by Linda Davick
“From China!” said Sofie. “I bought it with my allowance. Hold it up to your ear!”
“Shhhh!” I held the shell to my ear.
“What do you hear?” asked Yoshi.
I listened closely. “It says, This is the happiest you’ll ever be.”
“Let me hear!” Boris popped the last pudding cupcake into his mouth. He grabbed the shell and held it to his ear. He closed his eyes. Then his eyes got really big. “You’re right. It does say, This is the happiest you’ll ever be.”
Everyone clamored for the shell. We passed it around.
“I can’t understand a word it’s saying,” said Hunter. “I think it’s speaking in Chinese.”
We all laughed so hard we got the hiccups.
Yoshi picked up his ukulele and started strumming. We drank our ice cream and danced like crazy.
Then Yoshi played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and we all went home.
Gobsmacked
Sofie’s Question
Every day after school that week I dug for treasure. On Wednesday Sofie could hardly wait to ride home with me to work on the tunnel. Boris showed up, and after baseball practice Hunter joined us. Tonya came out to supervise.
When it was almost dark, Yoshi brought out his telescope. He asked us if we’d like to take a break to look at the moon.
Boris put his eye to the telescope and sang: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie…”
Then I peered through the telescope. The moon didn’t hit my eye like a big pizza pie. It looked like a giant gold doubloon hanging in the sky! I was so excited that I practically slid back down the ladder and continued digging harder than ever. I knew there was treasure down there. I could feel it.
“It looks like an enormous baseball!” I heard Hunter shout as he took a look. “Out of my way! I’ve got it!” Everyone laughed.
When I glanced up, Sofie was peering through the telescope. “Yoshi, I have a question for you.”
“About the moon? Ask me anything!”
“No, it’s not about the moon.” She took a deep breath. “You know I don’t want you to go away this summer. But if you have to go, can I move into your apartment? Just for the summer?”
“I’d be happy for you to. But Mr. Bosco is repainting my apartment while I’m gone. And putting down carpet.”
“Soundproof carpet,” said Tonya.
“Soundproof carpet? Why?”
“I’ve asked Yoshi over and over not to play his music so loud. But he doesn’t listen to me.”
“I do listen, Tonya! It’s just that… What am I supposed to do if I can’t make music?”
“Read a book!” snapped Tonya.
Suddenly everyone got quiet. Yoshi looked down. If he had held the pink seashell from China to his ear at that moment, I know it would have said, This is the most frustrated you’ll ever be.
“Oh, Yoshi!” said Tonya. “I meant to say, look at a book. A picture book maybe.”
“I’m too old for picture books.” He started collapsing his telescope.
“A graphic novel then!”
But Yoshi had already started wandering back toward the Periwinkle Tower.
“I’m sorry, Yoshi!” Tonya called out. “The reason I forgot you can’t read is because you’re so smart!”
Yoshi squeezed out a smile and kept walking. But digging just wasn’t as much fun after that, so we quit earlier than usual.
Mr. Dayberry’s Announcement
On Thursday Mr. Dayberry said he had an announcement to make. He sounded so excited that we all actually got quiet. Even Cheerio, the class rat, crept out of his fort to listen—the fort Hunter had made him out of an old baseball cap.
“The Spring Thing is coming up. Does everyone remember the Spring Thing from last year?”
Boris raised his hand. “I wasn’t here last spring,” he reminded us.
It seemed like Boris had been here forever, but only five or six months ago he had been the new boy.
“Our school has the Spring Thing every year,” said Hunter. “There are games and contests.”
“And a spelling bee with a prize,” I added. “Last year the prize was a pen that wrote in six colors. I wanted it so bad! Sofie won it.”
“Now you’ll have another chance,” said Mr. Dayberry.
“Will there be a bouncy castle again this year?” asked Tonya, adjusting her tiara.
“Yes,” said Mr. Dayberry. Then he cleared his throat in that important way. “And this year our class has been invited to take part in the science fair. You’ll partner-up, and you and your lab partner will come up with an idea for a science experiment.”
“Will there be a prize?” I asked.
“The partners who win will each receive a pair of binoculars.”
“I have both a microscope and a telescope already,” said Yoshi.
“Who’ll judge?” asked Sofie.
“Mayor Kale and Mr. Fogarty will judge.”
“This sounds hard,” said Hunter.
“Then let’s make it fun,” said Mr. Dayberry. “Pick something personal for your experiment. Something that means something to you. Something you wonder about.”
“Oh, I have an idea! I have an idea!” squealed Tonya. “I have the winning idea,” she added, twirling her hair.
“The proof will be in the pudding,” said Mr. Dayberry.
Lab Partners
Partnering-up is always scary. You have to move fast, or you’ll get left behind.
I had a hard time choosing between Boris and Yoshi. Boris was creative, like me, but harder to boss around.
Yoshi has both a telescope and a microscope already. And even though he can’t read yet, everybody knows he’s the smartest. When I thought about how much I would miss him this summer, that settled it. But by the time I got Yoshi’s attention, Tonya had already corralled him.
So Boris and I made a beeline for each other. And then Sofie and Hunter, the other two members of the Gum Club, teamed up.
