Keeping Secrets

by Ann M. Martin

Flora wondered what Aunt Allie would think about marriage for Min — a wedding of two rather elderly citizens. And then she wondered about the baby clothes in Aunt Allie’s closet. Here was another mystery, and wouldn’t you know, it involved another adult. Ruby had said that the closet looked exactly the way it did when she and Flora had discovered it in September. Not a thing was different, at least not so far as Ruby had noticed. And now there was the photo of Allie and the handsome man that Ruby had found in the desk drawer, and the letter with the return address from … what had Ruby said? Peru? Mexico? Flora was tempted to ask Ruby about it right that second, but she wasn’t ready to abandon her sewing.

  Flora sat at her desk and began a list of things she would need for her dress. She was very grateful for the discount Min gave her at Needle and Thread.

  She sucked on the end of her pen. “One yard of green fabric,” she said aloud. “One and a half yards of blue fabric. Buttons?” She looked at the pattern. No, no buttons.

  She set her pen down. She should really, she thought, offer to make some clothes for Olivia. It was awful that Olivia had to shop in the children’s department, especially now that she and Jacob were … were what? Dating? Were they really dating? Flora felt a pang — an actual pang — in her stomach. You are being uncharitable, she said to herself. Very uncharitable. She could hear Min’s voice. “And unbecoming,” it admonished her.

  So why did the thought of Jacob and Olivia bother her? Was it because she wished someone had asked her to the dance? No. Well, it would have been nice, of course, but it wasn’t something she had wished for, and anyway, she didn’t know a single other girl besides Olivia who had received an invitation. Was she upset because Olivia had made a new friend? No. She and Olivia each had a number of friends.

  Flora sighed. She suspected she knew what the problem was. When she looked ahead of her, down the hallway of years, past thirteen and fourteen, eighteen, twenty-one, she saw only change. Soon she and the rest of her friends would be invited to dances all the time, and boys would start to call, and Saturdays would be spent not giggling in Needle and Thread nor sitting on the lawn with the other Row House kids, but going to the movie theatre at the mall and to football games and parties. There would be driving lessons and final exams and college applications. And bras — there would be bras.

  Flora stood and looked out her window at Aiken Avenue. If a genie were to appear from somewhere at that very moment, Flora would ask it (she didn’t know if a genie was male or female) to stop time so that she could stay twelve years old having sewing days in her room at Min’s house forever.

  Or would she? Stopped time meant not being able to solve Aunt Allie’s mystery and not getting to know Willow. It meant Nikki wouldn’t be able to go to college, which was her dream, and Flora certainly didn’t want to take away anyone’s dream.

  She sat down again, had a sudden inspiration regarding shoulder ties on the sundress, and returned her attention to her project. Before Flora knew it, the morning was over, she had completed the alteration on the pattern, and a feeling of calm had settled neatly into the center of her body.

  This was the beauty of a sewing day.

  “Oh, dear. Are you sure we have everything?” Mrs. Sherman surveyed the car, which was parked on the gravel drive, every one of its doors open.

  “Positive,” replied Nikki. “Look. All of Mae’s stuff is on the backseat. Coloring books, crayons, juice box, crackers, her pillow.”

  “Did you take the books out that she stuck in there? You know she’ll get carsick if she tries to read.”

  “I snuck them out,” said Nikki. “Don’t worry. And I packed the maps. Really, Mom, I think we’re all ready. And remember, this is just a two-hour car ride. It’s not like we have to pack for a big, long trip. It’s eight-thirty. By ten-thirty we’ll be at Leavitt.”

  “Lord, I hope so. You marked the route on the map, right?”

  Nikki nodded. “And Tobias printed out the directions on his computer. And,” she rushed on before her mother could say anything else, “I put them on the front seat. I’ll be the navigator so you don’t have to worry about anything but driving.”

  Mrs. Sherman drew in a slow breath. “Okay. Where’s Mae?”

  “I made her go to the bathroom again even though she said she didn’t have to. I took Paw-Paw out, too.”

  “And Min Read is going to drive Flora over this afternoon to walk him?”

  “Yup. Okay. Here’s Mae. Let’s go.”

