Worst Enemies/Best Friends

by Annie Bryant

  Mrs. Fields comforted her just like she had comforted me and probably hundreds of other kids through the years. “It’s quite all right, Sapphire,” she said firmly. “You’ll see. The good times are coming back. I can feel it.”

  Miss Pierce smiled through her tears. “I do hope that’s true, Ruby,” she said. “I did think maybe there were possibilities six weeks ago when the trap door bell rang on a Saturday night.”

  I gasped. I knew that bell in the vent was attached somewhere. That meant she’d heard us every time we opened the Tower!

  “Don’t worry,” said Miss Pierce. “I was so relieved you had found some friends. I liked knowing that children were using the Tower again. And I loved peeking around the porch to see all you girls. But I am curious. How did you discover the switch?”

  I answered, “Well, that’s a long story.

  “Um, Miss Pierce, there is something else I need to tell you,” I stammered.

  “Yes, I’m all ears.” She smiled warmly at me. That gave me confidence to go on.

  “Uh, I snuck a dog into your house. It wasn’t my idea. It was Avery’s, but I went along with it and hid Marty up there and I’m really, really sorry. I know we aren’t allowed to have pets. Dad’s taking him to the shelter today.”

  Miss Pierce laughed hoarsely from somewhere deep in her throat—the same laugh I’d heard on the porch just two mornings before. “Oh, Ruby, I wish you could have seen it. I happened to be putting out my grocery list for Yuri when I caught this poor child trying to wrestle a wiggly, gray-and-white mutt into a dress.”

  “You know about Marty?” I asked.

  “Well, yes,” she said. “We became acquainted the morning I went upstairs to readjust the digital camera on the telescope. Someone had aimed it.”

  Digital camera? Miss Pierce in the Tower? Marty and Miss Pierce? My mind was racing. “There’s a d-d-digital camera on the telescope?” I stammered in excitement.

  “Yes,” she said. “I’ve retired from serious research but there’s nothing to stop a retired astronomer from trying to discover a new star,” she said. “I record pictures every night and study them here on my computer.” She led us over to the monitor and brought up an image of the treetops and sky above the house.

  “Wow! Where’s the digital camera?” I asked.

  “You can’t see it,” said Miss Pierce. “It’s built into the telescope and wireless. I’ve programmed it to take photos every night.”

  “Every night?” I asked. Suddenly, an embarrassing thought crossed my mind.

  “Yes, every night.”

  “Then you saw…”

  Miss Pierce walked over to one of her computers and clicked on a folder labeled “October 12.” Instantly, the screen filled with pictures of Maeve and Nick at Montoya’s.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  Miss Pierce laughed. “No matter. It was highly entertaining.”

  So far, she hadn’t said anything about kicking us out of her house. I was so relieved I almost started crying. “Miss Pierce, thank you for understanding. Thank you for letting us stay. Thank you for not being too mad about Marty.”

  “You’re welcome, dear. Have you tried to find his owners?”

  I nodded. “Avery put up posters everywhere. She even put a notice on the town website. He had a rabies tag, but it was from New Hampshire and nobody could find the owners. Their phone number was disconnected and there was no forwarding address.

  “How sad,” said Miss Pierce. “I’ve never really been a dog person.”

  “Me neither,” I said.

  “But I’ve gotten sort of attached to Marty.”

  “I know what you mean. Marty is so cute and he is the best snuggler. Sometimes he sleeps under the covers with me and…” I stopped in mid-sentence. I knew I was beginning to ramble.

  “If it hadn’t been for that little dog we might not have met today,” she continued.

  “That’s true,” I said.

  “Charlotte, I don’t want this house to be silent anymore,” said Miss Pierce. “If your father says it’s all right, you can keep Marty. And you girls can use the Tower.”

  “Really?” I shouted. “Do you mean it? Oh, thank you, Miss Pierce.” I jumped up from the table and was about to hug her. But I could see she wasn’t ready for that yet. Maybe later.

