The Clue in the Recycling Bin

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  “Oh,” said Mrs. Wickett.

  “What did you do at Jonah’s Jewelry Store?” Henry asked Chad.

  Chad started to answer, then stopped. “I sold jewelry to customers,” he said finally. As Chad answered, he kept looking into the glass bins and moving things around.

  “You’re making me nervous doing that,” Kayla told him. “If you tell me what you lost, I’ll help you find it.”

  “I can help, too,” said Benny.

  Chad looked at everybody looking at him. “Uh,” he said, “I lost a pocket watch.”

  “We’ll help you find it,” said Jessie.

  “I never saw you with a pocket watch,” said Mrs. Wickett.

  Chad frowned. “I don’t want anybody’s help. Just leave me alone!” He turned back to the bins and kept on searching.

  Mrs. Wickett cleared her throat. “Kayla,” she said, “I owe you an apology. Even though you shouldn’t allow people to leave their trash on the outside of the fence, I shouldn’t have shouted at you. I’m sorry.”

  Kayla seemed to think about the apology. “That’s okay,” she finally replied. “We all have bad days.”

  Mrs. Wickett opened the brown paper bag she had been holding. “I brought some bottled tea as a peace offering,” she said. “Would you like some? It’s cold and refreshing.”

  “Sure,” said Kayla with a smile. She accepted a bottle of raspberry Doo-Dah Tea.

  Next, Mrs. Wickett offered each of the children a bottle of tea. All of the bottles had red labels.

  Violet and Benny said no, thank you. Henry and Jessie each took a bottle of tea and thanked Mrs. Wickett.

  “Chad,” said Mrs. Wickett, “I didn’t know you would be here, or I would have brought mint-flavored tea, too. I know it’s your favorite. Would you like a raspberry Doo-Dah Tea?”

  “No, thanks,” said Chad. He stood with his back to the Dumpster for clear glass.

  Henry thought Chad looked as if he was waiting for everybody to leave.

  “Hey!” said Chad suddenly, pointing at Henry’s key ring. “What’s that?”

  Henry lifted his key ring upward. “It’s my new key ring,” he said. “I bought it from Kayla yesterday.”

  “I have more if you’re interested,” Kayla told Chad.

  “Is that a diamond inset?” asked Chad. “On a piece of scrap metal?”

  “No,” said Kayla. “It’s not a diamond, it’s glass. And I happen to like jewelry made from scrap metal.”

  “Let me see it,” said Chad, holding his hand out to Henry.

  Henry thought Chad had very bad manners. He demanded the key ring instead of asking, and he didn’t even say “please.”

  Henry took the key ring off his belt and handed it to Chad.

  And then, to Henry’s surprise, and perhaps to everybody’s surprise, Chad took a small magnifying glass out of his pocket. Using the magnifying glass, Chad studied the sparkling stone set in the middle of the key ring. Henry knew that jewelers used such magnifying glasses to look at precious stones more closely. Watchmakers used them, too. Henry just couldn’t remember what the small tool was called.

  “Yep,” said Chad. “It’s glass.” He folded up his tiny magnifying glass and handed the key ring back to Henry.

  “I’m surprised to see you carrying a loupe around,” Mrs. Wickett said to Chad. “If I’m not mistaken, I saw the name Jonah’s Jewelry Store on that loupe.”

  That’s what it’s called, thought Henry. A loupe.

  “So what?” challenged Chad. “I took a little something with me as a souvenir.”

  Chad steals things, thought Violet. He took the loupe from Jonah’s Jewelry Store.

  “May I see your key ring?” Mrs. Wickett asked Henry.

  “Sure,” he said, handing it to her.

  Mrs. Wickett looked at the key ring closely. “Hmmm,” she said, handing it back to Henry. “Very nice work,” she said to Kayla.

  “Thank you,” said Kayla.

  Violet could tell that the praise made Kayla happy.

  “All my jewelry is very affordable because I make it out of old metal and glass—things I find in these recycling bins. I like to tell people that there are treasures in recycling. Not just in reusing all our plastic and glass and paper again, but in reusing everything.”

