Boys Against Girls (6 page)

Whap¡

Whop¡

And then the ball was soaring high up in the air, while Eddie gave a whoop and made a run around the ball diamond.

“They've
got
to let you on the softball team, Eddie!” Caroline told her when they took a break. “You're better than some of the boys we see practicing after school. You're better than Jake Hatford!”

Eddie herself looked determined. “I'm going to
practice my guts out between now and March, just in case’ she said.

She became pitcher next, and Beth and Caroline took turns batting the ball, just so Eddie could practice getting it over the plate. Pitching a curveball, a fastball, lifting her left foot and drawing her arm far back.

“All you need to do now is spit,” Beth laughed.

Whack¡
Beth hit the ball straight out this time toward Eddie, and as Eddie reached up to catch it, it hit her thumb, bending it backward.

“Ow!” Eddie howled in pain, holding her wrist with the other hand.

“Oh, Eddie, I'm sorry!” Beth cried, dropping the bat and running over.

Now Eddie had both hands between her knees. She was bent over with her eyes scrunched up.

“Oh, my hand!” she said, sucking in her breath.

“I'm sorry¡ I'm sorry!” Beth said again, looking miserable.

“It's not your fault,” Eddie said. “I just hope my thumb's not broken”

“We'd better go home and let Dad look at it,” Caroline said. “Maybe he'll put a splint on it or something.” She picked up the ball and glove, Beth got her book, and they started home.

They had just reached the bridge when they saw the Hatford boys standing out in the road, throwing
walnuts at trees along the river. When the boys saw the girls—specifically Eddie, wincing in pain—they stopped and stared.

“What happened?” called Josh.

“Don't tell them,” Eddie whispered through clenched teeth.

But someone had to tell them something—you couldn't just say nothing, when anyone could plainly see that Eddie was hurt, Caroline thought.

It was Beth who got the idea, however.

“She got bitten,” Beth said, her face somber.

“By what?” yelled Jake. “A little bitty bug?”

Eddie had started across the bridge, but Beth faced the boys. “We're not sure,” she said, her eyes fearful. “She went back into the bushes after a ball, and there was something there—some creature. It growled and bit her hand, but we never did see it.”

Beth followed Eddie across the bridge and Caroline came last, but turned in time to see Jake and Josh and Wally and Peter staring at each other in horror.

Nine
Toll Tale

      W
ally was prepared not to speak to the Malloy girls for the rest of his life, if necessary, if it would keep him from getting into any more trouble than he had. Mom was already upset with him and Jake and Josh because of the pie business, and then, when they told their dad that Eddie had got bitten by something, Mr. Hatford called the Malloys to find out what, and Coach Malloy told them it was just a sprained thumb.

So when he got to school on Monday, Wally took his seat without turning around, got out the spelling list he'd been working on over the weekend, and went right to work memorizing
bargain, separate, juicy
, and
argument.

He was very surprised, therefore, when Caroline Malloy tapped him on the shoulder. He only half turned.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“I was just wondering,” Caroline said, “if anyone ever found any bones.”

“What?”

“If anyone ever found a skeleton of an abaguchie. I mean, if anyone did, couldn't scientists study it and find out what kind of an animal it is?”

Wally could hardly believe his ears. Caroline was asking
him?
Caroline was going to believe whatever
he
told her? His mind whirred. Over in the corner Miss Applebaum was pinning up a list of class helpers for the week—who had lunchroom cleanup, who had blackboard cleanup, who took the volleyballs out to the playground at recess, and so on.

He turned around a little more.

“Well, he doesn't want anyone to know,” Wally said.

“Who doesn't?”

“Mr. Oldaker.”

“Who's that?”

“The man who owns the bookstore. Nobody's supposed to know about the bones, and if I told you, you'd just tell your sisters.”

“I would not.”

“Ha!” said Wally, and turned forward again. “Sure, you wouldn't!”

Nothing happened for a moment or two, and then there was another tap on Wally's shoulder.

“What?”
Wally said, acting annoyed. This time he turned around far enough to see Caroline's face. Her eyes were wide and she had a sort of earnest look that he would have liked on a girl if it wasn't on the face of a Malloy.

“Tell me, Wally,” Caroline begged, and her voice was gentle, pleading.

“You're nuts!”

“Please!”

