The Box and the Bone (5 page)

Susie glared at Muffy. Maybe Lump wasn’t the smartest dog in the world, but she didn’t allow people to call him stupid. Not right to his face, anyway. She thought about telling Muffy off and going home, but that would mean giving up on the treasure chest, so she just bit her tongue and climbed over the fence. And as it turned out, when they got to Dragoland Muffy suddenly seemed to change her mind about how stupid Lump was.

They were standing on the sidewalk peering into the dark shadows that lurked under the sighing trees and shivering bushes of Dragoland. “It’s dark,” Muffy said. “It’s really dark in there.”

Susie didn’t argue. But when she started forward, Muffy pulled her back.

“Look,” she said, “why don’t you go back and get Lump?”

Susie was really surprised. “Lump? Why?”

“Well.” Muffy sounded a little embarrassed. “Dogs can see in the dark better than people. We can kind of let him lead the way. Besides, in case we meet a murderer or something, he can protect us.”

Susie couldn’t help smiling. The truth was, Lump loved everybody. Probably even murderers and burglars. Susie’s dad always said that the only way Lump might catch a burglar was by drowning him in sloppy kisses. But even if he wouldn’t be much protection, she wouldn’t mind having him along. And she knew Lump would love it.

A few minutes later, when Susie and Muffy were making their way through the underbrush toward the back wall of the Pit, Lump was leading the way. As he pushed under the low-hanging branches and through the jungly vines and bushes, Susie and Muffy clung to his leash and trailed along behind him.

He was quiet, too, for Lump, as if he knew that he shouldn’t bark or snort or wheeze the way he usually did. Susie was beginning to think that Lump really was smarter than most people thought he was. That is, until they got to the rear entrance to the Pit.

They were almost to the wall when suddenly Lump’s head went up. He sniffed the air loudly and began to make a happy whining noise.

“Shh!” Muffy whispered. “Shhh! Make him hush up, Susie.”

“It’s Carlos,” Susie whispered back. “I think he smells Carlos.” She took her hands off the leash to grab Lump’s muzzle but at that very minute he lunged at the wall and tried to jump over.

Fortunately Lump was too fat and floppy to be much of a wall jumper. He didn’t quite make it over, but he did manage to drape his front half over the wall for a minute and knock loose a few bricks. As the bricks tumbled down noisily inside the Pit, Lump fell back down outside. And then, when Susie jerked on his collar, he began to make a terrible noise, choking and coughing and moaning like some kind of a half-strangled monster.

Pulling frantically on the leash, Susie and Muffy finally managed to get Lump away from the wall and back into the shadows. They crouched there for several seconds, waiting for the sound of footsteps and the sight of angry faces appearing above the wall.

But nothing happened. Nobody came. After a minute or two Susie tied Lump to a tree limb and crept quietly back to the wall. She got there just in time to see a bobbing flashlight beam and three running figures. The three figures dashed madly across the floor of the Pit, scrambled over the wall, and disappeared into the night.

When Susie got back to where Muffy and Lump were waiting, Muffy said, “Didn’t they hear it? Didn’t they hear the noise your stupid dog made?”

Susie giggled. “Yes, they heard it, all right. It scared them to death. When I peeked over the wall they were running like scared rabbits.”

“Really?” Muffy giggled too.

They both went on giggling for a while before Susie said, “I don’t think they found what they were looking for. They weren’t carrying anything.”

“Good,” Muffy said.

“So, what next?” Susie asked. “What are we going to do now?”

Muffy shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to go on following them till we find out where the treasure is. You can follow Carlos and I’ll follow Bucky, and when they’re with Eddy, we’ll both follow all three of them.”

That sounded all right to Susie.

W
HEN ATHENA WOKE UP
the next morning it was Sunday already. She knew what day it was because she could hear the bells ringing way down at Susie’s church on Beaumont Avenue. She was glad it was Sunday because that meant Aurora was going to be home very soon.

Climbing out of the old crib that had been Aurora’s and then Ari’s before it was hers, Athena went to the window and looked out. The sky was gray instead of blue, and there wasn’t any sunshine. She shivered and headed for her closet to get something to wear. Something warm because of no sunshine.

