Mrs. Sherman abruptly stopped speaking and Nikki knew why. She winced.
“Little enough? You think I give my kids little enough?” Her father’s voice rolled like thunder up the stairs to Nikki.
“That’s not what I meant. It’s just that —”
Nikki didn’t need to hear the rest of the conversation. She tiptoed back to her bed and crawled under the covers.
On Aiken Avenue, the trick-or-treaters began to drift home. At several of the Row Houses, porch lights had been extinguished, indicating that all the candy had been given out. Min walked Ruby, Flora, and Olivia home from Needle and Thread. “Good-bye!” they called to one another. Flora and Ruby ran to the living room to dump out their candy, sort it, count it, and trade it. All the while, Flora wondered if she should phone Nikki, but in the end, she decided not to.
In the second Row House from the left, Mr. Willet had already put his wife to bed. He hoped this would be one of the nights she stayed in bed. She’d been disturbed by the evening’s trick-or-treaters, and Mr. Willet didn’t want her wandering downstairs, checking to see if the drapes were drawn against intruders. He didn’t have the energy to keep returning her to their room.
In the house on the north end of the row, Mrs. Fong rubbed her hand across her swelling belly and said to her husband, “Next year I’ll be able to make a costume for our baby. A pumpkin, I think. Or maybe a bumblebee.”
Mr. Pennington had run out of candy. He had turned out his lights, and now he and Jacques were settling into bed, Jacques’s snout turned toward Mr. Pennington so that he could feel warm doggy breath on his neck.
Robby Edwards was calling to his parents, “The candy is all gone! It’s all gone! I think Halloween is over!”
“You did a great job,” his father told him. “How did you like handing out the candy?”
“Fine. Yup, fine. When can we get our Christmas tree?”
And at Min’s house, Flora breathed a sigh of relief as she put her costume away in the wardrobe. She and Ruby had survived their first holiday without their parents. Before Flora turned out her light that night, she set two photos on her bedside table, one of her mother and one of her father, so that they were the last faces she saw before she fell asleep.
With Halloween behind her, Olivia turned her thoughts to her big one-oh. It would take place in just four days. And they were a busy four days, which was good, since the hustle and bustle kept Olivia’s mind off the fact that after everything — after nearly ten years of a life well lived — her special day was not to be marked by the party for which she had longed.
On the day after Halloween, Olivia, Flora, and Ruby walked to Camden Falls Elementary together as usual.
“Do you think Nikki will be in school today?” asked Ruby.
“She hasn’t missed a day yet,” replied Olivia.
“I know, but …”
Ruby didn’t need to finish her sentence. The girls were thinking the same thing and were equally worried.
They arrived at school the moment Nikki’s bus did, and not long after it had wheezed to a stop and the door had opened, Mae hopped down the steps followed by Nikki.
“Nikki!” Olivia cried, and she rushed to hug her friend.
“What happened to you?” Flora asked, and she knew she sounded both relieved and exasperated, the way her mother had sounded years ago when Flora, then six years old, had wandered away at a playground, and her mother had had to call and call before she found her.
Nikki cast her eyes toward Mae and said lightly, “Hey, we don’t want to be late. We can talk later on the playground.”
So it was at recess that the story came out.
“He wouldn’t let us leave the house, any of us,” said Nikki as she and Olivia and Flora sat on the swings at the farthest edge of the playground.
“Why not?” asked Olivia.
Nikki shrugged.
“I don’t understand,” said Flora.
“Well, I don’t, either,” said Nikki. “Or maybe I do. Mom says my father sometimes just ‘takes a notion.’ But what I think is that he likes to feel he can control us. He can’t control a lot of other stuff, like whether he has a job or earns enough money, but he can tell Mom and Tobias and Mae and me what to do. You know what, though? He isn’t going to be able to control Tobias much longer. Tobias stands up to him now.”
Olivia stared across the playground. “We missed you last night,” she said.
“I really wanted to come.”
“Maybe someday he’ll change.”
