by Hope McLean
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Willow began as they sat down.
“About flying robots?” Erin asked. “Because I was dreaming about those all night.”
“No, about the earrings,” Willow said. “I don’t see how the Rivals can steal them. But we should keep an eye on them just in case.”
“From a distance, I hope,” Jasmine said.
Willow shook her head. “No. I’m thinking we should get Ms. Keatley to talk to Mr. Haverford and agree to do something on Friday.”
Jasmine and Erin groaned, but Lili stuck up for Willow.
“I think it’s a good idea,” Lili said. “If we’re with them, then they can’t steal anything.”
“Maybe they’re planning to sneak out in the middle of the night,” Jasmine pointed out.
“But they’d have to go through the lobby, and there’s always someone at the desk,” Willow argued. “Even if they didn’t get stopped, they’d be caught on video camera. So if they do steal the diamond, we’d have proof.”
Erin nodded. “It’s a good plan,” she said. “Let’s go somewhere where we don’t have to mingle too much, though.”
“In the meantime, I can’t stop thinking about that note you got on the train,” Jasmine said. “Something is supposed to happen on ‘Thursday at fifteen hundred hours.’ That’s today at three o’clock.”
“And we don’t know where to go or what to do!” Lili said with a frown.
Ms. Keatley walked up and sat down at the table with them.
“So what’s on the agenda for today, girls?” she asked, taking a sip of coffee.
“Lots of naps,” Jasmine suggested with a yawn.
Ms. Keatley laughed. “Yesterday was a big day. I was thinking we could get in some practice this morning, and then maybe work on your reports about the Fraunces Tavern before lunchtime. Then we’ve got the reception at five o’clock.”
“Ooh, can we go to Central Park after lunch?” Lili asked, suddenly looking more awake.
“That’s a lovely idea,” Ms. Keatley said. “It will be nice to get out for a walk after being cooped up all morning.”
“Yay! I’m sure I’ll get some amazing photos,” Lili said happily.
“Oh, and we were thinking we should take the Rivals up on their offer,” Willow said. “Maybe we can do something on Friday together.”
Ms. Keatley smiled. “That’s very mature of you girls. What were you thinking?”
“Something fun,” Erin suggested, digging into her waffles.
“How do you feel about ice-skating in Rockefeller Center?” Ms. Keatley asked. “That’s one of those things everyone should do at least once.”
Lili looked nervous. “Ice skate? I don’t know how.”
“I’ll teach you,” Erin promised. “Mary Ellen’s been taking lessons since she was three, and Mom always drags me along. So I sort of learned by osmosis.”
Lili sighed. “Okay. I guess I’ll just wear lots of padding.”
“I’ll tell Josh,” Ms. Keatley said. “And when you’re finished eating, we’ll go upstairs and start practicing for quiz bowl.”
* * *
Three hours later the girls and Ms. Keatley sat in a café overlooking Central Park. A warm fire blazed in the cozy dining room. Roses decorated the curtains on the windows, and each ornate white metal chair had a pink cushion. They were eating bowls of tomato soup and sandwiches as they planned their walk through Central Park.
“There are so many beautiful sculptures!” Lili remarked, looking through Ms. Keatley’s guidebook. “Hans Christian Andersen and the Ugly Duckling. Balto the Sled Dog. And Alice of Wonderland, of course. That one is amazing.”
Ms. Keatley smiled. “ ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe,” she recited with a dreamy look on her face.
The girls exchanged shocked glances. That was the verse from the message they’d received on the train!
“What did you just say?” Erin asked.
“ ’Twas brillig, and the —”
Willow interrupted her. “I think what Erin means to ask is why did you say that?”
“Because of the Alice statue,” Ms. Keatley explained. “The verse is from Lewis Carroll’s famous poem ‘Jabberwocky,’ and it’s inscribed on the base of the statue.”
The girls were bursting to talk to each other, but they couldn’t — not in front of Ms. Keatley. Thinking quickly, Willow put her phone on her lap and began to text.
