Mr. Mercer was upset. “I parked the truck out by the skating rink last night. The tires were fine then.”
“One flat tire I could understand,” Grandfather said. “But four?”
“That sounds like it was intentional,” Henry pointed out.
“But who would do something like that? And why?” said Mr. Mercer.
“First missing keys and now flat tires. Do you suppose they’re connected?” Henry wondered aloud.
“Probably not,” Jessie said.
“Todd, do you have an air pump?” Mr. Alden asked.
Mr. Mercer shook his head. “It’s broken,” he said. “I’ve been meaning to get another one.”
Grandfather offered to drive him into town. “We’ll get a pump and go to the locksmith,” he said.
Mr. Mercer agreed, and he and Grandfather hurried to Grandfather’s car.
Freddy said, “We’ll go on with the tryouts.”
“There are five events,” Jimmy said. “Skating, skiing, sledding, snow sculpting, and ice carving.”
An excited murmur shot through the group.
“Snow sculpting?” Benny whispered to Violet. “Is that like making snowmen?”
Violet nodded. “I think so.”
“Then, I’ll try out for that,” he said. He wondered what he would have to do. He raised his hand. “How do you try out for snow sculpting?” he asked.
“You can’t,” Freddy told him. “That and ice carving — if you want to do one of those, just sign up.”
“And you can sign up for as many events as you want,” Jimmy added.
A boy about Jessie’s age stood up. He tossed his head to get his long, straight hair out of his eyes. “What if you want to try out for, say, skiing, but you don’t have skis?”
“You’ll find everything you need at the equipment shop, Matt,” Freddy told him.
“If and when Mr. Mercer gets it open,” Jimmy said.
“What if you don’t want to sign up for anything?” Nan Foster asked.
Freddy stared at her. She seemed so surprised by the question that she didn’t have an answer.
A boy named Pete, who was sitting next to Nan, rolled his eyes. “We can’t win with people like her on our team,” he scoffed.
Nan looked as though she might cry.
“It’s okay,” Jimmy said to her. “Sometimes, people try out for an event, and they don’t make it. That’s okay, too. They get to be assistants. We need everybody.”
Beth smiled at Nan. “You should try out for something, though. It’s fun,” she said.
“Where do we try out?” Henry asked.
“The skating tryouts are in an hour, at the pond. Right afterward we’ll have skiing on the slopes, and then sledding on the smaller hill.” Jimmy held up two pieces of yellow lined paper. “Here are the sign-up sheets.” He looked around to be sure there were no other questions. “That’s it!”
“Yea, team!” Freddy said.
“What’re you going to try out for, Henry?” Jessie asked.
“Skiing,” Henry answered.
“Anything else?”
“Maybe sledding.”
“I’m signing up for ice carving,” Violet said. “How about you, Jessie?”
“Skating, for sure,” Jessie answered.
“I’m trying out for everything,” Benny said.
Henry laughed. “This isn’t food, Benny,” he teased.
They got in line to sign up.
Violet was behind Nan. “Oh, Nan,” she said, “you changed your mind about trying out.”
Nan lowered her eyes. “No, I didn’t,” she said.
Violet was confused. “But…you’re standing in line.”
“I don’t want my parents to know,” she explained. “They’d be upset. They want me to have fun.”
“Don’t you want to have fun?” Violet asked.
The girl shrugged. “I never have fun,” she answered.
Violet thought about that. She tried to imagine what it would be like not to enjoy herself. No matter where she went or what she did, she expected to have a good time. And she always did.
It was Nan’s turn to sign up. Twisting the ends of her red knit scarf, she stared at the paper on the table.
Violet stepped up beside her. She picked up two pencils. “Here,” she said and gave Nan one. “Let’s both sign up for ice carving. You don’t have to try out for that.”
Nan looked discouraged. “I don’t know anything about ice carving,” she said. “I wouldn’t want to be the one who loses for the whole team.”
“I don’t know a thing about it either,” Violet assured her. “Maybe we could help each other.”
Nan brightened. Then, just as suddenly, her round face clouded. “We’re on different teams,” she said.
Violet had forgotten that. Because of her brothers and sister, she usually thought about cooperation, not competition. “That won’t matter,” she said. “It’ll be a help just knowing each other. I mean, neither of us knows what we’re doing; that makes us equal.”
Nan smiled for the first time. “Then, your team’d have an equal chance of losing.”
Although Violet wouldn’t have put it that way, she agreed.
Nan signed her name on the yellow sheet that read ICE CARVING. “Thanks,” she said and hurried off.
When they had all signed up, the children headed back to the cabin to get their skates and skis. Outside, the snow reflected the sunlight.
Henry fished a pair of sunglasses out of his jacket pocket. “It’s really bright,” he commented.
“I like the way the snow sparkles in places,” Violet said.
Benny said, “I like the way it sounds when you walk on it. Scrunch, scrunch, scrunch.”
Jessie sighed. She liked everything about the snow. It even made the air smell fresher. “It’ll be a good week,” she said.
They walked along in silence, each thinking about all that had happened since they had arrived at the lodge.
Finally, Henry said, “You know, I think the missing keys and the flat tires are connected somehow.”
“That means we have a mystery,” Jessie said.
“I hope you’re wrong, Jessie,” Benny said. “We’ll be too busy to solve one!” |