The Great Museum Mix-Up and Other Surprise Endings

by Deborah Lytton

  If that happened, we might not even get to go on the field trip at all. This makes me realize that I need to say something to the group. “Here’s the thing: I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this with me. It’s really important that I get the chance to see Lavender’s notes in person. But I don’t want anyone to get in trouble.” This kind of trouble is the very worst kind: Trouble with a capital T. This is principal’s office, call your parents kind of trouble. And not one of us has ever been in the principal’s office except for good reasons, like to ask for permission to have a bake sale (but that’s a whole other story). “You can still be seekers with me, so you can be famous and leave school and everything.”

  “I’m going with you,” Siri promises.

  “Me too,” Charlotte adds.

  Jessica nods. “I want to solve the mystery too.”

  “I could be your lookout,” Daisy says in a small voice. “I really don’t want to separate from the class.”

  “But then you won’t be there when we find the last unicorn. Would you mind?” I ask.

  “Not at all,” she says.

  “You’ll still be one of the Unicorn Seekers,” Siri tells her as she throws an arm around Daisy’s shoulder.

  “Good,” she says with a grin. “I want to go to Paris.”

  I nod. “Paris will be the first place we give one of our speeches. Then we can visit Scotland. I think there might still be dragons there. Maybe we can find one.”

  “We’ll be dragon and unicorn seekers,” Charlotte announces in a very un-library voice. I look over at Mrs. S to see if she has noticed. But she is still busy with her chitchat. Now she is even waving her hands in the air for emphasis. It must be a very exciting subject.

  I look around the table at my friends. “We’ll be in two groups then. Siri and I will leave first. Charlotte and Jessica, you two will leave second. Daisy will keep watch. If we can get away during the dinosaurs, then I think we will have until the surprise part, which should be right before lunchtime. I’m thinking the surprise will be either here”—I point to the whale exhibit—“or here.” I show them the butterfly exhibit.

  “I definitely don’t want to miss butterflies,” Siri admits.

  Me either. “We will be sure to make it back for that part.” That reminds me of something. “We probably need a watch. Time can really speed up when you are on an adventure.” I know this from reading lots of books where the main character has to be a hero. Heroes definitely do not pay attention to the clock.

  I lean close to my friends and drop my voice to a whisper. You never know when someone is listening. “Claudia prepared for every situation, and even though we aren’t exactly running away, I think we should be ready. Planning is everything.”

  “I have a tiny flashlight that fits in my pocket,” Jessica offers.

  I nod. “Perfect. Anyone else?”

  Charlotte speaks up next. “I can bring some extra snacks, just in case we don’t get back by lunchtime.”

  “I have a digital camera,” Siri shares. “We might want to take pictures of something we see.”

  “Good thinking,” I say with a grin. My friends are really good seekers. “I’ll bring paper and a pen for taking notes.”

  “Claudia and her brother Jamie brought extra clothes. Maybe you should all wear extra sweatshirts, just in case it’s cold in there.” Daisy wraps her arms around herself as if she is already in the shadows.

  That gets me thinking. What if we do get separated and can’t find our way back? We might have to spend the night in the museum. A whole night there should be enough time to find the secret clues in the exhibit. “If we can’t find our way back to the class, we will have to be prepared to spend the night.”

  Charlotte wrinkles her nose like she has just smelled salami. “Mrs. Sablinsky would notice if four of us were missing. She would worry about us.” Charlotte is a big fan of Mrs. Sablinsky. I always think that’s because she started school in October. I’ve known Mrs. S for two more months than Charlotte. I guess Mrs. S would notice if we were missing, but I’m not so sure she would be worried—I think she would be seriously annoyed. “What if she couldn’t find us? What then?”

  “We’d have more time to look for clues,” Jessica answers with a grin.

