Judy Moody Gets Famous! (7 page)

“A whole new heart! Wow!” said Stink. “What’s wrong with your old one?”

“Stink!” said Judy, even though she wanted to know too.

“It broke, I guess,” said the girl.

“Were you scared?” Judy asked.

The girl nodded. “Guess what. My scar goes from my neck all the way down to my bellybutton.”

“What’s your name?” asked Stink.

“Laura,” said the girl.

“That’s one brave heart you got there, Laura,” said Judy.

“Daddy says I’m a brave girl,” Laura said. “I’m getting a hamster when I go home. Do you have a hamster?”

“No,” said Judy. “I have a cat named Mouse.”

“There’s nothing to do here,” said Laura, looking around.

“They have doctor stuff,” said Judy.

“Look! A real sling and stuff!” said Stink, kneeling next to a big cardboard box. He pulled out Ace bandages, boxes of gauze, and tongue depressors. Even a stethoscope and a pair of crutches.

“Stink, can I put your arm in a sling?” Judy asked.

“No way,” said Stink.

“How about you, Laura? I know how. For real.”

“I’m sick of doctor stuff,” Laura said.

“What about dolls?” Stink asked. “There’s a bunch of dolls in this box.”

“They all have broken arms and legs, or no heads,” Laura said. “And some of them have cancer.”

“What do you mean?” Judy asked.

“They’re bald, like Sarah, in my same room.”

“That’s not fair,” Judy said. “They should at least have dolls to play with that aren’t sick.”

The nurse came back just then. “Time to go back to your room,” she told Laura. “Did you kids meet our brave girl?”

“Yes!” said Judy and Stink.

“I hope your new heart works great!” said Judy, as Laura left with the nurse.

“Bye!” called Stink.

Judy looked through the doll box. Laura was right. All the dolls were dirty or broken or hairless or headless.

Mrs. Moody poked her head in the doorway. “Hello!”

“Mom!” said Stink.

“Is Frank okay?” Judy asked.

“His finger’s broken,” said Mrs. Moody, “but his mom is with him now. He’s getting a splint.”

“Rare! A real splint!” said Judy.

“He won’t be playing any basketball for a while, but he’s going to be just fine. So. Ready to go?”

Stink and Judy followed Mrs. Moody out of the playroom. Halfway down the hall, Judy stopped, holding Stink back by his shirt.

“Stink,” she said so her mom couldn’t hear. “Give me your backpack.”

“What?”

“Your backpack. I need it.” Stink made a face and handed over the pack.

“Catch up with Mom and tell her I forgot something. I’ll be right back.”

Judy dashed back into the playroom and over to the box of broken dolls. Looking around to make sure no one was coming, she stuffed the dolls into the backpack. Judy zipped it shut, flung it over her shoulder like a lumpy Santa Claus sack, and headed back down the hall.

When Mom stopped to ask a question at the desk, Stink asked, “Hey! What’s in there?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing does not make a big fat lump. Did you take that doctor stuff? You took stuff! You stole! I’m telling!”

“Shh! You can’t tell anybody, Stink, or we’ll get in trouble for stealing.”

“We? You mean
you’ll
get in trouble,” said Stink. “Are you crazy? Do you want to be famous for being the only third grader who ever went to jail?”

“Swear you won’t tell, Stink.”

“What will you give me?”

“I’ll let you look at real spit under my microscope.”

“Okay. I swear.”

“You swore!” said Judy. “I’m telling.”

As soon as Judy got home, she unloaded the backpack and spread the dolls out on her bottom bunk. She, Doctor Judy Moody, was in an operating mood. On her bed was a doll that didn’t talk or cry anymore, and one with no arms. There was a headless doll, and one that was bald.

First Judy gave each of the dolls a bath.

“I know just what I need,” said Judy. “Body parts!” She dug out her collection: long arms, skinny arms, brown legs, pink legs, middles with bellybuttons, one bare foot, a thing that looked like a neck, and all sorts of heads — small heads, fat heads, Barbie heads, bald heads! Judy emptied a whole bag of body parts onto her bed. “Rare!”

Judy glued a red wig with yarn braids onto the doll with no hair and gave another one arms that bent. Judy bent the arm back and forth, back and forth, to test it out. “Boo!” said the doll each time Judy lifted her arm.

“You don’t scare me!” Judy told the doll.

“And for you,” she said to the headless doll. “A new head!” From all the heads on her bed, Judy chose one with brown hair and green eyes.

“There you go,” said Judy, popping on the new head. But when she turned the doll upside down to put some shoes on her, the doll’s head flew off and bounced across the floor!

“Whoa!” said Judy, running after the head. “That won’t work. Let’s try this one. How would you like eyes that can close and open?” Judy twisted the new head onto the doll’s neck and waved her up, down, up, down through the air a few times to watch the eyes open and close.

“Voilà!” said Judy. She kissed the doll right on the nose.

Next she dressed each doll in a blue-and-white hospital gown she made from an old sheet, and gave each of them a paper bracelet printed with a name: Colby, Molly, Suzanna, Laura.

“Knock, knock,” called Stink, pounding on her door.

“Go away,” said Judy.

“Knock, knock!” said Stink.

“Who’s there?” said Judy.

“I, Stink,” said Stink.

“I Stink who?”

“I stink you should let me in your room,” said Stink, letting himself in anyway. He peeked behind the blanket hanging over the bottom bunk.

“Aaagh!”
he yelled, jumping back in shock. “Those dolls! The hospital — you stole! Those are . . . those aren’t . . . if Mom and Dad find out . . .”

“Stink, you
promised
you wouldn’t tell.”

“Yeah, but . . .”

Judy was making a tiny cast out of oogey wet newspaper. “Look, if you keep quiet, I’ll let you help me.”

“It’s a deal!” said Stink.

Stink and Judy finished putting the cast on one of the doll’s legs. When it dried, they painted it white and signed it with lots of made-up names. After that, they made a sling for another doll, with a scrap of cloth. On a different doll Doctor Judy put tattoo Band-Aids from her Band-Aid collection all over its legs, arms, and stomach.

“Double cool!” said Stink.

Last but not least was a rag doll made of cloth. Judy took a pink marker and drew a scar from the doll’s neck down to her bellybutton. Then she drew a red heart, broken in two. With black thread, she stitched the broken heart back together, hiding it under the doll’s hospital gown.

“Just like that girl Laura!” Stink said.

When she was finished, Judy propped up all the dolls in a row on her bottom bunk and stood back to admire her work. She set her own doll, Hedda-Get-Betta, next to them.

“Wow, you made them look really good!” said Stink.

A little later Judy packed all the dolls into a box and secretly mailed them back to the hospital. Without a return address, no one would ever know that she was the one who had stolen the dolls.

It’s like a real doll hospital,
thought Judy. She, Judy Moody, was on her way to being just like First Woman Doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell.

On Monday morning Mr. Todd asked, “Where’s Frank today?”

“Absent,” said Judy.

“Oh, that’s right. I heard that he broke his finger. Does anybody know how it happened?”

“It’s a looooooooooooooooooong story,” said Judy.

“As long as a centipede!” said Rocky.

“I heard Judy Moody stepped on him!” said Adam. “CRACK!” He bent his finger back like it was breaking.

“Okay, okay. We’ll ask Frank all about it when he gets back.”

“He’ll be back tomorrow,” Judy said.

Judy looked at the empty desk next to her. Without Frank, there was no one to snort at her jokes. Without Frank, she spelled
barnacle
with an
i
. Without Frank, she had nobody to tease about eating paste.

To make matters worse, all morning Jessica Finch kept inching her desk a little closer, a little closer to Judy.