Karen, Hannie and Nancy: The Three Musketeers

by Ann M. Martin

  “Is anyone home?” called Nancy.

  No one answered her. We tiptoed closer to the little house. (It was more like a shed.) We peeped in a window. No one was home. The door was missing, so we crept inside. The little room was dark and damp.

  “This could be our secret house,” I whispered.

  “We could fix it up,” added Hannie. “For us and for the Doll Sisters.”

  “Hey, come here!” shouted Nancy. She was outside the house. “I found an old garden. Come look at it! It is extra-beautiful.”

  The garden was extra-beautiful. A lot of weeds were growing in it, but so were some other plants. Purple and yellow flowers were in bloom.

  “We can fix up the garden, too,” I said.

  So we set to work. We worked until we heard Mary Anne calling us. Then it was time to leave the woods and our secret place.

  The Rainy Day

  I felt very homesick at Shadow Lake. Not the whole time, just the first few days. I decided not to tell Karen and Hannie, though. I am not sure why. I know they are my friends, and friends share secrets. I guess I did not want them to think I was a baby. Anyway, the homesick feeling went away slowly. Maybe because I called Mommy and Daddy two times.

  During the first week at the lake, the Three Musketeers did lots of things. We played outdoors every day. We fixed up a secret house and secret garden. We swam in the lake. We walked to a little store and bought penny candy.

  One day after we had been at the cabin for a week, it began to rain. Karen and Hannie and I could not play outdoors. We had to stay inside with everyone else. The twenty of us sat around in the living room. Of course, the Three Musketeers sat together. We sat in a row on the floor. The Doll Sisters sat next to us.

  Here is the funny thing, though. My friends and I were sitting together, but we were not playing together. We were not even talking. Karen was helping Andrew read some words in Hop on Pop. Hannie was making little people out of clothespins. And I was reading.

  At least, I had been. Now I was just gazing around the room. I could not concentrate on my book. Sam and Charlie were playing chess. They were having a loud argument. Hannie was snapping her clothespins open and shut. Emily Michelle was playing with a talking doll, David Michael was playing with a paddle and ball, and Linny was making a set of clicker-clackers go clicketing away. Even the grown-ups were not quiet. They were rattling the newspapers they were reading.

  I began to think of my house back in Stoneybrook, my quiet house, the one that three quiet people live in. In my house, I can always find peace. And I can always be alone, if I want.

  I was a little teensy bit tired of living with so many people. I decided I was glad I was an only child. When I returned home, I could have my privacy back. I would not have to stand in line to go into the bathroom. I would not have to listen to chess arguments about pawns. I could read a book without hearing Hop on Pop in the background.

  Why, I wondered, had I ever wanted a baby brother or sister?

  I sighed. I stretched.

  “You are taking too long with your move!” Sam said to Charlie.

  “Very good, Andrew!” exclaimed Karen.

  Snap, snap, snap went Hannie’s clothespins.

  Rustle, rustle, rustle went the newspapers.

  “My name is Cindy!” squealed Emily’s doll.

  I sighed again. I tried to read some more. After a long time, I heard Karen cry, “Hey, everybody! Look outside! The rain has stopped.”

  Everyone looked. The rain had stopped. The sun was even trying to shine. It made the drops of water on the leaves sparkle.

  “Okay, Musketeers. Let’s go outside,” said Karen. “Bring the Doll Sisters. First we will go to our secret house. Then we will take a swim. Then …”

  The Big Dance

  My Sari vacation went by too fast. In no time at all we were packing up to leave Shadow Lake. We were going back to Stoneybrook the next day. But before we left, one more fun thing would happen. We were going to a big dance at a lodge. Everybody had been invited — grown-ups, kids, anyone at Shadow Lake. (Well, not pets. Boo-Boo and Shannon were not invited, but I did not think they would mind.)

  I was excited. Going to a dance meant getting dressed up.

  “Look, Kristy,” I said to Karen’s big sister. Everyone was getting ready for the dance. I had just put on my special blue dress.

  “That is lovely, Hannie,” said Kristy, “but my mom said the dance is casual.”

