Ivy and Bean Take the Case (9 page)

Bean said sternly, “I hope you've learned something from this, young lady.” Her parents said that to her all the time.

“I sure did,” Ivy said. She lifted her face and looked into the distance in a learning sort of way. “I'll never do it again.”

“Okay,” said Bean. “I guess that's that.” She looked at Trevor and Ruby and Prairie and Sophie S. and Dino. “So we're done!” she said loudly. “The end! Case cracked! Mystery solved!”

There was a pause. Then Dino said, “But
why
? Why did you do it?”

“To scare you,” said Ivy. “To terrify you. Sorry.”

There was another pause.

“I wasn't scared,” said Ruby.

“Me neither,” said Dino and Sophie S. together. They made snorty sounds.

“Like I'd be scared of a yellow rope!” said Prairie.

“Yeah, it was dumb,” said Trevor. He got up. “I'm going. I've got stuff to do.”

“Me too.”

“Yeah.”

“Rope! Ha! Who's scared of a rope?”

One by one, they walked away.

Ivy and Bean watched them go.

When they were finally alone, they looked at each other. “That was good,” said Bean. “That was really good.”

Ivy nodded. “We saved a magical creature from doom. We are friends of magic,” she called loudly, just in case the magical creature was listening.

Bean leaned over her desk to take another peek at the yellow rope. “You know what? I think I'd better take this desk and stuff down. I don't want the rope to feel crowded.”

“Right,” said Ivy. “That was a close one.”

“Yeah,” said Bean. “I don't want to be a P. I. anymore. I think I'll go back to being the person who makes up fortunes for fortune cookies.”

“That's a good job,” said Ivy. “I'm still going to be a witch.”

“I'll write a fortune that says You will soon meet a witch, and then you can come out from under the table, and the fortune will be true,” said Bean. “And then everyone will want my fortunes.”

Ivy nodded. “We'll be a team.”

It was nice to have the future all worked out.

ANNIE BARROWS
lives a life filled with unsolved mysteries, puzzling events, and perplexing questions. Mostly, this is because she can't see very well and she can't find her glasses either. You can visit her at
www.anniebarrows.com
.

There have been 27 mysteries in
SOPHIE BLACKALL'S
household, but almost all of them turned out to be the cat. You can visit her at
www.sophieblackall.com
.