Welcome to Camden Falls

  Ruby lost interest, yawned, and turned her attention to her meal.

  From a chair nearby, Mrs. Willet watched the afternoon unfold. Her brain was foggy and grew foggier every day. Months ago, Mrs. Willet had realized something was wrong. Back then, she knew she was getting foggy. But slowly, even that knowledge had disappeared, along with much of her memory. Now she simply felt the afternoon slip away, each moment passing like a car on a train, except that when the last car had zipped by, Mrs. Willet had no memory of the train.

  Earlier, Mr. Willet had settled his wife in a wicker chair. He had brought her first a glass of lemonade, then a plate of chicken and salad, and later a saucer with two cookies on it. As she was finishing the cookies, he said to her, “Dear, we’ve planned something special for the end of the party. Something for Flora and Ruby. Do you remember who they are? They’re right over there. See them? They’re Min Read’s granddaughters, the ones who moved here this summer. And we thought it would be fun to surprise them, to welcome them to Camden Falls.”

  Mrs. Willet said nothing. She watched as the cars on the train began to pass again. First that nice Mr. Pennington (she thought that was his name, but she wasn’t sure) called all the neighbors into the Willets’ yard. Then the girl whose name was probably Olivia motioned two unfamiliar girls to a bench. “You sit over there,” Olivia said, and added, “I kept a really good secret from you! Everyone’s going to welcome you to your new home. The Morrises will be first.”

  Before Mrs. Willet’s weary eyes, the four Morris children put on a skit titled “New Neighbors” in which the younger kids pretended to be baby bears welcomed to a forest neighborhood by an elk and a fox, played by the twins.

  Then Mr. and Mrs. Fong presented Ruby and Flora with handmade picture frames. “For old pictures you already have,” said Mrs. Fong, “or new ones you haven’t taken yet.”

  “I have something you can put in them!” said Robby. “These are pictures I drew myself. There’s one of each family in the Row Houses, because you’re our new neighbors, like the baby bears. Okay, Ruby, you take four pictures, and Flora, you take four. Even Steven.”

  Mrs. Willet sat quietly and watched as Mr. Pennington presented the girls with a copy of Sounder, telling them it was a story about bravery; as Margaret and Lydia, giggling (Ruby thought her suspect now looked disarmingly normal and not at all robber-like), sang a song they’d written called “This Town Is Your Town”; as the Walters gave the girls a certificate, carefully decorated by Olivia and her brothers, making the girls official Row House Residents; as Min Read, her good hand trembling and her mouth quivering, presented each of her granddaughters with a piece of jewelry that had belonged to their mother; and finally, as Mr. Willet (Mrs. Willet had a vague idea that this man might be her husband) gave the girls a small album of photos. “These pictures are of your mother and her sister when they were little girls and lived right here.”

  “Thank you,” said Flora in a whisper, and Ruby knew her sister wanted to cry but refused to do so in front of all these people.

  “Thank you,” said Ruby, somewhat stiffly. Then she hugged Mr. Willet around his waist.

  Mrs. Willet just watched. She watched Flora and Ruby accept their gifts, watched as the food was taken inside and chairs were folded and people called good-bye. When at last that man who might be her husband helped her out of her chair, she grinned at him and said, “Whose birthday party was this? I had a wonderful time.”

  Two doors away, Flora and Ruby sat in the kitchen with Min and spread their treasures across the table.

  “That was an excellent surprise,” said Ruby.

  And Flora stood up to kiss Min’s cheek.

  “Ruby,” said Min one afternoon when Mary Woolsey had arrived at Needle and Thread and settled herself at her worktable, “could you please run across the street and ask Mrs. Grindle if she has any aspirin? We’ve run out of it and Mary has a headache.”

  “Why didn’t she take an aspirin before she left her house?” said Ruby, who not only didn’t want to face Mrs. Grindle but was having a bad day, which had started when she had fallen out of bed that morning and later tripped over the living room rug.

  Min raised her eyebrows at Ruby. “May I remind you that getting your allowance is contingent on doing your chores, and that one of your chores is helping out at the store? Do you know what ‘contingent’ means?”