  “Huh?”

  “It is not a fancy dance. You do not need to dress up. People will be wearing blue jeans and shorts and stuff.”

  “Oh.” I looked at Nancy and Karen.

  “Bummer,” said Nancy.

  “Bullfrogs,” said Karen.

  They had wanted to get dressed up, too. But when we left for the dance with Karen’s family and their friends, I was wearing my Minnie Mouse shorts and shirt, Karen was wearing leggings and a T-shirt, and Nancy was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

  We walked to the lodge. The lodge was a big building where people could meet. We had eaten at the restaurant there lots of times. Now we went into the big dance room. It was decorated with balloons. Along the walls were tables of food. A band was playing. A woman was singing.

  I grinned at Nancy and Karen. “Awesome!” I exclaimed. Then I added, “I think this is a very grown-up dance. It is a good thing we went to dancing school, Karen. We will have to remember how to curtsy and use our manners, and especially how to waltz and do the foxtrot.”

  Guess what. One kind of dancing we did not learn at school was square dancing. At the lodge that night, everyone went do-si-do and swung their partners and did something that sounded like “almond right” and “almond left.” I had lots of fun even though I did not know what I was doing.

  Every now and then my friends and I got tired of dancing. Then we would take a break. And eat. On the tables were pies and cakes and cookies and fruit and punch and sodas. I ate a little bit more than I meant to.

  I got a tummy ache. (A small one.)

  So I sat down for awhile. I watched my friends.

  “May I have this dance?” Karen asked Nancy. They waltzed around the room, even though no one else was waltzing.

  For some reason, I thought about Sari then. Maybe because the last time I had a tummy ache, Sari came into my room. She sat with me on my bed. She patted my hand and sang, “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.” Except that Sari always sings, “We’ll be bumpin’ round a mountain when we come.”

  I watched Nancy and Karen dance. I watched Emily and Sam dance. Sam held Emily in his arms and whirled her around. Sari likes Linny and me to dance with her that way. She throws her arms out and laughs.

  Soon the dance at the lodge was over. We walked home. I decided I would not really mind going home the next day.

  Carnival Time

  Our trip to Shadow Lake went by in a big whoosh. It was over much too soon. Before we knew it, Andrew and I were back at the little house. That was on Saturday.

  On Sunday, Hannie and Nancy and I played with the Doll Sisters. Then we rode our bikes around. Then we went to the playground.

  On Monday, I telephoned Nancy early in the morning. “Come over and bring Merry,” I told her. “We will make doll clothes.”

  “Okay,” said Nancy.

  Then I telephoned Hannie. “Come over and bring Kerry. We will make doll clothes,” I said.

  “I can’t,” answered Hannie.

  “You can’t bring your doll?”

  “No. I cannot come over. Not today. I am going shopping with Mommy and Linny and Sari. Then we are going to a movie.”

  Well, for heaven’s sake. I could not believe my ears.

  “What about the Three Musketeers?” I said.

  “What about them?”

  “We are supposed to be together.”

  “We were together yesterday,” said Hannie. “And for two weeks at the lake. And even before that. Even in school.”

  “We are supposed to be
together all the time.”

  “We will be together tomorrow. Today I am going shopping.”

  “Okay, ‘bye.” I hung up the phone.

  When Nancy came over with Merry, I said, “Hannie is going shopping today. With her mother and Linny and Sari.”

  “Not with us?” asked Nancy.

  “No,” I said. I made a Very Cross Face.

  Nancy and I played all day. We made beautiful outfits for Merry and Terry. But Hannie was not with us, so we were not the Three Musketeers.

  Guess what. At dinner, Seth said, “The carnival is in town. Who wants to go? We can go tonight.”

  “I do!” shrieked Andrew and I.

  So Seth took us to the carnival. We brought Nancy along. We rode on the Ferris wheel. We walked through a spook house. (Andrew cried.) We looked at ourselves in wobbly mirrors. We ate cotton candy. We played games. (Andrew won a stuffed cow.) We had a gigundoly fun time.

  But I was still cross with Hannie.

  Dapper Dan’s

  Ring, ring.

