Twice.
Chapter
5
Room 201
I don’t love Monday mornings. They come too soon. I yawned and waited for the school bus. Mila swiped a finger across her nose. It was our secret signal. She tucked a paper into my palm.
I glanced at the note:
It was in code. Not a problem. This was an easy one. Mila must have been in a hurry. It’s called a Substitution Code. Each number stands for a letter in the alphabet. Number 1 is letter A. Number 2 is letter B. Number 3 is letter C. All the way to 26 for letter Z.
On the bus, I wrote two columns with the numbers and letters in my notebook. Figuring out the message was easy after that. Anybody can do it.
“Well? What’s your answer to my question?” Mila asked.
I pulled down my cap. “I’m a detective. It doesn’t matter what I believe. My job is to follow the clues. I believe in facts.”
Behind us, I heard Joey talking to Ralphie Jordan and Geetha Nair. He bragged, “I am helping Jigsaw. We’re searching for aliens from outer space.”
Mila looked at me. She raised an eyebrow.
“That sounds fun,” Ralphie said.
“I’m Jigsaw’s right-hand man,” Joey said. “Even though I’m a lefty.”
Kim Lewis joined the conversation. Kim had short hair and three freckles on the tip of her nose. “Bobby Solofsky once saw a flying saucer,” she said.
I glanced back. Geetha gulped. She looked pale and worried.
“I doubt it,” Ralphie said. “Bobby is always making up stories.”
“I believe it,” Joey said. “It’s called a UFO. An … Under … Flying … Something.”
Mila turned around. She explained, “UFO means an Unidentified Flying Object.”
“Whatever!” Ralphie laughed.
We hurried to room 201. We loved our teacher, Ms. Gleason. She was better than a cold glass of lemonade on a summer day. “Good morning, boys and girls. I hope you all had a nice weekend.”
“It was too short,” Bigs Maloney grumbled.
“Weekends should last all week!” Lucy Hiller agreed. Everyone liked that idea, even Ms. Gleason.
After morning announcements, Ms. Gleason got us moving. She often says, “We have to wake up our bodies and our brains!” We did exercises, sang songs, and danced. Today, she taught us a new song. It sounded like “The Farmer in the Dell” but a lot worse.
The earth turns around,
The earth turns around,
Once a day, every day,
The earth turns around.
The moon goes round the earth,
The moon goes round the earth,
Once a month, every month,
The moon goes round the earth.
The earth goes round the sun,
The earth goes round the sun,
Once a year, every year,
The earth goes round the sun.
We added dance steps. Lucy was great at that. We twirled in circles. But that didn’t last long. Stringbean Noonan said his stomach felt dizzy. His face turned greenish. That made Ms. Gleason nervous. So we all sat down.
“I am so excited for this week,” Ms. Gleason told us. “We will be having a surprise visitor from far, far away!”
Everybody started asking questions at once.
Ms. Gleason raised her hand. “No, no, no,” she said. “I can’t tell you. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
“Rats,” Helen Zuckerman muttered.
“Snails,” Bobby Solofsky groaned.
“Cookies,” Joey said.
“Cookies?” Mila asked.
Joey’s eyes brightened. “Do you have any?”
“No,” Mila said. “You said cookies. I wondered why.”
Joey touched his belly. “A guy can dream, can’t he?”
Chapter
6
Our Solar System
We gathered around the reading rug. “As you know, I love science,” Ms. Gleason said. “We don’t do much science in second grade. But this week, we will explore … our solar system! We will do art projects, watch videos, read books, and—”
“Sing songs!” Kim said.
“That’s right, Kim,” Ms. Gleason. “All week long we are going to celebrate our neighborhood in space. Our solar system is in the Milky Way galaxy.”
“Milky Way?” Joey said hopefully.
“I’m sorry, Joey. We are talking about space—not the candy bar,” Ms. Gleason said.
Joey frowned. A few of us giggled.
