Girl Power (16 page)

“You want to see the bus?” she asked, waiting and hoping that he’d follow her down the trail. “We’ve really fixed it up.”

So while she got the journal, he took a quick peek inside, but then just as quickly he went back outside. “It sure looks different in there,” he said as she came out to rejoin him.

“Kind of girly, huh?”

He grinned. “Yep, I reckon it is. But it does look nice.”

Then she gave him the journal as well as the high school yearbook. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “Do you have a record player?”

He nodded.

“Let me get something else for you, okay?” And she hurried back in to get the Elton John album. “Listen to the
song called ‘Daniel’ on this record,” she told him. “I think you’ll like it.”

He nodded and started to go, but then he stopped. “And since you feel like Dan was your friend too, well, you’d be welcome to come see some of his photos and other things if you’d like. Your friends can come too. I have them all set up in a room. Just to look at. I thought I’d gotten all of his stuff from the bus.” He looked at the items in his hand. “Guess I missed some. Thank you for taking the time, Emily.”

“Thank you
, Mr. Greeley.”

“Thanks for letting me come with you today,” Emily said as she rode with Morgan’s grandma to the airport. It was Saturday afternoon and Morgan and her mom’s flight should’ve landed by now.

“We’re supposed to get them by the baggage pickup,” said Grandma as she turned toward the terminal. “You keep your eyes peeled and I’ll drive as slowly as possible.”

“No problem there,” said Emily when she noticed the traffic jam up ahead. Grandma slowly made her way forward and Emily scanned the crowd for Morgan and her mom. “There they are!” she shouted. “Up there by the big turning door.”

Soon they had Morgan and her mom and their stuff all loaded in the car and were heading out. “Thanks for the ride, Mom,” said Cleo. “But I thought Leslie was getting us.”

“She had to keep shop for you,” said Grandma, “since Kara was sick today.”

“I’m so glad you came!” said Morgan as she gave Emily’s hand a squeeze. “I missed you so much. So tell me, have you been bored out of your gourd?”

“Not exactly,” said Emily with a smile. “Although I’ll admit that it has been pretty quiet.”

“Have you seen Carlie at all?”

“A couple of times … but she’s been pretty busy with Miguel and Pedro. They’re a handful. But I did help her take them to the beach yesterday. The weather finally warmed up again, and we played in the sand and stuff.”

“I’m so happy to be home,” said Morgan. “I mean, it was actually pretty fun in Atlanta. And I can’t wait to show you guys some of the awesome stuff I got for free at the gift show—things we can use for the bus. Very cool.”

“I’m so glad you’re home too,” admitted Emily. Then she lowered her voice, “and I do have something
big
to tell you when we’re all together, back in our clubhouse again.”

“Can’t you tell me now?” begged Morgan. “It sounds really interesting.”

Emily shook her head. “Remember what you said about being part of a club, Morgan. We need to consider the other girls too.” Then she held up her hand with the bracelet and grinned. “Rainbows rule.”

Morgan nodded and held hers up too. “Rainbows rule.”

By the time they made it home from Portland, it was too late to have a club meeting, but Morgan said she’d call the girls for a two o’clock meeting tomorrow, after they got back from church.

“Sure you don’t want to give me a hint about your big news?” asked Morgan as they dropped Emily at her house.

“It’s a mystery,” said Emily.

“Thanks a lot,” said Morgan. But she was smiling.

“Glad you’re home,” said Emily again. “See you tomorrow.”

The next day, on their way home from church, Morgan tried to pry more information from Emily, but Emily told her she’d have to wait.

“You’re pretty good at keeping a secret,” said Morgan as they pulled into the mobile-home court.

Emily nodded with lips pressed firmly together. Morgan had no idea!

Finally it was two o’clock and all four girls were back together in the Rainbow Bus. Emily put on a record to play, and they sat down at the table where Morgan set out a plate of her grandma’s homemade oatmeal raisin cookies and a carton of milk. She’d also brought along a box full of things from the gift show for the bus. She had colorful notepads and magnetic pens and scented candles and bright silk flowers and stuffed gadgets and window decorations and all sorts of things.

“You should’ve seen the place,” said Morgan. “It was huge, like acres and acres of these little shops with all this stuff. My feet got so tired.”

“But was it fun?” asked Amy.

“Sure. And then they give you all this free stuff.”

“It’s like Christmas,” said Carlie, holding up a stained-glass butterfly with a little hanger on it.

“For the bus,” added Morgan. “Which reminds me, I did get some Christmas decorations too, but we can save those for later.”

“It’s so good to be back in the bus,” said Amy. “And it’s fun having music. That’s a great place for the record player.”

“So, how was music camp?” asked Emily, wanting to save her news for last.

