The Middle Moffat (23 page)

Sometimes Jane watched Sylvie in amazement. Here was Sylvie, apparently quite happy in spite of having her hair done up, her skirts a funny length, neither long nor short, and never a game of Indians in the empty lot! Maybe she didn't know she was a grown-up. Or maybe she liked doing the things she did now, just as much as Janey liked playing hide-and-go-seek with Nancy Stokes.

Suddenly Jane stood up. Maybe she, Janey, was growing up and not doing things anymore that she used to love to do. But she couldn't think of anything. For instance, she still raced trolley cars, played Indians, cops and robbers....Yes, she was still the same, thank goodness!

She stooped over and looked from between her legs, upside down, at the houses with their bright lights shining in the windows and at the tall elm tree that disappeared into the sky. Everything looked so clear and neat, the way things always did the upside-down way. But wait! Jane popped right side up again with a start.

Here was something she didn't do anymore that she used to do so often—look at things the upside-down way. She just almost never thought to do this anymore. Not since the Moffats had moved into this little white house. She had been so busy with Nancy Stokes, being her best friend, and doing all she could to help the oldest inhabitant reach the age of one hundred, she just hadn't thought to do this. Maybe she had grown up some, too, and she hadn't even known it.

Maybe growing up wasn't as bad as it seemed, because you were so busy doing what you were doing, you didn't miss the things you used to do. After all, she didn't play blocks or make mud pies anymore. And she didn't miss them. And there was a time when she probably thought mud pies and blocks were very nice things.

But if Janey should try to live the way she used to before she had a best friend, she couldn't spend all her time looking at things the upside-down way. And Sylvie was too busy to play with her. What about Joey and Rufus now?
Dot-da-dot-dot!
Tuning in! Tuning in all the time on their radio.

Even at this very moment a light shone out of the window of their little front bedroom, where they had built their set. The minute he came in, Joey had gone upstairs to tune in. Rufus, too. Jane looked through the hop vines up to their window. The two boys were sitting there with their earphones on. Their window was wide open. This was so they could yell at Wallie Bangs, who was sitting in his back bedroom window with his brother, Eddie, tuning in also.

Of course Wallie and Eddie couldn't tune in as often as Joey and Rufus, because Wallie very frequently took their radio apart. Tonight, however, both radios were working.

"Did you hear that?" one boy would yell.

"Yeah, Arlington time signal."

"No ... not quite time for that yet..."

Perhaps she, too, should go up and be interested in the radio, thought Jane. Radio! When Jane first heard about this new thing, radio, which had just been invented, she was very excited. Everybody was talking about it. Even Nancy Stokes. But Nancy said her family was going to wait and get one when they were perfected. Not Joey and Rufus though. They were going to perfect theirs right now. They were going to hear things, right here in the Moffats' own house, that were going on in Boston, and lots of other places. No wires like the telephone. Wireless. Soon they were going to hear everything that went on all over the world.

Joey and Rufus made their set out of an old quart-size ice-cream container. Joey saved the money he received for dusting the pews for the sexton of the church every Saturday morning. Finally he had enough to buy two pairs of earphones. Joey and Rufus talked excitedly about the radio all the time, and they used a lot of words that Jane had never heard before. Crystal of galena, they talked about most of the time. This crystal of galena sounded good to Jane. Like the Arabian Nights. A gazing bowl. Not only hearing what was going on in Boston, but crystal gazing as well. When she saw the crystal she was quite disappointed. A tiny thing! Not at all like a gazing bowl. Once in a while Joey or Rufus asked her if she'd like to listen. They put the earphones on her head and she listened hard. Then she told her brothers she would wait until they played music instead of these strange sounds. However, she had never heard the Arlington time signal. That might be nicer.

Yes, she might take up radio now that she had the time. It must be fun or Joey and Rufus would not spend every second they had tuning in. They even plugged the keyhole and the cracks around the door with cotton and newspapers so they could listen in for the Arlington time signal in the middle of the night. They were both late to school nearly every day now. Rufus was forgetting to carry the one in arithmetic more than ever. And all winter Joey had shamefully neglected the oldest inhabitant's furnace. He had let the fire go out all too often.

This horrified Jane. The oldest inhabitant! The most important man in Cranbury! He might catch cold, and all because of Joey's radio.

Jane listened. In the still night air she could hear the static. Now it was wispy and thin, like the peanutman's whistle or a lone frog cheeping in the twilight. And now it roared out, sounding like the shouts of boys yelling under a raft in the water.