  “Marty won’t be any trouble. I promise. Thank you so much. I can’t wait to tell Avery! I can’t wait to tell Dad. I want Dad to meet you!” I was so excited I couldn’t stop talking. I had so many more questions to ask about things like the key and the parchment. But Miss Pierce was looking a little tired.

  “Sapphire…welcome back,” said Mrs. Fields, her voice catching. She turned to me. “Charlotte, it’s been a big day for all of us, but mostly, I think, for Sapphire. I’ll come back another day and chat about old times. Charlotte, no doubt you have plans to make?”

  “I sure do! Thank you, Miss Pierce. It’s so nice to meet you. I promise you won’t be sorry I moved in.”

  Miss Pierce looked at me and smiled…really smiled. “I don’t believe I will, Charlotte.”

  I couldn’t wait to tell the girls that Marty and the Tower were ours forever. But I wanted to tell them in a way they’d always remember.

  CHAPTER 33

  KATANI

  Breaking the News

  My grandmother sang to soft-rock the whole way to Charlotte’s. Not only was that incredibly embarrassing, but couldn’t she see what a tragedy all of this was? Frankly, I was getting really annoyed with her. When we picked up Avery and Maeve, she chatted with them as if we were going to a party. None of us said a word…not even Maeve. Avery didn’t want to be there at all. Even for someone who isn’t afraid to stop the hardest kick or snowboard the steepest slope, facing the Tower without Marty was too tough.

  “Don’t go anywhere, Grandma Ruby. We’re gonna move our things out as fast as we can.”

  “Without running into Charlotte, if possible,” added Maeve.

  A note on the door said:

  “Hmmph,” I snorted.

  Sounding depressed, Maeve asked, “Couldn’t we just go home?”

  Grandma Ruby told us to “Be brave” and that she would wait for us.

  There wasn’t a sound as we headed toward the trap door.

  “Let me handle this,” I said to the others.

  What was that girl up to? I stuck my head through the trap door.

  “SURPRISE!” shouted Charlotte.

  At the top of the stairs stood Charlotte and Marty. All four windows sparkled but it wasn’t just from the late afternoon sun. Charlotte had strung twinkly lights on each window, spelling our names. The Tower looked so beautiful. I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t even speak.

  CHAPTER 34

  AVERY

  Reunited

  That mischievous, furry, gray-and-white face peeked over the side before I even got to the top of the stairs.

  “MARTY! YOU’RE STILL HERE!” He jumped into my arms, licking my face, and barking like a maniac. “What’s going on, Charlotte? I thought you were bringing him to the shelter. Do we get to keep him? Do we? Do we? Do we?”

  I’ll never forget what she answered as long as I live. “He’s ours forever, Avery. Marty’s here to stay.”

  CHAPTER 35

  MAEVE

  Our Names in Lights

  There are three things I’ve always dreamed of: a surprise party, a candlelight dinner with roses on the table, and my name in lights. That day, Ms. Charlotte Elizabeth Ramsey, world traveler and BSG forever, made all three dreams come true. I was the last to reach the Tower. By the time I made it up the stairs, Avery was being licked by Marty. And Katani, who had recovered from her momentary attack of speechlessness, was firing a million questions at Charlotte. The scene in the Tower took my breath away. A table covered with a white lace tablecloth was set with crystal bowls of chocolate mousse, which tasted delicious. The centerpiece was divine: gardenias and white roses, my absolute favorite.

  And the wind
ows! I don’t know how she did it. Hundreds of little lights spelled out our names. Mine was so bright, I was sure everyone west of Summit Avenue would see it. Maybe even Billy Trentini, who is definitely hot!

  CHAPTER 36

  CHARLOTTE

  The Return of the BSG

  The girls wanted to know everything. Katani sat me down in the Lime Swivel, and paced around me, asking questions like a television interviewer.

  First, I apologized for lying. “If I had just told the truth in the first place, we could have met Miss Pierce and asked to use the Tower so much sooner!” I said. “And then none of this horrible stuff would have happened and we wouldn’t have had to sneak around. I promise I’ll never lie to you guys again. I just wanted to keep everybody happy, and the lie kept getting worse and worse.”

