by Gayle Trent
“Just asked how you were. Said her math teacher told her your mom called and said you were sick today.”
She nodded. “How mad do you think Mom’s gonna be?”
“I don’t know. Does she know how upset you were yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
“She might not be too mad then.” Sunny looked hopeful so I held up my hand. “Don’t get too excited. She ain’t gonna be a bit happy with what you’ve done, especially in light of the trouble you’ve been findin’ yourself in lately.”
“I know.”
“But I’ll stay and we’ll fix supper, and maybe I can help you smooth things over a little.”
She threw her arms around my neck and nearly knocked me off the couch. “Thanks, Mimi! You’re the best.” She hopped off the couch and headed for the kitchen.
“Not so fast,” I said. “Don’t you wanna know who else asked about you?”
“Oh, yeah.” She came and sat back down beside me. “Who?”
“Al.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What’d she say?”
“She asked if I knew what was wrong that you didn’t come to school today. I told her I didn’t.”
“She say anything else?”
“Said she was sorry about what happened yesterday. She said she thought you might’ve really put the goblet in her backpack as a joke.”
“But I didn’t!”
“I know.”
“And even after I told her I didn’t, she told everybody at play practice that I did! She let them believe I stole it!”
“I know, baby.”
“How could she do that to me?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. People trample over each other all the time in order to get their own way.”
“I’d never do her that way. Now everybody thinks I’m a thief.”
I started to point out they probably thought that after she got herself suspended, but I didn’t wanna make matters worse. Instead, I said, “I’m workin’ on a plan to expose the real thief, and then your name ought to be cleared.”
“What’ve you got in mind?”
“I don’t wanna say until I’ve got all my ducks in a row.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course.” It was all the other little yay-hoos she’d probably tell that I didn’t trust. “I just don’t have everything worked out yet.”
That part was true. Brandon Easton was to give the necklace to the drama teacher on Monday morning. I planned to get with Wilbur Brody so we could decide what to do next. I’m sure a stakeout will be necessary, but I figure we’ll need some help with that. I don’t cotton to the idea of hidin’ in the auditorium all day. And if I got caught, it would look really weird… maybe even like I was a pervert or something.
By the time Faye got home, me and Sunny had a nice supper on the table: biscuits, pork chops, creamed corn and mashed potatoes.
“Yum,” Faye said, as she came in and pitched her jacket onto the back of the couch. And, no, I didn’t raise her that way but she’s grown now and I’ll be danged if I’m gonna go around pickin’ up after her. So even though my fingers itched to hang up that jacket, I didn’t do it.
“What smells so good?” she asked.
“Pork chops,” Sunny said, “and stuff. Come on. Me and Mimi have done got everything on the table.”
Faye gave me a peck on the cheek as we went into the kitchen. “I didn’t know you were coming by today, Mother.”
I glanced at Sunny. “It was a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing.”
Sunny commenced filling everybody’s plates. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.”
“Apparently,” Faye said with a laugh. “But now that you mention it, I’m pretty hungry myself.”
We all sat down and started to eat.
“How was school today, honey?” Faye asked.
After an awkward little second, I said, “Fine. The usual stuff. It was spaghetti day, and that went over pretty well.”
“Good.” Faye kinda frowned. “That’s good, Mother. How was your day, Crimson?”
“Um…it was okay.” She looked at me, and I gave her a little nod. She took a deep breath and blew her words out on a puff of wind. “I didn’t go to school today.”
“What?” Faye got strangled on a bite of biscuit, and me and Sunny both got up to hit her on the back. I pulled her right arm up over her head, too. I started to pull her left arm up as well, mainly because I couldn’t remember which arm you’re supposed to pull up over somebody’s head if they’re strangled. But Faye had a glass of tea in that left hand, and if we thought she was mad now, I’d have hated to see the conniption she’d have thrown if she had a glass of tea poured on her head on top of Sunny’s laying out of school. Even if the tea got poured on her head during a life-saving act. Faye probably wouldn’t have been grateful for our actions right away.
