stared.
There on the floor was a pile of girls' underwear. Underpants with daisies on them. One pair that said Monday and another that said Friday. There were pink underpants with hearts, and blue underpants with stripes. And even a pair that read Caroline on the seat.
Thirteen
The Magic Underwear
A shaft of sunlight fell on Caroline's face. It was the heat more than the light that woke her, for the sun was already hot. She yawned and rolled over, then opened her eyes and stretched.
Now she remembered. She was beside Eddie on an air mattress on the floor in the Hatford boys' bedroom.
Well, she certainly didn't want to lie here all day, and besides, she was hungry. She wondered what Mrs. Hatford might have left for their breakfast before she went to work. Maybe she could get the others to go to the ice cream store for cones before the day got too hot.
She sat up and looked around. Her mom and her two sisters were still asleep. Maybe it wasn't as late as she thought. Caroline slipped off her pajamas and pulled open the bottom drawer of the dresser, where the girls had put their things after they'd thrown the boys' stuff in the closet.
Empty! The drawer was empty! How could that be? Maybe Eddie had moved their clothes somewhere. But why would she do that?
“What's the matter, Caroline?” came her mother's sleepy voice from one of the twin beds.
“All our underwear's gone!” said Caroline, puzzled, pulling on her pajamas again.
“What?” murmured Beth.
“Gone!” said Caroline. “Our underwear's gone.”
Eddie rose on one elbow. “What?” she. cried. And together the girls gasped, “The boys!”
“The boys stole your underwear? said their mother in disbelief.
“Ha!” said Eddie. “They'd steal our teeth and our toenails if they could. They'd steal the hair off our heads if we'd let them.”
“But I can't imagine those boys coming into our bedroom while we were sleeping and taking our under-wear!” said Mrs. Malloy, sitting up. “I'm sure they weren't raised to do something like that.”
“I think you should call their mom at the hardware store and tell her,” said Caroline.
“Now, look!” said Mrs. Malloy. “The Hatfords are graciously letting us stay in their house until we can go home. We are not going to say one word about this to the parents. I'll handle it myself.”
Everyone got dressed, wearing underpants from the day before, and found Jake and Josh and Peter sitting quietly at the kitchen table, eating their cereal.
“Good morning, boys,” said Mrs. Malloy. “Where's Wally this morning?”
“He's feeling sort of sick,” said Peter.
“Oh? What's wrong?” asked Mrs. Malloy.
“He's sick to his stomach,” said Peter.
Just then, however, Wally came in and, without a word, sat down at the table and reached for the cereal. He did look a little sick, as though he'd been outside throwing up.
“Good morning, Wally,” said Eddie, Beth, and Caroline together.
“Hi,” Wally mumbled.
“I see that your mom left us some of her delicious banana bread,” said Mrs. Malloy. “That's a favorite of mine.” She reached for the pitcher of orange juice and poured a glass for herself. “I just want to say, boys, that some things are missing from our bedroom, and I would like them to be returned immediately.”
Caroline looked across the table at the boys. They were sitting like frogs, she thought, their eyes huge. They didn't blink. They didn't even appear to be breathing.
Peter, however, got up from the table and went upstairs. His brothers stared after him. The girls stared too.
Peter? Caroline wondered. Peter Hatford had stolen into their room the night before and taken their underpants? There were footsteps on the stairs again, and Peter came back down. He walked over to Mrs. Malloy and placed a Snickers wrapper and a Tootsie Roll wrapper on the table in front of her.
Mrs. Malloy stared at the wrappers, then at Peter. “What are these?” she asked.
“Some things I took from the room,” said Peter.
“When?” asked Mrs. Malloy.
“Last week,” said Peter.
“Aha!” said Jake. “ You're the one who ate my candy!”
“I'm not talking about candy, boys,” said Mrs. Malloy. “Someone must have come into our bedroom last night and taken clothes that didn't be
long to him. We want them back.”
Jake and Josh and Wally looked at each other and shrugged.
“Okay, come with me,” said Mrs. Malloy. “All of you.”
Everyone got up from the table and followed her upstairs.
“Caroline,” her mother said. “Show us what you found this morning.”
With everyone watching, Caroline walked over to the dresser and pulled open the bottom drawer. There were the girls' underpants. She stared, wide-eyed, then turned to her sisters in disbelief.
“I thought you said it was empty!” said her mother.
“It was! There weren't any underpants here at all!” Caroline declared.
“Now, Caroline …,” said her mother, frowning.
“Mom, the bottom drawer was empty!” Caroline protested. “I know that's where we put our stuff.”
“Boys,” said Mrs. Malloy. “I'm sorry, but I think the heat's beginning to get to Caroline and we jumped to conclusions. I'm sorry I interrupted your breakfast. Let's all go back down and forget this ever happened.”
“Good idea!” said Jake.
Caroline could not believe this! No! She had opened the drawer with her own two hands and seen with her own two eyes that it was empty! She had not, however, shown it to Beth or Eddie or their mom. She had only told them about it. Now the drawer was full again. Was she losing her mind?
Maybe after a whole year of living near the Hat-fords, she was slowly going crazy. And then Caroline did what she always did when faced with something difficult. Remember this, she told herself, because when she became a famous actress on Broadway, she would know how it felt to slowly lose one's mind, and she would be able to play the part well.
At breakfast Jake and Josh and Wally sat across the table from her with mouths as straight as rulers, but their eyes, she knew, were laughing. If she had ever seen laughing eyes in her life, these were the eyes.
Only Peter had a puzzled expression on his face, and Caroline almost felt sorry for him—having to live with those three conniving brothers of his!