Lark Holds the Key

by Natasha Deen

  Mrs. Robinson thought about what Connor had said. “No, they were definitely trying to fly a kite.”

  “Why were they yelling?” I asked.

  “Sophie and her friends were fighting about something. I went over to see why.”

  Connor and I waited to see what she would say next.

  “You were right about the wind,” Mrs. Robinson said to Connor. “There wasn’t any, and that meant they couldn’t fly their kite. Sophie thought one of them should take the kite, climb a tree and jump out of it,” Mrs. Robinson continued. “Maybe that would get it to fly. I stopped them right away. That was a dangerous idea. Someone could get hurt.”

  Mrs. Robinson let out a big sigh that made her shoulders go up and down. “By the time I was done, it was time to go to work. I walked here. That’s when I realized I’d lost my key.”

  My heart was doing a pitter-patter. Mrs. Robinson’s story was just like the one in the book our principal had read. There was a mystery to solve. There were clues to find. I, Lark Ba, was going to solve it! I was going to be a P.I.! Today really was going to be the bestest day ever!

  Chapter Six

  “Mrs. Robinson,” I said, “you have a mystery on your hands, and I’m going to solve it.”

  Connor stepped on my toe.

  “I mean—we’re going to solve it.”

  “How do you plan on doing that?” asked Mom.

  “First thing we need to do is go to the scene of the crime.”

  Connor yanked on my sleeve. “But there’s no crime. There’s only a missing key.”

  “I know that.” Brothers. They’re such work! “But all P.I.s say that to start a case.”

  “Oh.” Connor nodded. “Okay.”

  “I can’t go,” said Mrs. Robinson. “I have to wait for the locksmith.”

  Yes! Locksmith! That was the word for what Pete did. He opened locked doors. Because it was his job, he never got arrested. That was a pretty great kind of job. Maybe I should be a locksmith when I grow up. Then I could open the lock on Connor’s treasure chest. And I wouldn’t get into trouble, because it was my job!

  “We can wait here,” said Mom. “If Pete arrives, I can phone you.”

  Mrs. Robinson nodded. “Okay. Lark, what’s first?”

  “We should start with your bag,” I said. “Can we please look inside?”

  Mrs. Robinson nodded. We took out her wallet, a pack of gum, a travel mug, a hairbrush and her phone. But there was no key.

  “I must have dropped it while I was walking,” said Mrs. Robinson. “I should’ve put it in my purse pocket.”

  She looked really upset, so I patted her hand. “It’s okay. With me and Connor on the case, your key will be found. Promise.”

  “Lark,” whispered Connor. “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  I knew he was right, but in the P.I. book, the detective had promised the king he’d find the treasure. He called it “upping the aunty.”

  “We have to find the key,” I told Connor. “I have to get more detective books. And I have to find out what ‘upping the aunty’ means.” Plus, I needed to know what happened if you upped the uncle.

  We said goodbye to Mom and Halmoni. Mrs. Robinson headed toward the park, with Connor and I close behind.

  I couldn’t wait to solve this case!

  Chapter Seven

  We hadn’t been walking long when Connor pulled me aside. “Lark, how are we actually going to find this key? The park is gigantic. Plus, Mrs. Robinson said she walked for fifteen minutes. That key could be anywhere!”

  “Not anywhere,” I said. “Somewhere. Mrs. Robinson didn’t walk all over the place. We just have to follow the path she took.”

  As we walked, I kept my head down, looking for clues. I was glad the sun was out. Maybe its light would reflect off the key. I concentrated hard. Really hard. I looked and looked and kept my head down.

  And I walked right into a tree.

  Connor laughed.

  “Crickets!” I rubbed the spot on my head. “That hurt!”

  Mrs. Robinson checked the bump. “Didn’t you hear me yelling to stop?”

  “No,” I said. “I was concentrating on finding the key.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” she said.

