Bad News/Good News

by Annie Bryant

  Lorelei said something to the woman who was sitting on the floor reading with several of the kids. “Children! Come on over! We have some exciting guests,” the woman said, after introducing herself as Suzanne to the girls.

  “It’s the blanket girls!” one little girl cried, jumping up and down. “They told us you might come today!”

  The next half-hour felt to Maeve like it was her birthday…only better. She and the other girls sat on the floor next to the two cartons marked “toddlers” and “big kids,” and each of the children came forward to choose a blanket. One little girl, Keisha, wrapped herself up in a soft lavender blanket decorated with a pink heart and started sucking her thumb. A boy named Marco helped himself to one of Avery’s Red Sox blankets. The bigger kids helped the littlest kids to choose. And just as they’d finished making sure every child had a blanket, the doors opened and some of the older children started coming in from school. Some of the older boys just sat back and watched, but the older girls loved the blankets. Before they left the shelter, Keisha came running up, still clutching her lavender blanket. She pulled her thumb out and gave Maeve a hug.

  “Thank you, blanket girl,” she said.

  Maeve hugged her back, her face warm with pleasure. This, she thought, was like getting an A+. A huge A+ that could never go away. She suddenly remembered something her mom said to her, “if you want to shine, you have to keep trying and never give up.” Today all the Beacon Street Girls were shining.

  Lorelei saw them out to the van afterwards. “Well, you sure brightened their day today,” she said, shaking Maeve’s hand one last time. “And I can tell you this—the women here are going to be every bit as happy for these blankets as Keisha was! Thanks, girls. And come visit us again—you don’t need to bring us anything, but come and say hi!”

  “We will!” the kids chorused, as they piled back in to Maeve’s dad’s van. The funny thing was, Maeve knew that they weren’t just saying it. She looked back at the shelter as they pulled away, and she had a definite feeling that they’d all be back.

  CHAPTER 22

  The Room in the Picture

  What do you guys think?” Katani asked, sitting back on her heels as she surveyed the Tower.

  With Miss Pierce’s help, they’d found a way to get Charlotte and her father out of the house for the day. She had invited them to go with her to the Observatory at Harvard, where a colleague of hers worked, and they were getting a special tour—which Miss Pierce promised would take several hours. After that, she was going to take them out for lunch. “They won’t be back before 3:00,” she promised Katani. “And I’ve left a key for you girls under the doormat. Good luck!”

  Katani was the first to arrive. She had a carton of supplies with her—her glue gun, a bolt of material, her staple gun, paint…the works. Isabel came next, with acrylic paints and a stretched canvas to make a sign. Then Avery, who’d brought a small end table as well as the blue lamp from her attic. Maeve was last. She’d brought cushiony material to cover the chair, and dozens of white stars that she’d cut out of construction paper. “I thought we could make that half of the room look like the night sky,” she said. “Since Charlotte is so big on stars…and that’ll show that it’s nighttime in the room.”

  “Great idea,” Katani said. The girls set to work without a break. Once they really got started, there was more to do than they thought. Avery pulled the chair into one corner, and Maeve began to cover it. Isabel and Katani covered half of the room with navy blue fabric to look like the night sky, and Maeve hung up her stars on it.

  “Hey, we should make that constellation she’s always talking about,” Maeve said. “Ryan or whatever.”

  “Orion, silly,” Avery laughed. She paused. “Do you know what it looks like? I just remember that dog star—Sirius.”

  Maeve shrugged. “You know me. When I think ‘stars,’ it’s Hollywood I’m seeing—not constellations.”

  “I’ve got to go downstairs anyway to Charlotte’s apartment to get her copy of Charlotte’s Web. I’ll see if she has a star book, and I am going to take Marty out for a little run in the backyard.” Avery said.

  By 2 o’clock, the room was really beginning to shape up. The Lime Swivel chair had been completely transformed—covered with soft material, and then with the chintz fabric Katani had found, which seemed to exactly match the fabric in Charlotte’s picture. The “night sky” looked wonderful—the navy fabric draped softly over the far windows, covered with stars—even with Orion, with his three bright stars forming a belt. The blue lamp glowed softly, and an open copy of Charlotte’s Web lay face down on the cozy chair. Over the entrance, Isabel’s whimsical sign hung with its bright lettering: “Welcome Home!”

  “I think it’s fantastic,” Maeve said. “Come on guys. Let’s print up the invitation, and get out of here!”

  “Wait a minute,” Katani said, studying the copy of Charlotte’s photograph one last time. “Do you guys see something on the window in this picture?”

  Everyone crowded around for a closer look.

  “I think it’s just a smudge on the lens cap,” Avery said.

  Maeve squinted. “Avery’s right, Katani. It’s nothing.”

  “No—it’s a star!” Isabel gasped. “Let’s put one of your stars on the window, Maeve!”

  “Only we have to paint it blue. That star is blue—if it’s a star,” Avery said, still sounding skeptical.

  One brush from Isabel’s brush, and a blue star was ready to paste on the window.

  “There!”

  The girls looked around them, wonderingly. “It looks just like it,” Maeve whispered. “It’s the room in the picture!”

