“I wondered what that odor was,” said her mother. She pulled one of Iva’s braids toward her and sniffed it. “Your hair has mildewed!”
“That’s not all Iva’s done,” Heaven said, forking eggs into her mouth at a terrific speed.
Iva gawked at her. Heaven was going to tattle now? At breakfast? When they were actually almost sort of getting along?
Heaven spoke casually. “She went out last night, too.”
Mrs. Honeycutt turned to Iva. “Is this true?”
“Ask Heaven. She knows everything.”
“I’m asking you.”
“I just went out for a little walk.” Iva pursed her lips at Arden. “Heaven came, too.”
“I went after you.” Heaven dabbed grape jelly onto her second piece of toast.
“Nobody leaves this house without telling either me or Aunt Sissy Two,” said Iva’s mother. “Is that clear? Or do you all want to go home a day early?”
“We just want to stay later on the boardwalk,” Arden said. “Can’t we?”
“No.” Mrs. Honeycutt’s tone made it final.
Lily Pearl sucked in a gulp of air. “My money! Mama, Iva took my snooveneer five dollars! She said she was gonna buy me the pearl bride necklace! She promised!”
Iva began to sweat. What was this? National Take-a-Potshot-at-Iva Day?
“You took your sister’s money? And promised to buy her a necklace?” her mother asked sternly.
“Where is it?” Lily Pearl demanded. “Where’s my surprise?”
“It’s been—delayed,” Iva replied in desperation.
“Iva, give Lily Pearl her money back,” her mother said. “And you and I will have a little talk later.”
Heaven calmly reached for her third piece of toast. Why hadn’t her cousin told the world that Iva had spent Lily Pearl’s money on fried mushrooms and cheesecake bites?
Lily Pearl pointed her spoon at Iva. “You’re fired as my favorite sister.”
“It’s our last day here,” said Aunt Sissy Two. “Let’s get ready for the beach.”
At the beach, only Howard and Heaven seemed thrilled to be there. Howard leaped happily into his hole and began digging. Heaven met London and went swimming.
But Arden and Hunter grumped up like bullfrogs on their towels. Lily Pearl hung on the back of her mother’s chair and whined about the bride necklace Iva had promised her.
Iva buried her feet in the sand and fretted. If only her mother would pronounce her sentence and get it over with.
Heaven and London came back, laughing and dripping water all over Iva.
“Do you mind?” Iva said crossly.
“At least you’re getting a little clean,” Heaven said, adding, as she turned to London, “Iva hasn’t had a single shower since we came.”
“I wondered what that smell was,” London remarked.
“It’s your upper lip.” Iva snatched the towel Heaven was drying herself with. “That’s mine.”
“Excu-use me!”
“No excuse for you.” In her rotten mood, Iva forgot that Heaven was one blab away from ruining Iva’s entire life.
At last her mother and Aunt Sissy Two packed up their things. “Time for lunch,” Iva’s mother said. “Let’s go, kids.”
“See you at the boat dock at one thirty,” London said to Heaven.
“I’ll be there with bells on!”
Iva lifted her feet and shook sand all over Heaven. “Yeah, dumbbells.”
“C’mon, Howard.” Lily Pearl scrambled out of the hole.
His voice floated upward. “Go on without me!”
Aunt Sissy Two marched over to the pit. “Howard, don’t keep us waiting.”
“No! I’m not finished!”
Lily Pearl put her hands on her hips. “You get on out of that dumb old hole, Samuel Howard Honeycutt.”
Iva joined Lily Pearl at the edge and looked down. Howard squatted toadlike at the bottom of the hole, looking fiercely up at them.
“Go on, Lily Pearl,” Howard said. “I have work to do.”
“Howard,” said Aunt Sissy Two in that tone nobody argued with more than once.
He started to cry. “Let me dig! It’s important!” He threw down his shovel. “Okay!”
As they all trooped back to the house, Iva could hear Howard’s snuffles. Lily Pearl walked a little ahead of him. For the first time since they were babies in diapers, Howard wanted to do something that Lily Pearl didn’t.
Iva’s mother fixed grilled-cheese sandwiches while Aunt Sissy Two poured sweet tea and set out a jar of dill-pickle chips and a dish of carrot sticks.
