Taffy Sinclair 006 - Taffy Sinclair, Baby Ashley, and Me

by Betsy Haynes

  "It's a baby!" cried Mrs. Lockwood in her high-pitched voice. "Someone abandoned her right here, on the front steps of the school."

  "She looks okay to me," said Mr. Rollins reassuringly.

  "There's a note pinned to the front of her blanket," said Mrs. Gray. "It says her first name is Ashley, but it doesn't say whose baby she is or who left her here."

  "Or where she came from," Mrs. Lockwood chimed in.

  "We could have told Mrs. Winchell that," I grumbled.

  Taffy nodded, and one of her real tears rolled down her cheek. "They don't even care that WE found her," she whispered. "I'll bet they've forgotten that we're even here."

  Mrs. Winchell took Ashley out of the basket and cradled her against one shoulder. "She seems to be just fine. But who found her and brought her into the office?" Mrs. Winchell glanced around, spotting Taffy and me for the first time. "Was it you, girls?" she asked in amazement.

  "Yes, Mrs. Winchell," I blurted before Mrs. Lockwood could get a word in. "We found her! Out on the front steps! Just a little while ago! Isn't she beautiful?"

  "We were on our way to the office, and Jana heard her crying and thought it was a kitten," added Taffy. "Then I looked out the glass doors and saw the basket."

  Mrs. Winchell's face lit up. "Goodness. You girls are heroes. Come into my office while I call the police and report this. I'm sure they'll want to thank you, too, and probably ask you a few questions."

  Taffy and I stuck our noses into the air and sailed right past the three grown-ups. Ashley peered over Mrs. Winchell's shoulder at us, grinning like a dopey clown. I loved that baby so much I thought my heart was going to burst.

  "Relax, girls, and have a seat." Mrs. Winchell smiled kindly at us as she carried Ashley to her desk. "I know this has been a very exciting morning for you."

  Taffy and I both nodded and exchanged grins. She could say that again, I thought. It was the most exciting morning of my life. A real, live baby abandoned on the front steps of the school, and Taffy and I had been the ones who found her.

  Mrs. Winchell reached for the telephone, and Ashley immediately grabbed the phone cord. "Uh-oh," Mrs. Winchell said with a laugh. "It looks as if I need some help. Here, Taffy, will you hold the baby while I phone the authorities?"

  Taffy had reached for Ashley even before Mrs. Winchell stopped speaking. I knew that Taffy was sitting closer to her than I was and that it was easier to hand Ashley to her, but I felt as if someone had just stabbed me in the heart. Taffy had a smug expression on her face as she bounced Ashley on her lap. She's my baby, too! I wanted to shout.

  Mrs. Winchell had taken Ashley back again when the police arrived a little while later. There were two officers, a man and a woman, and they smiled politely and introduced themselves when they came into Mrs. Winchell's office.

  "Hello, I'm Officer Frost and this is my partner, Officer Martin," the man said.

  Mrs. Winchell rose, introduced herself, and then gestured toward Taffy and me. "These are the young ladies who found the baby, Taffy Sinclair and Jana Morgan, and, of course, this is the little girl herself." The officers looked at us and nodded. "The girls behaved very responsibly by bringing her straight to us in the office."

  I couldn't help but feel proud, and I could see that both officers were impressed.

  Officer Martin opened a notebook and sat on the corner of Mrs. Winchell's desk, facing Taffy and me. "I'll bet it was pretty exciting finding such a cute little baby, wasn't it?" she asked in a friendly voice.

  "It sure was," I volunteered. "Her name is Ashley. It's written on a note that is pinned to the front of her blanket."

  Officer Martin smiled and wrote something into her notebook, probably Ashley's name. "Okay. Now tell me, which one of you girls actually found Ashley?"

  Taffy Sinclair jumped straight out of her chair. "I did!" she said excitedly. "I looked out the glass doors and saw the basket right there on the step."

  "But you wouldn't have even looked if I hadn't heard her crying," I interjected. Leave it to Taffy Sinclair to try to take all the credit.

  Taffy giggled. "But YOU thought it was a kitten that had accidentally gotten into the school building. You never even thought to look outside."

