The Secret Book Club

  “Hi,” said Ruby a second time. And then, not wanting to get caught up in a dreary conversation with her aunt, had added, “Well, I have to go now. See you later.”

  Ruby ran out of the store. To be safe, she crossed Main Street again, ran by Needle and Thread, and then crossed Dodds Lane. There. That should put enough distance between her and her aunt. Ruby realized that she was now standing in front of the site of the fire. She was looking at the building (the windows of Plaza Drugs, Hulit’s, and the diner were temporarily boarded up, so she couldn’t see much) when around the corner came the family who had bought the Marquis. What were their names? Ruby had been introduced to them on the day Min and Gigi had invited them to Needle and Thread for coffee. Nelson, that was their last name. And the kids were Hilary and Spencer.

  “Hi,” said Ruby. “Remember me?”

  Hilary regarded her seriously. “Is your name Ruby?” she asked.

  Ruby nodded.

  “Hi, Ruby,” said Mr. Nelson. “Nice to see you again.” He turned to Hilary and Spencer. “Kids, you wait outside while your mother and I check on the repairs.”

  “Darn,” said Spencer, sitting right down on the sidewalk. “I wanted to go inside. You know what Mom and Dad get to wear in there? Hard hats. I want a hard hat.”

  Hilary sighed, said nothing, and squatted next to her brother.

  “Um,” said Ruby, “so …” She thought for a moment. “So where are you living now?” She recalled that the Nelsons had been living above the ruined diner. She raised her eyes to more boarded-up windows.

  “In a house on Pond Road,” said Hilary.

  “It has a swing in the backyard!” said Spencer.

  “But we’re just renting the house,” added Hilary. “It isn’t ours.”

  “Oh. How old are you?” asked Ruby.

  “Ten.”

  “Will you be in fifth grade this fall?”

  “Yup.”

  “At Camden Falls Elementary?”

  Hilary nodded.

  “Then maybe you’ll be in my class!” said Ruby. “You’ll be in my grade.”

  “If we’re still here,” said Hilary.

  “What?” asked Ruby.

  Hilary glanced at her brother. “Hey, Spencer,” she said. “Why don’t you go sit on that bench? Here’s your Game Boy. Mom said you could play it for fifteen minutes.”

  Spencer snatched the Game Boy from his sister and ran for the bench.

  When he was staring intently at the screen, Hilary said quietly to Ruby, “We don’t really have enough money to stay here. We spent all our money buying the diner and fixing it up.”

  Ruby frowned. “I thought Min said — Min is my grandmother — I thought she said your insurance company would pay to fix up the diner.”

  “They’ll pay for some things but not everything,” said Hilary. “And they’re not paying for us to rent a house.” She glanced at Ruby, then lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m not supposed to talk about this. I’m not even really supposed to know what’s going on. But I’m a worrier. That’s what my parents say. So I know exactly what’s going on. Mom and Dad spent all of our savings on the diner. They wanted us to live in a small town. They thought it would be better for Spencer and me to grow up here. Which I guess it is. But …” (Hilary spread her hands) “now we have nothing. No money. I don’t even know how Mom and Dad were able to rent the house. They must have borrowed money from someone. If we can’t make things work here, I don’t know what we’ll do. Maybe move back to Boston and live with my grandparents.”

  “Wow,” said Ruby. “Really?” She stood up and peered through the door to the murky interior of the Marquis Diner. She tried to recall what it had looked like before the fire. She had a dim memory of a long polished counter, booths with red vinyl seats, and on the walls, posters advertising Broadway shows. There had been photos of actors, too, and a board on which were listed the sandwiches the Marquis served. The sandwiches were named for famous people. Ruby wished for a sandwich named the Ruby Reuben. And after she became a famous Broadway actor herself, her own photo could go on the wall. Maybe right next to the cash register, where everyone would be sure to see it. But none of those things would happen if the Nelsons weren’t able to go ahead with their plans. Their dreams, Ruby reminded herself, and immediately felt selfish for so much as thinking about her star photo and the Ruby Reuben.