I noticed two new posters on the wall. Both were about planets. “You’ve been decorating,” I said.
“Thank you for noticing, Jigsaw. Good detective work.” Ms. Gleason winked. “I came in on Sunday. I thought the room needed sprucing up.” She pointed to a red basket. “I also organized all our space books in one place. There are new books in there, too. I’ve been updating our collection. Out with the old, in with the new. Be sure to check them out. Remember, space is the place!”
She opened a nonfiction book titled The Planets. Ms. Gleason explained that the sun is a star, not a planet. It is much, much bigger than the earth. “Imagine that the sun is the size of a basketball.” Ms. Gleason picked up a marker and made a green dot on the whiteboard. “That tiny dot would be the earth.”
We learned about the eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
“That’s a lot to remember,” Bigs said.
“Here’s a trick to help you remember,” Ms. Gleason said. She wrote on the board:
My
Very
Educated
Mother
Just
Served
Us
Nachos
Everybody thought the same thing: Huh?
“Oh, I get it,” Mila said. “It’s the first letter for every planet. My equals Mercury. Very stands for Venus!”
“And Nachos stands for delicious!” Joey joked.
After she finished reading, Ms. Gleason tucked a bookmark into the book. “We’ll get back to this tomorrow. I believe it’s almost time for P.E.”
During recess, we climbed on the pirate ship.
But we didn’t play pirates. All the talk was about aliens. Half the kids said they believed in aliens. “Sure, I believe,” Mike Radcliff said. “I bet flying saucers visit earth all the time.”
“Why don’t we ever see them?” Mila wondered.
“It’s top secret,” Mike replied. “The government doesn’t want anyone to know. They keep it all hidden so we don’t go nuts.”
Bobby Solofsky stepped forward. “I saw one. I woke up in the middle of the night. There was a weird noise outside. Bzzzz, bzzzz,” he droned. “So I looked out my window. I saw bright, flashing lights…”
“Pssst. Hey, Jigsaw. Can I talk to you and Mila?” Joey yanked on my arm.
“Easy on the arm, Joey. I might need it someday,” I said.
Joey looked around. He whispered, “In private.”
He led us to the swing set. He sat down and waited, looking back at me. So I gave him a shove.
“Okay, Joey. What do you want?”
“I want to help you guys,” he said. “I could be a detective, too. You could teach me.”
I scratched the back of my neck. “I don’t know, Joey.…”
Mila poked me with an elbow. “We could use help with the stakeout.”
“The stakeout!” Joey exclaimed. “I love stakeouts! I am awesome at stakeouts!” He paused, then asked in a soft voice, “What’s a stakeout?”
My knees began to itch.
A small headache formed behind my eyes.
Mila spoke to Joey. “We need to keep an eye on the Little Free Library. I have a piano lesson today. Jigsaw can’t do it all by himself. Your job, Joey, is to hide and watch.”
“Hide and watch,” Joey repeated.
“See who comes by,” Mila said.
“I can keep two eyes on it,” Joey offered. He pointed at hi
s eyeballs to make sure we understood.
I looked at Mila. I wasn’t sure about this.
“It’s fine, Jigsaw,” she said. “Joey can help. What could go wrong?”
A lot, I thought. But I didn’t say a word. Instead I said, “We need to find out who left those notes. That’s the key, Joey.”
“There’s a key?” Joey asked.
“Never mind,” I replied.
Chapter
7
The Stakeout
Joey took the first turn at the stakeout. I relaxed at home. I ate a snack. I worked on the puzzle. And I thought about Joey Pignattano. He sure was eager to work on the case. Maybe too eager. At 4:30, I decided to check on him.
I got on my bike and pedaled there.
Joey was “hiding” in a patch of bushes across the street. He was easy to find. The bushes were small, and Joey was dressed in a bright yellow jacket. When he saw me, Joey jumped up. He waved both arms. He shouted, “Here I am, Jigsaw! Over here! On the stakeout!”
He seemed pretty happy.
