The phone rang as Jessie, Violet, Benny, Henry, and Grandfather Alden were finishing breakfast the next morning. A minute later, Mrs. McGregor came into the dining room. She was smiling. “I have a call for The Boxcar Helpers,” she said.
“It’s our first job,” said Jessie excitedly. “Oh, Grandfather, may one of us be excused to see who it is?”
Grandfather laughed. “The early bird gets the worm,” he said. “Go on, Jessie.”
Jessie slipped quickly away from the table. Everyone else began to help Mrs. McGregor clear away the dishes. They had just finished when Jessie came back.
“What is it, Jessie?” cried Benny.
“That was a lawyer, Ms. Singh, who is going away on a business trip for two days,” Jessie told them. “She wants us to come feed her cats this week while she’s gone. She lives over on Garden Street, and she’s going to leave the key under the mat by the back door.”
“That’ll be fun,” said Violet. “Only we had better not take Watch!”
The phone rang again. “I’ll get it,” said Henry.
“Sounds like you’re off to a good start,” said Grandfather. “I’ll leave you to conduct business.”
“Let’s go see what job this is,” said Benny. He and Violet and Jessie joined Henry. Henry hung up the phone and wrote something down carefully.
“Well?” asked Jessie.
“Mr. Hudson, on Hickory Lane, wants his grass cut. I told him I was an expert grass cutter!” Henry laughed. “So while you’re feeding cats, I will cut the grass.”
The phone rang again, and then again. Soon they had more than enough jobs for the day, and they began to schedule them for the next day and the next.
“We have to tell Beth,” said Violet when the phone finally stopped ringing. Quickly she dialed Beth’s number. “Hello, Beth?” she said eagerly. Then she frowned. “Oh. Thank you.”
A moment later she said again, “Hello, Beth? Is that you? This is Violet Alden speaking.”
The others listened as Violet told Beth all about the jobs. “So we’ll be busy all day,” Violet said. “Are you going to come with us? . . . Oh. That’s too bad. Okay, we’ll see you tomorrow. Good luck!”
Violet hung up the phone. “Poor Beth. She has to go to the dentist in Silver City today and can’t help us.”
“Too bad,” said Jessie sympathetically. “But we’d better get started.”
The Aldens made a list of all the jobs they had to do that day, then went and got their bicycles and pedaled into town to get started. They had just come out of the post office, where they had taken a package to be mailed for someone, when they saw a familiar figure riding her bicycle down the street ahead of them.
“Look!” Violet was startled. “Isn’t that Beth?”
Henry raised his hand to shade his eyes. “It sure looks like her. Beth! Hey, Beth!”
The figure didn’t turn around.
“Beth!” shouted Benny at the top of his lungs.
This time, Beth turned around. So did several other people on the street.
But Beth didn’t stop. She didn’t even wave. Instead, she turned around again and pedaled her bicycle even faster.
Surprised, the Alden children watched the figure until she disappeared around a corner.
Henry looked puzzled. “That’s strange. Wasn’t Beth going to the dentist?”
“That’s what she told me,” Violet answered.
“Do you think she was lying?” asked Jessie.
“I can’t believe she would,” said Violet.
“Maybe Beth doesn’t like us anymore,” suggested Benny.
“No, Benny,” said Henry. “That couldn’t be it.”
“Why didn’t she at least stop and say hello?” Jessie wondered.
But they forgot all about Beth as they came around the next corner. One of the posters they had put up on the bulletin board outside the deli had been torn down. It had been ripped apart and trampled.
“I don’t believe this,” said Henry, stopping his bike.
Jessie looked mad. “Here,” she said shortly. “Watch my bike. I’m going in to ask the people in the deli if they saw anything.”
But when she came back out a few minutes later, she didn’t have any clue to give them.
“I think Henry’s right. Somebody really doesn’t want us to raise money,” said Violet.
“Yes. It’s a good thing most of our posters are inside the windows of the stores. At least they probably won’t get ripped down,” said Jessie.
