A Traitor Among the Boys (5 page)

Caroline was glad she hadn't tried out for the sickly daughter, since she didn't even have any lines to say.

“Okay, middle daughter,” the director said.

Now there were
four
girls who wanted the part, and they all went onstage together. One girl, named Tracy Lee, seemed to want the role every bit as much as Caroline, even bumping into her once and standing in front of her every chance she got.

“All right, one at a time, I want you to go offstage, then come on again with a very mischievous look on your face,” said the director. “I want you to stand center stage and say to the audience, ‘So the grocer wants to call our town Buckman, does he, after his family? Why not call it
Beulah,
after
me?
If he thinks it was a big deal when I turned our chickens loose in his store, wait till he
sets
what I'm going to do on the Fourth of July!’ ”

The four girls recited these lines a few times and then, one by one, they came out to center stage and said them to the little audience.

The first girl said her lines in a monotone with no expression whatsoever, Caroline thought.

The second girl forgot her lines and talked so softly when she was prompted that she could hardly be heard at all.

Tracy Lee was next, and Caroline's heart sank, for she was very good. Even Caroline had to admit it. She spoke the lines clearly, with great expression, and when she came to the line “Why not call it
Beuhh,
after
meV
she threw out her arms in a grand gesture, and everyone laughed.

She'll get the party I know they'll give it to her,
Caroline thought in dismay.

Tracy Lee walked over to the side of the stage with a smug smile on her face and managed to step on Caroline's toes.

“All right, let's have the last girl,” called the director.

Caroline walked out to center stage, reciting the lines in her head, then took a deep breath. In her most distinct voice, hands on her hips, she said, “So the grocer wants to call our town Buckman, does he, after his family? Why not call it
Beulah,
after
mei”
Here she threw one arm grandly out to one side and placed her other hand over her heart. “If he thinks it was a big deal when I turned our chickens loose in his store, wait till he
stts
what I'm going to do on the Fourth of July!” And then, with the most mischievous look she could muster, Caroline put one finger to her lips, grinned an evil grin, and with a low “Heh, heh, heh,” tiptoed offstage.

The others laughed.

“Well, I think we've found our Beulah,” the director said, smiling. “Caroline, you'll be Beulah, and
Tracy Lee, who also did a fine job, will be her understudy, as well as ‘girl in lace shawl’ among the townspeople. Now, who wants to play the eldest daughter? I really need an older girl for this part.”

Tracy Lee glared at Caroline. But Caroline was beside herself with joy. This would be her first performance outside of school. She was headed for Broadway, she was sure of it. Only two girls, however, stood up to play the part of the eldest daughter, and one wasn't even as tall as Caroline. They were not very good actresses, either. All the part really required was to hold hands with the stage manager, who was filling in for the part of Elmer, the grocer's oldest boy, look into his eyes, and say, “With you by my side, Elmer, we can do anything.”

The first girl was too embarrassed to hold the stage manager's hands and decided she didn't want to try out after all. The second girl sounded as though she were simply reading her lines.

“You know, I really do need a taller girl for this part,” the director said, looking out over the small crowd. Her eye fell on Beth. “What about you, dear? What part are you trying out for?”

“Not anything,” said Beth.

“Just for me, would you mind coming up here and saying the lines? I'd like to see how the three daughters might look together onstage,” the director said.

Beth got up. Almost
anyone
could say the lines better than the others had done, so she didn't mind. She took the hands of the stage manager and said, “With you by my side, Elmer, we can do almost anything.”

“That was excellent! Excellent!” the director said.

‘ Would you please consider taking the part? We need you. We really do. See? You girls are like stair steps, the perfect heights.”

Beth had never thought about being an actress. These days she was totally into baking, but she
had
talked once of being a writer, maybe writing a play. It was a new experience, however, for her to stand up before a crowd and be told that she was good, so she said, “I guess so,” and everyone clapped.

The two other girls who had tried out for the eldest daughter were given roles to play among the townspeople, and then the girls were dismissed until the following evening, and Caroline and her sister chattered all the way home.

“You were
wonderful,
Beth!” Caroline kept saying. “We're going to have so much fun!”

“I wonder who they'll get to play the part of Elmer,” said Beth. “I hope it's someone cute.”

“Like Josh Hatford?” Caroline said, and in the light from the drugstore window, she saw Beth blush just a little.

Aha!
said Caroline to herself.
Bingo!
She laughed a silent
heh, heh, heh
and thought,
If they think putting lima beans in brownies was a big deal, wait till they see what I'm going to do next.

Seven
Elmer

M
rs. Hatford stood at the door of the refrigerator.

“I can't understand it!” she said. “I was sure there was a dish of leftover peas and mushrooms in here, and now it's gone. And lima beans! What happened to the lima beans?”

Jake, Josh, and Wally were doing homework on the kitchen table.

“We ate them,” Jake said quickly.

Mrs. Hatford turned around and stared.

“You
ate
them? You
hate
lima beans!”

“We were hungry,” said Josh. “There weren't any cookies.”

Mrs. Hatford closed the refrigerator door and studied the boys in front of her. “There weren't any cookies, so you ate lima beans instead? Do you expect me to believe this? I'm not stupid.”

Wally figured he'd better head her off before the whole truth came out. “We took care of the peas and
mushrooms too, and then we made brownies. Well, one of us did.”

“Will wonders never cease!” Mrs. Hatford declared. “I didn't even know you boys knew how to make brownies.”

“Shut up, Peter,” Jake murmured.

“I didn't say anything!” Peter said.