  I am in the Natural History Museum with Siri, Jessica, Charlotte, and Daisy. It is late at night and we are all alone in the dark. The animal shapes make giant, monster-sized shadows on the walls. The lions seem to be watching us. Daisy is sure that the hyenas are alive. Jessica shines her flashlight around the room to find us someplace safe to sleep. All we can see are animal teeth. In one of the exhibits, I spot a giant bird nest. We all climb in and cover up with our sweatshirts. The giant bird doesn’t look happy to see us taking over her nest, especially since we use her eggs as pillows.

  I look around at my friends. They need to understand how important our quest has become. This is about more than my book report. It’s about more than Lavender Lakewood’s mystery. “We have to find the missing unicorn. This is to save Siri.”

  “What will we actually do when we get to the Lavender Lakewood exhibit?” Charlotte asks.

  That’s something I have wondered about myself. (Sometimes the hero in the story has to trust her instincts about what to do next.)

  “Claudia and Jamie had to fit clues together to find the real answer about Angel,” I say, thinking out loud. “It was visiting Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler that made all the difference though.”

  “Can we visit Lavender Lakewood?” Jessica asks.

  I shake my head. “She wrote the books in the 1920s. She would be more than one hundred years old if she was still alive.” I really am a math whiz! “And she lived in England.”

  Charlotte leans her head on her arm and sighs. “Then we can’t visit her or even write her a letter.”

  I shake my head. “We will have to figure this out on our own, like Nancy Drew.”

  Nancy always looks carefully at all the clues. The clues hold the answers to the mystery. We can do this—I know we can.

  “Maybe if we shine Jessica’s flashlight on the original notes, the light will reveal a hidden map,” I suggest. My best ideas come from the pages of books I have read. In one story, the hero found a map by shining the light from a candle on a very old letter. The map was drawn with invisible ink.

  “Oh, that’s a really good idea, Ruby.” Jessica’s eyes are bright with excitement.

  “Or maybe there is a code using letters,” Siri offers. “Like one of Mrs. Sablinsky’s math pages.”

  Mrs. Sablinsky loves to give math homework with codes. Here’s how it works: At the top of the page is a riddle. In the middle of the page are division or multiplication problems. Each answer matches a letter and the letters spell the word or words that solve the riddle.

  Who knew math homework could help us find a unicorn?

  “You’re right.” I grin at Siri. “We’re experts at breaking codes.”

  Daisy leans in close. “If we could see the original notes, maybe we could find the answer there.”

  I fold up the map and put it back into my pocket before Mrs. Xia or Mrs. Sablinsky notices. Explaining why we have a map of the Natural History Museum would not be easy.

  I look around at the Unicorns and I know I couldn’t ask for better or smarter friends. We’re ready. Now all we have to do is wait until Thursday and hope none of us get the stomach flu and have to miss the field trip.

  Chapter 11

  The One and Only Great Museum Escape

  The week is maybe the fastest week of my entire life because before I know it, Thursday morning has arrived.

  I have read both of Lavender’s books and written most of my report. The good thing about looking for clues to the location of the last unicorn is that everything I’ve learned can go into my paper. When you really know your subject, it’s easy
to write about it. I am a teensy bit nervous though—not about escaping from the field trip. I’m nervous that I will finally be looking at the real research, and I won’t be able to solve the mystery.

  I may have read a lot of mysteries, but I am not a real sleuth, no matter how much I wish I were.

  We line up in front of the bus. The class is super-loud because we are all excited. I can only compare it to the volume dial on Dad’s car radio. It seems like someone has turned the volume up as high as it can go on the students of Room 15.

  For some reason, we stand in line for a really, really long time. Mrs. Sablinsky is talking to one of the other fifth grade teachers and the parent chaperones. Will P’s mother is the chaperone for our class. It was supposed to be a random selection, but I’m sure that Will being Mrs. Sablinsky’s favorite student of all time probably had a lot to do with it.

  I wish Mrs. Sablinsky would hurry up and let us get onto the bus. The sooner we arrive, the sooner we can escape.

  Siri and I both have our lunches in paper tote bags. Charlotte, Jessica, and Daisy have old-school paper sacks.