“Maybe it’s that doctor,” said Benny.
Henry frowned. “Maybe,” he agreed slowly. “But it’s a funny way for a doctor to act.”
Just then Jessie noticed a truck parked on the side of the street. It was the truck that belonged to Charlie the Fix-it Man. As they turned the corner, they saw a small man with a white cap on his head cutting the grass in the backyard of the house. The cap said CHARLIE on the bill.
“So we do work on some of the same jobs,” said Henry.
“Could Charlie be the one who tore down our sign?” asked Violet. “Maybe he doesn’t want us taking his business.”
“Maybe,” said Jessie. She looked at her watch. “We’d better get going. The day’s nearly half over and we have a lot of work to do.”
The next day, they got two new jobs in addition to the ones scheduled from the day before. One of the jobs was in Beth’s neighborhood.
This time, Jessie called her. “Guess what, Beth?” she asked. “The Millers have asked us to come dig their vegetable garden. They live in your neighborhood. So we can come pick you up at your house.”
“No!” said Beth so forcefully that Jessie had to hold the phone a little away from her ear. “No,” Beth repeated, more quietly, but just as firmly. “It’s . . . well, the house is such a mess . . . we haven’t finished unpacking. My parents would kill me if I invited anyone over.”
“Oh. Well,” said Jessie slowly, a bit taken aback by Beth’s strong response. “We’ll just have to meet you there then.” She gave Beth directions to the Millers’ house and they agreed to meet in half an hour.
“Did Beth say anything about seeing us yesterday?” asked Henry as the Aldens headed for the Millers’ house.
“No,” answered Jessie thoughtfully. “Something very strange is going on.”
Beth was waiting out front when they got to the Millers’. She waved cheerfully as they pedaled up. “What a great day for gardening,” she said.
“I’m glad you could come today,” said Violet softly, falling into step by Beth as they walked up to the front door of the house. “How was the dentist?”
Beth made a face. “Oh—the dentist. I don’t like going. But at least I didn’t have any cavities.”
“That’s good,” said Violet.
“Did you have a lot of jobs yesterday?” Beth asked Violet.
“Lots!” said Violet. “We had to go all over town, too.” She paused, wondering if Beth would mention seeing them.
But Beth just flung out her arms and said, “Great. Soon we’ll have enough money to pay for the whole new hospital wing!”
Henry grinned. “Or at least one of the rooms!” he said as he rang the Millers’ doorbell.
Mr. Miller was an older man, with a round face and little mustache. He was wearing baggy pants held up by red suspenders, with a red striped shirt to match. He kept his thumbs hooked in the suspenders as he showed the children what he wanted them to do.
He unhooked one of the thumbs to raise his hand and give the children a little wave as he went back into the house.
The Millers had marked off a large square piece of level ground in a sunny area of their backyard for the garden. There were shovels, hoes, and pitchforks for breaking up the ground. Benny collected all the rocks and lined the edge of the garden with them. They pulled up clumps of weeds and took out sticks. Then they made long raised rows of dirt, which would be easy to plant in. Between the rows of mounded dirt, they carefully marked paths. With everyone working together, the Aldens and Beth soon had the garden ready for planting.
As they were working, a truck drove slowly by and then stopped. A wiry little man in faded blue overalls and a blue work shirt leaned out of the window on the driver’s side. He pushed the bill of his cap back and squinted over the fence.
It was Charlie, the Fix-it man.
“You kids know what you’re doing?” asked Charlie.
“Yes, thank you,” said Beth.
“Gardening can be hard work—especially if you aren’t used to it,” he commented. “Of course I do a lot of it.”
“With all of us working together, it goes pretty quickly,” Henry said.
“I guess so.” Charlie jerked his head toward the house. “I usually do the gardening for the Millers,” he said. “Or I used to.”
“Oh!” said Violet. No one else could think of anything to say.
