The Basketball Mystery

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

A short half hour later, Courtney blew her whistle again. “Time to go home.”

  “Do we have to leave?” Violet asked when Courtney came over. “Our group didn’t get much of a chance to practice with the ball.”

  Courtney pointed to the clock. “Sorry, the manager told me we had to get everybody out by nine o’clock sharp.” She looked at Tipper. “Maybe next time somebody will bring the storage room key so the whole team can play basketball.”

  Tipper said nothing. Her girls were silent as they filed out of the gym.

  “Patsy, could you get my ball and stick it back in my gym bag?” Courtney asked. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

  Patsy picked up the basketball. “Would you unzip Courtney’s bag, and I’ll stuff it in?” she asked Jessie.

  When Jessie held the bag open, she noticed something. “Look at this.” She held up a key chain attached to the zipper pull. “One of the keys says, ‘Storage Room.’Courtney had her own key the whole time.”

  Violet ran over to the coach. “Courtney! Courtney! We just found the storage room key. It was on your gym bag.”

  Courtney didn’t say anything right away.

  “Is it the key for the storage room of this gym?” Tipper asked Courtney.

  “There are a lot of keys on the chain. One is for the storage room of my apartment building.” With that, Courtney took her bag from Patsy. “Next time, Tipper, please bring your own key. The girls need to practice.”

  CHAPTER 4

  A Big Letdown

  At nine o’clock the next morning, the Alden children and the Nettleton twins were sound asleep.

  However, Watch was not sound asleep, not at all. He was wide-awake and scratching at Jessie’s bedroom door. He had heard Grandfather Alden out in the hallway. He wanted to be up and about, too.

  Mr. Alden heard the whimpering and scratching. He slowly opened Jessie’s door. Watch scooted out and ran downstairs.

  “I’m going out shopping today,” Mrs. McGregor told Mr. Alden when he followed Watch into the kitchen.

  Mr. Alden took Watch’s leash from the hook on the back door. “Have a good time, Mrs. McGregor. I’m glad all the young people are sleeping late for a change. This basketball fever is wearing them out. As for the twins — they’ve been on the go since they arrived. Henry said they don’t have any practices or appointments until this afternoon.”

  Mrs. McGregor put on her hat. “Last night, Buzz and Tipper told me not to make breakfast,” she told Mr. Alden. “They said they were going to sleep late, then surprise the children with breakfast at the diner.”

  Mr. Alden smiled. “That’s just the kind of surprise my grandchildren like.”

  Nearly all of Greenfield seemed to be enjoying breakfast at the Starlight Diner when the Aldens and the Nettleton twins arrived.

  “Hello, Aldens!” the waitress said. “I recognize you two,” she told the twins. “I saw your picture in the paper last night. Welcome back to Greenfield.”

  “Thanks,” Buzz said. “It’s good to be back. Especially here. Our whole team used to come to the Starlight Diner for your famous burgers after basketball games. I hope you have room today. It’s pretty crowded in here.”

  The waitress picked up an armful of menus. She waved everyone over to the back. “You just got lucky. A group of construction workers just left. The big booth in the corner is free.”

  Benny looked up at Buzz. “It’s not really free,” he whispered. “You still have to pay.”

  Buzz laughed. “Good one, Benny. Well, I’m glad we don’t have practice until later, you guys. It felt good to get a couple extra winks of sleep for a change.”

  Soo Lee thought about this. “I don’t wink when I sleep. I shut my eyes all night.”

  Tipper squeezed the little girl’s hand. “I don’t wink when I sleep, either, Soo Lee.”

  Everyone slid into the big booth and picked up a menu.

  Benny didn’t have to read it. “I already know what I want,” he announced.

  “Let me guess,” Buzz said. “Liver and onions, right?”

  “No way!” Benny cried. “Waffles with big holes to pour the syrup in. That’s what I’m having.”

  That’s what everyone in the booth was having. The Starlight Diner was famous for its waffles.

  “Well, dig in!” Buzz said when the waitress set the plates down a few minutes later.

