Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great (2 page)

   
"Oh, Father . . . oh, Mother!" Libby cried.

   
"I wanted to go to Disneyland," I said.

   
"We told you that was out of the question," Mom said.

   
"I know. But I still wanted to go."

   
"In Tarrytown you can have your own bedroom, Daddy said.

   
"I can?"

   
"Yes. There are four bedrooms in Professor Egrãn's house."

   
I thought that over.
My own bedroom
. That sounded pretty good.

   
"And you can learn to swim," Mom said.

   
"I don't want to learn to swim," I told her.

   
"We'll see," she said. "We don't have to decide now.,'

   
"Can my bedroom be far away from Libby's?"

   
"We'll see about that too," Mom said. "Now finish your string beans."

   
The next day I told Peter Hatcher, "I'm going away for the whole summer. i'm going to have my own bedroom."

   
"Goody for you!" he said.

   
"So you don't have to wash your dog. Because I won't be around to tell you how bad he smells!"

   
"My dog said to tell you he thinks you smell too," Peter said. Then he went off with Jimmy Fargo and they both laughed and laughed. They think they're so funny! I don't know why I used to waste my time playing "cooties" with them. Maybe next year I'll get lucky. Maybe Peter Hatcher and Jimmy Fargo won't be in my fifth-grade class.

   
I met Mrs. Reese in the hall. "I'm going away for the whole summer," I said. "I'm going to have my own bedroom, with flowered wallpaper and frilly curtains and little lamps shaped like candles."

   
And she said, "Aren't you lucky! Baby would like to go away too, but he doesn't have any place to go."

   
I told Henry I'd be away for two whole months. "I'm going to sleep in my own bedroom, in my own canopy bed!"

   
Henry said, "I'll really miss you, Sheila. Who's going to remind me how many people the elevator can hold?"

   
Henry and I laughed together. "And did I tell you about the rug on my bedroom floor?" I asked.

   
"No," Henry said. "You didn't mention that."

   
"Well, it's very soft and fluffy and it's all yellow except for a big red rose right in the center. It feels so good on your feet you never have to wear slippers. Not all summer long."

   
"That sounds mighty nice, Sheila."

   
I thought so too. The more I talked about it the better it sounded. Spending the summer in the country. Spending the summer in Tarrytown. Spending the summer in a house. Spending the summer in my own beautiful bedroom!

   
It started to sound almost as good as going to Disneyland. I didn't even mind the packing and the ride to Tarrytown. I couldn't wait to see the house. I couldn't wait to see my bedroom.

   
And then I found out about Jennifer.

   
JENNIFER is small with brown and white spots and long ears. When Libby saw her she cried, "Oh, what an adorable dog!"

   
"She comes with the house," Daddy said. "She belongs to Professor Egran and she's ours for the slimmer."

   
"I'm going back to the car," I said.

   
Daddy held my arm. "She can't hurt you."

   
"Oh sure," I said, pulling away from him. "But I'll just wait in the car until you decide what to do with her. Because
I'm
not staying here if
she
does!" I ran down to the road, jumped into our car, and started to shake. How could they do this to me? Their own child. Their own younger daughter. Didn't they understand? Didn't they care?

   
Daddy and Mom hurried to the car. Mom stuck her head in the open window. "Sheila," she said, "Jennifer is very small. She's more afraid of you than you are of her."

   
"Did she tell you that?" I asked.

   
Daddy said, "She's got a doghouse and a fenced-in area. She's chained up. You don't have to go near her."

   
"Suppose she gets away?" I asked. "Suppose her chain breaks?"

   
"That won't happen," Daddy said. "But even if it did, someone would catch her."

   
"You're just saying that!" I told Daddy. "But you don't mean it."

   
"Have we ever lied to you?" Mom asked.

   
"Well. . . no."

   
"Then trust us," Daddy said.

 
  
I looked out the car window. Libby was cuddling Jennifer. "You promise she'll never come into the house?"

   
"I promise," Daddy said. "She's got everything she needs outside."

   
"And you won't make me go near her?"

   
"Of course not," Mom said. "You can even pretend she's not there if you want."

   
"And you won't make fun of me?"

   
"Do we ever make fun of you?" Daddy asked.

   
"Libby does," I said.

   
"We'll see that she doesn't," Mom promised.

   
"Now, don't you want to come into the house and see your very own bedroom?" Daddy asked.

   
"Well . . . I guess so," I said, getting out of the car.