It’s the message! We’re supposed to meet at the Alice statue today at 3:00.
Jasmine texted back. But ru sure we should go? We don’t know who sent it.
Maybe it was Ms. Keatley, Willow suggested. Why else would she say that verse out of nowhere?
OMG! That would be crazy, Lili typed. How can we be sure?
Ms. Keatley shook her head. “You girls and your cell phones. Honestly, I just don’t understand it.”
They quickly stopped texting and exchanged glances.
“Um, Ms. Keatley,” Erin began with an innocent smile. “I was just curious, why did you start reciting that ‘Jabberwocky’ verse? Is there a, you know, reason?”
She emphasized the last word, hoping Ms. Keatley would reveal something. But the teacher had a blank expression on her face.
“Why, no,” she said. “I memorized that poem when I was your age, and it was so tough, I guess I never miss an opportunity to recite it.”
Willow and Erin locked eyes. Ms. Keatley seemed to be telling the truth.
So it’s not her, Erin quickly texted everyone.
Then who? Jasmine asked.
Looks like we’ll find out soon enough! Willow replied.
After lunch the girls and Ms. Keatley made their way down the tree-lined paths of Central Park. It was winter, so the branches were bare, but the twisting limbs looked beautiful against the crisp blue sky.
Ms. Keatley shivered in her black wool coat. “Well, I’m sorry, girls. It’s a little colder than I thought it would be. How long would you like to spend out here?” she asked. “I wouldn’t mind a cup of hot cocoa back in the hotel lounge right about now.”
Willow checked the time on her phone. It was only two o’clock. She glanced at Lili with a look that said, Can you answer this one? Lili caught on and gave Willow a nod.
“I was hoping to see all of the sculptures on my list,” Lili piped up. “Or at least some of them.”
Willow grabbed Lili’s guidebook and quickly calculated a route through the park that would take them to the Alice statue.
“We’re not far from Strawberry Fields,” Willow said. “Let’s start there, head south, and then work our way back north.”
Ms. Keatley perked up. “Strawberry Fields? I’ve always wanted to see the mosaic there. I’m a big John Lennon fan.”
“Really?” Erin teased. “I thought you listened to colonial tea party music and stuff like that?”
The teacher smiled. “I appreciate John Lennon as much as I do John Adams.”
They headed south on the path, warming up as they walked briskly toward their destination. The route took them past the lake in Central Park, where Canada geese spending the winter in the United States floated on the water’s glassy surface.
Jasmine shook her head. “It’s hard to believe there’s a lake in the middle of a big city like this. It’s as if we’ve been transported or something.”
“Kind of like when we went to Fraunces Tavern yesterday,” Erin said. “I bet there are little pockets like that all over the city, if you look for them.”
They quickly reached Strawberry Fields, a section of the park dedicated to the memory of the musician John Lennon. A small crowd of people were gathered around the mosaic there, taking photos.
The girls made their way to the front of the crowd. The mosaic had been laid out on the ground, a circle of black and white stones surrounding a circle of white ones with the word imagine in the center.
“It looks like a sunflower!” Jasmine realized. “I wonde
r what stone those tiles are made of?”
Lili began snapping pictures. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “I’d love to do a mosaic on the school lawn. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”
“It would indeed, Lili,” Ms. Keatley answered with a smile.
Willow glanced at the time. “Let’s keep going, guys.”
Luckily, spending an hour in the park turned out to be easy. There were so many things to look at. They passed the famous carousel with its beautifully painted horses. From there they headed north again to see the statue of Balto the sled dog, and then the majestic angel on top of Bethesda Fountain.
“We should be getting back to the hotel soon,” Ms. Keatley said, rubbing her arms to stay warm.
“Just one more!” Lili pleaded. “The Alice statue is close by.”
“Of course!” Ms. Keatley said. “We were just talking about that at lunch. Let’s go.”