  “I’ll get it!” I called. “I’ll get it, Mommy!” I had just finished my breakfast. I had eaten alone because Daddy had already gone to work, and Mommy was busy in the laundry room. I reached for the phone. I was pretty sure Karen was calling with her plans for our day.

  “Hello?” I said.

  “Hello … is this Nancy?” someone asked.

  Mommy and Daddy say never to answer yes or no to that question, especially if you are at home alone. Just say, “Who is calling, please?”

  “Who is calling, please?” I said.

  “It’s Carly. Nancy?”

  “Carly!” I cried. Carly is a friend I met in Hebrew school. I had not seen her since summer vacation began.

  “Hi, Nancy! Guess what. My big sister is taking me out to lunch today.” (Carly’s big sister is in college or something.) “She said I could invite a friend. We are going to eat at Dapper Dan’s. Do you want to come with us? We will have a really fun time.”

  I wanted to go to Dapper Dan’s very badly. I wanted to see Carly. I wanted to meet her big sister. I was pleased that Carly had called. But do you know what I said to Carly? I said, “Oh, thank you! I want to go but I cannot. I have other plans.”

  I knew Karen would call soon. She would have plans for the Three Musketeers. I remembered when Hannie had gone shopping with her family. Karen had been so angry. She had talked about that for days. I mean, she had talked about it with everyone except Hannie. For a long time, Karen would not speak to Hannie.

  “Okay,” said Carly. She sounded sad.

  “Maybe I can go another time,” I suggested.

  “Maybe. But my sister does not take me out to lunch very often.”

  “Oh.”

  When Carly and I finished talking, I hung up the phone. It rang again right away. I picked it up and said, “Hi, Karen.”

  “How did you know it was me?” she asked.

  “Just lucky.”

  “Well, guess what the Three Musketeers are going to do today. We are going swimming. Melody Korman invited us over.” (Melody lives across the street from Karen’s big house.)

  “Okay,” I said.

  “You do not sound very excited.”

  That was because I wasn’t. “Sorry,” I said.

  “Well, put on your suit. Mommy will drive us to Melody’s.”

  Hannie and Karen and I spent most of the day at Melody’s house. My friends played Marco Polo. I sat at the edge of the pool. I thought about Carly.

  My friends practiced diving. I floated on a raft. I remembered the chocolate milkshakes you can order at Dapper Dan’s.

  My friends took turns doing cannonballs. I lay on a towel by the pool. I wondered if Carly had invited another girl to lunch.

  I felt cross all day.

  “Hey, Nancy!” called Karen. “Don’t you want to play? What’s the matter?”

  “NOTHING!” I shouted.

  The Three Enemies

  Snap, crackle, pop. Linny and Sari and I were eating Rice Krispies for breakfast.

  “I wonder why the cereal people spell so many words wrong,” said Linny. He was reading the Rice Krispies box.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Well, like this. You don’t spell ‘crispy’ with a K. You spell it with a C. And Corn Chex should be Corn C-H-E-C-K-S, I think. And — ”

  The phone rang.

  “Oh, no,” I moaned.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Linny.

  “I know who is calling,” I replied. “Karen.”

  “So?”

  “So I don’t know,” I said, even though I did know. Karen was calling with plans for the Three Musketeers. And guess what. I was sick and tired of Karen and Nancy. I had spent nearly every single day of the summer with them. I had barely seen my other friends. I had not had enough time to read my library books. I had even checked out Sarah, Plain and Tall two times, and still I had not finished it. Plus, Mommy and Daddy had bought an ice-cream maker and I had not been able to help make ice cream.

  Linny answered the telephone. “For you, Hannie,” he said. He was frowning.

  I took the phone from him. “Hi, Karen.”

  “Hi! Today we are going to make lemonade,” she said. “We can sell it.”

  I paused. I thought about running a lemonade stand. Then I thought about Sarah, Plain and Tall and the ice-cream maker. “Sorry,” I said to Karen. “I cannot play with you today.”

  “Again?” cried Karen.

  “This is only the second time.”

  “So what?”