“I don’t see how that’s going to happen,” replied Nikki, and that was all she would say about her father and Halloween.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were busy with homework and a Whiz Kidz event and working at Needle and Thread and plans for Mrs. Mandel’s party. Before Olivia knew it, Saturday had arrived. Her big one-oh.
“Hi, everybody,” said Olivia as she walked sleepily into the kitchen that morning.
There were her parents and her brothers, already up and already busy. Her parents were cooking breakfast, and her brothers were setting the table. Olivia saw paper plates and cups decorated with rainbows at each place and a bunch of balloons over the table.
“Surprise!” shouted Jack.
“Happy birthday!” said Henry and her parents.
“I bet you didn’t expect a birthday breakfast, did you?” asked her mother.
Olivia smiled. It wasn’t the one-oh bash she’d dreamed of, but it was nice.
“Open your presents, open your presents!” cried Jack.
“Right now?” asked Olivia.
“Yes! I can’t wait.”
Jack liked presents — his own, other people’s. It didn’t matter.
So while Olivia’s parents finished making breakfast, Olivia tackled the little stack of presents on the floor next to her chair. She opened a paperback book and a CD and a kit for knitting her first scarf.
“Now open mine!” said Henry, holding out a sloppily wrapped package, which looked suspiciously like another CD.
Olivia had just pulled the ribbon off when the phone rang.
“I’ll bet that’s for you, sweetie,” said her father. Olivia picked up the phone. “Hello?”
“Happy birthday! Happy birthday! It’s us. Flora —”
“And Ruby!”
“Are you having a good birthday so far?” asked Flora.
“Great,” replied Olivia.
“Well, I just wanted to say that we won’t be around today. Ruby has a special play rehearsal. Something about costumes. And I have to be there because I’m going to help with her costume.”
“So you won’t even be at the store today?” said Olivia.
“Nope. But we’ll see you tonight. Or maybe tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.” Olivia hung up the phone, feeling tears somewhere behind her eyes. “Flora and Ruby are busy,” she said. “I thought … I don’t know.”
“Well, that’s okay,” said Mrs. Walter. “We’ll do something special. Maybe we’ll go out to lunch.”
At three o’clock that afternoon, after Olivia had indeed gone out for a special lunch — just Olivia and her mother, a girls’ lunch — and she had opened some cards and two packages that arrived in the mail, the phone rang again.
“I’ll bet it’s for you!” said her father, who had said that every time the phone rang that day.
“Hello?” said Olivia.
“Hi, honey,” said Gigi’s voice. “Happy birthday!”
“Thank you.”
“Listen, I was wondering if you could come to the store. Some fabric just came in for your mother, and I know she wants it. Anyway, I want to see my granddaughter on her birthday.”
“All right,” said Olivia, without any enthusiasm. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.” Olivia put on her hat and coat, called good-bye to her parents, and set out for Needle and Thread.
She walked slowly down Aiken Avenue, noticing that most of the trees were now entirely bare and that the grass wa
s turning from green to brown to yellow. Winter would arrive soon, she thought. A long, cold Camden Falls winter. She wondered if, by the time spring arrived, her father would have a new job. Or maybe her mother would have a job. Someone in her family needed to work.
Olivia turned the corner onto Main Street, scuffed through the last of the fallen leaves to the door of Needle and Thread, opened it, heard the familiar jangle of the bell, and called out, “Hi, Gigi,” even though she didn’t see her grandmother.
“SURPRISE!”
The chorus of voices was so loud and so unexpected that Olivia jumped and stumbled backward, causing the bell over the door to jangle again. From behind the couches, the checkout counter, bolts of fabric, and racks of notions, from under and in every possible hiding place in Needle and Thread jumped Olivia’s friends and relatives. The store that had looked empty a few moments before was now crowded. There were Flora, Ruby, Nikki, Gigi and Poppy, Min, Mr. Pennington, Olivia’s other grandparents, Robby and his parents, the Fongs, every single Morris, Dr. Malone and Lydia and Margaret, several of Olivia’s classmates, two of her cousins, and her aunt and uncle.
