Bookworm Buddies (4 page)

Tim cried harder.

“We’ll think of something,” said Molly. “Nothing is hopeless.”

When they reached the Kellys’, Mary Beth got erasers.

“You can’t erase crayon,” said Tim.

“We have to!” said Molly.

But the more they erased, the worse the book looked. The color spread to the whole page instead of just part of it. The blue mixed with the yellow and made an ugly greenish color.

“You guys are making it worse,” sobbed Tim. “It looked better before.”

Were they accomplices in crime, wondered Molly? Would they be jailbirds along with Tim? Earning this new badge was definitely not going well.

The three sat and looked at the book.

“Maybe,” said Mary Beth, “we should cut out the bad pages and make new ones.”

“Cutting pages out of a book is not a good idea,” said Molly. The very thought scared her. “And we couldn’t make the new ones look real. Rat’s knees! What are we going to do?”

“Maybe we should just take it back and put it in the book box,” said Tim.

“You’ll still have to pay,” said Molly sensibly. “They have your name.”

At her words, Tim began to howl all over again. “My mom will kill me,” he sobbed.

Molly put her arm around him. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I have an idea. We’ll earn some money to pay for it. We’ll sell something.” It was the first thing she could think of to say.

“Scouts sell donuts to raise money for camp,” said Tim.

“Well then, that’s the answer,” said Mary Beth. “We’ll sell donuts.”

“Where will we get them?” asked Tim.

Molly frowned. One problem led to another. Nothing was easy, it seemed.

“At the store, of course,” said Mary Beth.

“We need money to buy donuts,” said Molly.

“Maybe we should sell something we already have,” said Mary Beth. “That would be cheaper. We’ve got some old Halloween stuff in our basement my mom says we should get rid of. I’ll go get it.”

Mary Beth came back with lots of old plastic pumpkins, goblins, and costumes.

“They look used,” said Tim.

“Well, we can’t be fussy,” snapped Mary Beth. “We can’t afford new stuff!”

They loaded the things into grocery bags and set off to sell them. When they got to the corner, Mary Beth said, “There’s Tracy’s house. Maybe she wants to buy some of these.”

When they went to her door, Tracy answered. She didn’t look glad to see them. And she didn’t want to buy any costumes. She had other things on her mind.

“
M
y library book is lost!” she cried. “I can’t find it anyplace. I looked all over the house.”

Tracy sneezed three times. Maybe she had hay fever. Or else she was crying.

“It will turn up,” said Mary Beth. “It must be here someplace.”

The three of them went into the house to help Tracy look.

“I’ll bet someone in your family took it,” said Molly. “Maybe your sister is reading it.”

Tracy shook her head. “She can’t read yet,” she said. “And I asked my mom, and she hasn’t seen it. My dad isn’t even home.”

Molly looked under the dining room table and under the chairs. Mary Beth looked in the kitchen and in Tracy’s bedroom. Tim looked under the rugs.

“It wouldn’t be under the rug. We’d see a lump,” scoffed Mary Beth. “Was it a thick book?” she asked Tracy.

Tracy nodded. Then she sneezed.

“It will turn up,” said Molly. “Lots of times I lose stuff and it turns up later when I’m not even looking for it. Even if you find it after it’s due, you just have to pay a little fine. You don’t have to buy a whole new book. And you have two whole weeks to find it.”

Tracy shook her head. “I won’t,” she said. “It’s gone for good.”

“It couldn’t have walked away,” said Mary Beth. “It hasn’t got legs.”

A book with legs struck Tim as funny. He started laughing.

“Come and help us sell this stuff,” said Molly to Tracy. She told her about Tim’s even worse emergency. “You’ll find your book, but Tim’s is ruined forever.”

“I won’t find it,” said Tracy. She was crying now, and it wasn’t allergies. “There’s a hole in my book bag. I think it fell out on the way home.”

“Then all we have to do is look for it on the sidewalk when we’re selling this stuff,” said Mary Beth. “We can do both things at once!”

Tracy didn’t look very hopeful, but she
got her box of tissues and followed them down the street.

At one house a man said, “Why would I want a halloween costume? I’m too old to dress up.”

“For your grandkids?” suggested Tim.

“I have none,” said the man, closing the door.

At the next house a lady bought a plastic pumpkin for ten cents.

“See?” said Molly. “We’ve got a sale already! We’ve got a dime!”

“Books cost about six dollars,” muttered Tim. “We’ll have to sell a lot of stuff.”

But by the end of the afternoon, they had sold only two more items. They had gone to twelve houses and made only forty cents. And they had not found Tracy’s book along the way.

The three girls and Tim wandered back to Tracy’s house and sat down on the front
steps. This badge was definitely not going well.

First Roger read only baby books and would probably get the prize. Then the books Molly and Mary Beth chose had words they couldn’t read. The new ones probably were boring.

Tim’s book was ruined, and it looked as if it would take weeks to sell enough things to pay for it. Tracy’s book was lost, and she’d have pay a fine. That is, if she found it. Molly didn’t want to think what would happen if she didn’t. They might have to spend their lives selling old clothes door-to-door. For something as fun as reading, this should have been the best badge of all! But it wasn’t.

“It’s all Roger’s fault, you know,” said Mary Beth. “He is the thirteenth scout. He’s the one who brought us bad luck.”

