by Judy Delton
“We’ll have to go shopping, you and I,” said her aunt to Molly. “I’ll need some new clothes for my job, and you can help me pick them out.”
Molly nodded. How could her aunt think of new clothes now, when her sister was about to leave her husband and small daughter? What kind of a family was this, with everyone in it getting divorced?
That night in bed, Molly thought of telling Auntie Ree the whole story and asking her if it was true. And she thought of asking her mother face to face.
But she couldn’t talk about it. Maybe because she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer. What if they said she was right, they were getting a divorce? No, it was better this way. There was a chance she was wrong.
The next day, the Pee Wee Scouts met, and Molly decided she would take Mary Beth aside and confide the awful news to her. But she was not alone with her, and she did not want Rachel and Ashley and Roger and Sonny to know about her personal problems. Besides, Mary Beth had a letter from her pen pal, Shari, and was dying to read it to her.
“Shari has lots of brothers and sisters too!” said Mary Beth. “And she likes animals just like I do. And look at this stamp. I’m going to collect the stamps. My dad’s getting me a stamp album.”
Molly decided to put her problem out of her mind during the Scout meeting, but it always seemed to be there, even when the others read the letters they got from their pen pals. What fun were pen pals now? What she needed were parents who were pals.
“Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Peters,” called Ashley. “Can I read the letter I got from Jason?”
“Yes,” said their leader. “And what a good response we have already! So many of you wrote and got answers right away!”
“ ‘Dear Ashley,’ ” read Ashley. “ ‘I like horses too. I’ve got a horse named Flash. He likes radishes. If you come to visit me, I will let you ride Flash. Sometimes I fall off when he jumps the fence. If you fall off, it’s okay. The ground is soft because mud is soft, and it’s all mud now. Yours sincerely, Jason.’ ”
The Pee Wees all laughed about the mud. Roger fell off his chair into pretend mud and walked around the room shaking it off his arms and legs.
Mary Beth read her letter from Shari, and Rachel read her letter from Heather.
“My letter is real long,” said Rachel. All the Pee Wees looked over her shoulder as she read.
“ ‘My dad is a medical person too,’ ” read Rachel. “ ‘He is an M.D., a medical doctor.’ ”
Here Rachel stopped to say, “Isn’t that a coincidence, Mrs. Peters? That the pen pal I got has a dad who’s a doctor, and my dad is a dentist?”
“Yeah, yeah, you can pull teeth and operate on each other,” said Roger. “Big deal.”
Rachel looked at Roger in disgust. “You’re just jealous,” she said, “because you didn’t get a letter back from your pen pal.”
“Hey, I didn’t even write to her yet,” said Roger.
“Well, she won’t write back, you can bet on that,” said Rachel. “Once she finds out what a creep you are.”
Rachel finished reading Heather’s long letter.
Then Kevin and Jody each read their pen pal letters. They were collecting stamps too. Molly wondered if Jody’s pen pal was in a wheelchair. She wished that Jody could be her pen pal. Or Kevin. But that would mean they would live far away in Golden Grove, and that would not be a good thing. It was better to have them right here in town.
Some of the Pee Wees had written to authors they liked and were waiting for letters. Tracy had written to her grandma and had a letter to read from her.
“My grandma plays bingo,” said Tracy. “She won me a little TV for my room.”
After the letters, the Pee Wees told good deeds and sang their song and said their pledge. Then they ate cupcakes decorated with make-believe postage stamps. Sonny’s mother helped serve them.
On the way home Molly wanted to tell Mary Beth about her parents’ argument, but Mary Beth wanted to talk about plans to fix up Roger’s father with her Auntie Ree.
Instead of finding Auntie Ree a husband, it might be her own mother who would need one, thought Molly. Auntie Ree seemed happy enough with her new job. She didn’t act like she wanted a husband.
But that was not fair. As Mary Beth had said to her, Auntie Ree needed a husband and a home of her own. And Molly needed her room back. Just in case divorce really was catchy, it might be good to separate the sisters till this was all over.