The bell rang. It was Boris’s day to carpool. Before I could even start the car, Boris checked the glove compartment. “Anything to eat in here?”
He found half a peanut butter, banana, and popcorn sandwich.
“Don’t eat it, Boris! I must have left it in there last Saturday after Hunter’s game. It’s probably rotten by now!”
As we zoomed home we talked about our experiment. “What should we do?” I asked.
“Mr. Dayberry’s already given us an important clue,” said Boris, taking a big bite of the sandwich. “Remember when he said the proof is in the pudding? Let’s do a pudding experiment.”
“How?” I asked.
“We’ll ask Chef Pepper in the school cafeteria to help us make two gigantic barrels of pudding. One barrel will be my favorite flavor, caramel. And the other barrel can be a flavor that means something to you.”
“Chocolate!” I shouted. “But Mr. Dayberry said to make our experiment something we’ve always wondered about.”
“Haven’t you always wondered what flavor of pudding is the best in the whole world?
“We already know it’s either caramel or chocolate. We’ll gather scientific data that will answer our question beyond the shadow of a doubt.”
I already knew chocolate was the most delicious flavor. But I played along.
“How will we gather the data?”
“Whichever barrel is empty first will confirm that that flavor is the best. The proof will be in the pudding that disappears first.”
I almost ran off the road. See what I mean about Boris being creative?
Digging with Boris
Friday after school I had to drop Yoshi off at his new reading tutor’s. I gave Marvin a treat soon as I got home.
Boris came up and we played drums. I had just begun a drum solo using my potato masher on Boris’s pizza pan when we heard Tonya’s door slam.
Time to quit.
I headed straight down to the tunnel. Sometimes when I got really sad abou
t Yoshi leaving, it helped to dig.
On the brighter side, if there happened to be buried treasure down there, maybe I would find it before anybody else.
Boris joined me after I’d been digging for a while. He brought me a box of chocolate-covered raisins. I was so hungry, I tore into the box and candy flew everywhere.
And then we heard a voice from above.
“I’ve asked you to be very careful when you eat candy in the tunnel. Candy attracts ants! But nobody listens.”
“We do listen, Tonya! It was an accident! We’ll pick it up.”
“I’m on my way to Scouts,” she said. “I can’t be here to supervise you, so just make sure to put the trapdoor back in place when you’re finished.” She headed down the path to the Scout hut.
We dug until it was almost dark. We talked about Yoshi. “What if when Boot Camp is over Uncle Albert decides to take Yoshi back to Japan with him?” My voice got all wavery.
“Don’t cry, Mimi. Let’s go inside. I’ll make you some rice pudding for dinner.” That’s when Boris’s shovel hit something weird.
“A dinosaur bone!” he shouted. He grabbed his chisel. My tears stopped.
It looked like a rounded piece of wood to me. I thought about all the shipwrecks off the coast of Pueblo del Mar. “The top of a treasure chest!”
We both dug like crazy for another half hour. It was pitch black when we set our tools down.
Could this be it?
Boris brushed some dirt away. I felt around for my flashlight and shone it on the tunnel wall.
It was a big fat tree root.
Tonya’s Accident
Early the next morning I was dreaming that a tall yellow crane was hoisting a treasure chest out of the ground. A treasure chest that I had discovered in the tunnel. The crane was super loud. CLICKITY CLACK, CLICKITY CLACK, CLICKITY CLACK…
And then Marvin leaped up onto the bed and meowed.
I woke up. But the CLICKITY CLACK-ing didn’t stop. I peeked out the window.
It was Tonya! She was limping toward the street, wheeling her pink suitcase down the bumpy walk. One of her legs was wrapped in a bandage.
“Tonya!” I yelled. “What’s going on?” Two more windows flew open below me. We all waited to hear what Tonya would say.
“I’m moving out,” she announced. “Nobody listens to me around here.”
She pointed toward the big hole. “I told you to put the trapdoor back. But you didn’t. I fell into the tunnel on my way back from Scouts. And now I’m moving out.”
I shoved the window all the way up, grabbed hold of the drainpipe, and slid down. Yoshi and Boris ran out in their pajamas.
We crowded around Tonya and blocked her way.
“Tonya, we’re sorry! It got dark and we forgot! Please don’t go.” I knew Tonya could be bossy. But she belonged with us. Besides, Marvin was absolutely crazy about her.
“Have you had breakfast yet?” asked Boris. “At least have some breakfast before you go. I’ll make waffles.”
Yoshi grabbed Tonya’s suitcase and started wheeling it back up to the front door.
“Okay. But after breakfast I’m moving out.”
Once we guided Tonya into Boris’s apartment, I called Sofie and Hunter. They wanted to see Tonya one last time.
Boris set a waffle in front of each of us. He sliced some bananas into a bowl. When I saw the banana slices out of the corner of my eye, they looked just like gold coins.
As Boris passed the maple syrup to Tonya, he asked, “Where will you move?”
“To a new tower where people appreciate me,” said Tonya. “To a pink tower. Or a yellow tower maybe. Any tower but the Periwinkle Tower.”
