The Vanderbeekers Make a Wish

by Karina Yan Glaser

  But Isa knew that it did matter—it bothered her, and she wasn’t even involved!—and she wasn’t sure why Grandma acted like it was no big deal. It made Isa wonder if things like that happened often to Grandma and Grandpa. It reminded her that her grandparents had a whole story she knew nothing about.

  Shortly after they arrived home, while Jessie went upstairs to research Whalers Cove in California, Isa went into the basement to practice her violin. She began slowly with scales and arpeggios, being careful with each note to make sure it rang clearly and was perfectly in tune. Next she worked on a new etude that Mr. Van Hooten had assigned, struggling with the continuous barrage of double stops, or places where she had to play on two strings at the same time.

  “You are out of tune,” her grandma said from behind her.

  Isa, startled that someone was down in the basement without her knowing, jumped and knocked her bow against the music stand.

  “Be careful with your bow!” Grandma exclaimed. “Very expensive.”

  “You startled me,” Isa said.

  “Play it again, in tune,” Grandma said.

  Isa played it again, and Grandma shook her head. “You need to focus.”

  “Okay, Grandma,” Isa said, and she tried it again.

  “No, no,” Grandma said to her. “It’s not right.”

  And so it went for the next thirty minutes, Isa playing and Grandma correcting her, until Jessie stuck her head downstairs and said that Aunt Penny needed Grandma’s help with something.

  Isa sighed with relief at Grandma’s departure. She got back to work, focusing on her double stops without Grandma’s endless criticism, then went on to play her orchestral music and solo piece. Above her, she could hear the steady beats of family life: the clangs in the kitchen and the roll of Laney’s bike wheels and the thump of Oliver’s basketball (before Grandma told him to stop playing ball in the apartment). And then, as Isa got wrapped inside the music, the sounds faded into the background until Jessie called her upstairs for dinner.

  Mama was working late at the bakery again, so Aunt Penny cooked. The spicy smells of garlic and ginger and cilantro filled Isa’s nose.

  “Aunt Penny made Indian food for dinner!” Laney told Isa.

  “She even made naan,” Oliver said.

  “That’s my favorite bread in the world,” Laney reported.

  “I know,” Isa said as she washed her hands and joined the family at the table. “This looks absolutely delicious. Thanks, Aunt Penny.” She glanced at Grandma and wondered if she liked Indian food.

  Grandma seemed particularly grouchy at dinner, and she was relentless with her criticism during the meal. She thought the dishes that Aunt Penny made were too spicy, even though spice-sensitive Laney happily ate all of it. She said that Isa needed to focus more during violin practice, and that Oliver should be doing math every day—summer did not mean taking a break from math. Jessie needed to get her hair cut, and why did she always wear such baggy clothes? Hyacinth needed to stop mumbling—who could understand a word she was saying? Laney should keep her bedroom cleaner—it was like a pigsty in there.

  “Actually,” Laney said, “pigs are very clean. They never go to the bathroom near their living area—”

  Grandma shushed her. “Don’t talk about such things at dinner.”

  When dinner was finally over, Isa and her siblings cleaned up the kitchen while Grandma sat on a stool and pointed at parts of the kitchen that were dirty. When Isa told her that they had everything under control and suggested that Grandma and Grandpa should feel free to get some rest, she was surprised when her grandparents actually agreed and went upstairs. Aunt Penny and the Vanderbeekers relaxed at their departure.

  “Dinner was great,” Isa told her aunt as they cleaned up.

  “Even though it was spicy enough to light your tongue on fire?” Aunt Penny said with a grin, echoing Grandma’s comments.

  “Grandma’s been worse since the botanical garden,” Jessie noted.

  “Maybe she’s upset by what happened in the store,” Hyacinth said.

  “It sounded terrible,” Aunt Penny said. “It reminded me of the things that happened to my parents when we were growing up. A lot of people made fun of their accents or told them to go back where they came from. And if it happened to my parents, it definitely happened to your grandparents.”

  “It’s weird how she seemed to completely forget about it,” Isa said.

