Sunshine Picklelime (7 page)

Ms. Evi Lenz was in the Dream’s window, adjusting the chocolate fountains. She wore a green apron patterned with dancing goats and milk buckets. She also wore a matching green bandanna around her forehead to keep her cluster of bell-like copper curls from bouncing around her face. Every time she nodded or laughed, PJ heard a tinkling sound from the curls. She waved cheerfully as PJ parked her bike outside and met her at the door.

“Hi, Ms. Lenz.”

“Grüezi
, PJ,” she replied. Ms. Lenz always used a friendly Swiss German greeting when she saw PJ. She dropped her eyes and stared at the owl’s ears brushing PJ’s throat and said, “I don’t believe this. You brought Oohoo to see me?”

PJ undid a few more buttons. Ms. Lenz placed both hands on her knees and leaned over to stare into Oohoo’s eyes. “Wise Oohoo,” she said, “I miss hearing you at night. Come to think of it, I don’t hear any owls at night.” Ms. Lenz rose, turned to PJ, and frowned. “PJ, why are the owls so quiet?”

PJ was equally puzzled. “I hadn’t noticed. But I’ll stay up late and listen tonight!” she offered.

Oohoo blinked and then closed her eyes.

Evi Lenz said, “Hmmm,
she
knows why. She will let
you know in her special way.” Ms. Lenz turned toward a glass-front display cabinet and opened it up at the back. The top shelves were lined with her handmade assorted truffles in dark, milk, and white chocolate. Pralines and the boxed varieties were below. Framed pictures of all her truffle and praline varieties hung on the wall behind her.

“Oohoo, look what you’re missing!” said PJ, patting the front of her shirt.

“Oh, wait for the best!” said Ms. Lenz. She reached into the cabinet and removed a small tray of white chocolate truffles lightly sprinkled with tiny slivers of lemon peel.

“Allllllso,”
she said proudly, “Lemon Nectar … inspired by Mrs. Shanti Patel and PJ Picklelime! Go on, help yourself. Tell me what you think.”

PJ hesitated. “Shouldn’t Mrs. Patel be here to try it with me?”

Evi Lenz smiled. “She will come later. Don’t worry, PJ. Best you try them separately so you don’t influence one another. Trust me. I know!”

PJ reached out and popped a round lemon truffle into her mouth.

“Let it melt slowly,” Ms. Lenz advised. “Don’t chew.”

PJ kept the round truffle between her tongue and palate and resisted the temptation to roll it around in her mouth like a fireball. It began to dissolve. Her eyelids fluttered. The intense lemon-flavored center was richer than the Lemon Nectar drink she had concocted with Mrs. Patel that day! She tried to talk, but it came out as a gurgle. She waited a few more minutes, then said, “No way will I brush my teeth tonight. I want to taste lemon when I wake up tomorrow morning!”

“Now, PJ, don’t go that far!” Ms. Lenz scooped a few of the truffles into a little box patterned with dancing lemons. She closed it with a pretty yellow ribbon and the Dream label. “For you and your parents to enjoy as dessert!” she said.

“Ms. Lenz?”

“Yes,
spätzli?”
she said. PJ loved it when she called her “little sparrow” in Swiss German.

“Can I take some for Ruth and Joshua?” PJ asked.

Ms. Lenz wagged her finger and said, “Just two each for those twins. Otherwise they’ll gobble them up like M&M’s and taste nothing! Teach them how to enjoy your special truffles
slowly
, PJ,” she added, placing four Lemon Nectars in another little box with a matching yellow ribbon. She put both boxes in a bag. “Now remember, I’m depending on you, your parents, Mrs. Patel, and the twins to give me feedback.”

“They taste
perfect!”

“For you, yes, but let’s hear from the others. PJ, you’re my test market. I want to know if the truffles are too sweet, not sweet enough, too lemony, not lemony enough, too creamy, or not creamy enough. Try another one a bit later. Then tell me what your parents and friends have to say.”

As if on cue, Oohoo began to move around in the front of PJ’s shirt.

“No, Oohoo,” said Ms. Lenz, tapping the owl through PJ’s shirt. “Owls and chocolate don’t mix. Unless they’re Swiss owls!”

PJ giggled and said, “Thanks, Ms. Lenz. See you!” She left the Dream and placed the truffles in a basket on the front of her bike. With a hand over the Oohoo bulge in her shirt, she pedaled to the tree house.

“Two each? Can Ms. Lenz spare them?” Joshua squinted into the box. “Lots of pretty wrapping, though.”

“Don’t be silly,” Ruth said, grabbing the box from him. “This is something
really
special, Josh. Do you want to try one or can I have yours?”

“No way!” he said.

“Wait, you guys,” PJ cut in after releasing Oohoo onto the grass beneath the tree house. “I promised Ms. Lenz I’d be serious about this. Can you split up and try the truffles? Otherwise you’re just going to goof off. You have to
savor
the truffles slowly, let them
melt
in your mouth!”

Joshua threw his hand in the air and mimicked PJ’s voice, saying, “I’m off to
savor
and
savor!
I’ll send my report when I’m done!” He scooped a truffle out of the box, tilted his head back, and dropped it into his mouth.

Ruth rolled her eyes. “Come on, PJ, grab Oohoo. We have work to do.”

PJ lifted the owl into her shirt and swung up to the tree house behind Ruth.

Ruth popped a truffle into her own mouth and said, “Omigod. Is this for real?” She sucked in her cheeks and
added, “PJ, this is
awesome
. Sweet lemon, keep going all the way to the top of my head! Wow. Tell Ms. Lenz I approve and we’ll take any rejects.”

