The Middle Moffat (24 page)

"Here," said Nancy abruptly. "Here's my ring. It's red, sort of like a ruby. It's a friendship ring. That shows we're best friends."

Jane took the ring and put it on her finger. Best friends again!

"Well, so long," said Nancy.

"So long," said Jane, turning the ring around on her finger.

"How about looking for wildflowers on Shingle Hill tomorrow? We have an extra hour with this daylight saving time. We might find the first hepatica."

"Yeah, Shingle Hill..." said Jane.

"Well, so long!"

"So long."

Flags were flying everywhere! Balloon men, popcorn men, and peanut sellers went up and down the streets! An organ-grinder with his monkey was in town! The children were let out of school! The bank was closed! A holiday for all! And why? Because today was the oldest inhabitant's hundredth birthday. One hundred years old! A century!

Jane sat on the curb in front of the library. She had been sitting here for hours, waiting for the parade. In one hand she was holding a flag. In the other she was holding the oldest inhabitant's birthday present. Jane hoped he would like this present. As a matter of fact, you could really call it a hundred presents she had for him.

When Jane was ten years old, she had gotten ten presents. Of course, she had counted the box of handkerchiefs that Sylvie gave her as six presents, because there were six in the box. Rufus had said this was wrong. She should have counted them as only one present unless the six handkerchiefs came in six different boxes. Nevertheless, counting them as six made ten presents she had received. The oldest inhabitant was ten times ten. He should have one hundred presents.

Well, he would. That is, if you could count a clump of one hundred bluets as one hundred presents. She didn't ask Rufus, but Jane thought you could. When she saw this clump of bluets in the field in back of the library yesterday, she wondered if by any chance it had a hundred flowers to it. And it had! One hundred exactly. Jane was amazed. She had counted them twice to make sure. So she carefully dug it up and made a basket for it out of purple thistles.

Jane started to count the bluets, hoping none had fallen off during the night. Thirty-nine, forty...
Oh, they must all still be here.
She leaned forward to see if the parade was coming yet. She strained her ears, thinking she heard the band. No. Not coming yet.

It had been hard not to give the oldest inhabitant his present yesterday. Janey had run back and forth from her house to his several times. Once she had not been able to resist telling him she had a present for him.

"In fact, you might call it one hundred presents," she had added. Then she was sorry she had told him. He might get so impatient and not be able to sleep. That's what happened to her before birthdays and Christmas. Well, now he had waited and so had she, and she could give him his present as soon as she had the chance. She hoped that she could give it to him at eleven-forty-five on the dot. That is when he would be one hundred exactly.

More people were arriving. They lined the streets. Jane was glad she was sitting on the curb, right in the front. She took off her sandal to empty out the gravel. As she was buckling it up again, her eyes fell on a penny in the gutter.

A penny, half ridden in the dirt. Jane picked it up and rubbed it off. She looked to see if there were any more. She wished she'd look down and see a row of pennies stretching straight ahead, one touching the next. And the line of pennies would not end. It would reach down Rock Avenue and around the corner as far as ... oh ... it would never end. Ouch! Jane's back ached with the thought of picking up these pennies. Sometimes she found one penny, but the line always ended there just as this one had. At one.

Jane polished the penny on her sock. It was too bad she couldn't find a hundred pennies. On every one of her birthdays she received as many pennies as she was years old. She liked to shake them in her hand and try to make them sound the way coins did in Mama's palm. It would be nice to be able to give the oldest inhabitant one hundred pennies since he was one hundred years old. Well, she had the hundred bluets. If only he wouldn't be like Rufus and think unless they came in one hundred baskets they should count as only one present. Jane stuck the penny in the basket. That would surprise him, that penny!

She stood up and stretched her back. And she looked hard way down the street. The parade? No, it wasn't coming around the corner yet. Way at the very end of the street the blue water of the Sound sparkled in the sunshine.

Jane's heart beat fast. Just the idea of the parade excited her, and it hadn't even begun yet. At first when Jane heard there was going to be a big celebration for the oldest inhabitant, she thought, of course, it would be held in the Yale Bowl. Once she had been in a pageant in the Yale Bowl. She had been one of the waves. Thousands of little girls dressed in blue and green cheesecloth had swayed back and forth, back and forth, so the people in the audience would think they were waves in the ocean. Close up the girls did not look like waves. Jane knew all the girls around her. They were all in Room Four. And they did not look like waves. Fortunately from a distance they did. Jane was sorry the celebration was not going to be in the Yale Bowl. She would like to have been a wave for the oldest inhabitant.

Even so, this was very exciting. More and more people were crowding the walks. They all craned their necks. Was that the parade coming now? No, it was the milkman's horse and wagon.

Jane was not going to march in this parade. She was just going to watch it. She could have marched with her school class or the girls of the junior basketball team. Nancy Stokes was riding in an automobile in the parade because her father was one of the town selectmen, a dignitary. Not Jane. She would not ride or march. She would keep herself free in order to be of any possible service to the oldest inhabitant. He had reached the age of one hundred. True! Even so, she was going to be on the alert and help him if necessary....

Boom! Boom! Bd-loom, boom, boom!

The parade! Here it was, coming around the corner! Prickly feelings ran up and down Jane's spine. Tears popped into her eyes. She danced up and down.

Boom! Boom!

Oh, she hoped the band would play. A policeman on a dappled-gray horse kept the crowd in place on the curb.

First came the town militia carrying the colors. And the band struck up just as it reached the library. The blast from the big brass horns vibrated in Janey's ears. Her legs kept going up and down, up and down, and there wasn't any teacher clapping and making them march, either. They just couldn't help it.

Next came the Moose men from Moose Hall with their band. Then the Indians from Wampum Lodge, dancing and waving tomahawks. Jane drew back into the crowd. Were they real?

Next the Masons and the Elks, with bands of their own.

Then Chief Mulligan of the police force, swinging his stick.

Then a lot of other policemen. Where did they come from, Jane wondered. Maybe from New Haven ... and policemen on horses!

Next came the town selectmen in their automobiles. Jane waved her flag at Nancy. She knew a lot of people in this parade. Nancy, her best friend, and the oldest inhabitant....Was he coming now in one of these big automobiles? No, not yet.

Then came the firemen's band and the fire engines. Not only the Cranbury engines, but shining ones from all the neighboring towns; some that were drawn by horses still, and some of the new automobile fire engines. Also the first steam boiler of the Town of Cranbury. And running along the side, Bosie, the fire department's dog.

Then came the veterans of the Civil War. The oldest inhabitant called these veterans "children," for none of them had even reached the age of ninety yet. But the oldest inhabitant wasn't riding with them. He wasn't coming yet, though people were craning their necks looking for him.

Jane liked it best when the bands played. Sometimes you could still hear one band up ahead playing one thing and another band would march into sight playing something else.

Now came Governor's foot-guard and the foot-guard's band. And the band struck up "The Stars and Stripes Forever"!