“Are you surprised?” cried Robby. “Are you, Olivia? We tricked you!” He set a sequined tiara on her head. “Here’s your birthday crown,” he added. Then he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “I kept a secret from you for a very long time. And it wasn’t easy.”
“I — I —” Olivia was nearly speechless. She started to sink down on one of the couches, but suddenly she was surrounded by Nikki, Ruby, and Flora, who threw their arms around her.
“We’ve been planning this forever!” exclaimed Flora.
“Notice how I did not spill the beans,” Ruby whispered to her sister.
“Your parents were in on it, too, Olivia,” said Nikki.
And at that moment, the bell jangled once again as Henry and Jack and Mr. and Mrs. Walter ran in.
“Surprise!” they shouted.
“What?” said Olivia. “How did —”
“We were waiting for Gigi’s phone call,” said her father. “We left the house right after you did and followed you here.”
“You sure are a pokey walker,” added Henry.
“Did we really surprise you?” Ruby asked Olivia.
“I’ll say.”
“Really and truly? You didn’t suspect anything?”
“Not a thing. I can’t believe this!”
“Look around the store,” said Nikki. “We made all the decorations.”
Olivia walked slowly around the store while her guests laughed and chatted. Taped to the walls were giant pink-and-silver insects made from cardboard and felt, with wire antennae and pipe cleaner legs. Spread across the coffee table was a white cloth, and Olivia could see that the guests had signed it and drawn pictures on it.
“Look over there,” said Flora. “Gigi helped us with that.”
“It’s the Olivia Walter Timeline,” added Ruby.
Propped up on the cutting table was a long piece of poster board marked off into years and noted with important events in Olivia’s life. Under the timeline were ten photos of Olivia, one for each year, starting with the day she had been born, and with space for an eleventh photo.
“I can’t believe it. I really can’t believe it,” Olivia said over and over again.
“And the party hasn’t even started,” said Flora. “You have to open your presents” (she pointed to the mountain of gifts teetering on one of the couches) “and we have to have the cake, of course.”
“But before that,” said Ruby, “we have an extra-special surprise.”
“Another surprise?” said Olivia.
Ruby grinned. “Who wants to bring him out?” she asked.
The guests had gathered around Flora, Ruby, Nikki, and Olivia, and Nikki said, “I’ll get him.”
“Him?” said Olivia.
Nikki disappeared into the storage room and emerged holding a box. It was a cardboard box that had been wrapped in pink-and-silver paper, the bottom separately from the top so that the lid could be lifted off. Nikki handed it to Olivia, and Olivia saw that holes had been poked in the lid.
“Open it carefully,” said Nikki.
Olivia sat on a couch, the box in her lap. She raised the lid. Peering up at her were two bright black eyes. Olivia’s mouth dropped open. “It’s — is it … Sandy?” she asked.
“Yup,” said Flora. “He’s all yours.”
“This is yours, too,” spoke up Mr. Walter, and he and Mrs. Walter and Henry and Jack placed a guinea pig cage, a bag of litter, and a supply of food at Olivia’s feet.
Olivia, the center of attention, sat among her family and her three best friends, her new pet in her lap. “I can’t believe it,” she said once more, and then she added, “This is the best one-oh ever.”
Nikki and Mae Sherman stood hand in hand outside the storage shed in which Nikki kept the bags of kibble for the stray dogs. Darkness was falling, but in the dim light they could just see the outlines of the other buildings on their property, fuzzy-edged shapes in shades of gray.
“I can’t see the dogs, though,” Mae was saying. “It’s too dark.”
“You can see their eyes,” Nikki replied. “You can see their eyes shining in the light from the house. Count the pairs of eyes, Mae. I want to know how many dogs are coming for food now.”
“More,” said Mae with certainty. “It’s more.”
“I know. But I want to know how many more. You count and I’ll count — we’ll count to ourselves — and let’s see if we come up with the same number.”