  “Jessie and I each took a treasure home from the Other Stuff bin,” said Benny proudly. “And after we each took something home, somebody else took an old chair home.”

  “Really?” asked Chad, looking at Benny. “What day was that?”

  “It was Monday,” said Jessie.

  When Chad didn’t say anything, Jessie asked him if Monday was the day he lost something.

  “I’m not sure,” said Chad. “I’m just not sure.” Then he turned his back to them all and walked down the row of Dumpsters.

  Mrs. Wickett turned to Kayla. “I would like to buy a piece of your inexpensive jewelry,” she said.

  “Oh good!” said Kayla. “Let me show you what I have.”

  The children watched as Kayla and Mrs. Wickett headed for the shed that was Kayla’s studio. The last thing they heard was Mrs. Wickett saying that something had to be done about all the recycling left alongside the public sidewalk each night.

  “Something has to be done about it right now,” said Jessie.

  “Yes,” said Henry. “Time to haul bags and boxes into the center.”

  CHAPTER 6

  The Intruder

  As the children worked, Mrs. Wickett left the recycling center and went home. Violet noticed that Mrs. Wickett was smiling.

  Just as the children finished hauling the last of the boxes into the center and sorting the recycling, they heard a huge boom of thunder.

  “Uh-oh,” said Jessie. “I don’t think we can walk home before the rain comes.” Even as Jessie spoke, droplets of rain began to fall from the sky.

  Kayla came running up to them. “Better get into my studio,” she said. “It’s going to pour!”

  As the children ran toward the studio with Kayla, they saw Chad running there, too.

  Kayla and the Aldens ran into the small shed. Chad ducked into the studio right behind them.

  In just that short time, the rain turned from droplets to a heavy downpour.

  “It might rain all day,” Chad said. “I can give you kids a ride home.”

  “No, thank you,” said Henry. “We’ll wait for our Grandfather to get home and pick us up.”

  “Oh, you shouldn’t have to wait all day,” said Kayla. “I’ll take you home in my van.” Kayla handed Jessie her cell phone. “Call your grandfather and tell him that Kayla Korty is giving you a ride home.”

  Jessie dialed Grandfather, and Grandfather asked to speak to Kayla. Then he asked to speak to Jessie again.

  “You can ride with Kayla,” said Grandfather. “I know her parents.”

  Chad turned and walked out into the rain. “If you don’t want a ride,” he said, “there’s no sense in my hanging around. I’ll go home, too.”

  Jessie watched as Kayla used newspaper and cloth to cover up everything on her workbench. Jessie wondered if Kayla was hiding something.

  Kayla locked the studio door, and they all ran to her van and piled in. But before Kayla could pull into the street, Chad came running up to them.

  “My car won’t start,” he said. “Can you give me a ride? I don’t live far.”

  “Sure,” said Kayla. “Hop in.”

  By the time Chad squeezed into the van, he was soaked.

  “Thanks,” he said to Kayla.

  “Where to?” she asked him.

  “Oh, you can drop the kids off first,” he said. “I’m in no hurry.”

  Jessie thought that Chad had better manners when he needed something, like a ride home.

  As Kayla drove the Aldens home, Chad asked them how they became interested in the recycling center. They told him they learned about recycling in school, and that with the help of their grandfather and Mrs. McGregor, they had set up recycling
boxes in their garage.

  “We used to have to take the newspapers to one town, and the plastics and glass to another,” said Henry. “Now we can take everything to one center here in Greenfield.”

  “You take old newspapers and cans and bottles to the center,” said Chad, “and you take things home from the center.”

  “Only if we want to,” said Jessie.

  “We didn’t know we could take things home until we saw Mrs. McGregor’s big green frog,” said Benny.

  “Yes,” laughed Kayla, “that is one really big, really green metal frog!” She seemed to think for a while. “I wish I hadn’t given that frog away.”

  “I’m already using the notebooks I took home,” said Jessie. She looked down to study Chad’s boots, but the car was so crowded, she couldn’t see much.

  “What about you, Benny?” Chad asked. “Did you get anything good from the Other Stuff bin?”