Finally, Faye jumped up out of her chair and shook me and Sunny off her like a grouchy ol’ she-bear. “What do you mean you didn’t go to school? Haven’t you been in enough trouble the past couple weeks?”
“I didn’t feel like goin’, okay?”
“No, it’s not okay. You think you can lay out of school anytime you want and get away with it?” She turned on me. “Did you know about this?”
“Not ‘til lunchtime.” I sat back down and took a drink of my tea.
“And you didn’t call me?”
“Well, they said her mother called and said she was sick.”
Faye turned back to Sunny. “You impersonated me?”
“What was I supposed to do, Mom? Call and say ‘I’m upset because everybody thinks I’m a big fat crook and I don’t wanna come to school today’?”
“I know you’re upset about what happened yesterday, but is that what you’re gonna do now every time things take a bad turn? Hide?”
“I remember a little girl who stayed home from school for two days because of a bad perm,” I said.
“Mother, you stay out of this.”
“I was just makin’ an observation.” I took a bite of pork chop. “Supper’s gettin’ cold. Ya’ll sit down and eat.”
They both just looked at me.
“Please,” I said.
They sat down and went back to eating. It was quiet until we’d all nearly cleaned our plates.
“Was your perm really that bad?” Sunny asked in the smallest voice she could muster.
Faye looked at her a minute, and I reckon she must’ve been tryin’ to remember what it was like to be fourteen. Then she took the last drink of her tea. She sat the glass down, and while the ice cubes were clinking in the bottom of the glass, said, “It was horrible. I looked like a poodle that’d stuck its paw in a light socket.”
“And Mimi let you stay home from school for two days?”
“She had to. She’s the one who gave me the perm, and she was as embarrassed by it as I was.”
“Aw, you looked cute as you could be,” I said. But when Faye got up to get some more tea, I mouthed “not really” to Sunny.
Faye sat back down with her tea. “I still don’t excuse you for what you did today. You deliberately went behind my back.”
“I’m sorry,” Sunny said.
“Together we can work through anything,” Faye told her, “but I have to be able to trust you and I have to know you trust me.”
“I do trust you, Mom.”
“If you really trusted me, you’d have talked to me about why you didn’t want to go to school today.”
“But—”
“No ‘but’s.’ You’re grounded for the weekend. No goin’ out of this house, no telephone, no TV, no nothing.”
“But—”
This time I interrupted Sunny before she dug herself a deeper hole than the one she was already in. “Let me help you get the kitchen cleaned up, Faye. I need to get home and feed Matlock. That poor baby’s belly probably thinks his throat’s been cut.”
“You go on home then,” Faye said. “Crimson will be cl
eaning the kitchen as part of her punishment.”
I winced at Sunny. “Sorry, kiddo.”
“That’s okay. It’s not too bad.”
And it wasn’t. I’d washed up all the pots and pans as I went along, and there was enough corn and potatoes left in the serving bowls that Sunny could sock them suckers in the refrigerator for leftovers. By the time they turned green, Faye would be over her mad spell.
And about that perm? A poodle struck by lightning is more like it! I still laugh when I think about it. Little Tommy Teedywaddy, all head and no body.
DIVIDER HERE
Monday morning I went straight to Wilbur Brody’s office. As usual, he was out in the hall directin’ traffic. Sometimes I get the feeling he’s more of a shepherd than an officer of the law.
“I need to talk to you right now,” I told him. “I’ve got a plan going on even as we speak, and it’s imperative you know what’s happening.”
Officer Brody put his hand up to his head and squeezed like maybe he had a headache.
“I’ve got some ibuprofen in my pocketbook,” I said.
“I might have to take you up on that later. Just what kind of plan have you got goin’?”
“A big ‘un. We’re gonna catch this thief once and for all.”
He squeezed his head again.
