Amelia Bedelia & Friends #1

by Herman Parish

  “These are on the house,” said Doris. “And if Julius Caesar . . . I mean Pete . . . doesn’t agree, I’ll pay for them. I needed a good laugh today.” Doris walked away, wiping her eyes on her apron.

  Amelia Bedelia didn’t know how french fries could be on the house, especially when she was in a diner, but she ate them all up anyway. “These are hot and delicious!” she called after Doris. “Thanks!”

  There were only two days left until Oak Tree Elementary’s official one hundredth birthday. Ms. Hotchkiss updated everyone on the search for the time capsule during morning announcements.

  “We hired some experts to help us find the time capsule. You’ve probably noticed them as they searched the area around our oak tree. They tell me that they used cutting-edge equipment. I am very sorry to tell you that they struck out.”

  Struck out? Amelia Bedelia wondered why the experts were playing baseball when they should have been hunting for that time capsule. Also, what edge was the equipment cutting?

  “We are stumped!” added Mrs. Roman.

  Too bad they weren’t looking for a stump, thought Amelia Bedelia. She knew right where to find one.

  After lunch, a gloomy bunch of kids gathered in the student lounge.

  “Guess what? Our table is a year older than our oak tree,” said Amelia Bedelia. She told her friends the story of Pete at the diner and Peter Hoffman, and how the tree in front of the school had been started from an acorn and planted when the tree that was now their table had died.

  “According to the plaque next to the tree out front, it was planted in 1921,” said Joy. Then she pointed to the edge of their table. “That means that this outer ring of our table was growing during the year 1920.” The way she moved her fingers was like a tiny person walking toward the center of the stump, counting as she went.

  “Three, four, five, six. Right here is 1914. World War One started here,” said Joy.

  “There? I thought it was in Europe,” said Amelia Bedelia.

  Joy counted two more rings. “This would be the year 1912. The Titanic sank here.”

  “Sank there?” said Amelia Bedelia. “It’s not deep enough. There is no water at all!”

  The other kids fell over laughing, but not Joy.

  “This is where the Titanic sank in time,” said Joy. “See this ring? That is how big this tree was when the Titanic sank.” Joy’s fingers took twelve more teeny tiny steps toward the center of the stump. “Right here it’s the year 1900,” she said. “The turn of the last century. Want to keep going, back into the 1800s?”

  “Sure!” said Amelia Bedelia and her friends.

  “Lead on!” said Clay. “Your fingers are like little time travelers, walking back into history.”

  Joy’s fingers took more steps. “Here we are in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.” Her fingers kept marching. She paused every so often to call out historical events, like stops on a train or bus. Too soon, the recess bell rang and everyone started lining up to go in.

  “Hurry, Joy,” said Amelia Bedelia. “Go to the center ring and tell us what was going on when this tree was planted.”

  Walking her fingers as fast as she could, Joy continued counting the years out loud and backward.

  “This is 1865!” she called out. “The end of the Civil War!”

  “Keep going!” said Amelia Bedelia as Joy’s fingers did their dance. At last she got to the center of the stump.

  “1776!” Joy tapped the stump and smiled.

  “The Declaration of Independence!” shouted Amelia Bedelia and her friends.

  “Cool,” said Clay. “All this time, we thought we were just sitting around an old stump. Turns out it’s a slice of history. Thanks, Joy!”

  Back in the classroom, Clay explained to Mrs. Shauk and the other kids how Joy had turned the stump into a time machine. Joy was her usual self, sitting quietly at her desk with her nose in her book. She wasn’t bragging. Which was what Amelia Bedelia liked most about her.

  Joy loved discovering fun facts about the world. She was the absolute best at history. That was just a fact. Like the names and places and dates she had memorized. Those were a joy to her. Joy was a joy to Amelia Bedelia. She was super happy that Joy was her friend.

  But right now, Amelia Bedelia could tell that something was bothering Joy. Her forehead was wrinkled, and she stared off into the distance, studying the giant oak outside their classroom window.

