Emily's Ghost

by Topher

  Chapter Eight

  The girls planned their caper for that weekend. Shayna’s grandmother always left her museum keys on a nail next to the back door. Since the museum was closed on Sunday, the girls planned a sleep over on Saturday night. They could get into the museum, get the pipe, and then visit the Chief the next day. That way, they could give the pipe to the Chief before anyone even noticed it was gone.

  They met at Emily’s house on Saturday. The girls tried hard to pretend like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, but they were excited and nervous about what they were planning. After a quick dinner, they went into Emily’s room.

  “OK,” Shayna whispered. She took the keys out of her duffel bag. “I got the keys. My grandmother won’t see they are gone, but I have to get them back by tomorrow night.”

  “No problem,” Emily said. “If everything goes right, we’ll be all done by then.” Reaching under her bed, she pulled out a note book and opened it to a bookmark. On the page, she had drawn the floor layout of the museum. “I made a map of the museum we can use to plan it.” Shayna and Sydni leaned close to look over the drawing. At the top of the map, Emily labeled it “Museum Heist.”

  “What’s a heist?” Sydni asked.

  “That’s where you steal something,” Shayna said. “It’s a robbery.”

  “Why don’t you just call it a robbery then?” Sydni asked.

  “Cuz heist sounds more professional,” Emily said. “Now pay attention.” She placed three people-shaped paper figures on the map. One was labeled with an ‘E’, and the other two were labeled with an ‘S.’

  “These are us: me, and Shayna and Sydni,” Emily said.

  “Which one am I?” Shayna asked.

  Emily held up one of the cutouts. “Ahhhh… ‘S’, duh…”

  “But two of them have an ‘S’” Sydni said.

  Emily held up the other cutout in front of Sydni. “This one has small glasses – it’s you. Shayna’s has big glasses – it’s her.”

  Sydni and Shayna looked at each other then looked at Emily.

  “Our glasses are the same size,” Sydni said.

  “Yeah,” Shayna said. “I can’t tell which one is which.”

  “Oh, good grief,” Emily sighed. “The Sydni one has blue eyes, and the Shayna one has green eyes!”

  Shayna said, “I have blue eyes.”

  Emily looked closely at Shayna. “Oh, you do have blue eyes. Well for now, you have green eyes!”

  “Cool,” Shayna said. “I always wanted green eyes.”

  “Ok, now listen,” Emily said. “I will use the keys to open the front door, and we will go in and head for the display case with the pipe.”

  “Wait a minute,” Shayna said. “These are my keys, so I’m going to unlock the door.”

  “It’s my plan,” Emily said. “I get to unlock the door.”

  Shayna cross her arms and scrunched up her mouth. “Well you are not gettin’ the keys. They’re mine and I’m not giving them to you. Besides, we can’t go in the front door.”

  “Why not?” Sydni asked. “How are we going to get in?”

  Shayna wagged her finger. “Well, I know the way in, and I’m not tellin’ cuz Emily thinks she gets the keys and I say she doesn’t.”

  “Oh fine,” Emily said. “You can unlock the door. Now why can’t we go in the front?”

  Shayna smiled broadly and grabbed a pair of scissors and a piece of paper. She cut into the paper and whistled to herself. In a moment, she cut out the figure of a person. Using a pencil, she marked it with the letter ‘L’. Then she placed the figure just inside the museum near the front door.

  “This is Larry and he's the museum guard,” Shayna grinned. “If we go in the front door, he’ll catch us.”

  Sydni’s eyes got big. “There’s a guard?”

  “Yep,” Shayna said. “But he’s really nice. He gave me a soda the last time I went there with my gramma. We came in the back door, and I found Larry asleep at his desk by the front door, and I woke him up. He bought me a soda and made me promise I wouldn’t tell my gramma he was sleeping.”

  “Oh great,” Emily dropped her pencil and crossed her arms. “How are we supposed to get in there with Larry guarding the place?”

  Shayna laughed. “Duh! Cuz he'll be asleep, and we will go in the back door.”

  “Well, if he isn’t asleep, we are getting out of there,” Emily said.

  The girls agreed to this, and Emily went through the plan on how to get into the museum and get the peace pipe. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do, and they figured the heist would not be a problem. At 10:00, Emily’s mom stuck her head in the door.

  “What are you girls doing?”

  The girls jumped and giggled. “We are playing with paper dolls, Mom,” Emily said.

  “Well, that sounds like fun,” Emily’s mom said. “But it is time to get to bed.”

  All three girls said, “OK!”

  Emily’s mom looked surprised. “Oh, so no argument? That’s unusual.”

  “Nope,” Emily said. “We are all tired and ready to go to sleep.” Shayna and Sydni nodded.

  “Alright,” Mom said. “I guess I will see you three in the morning.”

  “If everything goes well,” Emily said, “you will see us.” They giggled.

  Mom got a weird look on her face. “What are you girls up to?”

  “Nuthin,” Sydni said.

  “We’re just playing,” Emily said. “But we’re tired now, so we're going to go to sleep.” Sydni and Shayna nodded their heads, but none of them moved to get in bed.

  Mom sighed. “I’m going to bed. You girls keep the noise down.”

  “OK,” they said. Mom closed the door. Emily hopped to the door and pressed her ear against it and listened.

  “Mom’s gone upstairs and she’ll watch TV in bed,” Emily said. “Once she is asleep, we can sneak out.”