by Abby Klein
“Really?” I said. “How?”
“We spy on him,” said Josh.
“We do what?” said Robbie.
“We spy on him.”
“How do we do that?” I asked.
“Do you know where he lives?” Josh asked.
“Yep. He only lives a couple of blocks from my house.”
“This afternoon you, me, and Robbie can sneak over to his house and spy on him. We’ll try to find out what kinds of things he likes to play with.”
“That’s a great idea!” said Robbie. “A spy mission sounds like a lot of fun!”
“What if he catches us spying on him?” I said. “Then we’ll really be in trouble!”
“He won’t catch us,” said Josh. “We’ll be super-secret spies. He’ll have no idea we’re even there.”
“Come on, Freddy,” said Robbie. “It will be an adventure. You love adventures!”
“Oh, all right,” I said.
“Let’s meet at Freddy’s house in half an hour to make our super-secret spy plan,” said Josh.
We high-fived each other.
“Half an hour. My house.”
“Hey, Mom!” I yelled as I slammed the front door. “I’m home!”
My mom came running in from the kitchen. “Freddy, how many times have I told you not to slam the front door?”
“Sorry, Mom,” I called over my shoulder as I started up the stairs.
My mom stopped me. “Slow down, mister. Aren’t you going to tell me about your day?”
“Not right now, Mom. I don’t have time. Robbie and Josh are coming over in a few minutes.”
“They are?”
“Yep. And I’ve got to get ready.”
“Ready? Ready for what?”
“Ummm … ummm … we’re going to go build snow forts. I have to find my shark fin gloves.”
“Don’t you want a snack?”
“No thanks!” I ran up the stairs two at a time. “Just send Josh and Robbie up when they get here.”
“Okeydokey!” my mom said.
I went into my room and sat down on my bed. I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand. “Think, think, think. What do spies need?”
I got out a pencil and a pad of paper and started to make a list when Josh and Robbie came racing in.
“Hey, Freddy,” they said.
“Hey, guys.”
“What are you doing with the pencil and paper?” Josh asked.
“I’m making a list of the spy stuff we’re going to need.”
“What do you have on the list so far?”
“Not much,” I said. “Just one thing, a flashlight.”
“A flashlight?” said Robbie. “We aren’t going on a spy mission in the dark! We’re going in the middle of the day!”
“That’s true,” I said, laughing.
“I know what we need,” said Josh.
“What?”
“Binoculars!”
“Yes, great idea!” said Robbie. “Binoculars are the perfect tool for spying. Suzie has binoculars, right, Freddy?”
“Yeah, she got them last year for Christmas for when she goes bird-watching.”
“Perfect,” said Josh. “You can borrow hers.”
“Well, ummm …”
“Well, what?” said Josh.
“Suzie doesn’t usually let me borrow her stuff.”
“We’ll just borrow them for an hour and then bring them back. She’ll never know.”
“I guess so,” I said. “I’ll go look for them in her room while she’s downstairs eating her snack.”
I stopped at the top of the stairs and listened. I could hear Suzie talking to my mom in the kitchen, so I tiptoed into her room and looked in her closet. I didn’t see the binoculars there, so I quietly opened one of her dresser drawers. I started rummaging around inside the drawer when I felt a tap on my shoulder. “AAAAHHH!” I screamed, and jumped about three feet in the air.
“Surprise!” Suzie said.
“Suzie, what are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” she said. “What are you doing in my room? You know you’re not allowed in my room without my permission.”
“I was ummm … I was ummm …” I stammered.
“You were what?” Suzie demanded.
“I was looking for your binoculars.”
“My binoculars? What for?”
“For uh … for uh …”
“Come on, Freddy. Spit it out! I haven’t got all day.”
“I need them for a snowball fight this afternoon. We need them to spy on the other team.”
“And you were just going to take them?”
“I was going to borrow them. I planned on putting them right back where I found them. So what do you say? Can I borrow them?”
“Sure!” said Suzie.
“Really?” I said. I couldn’t believe it was going to be that easy.
“But it will cost you.”
I knew it, I thought to myself. Nothing with Suzie was that easy.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You have to clean up my room for a week,” Suzie said, grinning.
“A week!”
“Yep. A week,” Suzie said, holding up her pinkie for a pinkie swear.
“A week? Really? How about two days?”
“A week or nothing. Do we have a deal?” she said.
I really needed those binoculars. “Fine,” I said as we locked pinkies. “I’ll clean up your room for a week. Now can I have those binoculars?”
Suzie got out the binoculars and handed them to me. “Here you go,” she said. “You’d better not break them!”
I grabbed them from her and dashed back into my room.
“What happened to you?” Robbie asked. “You were gone forever.”
“Suzie caught me.”
“Oh no!” said Robbie.
“Oh yes!”
“So we don’t have the binoculars?” said Josh.
“No, I have them,” I said. “It just cost me cleaning her room for a week.”
“A week!” said Josh. “That’s harsh. Your sister is tough.”
“Tell me about it,” I said.
