Andy opened the basement door and waited. When Aunt Janet was in the kitchen, he turned and started toward the front door.
“Let’s go,” Aunt Janet called.
She was walking toward the front door.
“I can’t take you to the Perlmans’,” Andy told the gerbils. “She’ll see us. I have to take you somewhere else.”
Andy looked around. Then he saw the door to the garage. He leaned the tank against the door. He reached under the tank and opened the door.
The garage was filled with boxes, old furniture, and toys. Andy put the tank on the old kitchen table. He didn’t like seeing his friends with all the family junk, but he was glad Aunt Janet wouldn’t know where they were.
“You can’t trust her,” Andy told them. “She thinks you’re mice and she hates mice.”
“Andrew,” Aunt Janet called. “We’re ready to go.”
I’ll have to save Slither and Sylvia later.
Andy waited. He didn’t want Aunt Janet to see him coming out of the garage. He didn’t want her to know where he hid the gerbils.
He heard Aunt Janet start her car.
Honk! Honk!
“Bye,” he told the gerbils.
Andy rushed from the garage and out of the house.
“Wait for me!” Andy shouted. “Wait for me!”
Chapter 10
Look at Him
Andy ran to the front of the house. He started to open the back door of the car, where Rachel and Tamika were sitting. It was a small car, but Andy would rather sit crowded in the back with them than up front with Aunt Janet.
“Please, get in front with me,” Aunt Janet said.
Andy opened the front door on the passenger’s side. He looked back at Rachel and Tamika.
They knew Andy did not want to sit with Aunt Janet. Rachel struggled. She tried not to laugh. But she did.
“Is something wrong back there?” Aunt Janet asked.
Rachel held her hand over her mouth.
“No,” Tamika said and giggled. “Nothing is wrong.”
Andy put on the seat belt and looked straight ahead. Aunt Janet backed the car out of the driveway. She drove down the block and turned onto the main road. She was driving so slowly.
Can’t you go a little faster? Andy thought. I want to see Evan.
Aunt Janet drove past a sign: SPEED LIMIT 35 MILES PER HOUR. Andy looked at the speedometer. The needle pointed to exactly thirty-five.
Wow, Andy thought. Aunt Janet really follows rules.
Andy imagined her in school, in fourth grade like him.
If the teacher said, “No talking,” Aunt Janet would never talk, even when she got home. Poor little Janet Russell. When she came home her mom would say, “Tell me, how was your day?” But little Janet Russell wouldn’t answer.
Andy wondered what little Aunt Janet looked like and what she liked to do. I bet at recess she liked to play with buckets, mops, and brooms.
The traffic light turned yellow and Aunt Janet stopped the car.
“When we get to the hospital, take a look at how clean it is,” Aunt Janet said. “That’s part of my job, keeping the hospital where I work clean. Clean is important.”
Here it comes, Andy thought. She’s going to say that animals aren’t clean.
But Aunt Janet didn’t say that. The traffic light changed to green and she slowly drove away from the light. When they reached the end of the next block, Andy looked at the speedometer. The needle pointed again to exactly thirty-five.
Aunt Janet turned into the hospital parking lot.
“We’re a few minutes early,” she said after she parked the car. “That will give us time to buy something in the gift shop.”
Andy, Rachel, and Tamika followed Aunt Janet into the hospital. Mr. Russell was in the lobby waiting for them. He hugged them all.
“You should see Evan,” he said. “He’s so cute. He’s got Rachel’s eyes and nose and Andy’s ears.”
“Doesn’t he have anything of his own?” Andy asked.
Mr. Russell laughed and said, “Sure he does. He has a little dimple in his chin. Neither of you have that.”
Andy looked at Rachel. Her nose and eyes! My ears! That doesn’t sound cute. Maybe it’s the dimple, Andy thought. Maybe that’s what makes Evan so cute.
“Just wait till you see him,” Mr. Russell said.