  “I don’t think she forgot about it,” Aunt Penny said. “I think she’s learned how to live with it.”

  “That’s really sad,” Laney said. “I wouldn’t want people saying stuff like that to me all the time.”

  “Me either,” Aunt Penny said, giving Laney a hug, then glancing at the time. “You know what? I think I’m going to walk over to your mom’s bakery to see if she needs help cleaning up.”

  Laney and Hyacinth looked at her with glee.

  “You totally want to visit Peaches and Cream!” Laney said.

  Aunt Penny grinned.

  “You should—” Laney began.

  “I’m not adopting them,” Aunt Penny interrupted. “Remember? I live across the country. I have a busy life.”

  “Uh-huh,” Laney and Hyacinth said.

  Aunt Penny rolled her eyes, then put her phone in the back pocket of her jeans and headed out the door.

  The brownstone was quiet after she left, and the Vanderbeekers immediately felt the weight of the day press down on them.

  “I miss Papa,” Laney said.

  “Let’s call him,” Isa said. She took out her phone, called his number, and put it on speaker. It rang six times before disconnecting. “That’s weird,” Isa said. “Let me try again.” But the second try yielded the same results.

  “He’s probably not getting good reception,” Jessie said. “At least he’s coming home tomorrow.”

  “I can’t wait to see him,” Hyacinth and Laney said at the same time.

  “Speaking of Papa,” Oliver said, “we have to find Whalers Cove. His birthday is only three days away.”

  “I did some research this afternoon but didn’t see anything,” Jessie said. “But it reminded me that we should look through the box of things that belonged to Pop-Pop. Maybe the itinerary is in there.”

  The Vanderbeekers went upstairs to Isa and Jessie’s bedroom, where they could get to work. Jessie got on the computer while Isa pulled up the internet browser on her phone. Laney and Hyacinth started paging through the books they had checked out from the library. Oliver sifted through the box of Pop-Pop’s things, which they had moved from Mama and Papa’s bedroom when their grandparents had arrived. With the exception of a couple of fun photograph albums from when Papa was a boy and a few boring legal documents, there was nothing of interest among Pop-Pop’s belongings. Two hours later, they had made no progress.

  They could not find Whalers Cove anywhere.

  * * *

  Laney was so exhausted from the day that she fell asleep instantly. But just as she had the previous two nights, she woke to the sound of someone walking down the stairs. This time she wasn’t scared because she knew it was Grandpa heading to the backyard. She waited until she could hear the click of the back door closing, then got out of bed and went down the stairs. She passed Mama and Aunt Penny sleeping in the living room and crept to her spot by the back window.

  Once again, Grandpa was doing his mysterious movements, and Laney watched him glide back and forth through the grass, his arms making big circles in the space around him. The gestures were so beautiful and welcoming that Laney found herself opening the back door and stepping out into the damp night.

  Grandpa noticed her right away, but he just smiled at her and kept going. Laney made her way to the grass and began imitating him. She knew her movements didn’t look like his—he moved as if he were dancing underwater—but it felt good to be out in the stillness of the night. She loved feeling the cool breeze against her cheek and the dewy grass under her feet.

  Grandp
a had always been a mystery. She didn’t understand his quiet ways, yet being outside with him and connecting through movement made her feel closer to him. Laney wasn’t sure how long they were out there, but when Grandpa was done, he turned to her and gave her an unexpected hug. She took his hand and they went back inside, tiptoed through the living room, and climbed the stairs. Grandpa waved as he stepped into Mama and Papa’s bedroom while Laney went to her bedroom. Even though it was so late, she could not sleep. She tried all the tricks Papa had taught her. She tried making her breaths nice and even, petting Tuxedo’s forehead, and visualizing the best moment of her week so far: riding over the Brooklyn Bridge on her new bike with Grandpa.

  Still unable to fall asleep, Laney turned in her bed and caught a glimpse of the big book they had checked out from the library two days earlier. She flipped on the night-light, heaved the huge book into her bed, and began to read.

