Main Street #1: Welcome to Camden Falls (13 page)

Nikki said nothing. Give what back? She glanced helplessly from Ruby to Olivia to Flora.

“Gina?” Gigi left the class and approached Mrs. Grindle, followed closely by Mrs. DuVane and Min. “What’s going on?”

“This young
lady
,” replied Mrs. Grindle in a tone implying that she thought Nikki was anything but a lady, “just stole a necklace from my store.”

“What?” cried Nikki. She held out her hands, indicating that they were empty. “I — I — where would I put a necklace? I don’t have a purse. I don’t even have any pockets.”

“All I know,” said Mrs. Grindle, “is that you were just in my store, and I had just put a new necklace in the display by the door. You left, and now the necklace is gone.”

Nikki shrugged. “I still don’t have it.”

“Well, then you hid it somewhere.”

“I did not!”

Ruby stood up. “I was sitting right here when Nikki came in the store, and she didn’t hide anything.”

“Maybe you just didn’t see her hide it.”

“Why don’t you search our store?” suggested Ruby.

“Ruby! Don’t be impertinent,” said Min.

“But, Min, this isn’t fair,” spoke up Flora.

“Yeah, Mrs. Grindle’s just accusing Nikki because Nikki is a kid and Mrs. Grindle is a grown-up,” said Olivia, “and she thinks she can get away with it.”

“Olivia!” exclaimed Gigi. “Please apologize to Mrs. Grindle.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Grindle,” said Olivia, who didn’t sound sorry at all.

Nikki hung her head and her eyes took in her clothes, which she knew were not at all what Mrs. DuVane had hoped she would wear on her trips into town. Too-small flip-flops, thin T-shirt that had once been white but was now a faint shade of gray and pocked with tiny holes in both front and back, and shorts that were too big and a boy’s besides, since they had once belonged to Tobias. Then there were Nikki’s hands, which were gray with dirt. Nikki raised her eyes to Mrs. Grindle and thought she knew the real reason she was being accused of stealing.

“I’m going to ask you one more time, young lady,” said Mrs. Grindle fiercely. “Did you take that necklace?”

Nikki stepped directly in front of Mrs. Grindle. “No. I did not. I don’t steal.”

Mrs. Grindle stared at Nikki for a few moments. Then she said, “I don’t know whether you are telling the truth, but from now on you are to stay away from my store.” She turned around, stalked out of Needle and Thread, and made her way across Main Street.

Nikki, her face burning, whispered to Mrs. DuVane, “Can we go home now, please?”

Early on the afternoon of the Row House party, Ruby and Flora sat on their front stoop, waiting for Min to come home from a doctor’s appointment. Ruby regarded the houses across the street, large wooden homes painted muted shades of mustard and green and tan, dating back to the mid-1800s.

“Min wasn’t even born when those houses were built,” said Ruby thoughtfully.

“Min’s
parents
weren’t even born,” said Flora.

“Everything is old here.”

“Everything is different here.”

Ruby sniffed at the heavy August air and watched a chickadee land on the branch of a maple tree. “I kind of like it, though.…
Kind
of.”

“Mmm.”

“Do you think it’s okay to like it even though Mom and Dad aren’t here?”

“I don’t know. I guess so.” Flora looked at her watch. “Min should be back by now. I wonder what the doctor said about her wrist.”

Ruby didn’t answer. She sat with her chin in her hands for several moments, then said, “I can’t believe Mrs. Grindle banned Nikki from her store. Why wouldn’t she believe her? Is it just because Nikki’s family doesn’t have much money? I hate people like that.”

“Don’t hate,” said Flora. “That makes you the same kind of person as Mrs. Grindle.”

“Well, anyway, you know what we have here? A
mystery
,” said Ruby dramatically. “A true mystery.” She narrowed her eyes. “And here’s the big question: If Nikki didn’t take the necklace, who did?”

“Tell me again who was in the store when you were there with Robby and Margaret,” said Flora.

“Well, Mrs. Grindle and Nikki, of course. Nikki was looking at art supplies,” replied Ruby. “And Lydia came into the store for a few minutes with some friend of hers. The two of them were mean to Robby. And there were a couple of people in the back of the store, but I don’t know who they were.”