  “Well, let’s hope it works,” Katani said briskly. “We don’t want Charlotte to move. And we need something pretty powerful to keep her here at this point.”

  “What a wonderful day,” Mr. Ramsey said warmly to Miss Pierce, as they reached the front door of the house. “You were so great to take all the trouble to show us the Observatory. It was a real treat.”

  “Well, you’ll have to come back when the Leonid Meteor showers fall,” Miss Pierce said. She gave Charlotte a quick hug, glancing up almost despite herself at the trap door that led to the Tower.

  I hope the girls managed to get everything done, she thought. It was 3:45, and the house was as quiet as if no one had come at all.

  “So what do you feel like for dinner?” Mr. Ramsey asked. It was 7 o’clock, already dark out, and the two of them were relaxing in the living room, trying to decide whether to go out and rent a video or to start an intensive Scrabble game instead.

  “I’m kind of full from that huge lunch,” Charlotte said. “What about you?”

  “Maybe I’ll go see what we’ve got. Could be a leftovers night,” her father said, wandering into the kitchen.

  Charlotte heard the fridge open, then silence.

  “Charlotte, come here!” he called. “It looks like our mysterious letter writer has struck again!”

  Charlotte hurried into the kitchen. Sure enough, the same cutout letters marched across the front of the envelope. “The Ramseys” it spelled out in many different-colored letters, all of different sizes.

  “What does it say?” she demanded.

  Mr. Ramsey opened up the letter. “Please go up to the Tower. A special message is waiting there for you.” He cleared his throat. “From—your friends.”

  “Whoa,” Charlotte said, taking a deep breath. “That’s so weird!” She glanced up at the trap door to the Tower room, goose bumps rising on her arms. “I’m kind of scared,” she whispered. “Do you think it’s something creepy, like in one of those horror movies?”

  “I don’t think so,” her father said, laughing. “But all the same, let’s go see what’s up there. I wouldn’t mind getting to the bottom of these mystery letters.” He opened the top drawer of one of the cupboards, pulling out a flashlight. “We might need this,” he said.

  Charlotte grabbed Marty. “I’m bringing him wit
h us,” she said, burrowing her face in his soft fur.

  “Great. He can protect us,” her father teased her. Tiny and cuddly as he was, Marty wasn’t exactly a fierce watchdog!

  “You go first,” Charlotte said, holding back a little.

  She followed her father up the steep staircase, her heart beating harder each time that a stair creaked. It felt like forever before they made it to the top of the stairs and her father flung open the trapdoor, climbing up into the Tower. Charlotte was right behind him.

  “Welcome Home,” she read softly, puzzling over the painted letters.

  Her father opened the door and they stepped inside.

  For a minute, Charlotte’s eyes had to get used to the change in light. A lamp was glowing softly in one corner; otherwise the room was almost dark. She could see white stars flickering on a dark background that looked like the night sky.

  “Daddy, it’s Orion!” she cried in excitement, racing over to touch the constellation.

  Her father was staring with a dazed look at the corner.

  “I don’t understand,” he faltered. “Who could have done this? Who knew…?”

  Charlotte turned and followed his gaze. For a minute she didn’t say a word. Then a cry escaped from her, almost unconsciously. It was the room in her picture! The blue lamp, the flowered chair…

  “Even my book,” she whispered. “It’s just like in the picture.”

  “What picture?” her father asked her. Then, as if in a trance, he walked over to the chair.

  “Even your sticker is here,” he murmured. “It’s your bedroom from when you were a little girl, Charlotte. At Arlington Street. Remember?”

  Charlotte gazed around her in wonder. But how could this be, she thought. Unless…

  Suddenly, she remembered Isabel asking her if she could borrow her picture. They must have sneaked in here and transformed the Tower room, she thought. They found my favorite picture, and they wanted to make the Tower room look like home!

  She was about to tell her father what must have happened when she realized that he was crying. He sat right down on the floor of the Tower room, wiping his eyes. The next thing she knew, he had taken her in his arms and was hugging her tightly, as if he never wanted to let her go.

  “Charlotte,” Mr. Ramsey said brokenly, “I miss her so much! I tried to tell myself that it would be OK—that I could manage. But I don’t think I ever let myself really grieve for her the way that I needed to. All those years—in Africa, and Australia, and Europe—I felt like the farther away that I went, the easier it would be to start life over.”

  He paused, wiping his eyes again. “And then I thought that it might help to come back here. To start over here, where we were all together as a family. And it’s been so hard!”

  “Oh, Daddy.” Charlotte hugged him. “It’s OK. If you hate being back here, we can move again. I’ll be fine, I promise!”

  Mr. Ramsey shook his head, looking in wonder around the room. “No, Charlotte. That’s not the answer. Your friends—I’m guessing that they’re the ones who made this room look like this—they’re really right. This is home, where we are right now—today. Moving to England isn’t going to solve any of my problems. Charlotte, I need to start building my life again—without your mother. Painful as it is, I can’t get her back—however far and wide I search for her.”

  Charlotte stared at him. “You mean it, Dad? You really want to stay?”

