The Curious Adventures of Jimmy McGee (9 page)

"We never did find Little Lydia," she said sadly.

"Never," echoed Clarissa.

Neither of them realized that she was not far away hopping around in the stovepipe hat of Jimmy McGee. How he wished he could just pop her into the box of dolls and toys when no one was looking! But a zigzag sound on top of his head made him realize he couldn't do that.

Amy looked down sadly at her box of dolls. "I thought Little Lydia just might have shown up, just might have. Because," she said, "it says in my book, 'But I hope she will be rescued by a
hero!
Well, she never did come back. But, anyway, I still have her little blue shawl." And she put it on top of her
Who
's
Who Book.

"Woe! Woe!" said Clarissa. This was a word she had lately read in some sad story and now used whether or not it fitted the case.

No one needed to worry about Wags, the great and beautiful springer spaniel. He had been ready for a long time. He'd been sitting in the driver's seat from the moment Papa had backed the car to the kitchen door. Everyone knew he would not leave this driver's seat, not even to chase the Cape Codder up the tracks, until Papa got in and made him move over. Wags would then sit beside him so that Papa could take hold of the steering wheel.

Everybody stood still a moment to look at and laugh at Wags. Right now he still had his left front leg on the armrest of the car door. He looked like a driver in disguise ... a dog chauffeur. His red drinking bowl was on the floor by the clutch. There was a bottle of water beside it, so Wags knew the ride was going to be a long one. That made him happy, and he moved Papa's old gray sock from side to side in his mouth.

This sock looked ridiculous, but he always carried it around with him unless he was eating or drinking. Once in a while Mama had to wash it, but she had the mate to it, a substitute, which Papa had to wear a day or two first to get his smell on it. Wags was a comical sight; but the family did not have time to take a snapshot. Too bad!

Papa said, "Everybody ready? If there's going to be a hurricane, we want to be home before it gets there."

Mama said, "I'm ready. Leftover food is in my box here, fruit juice in the thermos, I have my purse. This is the quickest closing-up we ever made. Oh, wait!" she said. "I left Wagsie's spare sock on the porch to dry. I'll get it." This she did and dropped it in Amy's carton in the back, the last carton to be put in the car.

Papa was in the back, making sure that everything was stashed in securely and that the tailgate would close. Jimmy McGee zoomied to the front of the car and tightened some nuts and bolts under the hood. He banged the engine lightly. He knew it was in fine shape. Then he sped off to the kitchen to watch the leave-taking. Perhaps Little Lydia could watch it, too, with those electric blue eyes of hers that might enable her to see through stovepipe hats!

Then Papa slammed the tailgate, which did just barely close, and locked it up.

"Move over, Wags," Papa said. Wags did move over a little, and Papa got in the driver's seat. Wags dropped his sock for a minute and licked Papa's cheek to show how much he loved him. Then he put his sock back in his mouth. Papa started the car to let it warm up.

"Well!" Papa exclaimed. "What do you know! I don't know what magic touch I have suddenly developed, but it started. We won't have to stop at the garage to check it. This car has a soul of its own! It fixes itself!"

Mama got in and sat in the front seat beside Wags, who was happy to be made to sit closer to Papa again. Amy and Clarissa were already in the back seat, where they kneeled and cupped their chins in their hands and looked out the back window. Amy stood Bear between them so he could see out, too.

"Let's see who can see The Bizzy Bee the longest when we get going," said Clarissa.

"I bet Bear will," said Amy. She propped him up so his chin just barely rested on the top of the upholstery. "There!" she said. "See what you can, Bear. See Jimmy McGee if you can!"

She and Clarissa laughed. "The banger-on-the pipes man!" Amy explained to Bear.

"All right, then," said Papa. "We're off!"

"Zoomie-zoomie-zoomie," said Amy, laughing.

"Zoomie-zoomie-zoomie on the zoomie-zoomie trail," sang Clarissa.

Papa started up slowly.

