Oddfellow's Orphanage (6 page)

A few moments later, they all heard a small, sandwich-sized
plop
.

Then, a few moments after that, came a big, whooshing
SPLASH!

“The monster!” Ollie shouted.

The children dashed up the stairs, followed by Professor Silas.

“Look!” Ollie called, waving.

There was the Great Green Lake Monster swimming swiftly away! His giant neck and tail curved through the waves,
while his back rippled just above the surface. His body cast a huge shadow beneath the glassy water.

“I can’t believe we saw him,” the professor said, his voice quiet and amazed.

“Or that he likes cheese sandwiches,” Ollie added, wrinkling his nose.

The monster and his shadow grew smaller and smaller until, even with their binoculars, the expeditioners saw only the great green waves.

A VERY CURIOUS TRADITION

D
ELIA
adjusted to life at the orphanage rather easily. Its strangeness soon became familiar to her, and even when she felt the most heartsick for her family, she never felt alone. She liked the other children, especially Ava, and the teachers were warm and kind. The cold wind of March turned to rainy April, which turned to sunny May. And suddenly, it was balmy June—which meant Haircut Day.

There were more than a few peculiar traditions at the orphanage, and one of the most anticipated was Haircut Day. Headmaster Bluebeard had decreed that a person really only needed two haircuts a year, and more frequent trims were just silly. So at Oddfellow’s Orphanage, there was the Winter Haircut (on the first day of winter) and the Summer Haircut (on the first day of summer).

This was hardly a problem for the girls, who could just wear their hair tied back when it got a little longer. For most of the boys, it was a rather shaggier story. By the time November and May came around, they could often be seen swatting the hair out of their eyes, pulling it into a stubby ponytail, or squashing it all under a cap. And though there were sometimes messy attempts at late-night hair trims with dull school scissors, for the most part, everyone just got used to waiting.

When Summer Haircut Day arrived, breakfast in the dining room was filled with chatter. Delia thought making such a big deal over haircuts was funny. She loved her long hair, and it needed only little trims anyway.

“How short will you ask for?” Ava asked Delia.

Delia held up her finger to a few inches shorter than the end of her braids.

The boys sat a little farther down the table, and most of them (except for Ollie and Hugo) were shaking hair out of their faces as they tried to eat their muffins.

“I am going to have mine cut short,” said Imogen. “So I am not too hot through the summer.”

Felix looked grouchily in her direction. “You’re going to look like a boy!” he said. “You already look weird, illustrated Imogen!”

Everyone looked startled at Felix’s cross words.

“Boy, are
you
a grump!” Imogen retorted, sticking her tongue out.

The breakfast table was quiet until Ollie timidly broke the uncomfortable silence. “Maybe I’ll ask Hank to snip off these little bushy pieces,” he said, patting the top of his onion head.

Hank’s usual job was minding the bears and circling the grounds on a great brown hare to be sure no scoundrels crept past the school’s borders. But twice a year he was the orphanage’s barber.

In observance of Haircut Day, classes were canceled. A striped canopy was stretched out over a big wooden chair Hank had lugged into the front yard. “Who’s first?” Hank called merrily to the group waiting on the grass. His shiny silver scissors flashed in his hand.

“The headmaster should go first!” called Professor Stella, looking up from her book of old star charts.

The headmaster plunked down happily in the chair. “Oh, I do
love
Haircut Day!” he said. Then Hank went to work. The headmaster’s hair was unruly and thick. Hank neatened it up in a big cloud of snipping. He also trimmed the headmaster’s beard to its summer length. Delia watched as the feathers of falling blue-black curls grew into great piles on the ground.

The other grown-ups went next, ending with Professor Silas, whose dark red hair was clipped back from the overgrown state it was in. Then the children lined up for their turn. Delia got just a little trim, and Imogen got her sleek bob, which everyone (except Felix) admired. Ollie hopped into the barber’s chair, and Hank carefully found a few (imaginary) hairs that he pretended to snip.

Daniel, being the leader of the Golden Rule Society at Oddfellow’s, asked the headmaster if he should help sweep up the hair that piled the ground.

“No, no, Daniel!” the headmaster said. “We leave it—”

“For the birds to make their nests!” Ava chimed in.

“Exactly,”
said the headmaster, smiling.

“Let’s take some to the edge of the forest, for the birds that live there,” Ava said, turning to Delia, who sat rebraiding her hair, and Imogen, who shook her new bob happily. Delia and
Imogen nodded, and the girls gathered up the trimmings in their skirts and headed away from the group.

Suddenly, Delia felt a tug on one of her braids and heard a thick
sssniiip
. She whipped around to see Felix laughing as he ran away, holding one of her white braids in his hand.

Ava turned and saw him, too. “What is the matter with you?” she shouted after him.

Delia heard thunder in her ears. Her face was flushed with anger, and hot tears began to roll down her cheeks.

“Are you okay?” Imogen asked.

Delia nodded, sniffling.

Ava tossed her trimmings into the air and took off after Felix. Delia was too stunned to run, so she and Imogen followed behind Ava. Meanwhile, Felix had run straight into Professor Stella. Delia and Imogen joined the small crowd, where Professor Stella shook the white braid as she scolded Felix.

Felix shouted, “I don’t care what you say. You’re not my mother!” Then he ran toward the house.

The other children looked around wide-eyed, because such unpleasantness almost never happened at Oddfellow’s. Professor Stella was equally stunned. “What in the world is the matter with him?” she asked. She looked around at the children’s baffled faces. “Well, whatever it is, let’s give Felix a little time to calm down from … well, whatever is troubling him.”

After lunch, Daniel looked for Felix. He looked all around the house, then peered into the bears’ quarters. Felix sat in the straw, spooning honey for the baby bear, who greedily gobbled it up. Daniel could hear Felix crying faintly.

“Felix?” Daniel said softly. “What’s wrong?”

Felix wiped his face quickly on his sleeve and turned. “Nothing. I just hate Haircut Day.” Daniel sat down beside him.

“Is that why you cut Delia’s braid?” Daniel asked.

Felix sighed. “I don’t know why I cut her braid. She’s so quiet and nice. I don’t know why I did it. I think I just hate this day because it reminds me of my mom.”

“Why does Haircut Day remind you of your mom?” Daniel asked. “Was she a barber?”

“No, but she used to cut my hair,” said Felix quietly. “She would pretend she was going to snip off my ear and laugh and … of course she would never do that. Snip my ear, I mean.”

Daniel nodded in understanding.

Felix fed the baby bear more honey. “So when I feel those scratchy hairs prickling my neck, it makes me miss her.”

The boys heard a rustling behind them. Delia stood there, and in place of her braids, she had two short pigtails.

“Did you hear all of that?” Felix asked.

Delia sat down next to Felix and took the honey and spoon. She turned to Felix, nodded, and put an arm around him.

Delia smiled at the bear. He made little barking sounds and licked honey from his nose. Felix leaned his head on Delia’s shoulder as Daniel tiptoed to the door.