NO ORDINARY OWL (17 page)

Siddy shifted the books to one hand and head-butted C.P., who seemed to accept this as a usual greeting.

Sidney repeated, “Good to see you. Thanks for coming. Good to see you. Thanks for coming.” Relief sounded in the scratchy high voice. He returned to the living room where the girls sat. Aneta and Sunny looked at her brother like he was the coolest thing they’d ever seen. Vee was regarding Siddy intently.
This is a mess
.

Setting down the books, Siddy picked up
Imogene Tries Out
. “Would you like me to read to you, Siddy?”

Esther squatted next to him. Nobody but C.P. knew her brother repeated what people said. Exactly. Someone, some day, had framed that question to Siddy, and now he used it for his way of asking people to read to
him
. This plan today had been
such
a bad idea. Putting her arm around him, she said gently, “No, Siddy.” Thinking it through, she began a phrase at a time. What would he repeat? “Esther wants Siddy to tell about Imogene.”

Thrusting the book at her, Siddy pranced to an empty chair and patted the empty space next to him. “Would you like me to read to you, Siddy?”

“Why don’t you just read it to him?” C.P. looked disgusted. He plopped in the chair with the younger boy and opened to the first page. “Hey, Imogene! Whatcha doing!” he read. Siddy repeated the words in a falsetto voice.

From where she’d flopped on the couch in between Sunny and Aneta, Esther traced a pattern on her jeans. “That’s how every story of
Hey, Imogene!
starts.”

“Shhh.” Aneta put her finger to her lips.

C.P. read
Imogene Tries Out
. Imogene wanted to try out for a cheerleading club. She brought her own pom-poms. The other girls told her they were silly because they were made of tissue paper. She yelled during the practice period. The other girls told her she was too loud. “Yelling helps me think!” she bellowed, pushing at the Band-Aid.

After the first reading, Siddy and C.P. acted out the book. That was pretty funny, and for several minutes, Esther forgot about their goal. The girls left C.P. reading
Imogene Fixes Everything
and thudded down the stairs to Esther’s bedroom. Esther was in despair. This whole Imogene thing had been a big nothing.

All four of them flopped across Esther’s bed and hung their heads and arms over the side. For a moment, the only sounds were the dishwasher upstairs rumbling the ceiling in Esther’s bedroom. Then Aneta raised her hand like she was in school.

“Imogene is different.” Aneta’s voice was muffled between her hair and the side of the mattress. “Like the Squad.”

“She’s loud.” Sunny began to kick her legs and move her arms like she was swimming. “Like us.”

“She doesn’t give up.” Vee lay perfectly still. “Like us.”

“She had great ideas.” Esther thought about the tissue paper pom-poms. “Like us.”

So what would Imogene do?

Silence.

Oh!
“There’s always a clue,” as Imogene said.

She would think on it overnight.

It could work. They’d be back living the yayness.

“No,” Vee said flatly after hearing the plan the next day. “No way.” They were in their library place. Nadine was absent from her desk.

“Tissue paper?” Aneta looked like she’d been given a great Christmas present. “That is fun!”

“Be loud? Jump around? I’m in!” Sunny spun and danced her way down the aisle in the stacks and back again.

“Aw, Vee, it’s for the birds.” Sunny sidled up to the taller girl and slid an arm around her shoulder.

“You got that right. Do I look like a—one of
those?
I don’t think so.” Vee crossed her arms over her chest.

She had a point. In all their adventures, Esther, Sunny, and even quiet-voiced Aneta yelled. Vee did not yell.

Esther pulled a sorrowful face. “We need four to do it.”

Aneta sighed and stuck out her bottom lip. “The S.A.V.E. Squad is so good about taking
opportunities.”

Everyone but Vee thought this was hysterical. It took Esther several minutes to get them back to a serious discussion.

Sunny removed her arm from around Vee and stood over Esther, and Aneta sat on the floor. Chewing on one finger and frowning, the redhead appeared deep in thought. “Yeah, I guess we’ll have to ask Melissa to help us.”

Vee’s choked snort of laughter told Esther everything would be all right.

Surprise!

O
n Saturday, Esther awoke before her alarm. Holding her breath, she listened. No patter of raindrops on the patio outside one of her bedroom windows. Her last words before bed had been a prayer that the weather would be, in Sunny words:
rocko-socko
and
complete yayness
. If it rained, it would ruin everything. “Oh thank You, God. You like owls as well as sparrows, don’t You?”

After making her bed, taking her dirty clothes down to the laundry room, eating breakfast, and helping Siddy with his, she reported to her mother who was rummaging around in the hall closet.

“Did you find it?”

Her mother emerged, clutching brightly colored material. “Yes! I have several colors, and here’s kitchen twine. I think there are only two pairs of scissors in the kitchen desk drawer. Can the girls bring their own?”