They reached the statue just a few minutes before three o’clock. The bronze sculpture was an amazing sight — Alice perched on a giant toadstool, surrounded by the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Cheshire Cat. And smaller toadstools invited children to climb and play with the storybook characters.
But even Lili didn’t have her eyes on the sculpture just yet. The girls gazed around, looking for the mysterious person who had sent them the note. A girl who looked like a college student was sitting on a bench, sketching. Moms and nannies pushed by with strollers holding rosy-cheeked babies wrapped up in blankets. An elderly man walked slowly down the path using a cane, and two teenage boys on skateboards whizzed past him.
Enchanted, Ms. Keatley walked up to the Cheshire Cat, who sat on a tree stump behind the big mushroom, overlooking Alice. The girls huddled together and talked in whispers.
“What now?” Jasmine asked.
“I’m not sure,” Willow said, looking around. “I don’t see anyone who looks like they might have sent the message. Just a couple of moms pushing strollers.”
“What about that old guy?” Lili suggested. “He looks kind of mysterious.”
“But he’s walking away,” Willow pointed out.
“Maybe we’re not supposed to meet a person,” Erin suggested. “Maybe there’s another message.”
Willow nodded. “Let’s look for another note on yellow paper.”
The girls separated and walked around the statue, looking under the figures and mushrooms for any sign of a note. After a few moments Lili ran up to Willow and grabbed her by the arm.
“Follow me! I found something!” she said in an urgent whisper. Willow motioned for the other Jewels to follow them, careful not to draw Ms. Keatley’s attention.
To the right of the statue, a yellow balloon waved in the air. At first it looked like it was tangled in the branches of a bush, but on closer inspection it appeared to have been deliberately tied there.
“It’s yellow, like the paper,” Lili said. “And look what somebody drew on it.”
“A diamond shape!” Jasmine cried. “This must be from our mystery helper.”
“I think I see something inside,” Willow said. “We should carefully —”
POP! Erin had already stuck a pen into the balloon. The girls jumped at the sudden noise, and a yellow note floated to the ground.
Willow picked it up. “You scared me!” she told Erin.
“Sorry,” her friend apologized. “What does it say?”
Willow read the message out loud. “Are you sure the diamond in the exhibit is the one the Rivals are after? History is the key.”
Jasmine frowned. “So it’s the wrong diamond?”
“I’m not sure,” Willow said. “We need to study this more.”
“Girls! Are you wandering off without me?” Ms. Keatley called out.
Willow quickly stuffed the note into her coat pocket. “Let’s go. We can talk about this later.”
* * *
The girls finally had a chance to discuss the note in their room that night, after the reception for the quiz bowl contestants. They had spent two hours eating tiny food off silver trays in a room filled with middle schoolers and high schoolers from the Northeast. By the time they got back to their suite, they were exhausted once again.
The Jewels sat in a circle on one of the beds.
“Wait. What if Ms. Keatley hears us?” Jasmine asked, worried.
“She can’t hear regular talking through the walls,” Erin pointed out. “Besides, she says she always reads before she goes to bed. Haven’t you ever seen her when she’s reading? She’s like a zombie. It would take an explosion to get her away from a book.”
Willow unfolded the note and placed it in the middle of the bed.
“So, I’ve been thinking,” she said. “The note seems to be telling us that we might be looking at the wrong diamond. So that means there might be another diamond in New York that the Rivals are going to steal.”
Erin jumped off the bed, rummaged through her overnight bag, and took out a small book with a leather cover.
“Here’s that diary I told you about,” she explained. “I’ve been thinking — the diamond in the tavern exhibit belonged to that family. Maybe I can find their name in the diary. That would link them, and then we could be sure it’s the right diamond.”
Willow nodded. “In the meantime, we can look for other diamonds in the city that might be from Martha Washington’s time. Jasmine, you’re our jewelry expert. Where else in New York would there be diamonds?”
