Stacey and the Missing Ring

  “You’re not going to believe this,” she said. “Mrs. Addison just cancelled, too.”

  “You’re kidding!” said Claud. “That was my job. On Saturday night, right?”

  “Right,” answered Jessi. “She and her husband were supposed to go to the theater. But now she and Corrie have strep throat, and the doctor said she should avoid being in public, since strep is so contagious.”

  “Oh, no!” said Claud. “I really needed that job, too. I’m broke.” She looked depressed.

  “Hey Kristy, tell us about another rough time,” said Mallory. I think she was trying to change the subject and get our minds off what was happening.

  “Well,” began Kristy, thinking.

  “I know,” I said. “What about the time those girls started the Baby-sitters Agency and tried to steal our clients?”

  “Oh, my lord,” said Claud. “That was really the worst. Remember, Kristy? You wanted us to try to compete with them by lowering our prices and offering house-cleaning services for no extra charge.”

  “What?” said Jessi and Mal at the same time.

  “Don’t worry,” said Kristy. “They talked me out of it. And the Agency self-destructed because the sitters they hired were so terrible.”

  “But you know what?” said Claud. “I just remembered. They did steal some of our clients — for a while. And during that time, we’d have meetings when the phone never rang. Just like now.”

  “You’re right,” said Mary Anne. “And we survived that, didn’t we?” She sounded optimistic. But then she looked down at the record book. “I have to say, though, that things don’t look so good. We hardly have any jobs lined up for the next week. And the ones we do have are mostly for the Pikes and the Ramseys and the Brewers.”

  Were we reduced to sitting only for our families? This didn’t look good. But we spent the last few minutes of the meeting talking about other bad times the club had been through, and by the end of it I felt a little better. The phone hadn’t rung again, but at least I had the feeling that things might work out. I had no idea how, but I was hoping for the best.

  Jessi was sitting for Becca and Squirt on Thursday night. Her parents had gone to a dinner party, and her Aunt Cecelia, who lives with them, had gone to the movies. Jessi says she always has a good time sitting for Becca and Squirt, but she doesn’t get to do it as often, since Aunt Cecelia came to live with the Ramseys. Jessi’s aunt would probably prefer to be the full-time sitter for the Ramseys, since she thinks she’s the only one who knows the right way to do things. But once in a while, Jessi lucks out and Aunt Cecelia has plans on the same night Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey do.

  “Hey, Squirt,” said Jessi. “Let me see your ba.” “Ba” is what Squirt calls his belly button, and he loves pulling up his shirt to show it off. You should see his grin when he does it. He looks so, so proud of himself. It’s a riot.

  They were sitting around in the living room after dinner (Jessi had made hot dogs and beans, Becca’s favorite), listening to the radio, and trying to decide what to do next. Becca wanted to play Clue, but Jessi vetoed that idea.

  “We have to play something we can play together,” she said. “Squirt can’t play Clue.”

  “Squirt can’t play anything,” said Becca. “He’s just a baby.”

  “Well, maybe he can’t play any board games, but if we think, I’m sure we can come up with some kind of game Squirt can play.” Jessi and Becca sat quietly for a few minutes, thinking. Squirt continued to show off his ba, even though nobody was paying attention.

  “I know,” said Jessi. She picked up a button that had been lying on the table. It had fallen off her father’s shirt just as her parents were getting ready to leave.

  “Let’s play a new kind of hide-and-seek. I’ll hide this button somewhere in the room, and then you try to find it. Squirt loves to look for things, so he’ll have a good time.”

  “What happens when I find it?” asked Becca. She didn’t sound convinced that the game would be fun.

  “Then you get to hide it and I’ll look,” answered Jessi.

  “Okay,” said Becca. “Let’s try it. I’ll close my eyes while you hide the button.” She squinched up her eyes and held Squirt on her lap. “Close your eyes, Squirt,” she said. “Like me.” Squirt squinched up his eyes, too.

  Jessi looked around the room. The Ramseys’ living room isn’t all that big, but there are plenty of places where you could hide something as little as a button. She didn’t want to make the game too hard, though, because then Becca would get frustrated.

