Jessi's Baby-Sitter

by Ann M. Martin

  When we reached the library, the first person we saw was Mrs. Kishi, Claudia’s mother! She’s the head librarian.

  “Hello,” she greeted us, as we entered the children’s section. “What are you two doing here?”

  I explained Jackie’s project to Mrs. Kishi.

  “Hmm,” she said, “let’s look in the science section.”

  Claud’s mom helped us find three books. One was about volcanoes, one was about earth sciences, and the third was a book of science experiments, including a chapter called “How to Make an Erupting Volcano.”

  “Gosh,” said Jackie. “I didn’t think we’d find this. It’s exactly what I need. It has all the directions.”

  “You never know what you’ll find in a library,” said Mrs. Kishi, smiling. Then she left Jackie and me sitting at a table with our books.

  Jackie began to read the exploding-volcano experiment. “You know,” he said, “this doesn’t look so easy. It says you have to make a frame out of wood and glass to put your volcano in. They didn’t do that on The Brady Bunch.”

  “Well, we’re going to,” I informed him. “We’re going to make the best project in your whole school.”

  “But there are words here I don’t understand. The book says you have to get different colored clay to make ig — iggy —”

  “Igneous,” I supplied.

  “Okay. Igneous rocks. And … and metal —”

  “Metamorphic rocks.”

  “And … oh, boy.”

  “Sedimentary rocks.”

  “Whoa,” whispered Jackie. “And then you have to get stuff called, um —”

  Even I had to pause for that one. “I’m not sure what this is,” I said at last.

  “So where are we going to get it?” asked Jackie worriedly.

  “It says you can buy it at a drugstore.”

  Jackie was quiet. He seemed stumped.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked him.

  “On The Brady Bunch they just made a mound of papier-mâché or something and put this goo in and — whoosh! Why do I need to know about rocks? And why do I have to make a glass box? That sounds hard. And expensive. I just spent all my allowance.”

  “First of all,” I replied, “like I said, we’re going to make the best project in the school. I bet the volcano on The Brady Bunch didn’t win a prize, did it?”

  “No,” answered Jackie triumphantly. “It was just for fun.”

  “Oh,” I said. “Well, ours will be special. Plus, I’m sure your parents will help you buy the materials for your project. Now, come on. Sit next to me. I have to learn all about volcanoes first. If you want to win in the science fair, you can’t just make your volcano erupt. You have to tell the judges about volcanoes.”

  Jackie sat next to me while I learned about lava and fire and fountains and ash and gas and some pretty disgusting things. Jackie sat next to me and looked at the volcano experiment with a frown.

  After about twenty minutes, I stood up. “Well,” I said, “I think I’ve got a handle on volcanoes now.”

  “Good,” replied Jackie, “because I don’t.”

  “We’ll check these books out and go home.”

  “Oh,” said Jackie, brightening. “I don’t have my library card.”

  “Never mind. I’ve got mine,” I told him.

  So we checked out the books and walked back to Jackie’s house. When Mrs. Rodowsky returned with Shea and Archie, she found Jackie and me still looking through the books. Well, Jackie was looking (sort of). I was making a list of materials he would need.

  “Jackie’s entering the science fair?” said Mrs. Rodowsky, after I told her what we were doing. She looked both pleased and surprised.

  “Yes,” I said happily.

  “But, Mom, we need clay and glass and some stuff from the drugstore. It might be expensive,” said Jackie.

  “I don’t think it will be too expensive,” said Mrs. R. “Jackie, I’m so proud of you for wanting to work on a project. And, Jessi, thank you for inspiring him. I’m impressed that you convinced him to enter. Listen, would you mind helping Jackie with his project? The two of you seem to know what you’re doing. Maybe you could arrange with the members of the Baby-sitters Club to be our only sitter between now and the science fair. That way you and Jackie will have plenty of time together.”

  “I think that’s possible,” I said. “I’ll have to check with my friends, but I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  “Great!” said Mrs. R.

  I left the Rodowskys’ with a smile on my face. I knew I could help Jackie all the way to a prize.

