Authors: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Aurora stared at Susie and then at Kate. She looked at Athena, who was bouncing up and down excitedly, and at Ari, who was writing in his notebook. “If I could only…,” she said. They all stopped what they were doing and looked at her hopefully, but after a moment she only shook her head.
B
Y THE TIME CARLOS
got home he was feeling hungry so he went right to the refrigerator. His mind always seemed to work better when he was eating—and at the moment he had lots to think about. But the big Dove bar box was empty and so was the cheese bin. He vaguely remembered eating the last of the Dove bars, and of course he knew what had happened to the cheese. Or, in this case, “who” had happened to the cheese.
Right at that moment a voice said, “What happened to all the cheese?” Strangely enough, the voice wasn’t Carlos’s. Actually it belonged to his mom, Brigitta Garcia, who, he suddenly noticed, was there in the kitchen stirring something on the stove. “I was going to use it for the enchiladas,” she went on. “Do you know anything about it?”
Carlos winced. He hated catch-22’s like this. Catch-22’s where you either had to rat on someone or else tell a lie. “Well,” he said. “I think Bucky might have eaten some of it when he was over here. He said he was hungry.”
Then his mom, who was usually pretty cheerful for a person with four kids, turned around looking very uncheerful. “Why did you let him, Carlos?” she said. “Why didn’t you tell him to go home and raid his own refrigerator?”
Another catch-22. This time where you either had to tell a lie or tell your mom you were afraid to ask someone who was supposed to be one of your best friends to go home. Let alone tell him to get his dirty paws out of your refrigerator. Carlos opened his mouth, shut it again—and was saved by the bell. Saved by having the door to the garage open and his father and brothers come in—while, at the same moment, his little sister suddenly appeared from the front of the house. In the confusion Carlos snuck out of the kitchen and headed for the upstairs phone.
Carlos called Eddy first. When Eddy answered the phone the first thing Carlos said was, “What about tomorrow?”
“What do you mean, what about tomorrow?” Eddy said.
“You know. Like we told you. Tomorrow we’re going to chop down those trees. You’re going to be there, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, sure,” Eddy said. “But what about the snake? You said there was a snake in there.”
“There was. A humongous one, like a python or something. But I think I got that figured out too. I’ll bet it was a tame one. You know that little Nicely kid? Carlson, or something like that. He has pet snakes, doesn’t he? And Kate Nicely is real tight with the Pappases. So those Pappas dweebs are probably behind this whole thing.”
“Yeah, Carson has snakes,” Eddy said. “His name is Carson. But why do you suppose they don’t want us to cut down that little bunch of trees? I mean, what’s in it for them?”
Carlos had thought about that a little. “I don’t know for sure, but the note said something about ecology and that sort of thing. They’re probably just a bunch of ecology nuts.”
“Hmm,” Eddy said. “Well, what do you want me to do?”
“Well, you don’t have a chain saw, do you? Or an ax?”
Eddy laughed. “Me? ’Fraid not.”
“That’s okay. Bucky has this hatchet. We can just take turns with the hatchet. But what we need is some more people.”
“Why?” Eddy asked. “Why do we need more people if we only have one hatchet?”
“Because they do. At least they said they did in the note. And we know for sure they have all three of the Pappases and Kate and Carlson Nicely.”
“Carson,” Eddy said.
“Okay, Carson. Anyway, the thing is, we may need to have enough guys to keep their guys from bothering the one who is doing the chopping.”
“How about your brothers?” Eddy asked.
“Well,” Carlos thought about it for a minute. It would be great to have two big guys like Rafe and Gabe on their side. But the more Carlos thought about it the more he knew it wouldn’t happen. Rafe was too old and too busy being a big hotshot high-school football star. And Gabe? Carlos had a sneaking feeling that Gabe, who once had made up a song about saving the rain forests, might wind up being on the other side. For a moment he had a quick flash of Gabe playing his guitar and singing about saving the rain forest of Castle Court.
“Naw,” he said. “I guess not. How about Web?”
Eddy laughed. “Web?” He laughed again, as if it was a big joke.
Actually Carlos saw what he meant. Webster Wong, who could handle things like test tubes and microscopes and computers like a pro, wouldn’t be all that good at facing up to a bunch of angry nuts—ecology or otherwise. And besides, Web and Carson were kind of alike in some ways. “Aren’t Web and Carson friends?” he asked.
“Not exactly,” Eddy said. “Carson comes over here sometimes and Web goes to his house, but I think they’re mostly just visiting each other’s collections.”
