Mama dialed a number and put her phone to her ear. “Arthur? If you’re around, can you come quick? Also, can you bring your industrial bolt cutter?”
* * *
Triple J and Mr. Beiderman stood guard by the fence, just in case Mr. Huxley or the land developers dared to return, while the Vanderbeekers ran home to fetch Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie. It took time for them to walk to the garden, Mr. Jeet carefully navigating his walker, but they arrived just as Uncle Arthur and Auntie Harrigan pulled up in their black pickup truck. Since Uncle Arthur worked in construction, the Vanderbeekers depended on him for all their specialty-tool needs.
“Did someone call for an industrial bolt cutter?” he hollered from the driver’s-side window.
The Vanderbeekers cheered, and Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie smiled politely, despite wondering why they were all standing on the sidewalk for no apparent reason.
Uncle Arthur squeezed into a No Parking zone and jumped out of the truck with the bolt cutter, followed by Auntie Harrigan, who was wearing a red summer dress, her hair dyed the colors of a mermaid’s tail.
The kids showed him where the lock hung on the gate, and without asking a single question, he began the countdown.
“Three!” he yelled.
“Two!” yelled the kids.
“Wait!” came a voice.
Everyone swiveled to find Herman, Orlando, Benjamin, and Angie running down the street.
“Benny!” Isa yelled.
When Benjamin reached her, they greeted each other with a happy, awkward hug. Herman, winded, rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
“I’m—so—sorry—about Dad,” he rasped.
Laney tackled him in a hug, and Hyacinth said, “We’re glad you’re here,” and when Oliver slugged him on the shoulder and said, “You’re not so bad,” Herman lit up like a dozen fireflies.
“Should we try again?” Uncle Arthur asked.
“Yes!” everyone yelled.
And with a swift yank on the bolt cutters, the lock fell from the chain and everyone pushed the gate open and stepped inside.
* * *
Miss Josie gasped and Mr. Jeet’s jaw dropped as they took in the sight. The Vanderbeekers led them in slowly, allowing them to absorb the scene.
“You did it,” Miss Josie whispered. “I can’t believe it.”
Then Laney shrieked and pointed toward the middle of the garden, where a spray of flowers exploded from inside the brick circle.
“Her flowers grew!” Laney cried, running to them.
Mr. Beiderman followed her, his eyes wide in shock. When he got there, he reached out to touch a spray of black-eyed Susans, bright yellow flowers with fuzzy brown centers.
The rest of the crowd arrived and gathered around the display.
“Those were the seeds in Luciana’s box,” Laney told them. “We planted them and Jessie said they were too old to bloom but she was wrong because—see!”
And no one could dispute that, because right there was the proof that seeds could grow even in the mostly unlikely of circumstances.
“We need to study those seeds,” Jessie told Orlando.
“Maybe it was the rain?” Orlando offered. They both looked up at the sky, then leaned in for a closer inspection of the flowers.
Mama and Papa walked around in utter confusion, saying things like “You planted all this?” and “How is this possible?” Jessie and Orlando tinkered with something mysterious near the lavender plants. Mr. Jeet, Miss Josie, and Mr. Beiderman oohed and aahed over the recycled planters that hung from the western fence by the church, the knitted bench, Tilia of the Eternal Spring and the Silver Queen, the yarn bombing, and the fruit and vegetable gardens.
Finally, Jessie gave Oliver the thumbs-up signal.
“Mr. Jeet, Miss Josie, Mr. Beiderman!” Oliver called from the northeast corner of the garden. “We have something to show you.”
Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie made their way over at once, but Mr. Beiderman shook his head, as if he couldn’t take in one thing more. Laney grabbed his hand and dragged him to where the lavender grew. A recycled plastic planter painted to look like a groundhog sat at the entrance.
“Welcome to our lavender maze!” Hyacinth said with a sweeping gesture, as if she were greeting royalty.
Mr. Beiderman, Miss Josie, and Mr. Jeet stepped onto the path, and the sound of music filled the air. It was a waltz called “Roses from the South” by Johann Strauss II, recorded during Isa’s orchestra concert and downloaded so it played on the wireless speakers Jessie and Orlando had just set up.
