Annie's Adventures (9 page)

"Daddy is in France modeling," Zinnia piped up.

"And where is your mother?" the Wicket pressed. "Surely"—she surveyed our disorganized home, messed up during the course of our celebration—"surely you can't be here alone." Pause. "Without adult supervision."

We were tired of saying one of our parents had a tummy virus. If we kept saying that, our family would get a bad reputation in town. So instead, Annie said, "I'm afraid Mommy is too busy working to be disturbed right now. You know"—she paused meaningfully—"she
is
a scientist."

At that, the Wicket's ears perked up.

"Yes, I did know that," the Wicket said. She tacked on a smile. "Can you tell me what sort of project your dear mother is working on now?"

"Sorry, no," Annie said abruptly. "Top secret."

The Wicket looked disappointed. Then: "Do
you
know what it is?"

'"Fraid I can't answer that one way or the other," Annie said. "If I did, the thumbscrew guys'd have to come for me."

"I see ...
Zinnia
," the Wicket said.

"It's Marcia," Annie said.

"I thought you said Petal," the Wicket said quickly.

"Didn't I just say Petal right now?" Annie said. "I'm sure that I did."

"I'm sure..." the Wicket began. Then: "Never mind. So, your mother is working on something top-secretly scientific ... in her office right now?"

We had to change the story fast. The way The Wicket was craning her neck around, we were sure if we said Mommy was in her study—for it was
a study
and not something so boring as
an office—
the Wicket would charge through us, moving like a greased pig, and then the jig would be up.

"No, actually," Annie said, "she's not."

"The thumbscrew guys snuck in earlier," Jackie put in. "Not because Mommy did anything wrong but because, you know: top secret. Cover of darkness, cone of silence. You probably didn't even hear their car drive up or see it—they're that good at covert operations."

"Then you
are
here alone?" The Wicket had an
ah-HA!
in her voice.

"Just briefly," Annie said. "Daddy will be coming home from France any time now. But," she hurried to add, "he'll be coming in the limo, and it's one of those very quiet limos, so you probably won't hear him. Also, he'll be very tired—you know, jet lag—so I'll just take that lovely fruitcake from you now and see that he gets it."

"Perhaps I should stay with you," the Wicket said shrewdly, although she did let go her vise grip on the fruitcake. "You know, children really shouldn't be left unattended. Particularly not eight of them."

"You can see"—Annie indicated the wrecked room behind her—"we're managing just fine. And as I say, Daddy should be home any second—oops!" She cocked a hand behind one ear. "Do I hear a car now? You'd best go. If it is Daddy, he doesn't like to have visitors thrust upon him first thing. He just gets so tired. You know: jet lag. Modeling.
France.
"

Georgia and Rebecca each took the Wicket firmly by an elbow, and Jackie raced ahead to open the front door.

"But..." said the Wicket. "But ... but..."

"Goodbye, A/Irs. Wicket!" we all called after her as Georgia and Rebecca attempted to shove her out the door.

"But why are you dressed like that, Petal?" the Wicket finally demanded of Annie.

It was too late, though. Jackie had already slammed the door.

"I'm dressed as Daddy, you stupid cow," Annie muttered to the closed door. "We're children. We're playing dress-up."

"Well, that was no fun," Rebecca said, wiping her brow.

"And it'll get less fun," Annie said sternly. "That was a close call."

"That woman is evil," Georgia said with a shudder.

"But what can we do about her?" Marcia asked. "She lives right next door. And we can't very well move. Or ask her to move. I suppose a tall fence is out of the question too?"

"And she'll be back," Georgia warned, ignoring Marcia's last comment. "Her kind always are."

"We'll have to make it, then," Annie said, "so that she thinks Daddy did arrive back home tonight, to put her off the scent."

"But how?" Petal asked.

"First," Annie said, "I'm going to get rid of
this.
" The
this
was the wretched fruitcake, which she offered to the cats, who refused it, before tossing it in the kitchen trash. "Now," Annie said, "follow me."

So we followed her into the drawing room, where she walked straight up to the suit of armor.

"Not the spear again." Georgia groaned.

"Do you mean to kill the Wicket?" Rebecca said in a hushed tone.

"No, not the spear," Annie said, "and we're not going to kill anybody." She thought about this, shrugged. "Well, not unless we have to."

Then she grabbed hold of the suit of armor, directing us to help.

"What are we going to do with Sparky?" Petal asked, using our pet name for the suit of armor.

"Sparky's going on a little trip," Annie said.

So, following her instructions, we carried Sparky out to the front room, where Annie had us sit him down in a big comfy chair by the window. Then she drew the drapes and turned on the lamp behind the chair.

"There," she said, "anyone looking in will think a man is sitting here."

"Sparky doesn't look quite human, though," Marcia observed with a tilt of the head. "Not with that pointy helmet thing on."

So Annie relinquished her hat, putting it on Sparky's head. Then she went to the kitchen and fished around the junk drawer.

"There." Annie shoved the old corncob pipe we used when we made snowpeople into the gap in Sparky's facemask. "Daddy's home."

As if in response, Anthrax entered, hopping in Sparky's lap for a nuzzle.

"But our daddy doesn't smoke," Georgia said.

"He does now," Annie said with satisfaction. "In fact, I think I'll get Daddy's quilted smoking jacket for him, so he'll be more comfy."

"I'm exhausted," Rebecca said, the hypers having worn off some time ago.