Amy gave a complete rundown on music camp and who was there and how Amy got to do a flute solo at the campfire one night. “It was really pretty good,” she said finally. “And it didn’t seem that geeky.”

“See,” said Morgan. “We told you.”

“And I made a hundred dollars this week,” said Carlie proudly.

“Just for babysitting?” asked Amy.

“Just for?” repeated Carlie with wide eyes. “Do you have any idea how much work it is to take care of two little kids that never stop moving? And Pedro is barely potty trained. You know what that means?”

Amy laughed. “No. But it doesn’t sound good.”

“Well, that was a hard-earned hundred-dollars,” said Carlie. “And then my parents made me put half into the bank for my college fund. And the rest … Mom says I
should save to buy school clothes.” She shook her head. “I think they’re the ones who came out on top in that deal.”

The bus got quiet now, and Morgan looked at Emily. “Emily has something to tell us,” she said. “Something big.”

Now all eyes were on Emily. Thankfully, she’d carefully rehearsed what she was going to tell them—and how much. She wanted to be respectful of Mr. Greeley, but she wanted them to understand the story too. Especially since they all got to share in the bus together.

“Well, I was putting away the books and I started wondering about Dan Watterson again.”

“Oh, yeah, Dan the man,” said Amy. “We almost forgot about that dude.”

“That’s right,” said Morgan. “Don’t tell me you figured it out?”

Emily nodded. “And it wasn’t easy.” She told them about some of her early dead ends and then how she finally remembered the old librarian. But she didn’t mention the journal. She wanted that to remain private.

“Mrs. Drimmel?” said Amy. “Of course, she’s been here forever.”

“And she’s so old, she’d know everybody,” said Morgan. “Good work, Em.”

“She was Dan’s teacher in high school,” said Emily. “And she totally remembered him. She said he was a nice
kid. But she also said that shortly after college he went to Desert Storm.”

“Desert Storm?” said Carlie. “What’s that?”

“A war,” said Emily.

“The Iraq War?” asked Amy.

“No, that’s what I thought too. Desert Storm started in 1991, and Dan went in that year.”

“He would’ve been about twenty-eight by then,” said Amy.

“Thirty,” corrected Emily, and everyone looked stunned. “I guess he had a late birthday,” she added quickly. “Anyway, Dan Watterson was killed in action.”

“Really?” Morgan looked stunned.

“That’s sad,” said Carlie.

“War is so wrong,” said Amy in an angry voice.

“So he never made it back,” continued Emily. “And this was his bus. He’d been touring the country in it … after college. And he was kind of lost and confused … He’d been in love with this girl from high school, and she sort of just disappeared on him. It was like he never got over her.”

“Man, that’s so sad,” said Morgan.

“Was that why he went to the war?” asked Carlie.

“Maybe so …”

“But why is his bus here?” asked Morgan.

“Well, that’s the amazing part,” said Emily. “Dan Watterson was Mr. Greeley’s only son.”

“But why wasn’t his name Greeley?” asked Morgan.

“Mr. Greeley’s wife left him when Dan was a little boy. She married another man who adopted Dan, and they changed his name. And poor Mr. Greeley didn’t see Dan for years. He finally tracked them down in Boscoe Bay and moved here himself. That’s when he started the mobile-home court. Dan was still in high school. He just wanted to be around him.”

“That’s sweet,” said Morgan.

“Yeah. And they got to be friends and stuff.”

“And then Dan went to the war and got killed?” said Carlie, her voice breaking as she said it.

Emily nodded. “Yeah. I was really torn up about it too. I felt like I’d really gotten to know Dan, like we were related or something.”

“Well, we’ll have to make sure that we honor his memory in our bus,” said Morgan. “Maybe we can hang up a picture or something.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Emily. “I’ll talk to Mr. Greeley about it.”

Morgan peered curiously at her. “So you’re talking to Mr. Greeley now?”

Emily grinned. “Yeah. He’s really nice. Just sad and lonely. But we’re friends now. And he told me it was okay to tell you guys about Dan’s story—since we’re the owners of his bus.”

“That’s cool,” said Morgan.

“So what kind of Christmas stuff did you get at the gift show?” asked Emily, quickly changing the subject.

“Huh?” said Morgan, caught off guard.

“Like, did you get any cool strings of lights?” asked Emily hopefully. “I was thinking that it’d be cool to hang some string lights in here. You know for those gray, foggy kinds of days, like the ones we had last week.”

“That’s a great idea,” said Morgan. “And I did get a set of lights. They were actually the shapes of tropical fruit.”

“That’s perfect!” exclaimed Emily.

“You want to see them?”

“Yeah!” said Emily.

“Okay.” Morgan was already pushing through the beads and going for the door. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”

As soon as Morgan was gone, Emily started talking. “Okay, you guys, it’s Morgan’s birthday on Tuesday, and I wanted to get her out of here so we could make a quick plan. All in favor of giving her a surprise birthday party say aye.”