  The booth was quiet while everyone ate their delicious waffles. But no one could finish them. In a short time, the children put down their forks.

  “Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs,” Tipper said.

  “I was hungry. But even I can’t finish these giant waffles,” Buzz said. “We won’t be able to play basketball if we’re too full. Right, Henry?”

  “Right!” Henry answered. “We’ll be doing a lot of running and jumping. It’s better not to eat too much. The other players can’t wait to meet you. They keep saying how lucky I am to have my own private coach.”

  Buzz set down his glass of orange juice. “I wish that were true. Tipper and I haven’t helped any of you Aldens much for the last few days. I’m not so sure I like being famous anymore. All these appointments and appearances sure get in the way of basketball.”

  “I know,” Tipper agreed. “I’m getting forgetful, we’re so busy running around. I forgot the key to the gym storage room yesterday. I’d rather play basketball than be on television.”

  “You would?” Benny said. “I thought you liked being on television.”

  “Not as much as I like coaching the team,” Tipper told the Aldens.

  “Same here,” Buzz said. “That’s really why I came back to Greenfield, not to have my picture taken all the time.” Buzz checked his watch. “We’d better get on the move. How about dropping off Henry and me at the sports center? It’s almost time for my first practice with the Blazers. I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

  When Tipper drove up to the sports center, Henry noticed how empty the place looked. “No one seems to be around. I’ll run in and check if anyone from the team is here yet.”

  By the time Buzz unloaded the car, Henry was back. “The doors are locked. Do you have a key?”

  “Oh, no, not missing keys again!” Tipper said with a groan.

  Buzz jingled something in his pocket. “Right here. Frank Fowler gave me a set yesterday. Let’s check around. It’s not noon yet. We’re a little early. Why don’t you kids get out and shoot a few baskets until the rest of the Blazers get here.”

  The Aldens followed Buzz and Tipper.

  Buzz put his key in the lobby door. “Tada! See, I brought my keys, not like some people I’m related to.”

  Tipper didn’t like hearing this. “Don’t tease me about that, Buzz. I feel awful that I let down the girls.”

  Violet slipped her hand into Tipper’s. “You didn’t let us down. We had fun. I learned a lot — how to guard people and how to always be in the ready position. We didn’t need a basketball. We just needed you.”

  Inside the sports center, a few workmen were painting on finishing touches.

  “Hey, there, guys,” Tom Hooper said when he saw the twins walk in with the Aldens.

  Buzz gave Tom a big grin. “Good to see you again, Tom. I’m here to coach the Blazers this afternoon so we can beat those fearsome Rockets of yours.”

  Tom pointed to the hall clock with his paintbrush. “You sure you have afternoon practice, Buzz? The Blazers were all here around ten o’clock this morning looking for you. I couldn’t let them into the gym. So they all kind of straggled off.”

  “What do you mean, Tom?” Buzz reached into his back pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. “Here’s the schedule Frank gave me a couple of days ago,” he told Tom. “Doesn’t that say noon?”

  “Sorry, I’m not too good at figuring out schedules and such,” Tom said. “I just show up when somebody tells me to.”

  Tipper looked over Buzz’s shoulder. “It does say noon,” she agreed when she read the schedule. “I
wonder why the team came early. Maybe you can call up some of the boys and ask them to come back, Buzz.”

  “Sorry, that won’t work out,” Tom said. “After you didn’t show up, the other painters decided to do some touch-up work in the gym. The paint won’t be dry for a few more hours. And tonight’s no good, either. That’s when I’m supposed to coach the Rockets in the gym. At least, I think that’s what’s on my schedule, if I can ever find it!”

  Buzz looked upset. He checked the clock, then his schedule again. “I can’t figure out what happened here. I planned all my appointments around this piece of paper.”

  “Try the outdoor court in back,” Tom said. “Some of the boys had a basketball with them. A few of them decided to wait for you out there. That was awhile ago, though. I don’t know if they’re still there.”

  When the Aldens and twins got outside, Henry mentioned something he had been thinking about. “Tom doesn’t ever seem to know what’s going on. Wouldn’t he have a copy of the same schedule as yours?”

