Boiling Point

by Diane Muldrow; Barbara Pollak

  Amanda giggled. “Well, I hope not! Because Dish totally needs you guys. Anyway, we still have to get that money out of Ms. Brenda Bubblebrain. I think we should call her as soon as we get home. And guess who’s going to call?”

  “Who?”

  “You!”

  “Me! Why me?”

  Amanda giggled. “I talked to her on the phone enough when she booked us! It’s your turn. Think of it as the end of your punishment.”

  “I’ve been punished enough!” Molly said. “Plus, you got something out of it all. You got Justin to help us.”

  Amanda looked serious. “Um, Molls? Can I ask you something? I’ve been thinking about what Peichi said, about Justin not writing back...do you think that’s a big deal? Like, maybe he didn’t want me to e-mail him?”

  “Amanda, don’t worry so much about Justin,” Molly told her. “The e-mail you sent was fine.Like you said, there was no reason for him to write back. It’s not a big deal. Besides, we have much more important things to think about, like what’s going on with Peichi’s family, and getting paid!”

  “Thanks, Molls. You’re right.” Amanda smiled sweetly at her sister. “But you’re still gonna call Ms. Barlow!”

  “Oh, all right,” said Molly with a sigh. She knew when she’d been beaten by Amanda.

  ‘Hey, look! There’s Natasha,” said Amanda, pointing to a tall figure down the street. “She’s heading to our house.”

  “Hi, Natasha!” called the twins.

  Natasha waved and waited for them to come down the hill.

  “Hi, guys. What’s going on?”

  Amanda shook her head. “Too much!”

  “Really?” Natasha asked. “What do you mean?”

  Molly and Amanda looked at each other. The girls weren’t sure they wanted to tell Natasha everything that was going on with Peichi’s family.

  “Oh it’s nothing,” Molly said casually. “Peichi and I aren’t really out of trouble yet for going to Chinatown!”

  Natasha made a little face. “That’s no fun,” she said. “Are you guys still grounded?”

  “Um, not exactly,” Molly said. “Anyway, everything will be fine.” Natasha looked at the ground.

  “We’ll tell you all about it later,” Amanda promised. “So what’s up with you? Do you want to come inside?”

  “Sure! Has Brenda Barlow paid us yet?” Natasha asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Well, guess what!” said Natasha, waving some paper at them. “My dad—you know he’s a lawyer—wrote a letter to Ms. Barlow for us. It’s so great! You’ve got to read it.”

  “Really?” asked Amanda. “You mean, he asked for the money? Come on in!”

  “I’ll grab some lemonade,” said Molly as Amanda and Natasha headed out to the garden.

  When Molly came outside, Amanda and Natasha were already studying the letter.

  “Hey! Wait for me!” said Molly, setting down the drinks.

  “Look, Molls,” said Amanda, pointing to the top of the letter. “Mr. Ross used his real lawyer stationery with his name printed on it!”

  “It looks like he means business,” added Molly. “This paper is thick. You can tell it’s not just regular old paper for the printer...‘David Ross, Esquire.’ What does that mean?”

  “I don’t remember,” said Natasha. “Anyway, read it!”

  The letter said:

  The girls roared.

  “This is great!” cried the twins at the same time.

  “Though I really don’t understand much of it,” admitted Amanda.

  “Me, either,” said Molly. “But Brenda Barlow will!”

  Natasha patted the envelope she had with her. “Her copy’s in here,” she explained. “See? Dad typed her name on the envelope. He said an envelope looks better than just sliding a plain piece of paper under her door.”

  “Great idea!” said Amanda. “I love this letter!”

  “Oooh. she’s gonna be so scared!” added Molly. “Thanks. Natasha. Cool idea! ”

  “Whose idea was it, anyway?” asked Amanda. “Yours, or you dad’s?”

  “Mine,” replied Natasha, whose face was still red from laughing.

  “What made you think of it?” asked Molly. “I never would have thought of something like this!”

  “We all worked so hard that day,” Natasha explained. “Plus, I think I want to be a lawyer when I grow up. I wanted to see how a lawyer would help when someone doesn’t get paid.