Mr. Russell took them to the desk. “They don’t let children upstairs, just brothers and sisters,” he whispered. Then he told the woman that Andy was the baby’s brother and Rachel was the baby’s sister. “And,” he said, “Tamika is like a member of our family. She’s almost Evan’s second sister.”
The woman smiled and said they could all go up.
“But I wanted to buy a toy for the baby,” Aunt Janet said.
“Evan doesn’t need new toys. He can play with Rachel and Andy’s old things.”
“Really?” Andy asked.
“Sure,” his father told him as they walked to the elevator. “He’s your brother.”
“Are the toys clean?” Aunt Janet asked. “If Evan is going to play with them, they have to be clean.”
Here it comes, Andy thought again. You were just waiting to tell Dad that toys have to be clean and, of course, that I can’t have germy animals in the house.
But Aunt Janet didn’t say that.
The elevator door opened. The Russells, Tamika, and an old lady with a cane got on.
Mr. Russell pressed the button for the fifth floor. The woman pressed the button for the third floor.
The woman spread her feet slightly apart. She held her cane with both hands and leaned slightly forward.
“We had a baby,” Andy told her.
The woman smiled.
“His name is Evan and my dad built a new room in our house,” he went on. “It was the attic. In a few months the baby will move into my room and I’ll move upstairs.”
The woman smiled.
“I helped build it.”
The elevator door opened. It was the third floor.
The woman still had both hands on her cane. She didn’t move to get off the elevator.
Mr. Russell held the doors open and told the woman, “I think this is your floor.”
The woman smiled.
Mr. Russell pointed to the large 3 on the wall just outside the elevator.
“Oh my,” the woman said as she got off. “Thank you.”
When the door closed, Mr. Russell smiled and told Andy, “I don’t think she heard you. She didn’t hear me, either.”
The elevator door opened again. It was the fifth floor. Everyone followed Mr. Russell through two large doors, past a long desk, to a hall lined with windows. On the other side of the windows were lots of bassinets. There was a baby in each one. And there were lots of people in the hall looking through the windows at the babies.
Mr. Russell went to one of the middle windows. “There he is,” he said and pointed. “Evan is right there.”
Andy looked at his baby brother. He was sleeping. Evan looked so small to Andy, even for a baby. Then Andy looked at the babies in the other bassinets. They looked small, too, just as small as Evan.
Andy stood there and watched his brother. Evan wasn’t doing very much, just lying there and sleeping, but still, Andy was fascinated. He really is cute, he thought.
The baby girl in the bassinet next to Evan’s woke up. She started to cry.
“Shhh. Quiet,” Andy whispered. “Don’t wake my brother.”
But she did wake him. Evan opened his eyes. He stretched his little arms and legs, opened his mouth, and started to cry.
Look at him, Andy thought. He’s even cute when he cries.
Andy looked up at his father and Aunt Janet. They were both smiling. Andy saw tears in Aunt Janet’s eyes.
I wonder if she was standing here and smiling nine years ago. Maybe there were tears in her eyes then, too, when she saw me for the first time. Maybe she really did think I was cute.
“Let’s go,
” Mr. Russell whispered. “Let’s visit Mom.”
Mr. Russell walked past the windows to the doors at the other end of the hall. Rachel, Tamika, and Aunt Janet followed him. Andy was reluctant to leave his brother, but he didn’t want to be left there alone, and he did want to see his mother. He hurried and caught up with the others.
They all followed Mr. Russell to room 518. There were two beds in the room. Mrs. Russell was in the first bed. Another woman was in the second bed, the one near the window. Mrs. Russell was resting.
“Shhh,” Mr. Russell cautioned. “We don’t want to wake Mom.”
“I’m awake,” Mrs. Russell said and opened her eyes. “Did you see him? Did you see our Evan?”
“Yes,” Aunt Janet said. “He’s beautiful.”
Rachel, Tamika, Mr. Russell, and Aunt Janet all talked at once. They talked about how beautiful the baby was, about his sweet round face, his light blonde hair, and the little dimple in his chin.