  Finally, she put it underneath one of the magazines stacked on the coffee table. “Ready!” she said, as soon as she’d made sure the magazines were back in their original positions.

  Becca opened her eyes and started to roam around the room. Squirt followed her, picking up everything that she picked up, looking into every corner that she looked into, poking his fingers between the sofa cushions the same way she did. He was having a ball.

  Jessi watched as Becca narrowed down the hiding places. But every time Becca approached the coffee table, she’d get distracted by another idea and look somewhere else. Jessi wanted to giggle, but she controlled herself. She knew the game wasn’t easy. She waited patiently, singing along to the song that was on the radio.

  Finally, Becca went to the coffee table and started to pick up each magazine in turn. “I found it!” she squealed, when she turned over the one that was hiding the button. “I found it, Squirt.”

  Squirt squealed, too. He was almost as happy as Becca was.

  “Okay,” said Jessi. “Now, let’s go to another room and you get to hide the button.” They trooped into the kitchen. “Hey,” said Jessi, when they got there, “I know. Instead of hiding a button in this room, let’s hide this.” She held up a little bottle opener. “We’ll use a different object in each room.”

  “Close your eyes!” commanded Becca, and Jessi closed her eyes. She heard the refrigerator door open and shut, and then the sound of cabinet doors closing. She heard the rustle of paper bags. Then it was quiet. “Okay,” said Becca.

  Jessi and Squirt began to search the kitchen. They looked in every corner, and under every appliance. They looked in the sink, and they even checked the oven. Jessi opened the refrigerator and peered inside. No bottle opener. Finally, she opened the silverware drawer. There was the opener, where it was usually kept!

  Becca giggled. “Good trick, right?” she asked.

  “Good trick,” agreed Jessi. “You know, I think it took me a lot longer to find that than it took you to find the button. We should time our searches so we know who’s faster. That would really make the game good.” She dug around in a drawer and found the egg timer. “This will work,” she said. “Let’s go into the dining room.”

  They played for quite a while. Jessi hid Squirt’s favorite toy — a blue plastic fish — in the dining room, and then Becca hid a toothbrush in the bathroom. Jessi hid one of her ballet shoes in her bedroom, and then Becca hid her Barbie in her bedroom. Squirt trailed along everywhere they went, giggling happily whenever an object was found. He never found anything, but he didn’t seem to care.

  The girls timed their searches to see who was faster, and Becca kept winning. “You’re good at this game, Becca,” said Jessi.

  “I like to look for things,” replied Becca. “This is fun.”

  Then they went into their parents’ room. It was Jessi’s turn to hide something, and she chose one of her mother’s earrings from her dressing table. While Becca closed her eyes, Jessi looked for a good place. An earring was so small she could put it almost anywhere.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” she said out loud.

  Becca opened her eyes. “What?” she asked.

  “I’m just thinking …” said Jessi. “Never mind. Close your eyes again.” She hid the earring under a pillow and then watched while Becca searched. And as she watched, she thought. While she had been looking for a place, she’d suddenly realized how many hiding places there
could be in a house. And then she thought of Mrs. Gardella’s ring. She’d known all along that I hadn’t stolen it, but now she had some ideas about what might have happened to it. It could easily have been misplaced. It could be anywhere!

  As soon as Becca found the earring, Jessi hurried her sister and brother downstairs. She was planning to call me and tell me what she’d been thinking. Maybe the Gardellas simply hadn’t looked hard enough. Becca and Squirt ran into the kitchen to find a snack. Jessi followed them. But as she walked through the living room, she was stopped in her tracks by something she heard on the radio. It was a news flash, and since she was listening to WSTO — the Voice of Stoneybrook — she knew it must be local news. The word that had made her stop and listen was “thief.”

  “A professional and possibly dangerous thief is still at large in the area,” said the announcer. “Police report that he has broken into several homes in the past two weeks, and they’ve had calls reporting three burglaries tonight alone. Homeowners are warned to lock their doors and windows, hide their valuables, and take other precautions. Anyone who has information on the matter should call the police at —”

  Jessi snapped off the radio. She glanced around. She could hear her brother and sister laughing in the kitchen. Whew. At least Becca hadn’t heard about the thief.