  “It means I won’t get my allowance if I don’t go across the street to that evil old —”

  “Ruby! We do not speak like that. Please apologize and then go calm down. I’ll ask Flora or Olivia to run across the street.”

  “Sorry,” muttered Ruby. Then she stalked out of the store, calling over her shoulder, “I’m going to take a walk.” She looked at Stuff ’n’ Nonsense and stuck out her tongue, hoping Mrs. Grindle would see her.

  Ruby stomped past Zack’s and then Heaven, the jewelry store, before she began to feel calmer. She slowed down and crossed the street to Time and Again, where she paused to peer in the window at the rows of used books on display. The children’s books were on the left, and in the front was a copy of The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, by Paula Danziger. It was on sale for seventy-five cents, but Ruby had only a quarter in her pocket.

  Ruby wandered into Frank’s Beans and breathed in the aroma of coffee and chocolate and vanilla beans.

  “Hi, Frank,” she greeted the man behind the cash register.

  “Hey there, Ruby. How’s it going?”

  “Okay. How’s business?”

  Frank had opened the coffee shop not long before Flora and Ruby had arrived in Camden Falls. “Oh, it’s perking along. Get it? Perking?” said Frank.

  Ruby didn’t, but she smiled anyway.

  “Would you like a chocolate milk?” asked Frank. “It’s on the house.”

  “Sure!” said Ruby, and she settled into a tall chair and looked out onto Main Street while she sipped her milk. She waved to Sonny, and then to Dr. Malone, who was returning to his dental office.

  “Thanks, Frank,” Ruby called later as she dropped her cup in the trash. “Come into Needle and Thread sometime and we’ll give you a free … um, a free …”

  Frank waved her off. “No need, Ruby, but it’s a nice offer. Have a good day!”

  Ruby popped in at the post office and called hello to Jackie and Donna, who were busy weighing packages. She chatted with Sharon, who was decorating the window of the Cheshire Cat. Finally, she found herself standing outside Zinder’s. The day had grown unbearably hot, and Ruby’s hair stuck damply to her forehead and neck. She was about to open the door, looking forward to a blast of air-conditioning, when she saw Lydia Malone disappear inside Bubble Gum. Ruby drew in her breath. Then she hurried along the sidewalk and followed Lydia into the store.

  “Hi, Ruby!” said Mrs. Cooper, who was showing sample nail polish to a customer. “Let me know if you need any help.”

  Ruby winced. A good detective should do her tailing in secret. She waved a thank-you to Mrs. Cooper, then slipped down the nearest aisle in search of Lydia, but she saw no one. She headed for the aisle with the magical makeup — the makeup that glittered — longing for the day when Min would allow her to wear glitter nail polish. But again, no Lydia.

  Ruby had picked up a bottle of polish called Heavenly Daze and had turned it over to check the price (just in case it was on sale for less than a quarter) when she saw Lydia in the next aisle, saw her right through Mrs. Cooper’s backless shelves. Lydia didn’t see Ruby, though, and Ruby watched her in silence, holding her breath.

  Lydia picked up a tube of mascara, a tube of eyeliner, a bottle of blush. She set each item back on the shelf.

  This game of detective was silly, Ruby said to herself. She was acting like a little kid playing make-believe.

  And that was when Lydia picked up a compact, glanced across the store at Mrs. Cooper, who was still busy with the customer, and dropped the compact into the pocket of her shorts. Then, humming tunelessly, she walked out of the store in an impre
ssively nonchalant manner.

  Ruby’s mouth dropped open.

  She dashed around to the display of compacts and picked one up. The price tag read $39.

  “Thirty-ni —” Ruby started to exclaim, then clapped her hand over her mouth.

  Lydia had shoplifted after all, and she had shoplifted something expensive.

  Ruby hurried out of the store. She looked up and down Main Street, but she didn’t see Lydia.

  Now what? Ruby knew she should probably tell Mrs. Cooper what she’d seen, but she didn’t know Mrs. Cooper well and didn’t want to sound like a tattletale. Min was the one she should talk to, of course. She began to hurry back to Needle and Thread. But Ruby was still mad at Min about the argument over Mrs. Grindle. And Min was probably still cross with Ruby. What if Min didn’t believe her? She might think Ruby had invented a big story in order to make her forget she had taken away Ruby’s allowance.

