by Suzy Kline
No one started their Halloween search-a-word. No one wanted to miss what Harry was going to be this year!
Suddenly, Mary got an idea. She popped out of her seat, tinkled her bells, and waved her wand. A puffy white cloud filled the air. “Magic pixie dust, make Harry appear at the door!”
Three seconds later, the bell rang, and Harry walked in.
Harry Arrives!
We must have stared at Harry for ten seconds. No one said a word.
Finally, Mary broke the silence. “That’s no costume. Who are you supposed to be?”
We all looked at Harry’s neatly combed hair, and his suit and tie. His shoes were even polished.
Sidney took off his bear head and placed it on his desk. I think it was making him hot. His forehead was dripping wet. “You just get out of church, Harry?” he asked.
Harry slowly reached in his jacket, and pulled something out. It was a silver badge with the number 714 on it. When he talked, he used a business tone. He was very matter-of-fact.
“My name is Sergeant Joe Friday. I carry a badge. I’m from the Los Angeles Police Department. When there’s a crime, that’s when I go to work.”
Mary started to make fun of Harry. “You’re not scary or even horrible this year. You’re just acting silly!”
Harry shot Mary a look. “Silly? Joe Friday is smart. He solves crimes.”
Mary scoffed. “Puleeze!”
Miss Mackle walked over to Harry. “Hello, Sergeant Friday. I know who you are. I used to watch Dragnet all the time when I was growing up. How do you know about him?”
Harry answered like a detective. “I watch old-time TV, ma’am. Tuesday and Thursday, six-thirty P.M., WNBX, Channel Thirty-three.”
“Well, Sergeant Friday,” Miss Mackle said. “You certainly know your facts.”
“Yes ma‘am, just the facts. And this is where I keep ’em.” Then Harry took a notebook out of his pocket and held it up.
Mary and some of the other kids giggled.
That morning, shortly after the pledge, Miss Mackle turned off the lights. “I’m going to read you one of my favorite Halloween stories, ”The Headless Horseman,” adapted from Washington Irving’s classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
Then she handed two students flashlights and sat down on the teacher’s chair in front of the room. “Shine the light on me as I read, please.”
As soon as Ida and Dexter did, Miss Mackle’s witch face lit up like a jack-o’-lantern. The raisins that were on her chin and nose really looked like warts. There was a large shadow of her head and hat just behind her on the blackboard.
“Oooooooh,” we responded.
We all leaned forward as Miss Mackle read the story about Ichabod Crane and his spooky ride through Sleepy Hollow.
You could hear a pin drop.
When she finished the story, someone started making a horrible groaning sound ... “Ooooooooh! Ooooooooh!” It sounded like they had a bad stomach-ache. “Ooooooooh! Ooooooooh!”
As soon as Miss Mackle turned on the lights, we discovered who it was.
“It’s Sergeant Joe Friday! Look at him!” Mary yelled.
Everyone turned and stared at Harry. His suit was up over his head. He looked like he was headless.
Miss Mackle laughed.
We laughed, too.
Suddenly, the teacher stepped outside the classroom. When she returned, she whispered, “Boys and girls, the music teacher is just coming down the hall. Let’s have some fun like Harry.” Then she pulled her witch cape over her head.
Quickly everyone moved their costumes up over their heads, and waited quietly for Mr. Marks to enter the classroom.
We could hear his footsteps as he got closer. He was humming as usual. “La ti da ti dah ...”
As he entered our room, we heard him scream, “Aaaaauuuuugh! A class with no heads!”
“Happy Halloween!” we shouted, before we popped our heads out.
“Ahhhh,” Mr. Marks sighed. “What a surprise!” he said. “You sure fooled me.”
We clapped and cheered. We had no idea that the next surprise was going to be on us.
“The Case of the Missing Pixie Dust”
It happened that afternoon during math. Sergeant Joe Friday was collecting facts in his notebook. When we finished counting the pumpkin seeds, Harry wrote 583 for the small pumpkin, and 588 seeds for the bigger one.
“Hmmm,” Harry said, “the only real difference was that the bigger pumpkin had bigger seeds.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “You’re right, Joe.”
After Ida and Dexter took the trays of pumpkin seeds to the kitchen, Miss Mackle began drawing a Halloween bar graph on the chalkboard.
“So, what categories could we have for the costumes we’re wearing today?”
“Well,” Mary said. “There’s a king and a jester in our class, and I’m Tinker Bell, so we could be fairy-tale costumes.”
Harry scribbled three tally marks for the fairy-tale category in his notebook and then put the pencil stub he was using on his ear.
“Good idea!” Miss Mackle said. “Maybe we could make it fairy tales/myths and include the centaur.”
I whinnied. “Nnneeyehaa.”
Harry added another tally mark.
“Other categories?” the teacher asked.
“Animal costumes,” Sidney answered. Then he growled, “Grrrrrr!”
“Meow!” Ida said as she clawed the air.
“Scary costumes,” someone said.