“Well, that’s okay then. Ask Web if he’ll come and be on our side.”
Eddy didn’t say anything for a minute, and when he did he didn’t sound too enthusiastic. “Yeah, well this whole thing is beginning to sound pretty complicated. I mean, their side has secret weapons, like Karate Kate. And snakes too. I’m not too crazy about big snakes, even tame ones.”
Carlos knew what Eddy meant. Everyone at Beaumont knew about Kate Nicely and all her karate belts, and he also certainly knew what Eddy meant about not liking snakes. But he couldn’t let Eddy back out. “Look,” he said. “I’ll bring Lump. Lump will take care of that snake.”
“Yeah?” Eddy was obviously doubtful. “Lump kills snakes?”
It was Carlos’s turn to laugh a phony laugh. “Lump?” he said. “You don’t believe Lump could kill that snake? That’s funny. Lump could probably kill that snake just by sitting on it.”
They both laughed. “So,” Carlos went on, “our side has a snake-killing dog. And don’t forget, if Karate Kate is their secret weapon, we have one too. I mean Bucky Brockhurst, the toughest dude at Beaumont School. Our side has Bucky Brockhurst.”
“Yeah,” Eddy said doubtfully. “If he’s not grounded. His dad sounded pretty mad.”
“Oh, he won’t be grounded,” Carlos said. “Or at least if he is he’ll find a way to get out of it. Bucky’s good at that sort of thing. I’ll bet he’s already thought of a way to get out of it. I’ll call him and find out.”
“Okay,” Eddy said. “You call him.” But he didn’t sound too enthusiastic.
When Carlos called the Brockhurst’s number and Bucky’s sister answered the phone, he almost hung up without saying anything. The thing was, he knew Muffy wouldn’t call Bucky to the phone if she were mad at him, which she usually was, more or less. And it was probably
more
at the moment—since he’d just been grounded for kicking her. But by thinking very quickly, Carlos came up with a possible solution to that problem too.
“Oh, hi, Muffy,” he said. “It’s Carlos.”
“Yeah, I can tell.” Muffy’s voice was cold and suspicious.
“Don’t hang up,” Carlos said quickly. “I’ve got an offer for you. How about—a quarter?”
“A quarter—for what?” Muffy’s voice was not quite as cold.
“You know,” Carlos said. “For telling Bucky I want to talk to him.”
“He’s grounded. He’s not supposed to talk to anybody, on the phone or anything.”
“Oh.” Carlos was really disappointed. “Well, I guess I’ll just have to wait until—”
“Fifty cents.” Muffy said. “For fifty cents I’ll get him to the phone.”
A few minutes later Bucky’s voice said, “Hi, dude. What’s up?”
“Oh, hi,” Carlos said. “I just thought we ought to talk about tomorrow. I thought that—”
“Hello? Hello?” Bucky said. “Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here,” Carlos said.
“Okay. I just heard a clicking noise, like maybe you were hanging up.”
“Yeah,” Carlos said. “I heard it too. But it wasn’t me. Something’s been wrong with the phone lately. It keeps making funny noises. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow. It looks like we might be in for some trouble. You know, from those dudes who sent us that note.” He went on then to tell Bucky his theory about the snake being a pet one and about why he thought the three Pappases and the two Nicelys—and the snake—might be there tomorrow to try to keep the PROs from cutting down any trees. “I think they’re planning to try to scare us away,” he said.
“Oh yeah?” Bucky’s voice was suddenly so loud Carlos had to hold the phone away from his ear. “They think they can scare us away, do they? Hee, hee, hee! That’s pretty funny. If they think that snake is going to scare
me
, they’re really wacko. A baseball bat will take care of that dude. Or maybe I’ll just shoot that snake full of holes. I’ll just bring my—”
“Look, Brockhurst,” Carlos was saying. “Look. You won’t have to bring baseball bats or pellet guns. I thought if we just had some more people—and if I brought Lump…I thought Lump…Lump could…”
But Bucky wasn’t listening. Instead he just went on raving about baseball bats and pellet guns, and when Carlos tried to tell him he didn’t think any of that stuff was a good idea, he just wouldn’t listen. When Carlos finally gave up and said good-bye he still wasn’t sure Bucky had heard a word he had said.