  It was a peaceful Saturday at Mal’s house. Dawn had arrived to help her baby-sit, Mr. and Mrs. Pike had just left, all of Mal’s brothers and sisters were at home, and nobody was fighting. Not even Nicky and the triplets. Dawn had brought over her Kid-Kit (Mallory’s is no good at her own house, since it’s mostly full of the Pikes’ things), and Claire, Margo, and Vanessa were looking through it. The boys were playing their endless imaginary game about the Wandering Frog People. That has been going on for about two years now, which is one year and 364 days longer than Mal had hoped it would last. At any rate, the triplets were occupied.

  “Look!” said Claire, peering eagerly into Dawn’s Kid-Kit. “It’s the new Skipper doll. Cool! She has sleepover stuff with her.”

  “Here’s a jigsaw puzzle,” said Vanessa. “Ooh, this looks hard.”

  “It is,” Dawn told her, “but I think you’ll like it. When you put it together it’s a poem. It’s the one by Robert Frost about stopping by woods on a snowy evening. And all around the poem are snowflakes.”

  “I’m going to try it,” said Vanessa, immediately dumping the pieces onto the floor. Vanessa loves to read and write poetry.

  Margo looked halfheartedly through the box. She didn’t seem to want to play with anything.

  “Something wrong, Margo?” Mallory asked her. Margo has the world’s weakest stomach. Mallory sincerely hoped it wasn’t upset.

  Margo shook her head. “I’m just thinking,” she replied.

  “About what?” asked Dawn.

  “Well, our school is having a science fair and anyone can enter.”

  “Do you want to enter?” asked Mal. “I entered three times when I was at Stoneybrook Elementary. I’m not great in science, but the fair was a lot of fun anyway.”

  “It was?” said Margo. “Maybe I’ll enter, then. Our teacher said we’ll get extra credit for entering. Will you help me, Mallory?”

  “Sure,” replied Mal. “I mean, I’ll help you, but I won’t do your project for you. Deal?”

  “Deal,” said Margo. She grinned.

  “Do you have any idea what you want to do your project on?” asked Dawn.

  Margo thought for awhile. “No,” she said at last.

  “Well, let’s go upstairs and look at the books in our rooms,” suggested Mallory. “We have some science books.”

  “Maybe we’ll find the Wandering Frog People while we’re at it,” said Dawn, with a little smile.

  Mallory looked up. The boys were gone. That wasn’t much of a surprise, since Wandering Frog People is a very quiet game.

  What was a surprise, though, was finding Nicky and the triplets in their room, poring over a set of encyclopedias.

  “What are you doing?” Mal asked her brothers as she and Margo stopped in the doorway.

  “Looking up frog stuff,” replied Jordan. “Adam says there’s such a thing as an African tree toad, but I don’t believe him.”

  “Don’t we have a book on reptiles somewhere?” asked Mal.

  “And I need to find a book about … about the sky,” said Margo, suddenly inspired. “I want my project to be about constellations or maybe the planets.”

  “What we need is a library,” said Mallory.

  “Hey!” exclaimed Byron. “We could make a library right here in our rooms. Altogether, we have science books; mysteries; your horse stories, Mal; Claire’s picture books; the Hardy Boys and Na
ncy Drew books” (Adam made a face at the mention of Nancy Drew); “Vanessa’s poetry books; Nicky’s dog stories; and all those other books.” (The Pike kids get a lot of books on their birthdays and on holidays. They like to read.)

  “Yeah …” said Nicky slowly. “A real library. Neat.”

  “We could organize it like the public library,” said Jordan, getting excited, too. “And we could really let kids around here borrow our books.”

  “We need a librarian,” said Adam.

  “Vanessa!” cried the others immediately. “Vanessa would be a great librarian. She’s always reading or writing.”

  “But I have to figure out my science-fair project,” said Margo. “How can I do that while you guys are having all the fun making a library?” Margo looked (and sounded) miffed.

  “Easy,” said the ever-practical Byron. “You help us with the library. Then, when it’s all ready, you can go to the science section to work on your project. You can be our first customer.”

  “All right!” cried Margo.

  “Margo, go tell Dawn and Claire and Vanessa to come up here,” said Jordan. “We’ll need everyone to help us.”

