Who Won the War? (8 page)

Moving day arrived. The big Mayflower truck slowly backed into the driveway, and as Caroline watched from her window, three burly men got out and walked across the yard to the front door.

“Ready to go,” Mrs. Malloy said, opening the door wide. “Everything's in boxes except the furniture.”

It was a surprise to Caroline how fast the movers worked. The couch and the dining room table went first; then the beds were dismantled and carried out. One by one the rooms were emptied, until the girls' voices echoed around the house.

The rug, the dresser, the chairs, the lamps, the chests, and boxes, boxes, boxes …

And finally … the house was empty.

“Okay, lady, we'll see you in Ohio,” the driver said.

“Be careful with my dishes,” Mrs. Malloy told them. “Some of those belonged to my grandmother.”

“We'll be as careful as if your grandmother herself was in those boxes,” the driver said.

Mrs. Malloy and her daughters watched the big truck roll slowly down the driveway, then turn onto the road and start across the bridge.

“Are you ready to say goodbye to Buckman?” Mrs. Malloy asked. “Ready to tell the boys goodbye?”

“I was ready to tell them goodbye the day we moved in,” said Eddie.

“I don't believe that for one minute,” said her mother.

They were just walking out to the car when the cleaning crew arrived with buckets and mops and brooms and vacuum cleaners. Mrs. Malloy drove the car over the bridge to the business district, then turned onto College Avenue and drove to the Hatfords' house.

“I'll bet this is the last parking space in Buckman,” she said, pulling up in front. “Did you
see
all those cars in town just now? This is the biggest crowd this college has ever had. It's nice of Mrs. Hatford to invite us for brunch. I doubt that we could have found a seat in any restaurant in town.”

Mrs. Hatford met them at the door. “Hello, Jean,” she said warmly. “Come on in, girls. Tom says he's sorry he'll miss you, but he's working today, of course. Please come and sit down at the table. I know you're anxious to get on the road, but we're so glad to have this little time with you.”

The Hatford boys were standing awkwardly around the dining room, arms dangling at their sides. There was a platter of doughnuts in the center of the table, surrounded by plates of fruit and sausages and applesauce and scrambled eggs.

“You're so nice to do this, Ellen,” said Mrs. Malloy. “I'll bet we'd find a waiting line all up and down the highway. We didn't eat much breakfast, and this looks delicious!”

Everyone took a seat at the table. Caroline had never seen her older sisters so tongue-tied. She was quiet herself, and the Hatford boys were practically speechless. They'd not had much trouble teasing and quarreling during the past year, but now that it was time for goodbyes, and mothers were present, no one quite knew what to say.

“We're going to miss you, aren't we, Wally?” Mrs. Hatford said.

Wally didn't answer.

“
I'll
miss them!” said Peter, having gratefully accepted the bag of cookies Beth had made just for him.

“So will Jake and Josh and Wally,” said his mother.

“And the girls are going to find it really boring in Ohio without the boys,” said Mrs. Malloy.

The girls didn't answer. The doughnuts went around a second time. So did the sausages and eggs. The boys were occupied with stuffing their faces, and only the two mothers seemed to find anything to talk about.

Mrs. Hatford was offering more juice when the phone rang, and she answered.

“Of course!” she said. “Yes, she's right here.” She handed the phone to Mrs. Malloy. “It's your husband.”

“George?” Mrs. Malloy got out of her chair and stood holding the telephone. “Hello?” she said. There was a pause. “What?” An even longer pause. “Oh,
no!”
she said.

Caroline stopped chewing and watched her mother. She most certainly looked worried, and that worried Caroline. “But we can't!” Mrs. Malloy was saying. “There's no place to go!” Beth and Eddie looked up.

Mrs. Malloy turned to Mrs. Hatford. “George tells me there's been a massive power outage in Ohio because of the heat. The electricity has been off in our county since nine last night, and now the power company says they don't think they can get it restored for three or four days!”

“Oh, my goodness!” said Mrs. Hatford.

Mrs. Malloy turned to the phone again. “George, every hotel here is booked solid! Every motel for fifty miles or more is full!”

Another pause. Then Mrs. Malloy spoke to her daughters. “He says it would be foolish to go home. There's no electricity, no air-conditioning, no traffic lights or streetlights. Even supermarkets and restaurants are shutting down because there's no refrigeration. I don't know what we're going to do!”

“There's only one thing
to
do, Jean,” said Mrs. Hatford. “You're simply going to stay with us.”

Ten
Moving Out

T
heir mother might as well have told them that the basement was flooded or the roof was on fire, Wally thought. She had to be half out of her mind. The heat had affected her, too! There was no place for the Malloys to sleep! No way could they fit four more people into their house!

He looked at his brothers. Jake and Josh were thunderstruck, but Peter grinned happily at the prospect.

“Oh, Ellen, how could you possibly put us up?” Mrs. Malloy protested.

“Where there's a will, there's a way. You'd do the same for me,” Mrs. Hatford said. “There's no sense in your starting out with no idea where you'll spend the night or how long you'll have to be there. At least the kids know each other, and they can play outside….”

Mrs. Malloy spoke into the telephone again. “Ellen
has invited us to stay here till we get our power back, George…. Yes, I know…. It's a great imposition on them, but I don't know what else to do…. Yes…. All right…. Yes, I will.”

When she hung up the phone, she said, “You're an angel of mercy, Ellen. George says he'll call the minute the power comes back on, but almost the whole state is shut down, and so are parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.”