  Katani nodded her head wisely, then said, “The truth is always the simplest way, Charlotte.”

  Just what her wonderful grandmother had said, but I didn’t let on. I was so happy to be back sitting in the Lime Swivel surrounded by my new best friends, I didn’t care how many times I got the same good advice.

  “I understand,” said Maeve. “The first time I had to leave the class for untimed standardized testing, I told the kids my mother was taking me to meet Madonna.”

  “Honestly, Maeve,” said Katani, with her hands on her hips, while Avery and I giggled.

  “The next day everyone was asking for her autograph so I had to sneak and write a bunch of them at recess,” Maeve continued.

  “Did they believe you?” Avery asked.

  “They might have if I hadn’t spelled her name ‘Madnona.’”

  When we stopped laughing, Avery stood up with Marty and said, “After long and careful deliberation, Charlotte, we forgive you.” She held Marty toward the chair to give me a doggy kiss.

  “Yuck!” I shouted. “Dog slime!”

  “What’s the old lady who owns the house like?” asked Katani. “Why didn’t she ever come out?”

  “Is it true she was abandoned at the altar?” asked Maeve.

  “No. But I think she did have her feelings hurt a lot when she was a kid for being an ‘other.’ After her parents died, she holed up in the back of the house and rented the second floor to help support herself. She’s an astronomer. She’d just rather deal with the stars than with people. She’s very, very shy.”

  Katani nodded in sympathy.

  “I felt that way,” she said, “when I first noticed kids teasing Kelley. I told Grandma I didn’t want to go to school anymore if people were so mean. She gave me such a lecture about how we need to fix our surroundings instead of running away from them. You know my grandmother; I never dared complain again.”

  “Would you like to meet her?” I asked the girls.

  When we walked into the back pantry, Mrs. Fields and Miss Pierce were sipping tea together as naturally as if they did it every night.

  Katani looked completely confused.

  Mrs. Fields was laughing as she stood up to give Katani a hug. “Sapphire, I’d like you to meet my granddaughter.”

  “How do you do!” said Miss Pierce, reaching out her hand.

  “Katani, this is my best friend from childhood, Sapphire Pierce.”

  For once, the ever-cool Katani lost it. “You know each other?…No way!”

  Miss Pierce’s green eyes sparkled. “We’ve been friends more than fifty years,” she said.

  “Then how come I never met you?” Katani sputtered.

  Miss Pierce’s smile faded.

  Mrs. Fields coughed and began an explanation but was interrupted.

  “It’s a long story, Katani,” Miss Pierce said in a semi-whisper. “I moved to California for college. Your grandmother was always wonderful about keeping in touch. I wasn’t. After a while I stopped writing. When I moved back here twenty years later, it felt too late. And being a shy person, I didn’t reach out to the most loyal friend I ever had.” She looked a bit sad…maybe for all the lost years.

  “I know what that’s like,” I said. “You think you’re going to stay in touch forever but you don’t.”

  “The important thing is, girls,” said Mrs. Fields, “Sapphire and I are back in touch. And we’re not going to lose track of each other ever again.”

  Miss Pierce’s shy smile warmed us all.

  “Grandma,” asked Katani, “did you come to this house when you were young too?”

  Mrs. Fields told the story of how she and Miss Pierce had first met in elementary school and became fast friends, constantly playing at each other’s houses.

  “Is the lime green swivel chair still in the Tower?” asked Mrs. Fields.

  “You know about the chair?” Katani asked.

  “Know about it! Your great-grandfather was so proud of that chair…”

  “That was Great-Grandpa’s chair!” said Katani.

  “Yes, he bought it for his barbershop for some of the ladies to sit in when they came in for their fancy bob haircuts. Grandpa was the only barber in the neighborhood who knew how to do the new Jackie Kennedy bob. He was very courtly and thought the ladies should have a fancy chair.

  “Your great-grandfather was one of the best hair stylists in Boston,” said Miss Pierce.

  “Runs in their family,” I said.

  Katani was enchanted. “I can’t believe I’m using the same chair! How did you get it to the Tower?”