After dinner that night Carlos went out on the deck. It was a nice warm night and a reflection of the moon was shining up out of the swimming pool. On warm nights the deck was a nice place to sit and think. Or worry about the fact that he had been the one to start this whole baseball diamond mess in the first place. He didn’t see how he could back out now, even if he really wanted to. And part of him wanted to—mostly because of Bucky. Like he’d told Eddy, Bucky Brockhurst was a secret weapon, all right. The kind that just might backfire.
A
RI PAPPAS WAS IN
the kitchen fixing himself a banana and peanut butter sandwich when the phone rang. He answered it, quietly of course. Ari always answered the phone quietly even if he knew it wasn’t for him. He’d gotten some of his best story material that way. As he picked up the phone he heard his mother say, “Oh, hello, Susie. Hold on a minute. I’ll call her.”
Ari went on listening. He heard his mom calling and then Aurora picking up the phone and saying hello. What he heard next was very interesting. The first thing Susie said was, “Aurora. There’s going to be a gun. I just heard Carlos and Bucky Brockhurst talking on the phone, and Bucky is going to bring a gun tomorrow. To Dragoland. When they come to chop down the grove.”
“A gun?” Aurora’s voice was a stunned whisper.
“Well, it’s a pellet gun. But he said it could shoot holes in Slinky. And they’re going to have baseball bats and hatchets too.” Her voice rose to a wail. “What are we going to do? Do we have a gun? Does our side have a gun?”
“No,” said Aurora. “We can’t have a gun. A gun wouldn’t help at all.”
“Why not?” Susie wailed. “If they have one I don’t see why we can’t. Why can’t we? My dad has one somewhere. I’m going to look for it.”
“No, no,” Aurora said. “Listen, Susie. You mustn’t. You mustn’t even touch it. If you even touch it you—”
“What?” Susie asked. “If I even touch it—what?”
“If you do—you can’t ever be a unicorn maiden,” Aurora said. “Unicorns hate and despise guns. If you even touch one the smell will be on your hands for the rest of your life. You can’t ever get it off, and the unicorn will never let you come near it.”
There was a long silent pause. “Really?” Susie said at last. “Really, Aurora? How do you know?”
“I just do,” Aurora said. “I know about things like that.”
“But what
can
we do?” Susie was wailing. “What are we going to do?”
“We won’t do anything,” Aurora said. “We’ll just go to the grove and when they come we’ll just walk out in front of it and hold hands, and we’ll tell them—”
“But they’ll shoot us.” Susie’s voice was almost a shriek.
“No, they won’t. You said Bucky was going to bring the gun to shoot Slinky. And we just won’t bring Slinky. He might shoot a snake, but he won’t shoot us.”
“Yes, he will,” Susie moaned. “That Bucky Brockhurst will shoot anything. I know. I saw him shoot a robin once.”
For a moment no one spoke. Ari could hear sharp, shaky breathing. Then Susie said, “I’m going to call Kate. I’m going to call Kate and tell her about the gun and everything.”
“No,” Aurora said quickly. “No, don’t call Kate. I’ll tell her tomorrow. Let me—”
But Susie had already hung up the phone.
Ari went on listening until he heard Aurora hang up. Then he hung up too, waited a minute, and picked up the phone again. Sure enough he heard Aurora dialing and then a busy signal. The busy signal went on and on and on. After a long time Ari gave up and went back to his banana and peanut butter sandwich.
While he was eating the sandwich and later when he was reading the funny papers Ari remembered to pick up the phone now and then to see if Aurora might be talking to Kate. But he must have just missed them, because about an hour later when he went to Aurora’s room he found out they’d already talked. Aurora was sitting on her window seat staring out the window. “Have you talked to Kate yet?” Ari asked. “I was listening when you were talking to Susie.”
Aurora nodded. “I know,” she said. “I knew you were listening.” She sighed. “And I did talk to Kate—after she finally finished talking to Susie.”
“I thought you might have,” Ari said, “but I didn’t hear you. What did she say? What’s she going to do?”
Aurora shook her head slowly back and forth. Then she turned and stared out the window for quite a long time. When she turned back, her face was puckered with worry. “Ari,” she said. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid there’s going to be a fight.”
Ari nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “A big one with a bunch of people on each side. Like a war almost.” He thought for a moment before he told Aurora good night and headed for his own room. He’d just thought of a good title for the big story he was working on. The one about the Unicorn’s Grove and the baseball diamond.
T
HE NEXT MORNING ARI
got up early and made a bulletproof vest. Then he went looking for Aurora. She wasn’t in her room or in the bathroom, but when he got to the kitchen there she was, standing by the phone.