"Me too," Georgia admitted. "How long are we going to have to keep this up, coming up with new charades to put off nosy parkers like the Wicket?"

"As long as it takes," Annie said. "As long as it takes."

CHAPTER EIGHT

The next morning, still tired from our celebration and the Wicket worries of the night before, we walked downstairs to find the shock of Daddy Sparky still seated in the front window.

Yes, we had put him there ourselves, but he was still a shock.

And there was something sad about him.

"He looks so lonely there," Petal said, "sitting all by himself."

So then Annie got the idea that he
shouldn't
be alone. Even before breakfast, she had us all go back upstairs to Mommy's great big closet where she kept a wardrobe dummy. Besides being a scientist, Mommy was a great seamstress.

"Here." Annie selected a purple sleeveless dress and a string of pearls. "Let's dress Sally," she said, Sally being our name for the dummy.

Then she sent Durinda to the tower to get one of the wigs out of our costume trunk because she said the dummy looked silly bald.

Once we had the wig in place, Annie had us carry Sally downstairs. Then she had us stand Sally in the front room not far from where Daddy Sparky was enjoying his morning pipe.

"There," she said, satisfied, "now Daddy won't be lonely. What's more, when people look in from the outside, they won't wonder why they only see Daddy here but never Mommy."

"But," Rebecca pointed out, "won't they find it strange that Daddy is always sitting and Mommy is always standing?" The dummy was stiff.

"I suppose," Annie said, "they'll think Daddy is a man of leisure, which he somewhat is, being a model, and that Mommy waits on him hand and foot, which she never does."

"What about them always being in the same spot?" Rebecca asked.

"I'll devise a rotating schedule," Annie said. "We'll keep them in the front room in the mornings; it's nice to think of them chatting there after breakfast. But then we'll move them to other rooms: the drawing room in late afternoons for tea, the dining room for formal, and so forth. If they get too cold, we can always send them to the beach in the Summer Room."

So that's what we did. And thanks to Annie, we now had a mommy and daddy again. Well, sort of.

"Don't you think"—Rebecca had one last question—"people will think it odd that Mommy is wearing a summer dress in the middle of winter?"

"No, I don't," Annie said. "Everyone knows Mommy is a bit odd."

***

Another school week went by, Annie in charge.

As the yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting made the rounds at Will's in-school birthday celebration on Friday, the McG presented Will with her tidily wrapped gift. When he opened it up, we saw that she'd got him a deck of sports trading cards: soccer. Will didn't like soccer.

"Ooh," Georgia said. Annie kicked her under the table, encouraging her to be nice to the McG. "I've always loved soccer."

"Black and white balls," Rebecca added, not wanting to get kicked, "those have always been my favorite colors for balls."

"Soccer," Jackie observed with no kicking or threat of kicking at all. "It's the wave of the future, isn't it?"

"I wish," Zinnia said with a sigh, "someone would give me soccer trading cards. Really, any present at all would do right around now."

"It's a terrific present," Will said to the McG stoutly. "Honestly, no one's ever given me anything quite like it before."

The McG beamed. Maybe, we thought, she wasn't so bad after all.

Then she told Annie not to touch the cupcakes, just in case she still had that stomach virus she had before, and we thought: Yes, she was that bad.

But so what if Annie hadn't been able to enjoy any of the frosting at Will's in-school birthday party? There was sure to be plenty of frosting on hand at his real birthday party at Kids' Castle the next day.

***

The next morning we arose with greater excitement than we'd had on New Year's Eve morning. We were going to a party!

Too bad Annie made us all dress in dresses.

"It's what Mommy would have you do," she said when we objected.

"But it's Kids' Castle!" Georgia said.

"Besides," Rebecca added, "Mommy isn't here. Or Daddy."

"Doesn't matter," Annie said. "If she
were
here, she would tell us even scientists should look like ladies. Unless they're men, of course."

It was true, we couldn't deny it: Mommy would say that.

"What about you?" Rebecca sneered at Annie. "No dress?"

"I'm still the driver." Annie held up her Daddy disguise. "So I get to wear this."

Then she ripped the fedora off Daddy Sparky's head.

***

At Kids' Castle, Annie pulled the Hummer around back so no one would observe her dive into the back seat wearing her Daddy disguise and then emerge in a frilly dress—she'd even stuck a bow in her short hair!

"You'll make everyone suspicious," Rebecca scoffed. "With that bow in your hair, you don't even look like you!"

But Annie ignored her. It took Jackie, Marcia, Petal, and Zinnia all working together to carry in the huge present we had gotten for Will.

"Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, Zinnia—how good of you all to come!" Mrs. Simms said.

We really liked Will's mother. She always got our names right.

"My, how pretty you all look!" Mrs. Simms went on. "I have trouble dressing one boy, but look at the job your mother does with eight."

Annie scowled at this. Our appearance that day had nothing to do with our mother and everything to do with her.

"And what an enormous birthday present!" Mrs. Simms clapped. "I'm sure Will will love it, whatever it is. But where are your parents?"

All around Kids' Castle, there were parents. Parents, parents everywhere, and not a single pair were ours. It was enough to drive a person to drink juice boxes.

"They just had, er, some errands to run," Annie said. "Don't worry."

Will was playing with Mandy Stenko on the jungle bars, but when he saw us, he came over. He had on dressy clothes, his hair slicked back.