“Any action?” I asked.
“Not really,” Joey said. “I had a great idea from the movie E.T. Did you ever see that movie, Jigsaw?”
“Sure, it’s about the alien who gets stuck on earth. Phone home,” I added, in my best E.T. voice.
Joey laughed. “That’s it—my favorite movie! I left a trail of Reese’s Pieces from the library to my hiding spot.”
“Why?” I wondered.
“To catch the Star Man,” Joey said. “From the note.”
“Right,” I said, nodding. “So what happened?”
“I got hungry,” Joey admitted.
“Joey, you didn’t.”
“Yeah, I ate them all. I guess that plan didn’t work so hot,” he said.
That reminded me. “Joey, Mila and I discovered traces of orange dust on the note. Were you eating Doritos that morning?”
“Nope.”
“Really? What about Cheetos?” I asked.
“I don’t like those, either,” Joey said. “I prefer my cheese in slices, hunks, or liquid form.”
“You’re sure about that?” I asked.
“That orange dust didn’t come from me,” Joey said. “I had cereal and Jolly Ranchers for breakfast that morning.”
Hmmm, I thought. It all came back to the note. That was the key to the mystery. “So nobody came by?” I asked.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Joey said. “Ms. Gleason stopped at the Little Free Library.”
That surprised me. Then I thought about it. School was only three blocks away. Ms. Gleason probably drove past on her way to work.
“She traded in three old books and took three new ones,” Joey added.
“Really? Did you see which ones?” I asked.
Joey shook his head. “I was hiding, like you told me.”
“Good,” I replied. “Are you sure she didn’t see you?”
Joey paused. His mouth said “No,” but his head nodded yes.
He had me confused.
I repeated the question as if I were talking to my dog. “Did … she … see … you?”
Joey shrugged. His nose twitched. “Maybe, sort of.”
“Maybe,” I echoed.
“Well, she waved to me,” Joey admitted.
I took off my baseball cap and scratched my head. Talking to Joey always made me itchy.
He continued, “She asked me why I was sitting in the bushes.” Joey looked upset. “Did I do bad?”
Poor guy. He tried his best. I sighed and said, “No, Joey. You did great. You did really, really great. This is a big help.” I patted him on the back.
Joey smiled pure sunbeams. Proud as a peacock.
“Thanks, Jigsaw!”
He seemed three inches taller.
Joey went home. I climbed a tree. Nothing happened. No one else stopped at the Little Free Library.
Up in the tree, I thought about the case. And the books. And Ms. Gleason. Our teacher had become the key to the mystery.
Chapter
8
A Little Help from My Friends
That night, I sat alone at the dining room table. The puzzle was started. But my mind drifted to the case. I took out the two notes. I stared at them under a magnifying glass.
What did the words mean?
Who wrote them?
I reached for the second index card.
Let Tom pick on May. It might have been a code. I couldn’t crack it. I wondered if it was a First Letter Scramble. I tried making new words out of the first letters. PLOMT! MOPLT! TPOML!
No luck. I pushed the card aside.
I turned to the first note.
I drew a line between STAR and MANN. Star mann visit. It bothered me that man was spelled wrong. The other words were spelled correctly. It seemed like a strange mistake for such an easy word.
I felt sure both notes were written by the same person. The letters were similar. The green ink, too. I examined the orange dust. I tasted it. Yes, it was cheesy. I wondered if it was true about Joey. Did he really not like Cheetos? Could Joey be lying? Was it possible there was a food that Joey didn’t like?
And then I wondered: Why would Joey lie?
A voice interrupted my thoughts. “Earth to Jigsaw. Come in, Jigsaw.”
“Huh?” My head turned. My grandmother sat down across from me.
“What have you got there? Homework?” she asked.
“I’m working on a case.” I told Grams all about it.
“Very interesting,” Grams said. “If you ask me, it’s possible. Maybe one day aliens will visit earth. I doubt we’re alone in the universe.”
“Really?”