  Mae jumped down the porch steps, two books falling from inside her jacket as she did so.

  “Books,” said Nikki harshly. “Put them back, Mae.”

  “Oh, ding-dong,” said Mae, but she retreated into the house.

  “Lock the door behind you!” Nikki called as her sister returned empty-handed.

  Nikki, Mae, and their mother slid into the car, three doors slammed, and the Shermans’ road trip was under way.

  “Let’s sing ‘Ninety-nine Bottles of Pop on the Wall,’” called Mae from the back as Mrs. Sherman steered down the driveway.

  “No!” yelped Nikki and her mother. Then Nikki added, “We have to concentrate. Look, Mom got you a new coloring book. Why don’t you make some pictures for Tobias? He can put them up in his dorm room.”

  “What’s a dorm room?”

  “It’s where kids sleep when they go to college,” said Nikki knowledgeably.

  “Are they bedrooms?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why don’t they just call them bedrooms?”

  “Mae, really, I have to help Mom here. Open your coloring book.”

  Two hours later, with Mae fast asleep and Nikki bent over one of the maps, Mrs. Sherman called out, “There’s a sign for Leavitt College!”

  “See? Tobias’s directions were perfect!” exclaimed Nikki. “Oh, this is so exciting. Just two miles. We’re almost there.”

  “Now, what did Tobias say to do when we reach … Beacon? Is that the name of the town?”

  “Yeah.” Nikki consulted a note from Tobias. “Okay, um, we’re supposed to turn left at the first traffic light, park anywhere on High Street, and then look for Coffee Joe’s. It’ll be next to a bookstore. That’s where we’re going to meet him. At Coffee Joe’s, I mean, not the bookstore.”

  “Goodness, my heart’s pounding,” said Mrs. Sherman. “I can’t believe we’ve come this far.”

  “Without any mistakes,” said Nikki.

  “You’d better wake up Mae,” added her mother, peering into the rearview mirror. “She’s going to need Crabby Time to recover from her nap.”

  As Mae grumbled in the backseat, squinting into the sunlight, Nikki took a careful look at Beacon. The edges of town were unimpressive — strip malls and gas stations and fast-food restaurants. Then her mother made a right-hand turn, drove to the traffic light, and turned left, and suddenly Nikki found herself looking down a stretch of road that could have been Main Street.

  “Ooh,” said Mae, perking up. “A toy store.”

  “This is just like Camden Falls!” exclaimed Nikki.

  “It’s lovely,” said her mother.

  “Look, there’s a parking space and it’s right in front of Lighthouse Books — and there’s Coffee Joe’s, just like Tobias said!”

  A smile spread across Mrs. Sherman’s face. “We did it,” she whispered.

  “Yay, Mommy,” said Mae.

  Nikki eased out of the car, stretching her legs, and found herself face-to-face with her brother. “Tobias!” she exclaimed.

  “Hey there, little sister.” Tobias wrapped Nikki in a bear hug.

  “Tobias! Tobias! Look what I made for you!” Mae scrambled out of the backseat with a fistful of pages from her coloring book. “You can hang them in your boardroom!”

  Tobias looked confused, and Nikki whispered to him, “She means your dorm room.”

  “Oh. Thanks!” he said. He leaned down to peer through the window into the front seat. “Hi, Mom,” he said. “You made it.”

 
She smiled at him. “Thanks to Nikki.”

  “Let’s go to Coffee Joe’s before we head back to campus,” said Tobias.

  “Great. I could use a cup of coffee,” said Mrs. Sherman, heaving a sigh as she extricated herself from the car.

  Mae let out a sigh of her own. “Me, too,” she said. And added, “Man, I’m beat.”

  “You slept almost the whole way!” cried Nikki.

  “And since when do you drink coffee?” added Tobias. “Or say, ‘Man, I’m beat’?”

  “Since I got to college.” Mae marched through the door of Coffee Joe’s, stepped up to the counter, and said, “One coffee, please.”

  Joe leaned across the counter and peered down at Mae. Then he glanced at Nikki, Tobias, and Mrs. Sherman, who had hurried in after her.

  “Sorry,” said Mrs. Sherman. “That will be two coffees, one milk, and … what do you want, Nikki?”