  Ruby paused, then stood on the sidewalk for so long, trying to figure out what to do, that Jackie stuck her head out of the post office and said, “Everything all right, Ruby?”

  Ruby nodded. She crossed Main Street and headed for Needle and Thread again. She planned to talk to Olivia. Olivia would believe her. Also, Olivia had not said to her, “First day with your new feet?” which was what Flora had said when Ruby tripped over the rug that morning.

  “Olivia, I have to talk to you,” Ruby said in an urgent whisper when she had returned to the store.

  “Let me just finish unpacking this box,” said Olivia.

  “No, this is important!” Ruby’s voice rose to a squeal.

  “Okay, okay.” Olivia stood up.

  “Come to the back of the store with me.”

  Ruby and Olivia huddled by the worktable where the embroidery class would soon be held.

  “What is it?” asked Olivia.

  Ruby took a deep breath. “I just saw Lydia Malone steal something from Bubble Gum. I saw her with my own eyes. I swear.”

  “You swear? You’re really not kidding?”

  Ruby crossed her heart. “I wouldn’t kid about something like this. I saw her drop a compact or whatever you call it into her pocket. It was an expensive one. I checked the price.”

  “And you’re sure it was Lydia Malone?”

  “Positive.”

  “Wow.”

  “Um, excuse me,” said a voice from behind Ruby.

  Ruby and Olivia whirled around to find themselves facing Nikki Sherman. “What —” Olivia began to say.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt you,” said Nikki quickly, “but I couldn’t help overhearing you. The girl you were talking about, Lydia Malone — is she older than us? With short brown hair? Her father’s a dentist?”

  “Yes,” said Olivia.

  “Well … okay, she was in Stuff ’n’ Nonsense the day Mrs. Grindle said I took that necklace from her store. She was with another girl, and the girl teased that boy Robby.”

  “I know,” said Ruby.

  “What’s going on?” asked Flora, who had been working the cash register for Min and Gigi.

  Olivia told her about Lydia. When she finished, the four girls looked at one another. It was Olivia who said finally, in hushed tones, “So I’ll bet it was Lydia who stole the necklace after all. Lydia’s … a shoplifter.”

  “We have to tell Min and Gigi,” said Flora. “And we have to do it right now.”

  “Gigi just started teaching the class,” said Olivia. “Tell Min, Flora.”

  “No, you tell her. You’ve known Lydia longer than I have. It’ll mean more if you tell her.”

  So the girls gathered around Min, and Olivia told her what had happened.

  “Lord love a duck!” exclaimed Min.

  Later, after the class had ended, Min told Gigi the news, and to everyone’s surprise, Gigi said, “You know, I thought I saw Lydia take a spool of thread the other day.”

  “From our store?” cried Ruby.

  “Yes,” said Gigi, “but I wasn’t sure, and anyway, this isn’t the sort of thing I’d expect from Lydia. She’s always been such a nice girl. Ruby, let me ask you one more time: Are you certain about what you saw today?”

  “Positive.”

  “All right then,” said Min. “It’s decided. We’ll have to talk to Dr. Malone.”

  Nikki, who had said little that afternoon, looked from one person to the next in awe. They were sticking up for her, and they barely knew her. They were sticking up for Nikki Sherman, with her stained T-shirt and rat’s nest hair and uneven skirt.

  Sticking up for her.

  That almost never happened to a Sherman.

  “I wish I could come with you,” whispered Olivia to Flora and Ruby as they followed Min and Gigi down Main Street. They had just closed up Needle and Thread for the day and the adults were going to talk to Dr. Malone. “I’m dying to know what happens.”

  Arm in arm, Min and Gigi walked briskly in front of the girls, their heads bent together, talking quietly.

  “Are you sure you have to go with your parents?” asked Flora.

  “Yes,” replied Olivia. “We’re going over to my other grandparents’ house for dinner. I can’t tell Mom and Dad I want to stay home and eavesdrop with you.”

  “No, I guess not,” said Flora.

  “You have to promise to tell me everything that happens. And I mean every single little detail.”

  “We promise,” said Ruby.

  “And remember to call Nikki. You said you’d tell her what happens, too.”