  “I noticed the same thing,” Buzz answered. “Courtney and Frank seem to organize everything. Maybe Tom’s too busy getting the sports center ready to keep his mind on the plans.”

  As Henry neared the outdoor court, he recognized a few boys sitting on a bench nearby. One boy sat there bouncing a basketball slowly, over and over. The two other boys looked up when Buzz, Tipper, and the Aldens arrived. The boys just sat there and didn’t say a word.

  “Hi!” Buzz said. “I’m Buzz Nettleton, one of your coaches. I think there was some mix-up about our practice.”

  The boy with the basketball stopped bouncing. “Yeah, there was a mix-up, all right. We have a schedule saying to meet for practice at ten o’clock. My dad dropped me off here early and everything. I even brought my new basketball for you to sign.”

  “Sure thing,” Buzz said. He reached into his pocket for a pen.

  The boy looked at Buzz. He began bouncing the ball again. “Never mind.”

  Buzz didn’t know what to say. “Listen, guys, I have to apologize. I guess the schedules were changed and nobody told you. But that doesn’t mean we can’t practice out here right now. How about it?”

  A car horn blew before the boys could answer.

  “Our ride is here,” one of the boys said. “Besides, we already practiced. We got a whole lot of practice just sitting around waiting for you to show up.”

  “I don’t blame the guys,” Buzz said after the car drove away. “Somebody gave us the wrong schedules. I don’t know if it was theirs or mine, but I plan to find out.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Jessie’s Good Idea

  That night Buzz and Tipper finally sat down to one of Mrs. McGregor’s home-cooked meals. At last, no interviews. No banquets. No meetings or plans. Just a quiet evening with the Aldens.

  A very quiet evening.

  Mr. Alden did his best to cheer up the twins. “Mistakes happen,” he said when he noticed that they hadn’t said much during dinner. “You two have been on the go from the minute you arrived. It’s understandable that schedules and keys and such got mixed up. There’s still plenty of time to coach the Blazers and Fast Breakers before their games.”

  Buzz pushed his cake around his plate without taking a bite. “We don’t have that many practices scheduled, Mr. Alden. And we got off to a poor start. Tipper and I shouldn’t have been running around so much. Then all these mix-ups wouldn’t have happened.”

  “Did you call Frank Fowler?” Mr. Alden asked. “After all, he’s the one who made up the schedules, right?”

  “I called him when I got back this afternoon,” Buzz said. “He said he told me about the schedule change a couple of days ago. There was so much going on that day. Tipper and I had our pictures taken for the newspaper with some of our old high school teammates. There were so many people around, I guess I just didn’t focus on what Frank said.”

  “Same with Courtney and the storage room key,” Tipper added. “That day was a blur for me, too.”

  Buzz put down his napkin. “I’ve got to figure out some way to make things up to the Blazers — extra practices or something.”

  “Same here,” Tipper agreed. “Coaching isn’t just teaching basketball skills. It’s pulling the team together. That’s what I learned from my high school and college coaches. I want to be just like them.”

  All this time, the Alden children sat and listened. Just because of a few mix-ups, their new friends weren’t having a very good time.

  “I have an idea,” Jessie said. “Do you both have a whole day free in the next couple of days?”

  “Saturday we’re free,” Buzz said. “For some reason, we’re not scheduled to be famous celebrities that day. No picture-taking. No television.”

  Jessie’s face brightened. “Good. What about organizing the first-ever Nettleton Basketball Clinic for Saturday? We could hold it right here in Grandfather’s backyard. You could schedule different drills for different times. I know we don’t have a whole court, but you could teach lots of skills like you did with us when you first got here.”

  Buzz gave this some thought. “A clinic, hmmm?”

  “Like a doctor clinic?” Soo Lee asked. “I don’t want to get a shot.”

  This made everyone smile.

  Tipper put her arm around the little girl. “You wouldn’t get a shot, Soo Lee. But you would make a lot of basketball shots, just like you did the other day. A basketball clinic helps players practice skills one at a time. No doctors, no shots. Just fun.”