  Amelia Bedelia almost never passed notes in class, but she was worried enough to send one to Joy. Amelia Bedelia folded it up and passed it to Penny, who passed it to Clay, who passed it to Angel, who passed it to Joy. Amelia Bedelia saw Joy read it, write a reply, and send it back the same way.

  Amelia Bedelia’s note would have made the round trip in record time, in anyone else’s classroom. But this was the home of the Hawk, and Mrs. Shauk had spotted the note immediately. She waited for Joy to answer it, then pounced right as it was being handed back to Amelia Bedelia. The blood-red talons of the Hawk snagged the note just before it got to Amelia Bedelia’s outstretched hand. That note had as much chance as a baby bunny hopping across an open field at a raptor convention.

  “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” asked Mrs. Shauk. “Is this perhaps the secret recipe for Amelia Bedelia’s lemon tarts? It could not be merely a note, because everyone knows that those are one hundred percent banned in my class.” Mrs. Shauk unfolded the paper and quickly read the message. “Joy and Amelia Bedelia, come to the front of the room, please.”

  The two friends stood up and slunk to the front of the room, then turned to face the class.

  “This note started with you, Amelia Bedelia,” said Mrs. Shauk. “Please tell us what was so important that you had to break my number-one rule.” She dropped the note into Amelia Bedelia’s outstretched palm, then took a seat at Amelia Bedelia’s desk.

  “I sent this to Joy,” said Amelia Bedelia, “because she looked sad.”

  “And what does the note say?” said Mrs. Shauk.

  Amelia Bedelia cleared her throat. “Are U OK?”

  “Now please pass the note to Joy so she can share her reply with the entire class,” said Mrs. Shauk.

  “I wasn’t feeling sad. I was thinking,” said Joy. “I thought of something on the playground, and I just now figured it out.”

  “Could it be used as a fun fact?” asked Clay.

  The whole class laughed. Mrs. Shauk laughed, too.

  Thank goodness for Clay, thought Amelia Bedelia.

  Joy turned the piece of paper over to read what she had written on the back. Amelia Bedelia perked up. She was looking forward to hearing the message she never got.

  Joy cleared her throat twice and read, “I figured out where the time capsule is buried.”

  “Yes!” yelled Clay. “That’s the funnest fact EVER!”

  Mrs. Shauk’s hawk-like eyes opened wide, then narrowed to slits. “I was going to send you both to the principal’s office,” she said. “But now I think Ms. Hotchkiss should come down here.” She stood up, walked to the phone, and called the office. Everyone heard her say, “Hello, Mrs. Roman? Is Ms. Hotchkiss . . . ,” before Mrs. Shauk turned her back to the class. She whispered for twenty seconds into the phone, then hung up.

  Mrs. Shauk perched on the top of her desk. No one said one word. The only sound was two pairs of shoes walking quickly, never running, toward their classroom, growing louder and sharper with each CLICK CLICKITY-CLACK CLICK CLACK!

  Mrs. Shauk’s class, along with Ms. Hotchkiss and Mrs. Roman, assembled around the really old stump.

  “Welcome to our student lounge,” said Cliff. “I’d offer you something, but we don’t have anything, except this really cool, really old stump.”

  “Okay, Joy, here we are, and we’re listening. Now what makes you think that the time capsule is buried around here?” asked Ms. Hotchkiss.

  Amelia Bedelia smiled at her friend. She knew that whatever Joy said would be amazing.

 
“It’s like a figuring out a word problem in math,” said Joy. “The words matter as much as the numbers. When we heard that the time capsule was buried near the oak tree, everyone assumed it was the big oak tree in front of our school. Not the one behind the school. Not the really old one that died right after they built our school. Now all that is left of that tree is this stump. But maybe this was the only oak tree around here when they buried the time capsule.”

  Mrs. Roman was nodding the whole time Joy was speaking.