  Double crickets! I couldn’t lose the case! “No, it’s fine.” I glared at Connor. “My brother will keep an eye on me.”

  He snorted. “With you, I better keep two!”

  I decided I needed to ignore him because we were on a case. And because Mrs. Robinson was there. I pulled Connor close. “Didn’t you pay attention when the principal was reading the story? She’s a client, and we have to be…” I couldn’t think of the word. It was a good one though. It meant to be on your best behavior. “We have to do a good job,” I said. “Maybe she’ll tell other people, and we can get more cases.”

  “More cases?” His eyebrows went to his forehead. “We can’t even handle this one!”

  I heaved a sigh. Little brothers. “Just look for the key.”

  We followed Mrs. Robinson back to her house. She showed us where she had stopped and admired the birds. She pointed out where she had waved at the lady gardening. Connor and I retraced Mrs. Robinson’s every move.

  But no key.

  The library was still closed. There was no word yet from Pete. Connor looked really unhappy with me. And I was kind of wishing I’d left the aunty alone.

  Chapter Eight

  We spent some time looking for clues at the park but didn’t have any luck. Finally Mrs. Robinson suggested we go back to the library. We started walking. Well, not really walking. More like shuffling. We were almost at the library when I realized we’d missed something.

  “Sophie!” I said.

  “Sophie, what about her?” asked Mrs. Robinson.

  “Well, we walked the path you walked, and we talked to the people you talked to. But not to Sophie. She’s kind of like a clue, because she was there. She might know something.” I looked around. “We need to find her and talk to her.”

  “Oh,” said Mrs. Robinson. “Sophie’s like an eyewitness.”

  I knew that word! It was from the detective book. It was the word the P.I. had used to describe someone who had seen the crime being committed. “Yes, exactly like that!”

  “That’s a great idea. You kids go ahead and do that,” Mrs. Robinson said.

  She smiled, but I could tell she wasn’t really happy. Her smile made her mouth move, but it didn’t make her eyes go all crinkly.

  “I should stay and wait for Pete,” she said.

  Connor nodded. “That’s a good idea.”

  We watched her walk over to Halmoni and Mom.

  “That wasn’t a good idea,” I said. “We need her to help solve the case.”

  “She’s worried,” he answered, “and she helped as much as she could.” He took a deep breath. “It’s up to us to figure this out.”

  He was right. Ugh. I hate it when he’s right.

  Chapter Nine

  Finding Sophie was harder than I thought. We checked for her at the splash park. No Sophie. Then we went to the skate park. I didn’t see Sophie, but I did see Franklin.

  “Hello, Franklin,” I said, “We’re looking for Sophie. Have you seen her?”

  He shook his head. “Did you try the splash park?”

  “Yes,” said Connor.

  “Hmm.” Franklin tapped his chin. “What about the arcade?”

  “We haven’t checked there,” I said. “Thanks!”

  Connor and I sped to the arcade. It was hard to stay focused on our case. The arcade was full of amazing video games. Plus, it had these awesome colored lights that blinked on and off and turned everything they touched into a rainbow of colors!

  “Do you see her?” I yelled so Connor could hear me above the music of the games.

  He shook his head. “We should try the mini-golf place.”

  We did, but she wasn’t there. “You know who would know where she is?” sa
id Connor. “Her mom.”

  “That’s a smart idea.”

  He smiled and looked proud.

  When we got to Sophie’s house, I rang the bell. Sophie’s mom answered the door.

  “Hello, Mrs. McCallister,” I said. “Do you know where Sophie is? We’d like to talk to her.”

  “Oh, she’s upstairs! Hold on. I’ll get her.” She left to get Sophie.

  I turned to Connor. “Isn’t it funny that we’d find her in the last place we looked?”

  Connor shook his head. “Of course it’s the last place we’d look. Once we found her, why would we keep looking?”

  I sighed. Brothers.

  Sophie came to the door. She squinted at us and folded her arms. “Baa baa Lark sheep. What do you want?”