Iva picked at her sandwich and nibbled on half a carrot stick. The little kids filled a plate with nothing but pickle chips and went into the living room to eat on “Howard’s bed,” the sofa.
Heaven vacuumed up two sandwiches and five carrot sticks, then went out onto the sleeping porch and closed the door. She came out a few minutes later wearing a red-and-white-striped T-shirt, white shorts, and her canoe-size tennis shoes. She carried a navy blue windbreaker.
“Don’t you look nautical,” said Aunt Sissy Two.
Heaven grinned. “Today is our last day, and my last Daily Life at the Beach card is ‘Sailboat Trip’! Isn’t it cool the way that it worked out?”
“Only because you rigged the deck,” Iva said. “And the Chesapeake Zephyr isn’t a sailboat. You need a whole different outfit.”
“You’re just jealous London picked me instead of you.”
Iva was jealous. And furious. Everything in Heaven’s world was rosy, while Iva felt stuck in a hole deeper than Howard’s.
“We have to talk about what we’re doing tonight,” Iva’s mother said. “It’s our last night. What should we do?”
“Well, me and Hunter could pick up dirt on the rug with tweezers,” Arden suggested in her new, put-upon tone. “While you-all go out and have fun.”
“Arden, you’re becoming tiresome,” said Mrs. Honeycutt. “Any other ideas?”
Heaven raised her hand.
“You’re not in school, Heaven,” Iva said.
“When I come back from my boat trip, I could tell stories about what I saw. Maybe we could have refreshments, like popcorn and lemonade—”
“I won’t have time,” Iva broke in.
Heaven looked at her. “What’re you gonna be doing?”
“Math problems,” Iva said. “I brought some with me in case, you know, I got bored.”
“Iva…” her mother warned.
Aunt Sissy Two said, “Why don’t we go out to dinner? We only have enough food for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” said Iva’s mother. “The Crab Shack?”
“I hear the crab cakes are excellent,” Heaven said.
Iva smirked. “You wouldn’t know a crab cake if it bit you.”
“Is that the place across from the beach photographer? Friend of you-know-who?” Arden asked, perking up.
“It is,” Hunter said. “We can sit outside and eat and watch for—I mean, watch the people on the boardwalk.”
“That’s settled, then,” said Aunt Sissy Two. “The Crab Shack for supper. Now, let’s spend our last afternoon on the beach. Peacefully.”
“We’ll come back early to get ready.” Iva’s mother tugged one of Iva’s braids. “And you, missy, will take a long shower and wash that crusty head. It’s full of sand.”
“If there’s any hot water left,” Iva said. “Arden and Hunter take fifty showers a day, you know.” Of course she’d have to take a shower. Wasn’t this her lucky day?
Howard came into the kitchen with the empty pickle plate. “We going back to the beach?”
“Yes,” said Aunt Lily Pearl. “Wash your hands. Where’s Lily Pearl? She needs to clean up, too.”
Howard stood on tiptoe at the sink, holding his hands under the running faucet. “I don’t know.”
Iva’s mother stopped, her hand on the refrigerator door. “What do you mean?”
“I don
’t know where she went.”
“Is she in the house?” Iva’s mother asked. “In our room, maybe?”
Howard shook his head. “No. Outside.”
Mrs. Honeycutt rushed out the back door, calling Lily Pearl’s name. Minutes later, she came back in through the front door and said, “I don’t see her anywhere.”
Everyone froze. Iva could hear the clock ticking.
Aunt Sissy Two pulled Howard away from the sink and kneeled down. “Are you and Lily Pearl playing a game? Tell me.”
He hooked his finger in his bottom lip, afraid he’d done something wrong. “I didn’t do nothing. Honest. Lily Pearl told me she was gonna do like the ice cream.”
Iva’s mother shot a glance at Aunt Sissy Two. “The ice cream? What’s he talking about?”
Iva remembered the first night on the boardwalk when they all had gotten frozen custard. Her mother had told Lily Pearl to eat hers before the frozen custard melted. Iva could see Lily Pearl making little legs with her fingers at the pointed tip of her cone.