  Margo turned and faced the stairs. “DAWN! CLAIRE! VANESSA!” she yelled. “COME HERE!”

  “Margo,” said Mallory, giggling, “Jordan could have done that himself.”

  It wasn’t long before preparations for the library were underway. Mallory and Dawn were amazed at how organized the kids, especially the older ones, were about their project.

  “First,” said Byron, “we have to group the same kinds of books together. We’ve all got science books in our rooms. They should go on the same bookshelf. Margo, you’ve got Bobbsey Twins books; Vanessa, you’ve got Nancy Drews; and Nicky and I both have Hardy Boys. We should put those mystery series in another bookcase.”

  “I think all the animal stories should go together, too,” said Nicky.

  Well, for awhile, the upstairs of the Pike house was a pretty big mess, with the kids carrying books back and forth, in and out of rooms.

  “What are your parents going to say when they get home?” Dawn asked Mal, looking worried.

  “Nothing! They’ll love this!”

  When the books had been organized, the kids divided themselves into four groups. Well, not exactly groups, since one of the groups consisted of just one person. Anyway, Vanessa, the chosen librarian, set up her desk as the checkout counter, and Claire helped her. Byron made signs that read ANIMAL STORIES, MYSTERIES, etc. Jordan and Margo made a huge stack of pockets to tape inside the covers of the books, and Adam and Nicky took index cards, wrote the title of one book on each card, and stuck it in the pocket that Jordan and Margo had just made. It was a real assembly line and took quite a bit of work, but by late that afternoon, the library was ready. The Pike kids looked satisfied.

  Vanessa manned her desk. The others stood in the bedrooms, as library aides, Mallory guessed. And Margo announced, “Here I am! Your first customer. I need to see the science section, please.”

  “Right over here,” said Adam, pulling his sister into the boys’ room. “What are you looking for?”

  “I’m not sure,” replied Margo. “I guess stuff about space.”

  Adam handed Margo several books, she sat down at a desk, began reading, and …

  “Now what?” asked Nicky. “Where are our other customers.”

  “Um, nobody else knows about your library,” Dawn pointed out gently.

  The Pike kids looked wounded, but just for a minute.

  “We’ll advertise!” said Vanessa.

  “Yeah, we’ll make a big sign that says ‘Pike Library’ and put it in the front yard!” exclaimed Jordan.

  So the triplets made the sign, and then they, Nicky, and Claire went from house to house in the neighborhood, telling all their friends about the very local public library. They returned with Matt and Haley Braddock.

  “We’re bored,” said Haley, who’s nine. “We need some new books to read.”

  Actually, Haley didn’t just speak. She spoke and used sign language at the same time, since Matt, who’s seven, is profoundly deaf and can’t speak or hear.

  “Yeah,” signed Matt. “I want a book about baseball.”

  Beaming, Nicky helped the Braddocks find their books. While they were looking, the doorbell rang. Buddy and Suzi Barrett were on the front stoop, also wanting books.

  “This is great!” cried Nicky. “Our library is working!”

  Vanessa was busy at the checkout desk. Whenever a customer found a book, she removed the card from the pocket, wrote on it the name of the person who was checking out the book, and also the day’s date. Then she set the card aside and stuck a Post-it on the book pocket with the due date written on it.

  “Overdue books cost you ten cents a day,” she told each customer, “so bring them back on time.”

  Meanwhile, Margo had decided on her science project. “I am going to make a shadow box,” she said. “It will show what life would be like if the moon was our home planet.”

  “Great!” said Mal.

  When Mr. and Mrs. Pike returned, they were pleased with the Pike Library, but not pleased when Buddy Barrett returned his book during dinner that night. Byron had to add something to the sign in the front yard:

  Dum da-dum dum.

  The dreaded day had arrived.

  Aunt Cecelia was moving in.

  It was the Saturday following the one when the Pike Library opened. And it began early. Daddy and Mama were up at the crack of dawn. So was I. I was in the basement, practicing at the barre Daddy had built for me, and scrutinizing my leg movements in the big mirror. But when I smelled coffee brewing in the kitchen, I went upstairs to see just how the awful day was going to start.

  “She rented a U-Haul,” Daddy was telling Mama as I reached the kitchen. He was scrambling eggs while Mama cut up fruit.

