Emmy and the Rats in the Belfry

by Lynne Jonell

  Raston muttered something under his breath and shifted baby Sissy to his other arm. “I can still shrink people, you know,” he said pointedly. “I do have my dignity.”

  Emmy grinned as she fished in her pocket and handed the Rat a crumpled tissue. He took it and dabbed moodily at his chest fur.

  The final car of the freight train went rattling past, and in the sudden quiet, Aunt Melly’s voice could be heard. “Yes, but what now? And what should be done with Ana?”

  Emmy’s grin faded. She lowered her voice. “Joe, where is Ana? I don’t see her anywhere.”

  “She was on the other side of the tracks when the train came.” Joe abruptly sobered, looking at the embankment where it dropped off suddenly. “I don’t see her now, though.”

  A squeaking cheer came from a little distance away, and a sound of many small paws clapping. The crowd of rodents from Rodent City had been busily tying Miss Barmy to a long, sturdy stick and now they hoisted her above their shoulders, hung from the middle like a roasting chicken on a spit.

  “And off she goes to jail!” shrieked a gopher.

  “Good riddance!” said Joe, grinning.

  “Mmpph! Rmmph!” Miss Barmy, though tied and gagged with a shoelace, wasn’t going down without a fight. She glared with helpless fury.

  Emmy didn’t feel sorry for her at all.

  “But where is Cheswick?” asked Aunt Melly. “He shouldn’t go free.”

  Joe turned. “Didn’t he jump off with Miss Barmy?”

  Emmy nodded. “Last I saw, he rolled down toward the lake. But I think he broke his leg or something.”

  “Cheswick? Cheswick VOLE?” Della’s voice, husky and powerful from years of singing in noisy bars, soared over everyone else’s and the crowd of rodents hushed. “Do you mean the Big Hand—the nest robber—the criminal who stole my children?” She shook her paws in the air. “Oooh, let me get my paws on him just once—”

  “We have to find him first,” said Joe.

  Emmy frowned slightly. The sound of clapping went on and on. Why?

  She turned her head. It wasn’t the rodents clapping. It was the sound of a sail a little way off, flapping in the breeze as it was furled. And now that she was looking in the direction of the lake, she could see the bare top of a mast showing behind the embankment.

  Emmy whipped around and put a finger to her lips. “Everyone, shhh!”

  A deep, familiar voice drifted up from behind the high embankment. “Ana! We’ve been looking for you!” Then the voice changed and hardened. “Cheswick Vole. So you took her. Get behind me, Ana.”

  “But he’s hurt, sir,” came Ana’s voice.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to tie him up and call the police.”

  Joe looked at Emmy. “Your father,” he whispered. “He thinks Cheswick kidnapped her or something!”

  “I need to sit down,” said Emmy faintly.

  Emmy sat in a state of dazed calm. The aunts, on the next bench over, were in a flutter, trying to figure out what they should say to Jim Addison. But somehow, after all Emmy had been through, she couldn’t work up the energy to worry about a few explanations.

  And she was looking forward to seeing her father. He might be upset—she had certainly done some things he wouldn’t have approved of—but she had just escaped the clutches of someone who hated her. Having a parent upset at her for a while didn’t seem like that big a deal, anymore. Her dad might not understand her but Emmy knew he loved her, and that was enough.

  Joe flung himself on the bench next to her and nodded toward the belt of trees behind the station. “The rodents are all going to wait there,” he said. “To see what happens to Cheswick, I guess.” He grinned. “And baby Sissy burped all over Ratty again.”

  There was a sound of sliding gravel. Emmy saw her father’s head appear over the embankment, then his upper body, and his hand on Ana’s shoulder.

  “Gussie! Melly!” Jim Addison stood before them, his hair rumpled. “What a surprise! Did you take an early train?” He scooped up Emmy and gave her a hard hug, lifting her off her feet and kissing her cheek.

  “Yes,” said Aunt Melly after a pause. “We took an early train.”

  “You should have called! I would have been glad to pick you up. I know it’s a short distance to the house, but you two aren’t as young as you used to be—” He stopped a moment, grinning. “Actually, you look livelier than ever. Over your cold, Gussie?”