  He nodded. “I do, Charlotte. We have good friends here. I like my job a lot, and even if it may not be the ‘job of a lifetime,’ it’s interesting and fun, and it’s keeping me busy. I love our new home. I love seeing you settled.” He looked around him, clearing his throat. “I think I started to realize this last Saturday, when you and I went back to all the places we used to go to when you were little. I want to stay here and build a life together again—the two of us.”

  Charlotte flung her arms around him. “I’m so happy,” she cried.

  She could hardly believe it. The Tower room and Marty and Miss Pierce and Ms. Rodriguez and Social Dancing and Nick and the bakery and Irving’s Toy and Card Shop and most of all, her beloved friends—she wouldn’t have to leave them after all!

  “But Dad,” she asked, lifting her head and studying him closely, “you’re sure you’re not giving up on your dream?”

  “Charlotte, my dream right now is to make a great home for us,” her father said slowly. “I think it’s taken me a while to figure that out, but that’s what I want most. Oxford’s been around a long time—it won’t disappear! For now, I think we should stay put. You think you can stand to settle down and stay in one place for a good long time? You don’t think you’ll go stir-crazy?”

  “I think I’ll manage,” Charlotte assured him, jumping to her feet. “I think I’ll manage just fine!”

  Charlotte’s Journal

  Late Sunday night

  So that’s that. No moves planned for this family!

  Marty looks happy. He’s pretty snug here, right on the end of my bed. Anyway, I found out that they don’t take dogs into England until they’ve been in quarantine for six whole months. That’s because they don’t want any rabies coming into the country. And Marty is not the kind of dog who would tolerate quarantine.

  I showed Dad my piece in the school paper tonight after I got back from hiking with Nick. He got all misty-eyed and said he thinks that I could be a famous writer one day. We’ll have to see. I might decide to be an explorer instead. Nick and I were talking on our hike today and we both really love the idea of going to Patagonia…or maybe down to the South Pole, to see the penguins.

  When I told Dad, he groaned. “I thought we just decided that we’re staying put for a while!” he said.

  I cracked up…big time. It’s true—there’s a wonderful big world out there to explore, and one day I want to see as much of it as I possibly can. But for now, it’s pretty great just being right here.

  I reached over to tickle Marty’s stomach and tried saying what Isabel wrote on her sign. It sounded pretty good, and I said it again, right into the soft velvety spot on the top of Marty’s head.

  Welcome home.

  Guess what I just saw outside my window? The first star coming out. Of course I think of Mom. But this time, not in a sad way. She always said, my wish is that your wish will come true. And you know what?

  This time, it really did.

  Bad News/Good News

  BOOK EXTRAS

  Book Club Buzz

  New Tower Rules

  Amendments

  Trivialicious Trivia

  Book Club Buzz

  5 QUESTIONS FOR YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS TO CHAT ABOUT

  1. Why is it complicated for a new girl to become friends with the Beacon Street Girls?

  2. How do Charlotte, Katani, Avery, and Maeve each react to Isabel?

  3. Why is Charlotte so sad about facing another move if she is used to being a Global Girl?

  4. What do you think about the schemes that the Beacon Street Girls come up with to try to change Mr. Ramsey’s mind?

  5. What does the blanket project teach the girls about working together?

  THE NEW TOWER RULES CREATED BY THE NEWEST ORDER OF THE RUBY AND THE SAPPHIRE

  Be it resolved that all girls are created equal!

  1. We will speak our minds, but we won’t be like obnoxious or anything.

  2. We won’t put ourselves down, even if we aren’t super-smart, super-coordinated, or a supermodel.

  3. We’ll be loyal to our friends and won’t lie to them even if they make a mistake or do something totally embarrassing.

  4. We will go for it—how will we know what we can do if we don’t try?

  5. We will try to eat healthy and stay active. How can you chase your dream if you can’t keep up? 6. We won’t just take from people and the planet. We’ll try to give back good things too.

  AMENDMENTS:

  1. We can add as many amendments as we like.

  2. We will d
are to be fashion individualistas—like we’re all different so why should we dress the same?

  3. Sometimes we’ll veg out—just because we feel like it!

  4. We should try to save money so if we ever want to, we can start a business or something someday.

  5. We should have as much fun as we can.

  Note from Katani

  Proposed new amendment:

  6. We will try to keep an open mind about new people.

  What’s the vote?

  Avery—sounds great!

  Charlotte—this has my vote!

  Maeve—I love new people!

  Isabel—I’m happy!

  bad news/good news trivialicious trivia

  What is Charlotte’s cooking specialty? A. frog’s legs

  B. chicken parmesan

  C. herbed scrambled eggs with grated French gruyère cheese

  D. goat cheese salad with apples and walnuts

  What book is the Abigail Adams Jr. High seventh grade class reading? (Hint: Charlotte reads ahead because she loves it so much!) A. To Kill a Mockingbird

  B. Charlotte’s Web

  C. A Day No Pigs Would Die

  D. Treasure Island

  What state did Isabel live in before she came to Brookline? A. Michigan

  B. Mississippi