“You told Hyacinth that Luciana said music helped plants grow,” Oliver explained. “And we know her favorite plants were lavender.”
“But—” Mr. Beiderman spluttered.
“We recorded Isa’s concert—” Jessie started.
“—and we set up these old speakers we found in the electronics recycling bin in Mr. Smiley’s building,” Orlando said.
“Then we installed a motion sensor in Laney’s goat planter—”
“It’s a groundhog!” Laney corrected her sister.
“—and now it will always play Luciana’s favorite music when someone walks through the lavender maze,” Jessie finished.
Mr. Beiderman didn’t respond, but his eyes were very shiny, and he put one hand on Jessie’s shoulder and the other on Orlando’s before Laney hugged him again and made him go through the maze with her four times.
* * *
Oliver walked over to Herman, who was adjusting the yarn-bomb pieces on the fence while everyone else was exclaiming over the plants and admiring the lavender maze.
“The garden lives to see another day,” Oliver said to him.
Herman nodded, and they watched as people discovered the lavender maze and exclaimed over the music.
“I wonder who gave us all those lavender plants,” Oliver said.
Herman smiled, and something about it made a light bulb turn on in Oliver’s brain. “Hey, was it you who left all those lavender plants and rosebushes by the gate?”
Herman shrugged and went back to fussing with the yarn flowers. “Yeah, so?”
“But that must have been expensive!” Oliver said. “We know because we looked it up online. I mean, those plants must have cost more than your—” He paused midsentence and glanced past the gate. He had gotten so used to seeing Herman’s bike leaning against the fence that now the spot looked so empty and all wrong. “Oh,” he finished.
“It’s fine,” Herman said. “I wanted to do it.”
Oliver paused. “Well, I have to start saving up again for my own bike, since my money . . . well, I used it for something else. We can do some jobs together to earn money. You’re okay cleaning toilets, right?”
“Only if we can get matching bikes,” Herman said, a smile filling his face.
“Of course,” Oliver said. He stuck out his hand, and Herman smiled and shook it.
* * *
Jessie, Orlando, and Isa were hanging around the lavender maze, watching delighted people engage the sensor and start the orchestra music going. Off to the side, Jessie noticed a balloon with the string tangled in the tree limb of the big silver maple.
“How did that balloon get there?” she asked Orlando and Isa.
They shrugged and followed her. “You cannot believe how much trash we pulled out of this lot,” Jessie said to her sister. “It could have filled a whole dumpster. I have made it my personal mission to keep this lot absolutely trash free.”
Jessie reached the tree and noticed an envelope attached to the bottom of the balloon string.
The envelope had her name on it. She looked at Isa and Orlando. “What is this?”
Orlando and Isa exchanged looks, and then Oliver and Mr. Beiderman and the rest of her family drifted over.
“I WONDER WHAT THAT IS!” Laney squealed, jumping up and down. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT COULD BE!”
“Read it out loud!” Isa said.
Jessie raised an eyebrow at everyone
before pulling off the envelope and opening it. She read it out loud. “‘Dear Jessie, We are so glad you will be joining us for our twenty-second year of science camp. Enclosed is a packing list, as well as an overview of the scientific theories we will be exploring. The camp will culminate in a special project . . .’” Jessie stopped reading and looked up. “But—what—How did—I’m so—What?”
Everyone laughed, and Laney couldn’t hold it in anymore. “You’re going to science camp! You’re going to science camp!” she chanted.
“How did you know?” Jessie asked Isa.
Isa smiled and pointed at Oliver. “It was his idea.” Jessie looked shocked.
“Really?” she asked.
“No biggie,” Oliver said, jumping up to grab a tree branch and swinging from it. “I found that letter saying you got in—”
Jessie’s eyes narrowed, but Oliver hurried on.
“—and Mr. Beiderman and I called to see if there was still space for you, and they’d just had a cancellation, so a bunch of us pitched in to pay for room and board and now you get to go.”