  “I feel better than I have in years,” said Aunt Gussie, giving Emmy a wink. “And we wanted to surprise you.”

  “Oh, you have.” Emmy’s father set down his daughter, shook Joe’s hand, and gave the aunts a hug apiece. “But look—here’s Ana! I’ve found the little girl they’ve been combing the county for. Will you take care of her while I go in the station and call the police?” His mouth set in a grim line. “I’ve tied up Cheswick Vole, the man who kidnapped her. I had plenty of rope in the sailboat, and he’s not going anywhere—I think he’s broken his leg, too.”

  “Of course we’ll take care of Ana,” said Aunt Gussie. “Come sit by us, dear.”

  “I think you’ll find the station is closed, though,” said Aunt Melly.

  “Really? Wasn’t it open when your train stopped?”

  “The ways of train companies are really beyond me to explain,” said Aunt Melly briskly. “The important thing, Jimmy, is for you to go and make your call. We’ll wait.”

  The scrape of Jim Addison’s feet on gravel had hardly faded into the distance when Professor Capybara trotted up from the road carrying a small black satchel. “I came as soon as I heard about the rodent alert. Am I too late to help?”

  A scuffling sound came from the underbrush behind the station, and a rippling mass of rodents moved out together like a restless, furry carpet. In the middle, carried high, was a struggling red-splotched rat on a stick.

  At the head of the procession marched Della Rat with her children. Her heavy hips bunched as she moved; her cardigan sweater was soiled and missing a button. But her whiskers were stiff and her ears alert, and all her claws were ready. She looked up at the professor. “You’re not too late. You’re just in time to help us bring that snake, Cheswick Vole, to JUSTICE!”

  30

  CHESWICK VOLE, scraped and bruised, smudged with dust and tied with every sailor’s knot Emmy’s father knew, looked up helplessly at the top of the embankment where three grown-ups, three children, and an army of rodents watched him with eyes of judgment.

  “Please,” he begged them, “let me go. I didn’t take Ana. You know I didn’t.”

  Baby Sissy shivered at the sound of the man’s voice and pressed her tiny face into Raston’s shoulder.

  “You’ve done other things just as bad,” said Aunt Melly coldly.

  “You took my children!” Della snarled.

  “You kidnapped Sissy!” cried Ratty.

  “And put Emmy in a cage,” Joe added.

  “You threatened to squish me.” Aunt Gussie shuddered. “I still remember your fingers around my neck on the train.”

  “In addition, you stole patches and you forged letters,” said Professor Capybara. “And you broke into my old laboratory in Schenectady. So far that’s breaking and entering, robbery, forgery, kidnapping, and reckless endangerment. So why on earth do you think we should let you go?”

  Cheswick blinked up at them with damp eyes. “Because I’m sorry?”

  The professor gazed at him sternly. “And you seriously think that makes it all better?”

  Cheswick sniffled. “What if I said I was really, really, really sorry?”

  Joe snorted. “You’re just sorry you got caught.”

  Ratmom stood high on her hind legs and pointed a claw in accusation. “Now you say you’re sorry! I’ve cried a river over you!” Tears spilled down her furry cheeks and splashed on the gravel embankment.

  “Oh, how I wish we had an empty bottle!” Aunt Melly cried. “We should be saving these tears for Gussie!”

  �
�Now, now.” Aunt Gussie patted her sister’s hand. “I’m not afraid to die, Melly. I wouldn’t have played the organ in church for so many years if I didn’t believe what I was playing, you know.”

  “Well, I don’t want you to die yet!” said Melly. She sank down on the embankment, sniffling.

  “Never fear, dear ladies. I brought some things along just in case they were needed—and I’m sure I have a bottle you can use.” The professor rummaged in his satchel amid the sound of glass clinking. “Not the vials—they’re full of potions—but I did throw in a bottle of something just in case I got thirsty. Ah, here it is!” He pulled out a bottle of root beer and twisted off the cap. “Anyone want a drink before I pour it out?”

  Ratmom turned. There was a dreadful pause.

  “Not for me,” said Joe swiftly.

  “There’s a drinking fountain at the station,” said Emmy. “I think I’d rather have water.”

  “Me too,” Ana added.