CHAPTER 7
Good Detective
Work
The girls sat on their favorite park bench to plan Auntie Ree’s first date.
“How can we get them to go on a date without knowing it’s a date?” asked Molly. “I don’t think my aunt will go if we tell her we found someone for her to marry.”
Mary Beth nodded. “She probably doesn’t know she needs to marry Mr. White,” she said. “Roger’s father probably doesn’t know how happy he’ll be married to Auntie Ree, either.” She sighed. “Adults are so difficult,” she said. “They never seem to see what’s good for them.”
“Well, we can’t tell Roger,” said Molly. “He doesn’t even know he needs a mother.”
“Maybe there will be some PTA meeting they can meet at,” said Mary Beth.
“There are no PTA meetings when school is out,” said Molly.
Mary Beth snapped her fingers. “I have it!” she said. “Your aunt can walk Skippy, and Mr. White can walk his dog, and they can meet and talk about the dogs! Then they can talk about other stuff like having children and where they’ll live.”
“Auntie Ree doesn’t like dogs much,” said Molly. “And Roger doesn’t have a dog.”
“We could get him one from the pound,” said Mary Beth.
“Even if Mr. White has one, he might not walk it,” said Molly. “What if he has Roger walk it? We don’t want my aunt to meet Roger! If she met him first, she’d never marry his dad!”
“So forget the dog,” said Mary Beth grumpily. “It was just an idea.”
“Where do they both go?” asked Molly. “At night after work?”
“The grocery store!” shouted Mary Beth. “Everyone gets groceries. Even Roger has to eat! They can run into each other at the market!”
“Rat’s knees!” shouted Molly. “It’s simple! Let’s go over to Roger’s house and ask him where his dad shops!”
“We can’t just ask him,” said Mary Beth. “We have to make it sound natural, kind of work it into the conversation so he won’t be suspicious.”
The girls ran home and got their bikes. Then they rode to Roger’s house.
“What if he isn’t home?” asked Molly.
“He’s home,” said Mary Beth. “Where would he be? He hasn’t got many friends, he’s so mean.”
Mary Beth was right. When the girls got near his house, they saw Roger carving something into the bark on a tree in his yard.
“What do you guys want?” he said suspiciously.
“We’re just taking a bike ride,” said Molly.
“Yeah, well ride someplace else.”
“It’s a public street,” said Molly.
“We can do what we want,” said Mary Beth. “And you’re defacing that tree. It won’t grow if you cut its bark.”
“Did you come over here to tell me I can’t carve my own tree?” said Roger.
“It isn’t your tree,” said Molly, stamping her foot. “Trees belong to everyone!”
“Not trees in my own yard,” said Roger.
This wasn’t going well, thought Molly. It was awfully hard not to fight with Roger.
“I think you should get some fertilizer for that tree,” said Mary Beth. “You can get it at the grocery store in the plant department. Your dad can get it when he shops.”
“Get out of here,” said Roger. “Leave me alone.”
This was going to be harder than they figured, thought Molly. It was easy to see why Roger had so few friends. It was a wonder he wasn’t thrown out of the Pee Wees. They’d have to try a
nicer approach.
“Would you like to come on a bike ride with us?” she asked sweetly. “We could ride by the grocery store and stuff.”
“Why would I want to ride with you guys?” Roger asked.
“Come down to the creek with us,” said Mary Beth. “We can dig for some night crawlers and sell them.”
Molly looked at her friend in surprise. Mary Beth hated worms! She was really going all out to get Roger on their side!
Roger looked like he had a lightbulb over his head. “Ho ho!” he said. “I get it! You guys are trying to trick me into something!”
How could he know? thought Molly.
“Which one of you likes me?” Roger stood up with a big grin on his face. “Which one of you guys wants to be my girlfriend?”
So Roger didn’t know about her aunt. He thought it was him they were after! If they said, “Not in your dreams, mister!” Roger would be mad again. If they said one of them did like him, he would spread it all over town that one of them wanted to be his girlfriend!