  Ruby turned back to Hilary. She saw a frail girl, small for her age, with very sad eyes. An image of Timothy Frisby, the sick mouse child in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, came to Ruby’s mind. How bravely and earnestly Timothy’s mother, Mrs. Frisby, had fought to save his life. She had done things she didn’t know she was capable of, and in the end, an entire community had rallied to help the Frisbys.

  Ruby turned her gaze down Main Street. She thought about the fact that Min knew the owner of just about every store and business in town. Then Ruby realized that she herself knew lots of the people who worked in the stores. And those people were a community, the Main Street community.

  Ruby could feel her heart begin to pound. “Hilary,” she said, “I’d better go. I have to check in with my grandmother.” (Not true.) “Come stop by our store anytime, okay? I’m there a lot. Unfortunately.”

  Hilary grinned, and Ruby realized it was the first time she had seen her smile. “Okay,” said Hilary.

  Ruby ran back across Dodds Lane. By the time she reached Dutch Haus on the opposite corner, an idea was taking shape in her brain. She pushed her way into the store. “Jeanne!” she said to the woman behind the counter. “You know the Nelsons? Whose diner burned down? I think we should have a big event to help raise money for them! The whole town could help out.” Ruby tried to relate in a calm and orderly fashion what she had learned from Hilary.

  “Why, that’s a wonderful idea, Ruby,” said Jeanne. “Let me put on my thinking cap. I know we can come up with something.”

  “I’m going to go talk to everyone else!” said Ruby breathlessly.

  And that is what she did. Ruby spent the rest of the afternoon stopping in at the stores on Main Street. She talked to Frank in Frank’s Beans. She talked to Sonny in Time and Again. She talked to the Walters in Sincerely Yours. She even talked to the odious Mrs. Grindle in Stuff ’n’ Nonsense. Then she talked to people in the T-shirt Emporium and the Cheshire Cat and the grocery store, and to the Fongs at their studio.

  At last, exhausted but quite pleased with herself, Ruby returned to Needle and Thread and told Min and Gigi her idea for helping the Nelsons get back on their feet.

  Min looked a bit startled. “You’ve already told the whole town about this?” she exclaimed.

  “Oh. Should I have told you first?” said Ruby.

  Min smiled and shook her head. “Never mind. I think your idea is terrific. If we all put our heads together, I know we’ll think of the perfect project.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Are you bored now?” asked Min.

  “Bored?” said Ruby. “What’s that?”

  Nikki Sherman was sitting and thinking. She liked sitting and thinking, especially on a clear, warm Saturday, when she could sit and think in peace on her front stoop. Nikki breathed in the summertime smells: honeysuckle and clover and sun-drenched grass. She leaned over and pinched a bit of lavender from the plant by the stoop, then breathed in its scent. “Heavenly,” she said aloud, and, eyes closed, was transported to her mother’s bedroom. On summer mornings, Nikki liked to lie on Mrs. Sherman’s bed and watch her get ready for work. The last thing Mrs. Sherman would do, before taking one final glance in the mirror, was pour a drop of lavender oil from the purple glass bottle on her dresser and dab it behind each ear. Lavender was the scent of Nikki’s mother.

  On the stoop next to Nikki were her copies of The Saturdays and Mrs. Frisby. Nikki was waiting for Mr. Walter to bring Olivia, Ruby, and Flora by. The girls planned to spend the afternoon at Nikki’s — the first of their special Saturdays. Nikki had been looking forward to this day, but she h
ad a feeling that the Melendys’ adventures would surpass any adventures the members of the secret book club would share this summer. Just for starters, the Melendys lived in Manhattan (a fact that was bound to impress Ruby), and they had such things as museums and opera houses at hand. What was at hand in tiny Camden Falls? wondered Nikki. Then she scolded herself. Who knew what summer adventures lay ahead? Her own Saturdays might well be as exciting as the Melendys’.

  Nikki’s ears caught the sound of a car on the road, and moments later she saw a small cloud of dust as Mr. Walter’s Toyota rumbled along the dirt road to the Shermans’ house.

  “Bye, girls! Have fun,” said Olivia’s father as Flora, Ruby, and Olivia scrambled out of the car and ran to Nikki.

  “Bye!” chorused the girls. And Olivia added, “Remember, Min is going to pick us up later.”