“But we can’t discuss it out here in the hall. Let’s go in your office.” I led the way, and after a great big sigh, Brody lumbered along behind me.
When he got inside the office, I closed the door and filled him in on Brandon Easton and my upscale costume jewelry necklace that was bait for this crook.
“How do you know the theif’ll take it?” Brody asked.
“Because she’ll think it’s valuable.”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head.
“Well, it can’t hurt. And it’s bound to be ruining your reputation as an officer of the law around here that you ain’t caught the school thief yet.”
“The principal thinks I have.”
“Well, you ain’t.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “My grandbaby ain’t no thief. Now, are you with me on this or not? Because if you ain’t, I gotta go stake out the auditorium.”
“If either of us stakes out the auditorium, any thief worth his salt will know something’s up. We can’t go nowhere near the auditorium today.”
“Well, somebody has to. I’ll go home and put on a disguise.”
“That won’t be necessary. I have students who do this sort of undercover work for me when need be.”
“Good thinkin’,” I said, “but are you sure you can trust these people?”
“I’m certain of it. They’re in my Sunday school class, and I know every one of them like I was a member of their family.”
“Okay.” I still didn’t like it, but I didn’t feel like I had much choice. An undercover student would be the best one to stake out the auditorium. “You get your team in place. I’ll be in the lunchroom acting nonchalant. Let me know as soon as you have something.” I nonchalantly opened the door and walked down the hall to the lunchroom.
I didn’t have to act nonchalant for long. An hour hadn’t gone by before Officer Brody strode into the lunchroom with his chest puffed out. The “tomare and tomare and tomare” boy was with him.
“Ms. Crumb,” Brody said, “we’ve nabbed your thief.” He moved aside, and there was the thief holding my upscale costume jewelry necklace.
It was Sunny.
Chapter Ten
You could’ve knocked me down with a newborn robin’s feather. “Sunny?”
“It ain’t how it looks,” she said, standing there looking as innocent as can be in her faded jeans and lacy pink blouse. Well, looking innocent except that my upscale costume jewelry necklace was dangling between her pink-polished fingernails. It wasn’t even in its black velvet box.
“Is that or is that not the necklace in question?” Brody asked me.
“Come down off your high horse, Wilbur Brody,” I said. “You know that’s the necklace.”
“So it is yours.” Sunny looked from me to Brody. “I told you this was my Mimi’s necklace!”
“Is that why you took it?” I asked.
“Yeah! I thought somebody stole it from you. I got it so I could come and ask you.” She looked down at the necklace. “I’ve played dress-up with this necklace like a million times. I’d know it anywhere.”
“Well, there you go,” I said. “Let’s put the necklace back where Sunny got it and rebait our trap.”
“Why?” asked Brody. “We’ve caught our thief.”
“So are you pullin’ out? Do I have to finish your job for you?”
He huffed a mad, coffee-smelling breath right in my face. “Fine. I’ll humor you until the end of the day. After that, this case is closed.” He and “Tomare” turned to leave.
“Not a word to anybody,” I said, hoping I could still trust him. I looked at Sunny. “I mean it. Don’t tell a soul about this or we’ll never catch the real crook.”
DIVIDER HERE
When Sunny’s class came through the lunch line, Alicia was cozied up to Brandon Easton. She didn’t even take time to speak to me, and he didn’t either.
“It’s perfect,” Al was telling him. “It goes so good with my costume.”
She had to be talking about the necklace.
“Ms. Tyler said it really brings out my eyes.” Al fluttered her lashes at Brandon so he could comment on her lovely eyes.
Naturally, he did. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen an emerald as green as your eyes, and I’ve seen a bunch of emeralds.”
She giggled. “You’re sweet. So you think those are real emeralds?”
“Sure. My grandma told me some old bag died and left the necklace to her.
“Oh, do thank your grandma for loaning it to me.”