  “Let’s go slide the letter under her door right now!”

  “Oh, there’s just one thing,” said Natasha. “My dad made me promise that before we dropped off the letter, we’d give her a call. He wants us to give her another chance to pay.”

  “Okay,” said Amanda. “But it’s so awful to have to ask a grown-up for money that we earned!”

  “I guess that’s why some people hire lawyers to help them,” said Natasha. “The lawyers can do the talking.” She giggled. “Luckily, my dad is helping us for free!”

  “I hope Brenda Barlow’s not home, so she has to read the scary letter!” said Molly, cracking up again.

  “Molly, you have to talk to her,” ordered Amanda. “You said you would, remember? I’ll get the phone book.”

  Molly sighed. “Oh, all right,” she said.

  Molly’s heart pounded as Brenda Barlow’s phone began to ring.

  One ring. Two rings. Three rings.

  Molly began to breathe a little easier.

  Four rings.

  “Hello!” said Ms. Barlow’s voice.

  Molly’s heart jumped. She couldn’t get any words out. But then she heard, “This is Brenda Barlow! I’m not home right now, so please leave a message—”

  “Cool!” said Molly, turning off the phone. “She’s not there. Let’s go!”

  What Natasha didn’t tell Molly and Amanda was that the letter in the envelope was different from the letter she had shown them. Her father had added a little something more at the end of Ms. Barlow’s letter:

  But Natasha really didn’t want to show Molly and Amanda this part. The other part looked so official—as if they really meant business.

  Natasha crossed her fingers, and hoped it would work.

  chapter 14

  On the way over to Ms. Barlow’s house, the twins told Natasha about Peichi and the jade pendant.

  “I can’t believe Mr. McElroy is the detective that came over to her house!” said Natasha. “Does Justin know what happened?”

  Amanda practically stopped in her tracks. With all the excitement, she’d barely wondered that herself. Why was Natasha so interested in what Justin knew?

  Brenda Barlow’s red brick house suddenly came into view.

  “Here we are,” said Amanda. “So, who wants to be the one to slip the letter under the door?”

  “Not me!” said Natasha.

  “Not me,” echoed Amanda, giving Molly a mischievous look.

  “Aw, why do I have to do everything?” whined Molly. “I had to call her. Why do I have to go up to the door? What if she doesn’t come to the door, but she knows we’re there anyway, and we slip the letter under the door, and then she opens the door really fast, and catches us?”

  No one said anything for a moment.

  “But then again,” Molly went on, “who cares if she catches us? We have a right to ask for our money.”

  Amanda and Natasha nodded.

  “Way to go, Molls!” exclaimed Amanda, giving Molly a high-five.

  So Molly turned and went up the stairs. She walked very quietly to listen for any footsteps inside. As she stopped to listen more closely, she suddenly thought, Oh, what the heck, I’m just gonna ring the doorbell.She was suddenly feeling like a meanie for putting the letter under Ms. Barlow’s door. What if Ms. Barlow really did mean to pay them, but just hadn’t gotten to it yet? She didn’t seem like a mean person...perhaps she was busy because she was a single mom, and here she’d planned this nice party for her little girl, and maybe she was on her way righ
t now to the twins’ house to drop off the money...how horrible it would be if she came home to this letter...or perhaps she really didn’t have any extra money...maybe she’d lost her job...

  “Molly,” called Amanda from the street. “Hurry up!”

  Molly was shaken out of her thoughts. Suddenly, she just didn’t know what to do. “Ohhh,” she moaned, quickly slipping the letter under the door. She turned and rushed down the steps.

  “Let’s go,” she told the girls. “Now I feel bad about this.”

  “What?” asked Natasha and Amanda.

  “Maybe the letter was—too much.”

  Natasha looked hurt. “But my dad wrote it,” she said. “To help us.”

  “I know, and that’s, like, so great,” Molly assured her. “But maybe we should have given her more time, that’s all.”

  Amanda’s toes curled inside her sneakers. She hated awkward moments like this. But maybe Molly was right. “Do you want to come back over to our house now?” she asked Natasha.