  “That’s not funny,” said Connor.

  “It is kind of funny,” I said. “Because our last name is Ba and that’s the sound sheep make.”

  Connor shook his head. “No, it’s not. She’s not making a joke. She’s making fun of you.” Connor stared at Sophie. “That’s not cool.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. It was. Sophie and I are BFFs—she just doesn’t know it yet. That’s okay. I’m patient. But right now, I couldn’t worry about friendship. I had a case to solve. “We need your help.”

  “No.” She started to close the door.

  “Wait.” I stuck my foot in the door. And it hurt. But I ignored it. “This is something you want to do.”

  “Why?”

  “Mrs. Robinson lost the key to the library. It’s your chance to help her.”

  “I don’t want to help her.”

  “But if you help her, she’ll tell Principal Robinson.”

  “So?”

  “So maybe he’ll be nicer to you the next time you get in trouble.”

  “Like when school starts?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “That’s years away—”

  “Actually, it’s just two months away,” Connor said, but Sophie wasn’t listening.

  “—forever away,” she said. “He’ll forget by then. Go away. I have stuff to do.”

  This was not going well. She didn’t want to help Mrs. Robinson. She didn’t want to help herself. Then I realized how I could get her to help.

  Chapter Ten

  “Sophie,” I said, “if you help us with this case, I’ll help you fly your kite.”

  “There’s no wind, sheep brain.” She scowled. “And I know you won’t climb a tree.”

  “You’re right on both counts,” I said, “but I have an idea that I know will work. I promise.”

  Connor threw his hands in the air. “Another promise? Lark, you can’t do that!”

  “I can keep this one.” I looked at Sophie. “So will you help?”

  She thought about it. “Okay. Fine.” She turned and yelled into the house, “Ma! I’m going out with the sheep people.”

  Connor growled.

  Sophie ignored him. “Where are we going?”

  “To the park.”

  “We’re going to the park, Ma!” She closed the front door and started down the steps.

  “Wait,” I said. “We need your kite.”

  “Don’t we also need her friends?” asked Connor.

  I shook my head. “You can pretend.”

  He sighed.

  Sophie went back inside and got her kite. It was really pretty. The kite was shaped like a diamond. It was lavender and had a long red tail. “I got it from my babushka yesterday.”

  Connor frowned. “What’s a babushka?”

  “It’s a Ukrainian word,” said Sophie. “It means grandmother. It was nice of her to send it to me, and I really want to make it fly.”

  “We will,” I said, “as soon as we’re done helping Mrs. Robinson.”

  We walked to the park and found the spot where she had been. “What now?”

  “Connor, go with her. Pretend you’re flying the kite. Then Sophie, yell at him when he won’t climb the tree.”

  Sophie grinned. “I get to yell at him? Why didn’t you say that before?”

  I watched.

  Sophie started yelling.

  Connor sighed.

  I yelled too. “Where exactly was Mrs. Robinson?”

  Sophie stopped. Thought. Then she pointed left. “She was sitting on the bench.”

  “What did she do? Can you remember?”

  “She stopped reading and looked up. Then she closed her book, rushed over to us and said we couldn’t climb the tree and jump out of it.” Sophie looked at the tree. “I wish we could’ve. I think it would have made the kite fly.”

  “But your friend would’ve fallen,” said Connor. “Mrs. Robinson was right. It was too dangerous.”

  Sophie scowled. “Connor, you can be such a…such a…grown-up.”

  Connor’s face went red. “Take that back!”

  “I won’t!”

  I pushed in between them. “No real fighting!” Ugh. No wonder the P.I. in the book had worked alone. “We have a case to solve.”

  “I’m done helping!” Sophie grabbed her kite and ran off.

  “No! Wait!”

  But she ignored me and kept running.

  “We don’t need her anyway,” said Connor.

  “’Cause we’re going to solve it on our own?”