  Thursday, August 7

  Two Days Until Papa’s Birthday

  Twenty-Two

  Oliver was having a great dream. He was the starting point guard for his middle school basketball team, playing alongside Angie, Jimmy L, Orlando, and . . . Laney? Never mind. He ran out onto the court as the announcer called his name, a packed stadium cheering for him. It sounded as if people were stamping their feet in excitement. He looked for his teammates, and Laney was yelling something at him.

  “What?” Oliver said over the noise.

  “Whalers Cove!”

  And with that, his fantastic dream vanished, and Oliver bolted up in bed.

  Laney was tugging at his blanket, saying, “I found it! I found Whalers Cove!”

  Jessie, Isa, and Hyacinth must have heard the commotion, because they were standing in the doorway of his tiny room, saying, “Really? Whalers Cove? How? Where?”

  More footsteps came from the hall, and Aunt Penny, who had just come out of the upstairs bathroom, appeared in the doorway behind his sisters. “Are you talking about the Whalers Cove in California?”

  Laney turned to look at Aunt Penny. “Yes, I found it! It’s in—”

  “Point Lobos,” Laney and Aunt Penny said at the same time.

  Laney looked at Aunt Penny and said, “How did you know where it was?” while Aunt Penny said, “I love Whalers Cove! It’s so close to where I live!”

  Then all five Vanderbeekers said, “You live by Whalers Cove?” at the same time Aunt Penny said, “Why you are interested in Whalers Cove?”

  There was a pause as everyone waited for someone else to start talking, and when no one did, Laney said, “We’ve been trying to find Whalers Cove forever. We found a letter that Pop-Pop wrote to Papa the day before he died saying that he wanted to take Papa there.”

  “Let me show you the letter,” Isa said, dashing into her bedroom and returning a few seconds later. She handed it to Aunt Penny, and the Vanderbeekers watched as Aunt Penny read it.

  “Wow,” Aunt Penny said after she had read it twice. “That is an incredible letter.”

  “We’ve been trying to find Whalers Cove all week,” Laney told her. “And last night I couldn’t sleep, so I started reading my book about the important sites of World War Two, and then I found it: Whalers Cove in Point Lobos, California.”

  Her siblings and Aunt Penny looked at Laney, amazed.

  “Whalers Cove is one of my favorite places to take a walk,” Aunt Penny said. “There’s an old fishing cabin there that was converted to headquarters for secret military operations during World War Two.”

  “And there were a bunch of people who lived there during the war and made a radar station so they would know if objects were coming toward them from far away,” Laney said.

  “And the army used it to train solders of the 543rd Amphibious Brigade in the use of landing craft,” Aunt Penny said.

  “And the army would do drills where they would land boats on the beach and then run up to the meadow,” Laney finished.

  Isa, Jessie, Oliver, and Hyacinth just stared at Aunt Penny and Laney.

  “What? I like history, okay?” Aunt Penny said.

  “That library book has a lot of information in it,” Laney said.

  “Are you telling me,” Oliver said to Aunt Penny, “that you knew about Whalers Cove all this time?”

  Aunt Penny nodded. “I wish I had known you were looking for it!”

  “We want to re-create that trip for Papa,” Isa told her. “But we didn’t know where Whalers Cove was. The letter didn’t say, and we couldn’t find information on the internet.”

  “Books rule!” crowed Laney.

  “I know about Whalers Cove, but I don’t know about anything else in that letter,” Aunt Penny said. “Like who is Ludwig? That’s a terrible name.”

  “We found that out from Yardsy,” Oliver told her. Then he explained the van and lost itinerary.

  “What a shame,” Aunt Penny said. “But at least you know where Whalers Cove is. And if you go, you can stay with me!”

  “That would be awesome,” Isa told her.

  “But we really want to give him the whole experience,” Oliver said. “He’s turning forty on Saturday, and last year we got Mama a bakery for her fortieth birthday, so . . .”

  “Well,” Aunt Penny said reasonably, “I think your dad would be happy with a trip to Whalers Cove even if you don’t have any of the other locations. I think that would be very special.”