  But Jessi was terrified. There was a burglar on the loose in Stoneybrook, and he could be looking into the living room window at that very moment! Uh-oh, she thought. What am I going to do now?

  Her first thought, she told me later, was to call her parents. She knew they’d come straight home, and then everything would be okay. No burglar was going to rob a home that was full of people, and anyway, she’d feel safer if her parents were there. But she threw away that thought in a second. If she called her parents, she would prove to Aunt Cecelia (who would be sure to hear about it later) that Jessi wasn’t “mature” enough to sit for Becca and Squirt. Then she’d never get to sit for them.

  Jessi pulled herself together. The thing to do, she realized, would be to make the house as secure as possible — but without letting Becca and Squirt know what she was doing. She began by checking to see that all the windows were locked. She tried the living room windows, and then went into the kitchen and checked those.

  “What are you doing, Jessi?” asked Becca.

  “Oh, well …” said Jessi, thinking fast. “It just seems like it might be getting a little chilly outside, and I wanted to be sure the windows were closed tight.”

  “Can I help?” asked Becca.

  “Sure,” said Jessi, and she and Becca (with Squirt following along) walked through the house checking windows. Jessi also checked the doors, when Becca wasn’t looking.

  “We should be pretty warm now,” said Becca, after they’d checked the last window.

  “Right,” said Jessi. “But … doesn’t it seem kind of dark and gloomy in here? Let’s turn on some more lights.” She figured the burglar wouldn’t want to break into a house that was all lit up, so she went from room to room, turning on every light. Her father would kill her when the electric bill came, but she figured it was worth it.

  “Let’s help Mama clean up,” she said, when they had reached her parents’ bedroom. She swept her mother’s jewelry off the top of her dressing table and into a drawer. After all, the newscaster had said to “hide valuables.” What other valuables did they have?

  She thought for a minute. “You know,” she said to Becca, who was beginning to look at her with a puzzled expression, “since we’re not watching the TV, maybe we should cover it up. It’ll look neater. The VCR, too.”

  Jessi threw a blanket over the TV and VCR. “Now,” she said. “Let’s have some music.” She flicked on the radio and found a station playing rock music. Then she turned up the volume as loud as it would go. She wanted to make absolutely sure the thief would know that someone was home.

  “Let’s dance!” exclaimed Jessi. She grabbed Squirt, swung him up, and danced him around the living room. Becca gave her a funny look, but then her favorite song came on and she shrugged and started dancing, too.

  In the middle of the song, Jessi had an awful thought. Could the thief have stolen Mrs. Gardella’s ring? Could he have been in the house while Stacey was baby-sitting? “Oh, my lord,” she said out loud — but nobody heard her because the music was so loud. That was the scariest thing Jessi could imagine.

  When Mrs. and Mr. Ramsey came home, they found Jessi reading on the couch, with the radio on — loudly. Becca and Squirt had managed to fall asleep, but every light in the house was on, including the ones in their rooms.

  Jessi explained the situation to her parents, and they told her they were proud of her. Then she went to bed. Now that they were home, she felt safe as she drifted off to sleep. And her last thought before she slept made her smile. If the thief had taken the ring, she thought, then Stacey’s name would be cleared. And the Baby-sitters Club would be back to normal business.

  Claud isn’t usually so obsessed with how much money she makes. Most of us baby-sit because it’s fun, not because it makes us millionaires. But we have begun to count on the money we make, and now that we weren’t getting so many jobs, Claud was feeling the pinch.

  The call from Mrs. Prezzioso had come during Friday’s meeting. It was one of the only calls we’d gotten.

  “I wonder,” Kristy had said after she’d hung up. “Do you think the Prezziosos just haven’t heard the Gardella story?”

  “Maybe they have but they’re desperate for a sitter,” Dawn had said. “Anyway, who gets the job?”

  Mary Anne checked the record book. “Well, the only ones free are Claud, Kristy, Mal, and Stacey.”

  I didn’t want the job, because I still felt guilty about what had happened. And Kristy and Mal had said they were still getting jobs sitting for their brothers and sisters, so they didn’t need the money as much as Claud did. Claud had accepted the job gratefully.