“I’ll tell her. She’s special, Ruth, and you know what? She’s so tuned in to owls, she wanted to know why she hadn’t heard any at night recently. Have you heard any?” PJ asked.

Ruth pursed her lips and waited until the truffle had totally dissolved before saying, “I don’t think so. I wondered why the nights were quiet all of a sudden.”

They both looked down at Oohoo bulging out of PJ’s shirt and then looked at one another. Something wasn’t right. But what?

“Why not take her to the window?” Ruth suggested. “She loves watching sunsets. See if you can get her to open up to you? I’ll check on Squirt and Cardy,” she added, turning toward their cages.

PJ slid her fingers under the owl’s talons and lifted her onto her shoulder.

Above them, the skylight framed the soft pink colors of the sunset like a beautiful painting set into the sloping planks of the ceiling. “Enjoy all those lovely colors, Oohoo,” said PJ as the owl nuzzled her cheek. “See how they change from second to second.” PJ pointed at the
dabs of rose pink sky visible between the curvy, vine-covered branches of the live oak.

Behind them on the big cushions, Squirt played a gymnastic game with Ruth, winding himself around her arms and leaping from one hand to the other. “Nothing wrong with you, my friend.” Ruth laughed. She checked Squirt’s back leg muscles.

Cardy lifted his brilliant red-plumed head and conical beak and suddenly started to sing, a beautiful
chirpchirpchirp
followed by
pewpewpew
, over and over.

A car backfired outside. Cardy stopped singing. The owl stiffened, ears spiked and sharp, and dug her talons into PJ’s shoulder. The tree house was silent for a moment.

PJ kept perfectly still. “Oohoo, it’s time you talked to me.”

The owl glanced over at Ruth, but she had Cardy on her raised knee and Squirt tumbling about in her hands.

“Talk, Oohoo. You can see Ruth’s busy!”

Oohoo listened for a moment, then whispered in PJ’s ear, a long hollow sound like wind moving through a tunnel. “I’m safe here.”

PJ turned her head so she could whisper in the owl’s ear. “Safe?”

“From the owl thief. He sells us to pet stores. He took my chicks. And friends.”

PJ jumped up and Oohoo nearly toppled off her shoulder. “Owls aren’t pets. Who’s stealing them?”

Oohoo stared at the skylight. The sunset was easing from pink into gray streaks. “He’s dangerous.”

“Who?”

The owl shuddered.

“Oohoo, we know something’s going on. Who’s stealing owls?”

“The helicopter pilot.”

“Pete?
That’s impossible!”

“It’s true,” Oohoo said.

“But he was so nice. He flew me over the cliffs to find my little bird friend Lemon Pie….” PJ paused. “Oh wow. You mean he uses the helicopter to find baby owls?”

“Ooooh,” whispered Oohoo, and the long single note vibrated through PJ’s shoulder. Tears rolled out of Oohoo’s huge eyes and down her softly mottled feathers.

After a moment, Ruth said, “We need to talk about this, don’t we? It’s OK. I heard everything.” Ruth’s gold-flecked gray eyes moved between PJ and Oohoo, and she twirled her pigtail as though trying to figure something out.

Squirt was stretched out along her thigh. Cardy
chirruped
and hopped around her feet.

Oohoo began to rock back and forth.

Ruth gestured to PJ to join her on the pillows. PJ placed one reassuring hand behind Oohoo to steady her as she knelt down.

The older girl folded her arms. “How do we tackle Helicopter Pete?”

“Carefully. I can’t let my parents find out,” said PJ. “I don’t want to give them another reason for an argument.”

Ruth had heard that PJ’s parents were having problems. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“Not right now. Let’s work out a way of dealing with Helicopter Pete.”

“OK, PJ, I hear you. Where does he hang out?”

“I’ll ask Mrs. Patel. She’ll know,” said PJ.

“YO!” Joshua suddenly shouted from below. “I just e-mailed Ms. Lenz. That Lemon Nectar is
dangerous
. When word gets out, she’ll have to hire security guards. Folks’ll be climbing through her windows to get at the truffles!”

Ruth lifted Squirt off her leg and went to the door. She was just about to give a snide response, but then looked at her twin thoughtfully. “Hey, Josh? Can you free
up some of your schedule for the next few days? We may need your camcorder skills.”

He blinked up at her. “To video the truffles?”

“No, you moron. We’re working on a criminal investigation.”

“No kidding! Sounds
hot!”

“It is!” PJ agreed, joining Ruth at the door. “We start tomorrow, Josh.”

Ruth added, “Not a word to Mom and Dad, OK?”

“Now you’re talking!” He grinned.

PJ eased Oohoo off her shoulder and placed her carefully in her cage. She glanced up at Ruth and said, “Meet me outside Mrs. Patel’s house on your bike tomorrow after school?”

When PJ returned home, she left the box of truffles on the kitchen table. She made some excuse to her mom about homework and took a bowl of stir-fried veggies and brown rice up to her room. She needed alone time and didn’t want to be in a situation at dinner where her parents argued or asked her too many questions.

She reached for her sketch pad and pastels and began
playing around with colors on the pad, blending and rubbing them with her fingers to try to match the gentle contrasts of merging pinks she’d enjoyed earlier. What lingered in her mind was the image of the skylight framing the sunset like a painting, so she sketched it from memory, complete with the view of curvy branches in the background. She put down the pastels, picked up her dinner, and started to eat it, but soon lost interest and put it to one side. Darkness was settling in. Ms. Lenz had spoken earlier about the silence at night and a sky that was empty of owls.