  “A U-Haul!” exclaimed Mama.

  “Well, just a small one,” said Daddy. “She sold some of her things, put a lot of other things in storage, and the rest is moving here with her.”

  “Where’s she going to put it all?” I asked.

  “Good morning, Jessi,” was Mama and Daddy’s reply.

  “’Morning,” I answered. I didn’t say good morning, because it wasn’t.

  “She’s going to put it in the guest room. That will be her room. You know that,” Mama told me.

  “A whole U-Haul’s worth of furniture?” I pressed.

  Daddy gave me a look that plainly said, “Don’t push it.”

  So I didn’t.

  At eight o’clock, Daddy left for Aunt Cecelia’s. He would have to attach the U-Haul to our station wagon and drive it back here while Aunt Cecelia drove her own car. I was awfully glad she had a car. That meant she wouldn’t be stuck in our house day in and day out. As Kristy’s big brother says, “A set of wheels is, like, totally necessary.”

  Daddy was gone a long time.

  “He has to oversee the movers,” Mama explained to Becca and me as we ate lunch (our last meal without Aunt Cecelia). “And hooking the U-Haul to our car may take a little while.”

  Daddy and Aunt Cecelia arrived at our house around two-thirty. Mama, Becca, Squirt, and I were sitting on the front stoop. We were sitting under a banner that read: WELCOME, AUNT CECILIA. Mama had insisted that Becca and I make the banner, so we purposely spelled our aunt’s name wrong. (Mama hadn’t noticed.)

  When the cars and the U-Haul pulled into our driveway, Becca and I just looked at each other. We didn’t even stand up until Mama nudged us and said, “What happened to your manners?”

  So we walked to the driveway, trailing behind Mama.

  Aunt Cecelia got out of her car, kissed us all, and then said, “Rebecca, don’t slouch,” and, “Jessica, please tidy up your hair.”

  What could we say? Becca stands like any normal eight-year-old, and I’d been practicing all morning. Of course my hair was a mess.

  “Well,” said Daddy, sounding a little t
oo cheerful, “let’s get Aunt Cecelia’s things inside.” He opened up the U-Haul. It was packed!

  I almost cried, “Where are we going to put all that stuff?” but I knew better. I just picked up a carton and lugged it inside. Becca did the same.

  After about half an hour, the guest room was overflowing, and there were still two chairs, this dumb bird cage on a stand (no bird in it), a little table, some lamps, a tea cart, and even a small rug in the van. Not to mention more cartons.

  “Mama,” I said urgently, “those things are not going to fit in Aunt Cecelia’s room. You can barely walk around in there now.”

  “I know,” Mama replied. “We’ll find places for them.”

  “That’s right.” Aunt Cecelia had come up behind us. “A place for everything and everything in its place,” she said primly.

  I hadn’t expected those places to be all over our house. We crammed a bunch of things, including the bird cage, into the living room. The small rug was placed over a larger rug in the den. It looked terrible. One of the tables wound up in my room.

  “Mama, why did she bring so much stuff?” Becca whispered when Aunt Cecelia was busy in the guest room. I mean, her room.

  “Because it belongs to her. It’s part of her past,” Mama replied gently. “It reminds her of her life with her husband, and she misses your Uncle Steven very much.”

  For a moment, I felt sorry for Aunt Cecelia. But just for a moment. The next thing I knew, she was handing me two china eggs and asking me to put them in my room because there wasn’t room in hers.

  When she’d gone, I looked around my room. It was changed. It didn’t say “Jessi” anymore. It said “Jessi and some old lady.” Our house didn’t feel like our house anymore, either. Marks of Aunt Cecelia were everywhere.

  Squirt was confused, and I didn’t blame him one bit.

  But Aunt Cecelia, looking at the not-yet-organized house said, “I’ll have things in order in no time.”

  “I hope so,” Mama replied. “I start my job on Monday.”

  Aunt Cecelia kept her word. By that evening, our house was tidy (but crowded), Aunt Cecelia had unpacked and put away all the stuff in her bedroom, and she’d folded the cartons, stacked them, and tied them with string for the trash man to take away on Tuesday.