“Well, at least we have our most important tool,” said Josh.
“What else do we need?” I asked.
“I think we should bring a pencil and a little pad of paper so we can take notes,” said Robbie.
“Okay. I’ve got that right here,” I said, handing it to Robbie.
“Spies also have to wear gloves so they don’t leave any fingerprints,” said Josh.
“Since it’s winter, we’ll already have gloves on our hands,” said Robbie.
“Oh yeah. I forgot,” Josh said, laughing. “Coming from California, I’m still trying to get used to Christmas in the snow!”
“One last thing,” said Robbie.
“What?” I asked.
“Josh and I are wearing our jackets with a hood to hide our faces. Make sure you also wear your jacket with a hood, Freddy.”
“Wow! You guys think of everything!” I said. “You really are super spies.”
“So what do you think?” asked Josh. “Are we ready, Freddy?”
“Ready!” I said.
The three of us put our hands together. “One, two, three, super spies!” we shouted. “Let’s go!”
We walked out of my house and headed down the street.
“Hey, guys,” said Josh. “I have a joke for you.”
“I love jokes,” I said. “Go for it.”
“What do you call a snowman in the summer?”
“What?”
“A puddle!”
“Ha, ha, ha!” I said, roaring with laughter. “That’s so funny. Isn’t it a good one, Robbie?”
“It is,” Robbie said. “But remember, guys, we have to be really quiet. We don’t want Max to hear us coming.”
“That’s for sure,” said Josh. “He can never know we were spying on him. If he ever found out, we’d be in
BIG trouble!”
“You can say that again,” I said.
As we walked past Mrs. Golden’s house, her dog, Baxter, came bounding off the porch and ran over to us. He was wearing a jingle bell collar that was jingling all the way.
“Hey, Baxter,” I said. “Should we call you Santa Paws? How you doing, boy?”
Baxter jumped up and knocked me to the ground. Then he started giving me wet, slobbery dog kisses all over my face.
Josh and Robbie started laughing hysterically.
“Ha, ha, ha! More! Give him more kisses, Baxter!” Josh said.
Baxter kept on licking my face. “EWWWW!” I yelled. “I think he just stuck his tongue in my ear!”
“EWWWW! That’s gross,” Josh said, laughing.
I was able to wiggle myself free and stand up. “Sorry, boy, but we’ve got to get going. We have to complete our secret spy mission before it gets dark.”
Baxter wagged his tail.
“See you later, boy,” I said as I started to walk away.
Baxter barked and started to follow me.
“No, boy. Not today. You can’t come with us today. You have to stay here.”
Baxter whimpered.
“I know you want to come with us, but with that jingling collar, you’ll make too much noise.”
Baxter looked at me with his sad puppy-dog eyes.
“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” I said. “I’ll tell you what. If we get done early enough, we can stop by your house on the way home and play fetch with you for a little bit. How does that sound?”
Baxter barked and wagged his tail.
“All right, then. You go back up on the porch, and we’ll see you later.”
Baxter barked again and ran back to the porch.
“Come on, guys,” I called. “We can run part of the way there.”
The three of us took off running. After sprinting two blocks, Josh asked, “Are we almost there?”
“Yep,” said Robbie. “About another half a block.”
“Then we’d better slow down,” said Josh.
We stopped running and walked in silence the rest of the way.
When we got to the house next door to Max’s, Robbie motioned for us to hide behind a big tree. We knelt down in the snow and huddled together.
“Okay, guys. Now what?” I asked.
“I don’t think we can see enough from here,” Robbie whispered, “so we’re going to have to find another hiding place.”
“But where?” I asked.
“I think I have an idea,” said Robbie. “Follow me, but stay low to the ground.”
We crawled out from behind the tree and crawled over to a bush that was growing right on the side of Max’s house.
“In here,” Robbie mouthed, and pointed.
Josh and I followed him in.
“I definitely think we’ll be able to see a lot more from here,” Josh whispered.
“Freddy, do you want the binoculars?” asked Robbie.
“Why?” I asked.
“You’ll need to crawl to that window over there and peek in with the binoculars to see what you can see.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Do you want me to do it?” Josh asked.
“Ummm … yeah,” I said.
“Okay. No problemo,” Josh whispered, giving me a thumbs-up.
That’s what I love about Josh. He never calls me a fraidy-cat or makes fun of me if I am afraid to do something. He is a great friend.
I handed Josh the binoculars. He crept out of our secret hiding place and crawled along the side of Max’s house. When he was underneath Max’s bedroom window, he slowly stood up and peeked in the window with the binoculars.
I held my breath.
Josh watched silently for about two minutes, and then all of a sudden he dropped to the ground and crawled like crazy back to the bush where we were hiding.
“Oh no! Oh no!” Josh whispered.
“What?” Robbie and I asked.
“I think he may have seen me!”
I was about to scream, but Robbie put his hand over my mouth before any sound could come out.
“Shhhhh,” he whispered. “The last thing we want is for Max to know we’re here.”
