12 The Community Fortress
Dom finally made it to the community center, minutes after Steph and Roco. Steph had stopped at home to get their steed. All three of them hurried over to the party room. Earlier, Leni and her friends had dressed each table with cascades of blue and purple flowers. They had set out the finest china the community center owned. Streamers decorated windows and doors. All the drapes were tied back with deep-purple velvet cords.
“So?” Steph asked Dom the minute Dom stepped into the room.
“It worked perfectly. The jeweler said Pancho picked up the real earrings and left ten minutes before I got there. Vinnie Bublassi followed Rafi, but all three Bublassis met me when I came out and demanded I give them my bag. I cried a bit. And threatened to call the police.” Dom put her hand to her forehead in mock despair. “They stuck their tongues out at me. But they are now the proud owners of a gorgeous pair of fake earrings the jewelers use in their shop window.”
Steph snickered. “Good job! Now we just wait for Pancho.”
“No, no, no, no!” Dom said. “We can’t just wait for Pancho.”
“But he rode his bike. All he had to do was drop off the earrings at Yuca, Yuca. He should be here any minute.”
“No, no. That’s not what I mean. We can’t just wait for Pancho! Vinnie said they’d see us at the community center. They haven’t finished messing with the party!”
“The fortress?” Steph asked.
“The fortress!”
The fortress was like the queen’s diamonds. Another way the real musketeers had fooled their enemies.
“We need to dress some sticks into dummies.”
“Right. Brooms or mops or something. And attach them to chairs.”
They prowled the halls. They found a mop in the janitor’s closet. The janitor said they could use it.
They found a broom under the piano. They figured they could use it because no one else was.
They hustled upstairs. They met Mrs. Kiddo, the person in charge of the children’s room. Dom knew her from summer camp. They told Mrs. Kiddo their problem. “Could we borrow costumes for the afternoon? We’ll put them back exactly where we found them,” Dom said.
“Take your choice.” Mrs. Kiddo opened a closet filled with clothes and costumes. She pointed them to drawers full of paper clips, spools of string, and all sorts of tape. She let them use a long stick she kept for limbo contests.
Dom’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, ooh!” She pointed to a bunch of hats on the top shelf. “If we use your hats, we’ll still be able to wear ours!”
Steph frowned. “They don’t have feathers.…”
“Oh yeah…”
Mrs. Kiddo pointed to Steph’s hat. “Why don’t you take that big plume and attach it to just one of the hats?”
“The lights are not on in the ballroom.… They might be fooled by just one hat.…”
“They won’t pay that much attention.…”
“Perfect!” Dom decided.
“Perfect!” Steph agreed.
They settled down to make the dummies. They stuffed plastic grocery bags with paper from the recycling bin to make the heads, and taped the bags to the top of the sticks. They taped coat hangers wearing jackets under the “heads” and tied scarves around the neck where they joined. Steph took the stubby plume and transferred it to one of Mrs. Kiddo’s hats. In very little time three dummy musketeers were ready. Mrs. Kiddo helped the girls take them down to the ballroom.
Steph and Dom thanked Mrs. Kiddo. They settled the dummies on one of the tables. They fussed and tried different poses to make sure they fooled anyone who tried to spy through the windows. Dom used a pin to attach the coat sleeve of one dummy to the tablecloth so it would look more natural.
“And where do you think Pancho is?” Steph asked Dom once they were done.
Pancho should have been there by now, Dom knew. But she didn’t want to believe the Bublassis had done something to him. “He’ll be here soon. Don’t worry. Maybe he decided to go home first.”
“You don’t think the Bublassis stopped him, do you? And took Leni’s earrings?”
“I’m sure they didn’t,” Dom said, although she wasn’t sure at all. She was scared to death for Pancho, but if she said it aloud, it might seem more real than it already was. “Let’s go outside and check out our defenses.”
* * *
They weren’t surprised at what they saw when they opened the door. Pancho racing toward the community center. His teal plume was totally gone, and a white bag dangled from his bike’s handlebars.
