The Vanderbeekers Lost and Found

by Karina Yan Glaser

  “Hey,” Orlando said. “Thanks for coming out.”

  “Mama made me take a walk because I was in a terrible mood,” Jessie said. “You looked good out there, Mr. B.”

  “I hate interval training,” Mr. Beiderman replied.

  “‘Hate’ is a strong word,” Jessie chastised, imitating her mom’s voice.

  Mr. Beiderman scowled. “I have strong negative feelings about interval training.”

  “You did just fine,” Jessie replied. “How did you get to be such an amazing runner?”

  “Right?” Orlando said, taking another slug from his water bottle. “He’s getting so good.”

  “On Sunday, get ready to have two million people cheering you on,” Jessie said. “Laney is making you a shirt with your name on it so people will know to yell your name out.”

  Mr. Beiderman groaned. “I was hoping she had forgotten about that shirt.”

  “You’re going to love it,” Orlando said. “It will give you a boost when you’re running. And it will help the cross-country team find you when we join you on the course.”

  “I want to wear this,” Mr. Beiderman said, gesturing to his all-black workout clothes.

  “No, no,” Jessie said, wagging a finger at him. “Laney’s heart would be broken.”

  “C’mon,” Orlando said. “It’ll be fun. People wear all sorts of funny things when they run the marathon. Chicken costumes. Superhero outfits complete with fake muscles. Business suits. A T-shirt with your name on it will look tame in comparison.”

  “Laney has been excited about making your marathon shirt for weeks,” Jessie reminded him.

  “Fine,” Mr. B grumbled. “I’ll wear it.”

  Jessie smiled. “Good. Also, this might be a good time for me to warn you that she’s putting a lot of glitter on it.”

  Mr. Beiderman sighed, and Jessie and Orlando laughed. It was the first time she had laughed or heard Orlando laugh in a week, and it felt good to let herself be happy, if only for a few moments.

  Wednesday, October 30

  Four Days Until the New York City Marathon

  Twenty-Five

  In all the heartache of the past week, the Vanderbeekers had almost forgotten about the Halloween 5K Fun Run they’d organized for October 31. Oliver had first gotten the idea that summer when they’d learned that Mr. Beiderman was hard at work training for the marathon. After a lengthy family meeting during which they discussed the probability of Mr. Beiderman’s finishing the 26.2-mile course (Jessie calculated the chance for success at 2.4 percent), they decided it might be nice to have a practice 5K run beforehand. The probability of him completing a 5K, which was just over three miles, was much higher.

  When the Vanderbeekers had looked at the calendar to schedule the 5K, they were happily surprised to find that the New York City marathon was just a few days after Halloween, which made October 31 the perfect day to do the fun run. People could run in costume, which meant that some might also dress up their pets, an idea that greatly appealed to all of them.

  Papa had chatted with some of the running groups in Harlem (they all loved the idea) and then coordinated with the Parks Department and the City College of New York (they also loved the idea), and the Halloween 5K was born.

  It was only when Oliver, Laney, and Hyacinth went to school that morning that they were reminded of the event. Everyone was talking about their costumes. Thankfully, Hyacinth had prepared costumes a month ago; the Vanderbeekers, Mr. Beiderman, and Orlando were dressing up as a BLT sandwich, only in place of bacon they were substituting avocado because Hyacinth and Laney refused to eat bacon since it came from pigs.

  Hyacinth had procured large sheets of brown, green, and red felt, as well as foam core, and had transformed them into slices of bread, a slice of avocado, and a round tomato. Laney was going to wear a frilly green dress and call herself lettuce, Mama and Papa would be the bread slices, and Hyacinth and Oliver flipped a coin to see who would be the remaining fixings. (No one wanted to be the tomato.)

  Oliver had lost the coin toss, and Hyacinth tried to make the tomato as visually pleasing as possible for him. When it was done, Oliver reluctantly put his costume on and proclaimed that he looked like target practice. Mama said he looked adorable, which made him feel even worse.