And in Wallie Bangs's house, his wireless seemed to answer Joey's in a frenzied kind of way.

"Dot-da-dot-dot!" said Joey's.

"Da-dot! Da-dot!" answered Wallie Bangs's.

They are having a conversation,
thought Jane,
in a funny kind of a language.
Maybe she would get as fond of radio as her brothers. She could save up her money or the soap coupons perhaps, and get another pair of earphones.

She listened again to the children in the yard in back. There were fewer voices now. Some of the children must have gone home.

"Come home! Come home! Wherever you are!" It was Nancy. It sounded as though she were breaking up the game. Probably Mrs. Stokes had called her and Beatrice in. Jane waited a little longer. Nancy might still come to the back fence and whistle, a long high note and a shorter low one. And they would be best friends again beginning tonight, daylight saving time eve. But nobody whistled, and feeling very disconsolate Jane went into the house and up the stairs to her brothers' bedroom.

She sat down on their white iron bed. She watched Joey and Rufus, heads bent over their wireless, gently sliding the contact back and forth, back and forth. They didn't seem to hear or notice her come in at all, they were so absorbed.

"D'ya hear that?" came Wallie Bangs's laconic voice.

"Yeah ... comin' in good..." said Joe.

All of a sudden Joey and Rufus slid their contact back and forth excitedly. They must be going to "get" something, thought Jane. The code signals were making a desperate chatter.

They made Jane laugh, they sounded so funny.

"Sh-sh!" said Joey, frowning at her. "It's nearly time for the Arlington time signal."

"I wish I could hear it," said Jane. "I never have heard it."

Joey put his finger to his lips and frowned at her. Then he beckoned her to him. Then he held his hand up. Stop! Like a traffic policeman. Then he beckoned her to him again.

Jane approached cautiously. Joey pulled his earphones half off, put them back on, then off completely and stuck them hastily on Jane's braids.

"D'ya hear it?" he asked enthusiastically. "Arlin'ton time signal!"

Jane heard an excited
bz-z-z-zz-z
burst upon her ears. And the Arlington time signal was over. Joey's and Rufus's eyes were shining.

"Gee ... thanks," said Jane. She took the earphones off and sat down on the bed again.

So that was the Arlington time signal! Well ... Did she like the Arlington time signal well enough to spend all her time tuning in? Well ... She wished they'd find music on the radio.

But Joey and Rufus were wrapped up in it again. They had forgotten about her being there. Rufus's head was nodding. These late hours he was keeping with Joey to hear the Arlington time signal were telling on him.

Jane looked around the boys' room. On a shelf was a megaphone. Some Yale man, happy over beating Harvard, had given it to Joey after the football game. An idea danced through Jane's head. She would like to take the megaphone, get under the bed, and imitate the Arlington time signal; do it again for the boys since they loved it so.

But goodness! What was she thinking? Radio was a serious business ... no April Fools' stunts about it. Silence fell

upon the room except for the static. Now it was wispy and wan ... a sleepy sound ... Now it whistled. A long high note and a shorter low note. Best friends. That's what it sounded like. Like Nancy's whistle. Jane felt sad again. Radio was all right. Fine in fact. A serious business though, Joey had said once. She wasn't being serious if she thought about April Fools' stunts with a megaphone. There was that whistle again. Funny how much like Nancy's whistle the static was sounding. A long high note and a shorter low one ... real loud now. Jane listened sharply. Could it be ... Why! It was real! It was Nancy Stokes! Best friends! It wasn't static! Or was she dreaming?

She ran down the stairs and out the back door, slamming it. She stood on the back stoop listening.

She heard nothing. She must have imagined it. Or was it the static after all? Of course, Nancy must be in bed by now. Janey had heard the last "Come home! Come home! Wherever you are," a long time ago.

She turned to go in. As she did so, yes! It was unmistakable. Nancy's whistle. A long high note and a shorter low one. Jane answered it. Nancy couldn't be going to say, "Jane is a pain," because there wasn't anybody around to say it in front of. Jane ran to the back fence and climbed up.

"Hey, Janey!" said Nancy. "Where are you?"

"Here, on the fence."

"Oh ... Well, I just wanted to tell you you were right. You were right to stick up for Beatrice because she really was right. I sure was mad, but you were right."

"I suppose I should have stuck up for you," said Jane apologetically.

"No. You were right. You stuck up for Beatrice even though you're my best friend. That's bravery."

Jane squirmed her toes around in her shoes and said nothing.