  Isa and Jessie said, “You’re right,” but Oliver was unconvinced.

  Another set of footsteps came down the hall, and Mama appeared in the crowded doorway.

  “Kids,” she said, her face creased in worry, “there was a big tornado last night in Indiana.”

  The Vanderbeekers froze, afraid to hear Mama’s next words.

  “Papa and Uncle Sylvester and the whole family are fine,” Mama said quickly, and Oliver’s heart resumed beating. “But the tornado created a lot of destruction in the area.”

  “He’s still coming back today, right?” Laney asked, her fingers pulling at the sleeves of her pajamas.

  “He is not,” Mama said. “The airport he was leaving from had a lot of damage, and the other local airports are pretty small, so there are no available seats on planes to New York City today.”

  “So he’s coming back tomorrow?” Hyacinth asked.

  “The earliest flight he could get is next Tuesday.”

  “Next Tuesday?” the Vanderbeekers said in unison.

  “But his birthday is this Saturday!” Laney said.

  “What about his party?” Oliver said.

  Mama shook her head. “I’m sorry. We have to cancel the party.”

  * * *

  Downstairs, gathered in the living room, the Vanderbeekers considered whether to simply reschedule the party for the following Saturday, but Mama said they should wait to set a new date just in case Papa couldn’t get home next Tuesday.

  “Do you mean he might be gone longer?” Laney said, distraught.

  “We just don’t know,” Mama said as she headed out the door. “We’ll have to see.”

  “This stinks,” Jessie said, slumping down on the couch.

  Grandma, who was sitting at the dining room table and trying to shoo Tuxedo off without actually touching her, paused to glare at Jessie. “Language, Jessie. And sit up straight. Your posture is terrible.”

  Jessie ignored her.

  “We need to contact everyone on the guest list,” Isa said.

  So the Vanderbeekers retreated again to Isa and Jessie’s bedroom and spent the next couple of hours calling and emailing everyone they had invited. Thankfully, the handful of people traveling by airplane had purchased travel insurance, so they could get their money back.

  “What a crummy week,” Oliver said when they had finally finished calling and emailing. He had grabbed a bowl full of cookies from the kitchen while Grandma was distracted trying to avoid Franz, and now everyone was munching on lemon-blueberry bars.

  “It has been awful,” Isa agreed.

  “Uncle
Sylvester’s mom died. Papa won’t be back for his big birthday celebration,” Oliver said.

  “Your camping trip got canceled,” Hyacinth said.

  “We haven’t been able to talk to Papa because of the reception,” Laney added.

  “We’re no closer to figuring out the road trip itinerary,” Jessie said.

  “To top it all off, Grandma has been here,” Oliver said in a low voice with a shudder.

  “And don’t forget that terrible man at the botanical garden,” Hyacinth added.

  Her siblings nodded in agreement. That had been terrible.

  “But there were some good things,” Laney said as she petted Tuxedo.

  “Like what?” Oliver said, grabbing another cookie bar and shoving it into his mouth.

  “My new bike,” she said. “Meeting Jamal and David and Yardsy and maybe getting to build a boat.”

  Isa smiled at Laney and gave her a hug. “You’re right. We also learned more about Pop-Pop.”

  “I hate it when you look on the bright side,” Oliver grumbled.

  Laney went over to Oliver and put her arms around his neck. “Spin me!”

  Oliver made a face, but he stood up and spun her around anyway. Laney hooted with glee.

  Grandma’s voice came in from down the hall. “Quit that racket! Grandpa is trying to rest!”

  Oliver rolled his eyes.

  “Maybe Grandma and Grandpa will leave early now,” Oliver whispered as he dropped Laney onto Jessie’s bed. “Since the party is canceled.”

  Even though they all felt a little bad about it, the Vanderbeekers brightened at the thought.

  Twenty-Three

  Around noon, Mama called Jessie and asked if she, Isa, and Aunt Penny could come over to the bakery. Auntie Harrigan couldn’t come that day because she had a freelance job helping to build a set at a theater in Westchester. Manny was still sick, so Mama was all by herself in the kitchen.