  Miss Pierce and Mrs. Fields started laughing, each trying to talk and explain.

  “That was a day, Sapphire, wasn’t it? Remember telling my grandfather we could move it ourselves?”

  “Ha!” laughed Miss Pierce. “By the end of the day, your uncle came over with a friend…”

  “And,” continued Mrs. Fields, chuckling, “the two of them got a rope and dragged and pushed it up the stairs while we clapped and cheered them on. Your mother was convinced the chair would fall on someone’s head! Remember how she kept admonishing us to sit still? ‘You are like bees. You might sting somebody if you keep buzzing about like that.’”

  Avery was so excited, she looked like she was going to explode. “If you used to play in the Tower, were you the BSG?”

  Miss Pierce nodded. “The Tower was our refuge from the world. We were best friends who wanted a place of our own—away from school, away from family, and away from troubles. As you saw, we made up an oath. We wrote it on a piece of paper long ago.”

  “Us, too!” chirped Avery. “What does BSG stand for?”

  Miss Pierce took a deep breath and began. “Ruby and I spent all our afternoons and weekends going between each other’s houses. Beacon Street was the road that connected us. It was my father who named us the Beacon Street Girls. ‘You two spend more time running back and forth down Beacon Street than the trolley,’” he said.

  Mrs. Fields chuckled.

  “My father was a jeweler, and a quiet man,” continued Miss Pierce. “He watched my mother’s heart break when people snubbed her, so he was especially appreciative of our close friendship. He was always doing special things for me and Ruby. On my twelfth birthday, he gave me a treasure box with a key he crafted himself.”

  Katani’s eyes widened. She looked from Miss Pierce to her grandmother. “The key!” she said.

  Mrs. Fields’s eyes twinkled as she reached up under her turtleneck and pulled out a necklace with an exact replica of the key that she had seen Katani wear.

  “You have one too!” said Katani. “No wonder you had that look on your face when you saw it around my neck! I wondered why you kept asking me questions.”

  “After working at a junior high for forty years, not much surprises me, Katani,” she said. “But I have to admit, seeing that key around your neck was quite an emotional experience.”

  “How did you girls find it?” Miss Pierce asked.

  “It was me,” said Avery with pride. “I jumped on a floorboard and found it.”

  “And we know which floorboard, don’t we Ruby?” said Miss Pierce.

  “We surely do,”
said Mrs. Fields. “Right up there beside your telescope. I hope you’re keeping it in a safe place, Katani. I was so relieved to see you weren’t wearing it around your neck anymore.”

  “It’s been back under the floorboard since that day, Grandma,” said Katani. “I wasn’t taking any more chances.”

  “I’ve got it,” I added. “I was hoping you could tell us about it.”

  Then I handed the key to Miss Pierce, who examined it proudly.

  “I had forgotten how exquisite it was,” she said. “My father hand cast the jewels himself. My birthday card said: ‘A treasure box to hold the secrets of friendship. For my two gems, Ruby and Sapphire, the Beacon Street Girls.’”

  “But where’s the treasure box?” asked Katani.

  “Where’s the treasure?” asked Maeve.

  “I’m afraid it was only treasure to us,” explained Mrs. Fields. “A glass horse we bought at a fair we went to together…”

  “Tickets to our first movie at the Beacon Street Movie House,” continued Miss Pierce.

  “That’s where I live!” shouted Maeve. “Did you go there in the olden days?”

  The two ladies laughed. “Every Saturday for the matinee,” said Mrs. Fields.

  “Never missed it,” said Miss Pierce.

  “You have to come back,” said Maeve. “My parents have restored the balcony and the curtains and the gold decorations.”

  Miss Pierce shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t much care for new movies. Singin’ in the Rain and Gone With the Wind were more my type. Although I must admit, I did want to see Star Wars.”

  “Miss Pierce,” said Maeve, putting her arm around her, “You and I have a beautiful future together.”

  “Please, Maeve, could we talk about the movies later?” Katani begged. “Think treasure!”

  “I removed all our tickets and trinkets from the box years ago,” said Miss Pierce.