Horrible Harry at Halloween (4 page)

“It's Sergeant Joe Friday! Look at him!” Mary yelled.

Everyone turned and stared at Harry. His suit was up over his head. He looked like he was headless.

Miss Mackle laughed.

We laughed, too.

Suddenly, the teacher stepped outside the classroom. When she returned, she whispered, “Boys and girls, the music teacher is just coming down the hall. Let's have some fun like Harry.” Then she pulled her witch cape over her head.

Quickly everyone moved their costumes up over their heads, and waited quietly for Mr. Marks to enter the classroom.

We could hear his footsteps as he got closer. He was humming as usual. “La ti da ti dah ...”

As he entered our room, we heard him scream,
“Aaaaauuuuugh! A class with no heads!”

“Happy Halloween!”
we shouted, before we popped our heads out.

“Ahhhh,” Mr. Marks sighed. “What a surprise!” he said. “You sure fooled me.”

We clapped and cheered. We had no idea that the
next
surprise was going to be on us.

I
t happened that afternoon during math. Sergeant Joe Friday was collecting facts in his notebook. When we finished counting the pumpkin seeds, Harry wrote 583 for the small pumpkin, and 588 seeds for the bigger one.

“Hmmm,” Harry said, “the only real difference was that the bigger pumpkin had bigger seeds.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You're right, Joe.”

After Ida and Dexter took the trays of pumpkin seeds to the kitchen, Miss Mackle began drawing a Halloween bar graph on the chalkboard.

“So, what categories could we have for the costumes we're wearing today?”

“Well,” Mary said. “There's a king and a jester in our class, and I'm Tinker Bell, so we could be fairy-tale costumes.”

Harry scribbled three tally marks for the fairy-tale category in his notebook and then put the pencil stub he was using on his ear.

“Good idea!” Miss Mackle said. “Maybe we could make it fairy tales/myths and include the centaur.”

I whinnied.
“Nnneeyehaa.”

Harry added another tally mark.

“Other categories?” the teacher asked.

“Animal costumes,” Sidney answered. Then he growled,
“Grrrrrr!”

“Meow!”
Ida said as she clawed the air.

“Scary costumes,” someone said.

“Great!” Miss Mackle replied, writing the titles down on the board. “But what about a category for our surgeon, singer, detective, and astronaut?”

Song Lee, Dexter, Harry, and Miguel smiled. Those were their costumes.

“Jobs?” Song Lee suggested.

“Yes!” Miss Mackle replied. “Sometimes we call them occupations.”

Suddenly, Mary screamed,
“Someone stole my pixie dust! There's a thief in the room!”

Everyone jumped off their chair a few inches. What a surprise!

Harry leaped out of his seat. He was at Mary's desk in a flash. His notebook was already open. He just snatched his pencil stub off his ear. “The facts, ma'am, just the facts.”

“Oh Harry!” Mary said as she held up her box. “I'm not playing any games. This is for
real.
My pixie dust is gone! See!”

Everyone stared at Mary's empty gold satin box.

“I have a job to do,” Harry replied. “I carry a badge. I'm Sergeant Joe Friday from the—”

“Los Angeles Police Department,” Mary snapped.

Harry looked at his watch, then wrote down the time. “It's two-oh-two P.M. When do you last remember seeing the dust in the box?”

Mary thought about it. “When I took it down to lunch. It was part of my costume.”

“Did you have hot or cold lunch, ma'am?”

“Hot.”

Harry walked over to the lunch menu that was taped on the wall. He reviewed the facts. “Friday, October thirty-first, cheese pizza, tossed salad, carrot sticks, pumpkin cookies ...”

We watched Harry jot it down. When he returned to Mary's desk, he fired one question after another. “Where did you keep the box when you were eating lunch?”

“On my tray.”

“All the time, ma'am?”

“Well,” Mary paused, “when I had to stack my tray, I put it on the counter.”

“For how long, ma'am?”

Mary bit her lip. “A minute? Mrs. Thunderburke said I made a beautiful Tinker Bell. I was showing her the tiny bells on my hem.”

“I see, ma'am.”

“Do you have to say ma'am?”
Mary yelled.

“Yes ma'am,” Harry replied.

It was hard not to laugh, but we quieted down quickly. We didn't want to miss any facts about the crime.

“Who was behind you in line, ma'am?”

Mary pointed at the bear. “Sidney!”

Harry walked over to Sidney's desk. “Do you know anything about the box?”

Sidney's response was hard to understand.

“Can you speak louder, sir?” Harry asked.

Miss Mackle sat down on a desktop. “Sidney, aren't you hot in that headpiece?” she asked.

While Sidney mumbled something, Harry sniffed Sidney's fur.

“Just as I thought,” Harry said.

“What?” Mary replied.

“Baby powder,” Harry said. “He smells like baby powder.”

“Sidney!” Mary gasped.
“You
did it! You're the thief!”

Harry stared at Sidney's blue eyes through the little round holes of his costume. “Do you want to tell us about it, Sid?”

Maybe it was Harry's businesslike tone. Maybe Sidney was just hot. Sidney did what Harry asked. He confessed.

We all watched Sidney slowly pull off his bear headpiece. Baby powder was smeared over his forehead.

“I ... just meant to use a little,” Sidney confessed. “Mary left it on the counter when she returned her lunch tray. I was so hot. My forehead was dripping. I thought the baby powder might feel cool on my skin. So I took some. I didn't mean to use it
all.
The box just fell out of my hands. When I put it back on the counter, it ... was empty.”

Mary gritted her teeth and growled.

“I'm sorry, Mary!” Sidney said. Then he put his head down on his desk.

Miss Mackle came over. “I think Sidney feels bad about what happened, Mary. But, Sidney, you need to remember to ask first before you use something, and to tell the truth. Maybe you can make it up to Mary.”

Mary folded her arms. “Fat chance. The pixie dust was an important part of my Tinker Bell costume for Halloween. I was going to take it with me tonight when I go trick-or-treating.”

“Ma'am?” Harry asked. “Can't you put more baby powder in your box for tonight?”

“I guess so,” Mary grumbled.