“You'd blab the minute you got out of school, and Mr. Oldaker would really be mad, because the only other person in town who's supposed to know is my dad, which is the only reason / know.”

“Well, if only your father is supposed to know and now
you
know,
he
must have blabbed,” said Caroline.

Wally faced the front of the room again. When he and Caroline were not speaking, she drove him nuts. When he and Caroline
were
speaking, she drove him nuts. It was hopeless. He couldn't escape. His destiny was to be driven absolutely crazy by Caroline Malloy.

The notes of “The Star Spangled Banner” sounded over the loudspeaker, and Wally slid from his seat with his hand over his heart and stood at attention until Miss Applebaum said they could sit. Then the teacher started the spelling test.

At least he had until recess to think about what to
say next, Wally was thinking. Now that he'd told Caroline there was some big secret about the abaguchie, he had to figure out what it was. His mouth had run on faster than his brain could keep up. Why had he brought in Mr. Oldaker? Why, the minute Caroline had asked about bones, had he thought of the bookstore?

The only reason Wally could think of was that there was a trapdoor in the very center of the floor of Oldakers'. Because it led to an old storage cellar, and because the floor of the cellar was dirt, it seemed to Wally a perfect place to bury treasure. Treasure or a dead body or both. And because he had once helped Mr. Oldaker bring up some boxes from the cellar, and because Caroline had asked about bones, that was probably why he had thought of Mr. Oldaker's cellar.

When the bell rang for recess, Miss Applebaum was first out the door to take her attendance sheet to the office, and the others followed her in a line because they were going to divide up into teams and play kickball.

Wally loved kickball, and he was hurrying so fast to get out of the room that he jerked too hard on the jacket he had stuffed in his desktop and pulled out a box of sixty-four crayons, spilling them all across the floor.

“Rats!” Wally yelled, furious at himself. Not only did he want to make sure he was on the first team for kickball but he wanted to get away from Caroline the Crazy as well.

He stopped to pick up every crayon, some of which had rolled as far as two rows away. When he got them all into the box at last, and turned to go out the door, he found Caroline blocking the doorway— her hands and feet braced tightly against the sides, her feet six inches off the floor.

“Move
it!” said Wally.

Caroline didn't budge. “I'm not moving till you tell me the secret of the bones,” she said.

“What?”

“The secret Mr. Oldaker told your father about the abaguchie,” Caroline insisted.

Wally's first thought was to push her out of the way, but she was wedged tightly there in the door frame, arms and legs spread like a big X. It would take more than a little push to loosen her, and if he gave a
big
push, she'd go sprawling into the hallway, and then he would be in big trouble.

“What did Mr. Oldaker tell your dad, Wally?
Tell
me!” Caroline insisted.

There wasn't anything left to do. Wally lowered his voice. “Promise you won't tell.”

“Promise.”

Wally's mind was like a runaway truck barreling down a steep hill without any brakes. “A couple of years ago’ he lied, “they were digging out more of Oldaker's cellar beneath his store, and somebody found bones.”

He watched Caroline's feet slide down both sides of the door frame until she landed with a plop on the soles of her sneakers.

Wally's mind raced on and on. He was a better storyteller than he'd thought. Tall tales, that's what he was telling. How could you call something this wild a lie? If Caroline believed him, that was her problem.

“Whose
were
they?” Caroline breathed.

“Well … Dad says they weren't bones of any known animal. Mr. Oldaker thinks it could be the skeleton of an abaguchie, but they don't want people getting upset or staying away from the bookstore or anything, so they just haven't told anyone but Dad. As far as I know, the bones are still there.”

Once again he tried to push past Caroline, and once again she braced her hands and feet against the sides. “Just tell me one more thing, Wally. How do I get in Oldakers’ cellar?”

“There's a trapdoor beyond the cashier's counter. But they'd see you if you tried to go down there.
Take my word for it, Caroline, and don't try it. Now,
movel”

Caroline moved. “Thank you very much, Wally,” she called after him as he ran headlong out to the playground. Finally, he was free.

Ten
The Secret Staircase

      I
f Caroline had ever considered skipping school, this was the time. It would have been so easy to just walk to the edge of the school yard and keep going. She could tell Beth and Eddie about it later.

But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that one of two things could happen, and probably both:

1. Miss Applebaum would realize she was missing and would call home.
   

2. Mr. Oldaker would wonder why she wasn't in school and might even phone the school office. She had to wait.