  But a deal was a deal. Oliver had hoped that Hyacinth would forget about the fun run, but it appeared now to be the one thing that excited her after the sadness of the previous weeks. Jessie, Orlando, and Mr. Beiderman were dressing up as condiments: ketchup, mustard, and sriracha. Isa and Miss Josie flatly refused to either dress up or run; they volunteered to greet finishers with cups of water and Halloween candy instead.

  * * *

  At school, Hyacinth took out her knitting at recess and sat in her usual spot on top of the storage bins, which was a quiet, sunny place to spend twenty minutes before going back to her chaotic classroom. A couple of minutes later, Maria joined her with her own bag of knitting.

  “Look what I have,” Maria said, opening the bag so Hyacinth could see inside.

  “Wow,” Hyacinth said, looking at five skeins of yarn and a few different sizes of knitting needles.

  “And,” Maria continued, “I finished the square I was working on, and you can have your needles back because my grandma gave me some of hers and all this yarn. She says she wants to meet you because she’s never been able to get me into knitting and she’s surprised you were able to convince me it’s fun.”

  Hyacinth smiled.

  “Seriously, though,” Maria said. “She wants to meet you. She’s bringing me to the fun run tomorrow. Do you have a costume?”

  Hyacinth nodded and told Maria about their sandwich costume.

  Maria sighed. “My parents were supposed to get me a costume, but they ended up having to work. My grandma said she’d take me to Goodwill this afternoon, but I doubt they’ll have any costumes this close to Halloween.”

  “Maybe you can be a part of our sandwich,” Hyacinth said. “You can be, um, hmm . . .”

  “It’s okay,” Maria said, pulling out the light-green square she was working on. “I’ll think of something.”

  “I know!” Hyacinth said, her eyes lingering on the green yarn. “You can be alfalfa sprouts! We can make a bunch of finger knitting and drape it all over you!”

  Maria shook her head. “Wouldn’t that take a long time? We already have this big quilt to finish.”

  “Oh, finger knitting is so quick and easy,” Hyacinth said. “We could make your costume fast. I’ll show you.”

  Maria had a ball of white yarn, so Hyacinth showed her how to wrap the yarn around her fingers to create a long chain coming down. By the time recess ended, they had ten six-inch strands. Now they just needed to wrap the top of each strand with light-green yarn, and it would look exactly like an alfalfa sprout. Then they could sew them all to a shirt.

  “Thanks for letting me be a vegetable in your sandwich,” Maria said with a happy smile.

  “The more veggies in our sandwich,” Hyacinth said, “the better.”

  When the bell rang, the two new friends headed back to their classrooms. Halfway across the blacktop, Maria looped her arm through Hyacinth’s, and for the first time in weeks, Hyacinth felt hope bloom in her chest.

  Thursday, October 31

  Three Days Until the New York City Marathon

  Twenty-Six

  The next day, Laney waited anxiously for Isa to pick her up after school so she could get into her costume. Maria, Hyacinth’s friend, was coming home with them, and her grandma would meet her at the finish line.

  The route would begin on 141st Street at St. Nicholas Avenue, proceed up a steep hill to Convent Avenue, then go through City College’s campus. The course then cut across St. Nicholas Park and ended with a set of stone stairs that led to the finish line. Finishers would be greeted with water, lots of candy, and a dance party.

  Laney could not wait to get dressed up!

  As the lettuce, Laney knew she had the best
costume of all. Her dress was frilly, to make it look as if she were wearing green leaf lettuce, and the light fabric fluttered when she ran. She wanted to wear a pair of white boots with her outfit, but Mama insisted that she wear something she could run in, so she put on a pair of green sneakers that had belonged to Hyacinth and, before that, Oliver.

  “I’m ready!” Laney said as she skipped down the stairs in her outfit. Tuxedo followed, batting at the flowing panels of her dress.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to run in this,” Oliver said, gesturing to his large felt tomato costume.

  “It’ll be easier than running in this,” Jessie said, wearing a green hat, which was supposed to be the top of the sriracha bottle, and a narrow red dress that went down to her ankles. She shuffled along, restricted from her regular stride.

  A door opening and closing on next floor gave way to the sound of Mr. Beiderman clomping down the stairs in his mustard costume.

  “Whose idea was this, anyway?” he asked. “I don’t even like mustard.”