  “Then Amelia Bedelia told us that Pete from Pete’s Diner is the great-grandson of the first principal,” said Joy. “He told Amelia Bedelia about how his great-grandfather loved trees and felt really bad about the oak tree dying.”

  Ms. Hotchkiss, Mrs. Roman, and Mrs. Shauk were amazed to learn about Pete’s connection to the school.

  “Astonishing!” said Ms. Hotchkiss.

  “Mrs. Roman, please send Pete a VIP invitation to our one hundredth birthday celebration!”

  “So I think that the time capsule will be due north of this stump, like Principal Hoffman’s letter says,” said Joy. “Probably not too far away.”

  “Penny, go to Ms. Garcia in the science room,” said Mrs. Roman. “Tell her you’re on a mission for Ms. Hotchkiss, and ask to borrow a compass that shows directions. And Wade, go borrow some shovels—anything we can dig with—from Mr. Jack. Tell him you’re on a mission for Ms. Hotchkiss too!”

  When Penny raced back with the compass, Joy set it right in the middle of the stump. The magnetic arrow swung back and forth. Joy waited until it had settled down. Once it stopped moving, the arrow was pointing north.

  “I know! We should make a line from the stump to the north,” said Clay. “That way we’ll know the area where the time capsule is probably buried.”

  “Great idea!” said Joy. “Amelia Bedelia, please move one step to the right.”

  Amelia Bedelia took a step, but in the wrong direction.

  “I meant to your right,” said Joy.

  “Right!” said Amelia Bedelia. “I like being right.”

  “More to the right,” said Joy. “You’re not right enough.”

  “Does that make me wrong?” asked Amelia Bedelia.

  Joy grabbed Amelia Bedelia’s hand and pulled her behind Holly and Penny. Soon Mrs. Shauk’s students were arranged in a long line northward from the stump. Mr. Jack and Wade passed out shovels and trowels and scoops and spades, and everyone started to dig.

  “I keep hitting rock,” said Amelia Bedelia.

  “Me too,” said Joy.

  “I think I’m hitting that rock over here,” said Skip.

  “I’m hitting the same rock over here,” said Rose.

  “It is hard, but I don’t think it’s a rock,” said Cliff.

  Amelia Bedelia and Joy got down on their hands and knees and started clearing away the dirt.

  The shovel brigade uncovered what looked like a big stone lid.

  “Oh, I think this is it!” said Mrs. Roman. “How exciting!”

  “Okay, let’s cover it back up now,” said Ms. Hotchkiss.

  “Why?” asked Amelia Bedelia. “We just uncovered it!” She looked around at her friends. Everyone was shocked!

  “Don’t you want to see what’s in it?” asked Clay, asking the question they were all thinking.

  “More than anyone,” said Ms. Hotchkiss. “But it can wait until our celebration, when all our students are together and when the newspaper reporters and television crews will be here. That way, we can share our discovery with the whole community.”

  “That’s why you are the principal,” said Mrs. Roman. “I just want to go back in time right now.”

  Amelia Bedelia couldn’t agree more. She was so curious!

  Everyone dumped a shovelful of dirt back into the hole they had just dug.

  “Well, at least it will be easier to dig it up at the celebration,” said Wade, mournfully.

  Oak Tree Elementary was finally one hundred years old! It was the perfect day for a party. The air was crisp and clear and the sun shone on the school building, making it look like a giant cake. The television crew and newspaper reporters arrived early to get set up, and students and parents started arriving, too. Many families brought their dogs. Amelia Bedelia’s dog, Finally, was all decked out in ribbons and balloons. Everyone gathered first near the old oak stump for the official kickoff of the centennial celebration.

  Amelia Bedelia and her friends were put in charge of digging up the time capsule. After all, they knew exactly where it was, and having practiced once, they uncovered it again in no time. The hardest part was prying up the stone lid and lifting it off the small vault that held the time capsule. Luckily, Mr. Jack had a crowbar just right for the occasion.