“What do we do?” I mouthed.
“Should we try to make a run for it?” Robbie asked.
“I don’t think we can make it without him seeing us,” said Josh.
Just then we heard the front door slam shut.
The three of us froze.
My heart was beating so fast I thought it was going to pop out of my chest. KA-THUMP, KA-THUMP, KA-THUMP.
I grabbed Robbie’s and Josh’s hands and squeezed them really hard.
Max appeared from around the corner of the house carrying something in his hand.
“What’s that?” I whispered.
“I think it’s a hammer,” Robbie whispered back.
“A hammer! Oh no! What’s he going to do to us with a hammer?”
Max was headed straight toward us now. He was whistling and swinging the hammer.
I gulped. “This is it, guys,” I whispered.
Max’s footsteps got closer and closer, and my heart beat faster and faster.
I closed my eyes. “I can’t watch,” I said. “We’re doomed!”
Max was now one step away from the bush where we were hiding. I could hear his footsteps crunching in the snow. I squeezed Robbie’s and Josh’s hands tighter. I held my breath.
I knew we never should have tried to spy on the biggest bully in the whole second grade, I thought to myself. Any second now he’s going to find us, and then I don’t know what he’s going to do! He’s crazy!
Crunch, crunch. I heard one step and then another. My stomach flip-flopped. Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. Wait a minute! I realized that Max had walked right past us. I opened my mouth to say something, but Robbie put his hand over my mouth again.
Josh lifted his finger to his mouth to signal me to be quiet.
We listened for Max’s footsteps to get farther and farther away, and then Robbie took his hand off my mouth.
“Whew! That was a close one!” Josh whispered.
“Too close!” I said.
“I thought for sure he was going to find us,” said Robbie.
“Me, too!” I said, letting out a huge sigh.
“If he wasn’t coming after us, then where is he going?” Josh asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. “I have no clue.”
“Should we peek out and see?” asked Josh.
“I’ll peek,” said Robbie. Robbie slowly pushed a bit of the bush aside and looked out.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“Nothing yet. Hey, Josh, hand me the binoculars.”
Josh gave the binoculars to Robbie. “It looks like he’s walking to the back of his yard.”
“Really?” I said. “What’s back there?”
“It’s hard to tell. Oh, wait! It looks like he’s opening a door.”
“Opening a door?” said Josh.
Robbie adjusted the binoculars so they zoomed in closer. “Yeah. He just opened the door to a little shed.”
A chill ran up my spine. “I don’t think I want to know what’s in that shed,” I said.
“Maybe he’s doing some weird science experiments,” Robbie said.
“Maybe he’s creating his own Frankenstein monster,” said Josh, laughing.
“Don’t laugh,” I said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he was creating some kind of monster to scare the pants off all of us!”
“Seriously, Freddy,” said Josh, patting me on the back. “Sometimes you freak yourself out way too much. You’ve got to relax, dude.”
“Robbie, can you see what Max is doing in there?” I asked.
“I’m trying,” said Robbie.
“Hurry up!” I said. “I want to get out of here before Max comes out of that shed.”
“OH … MY … GOODNESS!” said Robbie.
“Wh
at? What is it?” asked Josh.
“It’s a monster, right?” I said. “I told you guys he’s creating a monster.”
“No! It’s not a monster, Freddy.”
“It’s not?”
“No, it’s something way cooler!”
“Really?” Josh said. “Max is actually doing something cool?”
“Here, take a look for yourself,” Robbie said, handing the binoculars to Josh.
Josh took the binoculars and put them up to his eyes. “HOLY COW!”
“My turn,” I said, grabbing the binoculars from Josh. “Let me see.”
“WOW! That is awesome!”
“I know, right?” said Robbie.
“I can’t believe it. It looks like he’s building a whole village.”
“It looks just like those little villages people set up around their train sets at Christmas time,” said Robbie.
“He’s got houses, and stores, and a post office, and all kinds of stuff,” said Josh.
“Do you think he built the whole thing by himself?” I asked.
“It looks that way,” Josh said.
“Well, now we know what he needed the hammer for,” I said, laughing.
“This is a total surprise,” said Robbie. “I never expected to discover this when we decided to spy on Max.”
“You can say that again,” I said. I put the binoculars back up to my eyes. “This is what he must do every day after school.”
“I guess it’s like his big secret,” said Josh.
“Oh no!” I gasped.
“What?” Robbie asked.
“He just looked this way. Do you think he knows we’re here?”
“We’re hiding in a bush. He can’t see us!” said Josh.
“Maybe he can hear us,” I said.
“I don’t think so, Freddy,” said Josh, laughing.
“He’s still staring in this direction,” I whispered nervously.
“He’s probably just thinking,” said Robbie. “I sometimes stare off into space when I’m thinking about something.”
“Well, I don’t want to take any chances,” I said. “As soon as he turns back around, we need to make a run for it.”
“We can’t make a run for it,” said Josh.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because we are spies,” said Robbie. “Spies move very slowly and quietly and do not make any noise at all!”
