Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street & When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street

CHAPTER ONE
Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street

CHAPTER TWO
Charlie P.

CHAPTER THREE
The Sea

CHAPTER FOUR
The Pumpkin Box

CHAPTER FIVE
The Water Lilies

CHAPTER SIX
The Story That Twists Around

CHAPTER SEVEN
Us and the Wind

Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street

Y
ou can't tell it by the big, peaceful swaying willow trees at the entrance of Magnolia Street, but the neighborhood is full of maniac monkeys.

The first time I saw the willows, I thought of picnics underneath them and maybe even some games of hide-and-seek, too. I never thought of maniac monkeys.

When I first moved to Magnolia Street a few days ago with my brother, Sid, and my mom and dad, I was really missing our old neighborhood on Monroe Street. I missed the chiming
of the town hall clock and the smells from the candy factory.

Mostly, though, I missed my friends on Monroe Street.

I didn't see one kid on Magnolia Street the day we moved. Mom and Dad said I'd meet friends soon enough and I should worry more about staying clear of the overpacked rooms so I wouldn't break anything in the boxes.

My brother, Sid, who's twelve, laughed at me and said he didn't think I'd find friends because there weren't any mutants on Magnolia Street. He also said it would be okay if I got in one of the empty boxes and left with the movers.

Funny.

When I whined to Dad and Sid got yelled at, he wasn't so funny then.

He dumped some books out of a box in the living room and crossed his eyes at me. Then he said, “You know, Charlene.”

My name is Charlene, but everybody calls me Charlie 'cause I like it better. Everybody but Sid, that is.

Sid laughed. “I wouldn't get too close to those willows you like so much.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because those trees are full of maniac monkeys.”

“What?” I yelled.

“Maniac monkeys, I said.”

I crawled into one of the empty packing boxes and peeked out. I didn't want Sid sending me with the movers.

I said, “Prove it.”

Sid got really sad. He came over, sat by my box, and said the cousin of one of his best friends' aunt had told him that maniac monkeys had been stealing kids on Magnolia Street.

“Have you seen any kids since we've been here?” he said.

I knew he was right about that.

“No.” But what did he think I was—a baby?

“Don't you wonder where they all are?”

I said, “I just thought they were all grown up and moved away, or they were all away somewhere like summer camp or something.”

Sid shook his head and looked at me with that really sad expression again. He patted me on the back and walked away shaking his head. I noticed he'd left the books for me to put away.

I didn't believe Sid, at least not a lot.

But when we'd been on Magnolia Street a few days and I still hadn't seen any kids, I began to wonder if Sid might be right.

I started whining again to Mom and Dad. They said I'd find new friends soon. They said I shouldn't give up hope yet.

Mom and Dad are usually right, and I know that now, 'cause pretty soon I would meet the
boy who would be my best friend in the whole world. But I didn't know that yet, though.

One morning, I woke up and he was skating in front of our house. He wore overalls and a baseball cap. He skated up and down the sidewalk.

Hah! Sid was wrong about the monkeys.

For three days, I sat on our front porch and watched the kid skating.

He'd wave to me and I'd wave to him.

On the third day, Sid said, “You'd better go meet him before the monkeys take him away, too.”

Later that day, Mom came out on the front porch with cookies and juice. This almost never happened because Mom was usually at work, but she was home for the week because we'd moved.

She called to the skate kid.

“Come on up, boy with the skates who looks
like he might want to eat all these really good store-bought cookies.”

I was pretty used to my mom when she said things like that, so I wasn't too embarrassed.

The skating kid rolled to a stop in front of our steps and smiled.

He said, “I'm Billy.” Then he ate about half the cookies on the plate before I said, “I'm Charlie.”

By the time Mom came back on the porch, the cookies were gone and Billy was telling me all the things I should know about Magnolia Street.

The ice cream truck comes every day around two o'clock, and Mo's Freeze Shack up the street has great ice cream, too.