  “Do you have the flashlight?” I whisper to Jessica.

  She nods and points to her belt loop. There on a key chain hangs a little blue flashlight.

  “Did you bring the pen and paper?” Charlotte asks me. I unzip my sweatshirt to show my friends my shirt with a pocket. Inside the pocket, I have a small pen and two folded sheets of paper.

  Charlotte grins. “That’s good thinking.” Then she points to her dress pockets. “I brought five granola bars and three fruit strips. That’s all I could fit in here.”

  Siri rolls back her sweater sleeve. There, she has the digital camera strap around her wrist.

  “Where’s the camera?” Daisy wants to know. I can’t see it either.

  “Right here,” Siri announces. Then she shows us that she has tucked the camera inside her sleeve.

  “It’s much smaller than I expected.” I have never seen such a tiny digital camera.

  “I know, right?” Siri is beaming like she invented the camera herself. I can’t help but smile with her. It’s actually pretty great to see her happy. “And it takes amazing pictures.”

  All of a sudden, I think I understand how my mom feels when she looks at me and my brothers. Because I am really proud of my friends. We might actually be able to escape after all.

  “I have the map in my shoe,” I share in a whisper. “It seemed safer than in my pocket. I’ll take it out once we get there.”

  Just then, Mrs. Sablinsky walks to the front of our line. Finally!

  “You will be split into two groups,” she tells us. “One group will be with me and one group will be with Mrs. Pasternak.” She points to Will’s mom. “I will assign your group once we arrive at the museum.”

  “I hope we’re with Mrs. Pasternak,” Siri whispers. “It will be a lot easier to escape from someone who doesn’t know us.”

  I nod. “That’s true.” I hold up my crossed fingers. (Crossing your fingers might not really bring good luck, but we can use all the help we can get today.) “Just remember not to talk about the Great Escape once we are on the bus.”

  I think about what Mrs. S just said. I didn’t realize our class would be split into groups. What if my friends and I are separated? Then we might not be in the dinosaur exhibit at the same time. If we aren’t there at the same time, we won’t be able to escape together. Then our plan can’t possibly work. I don’t have time to talk to the other Unicorns though, because the line moves forward. We are actually getting on the bus.

  Siri asked Charlotte to be seat partners during the Shun, so I am still facing the ride partnerless. My friends are ahead of me, and they are already in their seats when I climb up the three stairs into the bus. For someone who has been partnerless on a bus ride, this will be nothing unexpected. For someone who hasn’t been partnerless on a bus ride, it’s like this: everywhere you look, people are in pairs. The pairs are staring like they know you are partnerless. The back of your neck begins to heat up, and your mouth gets dry. You just want to sit down, but you don’t know where to go. It’s awful.

  I slide into the first empty seat I can find, which is in front of Jessica and Daisy and across from Siri and Charlotte. It’s a supergood thing we decided not to talk about the Great Escape on the bus, since guess who decides to sit with me. Mrs. Sablinsky! I never would have predicted that!

  On the bus, my friends talk and laugh. They play guessing games. In other words, they have a great time. But I just sit there because I can’t think of one single thing to say to my teacher besides telling her that I can’t wait to get there (which I say twice). A bus ride is not nearly as much fun when you aren’t sitting next to a friend. Also, it seems to go on forever. It’s like that baby song about bus wheels that keep going around and around. This bus ride just keeps going and going. Are we driving to New York?

  Then, the worst thing ever happens: the thing I never could have predicted. And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I get… bus sick.

  For those of you who have never experienced this horrific state, congratulations. You are very lucky. For the rest of us, it’s that queasy, headachy, want-to-go-to-sleep state that lasts for hours.

  By the time we reach the front of the Natural History Museum, I am sure my skin is the color of a gecko. I actually think my tongue might even be sweating. In other words, I am completely and totally miserable.

  How in the world am I going to execute our grand adventure like this?