Grams took off her glasses. She rubbed her eyelids with the tips of her fingers. Her hair was thin and white. But her mind was sharp. “Of course,” she said. “The universe is huge. It contains billions of stars. Millions of planets. Why should we be the only ones?”
“But we don’t know for sure,” I said.
“No,” Grams said, smiling. “The answer is … we don’t know the answer! Isn’t that wonderful? Don’t you love it?”
“I’d rather know,” I said.
Grams replied, “Oh well, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I am old enough to remember the day astronauts first landed on the moon. Apollo 11. It was in the summer of 1969. Long before you were born. We watched on a blurry, black-and-white television set. Those men were so brave. I’ll never forget that day for as long as I live.” She looked at me, eyes gleaming. “We walked on the moon. Imagine that!”
Grams looked away, remembering. Old people are filled with memories, like a glass filled to the top with grape juice. I guess I’m lucky. I have three brothers and a sister. And that’s fine, most of the time. But I’ve also got Grams. That’s great every day of the week.
My brother Billy paused next to me. He studied the puzzle pieces.
“Jigsaw is studying clues,” Grams informed him. She gestured to the notes.
Billy pointed to the second note. “Just the way I like my sandwiches.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Billy read: “Lettuce, Tomato, Pickle, Onion, Mayo.”
My jaw dropped open. “They are abbreviations! Of course! A grocery list!” I exclaimed. “Billy, you’re brilliant!”
“Yeah, I’ve been waiting for someone to notice,” he said, grinning. Then, as easy as one, two, three, he popped three puzzle pieces into place.
I hate when people do that.
I got up to call Mila. She answered on the second ring. I explained about the note. “Billy figured it out,” I said.
“Great work, partner,” she said.
“Not so fast,” I replied. “Joey saw something. It might be important. Ms. Gleason took three books from the Little Free Library. I wish I knew which ones.”
“I can check the list,” Mila said.
“That’s the problem,” I said. “I didn’t make a list.”
Mila laughed. “We’re a te
am, Jigsaw. While you talked to Mrs. Pulver, I wrote down the title of every book in the library.”
“You’re amazing,” I said. “Now we’ll know without asking Ms. Gleason. I don’t think she’d like it if we were spying. We should keep that on the down low.”
“I’ll stop by the library on the way to school,” Mila said. “We’re getting closer, Jigsaw.”
“Yes,” I said. “Thanks to a little help from my friends.”
Mila was silent.
“What are you thinking?” I asked.
“We need proof,” Mila said. “I don’t want to be wrong about Ms. Gleason.”
She was right. But that’s Mila. She’s usually right.
For the next two days, we worked the case.
Chapter
9
Working the Case
It was a busy few days in room 201. We made mini books about planets. We did art projects. And every day, we watched videos about astronauts and space travel.
Helen Zuckerman made a poster that compared the size of the planets with fruit. Mars was a blueberry, Earth was a strawberry, Saturn was a grapefruit, and Jupiter—the biggest planet—was a watermelon!
I didn’t think aliens were coming.
But something was definitely up.
On Wednesday morning, Mila and Danika searched the red basket of space books. They found three books from the list. Three books that Ms. Gleason got from the Little Free Library.
Strike one.
I lifted a piece of paper out of the garbage. It had Ms. Gleason’s handwriting on it. That night, I compared it to the notes. They matched. The same ink. The same shape to the letters.
Strike two.
After music, Mila was the first one back to class. She saw Ms. Gleason reading a book. “Hi,” Mila said.
Ms. Gleason smiled. She tucked an index card into her book. And closed it. “Do you need anything?” Ms. Gleason asked.
“Nada,” Mila said. She had already gotten what she needed: more proof. Ms. Gleason used random pieces of paper as bookmarks.
Strike three.
Danika learned that Ms. Gleason loves Doritos. That fact linked her to the orange dust. It wasn’t proof, but our case was coming together.
The Case from Outer Space Page 2