  “I will tell you so what,” I said. “I am tired of you, Karen. How is that? I am tired of Nancy, too. I do not want to be a Musketeer today. I want to read and make ice cream and — and play with someone else!”

  “Fine,” Karen shouted. “Then you call Nancy and tell her that yourself.”

  “All right, I will.”

  “Good.”

  “Good-bye!” I slammed down the phone. Then I picked it up and called Nancy.

  “Hi, Karen,” she said. She did not sound very happy.

  “It is not Karen. It’s me, Hannie,” I told her. “And guess what. I do not want to play with you and Karen today.”

  “You do not have to be so mad,” Nancy answered. “Anyway, I do not want to play with you and Karen today, either. I am going to call Karen and tell her that. So there.”

  “So there too!”

  Nancy and I hung up on each other. I stalked out of the kitchen. I went to my room. I looked at Sarah, Plain and Tall. I picked it up. Then I put it down again. I did not want to read it when I was in a bad mood.

  I lay on my bed for awhile. I stared out the window.

  “Hannie?” called a small voice. I turned around. Sari was at my door. “Will you play with me?” she asked. She held out a bunch of old dolls.

  “Sure,” I said.

  Sari dumped her dolls on my bed. We played with them all morning. In the afternoon we played tag and Candy Land with Linny. Then we read some stories together.

  Sari was good company. She helped me forget that the Three Musketeers were the Three Enemies now.

  Good News

  I do not like to be mad at my friends. I do not like my friends to be mad at me. I mean, I really do not like those things. Hannie and Nancy were not talking to me and I was not talking to them. We had not talked to each other for one whole week. Do you know how hard that is? I just love to talk. When I couldn’t talk to Hannie and Nancy, then I had to talk to Andrew and Emily Michelle and Emily Junior and our other pets. Talking to them is okay, but not the same as talking to my friends. The pets cannot even answer me, for heaven’s sake.

  I really missed Hannie and Nancy. I wondered if they missed me, too.

  One Saturday, Andrew and I were at the big house. I was feeling sad. I was mad at my friends. Plus, I had not broken my dressing record yet.

  “You are moping around,” Kristy said to me.

  “I know.” I was lying on th
e couch. I was not doing a thing.

  “Are you still mad at Hannie and Nancy?”

  “Yup.”

  “Why don’t you go over to Melody’s?”

  I shook my head. I wanted to go to Melody’s, but I was afraid Hannie might be over there. What would I do if I saw her?

  “Can I play with you?” I asked Kristy.

  “Well, I would like to play, Karen, but I cannot. I am going over to Mary Anne’s house. We are — ”

  “Can I come with you?”

  “We are going to the mall. We are going to buy new tapes.”

  “I want to come.”

  “Karen, you always get bored in The Music Corner. You hate that store. And we are not going anywhere else.”

  “Boo,” I said. “Bullfrogs.”

  A little while later, Kristy left. I sat in the living room and stared out the window. Soon Andrew sat next to me. He was holding Hop on Pop. “Let’s read, Karen,” he said.

  I sighed. “Okay. First I will quiz you.” I took the book. I opened it to the middle. “What is this word?” I asked.

  Andrew peered at the page. He said the word.

  “Good!” I cried. “What is this word?” I turned the page.

  Andrew said the next word right, too.

  I turned to another page. Before I could say anything, Andrew read the first word. Then he read the one next to it, and the next and the next until he had finished the page.

  “Andrew! Oh, my gosh!” I shrieked.

  “What? What? Did I make a mistake?”

  “No! Andrew, you are reading! You can read!”

  “I can?”

  “Yes! Let’s start at the beginning of the book.”

  Andrew read Hop on Pop all by himself from the beginning to the end. When he finished, I hugged him. Then I ran yelling through the house. “Andrew can read! Andrew can read!”

  Everybody was very proud of Andrew. And everybody gave him more hugs. “Wait until Kristy comes home, Andrew! She will be proud of you, too,” I said.

  I ran into the kitchen. I had to spread the news to my friends. I reached for the phone, and … uh-oh.

  I could not call Nancy and Hannie. They were my enemies, not my friends. They would not care about good news.