  “Yes,” said Benny. “It’s a big red piñata. A bull.”

  Chad looked out the window. “It’s a good thing you rescued it,” he said. “The piñata would be ruined if it sat out in the rain. Did you hang the piñata in your bedroom?” he asked.

  “No,” said Benny. “It’s on the sunporch with Mrs. McGregor’s frog.”

  Chad was silent for a while.

  “What about you, Chad?” Kayla asked, looking at him through the rearview mirror. “Did you find your pocket watch?”

  Chad smiled. “Yes,” he said, “I found what I lost.”

  Soon Kayla pulled into the Aldens’ driveway. She drove as close to the house as she could because the rain was still coming down hard.

  Henry showed Kayla where to stop. “We’ll run in through the sunporch,” he said.

  The children thanked Kayla for the ride and said good-bye to her and to Chad.

  When they got in the house, Mrs. McGregor told the children to change out of their wet shoes and socks. By the time they did that, Grandfather arrived home. Soon it was time for dinner.

  At dinner, the children told Grandfather about their day.

  “It seems so strange that somebody is breaking into a recycling center,” said Grandfather. “They could have anything from it for free.”

  “We think that two different people have broken in,” said Jessie.

  “And for two different reasons,” said Henry.

  Late that night, when everybody was asleep, Watch began to bark. He barked and barked, louder and louder.

  Henry sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes, and listened. He heard the thump, thump, thump of Watch’s feet.

  Benny came running into Henry’s room. “Watch is barking,” said Benny. “And he is growling.”

  Henry and Benny ran into the hallway. Jessie and Violet were already there with Grandfather.

  They heard more growling from Watch. It was coming from the sunporch.

  Grandfather walked into the kitchen and switched on the outdoor lights. The children were behind him.

  As soon as the lights went on, they saw somebody running away across their lawn. It looked like a man, but they couldn’t be sure.

  The children walked into the sunporch with Grandfather. Watch stood at the screen door, barking loudly. The running figure reached the road and disappeared.

  Grandfather phoned the police.

  “Somebody was trying to get into our house,” said Violet.

  “But Watch chased the burglar away,” said Jessie. She petted Watch. “Good dog,” she said. “Good dog.”

  Henry looked at the screen door, which was still locked on the inside. “Look,” he said. “Somebody started to cut a hole in the screen door.”

  “Watch heard him and chased him away,” said Benny. “We are lucky to have Watch.”

  “We are also lucky to have a strong door between the screen porch and the house,” said Grandfather. “I don’t think the burglar could have gotten into our house.”

  Henry grabbed a flashlight from a shelf and opened the screen door.

  “What are you doing?” asked Grandfather.

  “The ground is wet,” said Henry. “I’ll bet the intruder left a lot of footprints.”

  The children and Grandfather and Watch all stepped onto the sidewalk that led up to their screen porch. It didn’t take long for Henry to find a trail of footprints.

  One set came toward the screen porch. “That’s where he—or she—came up to the house. See how close the footprints are to one another?” asked Henry. “The intruder was walking slowly and quietly.”

  “Look,” said Violet, pointing to a second set of footprints. “Those footprints are going away from the house. They’re far apart from one another.”

  “That means the intruder was running away,” said Jessie. “Let me get my notebook.”

  “Does Jessie want to take notes?” asked Grandfather.

  “No,” said Henry, “she wants to look at a drawing.”

  In a minute Jessie was back with one of her new notebooks. She flipped it open, and the children stared at the first footprint drawing she had made.

  “No,” said Violet. “These footprints are not the same as the first ones we found outside the recycling center.”

  Jessie flipped the page. “But these footprints are exactly the same as the second ones we found outside the recycling center —the ones outside the Other Stuff bin.”

  Henry, Violet, Benny, and Grandfather all looked at Jessie’s second drawing.

  “What does it mean?” asked Grandfather.

  “I’m not sure, but I have a hunch it means that somebody wants something that was in the Other Stuff recycling bin,” said Henry.