“Hmm. And when did Mrs. Grindle think she had put out the necklace? Maybe it was earlier than she remembers, before any of you were even in the store.”

“Ooh, that’s good, Flora,” said Ruby admiringly. “You’re thinking like a real detective. Hey, look, there’s Min!” Ruby jumped to her feet. “Let’s see if she got her cast off yet.”

Min, who had walked home from her appointment on Main Street, was still wearing the cast, but she was wearing a smile, too. “The doctor said everything is healing nicely and the cast can come off next week. He also said I can drive again.”

Flora thought about the last few weeks when Min hadn’t been allowed to drive. Because Camden Falls was small, and because Min had such good friends and neighbors, this hadn’t been much of a problem, certainly not as much of a problem as it would have been in Flora and Ruby’s old town. Here, Min and the girls could walk to Main Street, and the Row House neighbors had shopped for their groceries and driven them on any long-distance errands. Still, Flora had felt vulnerable. Now as she watched her grandmother cross the front yard, her purse and mail clutched in her good arm, she said, “Min? What if you had broken your leg when you fell? What would we have done?”

“Sweetie,” Min interrupted her, “let’s not talk about the what-ifs right now.”

“But, really, what if —”

“Flora,” said Min, “I know things aren’t perfect for us. But I’m working on that. I’m going to make sure you and Ruby are always taken care of. I promise. Right now, it’s time to get ready for the barbecue. It’s going to be a fun afternoon. Try to enjoy it.”

“But,” said Flora, “what if —”

“Flora!” Ruby exclaimed suddenly. “We forgot to wrap the prizes! The prizes for the games this afternoon. We’d better go get Olivia. We have to get the stuff for the races, too. The egg, the spoon, the sack …”

“And I have pies to finish,” said Min.

Flora’s mind was still stuffed with questions. What if Min got sick and couldn’t work at Needle and Thread anymore? Could she afford to retire? What if Min got sick and couldn’t take care of her granddaughters? What would happen to Ruby and Flora then?

“Flora? Come
on
!” said Ruby, stamping her foot.

Flora had a little talk with herself. Bad thoughts be-gone, she said silently. Get out of my head. I don’t need you here. You are not useful. “Okay,” she said to Ruby a moment later. “Let’s go.”

Ruby headed for the kitchen door. “Let’s leave this way,” she said. “I want to look in everyone’s backyards. I want to see if people are getting ready yet.”

Flora looked at Ruby’s hopeful face and remembered the times when her parents had been busy or distracted or tired but had still managed to attend Ruby’s performances or plan birthday parties or sit down to play board games. So she set aside her worries and took Ruby’s hand as they stepped through the kitchen door.

“Look! People
are
getting ready!” said Ruby.

In the yards of the Row Houses, checked tablecloths and extra chairs and ice-filled tubs of sodas were appearing. Dr. Malone had placed stereo speakers in his windows, and the Fongs, as requested by Olivia, Flora, and Ruby, had cleared their yard so that the races and game playing could take place there. Through open windows, Flora could smell pies and roasted chicken and fresh bread and a new smell — one she hadn’t encountered before this summer in Camden Falls — that she identified as cilantro. Flora skipped a little skip as she and Ruby approached Olivia’s back door.

Two hours later, the barbecue was under way. Every single Row House resident had ambled into the backyards. Twenty-five people laughing and talking and calling to one another, turning their faces to the sunshine. The Morris girls wore sundresses made by their mother from fabric purchased at Needle and Thread. Robby wore a new yellow baseball cap, and to Flora’s great surprise, Mr. Pennington wore shorts, sandals, and a Disney World T-shirt. From Dr. Malone’s speakers floated various kinds of music, including Min’s beloved Gershwin. Daisy Dear sat with Jacques under a picnic table, waiting for food to be dropped. Sweetie, the Willets’ cat, stalked Twinkle and Bandit, the Malones’ cats. Margaret and Robby sat together on a lawn chair, and Lydia, Ruby noted, sat sullenly by herself next to a bowl of potato chips, which she kept reaching into and finally pulled into her lap, her own personal private bowl of chips.