  Inside the vault was a metal container about the size of a toolbox. Other than some small rust spots, the time capsule looked like it was in good shape. That meant that the contents would probably have been preserved.

  To the sound of hooting and whistling and applause, Amelia Bedelia and Joy lifted the capsule out of the vault and set it gently on the stump table.

  Suddenly there was a commotion in the crowd.

  At first, Amelia Bedelia did not recognize Pete. She was used to seeing him in a white apron, day in and day out, behind the counter at his diner. She never expected to see him in a blue blazer and a flowered bow tie. He approached the stump and smiled at Amelia Bedelia.

  “Hi, Pete!” said Amelia Bedelia.

  “Here is our VIP,” said Ms. Hotchkiss.

  “He sure is. A Very Important Pete,” said Amelia Bedelia.

  “I clean up pretty well, don’t I?” said Pete.

  “It took a ton of work,” said Doris, smiling as she walked up behind him.

  “Pete, we invite you to officially open the time capsule, since it was your great-grandfather who closed it one hundred years ago,” said Ms. Hotchkiss.

  “Thank you. This is quite an honor,” Pete said. “I open this time capsule in the name of Mr. Peter Hoffman, my wonderful great-grandfather and the first principal of our favorite school, Oak Tree Elementary!” Pete lifted the lid and laughed.

  “It didn’t even squeak,” he said. “I would have after one hundred years!”

  He began lifting out items he found inside. There were some games that the students had probably contributed. And photographs of the teachers and the kids, and a fancy pen.

  There was a menu from a restaurant. Amelia Bedelia looked over the selections and added up the prices. “Wow,” she said. “It would be hard to spend more than a dollar for lunch!”

  An issue of the local newspaper was rolled up and tied with string in three places. Ms. Hotchkiss handed it to Mr. B, the school librarian. He unrolled it and spread the sections out on a nearby picnic table. “Let’s see what was happening one hundred years ago,” said Mr. B.

  Cliff read the sports page. “The 1920 World Series had just ended. The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to Cleveland. Listen to this: ‘The New York Yankees are still happy with getting Babe Ruth in a trade from the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees expect he’s going to do great things.’” Cliff shook his head.

  Joy was shaking her head, too, but for a different reason.

  “Guess what happened in 1920!” she said. “They added the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution!”

  “Whoopee! Who cares? Sounds so boring,” said Clay. “I want to read about cars.”

  “But it gave women the right to vote,” said Joy.

  “What! That’s crazy,” said Dawn. “Didn’t we always have it?”

  “You mean a hundred years ago, we couldn’t vote?” said Rose.

  “Ah, the good old days,” said Wade. “Our country has gone downhill ever since you got to vote.” He was laughing as he took off running.

  “Come back here, Wade, so we can vote you out of our class!” said Heather.

  “Isn’t it strange how we think things were always as they are today?” said Mrs. Shauk. “It’s easy to forget
how much has changed and how much will change.”

  Pete had just pulled something out of the capsule. It was small and wrapped carefully.

  “What could this be?” asked Pete. “It sure is heavy.”

  Pete unwrapped the object with care. He began to shake when he realized what he was holding. “This is my great-grandfather’s watch!” he said. He pressed a little button and the lid sprang open, revealing a face decorated with Roman numerals. Two words were engraved in fancy script on the inside.

  “Tempus fugit,” read Pete. “I can’t believe I am holding something my great-grandfather used every day.”

  Amelia Bedelia found her parents and Finally and took them through the school lobby to show them the things that had started the search for the time capsule. The framed photograph that had fallen in the school office had been repaired and looked better than ever.

  Amelia Bedelia studied the smiling faces and wondered who had put the bag of marbles in the time capsule. The letter from the first principal to the current principal had been framed and was also on display in the trophy case. Amelia Bedelia showed it to her parents and then pointed to Peter Hoffman, Pete’s great-grandfather, in the photograph.