The next morning when Mr. Alden and Isabel came over to the garage, the children were already at work.
Grandfather looked on as his grandchildren worked. “You look like a colony of busy ants,” he said proudly.
“We are!” Henry said as he and Jessie carefully set a large birdcage onto the pushcart they were using to move the inventions into the house.
Violet was checking that each entry included the inventor’s drawings and directions. Benny was trying out a shoe polisher that worked with a pedal.
Isabel pointed to Grandfather’s empty car in the driveway. “We just came over to say good-bye. When we come back in a few days, that car is going to be filled with Grandma Alice’s inventions and artworks that collectors are lending us for the convention.”
“Aren’t you ever going to take off your flashlight hat?” Grandfather asked Benny when he came over for a good-bye hug. “You don’t want to wear it out before the convention even starts.”
Benny patted his hat. “I need it to see in back of me and in dark places, even when I’m busy.”
“By the time we return, I may not even need Mr. Percy,” Isabel joked. “You children are awfully clever at figuring out how all these gadgets work.” She checked her watch. “We’d better head out now. I left sandwich fixings and fruit in the refrigerator, bread in the breadbox, and homemade cookies in the cookie jar in Grandma Alice’s house. If you need anything else, just ask Martha. So long, now.”
“So long!” the children called out.
“Okay let’s get these pieces into the house,” Jessie told Henry. “I’ll hold things steady while you push the cart.” She admired the large birdcage, which was designed to look like a little theater. It even had a flowered cloth that lowered down like a stage curtain. “This will look pretty in the library.”
Henry and Jessie balanced the birdcage carefully. They didn’t want to disturb any of its moving parts. Violet and Benny ran ahead and held open all the doors. The older children rolled the cart into the house without bumping into any walls or doorways.
“There,” Henry said when they finally had set down the birdcage. “That looks as nice as one of Alice Putter’s own inventions. It fits right in. Let’s try it out.”
Violet turned a winder, and the curtains came down. “Perfect,” she said. “It works just the way the directions say. All it needs is a bird inside.”
Benny wasn’t too interested in birdcage curtains. He pressed a button beneath a globe, and the globe began to rotate slowly. When he recognized the shape of the United States, Benny pressed the button again, and the globe stopped. It was neat, but he liked his flashlight hat much better. Finally, he decided to see if there were any good books to read on the nearby shelves. “Kids’ books!” he said when he found some colorful old children’s books. “May I look at them, Jessie?”
“Sure,” she answered. “Ms. Putter said we could use anything in the house.”
To his delight, Benny discovered that all the books on one of the low shelves were for brand-new readers like him. He ran his fingers along the books. He stopped when he came to one with a missing spine. As he pulled it out, he saw that it wasn’t like any of the others on the shelves. This one was homemade, with handmade drawings and handwritten instead of typed words. “Hey, here’s a book somebody made,” he said.
The other children came over to take a look. The cover was decorated with hand-painted clocks, birds, animals, clowns, and toys. There was no author’s name on it. But handwritten on the first page were the words: To My Grandchildren.
“It’s just a riddle book,” Benny said, a bit disappointed that it wasn’t the missing plan book. He read the title: “Read Me a Riddle.”
“So read us a riddle!” Henry said back.
Benny closed his eyes and picked a riddle at random. He opened them again, and read the riddle slowly.
“When the moon’s at twelve o’clock.
Pounce upon the stroke,
The time to act is at the chime,
When day and night run out of time.”
“What’s that mean?” Benny asked, puzzled. He handed the book to Jessie.
She studied several of the other riddles. “I know some of these already. But the one you found is hard to figure out.” She flipped through the book.
Violet thought about the riddle. “When the moon’s at twelve o’clock ... maybe you can only figure it out at midnight when there’s a moon out.”
Jessie repeated the riddle. Maybe reading it again would make it clearer.
As the children huddled around the curious book, someone entered the room.
“What are you doing?” the person asked.
The children whirled around, surprised by the sharp voice.
Martha came up to the children. She stared at the book in Jessie’s hands. “Who said you could take books from the shelves?”
Benny looked up at Martha. “Ms. Putter said it was okay, right, Jessie? I’m old enough to read. It’s got riddles.”
Martha reached for the book. “Riddles? Let me see it.”
Jessie carefully passed the book to Martha. “Ms. Putter told us we could use anything in the house. She knew we would be careful. This book is handmade.”
Martha was already turning the pages. “I can see that. Well, I’m sure Isabel wouldn’t want such a fragile book being passed around. I’m going to put it away for safekeeping.”
“But ... but ...” Benny began. He stopped when he saw Jessie shake her head.
“I’m going to store it where it will be out of harm’s way,” Martha said. With that, she turned and left.
Benny took a big swallow before he spoke. He wasn’t used to people being cross with him. “I didn’t harm the book, right, Jessie?”
Jessie patted the top of Benny’s flashlight hat. “Of course you didn’t. But I didn’t want to upset Martha.”
“Maybe we can draw and paint our own riddle book when we get home,” Violet said to cheer up Benny.
“That will be a good project for a rainy day,” Henry said. “Now, let’s just finish up a couple more things in here. We’ll think about lunch after the clocks sound at noon.”
Benny heard his stomach rumble. “I already have a clock inside me that says it’s lunchtime. If we’re quiet, you can hear it.”
But the Aldens heard something else.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“Where’s that coming from?” Jessie asked.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“It’s going faster,” Violet said. “What’s on the other side of this wall?”