Esther called the girls and was reassured that everyone had scissors and they would bring them. Within the hour, the girls arrived and gathered around the dining table.

“I cannot believe I am doing this.” Vee looked disgusted, as if the Squad were making roadkill cupcakes for Howard. Forty-five minutes later, they were finished and rather pleased with themselves—at least Sunny, Aneta, and Esther were. They did a couple of practice runs. Esther’s mom thought they were quite funny and said if they pulled that stunt in front of
her
black-iron gate, she would definitely let them in.

“I did call Beverly Beake to let her know you girls would be outside the gate. This way, she’ll make Byron go with her on some errand so he’ll be outside the fence and see you.”

Vee groaned. “He can’t miss us.” She looked at what she was holding and gushed out a breath. “I’m glad there’s not going to be any pictures.”

Outside the gate, Aneta turned a face tinged pink with morning chill toward Esther. “I think he is not coming.”

“He’ll be here. The Bird Lady said she’d make sure.” Esther made herself sound confident. What if Beverly couldn’t make her brother do what she wanted? That even happened to Esther sometimes.

“Maybe he said no and shut himself in the carriage house.” Sunny hopped up and down to warm herself.

“He
better
come if I’m going to look like an idiot for the owls.” Vee frowned and adjusted her hair.

Her mom had parked the van under the tree outside the gate where it all started. She stepped out. “You girls can come in. I’ve got the heat on.”

“We don’t want to miss being ready, Mom,” Esther said.

“But thanks, Mrs. Martin,” Vee said.

Esther turned and threw a blazing smile at her mother. “You’re the best, Mom. Thanks for driving us and waiting with us.”

“This time of year, you never know when it’s going to pour, and well, you know that tissue paper…”

“Yeah, it would have been toast,” Sunny finished for her.

“He’s coming!” Aneta sang out. “I see the truck down the road!”

“Go, girls!” Esther’s mother called.

They lined up across the gate, making it impossible for the truck to get through without running them over. Esther stepped out of line and inspected her troops. Sunny and Aneta were rustling their pom-poms. Sunny had red, and Aneta had blue.

“I can’t believe I’m holding pom-poms.” Disdain dripped from each word Vee spit out. She gave each one a shake. Hers were purple. So were the ribbons on her pigtails. That had been a battle.

“You look like a real cheerleader, Vee, except you have to yell loud and smile.” Esther sucked in her cheeks so she wouldn’t bust out laughing. She punched up with her neon-pink pom-poms. “My mom is a genius, helping us make pom-poms out of tissue paper.”

“Closer, closer.” Sunny was watching the truck approach.

When it had nearly reached the turn for the driveway, it screeched to a halt.

“Start jumping up and down. The Bird Lady will make him keep coming!” she said, beginning some jumping jacks and waving the pom-poms. Vee muttered something and did a move that made her look like she was cross-country skiing on land. Her pom-poms fluttered in the light breeze that kicked up. The truck turned into the driveway, and the girls were backed against the gate. For a long moment, neither door opened, and then Beverly Beake emerged from the passenger side, looking like she was enjoying a very good joke. Byron remained behind the steering wheel.

Okay. If Byron Beake wasn’t coming out, then they would go to him. Esther raised her hands to her hips. The pom-poms rustled. “Follow me!” she cried and trotted to the driver’s side of the truck. Standing about six feet away, she pasted a big smile on her face and shook the pom-poms. The line of Squaders stood straight and looked at Esther expectantly.

The door creaked open, and Byron stepped out. His face behind the mask was smooth, unreadable as always. “What.”

This was it. She raised the pom-poms above her head and shouted, “One, two!”

The other three responded with such a roar it startled her. “Three, four!”

Together, with mighty Squad power, they chanted, “Yay, rah, ray!”

Vee, with a considerable shove from Sunny, staggered forward and yelled, “Let us in today!” She backed into line again, her rare smile flashing across her face.

I think she likes this
.

Girls: “Yay, rah, ree!”

Aneta pirouetted out, pom-poms high, and hollered, “We’ll be safe, you’ll see!”

After she darted back, the girls took a collective breath and then shouted, “Yay, rah, reek!”

Sunny, spinning wildly so the pom-poms looked like liquid color, shrieked, “We’ll help you, Mr. Beake!”

Byron’s mouth was twitching now. He’d come all the way out of the truck and was leaning against the side, arms folded.

Girls: “Yay, rah, rye!”

Esther leaped forward, knelt on one knee, and shook the pom-poms in Byron’s direction. “Please let us watch them fly!”

If she said so herself, it was her best bellow ever. Then she hopped back to the line and waited with the girls. Had it worked?

Byron stepped to the front of the truck, grinning at his sister who was chuckling. “Sister, do you want to tell them or should I?”