  “Iced tea, please.”

  “Hey! Is that milk for me?” squawked Mae.

  “Yes, and settle down, please,” said her mother.

  Nikki sat on a stool and took a good look around Coffee Joe’s. Plastered on the walls were fliers advertising poetry readings, concerts, recitals, and plays. “Tobias, you could do something different every single night in Beacon,” she said. “Look — there’s going to be a performance of Our Town. We read that in school. It was the best play ever. And a group called Split the Bill is going to play right here at Coffee Joe’s. Who’s Split the Bill?”

  “Two women who sing and play the guitar,” Tobias replied. “They’re really good.”

  “This is so cool.” Nikki sipped her iced tea. “I love college.”

  “And you haven’t even seen Leavitt yet,” said Tobias.

  When they finally did — when they had finished their drinks, made sure their car was locked, and walked along the road that led up the hill toward campus — Nikki drew in her breath. She knew, even before she had let the breath out, that she would never, ever forget this view of Leavitt College. The old brick buildings seemed to rise up out of green lawns like a fleet of ships appearing on the horizon.

  “Here’s the main entrance,” said Tobias as they walked through a set of ornate iron gates. “These gates were built in eighteen seventy-four, the year the first part of the campus was finished. That big building just ahead is the Jeffers Science Center. Over there is Neilson Hall. That’s where all the English classes are held. That new building is the student center. Across the lawn is the main library, and right behind it is the music library. The performing arts —”

  “Wait!” interrupted Nikki. “That huge building is the library? And there’s another library, too?”

  “There are three other libraries,” said Tobias proudly.

  “How can there be so many books?” wondered Mae, who had seen only the library at Camden Falls Elementary and the tiny public library on Main Street.

  “Do you want to look inside?” asked Tobias.

  “Are we allowed?” whispered Nikki.

  “Of course.”

  After Nikki and Mae and Mrs. Sherman had gawked at the shelves and shelves and floors and floors of books, Mae, once again growing giddy with excitement, said, “Now can we see your boardroom, Tobias, please?”

  So Tobias walked his family past the performing arts center and the student center to a group of six buildings, each four stories high, that formed a U around an expanse of lawn. He strode purposefully to a building on the left, led the way to a door on the second floor, swung the door open, and said, “Home, sweet home.”

  Nikki looked in at the messiest suite of rooms she had ever seen. Clothing was tossed everywhere, including, in one case, on a lamp shade. (“Fire hazard,” she announced, whipping the shirt off the shade and folding it neatly over the back of a chair.) She and her mother and Mae had to pick their way from one room to another, sidestepping books, empty pizza boxes, computer cords, paper plates, and crumpled napkins.

  “Don’t you boys eat at a table?” asked Mrs. Sherman.

  But Nikki decided the rooms were wonderful, the happy result of life lived far from the eyes of parents.

  Tobias looked at his watch. “If we go to the student center now, we can meet my roommates and their families,” he said. “We thought it would be nice if we all ate lunch together.”

  Nikki saw concern cross her mother’s face and knew Tobias saw it, too. She took her mother’s hand. “It’ll be fun,” she assured her. “And if it’s not, we’ll leave.”

  But it was fun. Nikki liked Bruce and David, her brother’s roommates. She liked their parents, too. So what if the moms were wearing tailored pantsuits while her own mother wore a skirt that Nikki suddenly realized was just a bit too short — and makeup that had been lathered on a bit too thickly? When talk turned to ski trips and to Bruce’s parents’ summerhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, Mrs. Sherman merely refilled her coffee cup. And everyone was indulgent of Mae, who insisted on being called Goldie and went around the table telling fortunes.

  When lunch was over, Nikki asked to continue the tour of campus and was enthralled when Tobias took her and Mae and their mother to a greenhouse, a real theatre, playing fields, and even a small art museum.

  “This,” said Nikki as her family walked back to town later that afternoon, “has been one of the best days ever. I’m going to come to Leavitt after high school, just like you, Tobias. I’ll do anything to get here. I’ll make straight A’s, I’ll get a scholarship, whatever it takes.”

  “Listen,” said Tobias, “if I could get in, then you’ll get in for sure.”