Jessie scrunched her forehead. “Either the big coat closet or the entryway, I’m not sure. Let’s go find out. It’s the same sound we heard last night, but now it’s not windy out. It must be something else.”
The children left the library. The tapping sounded closer.
Henry pointed to the closet door. “It’s coming from in there,” he whispered. “See? There’s light coming from under the door.”
Jessie went up and knocked.
“I’ve got my hands fall!” a voice answered. “Just push if you need to come in here.”
When Henry opened the door, the children found themselves facing Mr. Percy. He was huddled over a small table in the closet. He held a tiny hammer in his hand. On the table lay a bent iron hinge next to an open jewelry box, with a circle of dancers in the middle of it.
“What is it?” he asked without turning around. “This is delicate work. The hinge to one of Alice Putter’s jewelry boxes is bent, and I mean to unbend it. Dust will get into the parts if I can’t get the top to fit tight. What do you need in here?”
“Nothing,” Henry said. “We heard tapping and wondered where it was coming from. I guess it was you with that little hammer.”
Violet stepped closer to Mr. Percy. “That hinge is so small. Is it hard to tap it into shape without breaking it?”
Mr. Percy looked at Violet. For a second, he almost seemed as if he were going to show her how to fix the hinge. “Not if you know what you’re doing and you don’t have four children barging in. Yesterday, it was dogs, now it’s kids. Can’t a man work in peace around here?”
“We’ll be quiet and still,” Violet said in her sweet way. “I would just like to see how you fix things.”
Mr. Percy pushed his magnifying glasses up on his bald head. “There’s not enough light for a man to work around here with four other people looking on,” he grumbled.
Benny took off his hat to show Mr. Percy. “Know what? You could borrow my flashlight hat. I made it by myself ... well, almost by myself. Violet helped me sew on the mirror.”
Mr. Percy put his glasses back on his nose. “Hmm.” He studied the flashlight hat. Now he didn’t seem in such a big rush to send the Aldens away. “Hmm,” he repeated. He handed Benny back the hat. “I don’t need to borrow it. I suppose you can stay.”
“Thank you,” Violet said. “I would love to watch what you’re doing. I made a crayon saver for the invention convention. I think I need a thinner, longer screw to go inside the lipstick tube I’m using to hold the crayon stub. The screws from Grandfather’s toolbox are too big. It would be fun to have lots of supplies and tools like you have.”
Mr. Percy didn’t skip a beat with his tapping. “Well, why would a child have tools like mine? They cost a pretty penny.”
Benny reached into the pocket of his jeans. “I have a pretty penny.” He hoped Mr. Percy would get the joke. “Here.”
Before Mr. Percy could take it, the penny rolled off the table into an open cardboard box on the floor.
Benny bent down to find his coin. “Hey why is this here?” he asked. “It’s one of the invention boxes from the garage.”
Mr. Percy stepped in front of Benny. “Leave that be!” He reached into his own pocket, then put a penny on the table. “Take this one. Now we’re even. I don’t want anyone going through that box or anything else in here.”
Benny’s mouth fell open, but nothing came out.
“No, now you all have to leave. I need to finish with this,” Mr. Percy said. “You’re blocking the light with all your heads and hats and such.”
The Aldens turned to go out.
Violet looked back. She hoped Mr. Percy would help her with her invention another time when he wasn’t so busy.
But Mr. Percy was busy. He cut a long piece of duct tape from the roll in his toolbox. He quickly closed the cardboard box and taped it shut. The box was sealed tight. Benny wasn’t going to get back his penny, that was for sure.
“Boy, Mr. Percy works at the strangest times and strangest places around here,” Henry said as he walked back to the garage with the other children.
“I know,” Jessie said. “I wonder if he was working and making tapping sounds just like now that first night we were here. Don’t forget he told Ms. Putter that he heard the scarecrow squeaking during the night.”
“Maybe he just thinks about fixing pretty things and forgets the time,” Violet said.
“Sometimes if I get ideas when I wake up at night, I want to get up and draw them right away.”
“Then you need a flashlight hat,” Benny said, turning his off.
The Aldens returned to the garage to tell Martha they were going to lunch.
Martha looked up from the papers in her hand. She was counting out loud: “... nine ... ten ... eleven ... twelve. This is the third time I’ve had a box missing. How many inventions did you bring over to the main house?”
“Eleven,” Henry answered. “I counted them.”
“They all had the forms attached, too,” Violet said. “I matched and counted every one.”
Martha looked over Violet’s shoulder. “Oh, Mr. Percy, there you are. What’s that box you have?”
Mr. Percy walked past the Aldens, straight over to Martha. He handed her a cardboard box sealed with duct tape. “I found this in the house. Thought you might need it. Can’t imagine why the delivery truck dropped it off there.”
Benny looked at Violet with wide eyes. “But, but ...” he whispered. “That’s the box my penny fell into. Only it didn’t have tape or anything.”
Mr. Percy looked at Martha. “Well, the problem is solved.” He walked away.
Martha checked her watch. “I’ll unpack this one after lunch. I have to get going someplace.”
The children started walking back to the main house.
“The problem isn’t solved,” Violet said. “Mr. Percy was nice to us until Benny tried to get his penny from that box. He knows we’re helping unpack the boxes. What difference would it make if we saw what was inside?”
Henry nodded slowly. “All I can think is that Mr. Percy has something to hide.” |