  He shook his head. “Lark, I’m not sure we can solve this. I think the key is just lost. I’m going to go back to the library and wait. Come on,” he said. “Maybe Pete will let us help with the lock.”

  I shook my head. “You go ahead. I’m going to solve this mystery. I promised.”

  He kicked at the ground. “Okay. Okay. Maybe I should stay.”

  “I made the promise, not you. Plus, Pete might let you play with the truck lights.”

  Connor’s eyes went dreamy. “That would be a lot of fun.”

  I faked a smile and watched him go. As soon as he couldn’t see me anymore, I let my smile fall away. Mrs. Robinson was gone. Sophie was gone. Connor was gone. And no one thought I could find the key. My bestest day ever had officially turned into my worstest day ever.

  Chapter Eleven

  I sat under the tree and thought. And thought. And thought some more. My head was starting to hurt from all the thinking. And I was getting hungry. I wished I’d eaten more of Halmoni’s French toast. Something about this case just didn’t quite add up. Something was missing.

  Mrs. Robinson was a grown-up, and she was really, really responsible. Maybe she really had just lost the key. But I didn’t think so. And I didn’t want to give up. And I really didn’t want to break my promise.

  I closed my eyes and listened to the wind in the trees. That made me feel better. But it didn’t solve the problem. So I thought about what we had done so far. We had listened to Mrs. Robinson’s story. Then we had followed her—as the P.I. would say, we had retraced her steps. Then we had listened to Sophie’s vershun verzun version of the story.

  What hadn’t we done?

  I listened to the wind again. Suddenly I realized what we’d missed. And that made me smile.

  Chapter Twelve

  I’d listened to Mrs. Robinson’s story. I’d retraced the path she took to the library. But I, Lark Ba, who wanted to be an actor when I grew up, hadn’t actually pretended to be Mrs. Robinson. Pretending to be someone is way different than just listening to their story. You have to feel what they feel, think what they think. That’s called putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

  I ran back to Mrs. Robinson’s house. I pretended I had my book in one hand, my purse on my shoulder and the key in my other hand.

  Then I started walking. I stopped and looked at the sky. I admired the birds. I thought about cleaning and waxing nostalgic. Then I kept walking. I got to the park, opened my book and pretended to hear Sophie fighting. I felt scared for Sophie and her friends. So I rushed to where they were. And I talked to the imaginary kids. Then I walked to the library.

  And I looked down at my hand.

 
My imaginary key was gone.

  But I was smiling.

  Because I knew where it was.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Mrs. Robinson! Mrs. Robinson!” I ran up to the librarian. “I know where your key is!”

  “Where is it?” asked my mom.

  “You found my key?”

  “Great job, Lark!” said Halmoni.

  “May I please see your book?”

  Mrs. Robinson handed it to me.

  I opened it. And there, placed in between the last two pages she’d read, was the key. “When you saw Sophie, you were worried and scared for her. And you weren’t thinking of your key. You stuck it in your book so your hand would be free in case they needed you!” I stopped and thought. “And maybe so you didn’t lose your place in the book too. That can be kind of annoying when it happens.”

  “Lark! You’re amazing! Thank you!” Mrs. Robinson gave me a big hug.

  And I hugged Connor. “Thanks for your help.”

  He didn’t look happy. “I don’t think I was really helpful. I’m sorry I left you.”

  “No, it was good you did. I got to be alone to think.”

  “Really?”

  “Really, really.”

  He smiled. “Maybe I should leave you alone more often.”

  “I wish!”

  Mrs. Robinson opened the library and everyone went inside.

  Except me.

  I still had one job to do before the case was over.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Why are you here?” Sophie peered at me through the crack in the door.

  “I told you I would help you fly the kite, and I will.”

  “Oh.” She opened the door wider. “Did you solve your case?”

  “Yes, I helped Mrs. Robinson. Now I can help you.”

  “But I didn’t stay.”

  “You helped enough, and I made a promise. So are we going to fly the kite?”