“I wish you had told us about the camp back when you first got in,” Isa told Jessie.
Jessie shrugged. “I wasn’t that excited about it.”
Mr. Beiderman plucked the letter from Jessie’s hand. “So I should tell them you don’t want to go?”
Jessie grabbed the letter back, then smoothed out the wrinkles. “Don’t you dare.”
Epilogue
Three months later
“I think my pumpkin will be the biggest.”
“What are we going to do with all this zucchini?”
“Do you think Mama is going to win the best pie competition?”
The Vanderbeekers, along with what seemed like everyone else on 141st Street, were milling around the garden. Isa and Benny were examining the pie selections (Mama had made ten, and everyone felt bad for the rest of the competition). Laney was forcing Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie to inspect every single pumpkin in the pumpkin contest (everyone knew that Laney’s huge pumpkin, which she had grown between the Silver Queen and Tilia of the Eternal Spring, was going to win). Jessie and Orlando were unsuccessfully bobbing for apples and laughing hysterically (“Do you think that’s sanitary?” Mr. Beiderman had asked them). Hyacinth, Herman, and Mr. Jones the postman were decorating Tilia of the Eternal Spring with tiny knitted pumpkins and spiders. Mama and Auntie Harrigan were fussing with the food tables, refilling bowls and rearranging the food to facilitate optimal traffic flow. Oliver, Angie, and Jimmy L were selling cups of apple cider; Mr. Beiderman insisted that all proceeds go toward buying spring bulbs they could put into the ground before the first frost.
Two months ago, Jessie and Orlando had changed up the musical selection in the lavender maze. It now played a mix of classical music, since everyone except Isa and Mr. Beiderman was getting tired of hearing “Roses from the South” over and over again. But at the moment, no one could hear it because Uncle Arthur had connected speakers to his phone and was playing pop songs, and lots of people were dancing in a grassy area surrounding Luciana’s flowers, which were still blooming and were the centerpiece of the garden.
To call everyone’s attention for the Harvest Festival speeches—which the Vanderbeeker kids had rehearsed for the past week—Uncle Arthur switched off the music and Isa took out her violin and started playing a snazzy jig she had learned from her friends at orchestra camp.
Her violin drew a crowd the same way Mama’s baking did. When Isa struck the last chord with a flourish, Hyacinth and Herman stepped up to Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie and draped them with yarn necklaces they had made.
“Thank you all for coming to our very first Harvest Celebration,” Jessie began.
“Today we’d like to dedicate this garden . . .” Oliver said.
“. . . to our very wonderful neighbors . . .” Isa continued.
“. . . who started us on this journey in the first place,” Jessie finished.
There was a pause, and everyone looked at one another and raised their eyebrows; then Oliver hissed, “Laney, that’s your cue!”
Laney, who had gotten distracted watching a squirrel attempt to steal a piece of pie, jumped up and ran to Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie, who were seated on folding chairs. She gathered two ropes attached to a bedsheet and gave one end to Mr. Jeet and one end to Miss Josie.
“If you need help pulling, just let me know,” Laney said.
Mr. Jeet gestured for her to grab hold of his rope, and Hyacinth offered to help Miss Josie, and on the count of three, they pulled down the sheet, which fell on Franz and caused him to yelp and run in circles until Oliver stepped on one of the ropes and the sheet slid off the dog’s back.
A cheer rose into the air when everyone saw the sign. Then half the crowd gathered around to wait their turn to hug Mr. Jeet and Miss Josie, while the other half went to rescue the pies from being stolen by the squirrel. Uncle Arthur put the music back on, and the Vanderbeekers had a few moments to stand back and observe the garden, watch their friends and family, and think about all they had accomplished over the summer.
“A garden should always have a party in it,” Jessie said to her siblings, who stood around her to admire the sign.
“Very poetic,” Isa said approvingly.
“Who said that?” Oliver asked suspiciously. “Not that Audrey Hepburn person, right?”
“Nope. Just me,” Jessie said.
“You should write that on a card and tie it up to the fence,” Hyacinth suggested, pointing to the dozens of quote cards the neighbors had contributed to the fence in the past three months.
