Mystery on Magnolia Circle
Page 8
Mom interrupted Dad to ask Dr. Ames about my leg. “So she doesn’t need to keep using the knee scooter?”
“No,” said Dr. Ames. “Our work here is done. Ivy can resume all normal activities.”
“Really?” I said.
“Really,” he said.
“Is there anything she can’t do?” Mom asked. “Anything she should avoid?”
“Just be sensible,” said Dr. Ames. He turned to me and smiled. “And be careful of stairs, Ivy. I know how you hate them.”
“Oh, I don’t hate stairs anymore.”
“You don’t?” asked Dr. Ames.
“No way. If it weren’t for stairs, I wouldn’t have broken my leg. And if I hadn’t broken my leg, I wouldn’t have been stuck in a cast all summer. And if I hadn’t been stuck in a cast all summer, I wouldn’t have been looking out the window and seen Melvin Moss getting in a white van. And … well, it’s a long story, but I think stairs are the perfect symbol for life.”
“Why is that?” said Dr. Ames, grinning.
“Because they represent the ups and downs of life. So, no, I don’t hate stairs. I love stairs. I love them so much, I’m going to marry stairs.”
On the drive home, I told Mom and Dad I had been acting silly with Dr. Ames instead of showing what I was really feeling.
“What are you really feeling?” Mom asked.
“Happy.”
“We’re happy you’re happy,” Dad said. “It wasn’t such a terrible summer, was it?”
“Not at all.”
What I didn’t say, because it would’ve sounded too cheesy, was that it was the best summer of my life. Dr. Ames was right. I thought having a broken leg would mean my world was going to get smaller, but it didn’t. Even with a broken leg, life could still be big and fun and wonderful, as long as you had a best friend and a best dog.
And look at me! I had Teddy and Winthrop and Lotty and Melvin Moss and Mrs. Seifert. I even had Mr. Hobart, who decided to name his puppy Maggie, short for Magnolia Circle.
My summer had been just like my street. At first it seemed like a dead end, but there had been room to turn around. Maybe that’s why Magnolia Circle never did get a dead-end sign. There was always plenty of room on our street to turn around.
* * *
The next day, homeroom assignments arrived in the mail. Teddy and I sat on the front steps of my house and opened the envelopes slowly.
“Who’d you get?” Teddy asked ominously.
“Ms. Queset,” I said. “You?”
“Ms. Queset!” Teddy yelled.
By some miracle, we were in the same homeroom. It was the first time since first grade. Better still, we were in Ms. Queset’s room.
Ms. Blanche Queset was a legend at our school. Everybody wanted to be in her class because she let fifth graders choose their own community service projects and work independently or in groups.
“I wonder who Melvin got,” Teddy said. “I’m going to call him.”
Melvin was also in Ms. Queset’s homeroom. It was definitely a miracle—or more likely, an act of divine intervention by Mrs. Seifert.
Later that day, Teddy and I met Melvin in Forest Park. He didn’t know anything about Ms. Queset, so we told him how lucky we all were to have her for fifth grade.
“Hey, Melvin,” I said, “what would you think about working together on our community service project? You, me, and Teddy?”
“That’d be cool,” he said.
“We could design a new roller coaster for Six Flags,” I said. “Or invent a new flavor of frozen custard. Or you could teach us how to build furniture with secret compartments.”
“We could find a cure for canine leukemia,” Teddy said. “And start the Cute Puppy Olympics!”
“We could solve crimes in St. Louis,” Melvin said.
“Why not all over the country?” I asked.
“The world!” Melvin said, laughing.
“Are you up for that, Ted?” I asked.
Finally, I remembered to call him Ted instead of Teddy.
Melvin looked at Teddy with a puzzled expression. “So are you going by ‘Ted’ now?”
“Nah,” Teddy said with a wave of his hand. “Maybe in middle school, but not fifth grade. Can’t we still be kids for a while?”
“Yes!” Melvin and I cried at the same second.
Of course, I wanted to grow up. I yearned to be old enough so I could get my own phone and credit card and DriveMeThere account.