“They’re after me! They’re after me!” he yelled as he dropped his bike at the steps.
“Is that the earrings?” Dom pointed to the bag.
Pancho struggled to catch his breath. “Long story. The Bublassis must not have gone to Desmond’s warehouse. They were waiting for me when I came out of Yuca, Yuca. I pedaled as fast as I could, but I’m sure they’re only a couple of blocks away!”
“The fortress!” Dom and Steph yelled.
“The fortress?” Pancho said. “Awesome! Except they can already see we’re here.”
Pancho was right. Dom could see two boys running toward the community center. She couldn’t see their faces yet, but she could see their shirts—the same color as the ones they’d worn earlier. It had to be Ernie and Ponsi. And if she could see the bullies, the bullies could see them. The dummies wouldn’t work. And the musketeers weren’t ready anyway. “We’ll just talk our way out of it.”
Dom walked down the steps.
“Forsooth, do you come to parlay?” she yelled as the Bublassis came through the community center gate.
“Do you wanna talk?” Pancho translated from the top of the steps.
“Move it, featherhead. We have business inside. And we need to do it fast. We have another party to go to.” The two bullies stopped in the middle of the community center’s yard.
“I’ll give you a chance to go back to Desmond’s party, and we promise to be mum about this day,” Dom said. “Let the maiden have her feast. Go on your way!”
“We don’t care if the maiden has her feast!” Ponsi Bublassi yelled. “Move it or…”
“Mayhap you’d sing a different tune if you knew the janitor and Mrs. Kiddo know of your dastardly deeds. They’re prepared to stop you,” Steph said.
“Like we’re afraid of them.”
Dom pulled out her phone. “Then mayhap I should call Frank Desmond and tell him you skipped out on helping him set up for his party!”
“Wh—aaaah?”
Dom brought her phone to her face. “Cheeese!”
She clicked and then waved her phone in her stretched-out arm. “Maybe earlier you didn’t believe Franklin Desmond, a gentleman of your acquaintance, is in my contact list.”
“I’m sure your mother would be interested to know how helpful you weren’t today,” Pancho warned.
“And about all your plans to ruin the maiden’s party,” Steph added.
Ernie shifted from one leg to the other. “Uh, uh…”
Ponsi waved his brother’s fears away. “She won’t.”
Dom’s eyebrows rose. In plain sight of the boys, she selected the picture. Slowly, carefully, she turned the phone and punched a couple of times. Then she let her index finger hover dramatically over the screen. “Watch me!”
“Stop! No!” Ernie yelled. He turned toward his brother. “She knows too much. She’s gonna do it.”
Ponsi shook his head. “You got away with it this time, featherhead. But we’re coming back. And our brother Vinnie’s coming back with us. You’ll be sorry!”
“Make sure you tell Mr. Desmond a good story!” Pancho said. “I’m sure he wants to know why you’re not helping him get ready for his party.”
As the two bullies walked away, the musketeers could hear Ernie. “She really does know a lot.”
Dom plopped down on the bottom step. “Dastardly disaster dodged!”
“Indeed!” Steph agreed. “But not
for long.”
Pancho told about what happened after Dom and Steph left him covering Ernie in balloons. He’d kept Ernie for at least fifteen minutes, until the dastardly Bublassi finally worked himself out of his “chains.” Ernie followed the same direction that Dom and Steph and Rafi had taken. Quickly Pancho hopped on his bike. He made it to the jeweler in a flash and then returned to the restaurant to hand the precious cargo to the waiting Señor Fuentes. That’s when he found malanga fritters on the menu and decided to wait till they were ready, to bring some to the musketeers for lunch.
“You mean you worried us to death for some kind of greasy fritters?” Steph’s voice sounded annoyed.
“Not just any kind of fritters. Malanga fritters!” Pancho pulled the white bag off his bike’s handlebars and handed out the treats.
“And what are ma-lahn-gah fritters made from?” Steph still hadn’t tasted hers.