Everyone agreed about that. There was no
doubt that thirteen was an unlucky number. And even if it wasn’t, Roger had started them all out on the wrong foot.

“Maybe we aren’t old enough to take out books,” said Tim. “I think I’m too young to be responsible. And I can’t read anyway. Even those easy words.”

“Pooh,” said Tracy. “We’re plenty old enough to take out books.”

But Molly wondered if what Tim said was true. Tracy was a little careless to use a book bag with a hole. But maybe she hadn’t known it had a hole.

And for Tim it must be awful not to be able to read! Maybe Molly could help him.

“What does that sign say, Tim?” she asked, pointing to the stop sign at the corner.

“I don’t know,” said Tim. He squinted. Maybe he needs glasses, thought Molly. That would be still another problem if he did!

“
S-t-o-p
,” spelled Molly. She said the sound of each letter clearly for Tim.

“Stop!” shouted Tim, as if he’d read it himself.

Tracy rolled her eyes.

Mary Beth said, “He should start with board books.”

But Molly felt good. Tim had made a start. He just needed a little help.

Molly felt proud to be a help to Tim. And proud to be responsible for library books. Did her parents know what a good daughter they had? People should get credit for being good citizens!

Molly had to catch herself. Her grandma often said “Pride goes before a fall.” What did that mean? Did it mean if you were proud of something you did, you tripped on
a stone on the sidewalk and fell and broke your leg?

Well, that wouldn’t happen to her. With all the problems she had faced in getting this badge, all the bad luck had to be behind her. How could things possibly get any worse?

When Molly got home, she found out.

T
racy went home to try to find her book. Mary Beth went home to read. Tim just went home. To sound out words, Molly hoped.

Molly was anxious to get home to read too. She ran all the way. She threw open the front door. There were scraps of paper on the hall floor. Where were they from? Had her mother torn up the ads in the mail that said “Resident” and dropped them by mistake?

Molly bent over to pick up the scraps and saw that they looked like parts of a book. Then she looked at Skippy, who was hiding under a chair. The dog had a guilty look on his face.

Molly picked up her library books. One was fine, but the other one was only a cover! The inside was gone! On the spine Molly could see teeth marks. Skippy’s teeth marks!

“Oh,
no!
” she cried. “You ate my book!” she said to Skippy. “Bad dog!”

Skippy put one paw over his face. Molly had scared him. Now she felt guilty. It wasn’t really his fault. No one had told him not to eat library books.

Molly remembered that she had left them on the floor. That was careless. Careless as Tracy had been. But who could know Skippy would eat a book? He had food in his dish!

Puppies ate things sometimes, but Skippy wasn’t a puppy anymore. He wasn’t exactly full-grown either. He liked to chew on bones and shoes and sticks.

Molly wondered if they did operations on dogs to remove valuable things they’d eaten. Maybe it was like in “Little Red Riding Hood,” where the grandma was inside the wolf and they got her out alive and well!

Was Molly’s book alive and well in Skippy’s stomach?

Molly didn’t think so. It would be wet and chewed. And operations on dogs were expensive. Vets were like doctors.

Molly picked up all the scraps. There were not enough to make one page, even if she glued them together. The rest of the book was in Skippy.

Molly knew she should tell her parents, but she was not ready to let them know she was not responsible. Not old enough for a
library card. No, what she needed was time to think.

Now she had three books to worry about: Tim’s, Tracy’s, and her own. Darn that Roger! His bad luck was spreading fast.

“Is that you, Molly?” called Mrs. Duff from upstairs.

Molly hid all the book scraps in her pocket and said, “Yes, it’s me.”

“Was it an exciting day at the library, dear?” asked her mother, coming down the stairs. “Did you and Mary Beth get some good books?”

“Yes,” said Molly. It was not a lie. They had been good books. Once. Right now one was a dead book.

“I’m going up to my room to read,” said Molly. She dashed up the steps before her mother could ask to see what books she’d chosen.

In her room, Molly sat down at her desk to think. She got out a notebook and pencil to help her. It always felt better to make a list when there was a problem.

She made a big “1.” Then she wrote, “Find a way to pay for Skippy’s book without my parents finding out.”

Actually it wasn’t Skippy’s book—he had no library card. But it wasn’t her book either, anymore.

“2,” she printed. “Help Tim earn money to pay for his book.”

Last, she wrote, “3. Find Tracy’s book, or help her find a way to pay for it.”

Rat’s knees, there seemed to be an awful lot of books missing! Molly wondered if any of the other Pee Wees were having book trouble.

When meeting day came on Tuesday, Molly found out they weren’t. Everyone but Molly, Tim, and Tracy had their books safely
in book bags. Not one was damaged, lost, or eaten. And lots of the Pee Wees had book reports written!

“Mrs. Peters!” said Rachel, waving her hand. “I have six book reports done!”

“I have four,” said Patty Baker. “And I read a chapter out loud to my mom.”

“I’ve got sixteen!” yelled Roger.

“But ten of your baby books make one,” said Kenny. “So you really only have about one and a half.”

Roger frowned and sat down.

“How many book reports have you done?” Mary Beth asked Jody.

Jody was not the kind of person to brag. That was one of the things Molly liked about him.

“Oh, not many,” he said.

But Molly could see lots of books in his bag, and lots of neatly written reports sticking out of them.