  “That,” said Nikki, “is my new goal. I’m not going to lose sight of it.”

  And she never did.

  Vincent Barnes tucked his copy of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town under his arm and left the Teachers’ Room.

  “See you tomorrow,” called Mr. Krauss, one of the math teachers.

  “Have a good evening,” Mr. Barnes replied. He whistled as he walked through the halls of Central. He was beginning to feel a part of the school and a part of Camden Falls, his new community.

  This afternoon it was time for another meeting of the seventh-grade book club, and Mr. Barnes was looking forward to it. The students in the club had held one meeting to determine how the book club should run, a second meeting at which they had chosen their first book (Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis), and a third meeting at which they had talked about Bud, Not Buddy and chosen Zachary Beaver, by Kimberly Willis Holt, as their next selection.

  “Hi, Mr. Barnes!”

  “Hey, Mr. Barnes, how’s Shortbread?”

  “Mr. Barnes, I couldn’t find the book in the library until yesterday, so I had to read the whole thing in one night!”

  Mr. Barnes looked at the group of kids crowded outside the door to his classroom. They were full of smiles and energy and ideas, his most motivated students.

  He grinned at them. “Nikki, you read that whole book in one night? No wonder you have bags under your eyes.”

  “What? I don’t have bags under my eyes! Do I, Olivia? Well, anyway, it was worth it. That was the best book ever.”

  “That’s what you said about Bud, Not Buddy,” said Mr. Barnes, holding the door open.

  “Mr. Barnes?”

  Vincent Barnes turned around at the sound of the shy voice behind him. “Hi, Flora.” He glanced at the unfamiliar girl standing next to her.

  “Mr. Barnes, this is Willow Hamilton,” said Flora. “Is it all right if she comes to the meeting? She just moved here and she wants to join the book club. Olivia and Nikki and I have been telling her about it.”

  “It’s fine with me.” Mr. Barnes smiled at Willow. “Did you have a chance to read the book?”

  Willow nodded. “I’d read it once before, but I reread it over the weekend, anyway.”

  “Excellent.”

  Mr. Barnes ushered Flora and Willow into the classroom and then sat at his desk. He paged through Zachary Beaver while the rest of the students trick
led into the room. Snatches of conversation reached him.

  “She gave us a pop quiz! It was completely unfair.”

  “Karen said that Janey said that Oliver wants to go out with Pam, but she doesn’t want to go out with him.”

  “Olivia! Sit over here!” That was Jacob. Mr. Barnes knew it without looking up.

  But he did raise his eyes when he heard a voice say, “I’m not even supposed to be here. I’m under,” the voice was lowered, “house arrest.”

  The voice belonged to Willow, and when Mr. Barnes glanced at her, she looked down at her desk, cheeks reddening.

  “Everything all right?” Mr. Barnes asked her.

  She nodded.

  Mr. Barnes hesitated. “Okay,” he said, and Willow gave Flora a sideways look, then sagged in her seat.

  The room was full now. Every desk was taken, and several students were sitting on the floor. “Are we all here?” asked Mr. Barnes. “Anybody missing?”

  When no one answered, he said, “Today we’re going to talk about When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. As you know, my policy is to stay in the background. Does someone want to lead off, or would you like me to ask a question to get things started?”

  A forest of hands shot into the air, and Mr. Barnes smiled. “Amy?”

  “Okay. Well, how about if I begin by summarizing the book? We started last month’s meeting with a summary,” said Amy Adams. When no one objected, Amy went on. “All right. Um, Zachary Beaver is about what happens when the fattest boy in the world — that’s Zachary, only it turns out he isn’t really the fattest boy — comes to Antler, this small town in Texas, one summer. He affects a lot of people’s lives, especially the lives of Toby and Cal. Toby’s the narrator,” Amy added.

  “What I liked,” said Jacob, “are the people in Antler. Some of them have small parts in the book, but they leave big impressions. Like Miss Myrtie Mae.”

  “At first,” said a boy sitting against the back wall, “I couldn’t tell what Toby’s intentions with Zachary were. Like, I thought he was going to be mean to him. And actually, he was kind of mean to him, but then things changed.”