“Yep,” said Charlie, looking off into the distance. “See you later.” He leaned back in the window, put the truck in gear, and drove away.
“Do you think we really are taking work away from Charlie?” asked Jessie.
“I don’t know,” said Henry, wiping his forehead. It was a very hot day.
“If the Millers usually have Charlie do their gardening, I wonder why they hired us,” Violet said.
“Maybe Charlie did something they didn’t like,” Henry suggested.
Just then Mr. Miller came out onto the back porch and invited the Aldens and Beth in for lemonade.
“Yes, please!” said Benny quickly.
“That would be great,” said Henry, propping his shovel against a tree. “We only have a little more to do.”
But Beth shook her head regretfully. “I have to go. I promised I’d help out at home today, too.”
“You kids are doing a great job,” said Mr. Miller.
Beth smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “See you tomorrow,” she told the Aldens. She went around the side of the house toward her bicycle and everyone else went inside for glasses of cold lemonade. It was delicious. Benny had two glasses.
“Whew,” said Henry as they went back outside. “That’s hot, thirsty work.”
Violet nodded. “I like gardening, but I’m glad we’re almost through. . . .”
Her voice trailed off in horror as she looked past Henry at the garden they had so carefully dug.
All the neat rows had been kicked and shoveled every which way. Rocks and sticks and weeds were scattered all over the garden plot. And the soft, crumbly dirt had been stomped down hard.
“Oh, no!” cried Jessie.
“My rocks!” wailed Benny.
They all ran forward to look more closely.
“This is awful,” said Violet. “We’ll have to do it all over again.”
Benny trudged out into the garden and began to pick up rocks.
“Wait a minute, Benny,” said Henry. “Maybe we can find some clue to who did this. Like footprints.”
But it was impossible to pick out individual footprints because there were so many and the dirt was so scuffed up.
Sadly, the Aldens went back to work. As they worked, they talked about who could have done such an awful thing.
“Why doesn’t someone want us to earn money for the hospital?” wondered Henry.
“Maybe it was that doctor,” Violet said. “She was very angry about the hospital wing —both times we saw her.”
“Did she follow us here?” Benny asked.
“I guess she might have. Or maybe it was Charlie. He may be angry that we’re taking some of the jobs he used to do—like this garden. And he definitely knew we were here.”
“He was just down the street the day we saw the torn poster,” Violet pointed out.
“And he was in town when the air was being let out of my tires,” Benny added.
The children kept working. When they were almost done Jessie said, “You know . . . there’s another person it could be. Have you thought about all the strange things that have happened? They all have something in common.”
“What do you mean?” Violet asked.
“Every time something happened, Beth had suddenly left—or disappeared,” Jessie said. “We were in our kitchen having cookies and milk when the supplies were taken, remember?”
Violet said slowly, “Beth was in my room putting on one of Grandfather’s old blue work shirts.”
Nodding, Jessie said, “Right. But she was gone for a long time. Then, when we went to buy new art supplies . . .”
“Beth said she had to go next door and do some errands. When we came out, someone had let the air out of Benny’s bicycle tires,” Henry finished.
“And whoever ruined the garden did it while we were inside having lemonade,” said Jessie. “And Beth left just before we went inside. Or said she was leaving.”
“It can’t be Beth,” cried Violet. “I just know Beth wouldn’t do anything like this.”
“I don’t want to believe it either, Violet,” said Jessie. “But the clues all seem to point to her.”
“It could have been anybody,” argued Violet. “It’s just a coincidence that makes it look like Beth was the one. Besides, she’s new in town. Why wouldn’t she want us to help with the hospital?”
“That’s true,” said Henry doubtfully. “But still . . .”
“Beth’s the one who thought of the helper service, too,” Violet pointed out.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Jessie. “But it is possible Beth did all these awful things.”
“Well,” said Violet stubbornly. “I’m not going to believe it.”
The Aldens finished the garden in silence, and went home with heavy hearts. |