London’s mother took a twenty-dollar bill from her purse. “Honey, don’t eat too much, or you’ll get sick. Bring me back some change.”
Iva goggled at the twenty. London must have been rich. If she dropped her mother’s camera in the bay, she’d probably buy a new one in two minutes. A new plan formed in the back of Iva’s mind.
“You gonna spend all that money on junk food?” she asked blandly. “You could get sick.”
London fixed her dark eyes on her, taking the bait. “So what if I do?”
Iva knew that London was up for another challenge. “Bet you I get sicker!”
“Have you gone insane?” Heaven said. “Betting on getting sick? That’s—sick.”
“Five bucks?” Iva offered.
“Deal!” London swept them down the boardwalk toward the food stalls. “Bring on the sugar!”
They hit the cotton-candy stand first. Iva got the largest-size cotton candy, bigger even than Heaven’s head. The breeze blew the spun sugar into Iva’s face. Soon, most of her cotton candy webbed her hair and eyebrows.
London, walking backward out of the wind, ate hers down to the paper stick.
Next, London bought a big box of saltwater taffy for them to share. Iva grabbed a huge handful. She crammed taffy into her mouth as fast as Heaven unwrapped it.
When she had a dozen or so pieces in her mouth, she tried to chew, but her jaws wouldn’t close.
“’Elp ’e,” she said gummily.
Heaven held Iva’s nose with one hand and pushed her chin up with the other. Pink drool oozed from Iva’s lips. Heaven worked Iva’s jaws up and down until she was able to swallow some of the taffy.
Meanwhile, London polished off the rest of the box. Iva couldn’t figure out how the other girl did it. Her face wasn’t even sticky.
“Time to switch,” London said. “We do it gradually. Sugar and salt.”
They each bought the biggest-size bucket of kettle-cooked popcorn. Her teeth still glommed with taffy, Iva could barely eat half of her popcorn. Heaven took care of the rest of the bucket.
“Now we go straight to salt. Ever had fried mushrooms?” London asked.
Iva was slap broke, and junk food was expensive. She gazed woozily at the store’s sign, advertising small, medium, and large plates of fried mushrooms. “Aren’t you feeling sick yet?”
“Not a bit.” London placed two large orders.
Iva took Heaven aside. “Lend me your food money.”
“Iva, you have to quit. This is crazy, even for you.”
“Forget it!” Iva caught sight of Lily Pearl lollygagging behind her mother and Aunt Sissy Two. Her little sister gripped her plastic purse. Iva flew across the boardwalk.
“Lily Pearl,” she said sweetly. “Can I borrow your five dollars?”
“No.” Then Lily Pearl said, “What for?”
“It’s a secret. Something reeaal nice.” Iva smiled. “Maybe for you.”
Lily Pearl took a much-folded five-dollar bill from her purse. “Are you getting me the bride necklace at the snooveneer store?”
“It’ll be a surprise! Don’t tell Mama. Thanks!” Iva snatched the money and paid for a plate of fried mushrooms, which she could barely choke down. London’s plate was already clean except for a swipe of grease.
“Back to sugar,” London announced. “Fried cheesecake bites. Mmm!”
Iva handed over the rest of Lily Pearl’s money and received a green basket with six deep-fat-fried cheesecake bites resting uneasily on a square of grease-soaked paper.
London took her basket to the other side of the boardwalk, near a trash can. Iva turned her back. She could barely stuff down her own food, much less watch London.
The cheesecake bites tasted as awful as they looked. Iva’s stomach began to rumble. One more cheesecake bite to go. Gamely she gobbled it whole.
Her stomach lurched. Iva dropped the basket.
Heaven ran over. “I think London’s cheating! You can stop this right now!”
It was too late. Clutching her middle, Iva staggered over to the trash can. As she leaned over, a pile of fried mushrooms stared back at her.
Iva pulled away from the revolting sight and threw up magnificently on the steps.
“Ewww!” Heaven pinched her nostrils shut. “Right where people walk. Gross!”
Iva wouldn’t have cared if she had thrown up in the White House. London had cheated!
