“Under a tree,” said Walter.
“Tree! Tree!” scorned the policeman. “The Hollewood is huge. Under what tree?”
“Under a spruce tree,” said Walter.
“It happened this way …” Otto reported solemnly. “I discovered a lot of mushrooms under a spruce tree. Suddenly Walter yelled, There’s a girl sitting here in the middle of the forest!’ I too had seen her, but Walter claims he saw her first….”
“Where? Where did you find her?” the sergeant shouted at them.
“As we told you, under a tree,” said Otto in a dour voice.
The sergeant grunted. “How did you get to the tree?”
“We walked,” said Gretel.
“We took the Easter path,” explained Walter. “We walked deeper and deeper into the forest until we came to a clearing. There Mo was sitting under a tree.”
“All right, all right, under a tree,” groaned the policeman. “Did you see anyone nearby?”
“No!” chorused the children.
“Did you by any chance hear anything suspicious?”
“I heard a cuckoo!” cried Lottie excitedly.
“There was thunder,” said Gretel.
The sergeant got up with a jerk, put on his cap, and grabbed the necklace. “You will come along with me,” he said to the children.
The children were struck with horror.
“May I have my necklace back?” asked Mo.
“No,” said the sergeant. “I have to confiscate it. Can’t let you run around with it. You’ll risk your life.”
Mo eyed him for an instant in utter bewilderment. “You are not a good human,” she said furiously. With the speed of lightning she snatched the necklace out of his hand and, before anybody could stop her, darted through the back door and ran away.
“Halt! Stop!” roared the policeman and started after her. Unfortunately Philip, the cat, chose that same moment to sneak out. The sergeant tripped over him and, potbelly and all, landed in a mud puddle in the back yard.
Ten
Flat on Her Nose
“Good heavens!” exclaimed the neighbors, and all rushed outside to pick up the sergeant, but the children lit out the front door. Only Lottie could not make it. Her mother grabbed her in the nick of time and held onto her. The children could hear Lottie yelling: “Oh, Mummy, Mummy! I want to see the space ship too!” Then they ran out on the street and looked around for Mo.
“There she is!” shouted Willy.
Mo was running down the Holle Road like a hunted deer. Her hair flew out behind her like a weather vane.
“Mo! Mo!” screamed Walter. “Wait!”
But Mo did not hear him and already was tearing across the tracks of a grade crossing.
“Mo! Mo!” yelled the children, running after her.
“I’ve had it!” groaned Konrad.
“Do you want to be pulled in by the police?” shouted Walter.
“No!” snapped Konrad, and pushed ahead with his fat little legs.
“We’re catching up with her!” called Willy triumphantly. “She can’t run as fast as us.”
Just as they reached the railway crossing, the gates came down, right in front of their noses. Walter and Willy wanted to climb over them, but the guard roared at them, “Get back! Get back!” shaking his fist. At that moment, the little train came rattling around the bend, and with much puffing and clanging the engine went chugging by. The train was going very slowly because it was going uphill. All the children could do was to stand helplessly behind the gates.
“What a tough break,” scolded Walter, anxiously looking back to his house. The neighbors had just helped the policeman to his feet, and Mr. Brenner was feverishly brushing and rubbing off the mud. Nobody seemed to give any thought to the children. Walter was frantic with impatience.
“They can see us from here,” he wailed. “Is there no end to this train?”
Finally, the last of the cars rolled slowly past, and the gates went up. The children leaped across the tracks. Then they stopped and blinked. Mo had disappeared.
“She’s gone,” gasped Otto. He took off his glasses, polished them with the corner of his jacket, put them on again, and looked down Holle Road.
“She must be hiding,” said Gretel. A lock of brown hair tumbled over her nose, and she angrily blew it aside.
“Phew! It’s hot,” said Erna, holding her hair off the back of her neck. Konrad sat down on the curbstone to take a rest. Only Willy grinned as happily as ever. He was thin and could run a long time without tiring.