  CHAPTER 7

  One Solution

  The next morning, the children had a plan. After breakfast they got on their bikes and pedaled to Tío’s Tacos. There they bought six bottles of Doo-Dah Tea: three mint-flavored and three raspberry-flavored.

  When they reached the recycling center, they saw Ethan working in the same corner he had worked in before. Once again he was raking up leaves and grass clippings.

  When Kayla saw the Aldens, she told them that the recycling center had been broken into again.

  “This is so frustrating,” Kayla said. “There was no real damage except that the bags of leaves and grass clippings are all broken open. Thank goodness Ethan showed up to volunteer this morning.”

  The children looked at one another and nodded their heads.

  “We know who is breaking into the center and crushing the bags of leaves and grass clippings,” Jessie said to Kayla.

  “You do?!” Kayla seemed surprised. “Who?”

  “We think the person who’s doing it wants to tell you himself. And he will, very soon,” said Henry.

  Kayla looked confused. “Well, okay,” she said.

  Violet took two bottles of tea out of her bike basket. “Would you like a bottle of tea?” she asked Kayla.

  “Oh yes,” said Kayla. “Thank you.”

  And then, to the surprise of the children, Kayla chose a mint-flavored Doo-Dah Tea.

  Kayla walked into her studio and the children stood by their bikes for a moment.

  “Well,” said Jessie at last. “That’s a surprise.”

  “Yes,” said Violet. “Yesterday Kayla drank raspberry-flavored tea, but today she chose mint.”

  “Let’s offer Ethan the same choice,” said Henry.

  The Aldens walked over to where Ethan was raking leaves and grass. They said hello and offered Ethan Doo-Dah Tea.

  “No, thanks,” said Ethan.

  “Kayla is upset,” Henry told him. “She’s worried about the fact that somebody is getting into the center and opening the bags of leaves and grass.”

  Ethan shrugged. “She shouldn’t be upset, not really. I’m here to clean everything up.”

  “We would like to show you something,” Jessie said to Ethan. “Can you come outside with us for a few minutes?”

  Ethan shrugged again, but he put his rake aside. “Sure,” he said.

 
The five of them walked through the gate of the recycling center. Henry led the way. They turned right, then right again.

  “Stop,” said Henry. They had reached the place just outside the fence from where the bags of leaves and grass were stored.

  “The ground is wet,” said Jessie. “We’re all leaving footprints.”

  “So?” said Ethan.

  Jessie pointed to footprints ahead of them. They were very fresh. The left and right prints were far apart from one another. Both the left and right prints pointed toward the fence.

  “Somebody was here before us,” she said. “He left footprints, too.”

  Ethan didn’t say anything.

  “Look at your footprints,” said Henry to Ethan.

  Ethan looked down.

  “They match those footprints,” said Henry, pointing to the prints ahead of them.

  Ethan didn’t say anything.

  “We know what you’re doing,” Violet said softly.

  Ethan shook his head. “Okay,” he said. “You’re right, those are my footprints. But I’m not really breaking into the recycling center.”

  “Why are you jumping over the chain-link fence?” Henry asked.

  “For fun,” said Ethan. “And for training. It’s fun and I can keep in shape. I take a running start, jump over the fence, and land on the soft bags of leaves and grass. Nobody knows I can do it except me! And every time I do it, I come in and clean up.”

  “But when you land on the bags, they break open,” said Jessie. “Leaves and grass fall out, and the recycling center looks messy.”

  “But I come in and clean everything up,” Ethan repeated.

  “Your kind of fun upsets people,” said Violet. “It upsets Kayla because she thinks somebody wants the recycling center to fail.”

  Ethan looked down at his feet. “Yeah,” he said, “I know it’s not right. But I was trying to make it right by cleaning up after myself.”

  The children waited, giving Ethan a chance.

  Finally Ethan spoke. “I’ll stop doing it,” he said. “I guess I have to tell Kayla.”

  “We’ll go with you if you want,” said Jessie.

  When they walked into Kayla’s studio, Henry noticed that she was busy with a soldering torch.

  Kayla set the soldering torch aside and removed the magnifying lens she wore on a headband.