The fire department opens the hydrants when it's really hot. Everybody stands in the cool water.

The grownups are okay and hand out great candy at Halloween.

Billy said, “Yeah, it's okay around here.” I liked Billy 'cause he jumped around when he talked and sometimes even ended up standing on his head.

I decided to ask him about the monkeys, even though I didn't really believe the story. Where would the monkeys come from, anyway?

“Are there really maniac monkeys on Magnolia Street? My brother, Sid, says there are.”

Billy said, “I haven't heard about any monkeys.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Sounds pretty scary to me, though. Where does your brother say that these monkeys live?”

“He says that they live in the willows.”

Billy started laughing so hard he almost rolled off the porch. I started laughing, too. But then I made a decision.

“Let's go looking for them anyway.”

The sun was setting on Magnolia Street when me and Billy went looking for the monkeys.

We went to Billy's house to get what he called monkey-catching gear. We took the sofa pillows and a big vase with dragons on it.

Billy asked his mom if it was okay. She was at her computer, which Billy said is always a good time to ask her anything.

Billy's mom said, “Yes, yes, yes.”

She didn't put up any fight at all.

He said he once asked if he could paint his bedroom walls with his favorite cartoon heroes. Since she was on her computer, she said, “Do what you want.”

But Billy wasn't the best artist. Everything he painted had pointed teeth, was green, and didn't wear clothes.

He had to weed the garden for a whole month.

We dragged the sofa pillows and vase out the door.

“What do we need these things for, Billy?”

“You'll see,” he said.

I wanted to know now, but I guessed I could wait. Billy was already a lot of fun to be with. He liked finding things out like I do. Everything was exciting to him. Me too.

So…

We dragged the pillows and the vase along the sidewalk to the willow trees at the beginning of the street.

We sat underneath the beautiful swaying willows with the vase and the pillows beside us and waited.

Billy said, “If a monkey falls out of the tree, he'll fall in the vase. We won't trap him or anything, but we do want to get a look at him. The pillows are to cushion the monkey's fall.”

“Pretty good idea,” I said to Billy.

We listened to the birds singing. The sounds of Magnolia Street were so wonderful
we just sat quietly as the sun set through the willow branches.

I guess me and Billy finally fell asleep underneath the willow tree, curled up on a cushion, waiting for maniac monkeys.

That man probably shouldn't have shone that flashlight in our eyes like that.

Billy jumped up screaming, “It's the monkeys!”

I grabbed the vase, and the next thing we knew was that the flashlight man had a dragon vase on his head and was pretty mad after he got it off.

He marched us down the street toward Billy's house.

Billy's mom had left her computer by this time.

The streetlights had lit up on Magnolia Street.

My mom and dad must have been taking a
break from unpacking because they were there, too, standing beside Billy's mom.

“Billy, do you think we're in trouble?”

He didn't say anything, though, 'cause everybody—including the man with the flashlight—was looking at us like we had snakes on us.

“Here they are,” the flashlight man said.

My mom started coughing. Then Dad came up real close and looked at us.

“Thanks for finding them, Mr. Oliver.”

Then he looked at us.

“How did you two get fur all over your faces?”

We both yelled, “The monkeys must have got us!”

That was the last thing I heard from Billy that night because Mom and Dad walked me home. Fast.

As I sat in the tub, I figured that me and Billy were probably just about to be carried off by
the maniac monkeys when the flashlight man showed up. We missed all the excitement of the neighborhood looking for us.

I started washing the fur off my forehead and cheeks. Magnolia Street was some great place.

Sid knocked on the door while I was covering my head with bubbles.

He whispered through the door, “I told you about those maniac monkeys. You and that skate kid were almost goners.”

Sid went away laughing.

I kept washing off the fur and kept smelling something like cherries and glue.

Weird.

The next morning, I was hanging upside down in our front tree when Billy came over. He climbed up and hung beside me.