“She ran away,” Iva said, her words falling like bricks. “Lily Pearl ran away.”
Chapter Eleven
The National Bank of Heaven
Everyone hurried out the front door to search for Lily Pearl.
“Look everywhere,” Iva’s mother said. “She might be hiding.”
Hunter and Heaven covered both side yards. Iva and Arden checked the backyard. Iva parted the thick snowball bushes, but no Lily Pearl crouched behind them.
“Not in the backyard,” Arden reported to their mother.
“Or front yard,” Iva’s mother said, her voice rising in distress. “I even looked in the cars. Where can she be?”
“Mama, it’s Lily Pearl,” said Arden. “She runs off every five minutes back home. Remember the time she ran away because we had pork chops?”
“Yes, but that’s back home. Everybody in town knows her.”
Aunt Sissy Two put her hand on Iva’s mother’s shoulder. “She can’t have gone far. It hasn’t been that long since she left.”
“We could walk around the neighborhood,” Iva suggested.
“The area is too big,” Iva’s mother said. “She could be on the boardwalk or on the beach or—” She didn’t say, in the water, but Iva guessed.
Aunt Sissy Two took charge. “Sissy, go inside and call the beach patrol and wait for them here. They’ll need a description of Lily Pearl. Plus, she may come back.”
“What about us?” Hunter asked. “Should we each take a different street?”
“I’ll cruise the neighborhood in my car and take Howard with me,” said Aunt Sissy Two. “Hunter, you and Arden hit the boardwalk.”
“Go in the gift shops,” Iva’s mother instructed. “Any place that might sell jewelry. She’s been pitching a fit over some kind of necklace.”
Iva was stung by a pang of guilt. Lily Pearl had believed that Iva was going to buy her the pearl bride necklace. And she had let Lily Pearl think it. Now it was almost time to go back home. Lily Pearl knew Iva wasn’t going to buy her the bride necklace. So it was Iva’s fault Lily Pearl had run away.
Iva’s mother hustled back indoors. Aunt Sissy Two and Howard got in the car and drove off. Arden and Hunter raced up Bayview Avenue toward the boardwalk.
“What about the beach? Shouldn’t we look there?” Iva asked her mother. She and Heaven had followed her into the house. But her mother was busy dialing the phone.
They needed more people, Iva decided. She dashed into the kitchen and grabbed the key ring from the drawer. Back in the living room, she unlocked the door to the upstairs.
“You can’t go up there,” Heaven said. “It’s against the rules.”
“This is an emergency.” Iva took the steps two at a time.
Mr. Smith crouched on a brown rug in the sitting room. For the first time, Iva got a good look at him. He had floppy blond hair and unblinking blue eyes. He wore a polo shirt and brown-and-gray plaid shorts and was perfectly still.
He was so still that Iva wondered if he was alive. She poked his shoulder with one finger.
“Darn,” he said, blinking at last. “You could see me?”
“Uh…yeah.” This was the brilliant explorer-spy? “My little sister is missing. Will you help us look for her?”
“The little girl with the blond ponytail?” Mr. Smith got up. “I’ve seen her and the little boy playing in the yard.”
“Mama’s calling the beach patrol,” Iva said. “But it’s a big place—”
Mr. Smith raced out of the room and clattered downstairs ahead of her. When he saw Iva’s mother in their living room, he said, “Reed Smith. I’ve just heard about the little girl. I’ll drive the girls to the beach. Save some time.”
Iva’s mother hesitated. Then she said, “Thank you!”
As Iva and Heaven slid into the front seat of Mr. Smith’s car, a tan SUV marked BEACH PATROL pulled into the driveway of their house.
“Those are great rescue people,” Mr. Smith said, backing his car out onto the street, “but we may find your sister first.”
Mr. Smith parked in the first open space and jumped out. “I’ll search this end of the beach.” He pointed to the short stretch of sand below the boardwalk and jogged off.
“Let’s split up,” Iva told Heaven.
“If we stay together we’ll have a better chance of seeing her. You know, power in numbers.”
“I thought that was ‘safety in numbers,’” said Iva, but she was glad of Heaven’s solid presence. Her cousin might have been bossy, but she was also levelheaded.