  That’s when the unexpected happens: Mrs. Sablinsky notices. Well, of course she notices. I am greener than the Wicked Witch of the West.

  “Ruby, did you get motion sick?”

  It is nearly impossible to speak in this condition, partly because the bumpy bump of the bus is still pounding in my head and partly because, if I open my mouth, my breakfast might be coming back out.

  “Try this.” She gives me a little lemon candy and a bottle of water. I eat the candy and surprise! It actually helps. She hands me a second one. “It’s one of my tricks. My sister gets terrible motion sickness, so I’m always prepared.”

  Mrs. S has a sister. Who knew?

  I stand there gulping fresh air and hoping my plan will still work as my teacher begins to lead the class through the doors of the museum. The Unicorns stay together near the back of the group. If our plan is going to work, the two twosomes need to be in the same group.

  Once we step through the doors, I check the surroundings. My map is exactly right. The calculations leave us escaping while the class is in the dinosaur exhibit. Then, we will rejoin at the whale exhibit or butterfly pavilion. (I have to admit that I hope we make it back in time for butterflies. I have always wanted to be in one of those enclosures with all the colorful wings floating around me.)

  Mrs. Sablinsky passes out little, orange stickers for all of us. I put the sticker on my sweatshirt. Then she holds up her class roster. “Please listen for your name. I will be calling out group one first. You will be with Mrs. Pasternak.”

  Mrs. Pasternak stands over to the side with a wide smile on her face. She looks a lot like Will, except that her glasses are blue instead of red. Also, she doesn’t have on funny socks.

  I hear my teacher call out a lot of names: “Will B, Bryden, Jason, Will P.” But I don’t hear my name or my friends’ names. This is a good thing because we are all in the same group. It’s a bad thing because…

  “If I haven’t read your name, you will be in my group.”

  We’re with Mrs. Sablinsky. Escaping from our teacher’s group will be way more complicated than escaping from Will P’s mom. But it will have to be done.

  “No turning back now,” I whisper to my friends as we gather together in front of Mrs. Sablinsky.

  A young man dressed in a tan explorer’s outfit joins us. “Hi, everyone. I’m Joe, and I w
ill be guiding you through the Natural History Museum today. First, we will be traveling to Africa to see the land mammals. Everyone ready to start on the journey?”

  Exactly as I predicted, we head to the mammal hall first. The giant sign reads AFRICA and shows where different animals can be found there. Once we pass the sign, I see that the entire room is filled with glass cases with animals inside. There is something super-creepy about them. I think they might be real dead animals that someone stuffed.

  “Here you will find the predators and prey animals from Africa.” Joe keeps talking, but I don’t hear him. I am too busy looking at the ginormous lion. Are they really that big? The lion faces three zebras like it is going to pounce on them any second. For a minute, I forget that it isn’t alive. Daisy grabs my arm and points to the hyenas, which are watching us like they can read our minds.

  “They’re staring at me!” Daisy whispers.

  “They probably wish they could get out of here. Don’t look at them,” I advise her, and I do the same. We hurry to catch up to our friends, who are touching different animal bones. Siri tries to pass one to me. I shake my head. I’m ready to leave this area and get on with our escape. Siri doesn’t realize that I don’t want it, so she hands it to me. Only I don’t know she is handing it to me, which is a really long way of saying: I drop the animal bone. Or rather, Siri drops it. But it seems like I have dropped it.

  When you drop something at school, like a pencil or a book, it doesn’t make a noticeable sound. Also, the classroom is usually pretty noisy. When you drop something at a museum, now, that is a whole different story. The bone clangs onto the marble floor and echoes in the room full of dead animals. Every head snaps in my direction. My teacher pinches her lips together in her “I am not happy, not at all” face. Meanwhile, my face has turned flaming red. I can’t see my face of course, because there aren’t any mirrors in the African savannah. But I know it’s red because it gets superhot like I’ve been running the mile on a May afternoon.

  “Sorry,” I whisper. I lean over to pick up the bone, but Joe gets there faster.