  “I’ll remember.” Ruby sounded impatient. “Now listen — here’s what we’re going to do. As soon as Min and Gigi are inside the Malones’ house, we’re going to get glasses from the kitchen — big drinking glasses should do it — and put them against the living room wall so we can listen to what goes on in the Malones’ living room. If we —”

  “Shh!” hissed Flora. “Keep your voice down. You know Min wouldn’t approve of eavesdropping.”

  Ruby barely heard her sister. “Olivia, are you sure the Malones’ living room is right on the other side of ours?”

  Olivia nodded. “I know these houses inside and out. Once I made a blueprint of all the Row Houses. That was when I wanted to be an architect.”

  When Min and Gigi and the girls reached the Row Houses, Min said, “Okay, Flora and Ruby, you go on home now. Gigi and I are going to talk with Dr. Malone.”

  “Okay,” said Flora. And Olivia said, “See you tomorrow, Gigi.”

  Flora and Ruby made a dash for the front door of their house, ran inside, found glasses in the kitchen, and flew into the living room. They rested the open end of each glass against the wall and pressed their ears to the other end.

  “I can’t hear anything,” said Ruby after a few moments.

  “Me, neither,” said Flora.

  “Maybe they’re talking in the kitchen.”

  “Hey, I just thought of something!” cried Flora suddenly. “If the Malones’ house is the opposite of ours — if the rooms that are on the left in our house are on the right in theirs and vice versa, then Lydia’s room should be on the other side of mine. Quick! Bring your glass upstairs! Maybe we can hear Lydia talking to Margaret. Or maybe Lydia has figured out what’s going on and she’s panicked and called a friend.”

  “Flora, you’re a genius!” said Ruby. The girls ran to Flora’s bedroom with their glasses.

  The wall dividing Lydia’s room from Flora’s was the wall against which Flora had placed her bed. The rest of the wall was taken up by the cedar wardrobe.

  “On the bed!” ordered Ruby.

  “Okay, but keep your stinky feet off my pillow.”

  “I think I can hear something,” said Ruby breathlessly, kneeling at the foot of Flora’s bed. “Yup, I definitely hear voices. But I can’t make out any words.”

  Flora stood up. “All right, I’m going to go into the wardrobe. Maybe I can hear better from there.” She scrambled off the bed, turned the key in the wardrobe latch, and wedged herself onto a s
helf. Below her were two big drawers, which she had filled with her art and sewing supplies. Above her were the hangers for her clothes. Flora was shoving aside shoes and sweaters, wondering if she could actually sit in the wardrobe, when she heard the crackle of paper. She frowned. “Ruby?” she called. “Was that you?”

  “What? Shh! Be quiet! Now I can hear two voices.”

  Flora felt around the dark shelf of the wardrobe. Her fingers identified objects as they met them: sneaker, sweatshirt, sandal, pom-pom sweater. And then they closed over what felt like a wad of paper. What was this? Flora hadn’t put any papers in the wardrobe.

  Flora slid off the shelf and examined what was in her hand. It was a packet of old pages that had been torn from a spiral notebook, each page filled with large looping handwriting. Flora sank down until she was sitting on the rug, leaning against the end of her bed, and began to read the first page:

  Being the Personal Private Diary of Frannie Read (KEEP OUT — this means you, Allie)

  Flora caught her breath. Frannie Read. That was her mother. And Allie was her aunt Allie, her mother’s younger sister. This diary had been kept by Flora’s mother.

  October 10th — Monday. Back to school. Walked with Wendy.

  Wendy, thought Flora. That must have been Olivia’s mother, who lived next door even back then. Flora paused to consider her mother and Olivia’s mother walking to school together, giggling and sharing secrets.

  Allie wouldn’t leave us alone, the diary continued. Wendy and I wanted to talk about John Giancomo, who we THINK kissed Missy Truman at Pat’s party. But it’s possible he kissed someone’s arm. It was so dark.

  Flora didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Her mother’s own personal diary! In her handwriting! Flora flipped through it. Page after page of sprawling words, occasionally illustrated with a drawing of a flower or a peace symbol. Flora tried to guess how old her mother had been when she had written these pages. She found months and dates listed but no year. Flora guessed she was twelve. Twelve or thirteen.