“Aye!” all three shouted.

“Okay.” Emily grabbed the notebook. “Who’s doing what?”

It was the quickest party-planning meeting Emily had ever been to, not that she’d been to many. But by the time Morgan came back, they had it all figured out. And to
make their little act even more convincing, Emily got very excited over Morgan’s tropical-fruit lights.

“Those are so great, Morgan!” she exclaimed as Morgan took them out of the box.

“They’ll be perfect in here,” said Amy.

“And I bet they don’t use much electricity either,” added Carlie.

“Good thinking to bring them in here, Em,” said Morgan. “I’m really glad I didn’t save them until Christmas.”

“Well, I was in here a lot last week,” said Emily. “And it was pretty gloomy outside. Seemed like we could use some more light.”

Soon they had the lights suspended over the tiny dining table, and when Morgan plugged them in, everyone cheered.

“Look at all the colors,” said Emily.

“Sort of like a rainbow,” said Amy.

“Rainbows rule!” shouted Carlie, holding up her hand with the bracelet. And the other girls followed.

“It’s good to be back together again,” Morgan said with a big smile.

They spent the next couple of hours just hanging out, putting all Morgan’s interesting goodies away, and listening to old vinyl records. And Emily thought it felt almost like coming home.

On Monday, Emily left the trailer park just a little before nine. She used the back exit so that Morgan wouldn’t notice her from her kitchen window. Then she hurried toward town and finally turned into the Waterfront District where she knew Morgan’s mom’s shop was located. She’d seen Cleo’s from the street, but up until now had never gone inside. But today she was on a mission.

“Oh, hi, Emily,” said Cleo from where she was unpacking a box in the back of the store.

“Hi,” said Emily, looking around the shop with interest, noticing all the colorful items from all over the world. There were pillows and dishes and statues and jewelry and clothing—all sorts of things. “This is a cool shop,” she told Cleo as she walked toward the back.

“You’ve never been in here before?” asked Cleo as she unwrapped a large piece of pottery and set it on the counter.

“No, but I’ll be sure to make it a regular stop from now on.”

“So, what’s up?” asked Cleo as she adjusted a brightly colored scarf that was tied loosely around her neck.

“I’m looking for something for Morgan’s birthday,” said Emily.

“That’s so sweet of you,” said Cleo.

“We’re having a surprise party for her tomorrow—in the clubhouse—and I wanted to give her something special.” Emily reached down to pat the small purse that
was hanging over her shoulder. She still had most of her share of the people’s choice winnings, but she’d need to save enough to buy birthday cake ingredients too. “Do you know of anything she’s been wanting?”

Cleo rubbed her chin as she considered this. “Hmm …” Then she snapped her fingers. “I do!”

“What is it?”

“Come over here and I’ll show you.”

Emily hoped it wouldn’t be too expensive as she followed Cleo over to where some wooden boxes were stacked. They looked really nice. Then Cleo picked up one of the larger ones and opened it. “Morgan’s been wanting something just like this to keep her beadwork in.”

“It’s beautiful,” said Emily, running her hand over the smooth surface of the wood. “How much does it cost?”

“Well,” said Cleo, “how about if I give it to you at cost?”

Emily wasn’t sure what that meant, but she nodded.

“That would be ten dollars.”

“Really?” Emily couldn’t believe it. How could a box this nice be that inexpensive? “Are you sure?” she asked. “I mean, I don’t want you to—”

“I’m sure, Emily. You see, all my things are imported and I get some amazing buys. And, as I recall, cost on these boxes was really about ten dollars.”

“Well, I’ll take it,” said Emily.

Cleo smiled. “Want me to wrap it for you?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Emily. “I don’t think we have any wrapping paper at home.”

“Go ahead and look around the shop,” said Cleo as she carried the box back to the counter.

Before long, the gift was wrapped and paid for and Emily was happily carrying the brown bag through town. She stopped by the little grocery store to get the cake things, including birthday candles, then headed on home.

“Watcha doing?” asked Morgan as Emily came into Harbor View with her bag.

“Just some shopping,” said Emily, wishing she’d remembered to use the other entrance. “For my mom,” she added, feeling a little guilty for the lie. But maybe it was okay under the circumstances.

The four girls got together to hang out in the afternoon, but no mention was made of the upcoming birthday, and Emily suspected that Morgan was feeling a little bummed that no one seemed to remember her big day. Then everyone, except Morgan, made up excuses to go home early. Emily knew it was so they could take care of their parts of the party preparations. Carlie was in charge of decorations, and she was going to make a mini-pinata. Amy was taking care of napkins and plates and things, promising that it would be really pretty.