  “You know we organized this fun run especially for you,” Hyacinth told him, pinning a last alfalfa sprout to Maria’s shirt. “A warm-up before the big day.”

  “I love my costume,” Maria piped up, showing off her shirt, which had yarn alfalfa sprouts yarn sewn all over it.

  “How do I look?” Orlando said as he emerged from the bathroom dressed as a ketchup bottle, his arms splayed wide.

  Hyacinth flashed him a thumbs-up; then everyone was ordered to gather for a group photo in front of the brownstone. Mama and Papa (the bread pieces) stood on either side of Oliver, Hyacinth, Laney, and Maria in their respective tomato, avocado, lettuce, and alfalfa-sprout costumes. Next to them were the condiments: Jessie, Orlando, and Mr. Beiderman as sriracha, ketchup, and mustard.

  After Isa had taken dozens of photos on everyone’s phone per Mama’s request, and Miss Josie had taken a whole roll of photos on her ancient point-and-shoot camera, the costumed runners got ready to leave while Isa and Miss Josie went back inside to load up the Radio Flyer wagon with the Halloween cookies Mama had made that morning.

  “Mr. Jeet would have loved this,” Miss Josie said, blinking rapidly as tears formed in her eyes.

  Isa wrapped her arms around her neighbor. “Would you rather stay at home? I can manage the cookies and water on my own.”

  “Nonsense,” said Miss Josie, putting the large bakery boxes of cookies on top of the cooler. “I need to get out and keep moving. It would be too easy for me to stay at home, feeling sad.”

  Miss Josie held out her arm and Isa linked it with hers, and together they made their way down 141st Street toward the park.

  Twenty-Seven

  The Vanderbeekers and their friends gathered at the starting line on 141st and St. Nicholas. Orlando’s cross-country team was there, having decided that they would do the fun run instead of having practice. They’d wrapped toilet paper around themselves to look like mummies but must have done a hasty job because toilet paper was falling off and ripping off in various sections, revealing their running clothes underneath.

  Oliver kept an eye out for his friends, and finally he spotted Angie and Jimmy L in their basketball jerseys.

  “You guys didn’t dress up?” Oliver asked, now feeling supremely self-conscious about being a tomato.

  “We’re dressed up as basketball players,” Angie said with a shrug.

  “Isn’t that cheating?” Oliver asked, looking at her jersey. “I mean, that’s what you normally wear.”

  “Yeah, but it’s also a costume. There are plenty of kids wearing leotards and ballerina skirts,” Angie pointed out.

  “But they don’t wear that to school or as their normal clothes. That’s basically your life uniform.”

  Angie shrugged again, then gestured toward the starting line. “C’mon, let’s get to the front so we don’t get stuck behind the little kids.”

  Oliver, Angie, and Jimmy L made their way to the front of the line, where Orlando, Mr. Beiderman, and the high school cross-country team were stretching.

  “Ah, competition,” Orlando said to his team as he saw the trio heading his way. “Watch out, people. These kids are fast.”

  “I’m sure we can beat them,” a guy with round glasses said with a grin.

  “I’m sure you could,” Angie said easily, bringing her knee up to stretch her hamstring.

  “What?” Oliver said, offended at Angie’s lack of faith in their running. “I think—”

  “I mean,” Angie continued, “how could a few lowly sixth graders beat a top-ranked high school cross-country team?”

  “No offense,” commented a cross-country guy with dark-brown hair, “but you could never beat us. We’re too good.”

  Angie nodded in agreement. “That’s probably true, but it would be good to race your team anyway. You know, to get experience. Maybe we can bet you something . . . like if we win, you have to go trick-or-treating with us and then give us all of your Halloween candy.”

  The cross-country team laughed.

  “Aw, these kids are so cute,” the guy in the glasses said. “What will you do if we win?”

  “We would give you all of our Halloween candy, of course. Orlando can bring it to you tomorrow.”

  The guy with dark-brown hair shrugged. “I don’t see any harm in a little competition,” he said. “As long as you don’t cry when you lose.”

  Orlando, who remained silent during this whole exchange, caught the gleam in Angie’s eyes. He grinned and leaned toward Jessie. “This should be interesting.”

