The Peanut-Butter Burglary

by Becky Freeman

  “Well,” she said between sniffs, “I was about five years old when my father left me and my mother alone. Then my mother drove me to my grandmother’s house one day, kissed me good-bye, and never returned. I thought my little heart would break.”

  Marco imagined Miss Nellie as a young child, abandoned by her parents. No wonder she wanted a big family of her own so much! She wanted to love other children in ways she’d never been loved by her own parents.

  Miss Nellie hugged the ragged doll to her chest. “My grandmother dried my tears and took me to her sewing room and told me, ‘Honey, we’re going to make you something special. Something you can love and hang on to forever.’ She took bits of material and yarn and thread and made me this little rag doll.”

  Miss Nellie lifted the doll’s dress. “See, this is where Granny embroidered a heart. She said that she put all her love in this heart, and that if I ever needed a little of her love and she wasn’t around, I could hug my rag doll and remember I would always, always be loved by Granny.”

  Suddenly, Miss Nellie sat up as if an angel had brushed by her face, giving her clear directions from heaven. “Children,” she said, “go get Mr. Henley. There’s something I want to ask him. Then we need to start praying and searching for those precious kids.”

  11

  INTRUDERS!

  It had been a long day. Marco and his friends were late to school after showing the hideout in Andy’s Art Studio to Mr. Henley.

  Miss Nellie and Mr. Henley had assured the four friends that everything would be all right. They were optimistic that when the missing children were found, God would make a way for the brother and sisters to stay together.

  “Come by after school,” Miss Nellie had told them. “I’ll have a surprise waiting for you.”

  When the Twiblings arrived at the shop, Miss Nellie handed them a big box. “I made this for you to thank you for helping me! Maybe the four of you can share it when you meet at your clubhouse!”

  Marco opened the box and laughed out loud. Inside was one of Nellie’s famous coconut cakes, shaped like a cat’s face—with pointy ears, black licorice whiskers, and orange-dyed coconut sprinkles all over it. Miss Nellie laughed and then said, “I call it Miss Pumpkin’s Surprise.”

  Now Marco carried the box up the path to the cabin, shifting the weight of his backpack to his other shoulder, Maria following close behind him. Maria had often teased him and Jake for always carrying their backpacks with them in the woods—until this past winter when Marco and Maria had been carried away on a runaway horse and had to spend the night in the woods. They had survived on his healthy nutty snacks and powdered cocoa mix. And she had never teased him again about his backpack.

  “Jake and Joy must have beat us here!” Marco said. “The lights are already on in the window, and I can hear them talking.”

  But as they approached the cabin, Maria stopped suddenly and whispered, “Marco, look!”

  There, partially hidden by the low branches of a tree, were two shiny mountain bikes. One was bright blue, and the other one, neon yellow, had a child’s bicycle seat strapped to the back of it.

  “They’re here!” Marco whispered loudly. “What now?”

  “I don’t know,” Maria whispered back. “You’re the brilliant detective with all the answers.”

  “Okay,” said Marco. “Let’s just go up to the door and knock.”

  Together the twins walked to the door of the cabin. As Marco raised his fist to knock, a familiar boy’s voice said, “I’m going down by the lake,” and suddenly, they were face to face with their runaway friend. Michael shouted out in surprise but recovered quickly.

  “It’s okay!” Michael said to his sisters, who were now stiff with fright. “It’s Marco and Maria Garcia. I know them from school.”

  “Are you okay?” Marco asked.

  “We’re fine,” said Michael defensively. “At least we were fine. How did you find us here?”

  “This is our cabin. It’s part of Camp Wanna Banana where we live and our parents work.”

  An invisible weight pressed down on Michael’s shoulders, making them droop with discouragement. “Oh,” he said sadly. “We thought we’d found a safe place to hide for the night. We were planning to move on in the morning.” Maria walked around the boys and held out her hand to the oldest girl.

  “Hi,” she said, “I’m Maria. And you’re Melissa, right?”

  The girl nodded. Maria bent down to look at the young child, whose enormous blue eyes were staring up in fear. “It’s okay, little one,” said Maria. “You must be Misty. I’m not going to hurt you. We want to help you.”

  The girl clung tightly to her sister until Maria said, “Guess what we have for you?”

  Marco walked over beside Maria, set his backpack on the table, then opened the box. He bent over to show Misty the coconut kitty-cat cake.

  The adorable child smiled, revealing charming dimples. Rubbing her tiny tummy, she said, “I yike kitty-cat cake. I yike it a yot!” She jumped off her sister’s lap to reach for the cake.

  Then suddenly, to Marco’s shock, the little girl closed her eyes and crumpled into a heap on the floor.

  12

  BACK TO LIFE

  Marco dropped the cake in his hurry to pick up little Misty. He set her gently on the sleeper sofa and tried to remember everything he’d read in his Red Cross handbook. First he checked her vital signs. She was breathing. Pulse, good. He gently lifted her eyelids. Eyes normal, though rolled slightly back in her head.