"Good-by, good-by to everything," sang Amy and Clarissa. "Good-by, summer!" They felt a little sad.

They watched the little cottage where they had spent a whole summer grow smaller and smaller, dwindle away. It looked cold and forlorn already, a not-lived-in house, tiny and fragile on the top of the dune. No one in it to wake up to the sound of Jimmy McGee's banging on the pipes. Then, after a bend in the road, they couldn't see it any more.

No one could say who had seen it the longest; all had seen it the longest.

"Maybe Bear saw it the longest," Amy said. "Did you, Bear?"

Amy took Bear in her arms and hugged him. "Bear did," she said. "I think he did."

They couldn't know that Jimmy McGee was watching the old gray Dodge growing smaller and smaller and gathering speed now down the hard, sandy road, sending flecks of sand and gravel behind it and a little puff of smoke.

Nor could they know that Jimmy McGee would be at their home on Garden Lane in Washington, banging the pipes there to greet them when they arrived and to make their house ready for living in again.

During the leave-taking, Little Lydia had been remarkably quiet. Now suddenly she bebopped, "
Fun!
"

Jimmy McGee's apprehensions were realized. She was not yet restored to being a do-nothing doll! Well, perhaps she was like Wags and anticipated a trip to somewhere, like the great thunder-and-lightning-bolt excursion, or perhaps some new and curious adventure Jimmy McGee had in mind?

Jimmy McGee swiftly made his final check around The Bizzy Bee. Everything was fine ... windows boarded up, doors locked, only a few final drops of water falling from the outside garden faucet, and they would soon stop. A thin little cat from down the road came walking as though bowlegged. She sat under the faucet and watched the drops fall, licking one once in a while, batting another with her paw.

Then Jimmy McGee zoomied over to his headquarters to close it up for the winter. Not hard at all. All he did was shove his summer banging pipes way, way back in the cave, fold up his bombazine hammock, and lay it neatly on his scrolls, his summer scroll library. He pushed them into the farthermost recess. They were his most valued items, his research library.

He left the entranceway the way it always was in case, in a bad storm, a blizzard perhaps, a scared little field mouse or rabbit, even a hermit crab, might want to get in and be safe ... be refugees!

Then Jimmy McGee made sure his hat was clamped down securely on his head. Inside was his special box with its thunder and lightning bolts and Little Lydia, who was buzzing around up there.

He had a plan. He aimed to surprise Amy when she began to unpack. She would discover in her box her Little Lydia, no longer her lost best-loved doll. Amy would be puzzled, of course, but imagine her joy! First, of course, he had to make sure Little Lydia no longer had the zoomie-zoomies.

Now then, he was ready to zoom down the wires to his home, his winter headquarters. How the winds hummed as he whizzed along! They sounded like the strumming on some strange stringed instrument.

Suddenly Little Lydia, recharged from this lightning-like journey through the wires, hopped up and down in Jimmy McGee's stovepipe hat and bebopped, "
Fun! Funny fun!
"

Like Wags, she was happy to be on the move again, even though she was locked up in a stovepipe hat and could not enjoy the view!

"Oh, dear!" groaned Jimmy McGee.

By the time she had finished a few more of these happy bebop messages, which she had turned into a quite pleasant little song, Jimmy McGee had zoomied into Mount Rose Park in Washington, D.C.

Probably, back in Truro, Amy and her family had only just turned around the bend of the road. And Bear was looking out the window!

Home now, Jimmy McGee put thoughts of summertime behind him. He waited a moment longer behind the little waterfall at the entrance to his winter headquarters. He liked the way it smelled here, of moss and dampness and rocks. The little waterfall was like a silvery curtain between him and the world outside. He liked the sound of it splashing gently into the little brook below. On a sunny day all was sparkly, like little diamonds. And when the sun set, the streams of water took on the look of sparklers on the Fourth of July.