Nikki scanned the edges of the property. A few minutes earlier, after she had hauled a bag of food out of the shed, the sound of kibble rattling into plastic bowls had called to the shining eyes, and they had appeared from all directions. Nikki started at her left and began to count. “One, two, three, four, five, six …” She reached nine and realized she wasn’t done.
“Thirteen,” said Mae a few moments later.
“I got twelve, but it’s hard to see. Anyway, there are definitely more.” Nikki let out her breath. “Wow.”
“I thought you wanted to feed the dogs,” said Mae.
“Oh, I do. It’s just that there are so many of them now.”
“But isn’t that good? You’re helping lots and lots of dogs.”
“I guess so.”
“They’re all so skinny. Even Paw-Paw,” said Mae. “They really need the food.”
“I know.” Nikki thought of her dwindling funds. It wasn’t easy for her to find ways to earn money. She lived too far out in the country to have a regular job in town, and anyway, she was too young to be hired for most jobs. Every now and then, her mother paid her to baby-sit for Mae, but mostly her mother didn’t have any money of her own. Tobias sometimes offered to pay Nikki for helping him with one of his projects — repainting a car or fixing an engine — but Nikki knew he was only creating work for her; he could just as easily do those things on his own. The Shaws down the road were her main source of income. She often helped them with farm chores. Still, the bags of dog food were expensive, and Nikki could only afford to buy so many.
“What are you doing?”
A voice spoke loudly from the darkness, and Nikki and Mae jumped, Mae grabbing for Nikki’s hand as Nikki tried to shove the dog food and dishes under a bush.
“Relax, it’s just me.”
“Tobias!” scolded Nikki. “You scared us to death.”
“We thought you were Dad,” said Mae, and she ran fiercely toward Tobias and punched his leg.
“Ow!” exclaimed Tobias. “Mae, quit it. I didn’t mean to scare you.” He picked up his sister and held her at arm’s length, giving her a warning look, then hugged her.
“Sorry,” muttered Mae.
Tobias watched Nikki pull the dishes out from under the bushes. “How many dishes are there?” he asked, his expression turning to surprise. “Seriously, Nikki, what’s going on here?”
Nikki sighed. “Mae and I just tri
ed to count the dogs. There are twelve or thirteen coming around for food now.”
Tobias set Mae on the ground. He rubbed his forehead. “You know, the more dogs you feed, the more will come.”
“I guess. I didn’t realize that would happen. And I don’t have enough money for all the food.”
“Why don’t you just put out less food?” asked Tobias. “This is nice, but it isn’t really your responsibility. Besides, Dad hates the dogs, and he knows what you’re doing, Nikki. Maybe he doesn’t know how you get the food or where you hide it, but he knows you’re feeding the dogs somehow, and it makes him angry.”
“Well, I don’t care. Let him be angry. That’s his problem,” said Nikki. “I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m doing a good thing. Besides, he’s not the boss of me.”
“I know. I agree. Just telling you,” replied Tobias.
Two days later, on a warm afternoon that felt more like September than November, Nikki and Mae sat on the bare earth outside the shed in which the dog food was hidden. Nikki’s solution to her problem — a temporary one, she knew — had been to set out three fewer dishes than before, to fill the other dishes only partway, and to feed the dogs earlier than usual, before her father was due home.
“… eight, nine, ten!” said Mae, counting with great authority. “See? Not so many dogs as before.”
“Yeah, but what happened to the others?” asked Nikki. “It doesn’t mean they aren’t hungry. It just means they know they can’t get food here anymore.”
The hum of wheels could be heard on the county road, and Nikki and Mae paused in their conversation to listen. When the wheels slowed, Mae said, “That’s Tobias! Tobias is home!”
Sure enough, the wheels began to crunch along the gravel driveway, and Mae jumped up. She ran toward the car, then turned around and dashed back to Nikki.
“It isn’t Tobias! It’s Dad!” she cried.
Nikki felt her stomach roll. What was her father doing home early? “Quick! Get the dishes while I put the food away.” Nikki reached for the bag, which was a new one and mostly full. It weighed nearly twenty pounds. She began to drag it toward the shed.