“We're glad to have you here,” Mrs. Hatford said. “Now we'll just figure out where everyone will sleep.”

“Mo … ther!” Jake said earnestly in a low voice.

Mrs. Hatford ignored the protest. “The twins have the largest bedroom, so I think I'll put the four of you in there. They have twin beds, and I'll get an air mattress that sleeps two that we can squeeze onto the floor.”

“That will be absolutely fine,” said Mrs. Malloy.

“Mo-ther!” said Jake in despair. “What about
us
?”

“One of you boys can take your sleeping bag into Wally's room, and the other can sleep in Peter's,” Mrs. Hatford said.

Wally tried to imagine the Malloys living in their house. “There's … there's only one bathroom! For ten people!” he choked.

“Plus the powder room here on the first floor. We'll make do. There just won't be any long showers, that's all. In fact, you boys may want to forget showers for a day or two,” his mother said.

That was fine with Wally. But the thought of
waiting in line to use the toilet, and everybody knowing what you were waiting for, did not appeal to Wally at all. Jake and Josh were still in shock.

“They'll sleep in our beds!” Wally heard Jake whisper.

“They'll look in our closet!” Josh whispered back.

Wally glanced across the table at Caroline, Beth, and Eddie. They didn't seem any happier about it than his brothers were.

“Okay,” said Mrs. Hatford determinedly. “We're going to make this as painless as possible, and who knows? Maybe it will be fun!”

Like going to the dentist is fun
, Wally thought.

“We'll do all we can to help,” said Mrs. Malloy.

“Jake and Josh,” said their mother, “go get some of your clothes to wear for the next few days. Take your sleeping bags, too. They're in your closet. And a few games might be nice. Wally and Peter, go to your rooms and make sure everything's off the floor so the twins can put down their sleeping bags.”

Like robots—all but Peter, who practically skipped to the stairs—the boys rose from their chairs and started toward the hall.

“I'm so sorry to impose like this,” Wally heard Mrs. Malloy say. “I know how the kids must hate it.”

“It's not much trouble, really!” said Mrs. Hatford.

She lies
, Wally thought.

At the top of the stairs, Jake said, “This can't be happening! It's my worst nightmare!
Worse
than my worst nightmare! Eddie will be sleeping in my bed! I'll have
to decontaminate it, practically, before I can sleep in it again.”

“I'm taking my own pillow,” said Josh. “I don't want anyone sleeping on my pillow.”

“I'm not sleeping in Peter's room, either,” said Josh. “ Wally, you can sleep in Peter's room and Jake and I will take yours.”

This always happened. Wally had known it would happen. But he opened his mouth and said, “No way.”

“What do you mean?” said Jake.

“
N
as in
noodle
and
O
as in
Oreo,”
said Wally. “It's my room and I'm sleeping in my own bed.” There. He'd said it. Jake looked like he might punch him in the mouth, but he didn't.

“Well, then we're both going to sleep on your floor,” Jake said. “We'll put all our stuff in Peter's room, but we're not sleeping in separate bedrooms.”

“Okay by me,” said Wally.
Amazing how great you feel when you stand up for yourself
, he thought.

He went into his room and kicked all the extra stuff under his bed. The worn underwear, the new sneakers, the
National Wildlife
magazine, the kickball … Then he went across the hall and stood in his brothers' doorway, watching them yank stuff out of their desk drawers before the girls got upstairs.

“Don't let them see any old papers!” said Josh.

“Don't let them see any school stuff at all,” said Jake.

“Look at this!” Josh said, holding up a picture he had drawn in kindergarten—a boy with a head as big as a pumpkin and a strange smile on his face. There
must have been dozens more, all crammed into a bottom drawer.

“And this!” said Jake, checking his middle desk drawer. There was a report card from second grade, and the teacher had written at the bottom,
Jake could be a better student if he tried, but his temper and impulsiveness sometimes get in the way.

“You'd better take that along,” said Josh. “Who knows what else you've got in your desk? Probably something even worse.”

“We should move the desks!” Jake said in despair. He was busy loading up his arms. “Take any money you've got lying around—all your state quarters, Josh. Your stamp collection, too.”

“And don't forget all your baseball caps,” said Josh. “Eddie would love to get her hands on those.”

They grabbed jeans and shorts from their closet, then pushed the remaining clothes as far back in the corner as possible, so that the girls' clothes wouldn't touch theirs when they hung them up.

There were footsteps on the stairs, and the twins left their bedroom just as Mrs. Malloy and Mrs. Hatford appeared at the top.

“Let me help you with the sheets,” Mrs. Malloy said.

“If you'd like,” said Mrs. Hatford, taking a stack of pillowcases out of the closet and handing them to the girls' mother. “If you could put fresh sheets on the beds in the twins' room, I'll make sure we have plenty of towels in the bathroom.”

Wally and his brothers fled back downstairs and
found themselves alone with the Malloy girls in the kitchen.

“Talk about a bummer!” Eddie said at last.

“I'd rather turn over my room to a hippopotamus,” said Jake.

“Thanks for nothing,” said Eddie.

“Are you guys going to start fighting again?” asked Peter from the doorway, his hands on his hips. “
I
think this could be fun!”

Everyone looked at Peter as though he had just stepped out of a spaceship. Fun? Having girls in their bedroom? Using the same bathroom, too? Having to get up in the morning and face each other across the breakfast table?