  I started to yell at Taffy that she never would have looked outside if I hadn't made her stop and listen for a kitten, but the officer was talking again.

  "So, Taffy, since you were the one who actually went outside and got the basket and brought it inside the building, tell me something. Did you see anyone suspicious near the school? Or anyone running away? Think hard, please. This is important. It could give us the clue we need to find the person who left her here."

  Taffy got a stricken look on her face. "I . . . I was only looking at Ashley," she confessed. "I didn't think about looking around."

  I knew I was the one with a smug look on my face this time, but I couldn't help it. So Taffy Sinclair had missed something important, huh? That's what she got for being such a show-off. But deep inside I couldn't help wondering if there had been someone hanging around outside, watching. Ashley's mother, maybe. I hadn't thought about Ashley's mother before. She was our baby, and when we found her it had seemed as if she had just been born that very minute. I looked at Taffy. Her face was red and there was another real tear on her cheek.

  "I didn't see anyone, either," I offered.

  "That's okay, girls," said Officer Martin. "I can understand why you didn't think about looking around. There are other things we can do to try to identify and find her parents."

  "Like what?" I couldn't imagine how they could do a thing like that with someone as small as baby Ashley. She couldn't even talk yet.

  "We'll check her footprints against the ones the local hospitals keep on file for the babies born there. If that's no help, we'll check the birth certificates, looking for a little girl born around the time she was. Things like that. We're just glad you found her and took such good care of her. "

  Officer Frost had brought Ashley's basket into Mrs. Winchell's office, and now Officer Martin was taking Ashley from Mrs. Winchell and tucking her inside the blanket.

  "What are you going to do?" blurted Taffy.

  "We're going to take her down to the station," said Officer Frost.

  "And put her in jail?" I cried.

  "No, no," he said. "We'll turn her over to our juvenile division, and they'll find a family to take care of her until we find out who she is and where she belongs. She's going to be fine. She's not going to jail."

  My heart almost leaped out of my chest. "She could stay at my house," I said. "My mom loves babies. We would take really good care of her. Please?"

  "Or my house," said Taffy. "I'd love to keep her at my house, and my mom loves babies, too."

  Officer Frost shook his head and smiled kindly. "I'm sure you would both be good mothers to Ashley. You've already demonstrated that. But she will have to go to a regular foster home that has already been approved for cases like this. That's the law."

  I fought back tears as I watched the two officers prepare to take Ashley away. They were taking our baby. It wasn't fair. We had found her, and we could tell that she loved us as much as we loved her.

  "I'm sure arrangements can be made for you girls to visit Ashley," said Officer Martin. "From the way she smiles at you, I'm sure she'll be glad to see you."

  "Really?" I said as my spirits soared again. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all if they would let us visit her.

  Just then there was a knock on the door. We all looked around as a man with a big smile on his face and a camera in his hand stuck his head into the office.

  "Hi. Glad I caught you before you took the baby. I'm Herb Little from the Bridgeport Post. I just heard about the abandoned baby and the two girls who found her on my police scanner. Mind if I get a picture of the three of them for tonight's paper?"

  Taffy and I gasped in unison and looked at each other. Big grins spread across our faces. We were going to have our picture in the paper. To
night.

  "Of course not," said Mrs. Winchell, after she had checked his credentials. "Come on in. And, girls. Let's put your chairs together so that you can hold Ashley between you."

  There was a flurry of activity as the photographer got us posed. Ashley smiled through it all, looking up at us as if to say that she was having the time of her life.

  We were almost ready when I remembered something critical. "Taffy," I whispered. "Will you do me a huge favor?"

  She shrugged. "Sure. What is it?"

  "Trade sides with me."

  We traded and then smiled while Herb Little took about a jillion shots. Maybe everything was going to work out okay, after all. We would get to visit Ashley, we would have our picture in tonight's Bridgeport Post, and because Taffy switched sides with me, nobody would be able to see the huge hole in my hair and my left ear sticking out.