  By this time, Michael and Melissa were on their knees beside their sister, filled with panic.

  Marco looked up and said, “Maria, wet a rag with cool water. Michael, prop her feet up with one of those cushions.”

  Both obeyed without question. Maria grabbed a kitchen towel from the rough kitchen cabinet and pumped cold water onto the rag, wringing out the excess.

  “Here, Marco,” she said in worried tones as she handed her brother the damp rag.

  Marco gently placed the cool rag across Misty’s head. The child’s eyelashes started to flutter softly like moth wings.

  “Misty!” Melissa said, reaching for her little sister’s hand. “Wake up, baby girl. Are you okay? Talk to us!”

  Slowly, Misty opened her eyes. Sighs of relief went from one person to another as they stood, sat, and knelt around the tiny figure on the bed.

  “Where kitty-cat cake?” Misty asked dreamily, as she lay faceup on the bed, her eyes trying to search the room.

  Marco chuckled and said, “We’ll save that kitty-cat cake for you to eat later on. You just fainted, chica! You scared us amigos to death!”

  Michael spoke up, his voice trembling. “What’s wrong with her, Marco?”

  “When did she last eat a meal with protein?” Marco asked.

  Melissa said sadly, “None of us have eaten anything since yesterday.”

  Marco sighed. “Maria, get some of that string cheese and a handful of peanuts out of my pack. There’s nothing wrong with this little girl that some nutritious snacks won’t fix.”

  Misty sat up and peeled strips of string cheese, eating them hungrily between bites of peanuts and sips of boxed apple juice. Once she’d eaten her fill, Marco offered the rest to Michael and Melissa, who accepted it gratefully.

  “We’ve been praying for you all,” Maria said gently as she watched her new friends scarfing down the snacks.

  “Who has been praying for us?” Michael finally asked after he washed down some peanuts with the juice.

  Just then, Jake and Joy appeared at cabin door, looking surprised and confused.

  Marco glanced toward Maria, Jake, and Joy, and then answered, “We’ve all been praying, Michael. All of us.”

  Jake and Joy, catching on, entered the cabin.

  Michael patted his sister’s head and looked up at his friends. “I’m sorry I had to lie to you all. I didn’t want to, but I was so afraid we’d be taken back to Desert City and split up again. I would ride my bike from
school to Whispering Pines Estates, where I’d leave my schoolbooks in the hollow trunk of a tree on an empty lot. That way, Miss Nellie and you all thought I went home to a nice house before coming to work at Miss Nellie’s. After work I’d ride over to the Estates to make her think I went home, then when she was gone and Mr. Henley had finished locking up, I’d grab my books and ride back to the art studio, and my sisters would let me in.”

  The Twiblings all nodded, understanding how afraid the runaways must have been for the past couple of weeks.

  “I don’t even want to think about what’s going to happen to us,” said Melissa, her thin body nestled around her young sister’s form on the bed quilt. Marco thought they looked like an old-fashioned pen-and-ink drawing from one of Maria’s Little House on the Prairie books.

  “What’s going to happen to you,” Marco said in comforting tones, “is that God’s going to make a way for you all to be together, somehow.”

  “That’s right,” said Maria. “He loves you all very much.”

  “But how is He going to help us?” asked Michael.

  Marco smiled. “I’m not sure, but I think Miss Nellie has something up her sleeve. When Misty feels up to it, let’s head back over to our house. I’ll talk to Papa and see if he won’t drive us over to Miss Nellie’s together.”

  Michael looked relieved. “Miss Nellie’s been so nice to me, letting me sweep up the store for ice-cream treats. I just hate that we stole food from her, but we were so hungry.”

  “I think she’ll understand,” Maria said. “In fact, Miss Nellie knows how you all feel.”

  “She does?” asked Melissa.

  “Yes,” added Joy, sitting down on the edge of the bed near Melissa and Misty. “She was once a little girl without parents to take care of her too.”

  “What about the clothes and lunch kit and bicycles and stuff we stole from the shopping center outside of town?” Michael asked, worried. “Will we be taken to jail?”

  Jake spoke up this time. “If somebody tries to take you to jail, they’ll have to get past me first!” He flexed his skinny arms until two muscles, about the size of walnuts, appeared. Now Michael looked extra worried.

  Joy laughed. “Don’t worry, Michael. It won’t all be up to Muscle Man there. Our parents will help us figure out what to do. They are really nice and they love kids. That’s one of the reasons they decided to start a Christian camp—so they could help kids!”

  Marco suddenly realized how special it was to have two parents who loved him. It was something he almost never thought about. What would he do without his mother and father?

  He didn’t know, but he prayed that God would be a heavenly Father to his new friends and help them to find a real home—together.