“We just want to be friends,” said Mary Beth. “I mean, all three of us.”
Roger stopped carving the tree and sat down on his front steps.
The girls sat down too. Roger didn’t shove them off.
“It’s hot out,” said Mary Beth. “A good day for a barbecue.”
“I might stop at the grocery store on the way home and get some hot dogs,” said Molly. “What is the closest grocery store around here, Roger?”
“What’s all this grocery store stuff?” asked Roger. “We go to Maxwell’s. Down on Main Street.”
Molly took her little notebook from her jacket pocket and wrote down “Maxwell’s. Main Street.”
“And when do you shop?” asked Mary Beth.
“My dad gets stuff on his way home from work,” said Roger. “He gets these great big steaks, this thick!”
Roger held his fingers apart about three inches and made loud chewing noises with his mouth.
Leave it to Roger to want to eat poor friendly cows, thought Molly.
“Every night?” said Mary Beth. “Does he stop and get steaks every night?”
Roger shrugged. “Some nights he gets a great big fish,” he said. Now Roger was casting an imaginary fish line out into the yard.
Mary Beth was getting impatient. She stood up with her hands on her hips and said, “What day and time does your dad go grocery shopping?”
“What’s it to you?” shouted Roger, going into his house and slamming the screen door. “You guys are nuts, do you know that?”
The girls got on their bikes and rode toward home.
“Well, we know what store,” said Mary Beth. “We’ll just have to hang around and watch for his dad.”
“But how are we going to get my aunt down there?” asked Molly.
“Sales!” said Mary Beth. “We’ll clip coupons. Does your aunt like mushrooms? Room freshener?”
Molly sighed. Getting a husband for Marie was so much work, she should get a badge for it!
Her problems were not going away.
Her aunt.
Her mother.
Her father.
Her pen pal.
Her badge.
When would something good happen?
When Molly got home, something did!
CHAPTER 8
Molly Gets a Letter
“You have some mail,” said Auntie Ree when Molly got in the house.
Auntie Ree held up a letter. A fat one. It had Molly’s name on it.
Molly took the letter and ran up to her room. The postmark on the envelope said Golden Grove! Her pen pal had written to her! She did have a pen pal after all! Even if it was a boy. She might get that badge after all.
Something smelled like lilacs. Molly sniffed the air. It was coming from the envelope! Did Lyle use perfumed stationery?
Molly took her little letter opener from her desk and slit the envelope. She unfolded the big, thick letter. It was on several sheets of notebook paper, and the handwriting was big with lots of loops.
Dear Molly,
I got your letter. It took a long time because it had the wrong name on the envelope. My name is Kyle, and not Lyle. I’m not a boy, but everyone thinks I am because Kyle is a boy’s name. Lyle is too, I think. I was named after my uncle. He’s my godfather. There are no boys in the family to be named after him so it was just me or no one.
I’m glad you are my pen pal. I have a dog too. What kind is yours? I don’t have any brothers or sisters either! Tell me your favorite color and your favorite book.
My mom and dad are divorced. I live with my mom. But I go stay with my dad sometimes. He lives in California and we go swimming in the ocean and have picnics and ride horses. It’s fun having two homes. If I get bored in one I can go to the other one!
I hope we can be friends and tell each other secrets. Write back fast.
Love, Kyle.
Then she had a long row of x’s and o’s across the bottom of the page.
Molly couldn’t believe her eyes! Her pen pal was a girl! She was an only child and had a dog and she wanted to be Molly’s friend! It was too good to be true! And her letter was long! Longer than Molly’s. Longer than even Heather’s!
But the biggest surprise was that her parents were divorced and Kyle felt okay about it! Molly had never thought that something so awful could happen and you could still be a happy family and go to school and write to pen pals and have a dog.
Molly got out a sheet of school paper instead of her flowered stationery. She needed more room to write this time. She started writing and before long she had filled both sides of the paper. She told Kyle all about her friends and Skippy and her aunt and Mr. White and all about her worries that her parents could be getting a divorce too.