  Mr. Little asked us a lot of questions for the article he would write to go with the picture, and, as usual, I had to keep butting in so that Taffy Sinclair didn't take all the credit for finding Ashley. Mrs. Lockwood and the two teachers came into Mrs. Winchell's office and were making cooing noises at Ashley and talking to the police officers and Mr. Little until he left. It was almost like a party for a while. But then, just when things were really getting fun, officers Frost and Martin picked up Ashley, said a quick good-bye, and were gone.

  The room got deathly still, and everybody turned and looked at Taffy Sinclair and me, but all I could do was stare at the spot on the desk where Ashley's basket had been sitting until just a moment ago. Suddenly I knew that I was going to cry. I couldn't hold back the tears, and neither could Taffy. Mrs. Lockwood, Mrs. Gray, and Mr. Rollins all looked embarrassed and left the room as fast as they could. I was glad. I don't like it when people see me cry.

  "Here, girls," Mrs. Winchell said gently, handing each of us a tissue. "It's perfectly all right to be sad." Then she left her office, telling us to sit there until we were feeling better.

  We didn't talk. We didn't even look at each other. I don't know about Taffy, but I couldn't think about anything but Ashley. Her beautiful smile. Her twinkly eyes. And the way she had pulled on my finger, trying to get it into her mouth. But it had all happened so fast, and now she was gone.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  News about our finding an abandoned baby on the front steps traveled around school faster than if it had been gossip. Taffy and I were instant celebrities. And when she heard about Ashley, Wiggins didn't even ask us about the math assignment we were supposed to have done in the detention room. On the playground at recess kids swarmed around us asking questions until we almost couldn't get our breath.

  Randy and his friends were shooting baskets and yelling and laughing over by the backboard. I couldn't help noticing that he looked my way several times, and I tried to keep my good side toward him. The one where my hair covered my ear. Once he even missed a rebound because he was looking at me instead of the ball. I smiled to myself and wondered what he was thinking. Did he think that I was a kind and sensitive person for rescuing a tiny, abandoned baby? I certainly hoped so. That would prove to him how much we have in common since he is the most kind and sensitive person I know.

  Finally, Beth Barry grabbed me by my coat sleeve and dragged me away from the crowd. Beth is one of my four best friends. The other three are Christie Winchell, Katie Shannon, and Melanie Edwards. We are such good friends that we have a self-improvement club called The Fabulous Five. In the beginning we formed the club to be against Taffy Sinclair. Now we have weekly meetings to try to find ways to become the most gorgeous and most popular girls in Mark Twain Elementary. We even saved our club dues and had blue T-shirts made that say The Fabulous Five across the front in white letters, and we wear them to our meetings.

  "Come on, Jana. Tell us exactly what happened," Beth said as she pulled me toward a spot by the fence where The Fabulous Five usually congregates when we want to talk about something private. My other friends were standing there, waiting impatiently to hear my story.

  It had to be at least the millionth time I had told it, but I went through the whole thing again about how I had thought I heard a kitten crying and then Taffy looked out the glass doors and saw the basket that she brought inside the building. It was almost getting boring, except that every time I thought about Ashley and how sweet and precious she was, I got shivery all over.

  "Oh, Jana. I'd give anything if something like that would happen to me," said Melanie in a dreamy voice. "It must have been wonderful." Melanie had a look of rapture on her face which isn't unusual. She's a very romantic person.

  "But why did Taffy Sinclair, of all people, have to be the one with you?" Christie said. "Couldn't you have just died when she got some of the credit for finding Ashley?"

  "If I had been you, I would have grabbed Ashley away from Taffy and run somewhere where she couldn't find me," said Beth. "She always thinks she's so smart! That would have shown her a thing or two."

  I shrugged, but I didn't say anything. My friends were right in a way. Taffy Sinclair and I have been enemies forever. Terrible enemies. But it had been different when Taffy and I were all alone in the hallway with Ashley. It was almost as if we weren't enemies anymore because we were sharing something special. Something wonderful. Still, I didn't really understand it myself, so how could I ever explain it to my friends?

  "Well, anyway we're going to have our picture in the Bridgeport Post tonight," I said proudly. "And you'll get to see Ashley. Taffy and I held her between us while the photographer took the picture. She's the most beautiful baby in the world."

  "I wonder how anyone could just abandon her like that," Melanie said. "She must have a terrible mother."