Dom and Pancho looked at each other.
“No clue,” Pancho said.
“Beats me,” Dom said.
“And you guys eat things that you have no idea what they are?”
“If they taste good.”
“And you’ve been eating them your whole life.”
“It’s not like it’s intestines or anything,” Dom said as she munched. “It’s a vegetable. I know that much.”
Steph took a tentative bite. “Mmmm. Malanga fritters,” she said. “Worth the worry.”
While they chomped, Steph told them about patting her pockets pretending to look for her phone every time Ponsi threatened to leave her. She kept him handing out candy until Ernie rescued him. They followed the direction Rafi and Dom had taken.
When the malanga fritters were gone, the musketeers cleaned up their mess, rearranged the hats on their dummies, and planned what to do once the Bublassis came back.
But they didn’t know when that would be.
So they stationed themselves at windows.
Upstairs.
So they could see anyone who approached the community center.
Pancho spotted the dastardly ones at about three thirty. They were dressed up. Ready for the plunger party.
“Places,” he yelled on his way downstairs. “Lucky us, they’re coming through the back.”
Steph and Dom ran outside through the front door.
Steph dove under a huge clump of rhododendrons with her weapon. She was close to the right side of the building with a perfect view of the community center’s backyard.
Dom sneaked into the canopy of the magnolia tree on the left of the building. From that spot, between the branches, she could see the back too. And she was next to an open window so that when she gave the signal, Pancho would hear it.
Pancho slid down the railing of the basement steps like he’d been doing since he was six. He went to summer camp there too. He stationed himself where he could hear Dom’s signal.
The three Bublassis stopped close to the back door.
“Featherhead’s gone,” Vinnie said loud enough for Dom to hear. “She would have been out here by now if she was in the building.”
“I bet they thought we weren’t coming back,” Ponsi added.
Ernie took a few careful steps toward the building and looked through a window. He turned around quickly to meet his brothers. “They’re in the party room. Sitting around a table. It’s dark, but I can see them through the window—they’re still wearing the crazy musketeer hats!”
“Now we’ll show them what it’s like to mess with the Bublassis!” Ponsi said.
“You guys know what to do,” Vinnie reminded his brothers. “There’s a hose on either side. I’ll go open the windows for you.”
All three Bublassis took off.
But the musketeers beat them at their own game.
“One for all!” Dom yelled.
From under the rhododendrons, Steph pulled the trigger on her hose. Her aim was perfect. Spray blasted Ernie’s face and soaked his checkered party shirt. The torrent swept over every inch of him, especially his shoes. They wanted the Bublassis to squish all the way home to slow them down. When she was sure Ernie was soaked, Steph aimed at Vinnie.
At the exact same time as Steph, Dom pulled the trigger on her hose from the branches of the magnolia. The water surged toward Ponsi, drowning his hair and his face and pouring over his shirt and pants. She also flooded his shoes. She aimed at Vinnie as soon as she was satisfied Ponsi was drenched.
The boys ran. They tried to get away from the sprays. That’s when Pancho executed their brilliant move.
He turned on the sprinklers. Full blast!
If there was a dry place on any of the three Bublassis, it disappeared.
“All for one!” came Dom’s signal after a minute.
The hoses and the sprinklers stopped.
Pancho and Roco ran out to the community center’s wet backyard. Steph crawled out from under the rhododendrons, and Dom hopped down from the tree.
“Would you like me to call the honorable Monsieur Desmond to pick you up?” she asked. “Mayhap you’ll need to change robes before his party.”
13 Three Musketeers with Panache
The musketeers put back the hoses and swept the back steps and walkway so no one would slip. They helped unload the truck when el Señor Prieto arrived with the roasted pigs and other food from Yuca, Yuca. They organized the place cards and fixed the deep-purple bows on the backs of the chairs.
“I wish we could stay,” Steph said.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing what it’s like,” Dom agreed.
“We could offer to patrol the grounds,” Pancho suggested.
They got their wish.
El Señor Fuentes rushed into the hall.