Holle Road seemed deserted in the warm afternoon sun. Far down the county road an empty hay wagon with a two-horse team was pulling out on the way to the fields. The children went on again at a slow pace, searching for Mo in every alleyway, but she was nowhere. They spotted Mr. Aufhauser, the mail carrier, emerging from a house below and ran toward him.
“Hello, Mr. Aufhauser!” called Walter. “Have you seen a girl with a red coat and a red cap?”
“Sure,” said Mr. Aufhauser, lighting a long, thin cigar with deliberation.
“Where is she?” shrieked the children.
“My, she was in a hurry,” said Mr. Aufhauser, and drew on his cigar with satisfaction. “A while ago she went by me like lightning. That won’t end well,’ I thought. ‘She is bound to fall on her face.’ She was running down Holle Road, but when Farmer Kuntze pulled out of the courtyard with his team of horses and his hay wagon, she stopped and screamed holy murder. She turned and ran into Church Street. A few small kids ran after her and cried: ‘Red cap! Red cap!’ Then she ran into the nearest house and slammed the door behind her.”
“Which house?” called Walter on the jump.
“I think number 11 or 12,” said Mr. Aufhauser. “Now tell me, kids, who is the little girl? I’ve never seen her around before, and I know every soul in this forsaken place!”
The children took off, leaving Mr. Aufhauser looking after them dumbfounded. They ran into Church Street and stormed into number 10, where Miss Wambacher, the piano teacher, lived. She was just giving a lesson to a little girl who, perched miserably on a piano stool, was practicing scales. When the children crashed in so suddenly, both of them jerked around in fright, and Miss Wambacher said pointedly: “I would be grateful if you would take the trouble to knock!”
“Pardon us, Miss Wambacher,” panted Walter, “did you see Mo?”
“What is Mo?” asked the teacher suspiciously.
“Mo is a little girl with a red coat and a red cap,” called Gretel.
“Did she want to take piano lessons?” inquired Miss Wambacher in a more friendly tone.
“No,” Walter replied, “we’re just looking for her.”
“There is no such girl here,” objected Miss Wambacher. “Now don’t bother me any more!”
The children had already disappeared. They entered number 11, next door, where Mr. and Mrs. Grobschmidt were having a late lunch. “Great thunder, have all the children in town gone berserk?” Mr. Grobschmidt shouted, and he pounded the table with his fist. Unfortunately, he hit his soup plate, and the hot soup splashed in his face.
“Pardon us!” stammered Walter. “We are looking for Mo.”
“If you devils want to play hide-and-seek, do it outside!” roared Mr. Grobschmidt, and mopped his face with a corner of the tablecloth.
“Is Mo a little girl wearing a red coat?” asked Mrs. Grobschmidt with a smile.
“Oh, yes!” chorused the children, encouraged to have at last found an understanding soul.
“My, what a pretty child she was,” continued Mrs. Grobschmidt. “And her eyes! Never saw the like of them before. I said to myself, ‘She looks like an angel,’ I says. Gus, didn’t I say that she looked like an angel?” she asked her husband. But Gus just stared at his soup plate.
“But where is she?” insisted Walter.
“She ran through the house and into the garden,” chuckled Mrs. Grobschmidt, who thought it all very amusing. “She tripped over Putzi and
fell on her nose. Putzi was lying outside asleep. He whimpered and snapped at her, so she jumped up and hurdled over the fence and was gone. Who is the child? Where is she from?”
“She’s from another planet,” shrieked Gretel and, before the baffled Grobschmidts caught on, the whole gang ran into the garden. They vaulted over the fence, all at once, so that it nearly collapsed, and Putzi, a small white spitz, yapping and snarling, tried his best to take a chunk out of some leg. Konrad got hung up by his suspenders, and Putzi took a good hold of the seat of his pants and wouldn’t let go.
“Help!” Konrad gave out a nerve-shattering howl. Willy and Walter quickly unbuttoned his suspenders and freed him.
“Did he bite you?” sympathized Gretel.