  “There’s really too much sugar in root beer for us,” said Aunt Melly, with a meaningful look at Gussie.

  Ratmom threw back her head. Raston and baby Sissy watched her with wide eyes.

  “Dump it,” said Ratmom. “I don’t need it.”

  Ana took the bottle gently from the professor’s hands. “I’ll let Cheswick have a drink,” she said. “And then I’ll rinse the bottle in the lake and bring it back for Della’s tears.”

  A pitiful moan rose from Cheswick below, and Aunt Gussie looked down the gravel embankment. “Ana,” she said, “why did you go down there by Cheswick? Why didn’t you just wait until the train was past and then come to the station? Didn’t you know he might still be dangerous?”

  Ana curled her fingers around the root beer bottle. “I thought he might have hurt himself,” she said. “Doctors help people even if they’ve done something bad, you know.”

  The elderly sisters looked at one another as Ana slid down the embankment and gave the wounded man a drink. “She sounds just like Papa,” said Gussie.

  Melly nodded. Then she whispered something in Gussie’s ear.

  “Ana, dear,” said Aunt Gussie—and stopped. “Do you hear that?”

  Everyone listened to the sound of a police siren some distance away.

  Cheswick groaned aloud. “Please!” he begged, his voice cracking. “Don’t let them take me! They’ll give me life in prison for kidnapping Ana—but I didn’t do it!”

  Emmy had never seen such frightened eyes on a grown man. She looked at the others. “They will,” she said. “They’ll lock him up and never let him out.”

  “Wasn’t that what he was going to do to us?” demanded Raston.

  Emmy had to admit this was true.

  “Well, then.” Raston tightened his hold on baby Sissy, who was wriggling to get down.

  “But you’re not supposed to put someone in jail for something he didn’t do, even if he’s done other bad things,” said Emmy. “Right?”

  “Quite right, dear,” said Aunt Melly.

  “And we could never explain what really happened,” Ana said. “Not so that anyone would believe it.”

  “Better decide,” said Joe. “They’re coming.”

  Emmy chewed on a fingernail. “We can’t untie the knots in time, anyway. But—”

  “But what?” cried Cheswick.

  “Ratty could bite him twice. Cheswick would become a rat and shrink right out of the ropes.”

  “What? You’d let him go?” demanded Raston. “Over my dead body!”

  “And mine!” cried Ratmom, shaking her paw.

  “You don’t understand,” said Emmy. “I mean, once he’s a rat, he can be taken to Rodent City like Miss Barmy and put in jail.”

  Cheswick looked up. “In jail? With Jane?”

  “Well, probably not in the same cell,” said the professor.

  “But I could speak to her through the bars? I could … touch her paw?”

  Emmy glanced behind her. She could see what Cheswick could not: Miss Barmy, splotched with the dark red of blood, her fur damp and stringy as if with tears, and as tightly bound as a fly in a spiderweb. Her rodent eyes showed above the shoelace gag, crazed with hatred. Emmy could not imagine anyone less likely to inspire love, but Cheswick was beyond all reason.

  “All right, then,” said Professor Capybara. “Bite him, Raston—but hang on to him. The rest of you rodents, are you ready?”

  Four strong-looking squirrels scampered down the embankment, carrying a piece of twine. Raston started to follow and stopped.

  “Here, somebody take her!” He pressed his baby sister into the arms of a convenient gopher and dashed down to do his duty. There was a shocked pause—long enough for one deep breath—and then the thin, high screech of an enraged baby rat filled the air.

  “Good heavens,” said the professor, plugging his ears. “I had no idea something so small could make such a noise.”

  “She’s got my lungs,” said Ratmom proudly. “We’ll make a singer of her yet.”

  Emmy and Joe watched with deep satisfaction as Cheswick Vole shrank, turned furry, and was promptly tied up with twine. Ana made a tiny splint for his broken leg, and the squirrels carried him up the embankment. The army of rodents, cheering in their high, squeaky voices, set off for Rodent City, carrying Miss Barmy and Cheswick in their midst like trophies of war. The professor went with them, his satchel clinking slightly as he brought up the rear.

  “She’s all yours!” squeaked the gopher, and the screaming baby Sissy was thrust back into Raston’s arms. “Good luck getting her to shut up, and next time put her in diapers, why don’t you?”