But I also wished I could slow down time so summer could go on and on. I didn’t want it to end. Not summer. Not calling Teddy “Teddy.” Not this perfect day. Not being a kid. Not this journey, as Dr. Ames would call it, or the weirdly fun habit of writing down things I learned along the way.
My eyes filled with bittersweet tears as I understood, in a new way, what Scott Joplin meant in the instructions he wrote for his piano compositions. I ran and laughed and yelled at the top of my lungs on that late summer day: “Do not play this piece fast!”
What I learned from that:
If you have more than one friend and one dog in your life, you’ve won the lottery. If you don’t have at least one friend or one dog, turn it around. Turn it around.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I was about Ivy’s age, I spent a summer vacation with my arm in a cast. I remember the painful fall from the jungle gym that caused the break, the maddening itch of the plaster cast against my skin, and the party I had the day the cast was finally removed. But the nuts and bolts of how my bones healed under the cast? I didn’t remember or understand any of that until I sat down to write this book. That’s when I got to ask all of my (and Ivy’s) questions to two medical experts: Dr. Paul M. Olive, an orthopedic surgeon in Springfield, Missouri, and Erik Heinzen, a general surgery physician assistant in Denver, Colorado. Both were unfailingly generous with their time and knowledge. All of the medical wisdom in this novel comes from them. Any fractured facts are mine.
Thanks, too, to my beloved editor, Liz Szabla, who planted the seed for this book one evening when we were discussing Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Rear Window. We wondered if it might be possible to create a similar mystery starring a ten-year-old girl whose secret strength lies in her kindness, curiosity, and love of animals.
My secret strength is my circle of friends who make my life better every day. I’m looking at you, Joyce McMurtrey, Sherry Huffman, and Jeannette Olsen. Other friends will find their names embedded in the narrative. Yes, that’s you, Taylor (and Karma) Mathews, Daryl Steen, Uma Hiremath, “Doctor” Bill Ames, and Mrs. (Lex Anne) Seifert.
Writing a work of fiction always feels to me like climbing a mountain alone in the dark without a map or a flashlight. In real life, I’m lucky to have someone who helps me navigate the ups and downs of this world. I really do love stairs and mountains and you, Roger Kaza.
—Kate
Thank you for reading this Feiwel & Friends book.
The friends who made
MYSTERY ON MAGNOLIA CIRCLE
possible are:
JEAN FEIWEL, Publisher
LIZ SZABLA, Associate Publisher
RICH DEAS, Senior Creative Director
MALLORY GRIGG, Art Director
HOLLY WEST, Senior Editor
ANNA ROBERTO, Senior Editor
KAT BRZOZOWSKI, Senior Editor
DAWN RYAN, Senior Managing Editor
CELESTE CASS, Assistant Production Manager
ERIN SIU, Associate Editor
EMILY SETTLE, Associate Editor
RACHEL DIEBEL, Assistant Editor
FOYINSI ADEGBONMIRE, Editorial Assistant
MANDY VELOSO, Senior Production Editor
Follow us on Facebook or visit us online at mackids.com. Our books are friends for life.
About the Author
Kate Klise is the author of numerous picture books and novels for children, some with her sister, M. Sarah Klise. She divides her time
between a farm in Missouri and a home in Lisbon, Portugal. Visit her online at Kateandsarahklise.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
One. I Hate Stairs
Two. Dogs and Dead Ends
Three. The Worst Possible News
Four. Room to Wonder
Five. Second Sighting
Six. Turn It Around
Seven. Crime Wave
Eight. The Mastermind
Nine. Hold the Ladder
Ten. Finally, a Phone
Eleven. Run! Scoot! Drive!
Twelve. Scott Joplin’s House
Thirteen. Are You Looking for Me?
Fourteen. A Week Without Teddy
Fifteen. The Bittersweet Vet
Sixteen. Group Project
Seventeen. Her Name Is Lotty
Eighteen. Just Like That
Nineteen. Boy Wins Lottery—Twice
Twenty. I Love Stairs
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by Kate Klise
A Feiwel and Friends Book
An imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC
120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271
mackids.com
All rights reserved.
Feiwel and Friends logo designed by Filomena Tuosto
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
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First hardcover edition, 2021
eBook edition, 2021
eISBN 9781250756879