A Traitor Among the Boys (6 page)

Eight
Hostage

C
aroline could hardly believe her eyes. It had worked! Her plan had actually worked! Josh had gotten the message and he was just curious enough to come and find out who really, really liked him, as the note said. What she did not expect, however, was that Wally would show up too.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said the director to the rest of the cast, “I believe our prayers have been answered/ ‘ Everyone clapped.

Josh stared at Beth, and Beth's face turned as pink as her sweater.

“You're Josh and Wally Hatford, aren't you?” the director asked. “All right, boys, you are going to be Elmer and Clyde. Josh, you're Elmer, and Wally, you're Clyde.”

Wally was already shaking his head and moving backward, but Josh seemed hypnotized by the scenery.

“The horse is all wrong,” he said, pointing.

Everyone turned and looked at the scenery. The artist sat back on her heels and looked at her painting, tipping her head to one side.

“It
is
wrong,” she said, “but I don't know exactly why. I
told
them when they asked me to paint the set that I wasn't good at animals.”

“Josh is!” cried Caroline quickly. “His pictures are all over the halls at school, and horses are one of the things he draws best.”

“Josh,” said the director, “we really, really need you. You only have a few lines in the play, and Wally just has to hang around onstage. But could you possibly consent to help paint the scenery too?”

Caroline held her breath. If the director couldn't find any boys to play the parts, she'd probably call the whole thing off, and there would go Caroline's chance to be in a real grown-up play. Any minute Josh and Wally would bolt. Any minute they would realize that she had put that note together. Any minute, in fact, Josh could pull it out of his pocket, walk over, and smush it in her face, just as the girls had rubbed snow in Jake's face the day before.

Except that Josh was still staring at the horse on the backdrop, and everyone was staring at Josh and waiting, and finally he said, “Yeah, but I'll have to do the cows over, too. There's something wrong with their legs.”

“It's acrylic paint. You can paint right over my work,” the woman said. “Oh, we do appreciate you, young man. We'll put your name on the program.”

“Now!” said Jane, the director. “Let's have the scene where Elmer proposes to Annabelle,” and she
explained to Josh and Wally the parts they would play in the story—how the grocer's lazy sons would not help out on the farmer's land, but when Elmer met Annabelle, he changed his mind, and it was when the two families came together that the town of Buckman was born.

So everyone watched while Josh took Beth's hands and said, “Annabelle, I never thought I'd amount to much, but when I met you, everything changed.”

And Beth, glancing shyly at Josh, then down at the floor, said, “With you by my side, Elmer, we can do anything.”

All Wally had to do was sprawl in a corner and pretend to chew on a piece of clover.

“Perfect!” said the director.

At which point Caroline was to come out, stage left. While Elmer and Annabelle were still holding hands, she said to the audience, “If they think they're going to have a wedding without inviting me to be in the bridal party, just wait!” And she said it with such force, such style, that the rest of the players all clapped. All except Tracy Lee, her understudy, who glared at her from the first row.

When the rehearsal was over, Josh and Wally were the first ones out the door, though Josh did agree to come by after school the following evening and work on painting the set.

Beth seemed in a daze as she walked home beside Caroline.

“I can't believe what happened!” she kept saying. “What made Josh and Wally just walk in there and volunteer to be in that play?”

Caroline was about to tell her, but then she decided that had better be her secret. It was better for Beth to think that they were there because they wanted to be than that they had been tricked into coming. So she chirped, “You know, of all the Hatford boys, I think Josh is the nicest. Next to Peter, of course.”

“Well, he's certainly a lot different from Jake,” Beth agreed. “He's a good artist, too.”

▪

The following day at school, Wally seemed to be avoiding Caroline. Even when she poked him with her ruler and said, “Good morning, Clyde,” he wouldn't turn around.

Uh-ohy
Caroline thought.
I'd better not annoy him.
So she ignored him for the rest of the day, and that seemed just fine with Wally.

The girls had only been home twenty minutes that afternoon—a note from their mother said she was attending a meeting of the faculty wives—when there was a knock on the door and Caroline opened it to find Peter on their doorstep.

“Hi, Peter, come in,” she said.

Peter was not smiling. He walked straight out to the kitchen and sat down on a chair. Then he glanced around the kitchen at Caroline and her sisters.

“Why did you put lima beans in our brownies?” he demanded of Caroline.

Aha!
So the boys
had
noticed!

“Because,” said Caroline, “you kidnapped me and held me hostage. If they had asked nicely, I might have baked them some brownies and done it right.”

“They were yucky!” Peter complained. “We had to
dig out all the peas and lima beans and Jake was really mad!”

“Good!” said Caroline. “So was I.”

Eddie, however, sat down at the table across from Peter and said, “You know, we can't quite figure out what's going on with your brothers. Are you guys friends with us or not? I thought you said your New Year's resolution was to be nicer to us.”

“It was,” said Peter. “We promised Mom we'd treat you like sisters, too, but Jake says you don't always have to treat sisters nice.”

“I see!” said Eddie. “A loophole! Well, I guess if you treat us like sisters, we can treat you like brothers. Right?”

“I guess so,” said Peter doubtfully.

Eddie exchanged looks with Beth and Caroline, and they knew she was up to something.

“Okay, I'll tell you what,” Eddie continued. “You guys kidnapped Caroline and held her hostage, so we're going to kidnap you.”

