It turned out that Laurie Baker was very good in the kitchen. Thanks to her, the Aldens soon had more free time. But it didn’t last long. Henry’s delivery business took up a lot of time. Then there were ads to write for the newspaper and more coupons and flyers to persuade new customers to try out Piccolos’ Pizza.
Laurie Baker encouraged all the children’s plans for going out and getting more business. The Aldens soon found themselves spending more time away from the restaurant than in it.
It was Benny who first noticed how much he missed being around Piccolos’. After handing out discount-pizza coupons downtown one cold morning, he finally complained. “I liked making pizza better than I like selling it.”
“I do too,” Violet confessed. She was cold and tired from standing on the corner of Main Street. “Right now, I wish I were rolling out circles of nice, warm dough and standing next to the Piccolos’ big, toasty oven.”
“Me, too,” Jessie said.
“Me, three,” Henry added as he pushed along his delivery bike on the way back to the restaurant.
Jessie handed Violet her knit scarf. “Here, Violet. You look colder than I am. It does seem funny that we spend more time away from the restaurant now that the Piccolos hired Laurie.” Jessie couldn’t keep a sad note out of her voice. “I do miss making pizzas,” she sighed. “But I guess the Piccolos are lucky Laurie Baker came along. After all, we can only help out for a while. She’ll be around a lot longer.”
“Maybe it’s time to ask Grandfather to come back for us,” Violet said in a quiet voice.
No one disagreed.
“Well, let’s stick around to see Nick,” Henry said. “Mrs. Piccolo said he called and is starting tomorrow.”
“I don’t think Laurie’s going to like that one bit,” Benny said. He kicked a piece of ice down the sidewalk. “I bet she wishes she could run Piccolos’ all by herself.”
The children weren’t as eager as usual to get to the restaurant. Since Laurie Baker’s arrival, their only jobs were to take orders and clean up.
The Aldens went into the restaurant kitchen the back way. When Jessie stepped inside, she saw rows of small and large pizzas already lined up next to the brick oven. Again, Laurie had done just fine without the children.
At the work counter, Laurie was huddled over a three-ring binder. She didn’t hear the door open. “Need any help?” Jessie asked.
Laurie jumped back and dropped some papers and notes she had been reading. “You . . . uh . . . you’re back so soon,” she told the children when she saw them standing in the doorway. “I . . . wasn’t expecting you for a few more minutes.”
Jessie stepped back. Why did Laurie always make the Aldens feel like intruders?
Benny scooted by everyone and began to pick up the papers that had fallen on the floor.
“Never mind those,” Laurie said. “Just leave them. There’s plenty to do in the dining room. Go!”
Benny felt a lump in his throat. He wasn’t used to anyone speaking to him like that. He was only trying to help.
“Okay,” the Aldens mumbled as they trooped out.
“Laurie Baker sure is a confusing person,” Jessie whispered to Violet and Benny. “Sometimes she likes us, then other times she treats us like pests.”
The Piccolos beamed when the children came into the dining room. Mrs. Piccolo pointed to an empty table. “Why don’t you children sit down and have some pizza after your hard morning?”
After they’d all eaten, Mrs. Piccolo handed Benny some napkins to fold. Napkin folding wasn’t too exciting compared with making pizza from scratch. But Benny did the job anyway.
Violet sat down to help Benny while Jessie and the Piccolos took orders.
“You don’t look too happy today, Benny,” Violet said.
“Everything was more fun when it was just us helping the Piccolos,” Benny whispered. “Laurie’s always getting mad at me, like today when I tried to pick up Mrs. Piccolo’s recipes.”
Violet looked shocked. “That notebook had Mrs. Piccolo’s recipes in it? I thought she kept it locked in that old pine cabinet by the sink.”
“So did I,” Benny said. “But sometimes Mr. Piccolo forgets to take the key out of the cabinet. Anybody can open it.”
“Well, it could be that Mrs. Piccolo gave Laurie the notebook, so she could help make the sauce.” Violet sounded doubtful. “And maybe Mrs. Piccolo isn’t keeping her recipes secret now that Laurie is her new helper.”
“I don’t think so,” Benny said. “But we’ll never find out ‘cause she keeps chasing us out of the kitchen!”
There was no time to finish this talk. Violet and Benny got busy making up delivery boxes while Jessie handled the phone orders.
During the busiest part of the lunch hour, something strange happened. The phone rang several times in a row. But each time Jessie greeted the caller, no one answered. After four calls like this, Jessie went over to Mrs. Piccolo.
“Somebody keeps calling but doesn’t say anything,” Jessie said.
Mrs. Piccolo was too busy to worry. “Maybe it’s a wrong number,” she told Jessie before disappearing into the kitchen.
The phone rang again. This time Jessie waited for the caller to speak first.
“Hello,” a man’s voice said. “Is your refrigerator running? Well, you’d better go catch it.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Jessie said when she heard this old joke. “I wish whoever is fooling around on the phone wouldn’t waste our time during the lunch hour. This is making us lose real orders.”
Luckily the fake phone calls stopped. Jessie took down two real phone orders and brought the slips back to the kitchen. She was surprised to see Henry standing there, holding three pizza boxes.
“I thought you were still out, Henry,” Jessie said in a concerned voice. “Is something wrong?”
Henry could hardly speak. “This is the third pizza someone ordered. But when I got to the address, no one was there. Three wasted pizzas,” he said. “Now they’re all cold.”
“Oh, no,” Jessie said. Like all the Aldens, she hated to waste anything, especially at the restaurant where money was so tight. “Why would someone do this?” she asked.
Before Henry could even take a guess, Violet came into the kitchen looking upset.
“What’s the matter now?” Laurie asked when she saw that Violet was about to cry.
“There’s a customer out there who left without paying. He ordered a large Pizza Supreme. See.” Violet showed Laurie the order she had written down just fifteen minutes before. “He said he ordered a plain pizza. Even though I’m sure he didn’t, I told him I’d get him a plain one if he could wait a bit. But he just left without paying! I couldn’t bear to tell Mr. and Mrs. Piccolo.”
“Maybe you did get the order wrong,” Laurie said impatiently. “That’s what happened yesterday, too. We can’t keep wasting food like this. You’ll just have to be more careful. I can’t be in two places at once.”
Violet swallowed hard. Piccolos’ Pizza was busy, and this was no time to cry. Laurie Baker was so cross sometimes. But what made Violet feel worse was knowing for sure she had written down the right order.
Jessie and Henry comforted their sister. Laurie was too busy banging pans around to pay any more attention to Violet.
“It’s okay, Violet,” Henry said. “At least you just lost one pizza. I lost three of them. The Piccolos can’t afford to have these things happen too often. They’ll lose their business just when they’re getting back on their feet.”
No one had the heart to tell the Piccolos what had happened. The children decided they would just be more careful and work harder than ever! |