  “No, I—I can’t,” replied Natasha. “I have to go somewhere with my mom.” She made a face. Natasha and her mom didn’t always get along.

  “Okay,” said the twins. Natasha turned to leave.

  “Sorry, Natasha,” said Molly. Now she was feeling bad about what she’d said about the letter. Ugh! Why am I always saying the wrong thing? I’msuch a geek, she thought.

  “It’s okay,” said Natasha. She didn’t seem mad this time. She waved, and walked down the hill to Garden Street.

  Molly and Amanda went home and hung out in the garden with Mom while Dad and Matthew were at soccer practice. They told her about the letter that Mr. Ross had written.

  “Hmmm. It seems a little soon for a letter like that,” said Mom.

  “I wonder what’s going on over at Peichi’s,” said Amanda anxiously. “Mom, do you think something terrible will happen to Peichi’s grandparents? Like, do you think they’ll go to jail?”

  “No, sweetie,” said Mom as she watered her roses. “I’m sure everything’s going to work out. Don’t worry too much, okay?”

  The phone rang at the Moores’ house a lot the rest of that day, mostly for Mom. Not one of the calls was from Brenda Barlow.

  Or Peichi.

  That night, when the twins were supposed to be asleep, they were still worrying about everything.

  “I thought Peichi would have called us by now!” exclaimed Amanda in the dark.

  “Not getting paid by Ms. Barlow really doesn’t seem very important,” said Molly. “Compared to what Peichi’s feeling right now.”

  “Uh-huh,” said Amanda, turning over to face Molly. “I guess money really isn’t everything.”

  Early the next morning, Mr. Moore woke the twins.

  “Look what someone slipped under our door this morning,” he said, waving a pale green envelope.

  Molly rubbed her eyes.

  “What is it?”

  Amanda sat up in bed and reached for the envelope. “Look! It says, ‘Brenda Barlow’ on the return address!”

  Inside was all the money she owed Dish.

  “There’s even a little extra,” said Amanda. “And here’s a note...‘Dear Dish,’ ” read Amanda out loud, “ ‘thanks for cooking such a terrific meal! Our party was a huge success, thanks to you! And little Morgan loved your cupcakes. I’m sorry you had to wait for your money. All the best, Brenda Barlow.’ ”

  “Let me see,” said Molly, reaching over to Amanda’s bed. The note was written on pale green paper, edged in gold. Ms. Barlow’s handwriting was large and loopy. Her signature was so fancy that it was impossible to make out her name, except for the swirly ‘Bs.’

  “I think you should call Ms. Barlow,” said Mr. Moore.

  “Why, Dad?”

  “Just to say you got the money, and to say thank you. You could say that you look forward to working with her again someday.”

  The twins began to laugh.

  “Do we really need to thank her, Dad? I mean, we worked for her, and she finally paid us. After not answering the door when we came over!”

  “You don’t know for certain that she was home then,” Dad reminded the girls. “It would be a nice, and professional, thing to do. You’re running a business now, and it’s good to be gracious with your clients. Give her a quick call after breakfast—which will be ready pretty soon.” He turned and went downstairs.

  “Okay,” said Molly. She looked at Amanda. “Are you gonna call her? It’s your turn.”

  “Okay,” said Amanda. She knew it was only fair.

  “Here goes,” said Amanda later, dialing the number. Molly picked up the cordless receiver.

  “Hello?” said Ms. Barlow.

  “Oh, hi, Ms. Barlow. This is Amanda Moore.”

  “Oh, hello, Amanda!” She sounded as happy as ever. “I slipped some money under your door this morning!”

  “Yes, we got it,” said Amanda. “Thank you.”

  “Thanks for being so patient with me,” said Ms. Barlow. “I’m very forgetful! So sorry you had to wait for your money.” She really was a nice lady, if maybe a little wacky, thought the twins.

  “Well, call us if you ever need someone to cook,” said Amanda. “Bye.”

  “I certainly will, dear! Bye-bye!”

  Amanda sighed. “That’s over with,” she said.

  “I’m glad you called,” said Molly.

  “Yeah, me, too. Let’s call Natasha!”