  Raston looked aghast at the baby rat, who was not only still howling furiously but leaking as well. He held her at arm’s length and turned, searching for Ratmom.

  But Ratmom, emotional at the sight of her ancient enemy being carted off to jail, was crying again. Ana picked her up, held the root beer bottle to catch the tears, and walked toward the station benches where Gussie and Melly already had gone to sit.

  “Come on, Rasty!” cried Ratmom. “Bring little Cecilia, the darling!”

  The police siren blared again, closer than ever, and Emmy hurried to the train station parking lot where her father and mother were just pulling in.

  Joe, lagging behind, turned to give Raston a wicked grin. “Why don’t you try giving the little darling a horsey ride?”

  “Oh, shut up,” said Raston.

  “So this is the little girl who gave us such a lot of worry,” said a tall officer, smiling down at Ana. “We’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He glanced at the station, where a poster that said MISSING was tacked to the door.

  Ana gazed at her own face on the poster and then at Aunt Melly, who had turned pale. “I didn’t mean to cause everybody so much trouble.”

  “We’re just glad to have you safe,” said the officer, hitching up his belt. “Now then, Mr. Addison, where is the suspect?”

  “I’ll show you,” said Emmy’s father. “He’s tied up tight, don’t worry.”

  Emmy’s mother didn’t waste words. She knelt and folded both Emmy and Ana into her arms, and when she let them go, her cheeks were wet.

  A second policeman got out of the car and opened the back door. “Ana!” cried a frantic voice, and a woman leaped out, losing a shoe in the process.

  “It’s Squippy!” whispered Joe, smothering a laugh.

  “No kidding!” Emmy watched as Ana was grabbed yet again and cried over noisily. The second policeman followed his partner and Jim Addison across the tracks to the embankment.

  “I was so worried!” Gwenda Squipp dabbed at her eyes. “Did that man take you? How did you get off the train? I looked for you everywhere!”

  “I don’t remember him taking me off the train,” said Ana truthfully. “But I do remember a lot of strange stuff. Like becoming very small. And then turning into a rat.”

  “My poor dear!” said Squippy. “You must have been drugged. Well, we’ll talk more later, dear, whe
n you’ve recovered. And, my goodness, that family of yours has been worried, too!”

  “You mean the relatives I was going to live with?”

  “Yes, indeed. They were calling every day.”

  “I didn’t know they wanted me that much,” said Ana slowly. “I kind of thought they didn’t.”

  “They wanted you, all right. They kept asking if they’d get their check for the whole month, even if you weren’t there for part of it. Oh, they were very anxious to have you.” Squippy’s mouth turned down. “A little too anxious, I’d say.”

  Ana’s face fell into lines so sad that Emmy had to look away.

  Aunt Melly put a comforting hand on Ana’s shoulder, and drew her close. “My dear Miss—er?”

  “Squipp. Gwenda Squipp.”

  “I wonder what is the trouble with the officers over there. Would you perhaps go and find out? We’ll stay with Ana. We don’t want her to have to get any closer to that man than absolutely necessary, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “Of course,” said Squippy, shading her eyes as she looked to the embankment. One officer was standing at the top, looking around, and the other two men were climbing up, arguing loudly.

  “I’m telling you, I tied him up perfectly well! I’m a sailor, and I ought to know how to tie a knot!”

  “Ought to know is right, sir,” said the officer heavily.

  Emmy’s mother glanced hurriedly around and headed off in their direction, followed by Squippy. Aunt Melly waited until they were several yards away, and then drew everyone together.

  “We don’t have much time, Ana, so listen carefully,” Aunt Melly said. “Gussie and I have discussed this already, and we would like you to come and live with us.”

  Ana lifted her head quickly.

  “It will take some time to arrange, and we will have to persuade the judge, but if you would like to live with us, dear girl, then you have a home.”

  “But—” said Ana.

  “Now, I know we’re far too old,” Gussie broke in, “and maybe you would find our life too dull.”

  Ana shook her head, her eyes brightening.

  “But if Della is willing to supply us with tears,” Melly interrupted, with a fond glance at the big gray rat, “we should both be able to stay alive until you graduate from medical school.”