London came over, took one look at Iva’s mess, and gagged. Pink-tinged vomit gushed clear across the boardwalk. People leaped out of the way.
“Wow!” Heaven said. “London puked way more than you did, Iva.”
It wasn’t possible. Iva had eaten more! But London had managed to throw up more, somehow. Iva had lost the bet and now owed London five dollars.
Plus, she had broken rule number three. She’d taken Lily Pearl’s souvenir money for nothing.
Chapter Eight
The Tattle-Teller
Flink. Flink. Flink.
Iva plunked each knife in the drawer as she dried it. The old ladies in the cottage had tossed silverware and sung half the night again. Since they were probably sleeping in, Iva figured she’d give them a wake-up call.
Cheerios crunched under her bare feet. Broken crayons lay scattered on the table. The little kids made such a mess.
After breakfast, Lily Pearl had cornered Iva wanting to know where her bride necklace was. Iva told her to wait for the surprise. She hated fibbing to her little sister, but what else could she do?
Arden and Hunter slouched into the kitchen and sat at the table.
“I heard,” Arden said as she began painting her fingernails red and pink, “that the boardwalk starts jumping around ten. We always come home too early.”
“So, we should stay out later?” Hunter asked.
Flink.
“It’s the only way to meet boys; maybe see Mike—”
Flink. Flink.
“Iva, must you make that annoying noise?” Arden complained.
“Yes,” Iva said. “Mama will never let you stay out in a million years.”
“She won’t know, if a certain blabbermouth keeps quiet. Or I’ll tell her you haven’t taken a bath since we got here.”
Iva sniffed under her arm. “How’d you know? Do I stink?” She hoped so.
“Like a wet dog behind a hot woodstove,” said Hunter.
Iva picked up a slotted spoon from the dish drainer. It was too big for the silverware drawer. She opened another drawer, which contained large utensils. As she dropped the spoon in, she spied something in the corner and pulled it out: a metal ring loaded with keys of all shapes and sizes.
She’d have bet her National Geographic collection that one of those keys fit the lock on the door in the living room. The door that led upstairs to Mr. Smith’s forbidden rooms.
“So, how’re we gonna stay out later?” Hunter asked Arden.
“Leave it to me.” Arden glanced at Iva and clammed up.
But Iva had her ears trained on the front door. Did she hear it open and close? From the bloodcurdling yells in the bathroom, she knew her mother and Aunt Sissy Two were getting the little kids ready. Heaven was still putting on her costume for the day.
That left Mr. Smith. He must have just gone out.
“Everybody ready to hit the beach?” Iva’s mother came in. She checked her straw bag. “Hmm. Still can’t find my camera.”
“I am!” Howard yelled. “I’m gonna dig in my hole all day and all night!”
Iva slowly wiped the counters. “Mama, I’ll finish cleaning up the kitchen and come down in a few minutes, okay?”
Her mother put her hand on Iva’s forehead. “You feeling all right, Iva-kins?”
Actually, Iva’s stomach hadn’t recovered from last night’s junk-food binge. She had barely touched her breakfast. And she felt a little sicker hearing that her mother had just missed her camera.
“I got a little—um, back-door trouble,” she fibbed.
“If
you have the runs, you shouldn’t go out in the sun,” Aunt Sissy Two advised.
“I’ll stay home with you,” her mother said.
“No!” Iva realized she had gone too far. “I mean, I’m okay. I’ll just sweep the floor and pick up these crayons. I’m right behind you.”
Heaven came in, dressed in her “Sun Tan” outfit, a yellow two-piece bathing suit that revealed a billboard-size expanse of stomach. When she saw Iva with the broom, she threw her cousin a suspicious look, then walked outside with the others.
Iva raced into the living room with the key ring. With shaking hands, she tried the first key. Didn’t fit. Neither did the second. The very last key turned in the lock.
She opened the door. A steep flight of stairs led straight up to the second floor.
She crept up the steps. At the top, two rooms branched off from a short hallway.
Iva went into the sitting room. The desk was covered with papers, and there was a book, The Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles in Virginia. Then she noticed a stack of printed forms weighted by a metal cup of sharpened pencils.