  Luckily, Natasha answered the phone. Mrs. Ross usually did, and she could be a little—stiff.

  “Good news!” Amanda told Natasha. “We got our money from Brenda Barlow. Come over later and we’ll give you your share!”

  “Great!” said Natasha. “I guess the letter worked.”

  The twins looked at each other.

  “I had a feeling Ms. Barlow was going to pay us soon, anyway,” said Amanda. “She wrote us a really nice note. We’ll show it to you.”

  “Oh. Maybe she’s just the forgetful type,” said Natasha. “See you later.”

  After the twins hung up, Molly asked, “Should we call Peichi? Or wait for her to call us?”

  The twins decided to go ahead and call, but no one answered. The twins decided not to leave a message.

  “Should I call Justin and tell him we got paid?” asked Amanda.

  Molly nodded. “Sure. We owe him money.”

  “I sorta feel weird calling him,” said Amanda. “What if he thinks I like him?”

  Molly chucked. “Hello! You do like him.”

  “That’s why I shouldn’t call him.”

  “Then I’ll call him,” said Molly. “I don’t like him.”

  “No, I want to do it! Maybe later.”

  BRRRIIIIIG!

  “Aaagh!” screeched the twins.

  “The ringer on this phone is just too loud,” said Molly, picking up the phone. “Hello?”

  “Hel-lo! It’s Peichi! Can I come over? Right now?”

  “Okay! See ya soon.”

  Twenty minutes later, Peichi was sitting in the garden with the twins. “So everything worked out okay,” she announced. “Guess what! Mr. McElroy and some police officers searched my grandparents’ store that night of our party. They found more stuff—some old Chinese coins!”

  The twins gasped.

  “Mr. McElroy asked my grandparents lots of questions,” Peichi went on. “And showed them photos of people whom the police are looking for. Those people stole lots of valuable old stuff from museums in China. They’re using my grandparents’ store to hide some of the stuff so they don’t have to hide it in their own homes. Then they try to sell it on the black market.”

  “What’s the black market?” asked Amanda.

  “Um, it’s when you sell stuff that’s illegal to sell,” explained Peichi. “I just learned that yesterday. Anyway, my grandparents will keep an eye out for the bad guys. And there will be undercover cops in the store, too.”

  “Cool!” cried the twins.

  “That museu
m’s gonna be really glad to get the pendant back,” Peichi said.

  “Did you get in trouble for not showing it to anyone ?” asked Molly.

  “Well, I didn’t get in trouble, but I sure got a lecture,” replied Peichi. “From my parents and my grandma. Luckily, my grandpa didn’t say anything to me. By then I think he felt sorry for me! But I guess they thought I’d been punished enough when I thought my grandparents were going to jail, so I’m not gonna be grounded.” She giggled. “Again.”

  “Peichi, you weren’t going to hide the pendant forever, were you?” Molly asked anxiously.

  “No, I really wasn’t,” replied Peichi. Her expression was serious. “I had a big idea. I really was going to show it to my whole family, once everyone had gotten to the party.” She sighed. “Lately, all my big ideas have been big mistakes!”

  The girls laughed.

  “We have something to tell you, too,” said Amanda. “Brenda Barlow finally paid us.” She reached into the pocket of her orange camouflage cargo shorts. “Here’s some money for you.”

  “Thanks!” said Peichi. “But I only made a salad.”

  “You have got to hear what Natasha did! It’s so funny!” exclaimed Amanda. “Her dad’s a lawyer, and he wrote this really scary letter to Brenda Barlow, telling her that Dish would sue her if she didn’t pay up! And guess what? She paid us the very next morning, before we even woke up! She slipped the money right under the front door!”

  Peichi cracked up. “Natasha did that for Dish? That is so great! Wow, so Dish has a lawyer now? This business is really taking off!”

  “Seriously, though, that was really nice of Natasha. She really helped us out. We should think about asking her to be a permanent Chef Girl again,” Molly said.

  Amanda nodded. “I think you’re right. But we should talk to Shawn first, when she gets back. We don’t want her to feel left out of Dish just because she’s away right now.