“Great!” Miss Mackle replied, writing the titles down on the board. “But what about a category for our surgeon, singer, detective, and astronaut?”
Song Lee, Dexter, Harry, and Miguel smiled. Those were their costumes.
“Jobs?” Song Lee suggested.
“Yes!” Miss Mackle replied. “Sometimes we call them occupations.”
Suddenly, Mary screamed, “Someone stole my pixie dust! There’s a thief in the room!”
Everyone jumped off their chair a few inches. What a surprise!
Harry leaped out of his seat. He was at Mary’s desk in a flash. His notebook was already open. He just snatched his pencil stub off his ear. “The facts, ma’am, just the facts.”
“Oh Harry!” Mary said as she held up her box. “I’m not playing any games. This is for real. My pixie dust is gone! See!”
Everyone stared at Mary’s empty gold satin box.
“I have a job to do,” Harry replied. “I carry a badge. I’m Sergeant Joe Friday from the—”
“Los Angeles Police Department,” Mary snapped.
Harry looked at his watch, then wrote down the time. “It’s two-oh-two P.M. When do you last remember seeing the dust in the box?”
Mary thought about it. “When I took it down to lunch. It was part of my costume.”
“Did you have hot or cold lunch, ma’am?”
“Hot.”
Harry walked over to the lunch menu that was taped on the wall. He reviewed the facts. “Friday, October thirty-first, cheese pizza, tossed salad, carrot sticks, pumpkin cookies ...”
We watched Harry jot it down. When he returned to Mary’s desk, he fired one question after another. “Where did you keep the box when you were eating lunch?”
“On my tray.”
“All the time, ma’am?”
“Well,” Mary paused, “when I had to stack my tray, I put it on the counter.”
“For how long, ma’am?”
Mary bit her lip. “A minute? Mrs. Thunderburke said I made a beautiful Tinker Bell. I was showing her the tiny bells on my hem.”
“I see, ma’am.”
“Do you have to say ma’am?” Mary yelled.
“Yes ma’am,” Harry replied.
It was hard not to laugh, but we quieted down quickly. We didn’t want to miss any facts about the crime.
“Who was behind you in line, ma’am?”
Mary pointed at the bear. “Sidney!”
Harry walked over to Sidney’s desk. “Do you know
anything about the box?”
Sidney’s response was hard to understand.
“Can you speak louder, sir?” Harry asked.
Miss Mackle sat down on a desktop. “Sidney, aren’t you hot in that headpiece?” she asked.
While Sidney mumbled something, Harry sniffed Sidney’s fur.
“Just as I thought,” Harry said.
“What?” Mary replied.
“Baby powder,” Harry said. “He smells like baby powder.”
“Sidney!” Mary gasped. “You did it! You’re the thief!”
Harry stared at Sidney’s blue eyes through the little round holes of his costume. “Do you want to tell us about it, Sid?”
Maybe it was Harry’s businesslike tone. Maybe Sidney was just hot. Sidney did what Harry asked. He confessed.
We all watched Sidney slowly pull off his bear headpiece. Baby powder was smeared over his forehead.
“I ... just meant to use a little,” Sidney confessed. “Mary left it on the counter when she returned her lunch tray. I was so hot. My forehead was dripping. I thought the baby powder might feel cool on my skin. So I took some. I didn’t mean to use it all. The box just fell out of my hands. When I put it back on the counter, it ... was empty.”
Mary gritted her teeth and growled.
“I’m sorry, Mary!” Sidney said. Then he put his head down on his desk.
Miss Mackle came over. “I think Sidney feels bad about what happened, Mary. But, Sidney, you need to remember to ask first before you use something, and to tell the truth. Maybe you can make it up to Mary.”
Mary folded her arms. “Fat chance. The pixie dust was an important part of my Tinker Bell costume for Halloween. I was going to take it with me tonight when I go trick-or-treating.”
“Ma’am?” Harry asked. “Can’t you put more baby powder in your box for tonight?”
“I guess so,” Mary grumbled.
Harry seemed satisfied and returned to his seat. “It’s two-thirteen P.M.,” he noted. “Case closed.”
Miss Mackle looked over at Harry. “Thank you, Sergeant Friday for being so helpful.”
Harry flashed his white teeth as he put his stub pencil back in the cigar box in his desk.
Just then Mrs. Thunderburke showed up in the doorway. “Happy Halloween, boys and girls! Your pumpkin seeds are roasted and ready!”
As everyone cheered, I ran up to Mrs. Thunderburke. “Harry just solved the Case of the Missing Pixie Dust,” I said. “Just like a real detective.”
“You don’t say?” Mrs. Thunderburke replied.
“Just doing my job, ma’am,” Harry said taking out his badge. “Sergeant Joe Friday from the Los Angeles Police Department.”
Mary rolled her eyeballs.
But Harry did do his job. And he made Halloween more fun.
He played his usual tricks on the class, but this year he really surprised us with his costume. He wasn’t even scary!
And that was the biggest surprise of all!