Ruby, standing a short distance away, considered Lydia. Here, she realized, was one of the suspects in her robbery case. A good detective would tail her suspect, Ruby thought. She watched Lydia for a solid five minutes, but all Lydia did was glower at people and eat potato chips.

The younger Row House children ran from yard to yard, shrieking and shouting, until Flora and Olivia convinced the kids to go to the Fongs’ to play games. Ruby joined them.

When the food was brought out, the children slowed down and, clutching prizes they’d won at the games, milled from yard to yard, investigating the platters of chicken and ribs, the plates of fruit salad and watermelon slices, and later an array of cakes and cookies and pies.

Ruby filled her plate with food, started to sit down at a table with Flora and Olivia, then noted that her robbery suspect was two yards away. She carried her plate over to the Willets’, where she sat on a bench and observed Lydia, who was perched on the handrail the Willets had installed along the two steps up to their back door. She was holding a hot dog in one hand, a cell phone in the other, and was chatting away. Ruby strained to listen, but all she heard were snatches of conversation that meant little to her: “Six o’clock tonight. Everyone will be there.” “No, not Cheryl,
Megan
.” “I don’t know, my blue shirt, I guess.”

Ruby lost interest, yawned, and turned her attention to her meal.

From a chair nearby, Mrs. Willet watched the afternoon unfold. Her brain was foggy and grew foggier every day. Months ago, Mrs. Willet had realized something was wrong. Back then, she knew she was getting foggy. But slowly, even that knowledge had disappeared, along with much of her memory. Now she simply felt the afternoon slip away, each moment passing like a car on a train, except that when the last car had zipped by, Mrs. Willet had no memory of the train.

Earlier, Mr. Willet had settled his wife in a wicker chair. He had brought her first a glass of lemonade, then a plate of chicken and salad, and later a saucer with two cookies on it. As she was finishing the cookies, he said to her, “Dear, we’ve planned something special for the end of the party. Something for Flora and Ruby. Do you remember who they are? They’re right over there. See them? They’re Min Read’s granddaughters, the ones who moved here this summer. And we thought it would be fun to surprise them, to welcome them to Camden Falls.”

Mrs. Willet said nothing. She watched as the cars on the train began to pass again. First that nice Mr. Pennington (she thought that was his name, but she wasn’t sure) called all the neighbors into the Willets’ yard. Then the girl whose name was probably Olivia motioned two unfamiliar girls to a bench. “You sit over there,” Olivia said, and added, “I kept a really good secret from you! Everyone’s going to welcome you to your new home. The Morrises will be first.”

Before Mrs. Willet’s weary eyes, the four Morris children put on a skit titled “New Neighbors” in which the younger kids pretended to be baby bears welcomed to a forest neighborhood by an elk and a fox, played by the twins.

Then Mr. and Mrs. Fong presented Ruby and Flora with handmade picture frames. “For old pictures you already have,” said Mrs. Fong, “or new ones you haven’t taken yet.”

“I have something you can put in them!” said Robby. “These are pictures I drew myself. There’s one of each family in the Row Houses, because you’re our new neighbors, like the baby bears. Okay, Ruby, you take four pictures, and Flora, you take four. Even Steven.”

Mrs. Willet sat quietly and watched as Mr. Pennington presented the girls with a copy of
Sounder
, telling them it was a story about bravery; as Margaret and Lydia, giggling (Ruby thought her suspect now looked disarmingly normal and not at all robber-like), sang a song they’d written called “This Town Is Your Town”; as the Walters gave the girls a certificate, carefully decorated by Olivia and her brothers, making the girls official Row House Residents; as Min Read, her good hand trembling and her mouth quivering, presented each of her granddaughters with a piece of jewelry that had belonged to their mother; and finally, as Mr. Willet (Mrs. Willet had a vague idea that this man might be her husband) gave the girls a small album of photos. “These pictures are of your mother and her sister when they were little girls and lived right here.”

“Thank you,” said Flora in a whisper, and Ruby knew her sister wanted to cry but refused to do so in front of all these people.