“I will.” Brandon smiled. “She thought it’d be great to use in the play because it’s so old. I guess that lady must’ve been about a million.”
They both thought that was funny. I didn’t. I slammed a spoonful of peas onto the tray in front of me so hard that pea juice spattered all over both of them.
“Whoa, Ms. Crumb,” Brandon said, flicking at his white button-down oxford shirt. “Getting a little carried away today, aren’t you?”
“You have no idea.”
DIVIDER HERE
The day was about over and I’d nearly despaired of the school thief snatching my upscale costume jewelry necklace from backstage in the auditorium. I was wiping off tables when Brody walked into the lunchroom.
“I need you to come down to my office,” he said.
“Why?”
“Can you come on down?”
“Yeah. What’re they gonna do, fire me?”
I left my rag and cleaner on the table and walked down the hall beside Brody. I was glad it was a quick trip. The silence between us was awkward, but I didn’t know why.
When Brody opened the door to his office, I saw wall-to-wall young ‘uns. And I knew every one of them. Sunny, Alicia, Claire and Brandon Easton were all standing around, and in the middle of Brody’s desk was a black velvet box like the very one that held my upscale costume jewelry necklace. I figured it was the same box.
“What’s goin’ on?” I asked.
Brody shut the door and sat down at his desk. He motioned for me to sit in one of the gray metal chairs, so I did.
“Seems Mr. Easton caught our thief,” Brody said.
I looked at Brandon, and all I could think to say at the moment was, “You’re in Brody’s Sunday school class?”
“No, ma’am.”
“He was concerned about something happenin’ to his grandmother’s necklace,” Brody said. “So when he was in study hall and saw somebody slip backstage, he followed.”
“I feigned a trip to the bathroom,” Brandon said, with a self-satisfied nod.
“He caught the thief red handed.” Brody nodded in the general direction of the girls.
It was like tha
t game show where you wait to see which one steps forward to claim to be telling the truth, only nobody stepped forward. They all stood there looking at the floor. I offered up a silent prayer that Sunny wouldn’t be the one who wound up in the spotlight.
“Claire,” Brody prompted, “don’t you have somethin’ to say?”
Claire? That didn’t sound like “Alicia” or “Al.” But—thank you, Jesus—it didn’t sound like Crimson either.
“Claire?” I asked.
Claire looked up at me and then she started to bawl. I got up and hugged her. This had to be a mistake. Maybe she was like Sunny and knew the necklace was mine.
“Will somebody please tell me what’s goin’ on?” I asked.
“I saw her take the necklace,” Brandon said.
I pulled back to look Claire in the face. “Why, honey?”
The child stopped sobbing long enough to say, “To get back at her.”
“At who?”
Claire sniffled. “At Alicia. I wanted to get her back for embarrassing Crimson.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Not that it would make any difference. Crimson still won’t be my friend anymore.”
“Is that what this is about?” I asked. “Sunny not bein’ friends with you anymore?”
She nodded. “Alicia’s trouble. I knew she’d make trouble for Crimson, and she did.”
I looked around at Brody, Brandon, Alicia and Sunny before turning my attention back to Claire. “So it was Alicia who stole Ms. Anderson’s bracelet?”
“No,” Claire said. “That was me. It was all me. I stole the money and the clarinet, and I put ‘em in Crimson’s locker.”
“But why?” Sunny demanded.
Claire stepped away from me and looked at Sunny. “You ditched me! We’ve been friends since Kindergarten, and then—” She jerked her head toward Alicia. “—she came along and I wasn’t good enough for you anymore!”
“That’s not true!” Sunny looked from Claire to me.
I looked away. I believe Sunny was wanting me to take up for her, but I just couldn’t do it in this case. I knew how Claire felt. Sunny had ditched me, too.
“We were still friends,” Sunny said.
“Oh, sure,” Claire said. “That’s why you never had time to talk to me when I called anymore…why you always had plans with Al whenever I suggested doing something.”