“Maybe I will,” Jessie replied.
And she did. As it turned out, all the Vanderbeekers had something to say.
Acknowledgments
A finished book is a kind of magic, and I’m so grateful to everyone at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers for making this magic happen. First I have to thank Ann Rider, my wonderful editor, for loving the Vanderbeekers as much as I do. Ann’s editorial eye, combined with her intuition and kindness, has made this book a complete joy to write. Tara Shanahan is the best (and most punctual!) publicist ever, and I will gladly travel the country with her anytime. Thanks to Lisa Vega for the beautiful book design, and to the wonderful Lisa DiSarro and Amanda Acevedo for their hard work putting the Vanderbeekers into the hands of teachers and librarians. A shout-out to Alia Almeida and to all the HMH sales reps who travel miles and miles to share books with booksellers. I’m incredibly grateful to Cat Onder, Mary Wilcox, Karen Walsh, Lily Kessinger, Mary Magrisso, Lauren Cepero, Candace Finn, Elizabeth Agyemang, and Kristin Brodeur for their wonderful support for me and this book. Many thanks to Colleen Fellingham and Alix Redmond for their meticulous copyediting, and a huge hug to Karl James Mountford for another stunningly gorgeous book cover and to map illustrator Jennifer Thermes for making the Vanderbeekers’ neighborhood so inviting and lovely.
My Curtis Brown family has provided so much enthusiasm and support every step of the way. I don’t know what I would do without my agent Ginger Clark, and I dedicate the wombat reference in this book to her. A basket of adorable puppies goes to Tess Callero, and a flourishing vegetable harvest to Holly Frederick, the first person at Curtis Brown to read about the Vanderbeeker family and to believe in their story.
Librarians, teachers, booksellers, readers—thank you for welcoming the Vanderbeekers into your lives and for spreading the word about them. It means the world to me!
An author needs writer friends, and I have an embarrassment of riches in that area. My writing partner, Janice Nimura, offers endless encouragement, lunch, and chocolate. I am grateful to my middle grade critique partners, Laura Shovan, Casey Lyall, Timanda Wertz, and Margaret Dilloway, who read early drafts of this book and gave invaluable feedback. The community of Kid Lit writers is unbelievable, and I am incredibly thankful to Linda Sue Park, Linda Urban, Jennifer Chambliss Bertman, the incredible 2017 debut group, and so many others who have su
pported this book and provided excellent counsel along the way.
A special thanks to Lauren Hart, my dear friend, who reads every draft and provides daily encouragement and love. I am also grateful to Emily Rabin, Katie Graves-Abe, Desiree Welsing, Michael Glaser, and Kathleen Glaser for always being ready to help in any way they can.
A huge thanks to the many communities that inspire and encourage me, including the Town School, the Town School Book Club, Book Riot, the New York Society Library, the New York Public Library, the Book Cellar, the Lucy Moses School, and my Harlem neighbors.
Finally, this dream job of writing children’s books is only because of the loving support of my family: Dan, Kaela, and Lina. They make my world go round.
More Vanderbeeker Adventures Coming in 2019!
It’s springtime in Harlem, and the Vanderbeeker kids have one glorious week off from school. Their plans include preparing for a high-stakes violin audition (Isa), working on the best science fair project ever (Jessie), building the treehouse of his dreams (Oliver), knitting a pair of house slippers for Franz (Hyacinth), and practicing flips (Laney). Their plans do not include singlehandedly destroying Mama’s baking business. While the kids race against the clock to fix their epic mistake, they realize that nothing is as easy as it seems, especially when mysterious packages arrive at their door and threaten to ruin everything.
In this third book in the Vanderbeeker series, revisit the warmth of the brownstone on 141st Street and watch the Vanderbeekers bring a little more joy and kindness to the neighborhood, one hilarious, impossible plan at a time.
Visit www.hmhco.com or your favorite retailer to order the book.
About the Author
Photo by Corey Hayes
The Vanderbeekers and the Hidden Garden Page 15