“No,” snorted Konrad, and hitched up his suspenders to keep his pants from slipping. Then he felt the seat of his pants and announced, “I’ve got a hole in my pants. Wait till my father sees it!”
This made the children laugh. They sauntered down the hill and presently reached the market square, where they looked in all directions for Mo. She was nowhere to be seen. On one side of the square rose the majestic old church, and around it, forming a semicircle, were the town hall, the house of the volunteer fire company, and a few stores. In the middle stood the historic St. Matthew’s fountain.
“Where could she possibly be?” wondered Walter.
“She surely wouldn’t have gone that way, with all the people there,” said Otto, and pointed at the Farmers’ Market on the other side of the square. There the farmers, who came once a week from the country to sell their produce, had erected long wooden stands under big, gaily colored umbrellas. Eggs, butter and cheese, vegetables and fruits, pastries and flowers, and many other edibles were displayed in profusion. A few of the citizens of Kummersville were gathered around the stands, some to buy, some just to look.
The children walked up to the St. Matthew’s fountain and sat down on its stone steps. They were weary and discouraged and did not know what to do next. Konrad stretched out and closed his eyes. His face was purple, and his shirt soaked with perspiration. Gretel leaned against the side of the basin and blinked at the sun. Willy was still looking around searchingly. Erna squatted close to Walter and nervously looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
“Are you very sad that Mo is gone?” she asked.
“Baloney,” murmured Walter, and plucked at a few blades of grass sprouting between the stones.
Erna did not know what to say.
It was a beautiful, peaceful summer day. A few fleecy clouds were drifting across the sky, a flock of pigeons circled around the church spire, and a gentle breeze carried pleasant smells from the direction of the market. It smelled of herbs, oranges, and salami. A hurdy-gurdy began to grind out an old folk tune, and a few small girls, with their arms linked in front of the organ grinder, began to sing:
O wee man all alone in the deep dark wood,
He wears upon his head such a queer broad hood.
Tell me quickly if you can
What to call this little man
Who’s standing all alone in the deep dark wood.
“Why doesn’t he play something more up-to-date?” Otto asked disapprovingly.
Two pigeons alighted on the edge of the fountain. First they kept a wary eye on the children, but then they dipped their beaks into the water.
“Mo will never find the Hollewood on her own,” fretted Walter.
“Perhaps she still will turn up somewhere,” said Gretel, and looked around.
“I know what!” cried Willy. “Let’s go into every house and look for her!”
“You’re off your rocker!” jeered Erna. “That’s impossible.” She was still furious because Walter had been short with her.
“Chicken!” retorted Willy, and smirked at her defiantly. Erna and Willy were twins, but even so they fought once in a while.
“I’m through with chasing her,” Konrad groaned without opening his eyes.
“Those grownups are funny,” said Gretel. “Why can’t they believe that Mo comes from Asra?”
“Perhaps she really is nuts,” muttered Konrad.
“You are nuts,” cried Gretel, and kicked him.
“Ouch!” yelled Konrad, sitting up.
“If you think Mo is so crazy, you needn’t come along,” hissed Walter.
“But I want to,” replied Konrad.
“Boy, that was something, the way she just snatched the necklace from Klotz!” said Willy, full of admiration.
“Why did they all get so excited over the necklace?” asked Erna.
“It’s supposed to be worth a million,” said Walter, shrugging his shoulders.
“Is that a lot, a million?” asked Konrad. His grade in arithmetic was always unsatisfactory.
“One million has six zeros,” said Otto.
“Boy, that’s a lot!” exclaimed Willy.
“If I had a million, I would buy myself a dress of pure silk with no sleeves, like Mo’s,” sighed Gretel.
“I would buy myself one even prettier than that,” declared Erna. She bent over the edge of the fountain and admired her red hair in the reflection of the water. “I would buy one of green velvet.”
“Here comes Lottie!” called Walter in surprise.
Lottie came running across the square, her skirt billowing. She was waving both her arms. “Walter! Gretel!” she shouted from afar. “I’ve got something important to tell you!” With that, she bounced up the steps and stopped breathlessly in front of the children.