“Well, don't!” Jake warned him. And then, to their mother, “There was a recipe on a box of cocoa.”

“Then where are they? Could I have one?”

“We ate them,” said Wally.

“All except the yucky parts,” said Peter, and all the brothers turned and glared at him at once.

Mrs. Hatford sighed. “Oh, well. I think I'll make a casserole for dinner. You boys better move your homework to the dining room table.”

The twins picked up their books and headed for the other room. Wally followed with the pencils and pens, and Peter set his glass of pop on the dining room table and sat down at one end.

“Listen, Peter,” said Jake. “Don't tell Mom that Caroline was here and that she baked the brownies. Mom would get mad. Just keep it secret and we'll never do it again, okay?”

“You'll be nice to her now?” Peter asked.

“Even polite,” Jake promised. “Just don't tell Mom.”

“Okay,” Peter promised, and the boys breathed a sigh of relief.

▪

The next morning when Wally came down to breakfast, he saw the corner of an envelope sticking
out from under the front door. He picked it up. Josh's name was on it, so he took it to the kitchen, where the twins were eating cereal, and laid it on the table.

“What's this?” asked Josh.

“I don't know. It was under the door,” Wally said.

Josh looked at the envelope. The letters of his name had been cut out of a magazine and pasted to the envelope. All the words on the inside had been cut out of magazines too, until they formed a message:

SOMEBODY
really
likes you.
TO
FIND out
who,
come
to 503
MAIN
street
tonight at
7:15 and
say
you
came
to
see
about
ELMER.

Jake was reading the comics. “What is it?” he asked.

Josh stuffed the paper in his back pocket. “Just something dumb,” he said.

Wally started to say something, then stopped. If someone took the time to spell out your name with letters cut out of magazines, it must mean something. And why was Josh blushing?

He didn't say anything, however, and on the way to school, Josh hung back until he was walking beside Wally. Jake and Peter were up ahead. “Hey, Wally, do me a favor, huh?” he murmured. “Come downtown with me tonight. I have to see someone about that note.”

“Who?” asked Wally.

“I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out. It said if I went to a certain address at seven-fifteen,
I'd find out. Why don't you come with me? I can't ask Jake. He'd make a big deal out of it.”

“Sure,” said Wally. Jake and Josh usually did everything together. Neither ever asked Wally to do anything with him alone except stuff that always turned out bad—stuff that Wally would end up getting the blame for.

What Wally was thinking about, however, was what he should say to Caroline about those brownies. As they went up the steps to the school, he decided he would say nothing at all. That would really drive her nuts.

She would
want
to think she'd grossed them out. She would
want
to know they'd spit out the peas and mushrooms. She would
want
to know how they had dissected every single brownie to dig out the lima beans. So he wouldn't tell her any of that.

No sooner had he sat down in his seat than he felt her ruler poking him in the back. He turned around.

“Good morning, Wally!” Caroline chirped, looking angelic. “How did you like the brownies?”

“They were great!” said Wally. “Thanks.” He turned back around.

There was silence behind him.

Poke, poke
went the ruler again.

Wally turned around.

“You ate them all? Every single one?” asked Caroline.

“Yep,” said Wally.

“And … and you didn't notice anything?” Caroline asked in dismay.

“Notice what?”

“Well, weren't they sort of lumpy and … uh … bumpy?”

Wally shrugged. “I don't know. We ate them so fast we didn't notice, I guess.”

Caroline's face fell.

“Oh,” she said.

“Why?” asked Wally.

“Nothing,” Caroline said. “I'm glad you enjoyed them.”

▪

That evening Jake was doing homework again at the dining room table when Josh glanced over at Wally and nodded and they separately left the room.

Outside, pulling on his jacket, Josh said, “It's just somebody saying she likes me, and I'm curious. It said if I wanted to find out, I had to go to 503 Main Street tonight and say I came to see about Elmer.”

“Who's Elmer?” asked Wally.

“I don't know. Never heard of him,” said Josh.

This was sort of exciting, Wally thought, even though a girl was probably behind it. Kind of like a detective story.

“What's at 503 Main?” Wally asked. “Is that Ethel's Bakery? Oldakers’ Books?”

“I don't know,” Josh said again.

It wasn't either one. It was the old movie theater.

“You think we should just go in?” Josh asked.

“Maybe we should knock first,” Wally suggested.

Josh knocked, softly at first. Then loudly.

There were footsteps inside and a bearded man opened the door.

“Uh, hello,” said Josh uncertainly. “I came to see about Elmer.”

“Elmer?” the man said quizzically. Then suddenly his face changed and his eyes lit up. “Ah!
Elmer!”
he said, opening the door wider still. “Come right in!” He smiled at them both.

This is really weird,
thought Wally.

They went through the lobby and the man opened the inner doors to the small theater. About fifteen people were milling around, some walking about onstage. The thing Wally noticed first was a huge backdrop on which a woman was painting a farm scene—a horse, a cow, a barn, a field …

Josh stopped in his tracks and Wally could see that he had noticed too. The woman was trying to paint the horse's legs on the backdrop, only they were the strangest-looking legs Josh and Wally had ever seen.

“I could paint better than that,” Josh whispered to Wally. “If someone would just give me a brush, I could paint that whole scene better than she's doing.”

But the bearded man was saying, “Come on! Come on!” and then, “Jane, this young man is here to see about Elmer. I think we've found the grocer's sons.”

And Josh and Wally found themselves being ushered onto the stage among a group of smiling faces. And there, looking almost as embarrassed as Josh himself, was Beth Malloy.