She peeked at the form on top. Someone had printed neatly, quiet moving creek channeling through a swamp with aquatic vegetation. Weird.
A map of Stingray Point was spread out on a coffee table. The map showed marshes, creeks, and wooded areas. Several places on the map were circled in red and connected by red lines.
Iva traced the lines with her finger. Was this Mr. Smith’s secret-discovery-spy route? What did he do at those red-circled places? Was he looking for something? Pirates’ gold? If so, how did his notes on swamps and water plants fit in?
A CD player anchored a corner of the map. Stuck to one side was a label that read, DO NOT USE TO CALL. Of course Iva was eaten up with curiosity. She punched the ON button.
The sound of static was followed by dripping noises, like raindrops hitting leaves. Then: WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!
The inhuman cry almost knocked Iva flat. What was that horrible sound? It must be Chessie! Only a sea serpent could make such a loud, unearthly call.
Mr. Smith was trying to find Chessie! It made perfect sense. The sea serpent probably had a nest or something in the swamps.
Iva looked for more signs of sea-monster hunting. On a shelf in the bookcase she spotted a compass, thermometer, kitchen timer, flashlight, some extra batteries…and a camera.
The camera was almost exactly like her mother’s. She picked it up. If she had had Heaven’s luck, Mr. Smith would simply have given her the camera. But she didn’t have a lucky penny. She’d have to make her own luck.
Maybe she’d help him find Chessie’s nest. She knew the sea serpent’s call now. She could go with Mr. Smith on his secret route. He was probably old, and old people got tired (except those ladies in the cottage). After they found Chessie’s nest, Mr. Smith would be so grateful he’d offer a reward.
Iva played out the scene in her head.
“Please, take whatever you want,” Mr. Smith would say. “No,” she’d tell him, “I only helped for the experience.” “I insist,” he’d say. Reluctantly she would pick out the camera. “To remember you by,” she’d say modestly.
Her daydream was interrupted by the sound of someone coming up the steps. She hadn’t heard the front door, but it must be Mr. Smith! Spies were experts at sneaking.
Iva looked desperately around, but there was no way out. She was considering sliding behind the drapes when Heaven puffed into the room.
“I thought you went to the beach,” Iva said, still shaken by the sound of Chessie’s call.
“I came back for my lucky penny,” Heaven said. “I forgot it. Then I saw this door open. What’re you doing up here?”
Iva didn’t for a second believe Heaven’s flimsy excuse. She knew her cousin had doubled back just to catch her. “Mr. Smith left the door open. I only—”
“You broke the rule, Iva Honeycutt,” Heaven stated. “You broke all the rules.”
“What’re you, the official rule keeper?”
Heaven ticked off Iva’s crimes on her fingertips. “First, you got in the water without permission. Then you didn’t watch Lily Pearl. Last night you took that poor little kid’s money. And now you’re in this man’s room.”
Iva wondered if she’d find Heaven in Mr. Smith’s book, under “Reptiles.” “How come you haven’t tattled to my mother?” she asked. “Saving it up to tell her all at once?”
That was it. Heaven was planning to clobber Iva with one great big tattle tale.
Heaven was like the Love Teller machine in the arcade. Put a token in the Tattle-Teller and the answer light landed on everything Iva had ever done wrong.
Heaven stared at the camera in Iva’s hands. “Were you gonna steal that camera?”
“No!” Iva put the camera down on the table. “I was just looking at it.”
“Something funny is going on.” Heaven made one eye squinty. “Yesterday, Aunt Sissy couldn’t find her camera. This morning, she said she still couldn’t find it.”
“So?” A goose walked over Iva’s grave. Heaven knew.
“You took it, didn’t you? I bet you broke it.” Heaven sashayed out of the room in her yellow two-piece bathing suit, singing, “I have a se-cret!”
Iva ran after her. “You don’t know anything, Heaven Honeycutt! Tell all you want! I don’t care one teeny little speck!”
But Iva did care. She was in huge trouble. As soon as Heaven was out the front door, she hurried down the steps, locked the door to the stairs, and tossed the key ring back in the kitchen drawer. Then she sprinted outside and down the street to the beach.