  "Maybe she is sick or on drugs or something and can't take care of her," Katie offered.

  "Then why didn't she give Ashley to somebody instead of leaving her out in the cold weather in a basket?" Beth demanded. "She could have frozen to death."

  Fortunately, just then the bell rang, ending recess. I didn't want to talk about Ashley's mother and why she had left her baby in a basket on the front steps of the school. I had been trying to keep those thoughts from creeping into my mind ever since Taffy and I found Ashley this morning. They made me uncomfortable and more scared than ever about what was going to happen to her.

  At lunchtime, Taffy and I were the stars of the cafeteria. Even though we didn't sit at the same table, I could see that she was getting the same kind of attention I was. Even little first-graders were coming up to me and asking things like, "Did you have to change the baby's diaper?" or "Did she cry until you picked her up the way my baby brother does?" A few kids looked at me sort of funny. I didn't understand why until one of them asked, "Did the baby pull out a handful of your hair?" I thought I'd die, and from then on I tried to lean on my left elbow and casually cover the hole in my hair with my hand.

  A couple of times when I looked at Taffy, she was looking back, and we smiled at each other. It felt a little weird to be smiling at Taffy Sinclair, but when I looked at her I couldn't help thinking about the two of us holding baby Ashley, and I had to smile at her. Fortunately the rest of The Fabulous Five didn't notice. They would have had a fit.

  It was fun being a celebrity, and the rest of the day went by pretty fast. I hated for it to end, so I wasn't in any rush to get home and sort of poked along. The minute I opened our apartment door the telephone started ringing. Maybe it was Herb Little from the Bridgeport Post and he wanted to interview me some more, I thought as I pitched my books on the sofa and dove for the phone.

  It wasn't. It was Mom.

  "I'm so glad you're home. I just saw your picture in this evening's edition. Everyone here at the paper is talking about what you girls did. Honey, I'm so proud of you!"

  Mom is classified ad manager at the Bridgeport Post, so naturally she and the other people who work there see the paper before it's delivered to anyone else. I could tell by the sound of her voice that she really meant it when she said
she was proud of me, and I had to clear the lump out of my throat before I could answer her.

  "Gosh, Mom. You should have seen Ashley. She's the most beautiful baby in the world. And she really loves Taffy and me. She smiled at us all the time, and she tried to put my finger into her mouth until I gave her a bottle."

  "She looks beautiful in the picture," Mom assured me. "And there's an article about how you girls found her on the front steps. I'm going to bring home some extra copies so that we can send one to Grandma and to Aunt Carolyn in Ohio, and you can even send one to your father if you want to."

  My parents have been divorced since I was three, and my father lives in Poughkeepsie, New York. The mention of him made my heart skip a beat, and I was so busy thinking about how proud he would feel when he read the article and saw my picture that I wasn't prepared for what Mom said next.

  "That reminds me, Pink is coming over for dinner tonight to celebrate our decision to get married. Isn't it wonderful, sweetheart? Now we have two things to celebrate."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  After we hung up I sat down on the sofa and stared at the phone. How could Mom do this to me? Finding Ashley had made this the most wonderful day of my life, and now she was spoiling it. I didn't want to celebrate Mom and Pink's getting married. It isn't that I don't like Pink. I like him a lot. He's a printer at the newspaper where Mom works, and they've been dating for ages. But why couldn't things just stay the way they are? Pink is an absolute bowling nut, and he has tons of trophies. He could still take Mom bowling every Saturday night, the way he does now, and bring me a deep-dish pepperoni, green pepper, and mushroom pizza before they went out. That would be fine. But even though I had told Mom that I thought it would be great for her and Pink to get married someday, I hadn't meant right now!

  I was also thinking about my father. I could hardly wait for him to see my picture in the paper. I knew that he would be superproud of me. He would probably call me long-distance to congratulate me or even come to see me. The idea excited me so much that I got an envelope out of the drawer where Mom keeps stationery, pencils, rubber bands, and stuff, and addressed it to him. I would mail it on my way to school in the morning. Just then Mom got home. She came into the apartment, waving the newspaper and grinning like crazy.