But all the warm things were hanging high up and Aurora wasn’t there to reach up and get them down. And nobody else was up yet. Except for Aurora, nobody at the Pappases’ got up very early. Athena’s mother and father, who were always called Diane and Nick, were too tired from painting and sculpturing, and Ari was just too lazy.

Putting on the same play suit she’d worn the day before, the one with the front and back that were hard to tell apart, Athena skipped down the hall. When she got to the kitchen she pushed a chair in front of the refrigerator, climbed up, and got out three slices of frozen Sara Lee French toast. Then she jumped down, put the French toast on the seat of the chair, and pushed it over to the microwave. She climbed up again (without stepping on the toast—at least not very much), put the toast in the microwave, and very carefully pushed the right buttons. Then she got down and got out the syrup and butter while she waited for the microwave to say
ping, ping, ping,
which meant it was all finished cooking.

It didn’t take long at all because she’d been making her own French-toast breakfasts since she was three years old. She was just climbing up onto her own chair to start eating when her brother, Ari, came into the room.

Ari’s curly hair was flat on one side and his eyes looked fat and sleepy. He sniffed the air, looked at Athena’s breakfast, and went to the cupboard for a plate. Then he sat down at the table and looked at Athena’s breakfast some more. After a while he said, “You don’t want
all
that French toast, do you?”

Athena pulled her plate closer. “Yes, I do,” she mumbled around a mouthful of toast and syrup. Ari went on staring at Athena’s plate for a few seconds before he sighed and got up and went to the refrigerator. By the time his breakfast was ready his eyes had opened wider and he was starting to talk. Ari always talked a lot, except when he was sleepy. Today, the first thing he talked about was when Aurora would be coming home.

“Sometime tonight,” he said. “The Nicelys’ said they’d start home in the afternoon and probably stop someplace for dinner. So they won’t be here until pretty late.”

Athena was disappointed. Aurora had said Sunday and Athena had been thinking Sunday morning, maybe. She was so disappointed her lower lip began to feel wobbly, but she wasn’t going to cry. Athena didn’t like crybabies. Instead she swallowed hard and said, “Then can I play with you today? Can I play with you, Ari?”

Ari grinned. “Sure. I’m going to work on my newspaper today. I’m going to write newspaper stories. You want to write a newspaper story too?”

Ari was teasing. He knew she couldn’t write many words yet. She could read a whole lot of words and write her own name too—which Aurora said was very good for four years old—but she couldn’t write a story yet and Ari knew it. She glared at him, climbed down out of her chair, and ran down the hall.

Only a minute or two later she was on her way down the back steps pulling her red wagon. Since there wasn’t anything else to do and nobody to play with, she was going back to Dragoland to play in the fishpond. But halfway down the back steps the wagon tipped over and spilled everything out.

“Oh rats!” Athena said, which was what Ari always said when things went wrong. She stared at the mess where everything had fallen out of the wagon onto the sidewalk. Then she said some Greek words that she wasn’t supposed to say but that her father said when he was angry. She went on saying the words angrily while she pulled the wagon back right side up and started putting everything back in. She had already been angry—at Aurora for being gone so long and at Ari for teasing her. And now she was angry at the wagon for dumping everything out.

After she’d said the Greek words two or three times she started talking to the wagon. “You stupid wagon,” she said. “Look what you did. You broke everything all to pieces, I bet.”

But everything wasn’t broken. Not really. When Athena picked up the dolls and their furniture the only “broken to pieces” things she found were one teacup and the padlock on the old box. The padlock was broken all to pieces, the box lid had come open, and lots of little red bags had fallen out.

The bags that fell out of the box looked just like one that belonged to Athena’s grandma. Her grandma’s bag was very old and it was full of jacks that she’d had since she was a little girl. When Athena was at her grandma’s house she played with her grandma’s jacks. She wasn’t very good at it yet but she was getting better.

But when Athena opened the bags she was disappointed. There weren’t any jacks or anything else you could play with. Just some dirty old pennies and nickels.

She said “rats” again and dumped all the bags back in the box and wrapped it up again in the napkin. Then she started off up the sidewalk pulling the wagon behind her.