Andy just listened.
“What about you?” Mrs. Russell asked Andy. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s perfect,” Andy said.
Mr. and Mrs. Russell smiled. Then Aunt Janet looked at her watch. “It’s late,” she said. “Visiting hours are almost over. We should go.”
“Yes,” Mrs. Russell agreed. “And I need to rest. Soon, Evan and I will be home, maybe tomorrow. Then there’ll be plenty to do.”
Great, Andy thought. Then Aunt Janet will leave.
Andy, Rachel, and Tamika kissed Mrs. Russell.
“Thank you, Janet,” Mrs. Russell said, “for taking care of the children.”
“If you want,” Aunt Janet offered, “I can stay for a few days to help, so you can rest.”
NO! Andy thought.
But Mrs. Russell said, “Oh yes. That would be great.”
Chapter 11
Worse than Vege-Eggs
“We can’t go yet,” Rachel said once they were out of Mrs. Russell’s room. “We have to say good-bye to Evan.”
They went to the nursery. Evan was sleeping. His small hand with its five tiny fingers was outside the blanket. Andy looked at his own, much bigger, hand. He couldn’t imagine that his hand was once as small as Evan’s.
“Visiting hours are over,” Aunt Janet said. “We have to go.”
“Bye, brother,” Andy said quietly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
In the car, Aunt Janet said, “Right now he just drinks milk. But when he gets older, I’ll make baby food for Evan.”
Andy said, “I don’t think you should make him Vege-Eggs.”
Aunt Janet laughed. “Of course not. I’ll make creamed carrots and spinach and chicken.”
Yuck! Andy thought. That sounds worse than Vege-Eggs.
“When we get home,” Aunt Janet said, “We have to finish cleaning the house. We have to make it hospital clean. And Andy, you have to put up your WELCOME, EVAN signs.”
“Welcome, Evan,” Andy said. “Welcome, Evan. That gives me a great idea for a sign. I’ll write WELCOME TO EVANSVILLE. His name is Evan and Evansville is a real place.”
Aunt Janet stopped at a traffic light and told the children, “I’m going to do the laundry tonight, so give me what you’re wearing when we get home and get in your pajamas.”
Pajamas! Andy thought. First I have to rescue the gerbils from the garage and take them to the Perlmans’. I have to take Slither to the Perlmans’, too.
Aunt Janet parked the car in the driveway. When she opened the door to the house she reminded the children, “Finish your jobs and get into pajamas. In twenty minutes I’ll start the laundry.”
Only twenty minutes! Andy thought. I have to work real fast.
He hurried downstairs. He turned the computer on.
“Let’s go,” he urged the computer. “Let’s go.”
The motor hummed. The screen lit up. Information about the computer’s memory and antivirus program flashed on the screen. Andy wasn’t interested in any of that. He was in a rush.
Finally he could begin. He typed WELCOME TO EVANSVILLE in the sign-making program. Then he set the file to print.
The printer made its getting-ready noises and Andy took Slither’s tank off the shelf.
“We’re going for a little trip,” Andy told Slither. “We’re going to the Perlmans’.” Then, as he carried the tank upstairs, he whispered, “We have to be very quiet.”
Andy opened the basement door and listened. He heard the water in the kitchen sink running. He heard someone walking about upstairs. Andy walked slowly toward the front door.
“What’s that?” Aunt Janet asked. She was standing at the top of the stairs.
Andy turned. He had hoped to get safely outside before Aunt Janet could see the tank and Slither.
“Is that your goldfish?” Aunt Janet asked as she walked down the stairs. “I like goldfish.”
“It’s Slither,” Andy said quickly and went out the front door.
Andy rushed over to the Perlmans’. He left Slither there. Then he rescued the gerbils from the garage and took them to the Perlmans’, too. He decided Sylvia would be safe at home, since Aunt Janet liked goldfish.