“But Tonya,” I said. “You made the Gum Club Promise. ‘We’ll stick together, whatever we do!’ Remember?”
“And Tonya,” said Yoshi, “don’t forget—we’re lab partners.”
“Yeah,” said Hunter. “What about the Wing Ding?”
“You mean the Spring Thing,” corrected Tonya.
“You love the bouncy castle so much,” whispered Sofie.
Tonya hesitated. She adjusted her bandage. “Well, I guess I’ll stay for the Spring Thing. But after that I’m leaving town.”
Tonya Shares, Yoshi Shares
It had been a close call with Tonya that morning. Sometimes trying to keep the Gum Club together was like trying to herd six Marvins.
So that afternoon I invited Tonya up to help me make some slime. I knew she had glitter. I hoped she would bring it with her, so we could make sparkly slime. The moment Tonya limped in, Marvin ran up to her and rubbed his head on her bandage.
“I can’t stay long.” she said. “I’m allergic to cats.” She handed me a big tube of purple glitter.
“Oh, Tonya! Purple’s my favorite color!”
“You can keep the tube if there’s any left over,” she said, stepping around Marvin.
Just as we finished kneading the slime, Yoshi gave the secret knock. He burst in waving an envelope with pretty Japanese stamps on it.
“Look! Uncle Albert sent me some money! Would you guys like to help me spend it?”
“Is it American money or Japanese money?” asked Tonya.
Yoshi showed us the bill. A twenty! I pointed to the words “United States of America” and read them out loud to Yoshi.
“Who’s that guy with the curly hair?” he asked.
“Jackson,” Tonya replied, pointing to his name.
“Andrew Jackson?” asked Yoshi. “Mr. Dayberry said he wasn’t very nice to the Indians.”
“You mean the Native Americans,” corrected Tonya.
“Then let’s get rid of him!” I shouted.
Yoshi and I were out the window and down the drainpipe in no time. Tonya took the banister.
Yoshi insisted on hitting the used bookstore first. He bought a couple of Captain Science comic books. I settled on Treasure Island to read to Marvin. Tonya chose a Hairdresser magazine.
We spent the change at the candy store on chocolate-covered raisins.
In the Tunnel with Yoshi
The next day, Sunday, Marvin jumped up onto the reading chair and waited. Every week I have Sunday school with Marvin, right here at home. I hold him in my lap and read out loud to him. He always falls asleep in class.
Today I read to him from his new book, Treasure Island. Soon as he fell asleep I wriggled out from under him and took the drainpipe down to the tunnel. I was getting frustrated. Would I ever find any buried treasure?
The trapdoor was askew. When I looked down, I was caught off guard by two bright reflections. “Hi, Mimi.” It was Yoshi—Yoshi’s glasses, that is. He was sitting down there all by himself.
“Yoshi! You scared me to death!”
I climbed down and sat across from him.
“I was getting sad again,” he said.
“Sad because you’re leaving this summer?”
“Yeah. Sometimes it helps to play my ukulele. And I can sing as loud as I want down here. If I could read I wouldn’t have to go. It’s not fair. Everybody else can read. Why can’t I?”
Yoshi played a few chords. Then he sang “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie” in the most mournful voice.
“Yoshi, I have an idea. You can help me study for the spelling bee! And learn to read at the same time.”
I was determined to win the spelling bee this time. I had to have that six-color pen. “Come on, let’s go. I made some flash cards. Maybe you won’t have to go to Boot Camp!”
Yoshi stopped strumming and we both climbed out of the tunnel.
When we got to Tonya’s floor, we remembered the trapdoor and ran back outside to replace it.
Yoshi Walks Out
I handed Yoshi my flash cards. Marvin had been listening to me spell, so I had chosen words I thought he would like.
“Okay. Spell this,” said Yoshi. He held a flash card up in front of my eyes.
“Tuna. T-U-N-A. Tuna.” When Marvin heard me spell “tuna,” he woke up.
“Hmmm. I’m not sure what this word is,” said Yoshi, showing me another card.
“Catnip,” I said. “C-A-T-N-I-P.”
“The next word’s really long, so take your time.” Yoshi held up the card that said “whisker.”
We were getting nowhere. “Come on, Yoshi! You can’t show me the word I’m supposed to spell! That’s stupid.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? I can’t read the words!” Yoshi crumpled up the flash card and threw it across the room. Marvin tore after it and attacked it. Neither of us laughed.
“You called me stupid,” said Yoshi quietly. For the first time ever, Yoshi walked out of my apartment without saying good-bye.
I was so shocked that no words came out of my mouth.
It Is So. It Is Not.
A minute later I took off down the steps. I banged on Yoshi’s door. “Yoshi, open up! I didn’t call you stupid!”
“What did you say then?” he yelled through the door.
“I said what you did was stupid!”
“Same thing!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
“Is NOT!”
“Is SO!”
A door flew open below. Tonya appeared. “PLEASE BE QUIET!” she screamed. Her tiara popped off and hit the stairs.
I dragged myself back up to my apartment. I didn’t know what to do. I picked up the pink seashell from China and held it to my ear. But the seashell wasn’t talking.