She was almost past the Grants’ when Jinsky trotted out from behind the house and lay down on the lawn. Athena went over to say hello. She petted Jinsky and hugged him and shook his paw—Jinsky always liked to shake hands—before she went back to her wagon and went on to Dragoland.

But seeing Jinsky had made her remember about how Susie and Muffy had dug up his nice big bone and had thrown it away. And how she, Athena, had had to put it back where Jinsky wanted to keep it. And because she was already angry at Aurora and Ari and the wagon she felt angry again at Susie and Muffy. Angrier than ever. When she got to the fishpond she decided she’d better go see what other mean things Susie and Muffy had done.

So, after carefully parking the wagon by the fishpond she went on down the path and climbed up over the wall and into the Pit. And, sure enough, when she got there she found that Jinsky’s bone had been dug up all over again. She was starting to put it back in the hole where it belonged, when she suddenly changed her mind.

There wasn’t any use burying the bone in the same place again and again. Not if Susie and Muffy were going to keep digging it up.

“I’ll just take it back to him,” Athena said. “I’ll put Jinsky’s bone in my wagon and take it to his house and tell him to bury it someplace else.”

Back at the fishpond she put the bone in the wagon along with all her dolls and furniture and started off to look for Jinsky. Sure enough he was still there lying on the grass in his yard with his chin on his front paws. When Athena put the bone down in front of him he sniffed at it and wagged his beautiful tail. Athena knew that was Jinsky’s way of smiling, so she smiled at him, too, and told him he’d better find a new place to bury his bone. Then she went back to her wagon.

She was almost to Dragoland when she turned around and went home instead because she needed to go to the bathroom.

T
HAT MORNING CARLOS DECIDED
to go to early mass with his mother for a change. That way he’d be free later to go to Eddy’s before Bucky was up and around. So he got up very early, jumped into his clothes, and rushed downstairs—and a minute later Susie came downstairs too.

“Well, look who’s up,” he said. “What are you doing up so early?”

“I just felt like it,” Susie said. “What are you doing up so early?”

“I’m going to early mass today with Mom.”

“Oh,” Susie said. “I am too. I’m going to early mass too.”

Carlos thought that was a little strange because both he and Susie usually went to eleven o’clock mass with their dad. But it wasn’t until they were back at home again that Carlos began to notice something even stranger. What he noticed was Susie going upstairs every time he did, and coming back down when he did, and sitting right beside him while he ate breakfast. But it wasn’t until he went out on the deck to feed Lump and she was right there, too, that he began to get really suspicious.

“Hey, kid,” he said as Lump was inhaling his second can of Science Diet, “are you following me, or what?”

Susie whirled around from where she was leaning over the deck railing, looking startled—and a little bit guilty. “Following? Following you? No. Of course not. Why should I want to follow you?”

Carlos said he didn’t know why, and he didn’t, but just the same he was careful, a little later, when he was getting ready to go to Eddy’s house. He was careful not to slam the door to his room, he tiptoed down the hall, and he even went out the back way because the front door tended to squeak. He didn’t think Susie followed him that time. At least he didn’t catch her in the act.

Eddy had been up for quite a while when Carlos got there—the Wongs were really early risers—so Carlos didn’t even have to wait for him to finish breakfast. In fact he didn’t have to wait at all. He’d no more than gotten inside the door when Eddy grabbed him and dragged him down the hall to his room.

“I’ve been reading the coin books some more,” he whispered as soon as he’d closed the door. “And
wow!
Wait till you see what I found out.” Rushing across the room he plopped himself down on the floor and pulled two large, flat books out from under his bed. “Come on, sit down here. Wait till you see this!”

Eddy had marked a couple of pages in each book with strips of paper, and now he began to open them to the markers. “See here,” he said, “see this picture. That’s a gold coin that’s called a half eagle. Don’t you think that looks pretty much like the ones in the bag? You know, those three coins that were in the bag all by themselves.”

“Yes,” Carlos said uncertainly. “They looked something like that. I remember that they had a bird like that on one side. And a woman’s head on the other.”