Andy looked at the four tanks on Dr. Perlman’s desk. He was glad they were safe, but he worried about what would happen next. He wondered what his dad would say when Aunt Janet told him that animals have germs.
Tonight, when Dad gets home, I’ve got to talk to him first, Andy thought, before Aunt Janet gets to him. Once she talks to him about germs and babies, it will be too late.
Chapter 12
What Did I Do Now?
Andy said good-bye to his animals and went home. He hoped he could hang up his signs without seeing Aunt Janet. Then he would change into his pajamas and wait in bed by the window and watch for his dad.
Andy opened the front door and looked into the kitchen. Rachel and Tamika were there, but not Aunt Janet. He looked upstairs. He didn’t see her there, either. Andy went to the basement and there she was. She had a bucket of ammoniasmelling water and was washing the floor.
“What are you doing?” Andy asked. “That stuff smells terrible.”
“I’m cleaning with ammonia. It’s what we use in the hospital,” she said. “It kills germs. I’m starting down here and I’ll work my way up.”
Andy was glad his animals were at the Perlmans’. He didn’t think they’d like the ammonia smell.
Aunt Janet pointed to the fish tank and asked, “Is that Slither?”
“No, that’s Sylvia.”
“Why don’t you keep Slither and Sylvia together?” Aunt Janet asked. “Goldfish are a lot like people, you know. They like company.”
Andy was glad Aunt Janet thought Slither was a fish. She was afraid of gerbils, so he was sure she’d be afraid of a snake.
“I took Slither to a neighbor’s house,” Andy said.
Aunt Janet washed the counters and the computer stand.
Andy took the WELCOME TO EVANSVILLE sign and the others from the printer. He shut off the computer and went upstairs. He was glad to get away from Aunt Janet and the ammonia.
Andy hung all four signs in the hall, one on top of the other, opposite the front door. He stood back and admired his tower of signs:
WELCOME!
WELCOME!
WELCOME!
WELCOME TO EVANSVILLE!
Evan is going to love this, he thought.
“It looks good,” a voice said.
“Is that you, Evan? Do you really like it?” Andy asked.
“No, it’s us,” Rachel and Tamika said, giggling. They were on the stairs.
“Oh. Oops.” Andy went upstairs to change. He had just taken out his pajamas when he heard a scream from the kitchen. He rushed downstairs.
Rachel and Tamika were standing in the kitchen, right by the answering machine.
“Listen to this!” Tamika said. “My mother called while we were at the hospital.”
She pressed the PLAY button.
Message one.
Andy looked at Tamika. He had seen her smile before, but not like this. Her smile seemed to stretch from one ear to the other.
Tamika picked up the phone to call her mother but the line was busy. “I’ll wait a few minutes and try again,” she told Andy and Rachel. Then she played the rest of the messages.
Message two.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Russell, this is Tamika’s aunt Mandy. I’ll come by tomorrow afternoon, after school, with Tamika’s mom. Then we’ll take Tamika home! Thank you for being such good friends to her. I’ll see you all tomorrow. Good-bye.”
“I’m so happy for you,” Rachel said.
“I think I’m happy, too,” Andy added. “No. I know I’m happy for you, but I’m sad for me. I really liked having you here.”
“But I’m going home,” Tamika said. “Ill miss you, too, but I’m going home.”
Message three.
“Carol? Carol? Are you there? This is Jake. Please, pick up.”
“There’s no Carol here,” Andy, Rachel, and Tamika said and laughed. “Poor Jake.”
Jake waited. “Please,” he pleaded again. “Did you forget my number? Here it is.” And Jake left his telephone number.
That was your last message.
“I want to listen to Mom’s message again,” Tamika said and pushed the Save button.
“And I want to call Jake.”
Andy dialed Jake’s number.
“Hello, Jake,” Andy said. “You keep dialing the wrong number and asking for Carol.”
“I do?”
“Yes. And that’s why Carol doesn’t call back.”
It's a Baby, Andy Russell Page 4