The next morning Jessie woke up with cold feet. She was used to Watch sleeping at the end of her bed and warming her feet. Only now Watch was at home while Jessie was in her sleeping bag in the Bugbee playhouse.
Soon everyone else’s eyes were opening, too. It took a few minutes for the children to figure out where they were.
“It’s so cozy in here now,” Violet told Jessie as she stretched her arms out of her sleeping bag. “I like the way we fixed up this playhouse with the little table and our camp lamp. Maybe tonight Soo Lee can stay here, too.”
The playhouse soon filled with sounds of sleeping bag zippers being unzipped and clothes being zipped,
“Brrr,” Henry said. “It’s always hard to get out of my sleeping bag. Let’s hurry to the main house. Brian told Nan that they got the furnace working yesterday.”
“I hope they got the hot chocolate working, too,” Benny added.
The Aldens got dressed and hurried from the playhouse to the main house. It was cold and damp outside.
When they arrived, the kitchen table was piled high with good things to eat and drink for breakfast.
“Help yourselves to whatever you want,” Mabel told the volunteers. “Don’t be shy.”
“We won’t be,” Benny said when he came to the table. “Yum, these look just like Mrs. McGregor’s corn muffins.”
“Those are Mrs. McGregor’s muffins,” Grandfather said with a laugh. “I brought them with me along with Soo Lee this morning. Mrs. McGregor and Watch miss you.”
“Finish up, everyone,” Mabel called out. “You’ll find our job assignments on the work list.” She turned to the Alden children. “I have a special job for all of you.”
“What is it?” Benny and Soo Lee asked.
“I saw what a tidy job you did in the playhouse. Now I need helpers on the top floor of the nursery wing,” Mabel said. “There are odds and ends to clear out before the electricians get to work. The third-floor nursery rooms are small. You children are just the right size for the job.”
Soo Lee stood on her tiptoes. “But I’m big. My mommy said so.”
Mabel smiled. “Yes, you are just the kind of big girl I need as a helper. Here are some cleaning supplies and a vacuum cleaner. Now off you go.”
The Aldens were just gathering up everything when Nan came over.
“Did I hear you say the Aldens are to clean out the nursery wing?” Nan asked Mabel.
Mabel nodded.
Nan’s mouth tightened into a frown. “But, but I heard the Gardiners say they need help outside.”
“Fine,” Mabel said. “The children will help them after the nursery rooms are cleaned. See you later, Aldens.”
The children climbed several sets of creaky, winding stairs before they finally reached the third floor. Each of the small nursery rooms was decorated with painted figures on the walls, though most of them were faded away. Some broken pieces of child-sized furniture stood in the corner along with a few torn children’s books yellowed with age. Everything lay under a thick coat of dust.
The children spent the next couple hours sweeping, scrubbing, and gathering the odds and ends scattered about.
“It must have been so pretty when the Bugbee children lived here,” Violet said as she swept some paper scraps into a dustbin. “Someone hand-painted all these clowns and animals on the walls. Now it’s all going to be covered over. Let’s save the different things we’ve found just in case the Bugbee children come back someday.”
“Even if they did,” Henry told Violet, “they’d be all grown up by now.”
Jessie swept some cobwebs from the ceiling with a broom. “But guess what. Mabel told Grandfather that these will be kept as playrooms. When children come to visit their grandparents after House and Hands fixes up the house, they can play up here and in the playhouse.”
“I hope so,” Violet said. “Grandfather kept rooms for us at his house.”
The children were quiet as they gathered up some items they had found. They searched around for Violet’s music box with the dancing bear but didn’t find it. As they quietly went about their work, the Aldens heard something. Footsteps!
“What’s that?” Benny looked up. “Is somebody walking on the roof? I hope that ceiling is good and strong.”
Henry walked over to a window. “Ugh. These windows are hard to open. Oh, good, I got it. Anybody on the roof?” he yelled.
The footsteps stopped, but no one answered.
“That’s weird,” Henry said. “It sounds as if somebody was around here somewhere. But I don’t see anyone.” He banged the window down. “I’ll go check the other rooms.”