“Everywhere,” Jasmine said. “Museums. Shops. Exhibits. There’s even a diamond district on Forty-seventh Street! It’ll be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
“Or a diamond in Manhattan,” Erin joked, carefully flipping through the pages of the diary. “I was just — wait, here’s something.”
Erin read from the diary page. “‘It is no longer safe to keep the four clues together. I have entrusted the most valuable of the four to John Townsend. As a Quaker, I know he can be trusted. He has promised to hide it most cleverly for me.’”
“What does that have to do with the diamond?” Lili asked.
Erin pointed to the page. “Well, she says there are four clues, just like there are four jewels. And she says they’re valuable. So maybe the clues and the jewels are the same?”
Jasmine looked thoughtful. “Well, if that’s true then she’s probably talking about the diamond. It’s possibly the most valuable of the four jewels.”
Willow was already typing into her phone. “Okay, so here it says that John Townsend was a famous eighteenth-century furniture maker.”
Lili began to bounce up and down on the bed. “The Met!” she cried.
“What about the Met?” Erin asked.
“The exhibit of colonial stuff, remember?” Lili asked. “There’s tons of furniture there. And I remember reading the name Townsend on their website!”
Willow’s brown eyes began to shine. “We may be on to something here,” she said. “We’ve been looking for a diamond in plain sight. But the diamond could be hidden in the exhibit at the Met!”
Erin climbed off the bed and walked to the door.
“Where are you going?” Willow asked.
“To talk to Ms. Keatley,” she said. “Sounds like it’s time for a trip to the Met!”
“You girls certainly are keeping me busy,” Ms. Keatley said the next morning as they walked up the stone steps to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Well, we promised Principal Frederickson we’d have some educational experiences here. She’ll love it if we visit another museum, won’t she?” Willow suggested.
“Of course, of course,” the teacher said. “But remember, we need to stay focused on tomorrow’s competition. I want to make sure we get some practice time in today. We’ve got a lot scheduled.”
“We won’t be here long,” Jasmine assured her.
Erin rubbed her gloved hands together. “And at least it’s warm inside! I bet they sell hot chocolate here.”
When they entered the museum, th
e blast of warm air was a welcome feeling. Inside, the huge main entrance hall was an impressive sight. Huge marble archways supported the dome-shaped ceiling, and sunlight streamed through the round window at the very top. The sound of visitors echoed through the massive space.
“We’re looking for the exhibit of colonial furniture in the New American Wing,” Lili told the woman behind the counter when they paid their admission.
The woman handed them a map. “Go through the Medieval Art hall to get to the New American Wing, and then take the escalator to the second floor. It’s right here,” she said, circling a portion of the map.
Lili smiled. “Thanks!”
“Colonial furniture,” Ms. Keatley mused. “My, you girls really seem to be interested in the colonial period.”
The girls froze and exchanged nervous glances. Maybe Ms. Keatley wasn’t their mysterious messenger — but was she getting suspicious? They had never once questioned if their teacher knew that they were secretly trying to stop a group of sixth-grade jewel thieves in their spare time.
“It’s because we go to Martha Washington,” Erin offered. “It’s like, in our blood or something.”
The teacher smiled. “I know what you mean. Ever since I started teaching at the school, I’ve found that my interest in colonial American history has been piqued. It was such an exciting time for our country.”
The girls breathed a collective sigh of relief. It seemed like their secret was safe from Ms. Keatley — at least for now.
They followed the map and quickly found the section of the New American Wing that featured the colonial furniture. Ms. Keatley quickly became absorbed in reading one of the information plaques, as she usually did when she got to a museum.
“We should have asked that lady down there where the Townsend furniture is,” Jasmine said, as the girls slowly made their way through the exhibit of gleaming wood tables, desks, dressers, cabinets, and chairs.
“I didn’t want to mention it — just in case we’re on to something, you know?” Lili said. “Besides, it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
The girls fanned out, scanning the plaques for John Townsend’s name. It didn’t take long before Jasmine motioned for the girls to join her.