“A terrible misunderstanding,” he said. “The people who were supposed to come to serve the appetizers were booked at a party to celebrate toilet plungers!”
“TOILET PLUNGERS?” the musketeers echoed in a chorus.
“Yes, yes, yes!” The eyebrows over el Señor Fuentes’s blue eye and brown eye both danced wildly. “A terrible misunderstanding. Who would have a party to celebrate toilet plungers?”
“Somebody who wanted to take away your helpers!” Pancho added. The Bublassis finally got away with something.
“Exactly, mi amigo.” The eyebrows still jumped around. “They were supposed to be here half an hour ago. Your uncle just called them, and that’s what they told him. Toilet plungers!”
“We could help,” Dom said. “We’ll tidy up our musketeer outfits and pass around the appetizers.”
“We’ll be happy to help in the kitchen now,” Steph added.
“All you need to do is show us,” Pancho finished.
And they did.
Once the appetizers were all prepared, el Señor Fuentes took them by his store to make dressier baldrics. He let them choose more jewels to adorn their hats. They each ran home for a quick change.
Dom called Abuela as she put on party duds and told her all that had happened.
“Ay, mi amor, how exciting. Emilio Fuentes will be so grateful for what you did!”
Dom told her about how el Señor Fuentes didn’t really know all they’d done and how they were now about to serve the appetizers.
“You must pass the appetizers with panache,” Abuela said.
“Panache?” Dom asked.
“Like they are the most important and glamorous thing in the world, my dear. Like you’re a movie star!”
“Panache!” Dom said with conviction. “Got it!”
* * *
They stood by the community center’s kitchen when Leni made her grand entrance, in violet satin and sequins, along with her court. On Rafi’s arm, she glowed. Her mother’s earrings sparkled beneath her shiny brown hair. Rafi’s smile was so big, Dom was sure she could see his tonsils. El Señor Fuentes’s eyes were full.
And during the party, the musketeers passed the appetizers with panache. When they weren’t passing around appetizers, they guarded the entrances. Everyone co
mmented on how helpful and efficient they were. When the dancing started, the musketeers joined the party on the dance floor.
Leni stopped them and told them it was the best day of her life.
“You just don’t know how much it meant to me that you helped with the appetizers. It could have been so much worse!”
Dom glanced at the others. If Leni only knew!
* * *
Leni, Rafi, el Señor Fuentes, and the musketeers sat on the front steps of the community center after everyone had left.
“I understand you did a lot more than help with the appetizers,” el Señor Fuentes finally said.
“A little,” Dom said modestly. “It wasn’t much, really.”
“It wasn’t much?” Rafi exclaimed. “You just figured out that the dastardly Bublassis wanted to mess up the whole party… and you stopped them from doing it!”
“Show them,” Steph said. “Show them our pictures.”
And Dom did. “What I don’t understand is how they knew about the earrings. And the servers for the appetizers.”
“I can fill that in,” Rafi said.
Everyone’s eyes focused on Rafi.
“When Vinnie finally figured out I was actually delivering spreadsheets for Mami, he got furious,” Rafi said. “He started yelling at the top of his lungs even though he didn’t have to. I was right there next to him.”
Vinnie told Rafi he’d always planned on a random dastardly deed to get back at el Señor Fuentes for getting him in trouble with his mom. He found out that Tava’s Butcher had Leni’s pigs on the same day he found out about Desmond’s plunger party, which also happened to be the day Dom showed up with the check. “The easiest thing was to talk Desmond into buying the pigs.”
Rafi stopped for a minute and looked at Leni, making a pitiful face. “It was Emily,” he said. “And you were right, Sis. He’d already been working on it, but when you came in with the check, he had the perfect way to do it and not get in trouble.” Then Rafi looked at Leni. “Vinnie knew that you and Emily were friends, and he knew that Emily loved to talk. He sweet-talked her, and Emily was really impressed a football player and a senior was talking to her. She gave him all the details without even knowing what she was doing.”
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