“Well, we’re finished in here anyway.” Jessie put away the cleaning supplies. “When Henry comes back, let’s go downstairs.”
“Nobody seems to be in the other rooms, either,” Henry said when he returned. “I could have sworn someone was walking around up here.”
With Henry leading the way, the children stepped into the hallway.
Henry saw a red-and-blue blur disappear down the stairs. “Hey!” he called out, before running ahead to the staircase. He looked down the winding banister all the way to the ground floor. “Brian! Wait up.”
When Brian looked back up, five heads stared back.
The Aldens raced downstairs and caught up with Brian.
“You were rushing so fast,” Henry said to Brian. “Were you working on the roof? We heard footsteps.”
“No, I … uh … just came up to see how you were doing,” Brian told the Aldens.
“But why did you rush off?” Henry asked. “If you were looking for us, I mean?”
Again, Brian’s face got nearly as red as his shirt. “I … uh … heard my walkie-talkie. One of the volunteers needed me, that’s all.”
The Aldens thought this was odd, but none of them said anything until Soo Lee piped up. “There was a ghost on the roof walking around. My cousin Henry chased him away.”
“It was probably some big blackbirds walking around up there,” Brian said. “The roof tiles are kind of thin. You can hear birds and squirrels walking back and forth.”
Jessie wasn’t so sure. “These sounds were heavier than that. Is there another room near the nursery where somebody might be working?”
Now Brian really looked impatient with the Aldens. “You know, I really haven’t got time to answer all these questions. Now that your work is finished up here, why don’t you find the Gardiners? They must have some outdoor work that needs doing.” With that, Brian pointed outside, where the Gardiners were carrying empty boxes into the garage.
“If you say so,” Jessie told Brian before he went back upstairs.
“I feel as if Brian is always trying to get rid of us,” Jessie said when the children stepped outside.
“Not just him—Nan and the Gardiners, too,” Henry added. “They’re always shooing us away. It seems like everyone is trying to keep us from poking around the house too much.”
“Or from finding them poking around,” Jessie added. “First the Gardiners didn’t want us to help on the auction. Nan just disappears all the time. And Brian gets annoyed every time we find him here and there and everywhere. It’s all very mysterious.”
“I know,” Henry said. “Let’s go see if the Gardiners want us around or not.”
The children met up with George and Louella outside the garage.
“Hi, George,” Jessie said. “Brian thought you could use some help outside.”
George stared at the children. “Not right now.”
Louella pointed to the garden shed. “Well, I’ve got something for you children to do. Gather the branches your grandfather had the volunteers cut down. Then stack them near the shed. A tree company is sending over a wood chipper at the end of the week.”
Soon the children were busy dragging heavy branches across the yard. As they worked, they noticed something curious going on.
Several times the Gardiners entered the garage with boxes and trash bags. Every now and then a car engine started up, then stopped.
“I overheard George telling Mabel that the two old cars in the garage won’t start,” Jessie whispered. “But it sounds as if someone is starting one of the cars.”
“I know,” Henry said. “Well, never mind the garage. Look who’s on the third-floor landing—the window on the right. Isn’t that Louella? Don’t all stare at once.”
The children took turns squinting at the window Henry was talking about.
“It sure looks like Louella!” Benny said in a loud whisper. “How’d she get there anyway?”
“Beats me,” Henry answered. “I saw her go into the garage with George. I’m almost positive she never came out again.”
“I wonder if there’s a way to get to the house from inside the garage,” Jessie said.
“What are we waiting for?” Henry asked. “Let’s see if she’s still in there.”
Jessie knocked on the garage door. “Louella? It’s the Aldens. We finished the yard work you told us to do.”
The children didn’t hear any noise inside.
Jessie waited a few moments and called again. “Hello?”
Suddenly, they heard someone moving around even though the garage had sounded empty a moment ago.
“Who’s there?” came Louella’s voice, a little impatiently. It was as if she hadn’t heard them before at all. “I’m coming.”
Louella slowly opened the door.
The children looked at her, then quickly looked up at the house again. The person in the window was gone. |