It was good to be back. Violets lined the banks of the little brook. They were still in blossom. He stepped inside. His winter headquarters were under a little knoll. In the wintertime children went sledding down the knoll, through the tree-lined path to where the little brook joined a larger one.

His headquarters had smooth earth-colored boulders. There were crevices between them for his pipes and scrolls and things. The boulders were wonderful, all of a different shape, some flat at the bottom, some rounded, and he used them for many purposes. Some went to the top of the cave like steps, and one was like the stone throne of an ancient king, its surface rounded and comfortable.

Jimmy McGee always sat on his throne to bring his scrolls up to date or to polish his nuts and bolts. Also in the cave were tough roots of trees winding here and there, good for gymnastics. People taking a stroll overhead would never believe a place of such magic existed right under their very feet. The moss was thick up there, and also a creeping kind of flower called periwinkle.

But now to work! Jimmy McGee slung his bombazine bag on a sturdy root near his throne. He kept his stovepipe hat clamped firmly on his head.

The old gray Dodge could not travel with the six-sixty speed that he could! Probably it would not arrive until late afternoon.

Anybody could tell that there was a storm coming. Winds were rising, and the sky was ominous! Just so Amy and her family arrived before the big storm struck! But to Jimmy McGee, the expert predictor, it seemed that it would hold off until late in the day, and the old gray Dodge would make it by then.

First he tidied up his headquarters. Evidently there had been curious little animals in here now and then ... rabbits mainly, he thought. He made sure all his fine nuts and bolts and pipes were in their proper nooks, all labeled, as always.

But somehow he had the feeling that his headquarters were not exactly right. He sensed that something might be awry! He checked through it swiftly but saw nothing unusual. At the same time he was looking for the best place for Little Lydia to stay while he did his necessary work preparing for a storm. Some of it might take him over telephone wires, some already shaking in the wind, but they were the last things he wanted Little Lydia to be close to ... get herself further recharged!

He decided to lay her on a nice flat boulder, high up in his headquarters. Slightly above her, there was another large boulder, a sort of ledge. Suppose a little field mouse or a squirrel, looking for nuts, came in and sat on that flat ledge. Lydia, Little, would have something to look at, and it could look at her!

Just as he was about to take this important step, she stomped around up there in his stovepipe hat, making his head itch! Didn't she realize that now she was in a big city with presidents and congresses and monuments and music ... not in sunny little old Truro by the sea?

"
You let me out, McGee, or I'll sizzle and frizzle your hair!
" Little Lydia bebopped.

"All right, Little Lydia," Jimmy McGee answered. "All right. That's just what I'm going to do. Be calm. Don't bebop. Be good. Be a do-nothing doll! We're home now, in my elegant winter headquarters."

"
I can't see through stovepipe hats!
" came the bebop answer.

"Of course not," said Jimmy McGee. "Soon, very soon, you're going back to Amy. You will see her and Clarissa and Bear, all your old friends, Wags and Mama and Papa. But first you must get over the zoomie-zoomies. Away from all the zigzag journeys we have taken, you will be cured."

"
I'm not sick! Let me out!
" Little Lydia demanded.

"Sh-sh-sh!" said Jimmy McGee. "Don't shout! I've found the right spot for you, in my winter palace, not as elegant as your sand castle, but comfortable, very high up, from which you will have a fine view of what goes on, if anything. So, here we are!" he said.

Then Jimmy McGee took off his stovepipe hat with a grand flourish, bowed, and said, "You are out of my stovepipe hat now."

He laid her gently on the flat rock, where a sort of plush-like green moss made a pretty couch for her. "There's a ledge a little above you to your left in case some visitor might come. Stay right there! Don't think you can go zooming around any more or back into my hat, what you call 'prison,' you will go!"

"
Thank you!
" she bebopped.

Although Jimmy McGee preferred that she would have said nothing, he was again impressed by her pretty manners. And how lovely she looked with her electric blue eyes, which she fastened immediately on the ledge just a little to the left and not far above her!