Eleven
The Earth Is Full of Tears
“How did you know we were here?” asked Walter.
“I saw you,” explained Lottie, and her cheeks glowed with excitement. “Mother sent me up to my bedroom, and when I looked out of the window, I could see you sitting here.”
“Did Mother give you permission to leave the house?” Gretel asked sternly.
“No,” admitted Lottie with a bad conscience. “I jumped on the roof of the shed and climbed down the ladder because I have something important to tell you.”
“They are looking for us, is that it?” Walter asked nervously.
“Oh, no,” continued Lottie. “They were quarreling. The policeman wanted them all to go and look for you, but they said they wouldn’t do it. They don’t know where to look for you, and Father said, ‘My children are good children; they surely will bring the little girl back when they realize that the space ship won’t come.’ That made the sergeant very angry, and he said one couldn’t let the little girl run loose with a necklace worth a million. ‘That is too dangerous,’ he said. ‘Somebody could murder her for that.’”
“Murder?” the children shrieked in horror.
“Yes,” said Lottie, and nodded fervently.
“Why doesn’t the cop look for her himself?” said Walter.
“He isn’t able to,” replied Lottie, and grinned slyly.
“Why not?” asked Walter.
“His uniform is soaked,” said Lottie. “He fell into the puddle, don’t you remember, and got it all muddy. Mother had to wash it and then hang it up to dry. Later it has to be pressed. The sergeant had to take everything off, even his pants,” she added, blushing.
The children roared with laughter. Willy hopped from one foot to the other and slapped his sides hooting, “His pants. Even his pants! Yahoo!”
When they calmed down, Walter asked Lottie, “Is that why you ran after us?”
“No,” said Lottie. “I know where Mo is!”
“What? How? Why? Where?” everybody yelled in confusion.
“In the church,” said Lottie proudly.
“In the church?” repeated Walter, completely taken aback.
“Now what makes you think that?” asked Gretel suspiciously. Lottie had a vivid imagination.
“You’re sure you’re not making this up, Lottie?” Walter asked threateningly.
“Cross my heart,” peeped Lottie, rather hurt. “I saw Mo from the window too. She
climbed over the fence and ran to the square. She stopped, looking around all the time as though she wanted to hide. Suddenly the church bells rang, and with that she darted into the church.”
Walter dashed off; the others followed. In front of the church Walter took off his hat, Otto his cap, and they entered quietly. For a moment they hesitated at the door to allow their eyes to get used to the dark. Someone was playing softly on the organ. After a while, they could distinguish a few old people in the front pews, but there was no sign of Mo. The children walked up the center aisle searching everywhere. Walter even gazed up at the choir loft, but there was only the aged music teacher, Mr. Kronecker, sitting at the organ practicing a choral. Walter knew the choral well, for he often sang in the choir. The grownups insisted that he had a beautiful voice, but he didn’t think it so beautiful. The children were just about to leave, dejectedly, when Willy, in a hushed voice, called, “I see her!”
Willy happened to be lynx-eyed. Now the others, too, spied Mo. She was lying in the last pew, nestled in the corner. She had made herself small; one arm was covering her head. She did not stir. The children tiptoed up to her, and Gretel gently touched her arm.
With a start, Mo sat up and looked at the children in a daze. Then, she quickly covered her face with her hands and began to cry. The children, embarrassed, cast their eyes to the floor. After a while Mo only sobbed a bit. She uncovered her face and in surprise looked at her wet fingers.
“My fingers are wet,” she whispered.
“You are crying,” said Erna.
“But, I have never cried before,” said Mo in consternation.
“On earth one cries,” said Otto.
“I often cry,” said Lottie, about to burst into tears, but she pulled herself together.
“Why did you beat it, Mo?” asked Walter.
“I want to go home,” said Mo shyly.
“Alone you could never find the way,” said Walter. “We’ll take you to your father. We promised you, didn’t we?”
Mo looked at him gratefully. “It wasn’t nice on Earth without you,” she said.
Star Girl Page 5