  13

  GOIN’ TO THE CABIN-CHAPEL OF LOVE

  Mr. Bigsley, looking very handsome in his dark blue suit, cleared his throat and said, “We are gathered together in this little cabin in the woods, in the presence of God and these witnesses, to join together Nellie O’Brien and Ken Henley in holy matrimony.”

  Marco couldn’t help but feel that Miss Nellie looked like an angel from heaven today, dressed in a flowing wedding gown of soft, white lace. She stared up into the face of her husband-to-be with such love, that Marco secretly hoped that one day he’d have a wife who would love him that much. A long, long time from now, that is!

  The cabin had been decorated with fresh sunflowers and daisies and baby’s breath picked from his mother’s garden this fine May morning. Today, the little cabin seemed more like a chapel than a clubhouse—perfect for a wedding as small as this one. Mr. Bigsley, who had once been a pastor before becoming a camp director, had been asked to perform the ceremony.

  “And now,” Mr. Bigsley said as he motioned three children to move from the back of the room to up front beside him, “Nellie and Ken have asked that you children—Michael, Melissa, and little Misty—join them as I pronounce you one family under the love and leadership of Christ Jesus.” Michael took his sisters’ hands and started down the aisle. Misty was clutching Miss Nellie’s old rag doll close to her side.

  Tears of happiness shone on nearly all the faces around the room as they watched the joyful ceremony. Jake and Joy, Mr. Fields, the Garcias, Jamie Klem and her large family, and even Munch-Munch, dressed in a pink jumper, were there. Mrs. Bigsley wore the brightest yellow sun hat that Marco had ever seen. She was soaking tissue after tissue with her joyful tears between playing love songs on a portable piano that Mr. Henley had rented for the day.

  Three runaway children, with no home of their own, had found two new parents who wanted nothing more than an instant family brimming with kids. Nellie and Ken had helped the children earn money to pay back the things they’d stolen by letting them work after school in their stores. The girls stayed with Miss Nellie, while Michael stayed with Mr. Henley—until today, when Nellie and Ken would become “Mr. and Mrs. Henley and Family.” After the wedding, the new bride and groom could legally adopt all the children as their own.

  God, as He so often does, had once again made a way where there seemed to be no way.

  And Marco knew, down to the tips of his ratty old tennis shoes, that he was one of the seven richest kids on earth—along with Maria, Jake, Joy, and now, Michael, Melissa, and Misty Henley.

  THE TWIBLINGS’

  ACTIVITY PAGES

  Always ask an adult to help you

  with these crafts and recipes!

  CREATE A CABIN

  Use a white shoebox or other box without a lid as a cabin and decorate it on the outside to look like a log cabin. (You can even glue pretzel “logs” on it if you like!) Fill the cabin with miniature “furniture,” using your imagination and things around your house. For example:

  • Thread spools can make little chairs.

  • Create a table with paper muffin-tin liners turned upside down over a small block.

  • Washrags can become “rugs.”

  • Stickers can make pictures on the wall.

  • Buttons can make plates.

  • Upside-down thimbles are great cups.

  • Scraps of fabric can be cut and glued for curtains.

  • Miniature books make great beds.

  • Single-serving milk cartons and cereal boxes can make cabinets and refrigerators.

  WINDOW DRESSERS

  Time for a new display! Decorate the window at Miss Nellie’s Café!

  HIDDEN ART

  Find the missing items in Andy’s Art Gallery.

  bale of hay jug of milk quilt

  bicycles lumber rag doll

  bread nails saw

  can of tuna fish peanut butter

  MISS NELLIE’S COCONUT KITTY-CAT CAKE

  1 round angel food cake

  1 large package vanilla pudding mix

  1 medium carton of whipped cream

  1 small can of pineapple, drained

  M&Ms

  thin black licorice

  1 cup sweetened coconut

  red and yellow food coloring (optional)

  With a grownup’s help, cut an angel food cake in half so that it looks like two flat wheels with a hole in the middle of each. Stuff the hole of one half with pieces of cake torn off of the other to create a smooth flat surface for the cat face. Cut triangle-shaped kitty-cat ears out of the cake left over and attach them to the cat face with the following fruity frosting!

  Frosting: Mix one large package of vanilla pudding mix with one medium carton of whipped cream and a small drained can of pineapple. Spread on cake.

  Use two brown M&Ms for cat eyes, and long thin black licorice for cat whiskers. A red M&M can be the cat’s nose.

  Sprinkle entire cake with one cup of sweetened coconut. (You may also color the coconut orange before sprinkling the cake, if you like, by shaking it in a jar with a drop of red food coloring and six drops of yellow food coloring.)

  THE BLESSING GAME

  Read the following Bible verse and think about what it means.
<
br />   I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. (Philippians 4:12, NIV)

  Part of learning to be content is being thankful for what we do have, instead of thinking about what we don’t have. Play the blessing game! Set a timer for one minute and see how many things you can write down to be thankful for before the buzzer goes off. You can play this alone or with a bunch of friends. Share your list.