  Mr. Walter honked his horn. Then he turned the car around and headed back to Main Street.

  The four girls, holding their books, now stood awkwardly in front of the Shermans’ house.

  “So,” said Olivia, looking uncertainly at her friends. “How do you think we start our first meeting?”

  “I guess we talk about the books,” said Flora.

  Nikki consulted the letter that had accompanied the books. “And then we think about our green project.”

  “Are we supposed to hold an actual meeting?” asked Olivia. “Is someone supposed to call it to order?”

  “What do people in book clubs do?” asked Ruby.

  “They have fun,” said a voice from behind the screen door. The door opened and Tobias stepped outside. “You girls are so serious,” he went on. “Just grab some sodas from the fridge, go up to Nikki’s room, and lie around on the beds. Isn’t that what girls do when they get together? Have some bonding time or something?” (Flora giggled.) “Anyway, you guys are on your own. I’m going to take Mae over to the Shaws’ for a while.”

  “We’re going to look for fish in their pond!” exclaimed Mae giddily as she charged through the door and joined her brother on the stoop.

  Five minutes later, Tobias and Mae were gone, and Nikki, Flora, Ruby, and Olivia were doing what Tobias suggested: They were sprawled around the room Nikki and Mae shared, drinking sodas. Flora, book club letter in hand, led off the conversation with, “Okay, the first thing to talk about is Mrs. Frisby and bravery,” but she was interrupted by Ruby, who said, “I hope we’re not going to follow the letter exactly, like a worksheet in school. Let’s just talk about the books. And I say, let’s start with The Saturdays, even though it’s our bonus book, and all the questions and everything are about Mrs. Frisby.”

  “Ruby,” said Flora, a note of suspicion in her voice, “you did read Mrs. Frisby, didn’t you?”

  “I loved the first twelve chapters!” said Ruby rapturously.

  “What about the rest of the chapters?” asked Olivia.

  Ruby paused. “I’m sure I’ll like them just as much.”

  “Ruby! Our very first meeting and you didn’t even finish the book!” exclaimed Flora.

  “How could you stop in the middle?” cried Olivia. “I think Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH might possibly be the most exciting book I ever read!”

  “Well, to begin with, there were two books. And Mrs. Frisby is very long,” said Ruby. “The printing is tiny,” she added. “Teeny-tiny. The printing in The Saturdays is much better and easier to read.”

  There was a brief silence, after which Olivia said, “The sad thing is that Ruby doesn’t even know what a great story she missed. I feel very bad for her.”

  “Hey!” Ruby cried. “That is not your business, Olivia. It’s mine.”

  “No, you’re wrong. It’s our business. Aren’t all the members of a book club supposed to read the books so that they have a shared experience? If we all read Mrs. Frisby, for instance, then we’ve all — all,” she repeated, looking at Ruby, “shared that experience. We have it in common.”

  “Bonding,” said Flora. “Tobias was kidding, but I think he has a point.”

  “Can’t we bond over The Saturdays?” asked Ruby.

  “Look, you guys,” said Nikki. “Let’s just start talking about the books, okay? If Ruby can join in, great. If she can’t, well, maybe she’ll want to finish future books.” (It was Nikki’s turn to eye Ruby.) “And I don’t think,” she added hastily, glancing at Flora and Olivia, “that we have to talk about every single thing listed in the letter. Let’s just use the letter as a guide. I think the main purpose of this particular club is to have some fun adventures this summer.”

  “Like the Melendys,” said Ruby pointedly. “And don’t you guys think it’s good that I at least finished one book?”

  “Yes,” said Flora.

  “You want to know what my favorite part of The Saturdays was?” asked Ruby. “It was when Oliver went to the circus. All by himself, and he was only six years old. I know it was naughty, but that’s why I liked it. Also, I liked it when he came home with the policeman and puked on the doormat.”

  Olivia laughed. “I liked the part when Rush found the dog. I wish I had a dog.”

  “I liked that the Melendys were so independent,” said Nikki.

  “Do you think all New York kids are as independent as they are?” asked Ruby dreamily.

  “Not nowadays,” said Flora. “Did you guys notice when this book was published? Way back in 1941. I’ll bet things were really different then. I’ll bet New York kids couldn’t do any of those things today. Not by themselves, like the Melendys did. A grown-up would have to go with them on their Saturday adventures now.”