  Suddenly Buzz’s face brightened. “You know, I brought some training tapes from my college. We could show those as part of the clinic.”

  “We can run an extension cord from the garage to the boxcar and hook up Grandfather’s portable television and playback machine out there,” Henry suggested.

  The twins were all caught up in the Aldens’ plans now.

  “We’ll mix up the teams,” Buzz said. “The Blazers and Fast Breakers can do the drills together with kids from other teams. A clinic just might help us make up the practice time our team missed. Good idea, Aldens!”

  Tipper wondered about something. “Should we check with Courtney and Frank and Tom? I mean, a clinic isn’t really part of the plans they have scheduled.”

  Buzz shook his head. “The clinic doesn’t have to be part of the plans. Let’s just call kids up and tell them about it. Anybody can come.”

  By this time Buzz and Tipper had spread out some paper and pencils to write down their plans.

  “If we run the drills in sets, kids can start whenever they arrive,” Tipper said. “We could probably fit in three sets of drills. That way it won’t get too crowded in the backyard.” Tipper put down her pencil. “Whoa, stop! We haven’t even asked Mr. Alden if it’s okay to fill his yard with all these basketball players.”

  Mr. Alden put down his coffee cup. “I like seeing my yard filled with youngsters. Why, what’s the good of having a big yard if people don’t use it?”

  Mr. Alden got his wish. By noon on Saturday, basketball players from all over Greenfield were in the backyard doing drills. In one part of the driveway, Buzz showed players how to dribble the ball while running. Tipper showed some older children how to make shots from the foul line. In the boxcar, Henry had set up Mr. Alden’s portable television and a playback machine. About half a dozen players were inside the boxcar watching training tapes from Buzz’s college. The clinic was a huge success.

  “This is so much fun, I’m staying all day,” Patsy Cutter told Jessie. “I want to be the champ of the Fast Breakers.”

  When Patsy went off to practice her foul shots, Jessie turned to Violet. “I was hoping Patsy would only stay for one set of drills. That’s what I told everyone. More kids showed up at the clinic than we expected. Some players haven’t had even one chance for Tipper to coach them.”

  Henry joined the girls outside. “Whew, I can’t believe how many people are here. Buzz asked me to call up Courtney, Frank, and Tom. We definitely
need more coaches!”

  Right after Henry phoned the other coaches, a cameraman and reporter arrived from the local television station. The Nettleton Basketball Clinic was big news in Greenfield!

  The reporter looked a little rushed and out of breath. “At last! I finally caught up with you two,” she said to the twins. “My cameraman and I waited for you for about an hour at the sports center. When you didn’t show up, we started calling around. We tracked you down here.”

  Tipper and Buzz looked confused.

  “Why did you think we’d be at the sports center?” Buzz wanted to know.

  “Didn’t you get my message?” the woman asked. “I told someone at the center that we would meet you there at ten o’clock today and to call me if you couldn’t make it.”

  Buzz shook his head. “We didn’t hear a thing about this. We’re in the middle of running a clinic. We really can’t do an interview right now.”

  “Why not?” the reporter asked. “Your basketball clinic makes an even better story. After all, you did come to Greenfield to help out with the sports center. This clinic will give it even more attention.”

  “I guess we don’t have a choice,” Buzz told Tipper.

  “Okay. First we want to film Tipper with her Most Valuable Player trophy,” the reporter said. “Is it around?”

  Tipper didn’t move. “Can’t you just show the two of us helping the kids? After all, isn’t that the whole point of your coming here?”

  “Sure,” the reporter said. “But you’re the first Greenfield player to get the MVP award. That is big news!”

  “I’ll go get it,” Patsy Cutter offered when she overheard the reporter.

  “You know where it is?” Tipper asked, surprised to hear this.

  “Well, I saw it when Jessie and I were in her room,” Patsy answered. “When I borrowed a pair of shorts from her.”

  “Good. Bring it down here,” the reporter told Patsy.

  When Patsy returned, the cameraman was taping Buzz showing several players how to dribble.

  Patsy handed the trophy to Tipper. “Here it is.”