Peter's eyes opened wide.

“I don't know how to bake brownies!” he said, looking alarmed.

“Oh, you don't have to make them. We're just going to keep you here for a little while and give you treats!” Eddie said. “All you have to do is eat them. Get out the chocolate chips, Beth.”

Beth opened the cupboard and reached for a package.

“O-^zy!” said Peter, smiling.

“The only thing is, you have to promise to come
over here every few days and tell us everything your brothers are planning to do to us,” said Eddie.

“Yeah,” said Beth. “It's only fair.”

“But you can't let them know about it, okay?” Eddie said. “If we're your sisters, then you have to be good to us and tell us everything. And every time you come, you get candy or cookies or ice cream of something.”

“O-kay!” Peter said again.

Beth sat down on the other side of Peter, and Caroline opened the bag of chocolate chips.

“Now!” said Beth. “Did Josh tell you that he was going to be in a play?”

Peter nodded.

Caroline gave him a chocolate chip.

“Did he say I was in it too?” asked Beth.

“Uh-huh,” said Peter.

Another chocolate chip.

“Did he say he liked me?” Beth went on, trying not to giggle.

Peter thought about it. “I think so,” he said, and looked at the chocolate chips, waiting.

“What happened at your house last night?” Beth went on.

“Josh said he was in a play and had to hold hands with you and get married and Jake said he was crazy,” Peter told them.

Caroline poured out a whole bunch of chips and pushed them across the table toward Peter.

Nine
Birthday Blues

Y
ou're going to do
what?”

Mrs. Hatford was balancing the checkbook when Josh and Wally got back from the theater, and Mr. Hatford asked what they'd been doing.

“We're going to be in a play,” Josh repeated. “I have to do it, I think, if I want to paint the scenery, and I
really
want to paint it. It covers the whole back of the stage, and it would be the first time outside of school that anyone has seen my paintings.”

“Yeah, Mom, you should see the scenery they've got there now. The cows look like bathtubs with women's legs on them,” put in Wally, eager to stand up for Josh and be the buddy of his older brother.

“Well, my goodness, that's something!” Mrs. Hatford declared. “Josh is going to paint the scenery for the play?”

“And he'll get his name on the program too,” said Wally.

“Do we get to come and see you?” asked Peter.

That was the part Wally dreaded—that people would come and see them. “I guess so,” he said miserably.

“It's all part of the grand celebration of Buckman's two hundredth anniversary,” said Mr. Hatford, enjoying a cup of coffee over his newspaper. “They're thinking up all kinds of ways to celebrate. It's nice to see them making use of the old theater.”

The only person who hadn't said anything yet was Jake. He was sprawled in front of the TV when Josh and Wally came in, but when they finally went upstairs, he followed. So did Peter.

“Are you guys nuts?” Jake asked as soon as they had all gathered in the twins’ bedroom.

Josh looked uncomfortable. “Why?” he asked, getting out his Game Boy and pretending to play on his bed.

“Since when did you ever want to be in a play? How come you went off without telling me? What's going on?” Jake wanted to know.

Josh pretended he hadn't heard and frowned at the game in his lap.

Wally tried to help. “He really wants to paint the scenery. And he only has to say one line.”

“Yeah? What?” asked Jake.

Josh went on frowning at the Game Boy, and Wally didn't know what to say. He waited.

“Well?” said Jake.

There didn't seem any point in not telling, because when the family came to see the play—the family and the whole town of Buckman, in fact—they'd hear Josh say it loud and clear.

“ ‘Annabelle, I never thought I'd amount to much, but when I met you, everything changed,’ “ Wally told him. “That's Josh's line.”

“Oh, boy!” Jake yelled, throwing back his head in disgust. “Oh, boy!” Then he stopped yelling and stared at Josh. “Who do you have to say it to?”

“Annabelle,” Wally said quickly, answering for Josh.

“Who's Annabelle?” Jake asked.

“Just some girl,” Josh said.

“Well, you must be crazy,” Jake told them. “I wouldn't get up in front of an audience and say that to a girl for a million dollars.”

“I would,” said Peter. “A million dollars is a lot of dollars.”

“What do
you
have to do, Wally?” Jake asked.

“Nothing. Just hang around onstage.”

“Man, I don't know what's happening to you guys. The Bensons move away and everyone goes nuts. I don't understand anything anymore,” Jake complained.

“Well, I don't know what you're yelling about,” Josh said suddenly. “You don't have to be in a play, so just shut up about it. If I want to paint scenery, that's my business. And who cares what I have to say to Beth if I get my name on the program for painting the set?”

Jake stared. “Beth? Beth Malloy? You're saying that
line to Beth Malloy?” He clutched his head in both hands and left the room. “Arrrrggggghhhh!” he yelled.

“I think she's nice,” said Peter.

“I don't want to talk about it anymore,” said Josh.

So Peter went back downstairs and Wally went to his room. He lay on his bed and stared at the crack in the ceiling. Things
were
changing; Jake was right. Wally wasn't sure whether it was a good change or a bad one, but things were certainly different than they'd been when the Bensons were here.

Plus the fact that in a few days he'd be ten years old. It seemed as though Wally had been waiting all his life to be ten, but now that it was almost here, he wondered if it would be as wonderful as he'd imagined.