  “I think that’s sad,” said Ruby. “I’ll bet we’re more independent here in Camden Falls than kids our age in New York City.”

  “That’s funny,” said Nikki, “because while I was waiting for you guys to come over, I was feeling a little jealous of the Melendys and their adventures, but now I don’t feel so bad.”

  “Do you think the Melendys showed bravery on their adventures or were they just having fun?” asked Olivia. “I was looking at the first thing to talk about in the letter — about bravery in Mrs. Frisby — and I was about to say that Mrs. Frisby showed a lot of bravery while the Melendys just had fun, but then I realized that might not be true.”

  “I think the Melendys mostly had fun,” said Flora, “but some of the things they did were brave, too. I mean, it’s kind of silly, but when Mona got her hair cut, that was brave.”

  “Not nearly as brave as what Mrs. Frisby did to save Timothy!” exclaimed Ruby. She turned to Olivia. “See? I can still contribute to our discussion.” Olivia smiled a tiny smile. “Mrs. Frisby had to brave Dragon the cat,” Ruby continued, “and Jeremy the crow, and the owl — I don’t think we ever find out the owl’s name, do we? Anyway, Mrs. Frisby was really brave.”

  “But when Mona cut her hair, it changed her identity,” said Flora. “That’s brave, too, just in a different kind of way.”

  “Overall, though,” said Olivia, “I think there was more bravery in Mrs. Frisby. The rats were brave when they were trapped in the cages at NIMH.”

  “Mrs. Frisby’s husband had been brave,” said Nikki. “That’s why the rats were so nice to Mrs. Frisby when Timothy was sick.”

  “Nicodemus the rat was brave,” said Flora. “He came up with the plan for the rats’ escape.”

  “There’s something I’ve been wondering,” said Nikki. “This isn’t in the letter, but I can’t stop thinking about it: Do you believe that the seven rats who died in the hardware store were Jenner and his group, who split off from the others? You know, the renegade rats? Because if they weren’t, then they could still be out there, planning to —”

  “Stop!” cried Ruby. “Don’t say another word! You mean Jenner wants to come back and get revenge on Nicodemus or something?”

  “Do you really want us to answer your question or do you want to finish the book?” asked Olivia.

  “Now I want to finish the book. So don’t talk about anything that will g
ive away the rest of the story.”

  At this, Flora looked highly put out, but Nikki said, “Wait. Here’s something we can discuss that won’t give the end away.” She read from the paper. “‘Tell your friends about something you did that was brave.’”

  Ruby jumped up. “I am brave every time I stand on a stage in front of an audience.”

  Flora frowned. “Really? I thought you liked being onstage.”

  “I do,” said Ruby, “but it’s still brave.” She sat down.

  There was a little silence and then Olivia said, “I felt like I had to be brave when my parents were out of work and didn’t know what they wanted to do.” She paused. “Actually, I felt like I should have been brave, but I wasn’t really, so I guess that doesn’t count. I don’t feel like a brave person.”

  “Me, neither,” said Flora. “But I think I was brave the night of the car accident. Ruby and I were at the hospital and we knew something bad had happened to Mom and Dad, and then this police officer started asking me all these questions about who to contact in an emergency. So I told myself I had to be brave for Ruby and stay strong and take care of things.” Flora looked at Nikki. “What about you?”

  “Something about my father,” muttered Nikki, “but I don’t want to talk about it.”

  The girls didn’t press their friend. They talked instead about the characters in Mrs. Frisby and which ones they were most like. They wanted to talk about what might have happened after the end of the story but were hampered by Ruby’s insistence that they not ruin the last sixteen chapters for her. So finally Olivia said, “Well, what about our project — to help make Camden Falls a greener place?”

  “What does a green project have to do with Mrs. Frisby?” asked Ruby.

  “You’d know if you’d finished the book,” said Flora.

  “You’ll find out,” added Nikki in a kinder tone of voice, “when you get to the part about the rat race.”

  “All right,” said Ruby, sounding contrite. “I guess the point is that we have to think of something to do to make our town greener. But what can we do? We’re just kids.”