Red and yellow umbrellas sprouted from the sand like colorful toadstools. People sprawled on blankets. Radios played. Little kids shrieked in the waves. Everyone was having a great time.
Everyone but Iva. Life as she knew it was about to end.
At the boat dock, passengers climbed aboard the Chesapeake Zephyr for the morning tour. Iva wished more than anything that she had been with them. She’d have paid the boat driver extra to let her off on the Maryland side of the bay.
She spotted her mother’s and aunt’s matching beach chairs. Arden and Hunter lay on towels near Mike’s lifeguard stand. Lily Pearl and Howard were digging in a hole. Heaven was nowhere in sight.
Maybe she’d fallen in the hole. No. Not with that lucky penny. If only Iva had a lucky coin, too. How would she make one get flat? She could put a penny under Heaven’s chair, but that would take too long. She needed help right now.
Iva thought fast. Suppose she started talking to her mother and kept on talking and talking and talking? When Heaven showed up to tattle, she wouldn’t be able to get a word in sideways.
She jogged through the sand to her mother’s chair. “Hi, Mama!”
“Feeling better?” her mother asked, giving her a squeeze.
“Yeah. It was just one of those—half-hour bugs.”
“What?”
Iva sat in the sand beside her mother. “You know, like a twenty-four-hour bug? Only this one was shorter.”
“Iva, you take the cake,” her mother said, laughing.
I also took your camera, Iva thought, and lost it. “Mama, see that boat out there? It goes all around the Chesapeake Bay,” she said expansively, “where Captain John Smith went. I think we should ride on it.”
“How much are the tickets?”
“Only ten dollars. That’s pretty cheap, considering all the education we’d get.”
Iva was laying it on thick.
“Only ten dollars? Iva, there are eight of us. Do you realize how much it will cost for all of us to go?”
Iva tried to do the math in her head, but couldn’t remember if she was supposed to drop or carry the one. “How much?”
“Eighty bucks.”
“How about if just you and me went?” Iva glanced around.
Where was Heaven? Lowering the boom on Iva was Heaven’s favorite occupation. It wasn’t like her to miss an opportunity this good.
<
br /> Her mother shook her head. “Would that be fair to the others?”
“How about just me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t go by yourself.”
“Sure I can! Just give me an advance on my allowance. I’ll pay you back when we get home.” If she could keep talking about the boat and convince her mother to let her go, she’d kill two birds with one stone.
“No.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Iva glimpsed a two-piece yellow bathing suit. She shifted position so she was blocking her mother’s view.
“Mama, have you seen the hole Howard dug? Isn’t it something? I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t get in the paper. I bet it’s the deepest hole any kid ever dug on this beach. Or any beach anywhere in the world. And Howard is only five years old! I bet he becomes a professional hole-digger when he grows up.”
Aunt Sissy Two looked at her over her sunglasses. “Iva, you sure you’re okay?”
“Never felt better,” Iva rattled on. “That’s because I had a glass of orange juice for breakfast. They say that orange juice is liquid sunshine. Sunshine in a glass! Do you believe that? I do!”
The two-piece yellow bathing suit walked by. It wasn’t Heaven after all.
Iva stood up and scanned the beach. Heaven had to be there somewhere. Her eyes lit on Hunter, who was performing a perfect cartwheel in front of the lifeguard stand.
“Look, Hunter is doing tricks!” Iva said. She saw Arden scowl at Hunter. Iva knew Arden couldn’t turn a cartwheel if her life depended on it.
Then Iva’s older sister got up off her towel, tugged her bathing-suit bottom over her butt, and took two tottering steps. The back of her hand went to her forehead as if she were dizzy.
She staggered to the lifeguard stand and sagged like a sack of flour. Then, with a little moan and an exaggerated eye-roll, Arden swooned.
Iva noticed that Arden didn’t crash face-first in the sand, but fell prettily, with one arm flung over her face and her toes pointed like a ballet dancer’s.
Iva’s mother jumped up. “Oh, my stars and stripes! Arden’s fainted!”
Iva Honeysuckle Meets Her Match Page 6