When she finished, she felt good. Very good. She had needed to tell someone all those things. And if Kyle liked having two homes better than one, maybe a divorce wasn’t so bad. Molly hoped (if her parents did divorce) that her dad would move to California. The beach sounded like a lot of fun. Molly could take an airplane to see him and eat dinner out of those little trays way up high in the sky! Her dad would be waiting at the airport for her. She could see him now looking at the crowd for Molly, worrying that she might be lost. Then he would see her and get that big smile on his face and sweep her up into his arms, and she’d give him a big, big hug! He’d show her his new house and the city and the ocean. Maybe she could even meet Kyle and her dad.
And then when she was really lonely for home and her mother and the Pee Wees, she’d get on another plane and fly back to her own little room! Maybe Kyle even had two rooms of her own! One in each house.
Molly had been so lost in thought that she jumped when her father knocked at her door. She almost said, “I thought you were in California!” Molly had better get over this daydreaming. Her imagination had run away with her again. Her mother said she had the wildest imagination of anyone she knew!
“Dinnertime!” said her dad. He didn’t mention California.
After dinner Molly sealed the letter to Kyle and went to the mailbox to mail it. She couldn’t wait to get another letter back! Rat’s knees, getting this badge was fun!
On Tuesday Molly read her letter from Kyle out loud at the Pee Wee Scout meeting. But if she and Kyle told secrets in their letters, she wouldn’t read them out loud. They would be private. Molly would keep Kyle’s letters in the fancy candy box from Valentine’s Day. It was big and red and had a bow pasted right onto it. It was a perfect pen pal box.
Almost all the Pee Wees had a letter now.
Tim had a letter. And in the letter were two baseball cards.
“Hey, I think those guys are worth money!” said Kevin.
The Pee Wees looked envious of Tim. No one else got presents in their letters.
“I wonder why Tim got those,” said Lisa. “Maybe he asked for them.”
Molly shook her head.
“Tim is shy,” she said. “He’d never d
o that.”
“I’m so glad to see you are all enjoying getting this badge so much,” said Mrs. Peters. “I knew it would be a fun badge to earn!”
Some of the Pee Wees groaned. They pretended it wasn’t fun.
Mrs. Peters had a new map game to play. You had to draw cards to tell you how many spaces to move your little car. Whoever got to Golden Grove first, won. But some cards said, “Flat tire, go back three spaces” or “Detour six spaces.” There were roadblocks and stop signs and “out of gas” stops.
“This is just like all those kid games, like Chutes and Ladders and Sorry! and Parcheesi,” said Tracy.
“Yeah!” shouted Roger, moving his race car into Golden Grove. “I won!”
“You cheated!” shouted Ashley. “I saw you move when it was Tracy’s turn!”
“He did,” said Patty. “I saw him.”
Molly noticed Rachel didn’t have much to say.
Tim and Jody won the next games, and then it was time for cupcakes and good deeds and the pledge and song.
“Before long, we will get our badges!” said Mrs. Peters.
“Yeah!” shouted all the Pee Wees.
“Roger better hurry up and write a letter,” said Patty.
On the way home, Mary Beth said, “I’ve got a plan for your aunt and Roger’s dad.”
Molly had been so excited about writing to Kyle that she had forgotten about Auntie Ree! But she did want her room back. Especially now that she would be writing private letters she didn’t want anyone else to read. Her aunt might be looking for a pencil or a safety pin and pull open her drawer and find her candy box! Molly might write to Kyle about divorces and Roger’s dad.
No, Auntie Ree couldn’t stay forever. She was lucky to have Mary Beth for a friend. Mary Beth had a plan. And before long, Auntie Ree would be Mrs. White and in a home of her own!
CHAPTER 9
Grocery Store
Stakeout
The girls sat down on Mary Beth’s front steps.
“This is my plan,” said Mary Beth. “I go down to Maxwell’s and watch for Mr. White around suppertime. When he comes, I’ll call you from their phone and you get your aunt down there as fast as you can.”