  So there she was that Saturday night, saying good-bye to Mr. and Mrs. Prezzioso as they headed out for a party. They were all dressed up and Mrs. P. was “reeking of perfume,” as Claud said later. They really seemed to be looking forward to their night out.

  “Okay, Jenny,” said Claud, after they’d left. “Let’s get your little sister ready for bed.”

  “Can I pick out her pajamas?” asked Jenny.

  “Sure,” Claud answered. She led the way to Andrea’s room. “Which ones do you want her to wear?”

  Jenny picked out a pair of blue pajamas with pink dinosaurs on them. “These are her favorite ones,” she said. She helped Claud diaper Andrea and then put on the pajamas. (“Helping” meant mostly just standing around and saying, “Mommy doesn’t do it like that,” and other useful things.)

  Then they went back downstairs to get a bottle for Andrea. Mrs. Prezzioso had left one in the bottle warmer, so it was all ready. They trooped back to Andrea’s room. Claud sat in the rocker with the baby, hoping that the motion would help her to fall asleep once she’d finished her bottle.

  Jenny ran into her own room and found her favorite doll, then dragged her little children’s-sized rocker into Andrea’s room and set it next to the big rocker. “I’m going to put my baby to bed, too,” she said. She tipped a doll’s bottle toward her “baby’s” mouth, and held the doll while she rocked slowly.

  Claud started to sing softly to Andrea. “ ‘Hush, little baby, don’t say a word.’ ”

  Jenny sang to her baby, too. “ ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star.’ ” It wasn’t exactly a lullaby, but it was a song she knew.

  Claudia and Jenny rocked next to each other until Claud noticed that Andrea’s eyes were drooping. “Oh, you’re getting sleepy, aren’t you?” she said. She put down the bottle and lifted Andrea to her shoulder, patting her on the back.

  Jenny burped her baby, too.

  Then Claud gently lowered Andrea into her crib. “Go to sleep now,” she said, rubbing Andrea’s back softly.

  Jenny put her doll on the f
loor in a little nest she’d made of blankets. “Time to sleep,” she said, rubbing the doll’s back.

  Then Claud and Jenny tiptoed out of the room. “You’re a good mommy,” said Claud.

  “I know,” said Jenny. “I watch what my mommy does and I do the same things.”

  “What’s your baby’s name?” asked Claud. She was expecting maybe Ashley or Melissa.

  “Pee-wee,” answered Jenny seriously.

  Claud had to stifle a giggle.

  “He’s my favorite on TV, so I named my baby after him,” explained Jenny.

  Claud kept a straight face and nodded. “Well, Pee-wee is a very good baby,” she said. “Now, what would you like to do until bedtime?”

  “Let’s play house,” said Jenny. “You be the mommy and I’ll be the little baby.” She crouched on the floor and started to crawl around.

  Claudia smiled. She knows that older brothers and sisters sometimes like to play “baby” so they can get the same kind of attention their siblings are getting. “Does the baby want a bottle?” she asked.

  “Waaa!” answered Jenny. “Baby want a bottle.”

  Claudia went into the kitchen and put some apple juice into an empty bottle. “Here you go,” she said, bringing it to Jenny. Jenny crawled into Claud’s lap and started drinking out of the bottle. Then she wiggled out again. “Waaa!” she said. “Baby want toys.”

  Claud pulled out a few of Andrea’s baby toys out of the toy basket. “Here you go, baby,” she said, giving them to Jenny. Jenny took them and started to throw them around the living room, looking at Claud out of the corner of her eye.

  “No, no, little baby,” said Claud. “Baby shouldn’t throw toys.”

  “Waaa!” cried Jenny. Then, as quickly as she’d become a baby, she became a little girl again. “I’m tired of this game,” she said. “Let’s play Shark Attack.”

  So Claud played Shark Attack with Jenny until the shark’s batteries wore down and he stopped moving around the board. Then she and Jenny played with Barbie dolls for a while. They had finished with that and were about to start on a game of hide-and-seek when Claud looked at her watch.