The beach was jammed with people lying under umbrellas or on blankets, playing Frisbee, building sand castles, picking up shells, eating, talking, and laughing.
Iva wondered how they’d ever find a five-year-old in this mob.
When she reached the lifeguard stand, she asked Mike if he could help.
“I can’t leave my post,” he said, watching the swimmers in the water. “But the beach patrol is first-rate. They find lost kids all the time. If I see your sister, I’ll wave my flag.”
“Thanks.” Iva plodded through the sand, scanning the crowd for Lily Pearl’s ponytail and blue bathing suit.
Heaven pointed. “Hey, there’s London! Maybe she’s seen Lily Pearl!”
London Howdyshell jogged toward them. She wore a red-and-white-striped shirt like Heaven’s and a frown.
“Where have you been?” she asked Heaven. “It’s almost one thirty. The boat is about to leave.”
“I forgot!” Heaven said. “We’ve been looking for Lily Pearl. She ran away.”
“That’s too bad,” said London, without a trace of sympathy. “I’m sure she’ll turn up. C’mon, we have to hurry. Mom and Dad are waiting at the dock.”
Iva wondered why she had ever wanted London for her best friend. And couldn’t Heaven see that London was even bossier than Heaven was?
Heaven stared openmouthed at London. “It’s Lily Pearl. My cousin. She’s five. I have to help look for her.”
London shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She skipped off in the direction of the dock.
“You just gave up your free boat ride,” said Iva.
“Did you really think I’d go off with Lily Pearl missing?” Heaven gave Iva a little shove. “Let’s haul freight. We’re burning daylight.”
Iva led the way toward the water. For the first time, she understood the expression her mother often used, Blood is thicker than water. Families were more important than friends.
“Maybe she’s not even on the beach,” Heaven said after they’d reached the water’s edge. “It’s pretty far for Lily Pearl to walk down here by herself.”
“Have you ever seen Lily Pearl when she’s in one of her snits? That kid can travel when she’s mad about something.”
“If only we had some idea where she went.”
The boat tooted its horn. Iva watched the Chesapeake Zephyr push away from the dock and steam out into the bay. She saw London’s red
-and-white-striped shirt on the top deck. Was that another girl with her? Iva couldn’t tell for sure.
“If only London was with us,” Heaven said. “She’d figure out where Lily Pearl went in two seconds.”
“I wouldn’t count on London.” Iva hopped over a pile of wet sand being excavated by a boy of about Howard’s age.
Then she stopped to think. The mound of sand reminded her of the day she’d helped Howard dig his hole. Lily Pearl had picked through the rocks on the sand mountain by Howard’s pit and thought she’d found a pearl. Iva had told her that pearls were made by live oysters that lived in the water.
Lily Pearl had also admired London’s shark’s-tooth necklace that London claimed she had made herself. If Lily Pearl couldn’t afford the pearl necklace—and if she figured Iva wouldn’t get it for her—she’d try to find a pearl and make a necklace herself.
“She’s here on the beach!” Iva blurted. “Near the water.”
Heaven grabbed Iva’s arm. “D’you see her?”
“No, but I bet she’s somewhere along the water. She’s looking for oysters.”
“Oysters?”
Iva twisted around, trying to peer between all the people at the water’s edge. She wished she could climb Mike’s lifeguard stand. Up there, she’d be able to see most of the beach. Then she spied the fishing pier. It was pretty high.
“C’mon!” She led the way down the beach and up the steps of the fishing pier.
Heaven headed for the end, where fishermen had leaned their poles against the rail.
“I’ll ask those men if they’ve seen Lily Pearl.”
Iva clambered up onto the wide railing near the steps. She had a good view of the half-moon-shaped beach. She roofed her eyes with her hand against the bright sun, but there were still too many people milling around.
Discouraged, she gazed out over the bay. The choppy water was dappled by shifting shadows that reminded her of ancient sailing ships.
Maybe it hadn’t been so easy for Captain John Smith, either. He didn’t have flashlights and cameras and radios, like modern explorers. In those days, discoverers had to be extra smart.
Iva Honeysuckle Meets Her Match Page 8