  Angie and the guy with glasses shook hands, and Angie took her place between Oliver and Jimmy L.

  “Why would you give away all of our Halloween candy?” Oliver angry-whispered from the side of his mouth.

  “Chill out, Oliver,” Angie said. “Think about it: we’ve been training with the high school basketball team for the last couple of weeks. We’re way stronger now.”

  “But these guys are runners,” Oliver said. “They know what they’re doing!”

  Angie shrugged. “So do we.”

  Papa’s voice over a bullhorn got everyone’s attention. “Welcome to the first annual Halloween Five-K Fun Run in Harlem! We’re so excited to see you all here. Please follow the course carefully; there will be people stationed throughout to make sure you’re going in the right direction. We’ll have a dance party at the finish line, so be ready to show off your best moves. Is everyone ready?”

  The runners—people dressed up as superheroes and ballerinas and athletes and goblins and witches and sandwiches—cheered. Their pets, wearing dinosaur, lion, and shark costumes, howled in displeasure.

  “On your marks, get set, GO!”

  Oliver, Jimmy L, and Angie started off strong, even though Oliver had to navigate around his huge costume.

  “Don’t slow us down, Oliver!” Angie yelled as she worked her way up the steep hill toward City College.

  “You try running while wearing a huge tomato!” Oliver huffed.

  “No excuses!” Angie called.

  Oliver glanced back to see that the high school cross-country runners were not far behind but were a little distracted by their rapidly unraveling mummy costumes. The road to City College was steep, and from his vantage point halfway up, Oliver could get a good look at the long waves of people laughing and huffing and struggling to the top of the hill. He spotted Herman Huxley with Hyacinth and Maria way at the bottom, holding on to leashes attached to Franz and Billie Holiday. They were trying to coax Franz up the hill, but the portly basset hound was not a fan of his shark costume or of the steep walk. Many people had made the fun run into a fun walk, and they rambled up the hill in their brightly colored costumes, chatting and laughing and enjoying the gorgeous fall weather.

  Oliver turned back as he passed Alexander Hamilton’s house on his left. The yellow house with white trim sat surrounded by grass with a big National Memorial sign attached to the surrounding fence. Oliver was starting to get winded,
and Angie, sensing that he was slowing down, yelled at him again. Oliver sucked in a breath of air and forced his legs to keep moving. His thigh hit the bottom of the tomato with each stride, which caused the costume to bounce uncomfortably on his neck and bang into his chin.

  Once they got to the entrance of City College, the course flattened out and Oliver felt better. Running was easier now, and he caught up with Angie and Jimmy L.

  “We’re going to have to bring up the speed in a second,” Angie said, looking over her shoulder.

  “Why—” Jimmy L began, then looked back and said, “Oh no.”

  Oliver glanced back. The entire pack of crosscountry runners, led by the guy in the dark-rimmed glasses, was a few paces away. Their mummy costumes hung in shreds around them, and they looked like evil, grinning zombies.

  “Pick it up!” Angie yelled.

  Oliver could hear the runners behind him, the steady pounding of their sneakers hitting the pavement. Even though his lungs were burning, he ran faster as they entered St. Nicholas Park.

  “Think of the candy!” Angie called out, her ponytail bobbing in front of him.

  “Think about how we’re going to lose all of our candy!” Jimmy L said as he ran next to Oliver.

  Oliver was so winded that he couldn’t talk, so he started counting in his head. I just need to run until I get to one hundred, he told himself.

  “We’re almost there!” Angie said as she turned right to go down a long set of stone stairs to the finish line. A red ribbon was stretched across the end of the route, and it looked as if she would be the first to reach it. Oliver, however, could practically feel the breath of a high school mummy on his neck.

  As he made his way down the stairs, Oliver’s legs turned to jelly. He lagged behind Angie and Jimmy L, and then he was head-to-head with one of the cross-country runners. He was passed once, then again. Oliver did not want to be the reason for losing a whole stash of candy, so he made his legs move faster. He passed the cross-country runners, and then they gained the lead over him again. Angie and Jimmy L were close to the finish line, and Oliver knew he had to put on a burst of speed or they would lose.