   
We walked up the front lawn to the house. Libby was still holding Jennifer. When Jennifer saw me coming she jumped off Libby's lap. She barked and barked.

   
"You see!" I cried, turning around, ready to run back to the car. "She hates me already!"

   
"Don't be silly," Daddy said. He took my hand.

   
"I'm not being silly. Why else would she bark like that?"

   
"Because she doesn't know you," Mom said, putting an arm around me.

   
"And she's never going to, either. I'll tell you that!"

   
We went into the house. The downstairs looked pretty nice, but I wanted to see my bedroom. So Daddy and I went upstairs while Libby and Mom poked around in the kitchen.

   
Daddy turned right at the top of the stairs and walked down the hall. "Two of the bedrooms are this way and the other two are that way," Daddy said, pointing. "Since you wanted to be far away from Libby I thought you might like this one." Daddy pushed open a door and smiled.

   
I went in. The first thing I saw was the dresser. It was piled with models of planes, boats, and cars. And the walls were full of team pennants. There wasn't even a bedspread on the bed. Just an ugly old gray blanket with
CAMP KENABEC
printed across it. I opened the closet door. The shelves were loaded with sports equipment. And where was my soft, fluffy, yellow rug with the big rose in the middle? No place. The floor was bare!

   
Daddy said, "Well. . . . "

   
"I hate it!" I shouted, running out of the room, past Daddy, and down the hail. I looked into the other bedrooms. But they were all the same.

   
"They're all boys' rooms!" I cried.

   
Daddy followed me and said, "Well, of course they are. Professor Egran has three sons."

   
When I heard that I got so mad I kicked a closet door and made a mark on it. Mom came upstairs then and said that wasn't a very nice thing to do in somebody else's house. Maybe it wasn't, but I didn't care.

   
Libby wasn't disappointed when she saw her bedroom. She doesn't mind having a boy's room. She loves it! She says it makes her feel very close to Professor Egran's fifteen-year-old son. Daddy says my room belongs to his twelve-year-old son. But if I hate it that much I can have the room which belongs to his three-year-old son, even though it's much smaller. I told him, "No thank you. I'd rather sleep in a twelve-year-old's room than one that belongs to a baby."

   
Mom said if we hurried and unpacked we could go for a ride around Tarrytown. So I went to my room and put my clothes away. When I opened the desk drawers I found six tubes of Testor's glue, twenty-seven bottles of model paint, and a note. It said:

   
WARNING TO WHOEVER USES THIS ROOM.

   
I HATE GIRLS! SO IF YOU ARE ONE LOOK OUT!

   
AND IF YOU TOUCH ANY OF MY MODELS I WILL

   
GET YOU SOMEDAY!!!

   
B.E.

   
"Ha ha ha," I said, ripping the note into tiny pieces.

   
After supper Daddy drove us around Tarrytown. It is a very hilly place. When you get up high you can look down and see the Hudson River. Of course you can also see it right in New York City. When I was younger I used to climb to the top of the jungle gym and look out at it. There is something about the Hudson River that makes me feel good, even if it is poiluted.

   
When we came home I got ready for bed. Before I climbed in I looked out my window. And what was right underneath my room?
Jennifer
. That dumb old dog! She looked up at me and barked. I barked right back at her. I knew we should have gone to Disneyland.

   
I GOT into bed. My room was very dark. I'm not used to sleeping all by myself in the dark. I closed my eyes but nothing happened. So I got out of bed and turned on the light. That was a little better. Soon the house was quiet. I knew everyone else was sound asleep. I tossed around for a while. Then I tried lying on my back. I looked up at the ceiling. I tried to think of something funny. Something that would give me a good dream.

   
That's when I saw the spider. He was running across my ceiling. I hate spiders! One time Peter Hatcher put a fake spider in my desk at school. When I took out my English book, there it was. But I knew it was a phony right away. So I held it by one leg and took it up to Mrs. Haver. "Just look what Peter Hatcher put inside my desk," I said, shaking the spider.

   
Mrs. Haver screamed so loud she scared the whole class. And Peter Hatcher had to stay after school for three days!

   
I looked at my ceiling again. The spider was still there and
this
one was no phony. "Go away spider!" I whispered. "Please go away and don't come back." But the spider didn't move. He was right over my head. Suppose he falls on me, I thought. Suppose he's the poisonous kind and when he falls he bites me. Maybe I should put my head under the covers. Then if he falls on me it won't matter. No, that's no good either. He could crawl inside the covers and get me anyway. I could just picture Peter Hatcher telling the kids at school,
Did you hear about Sheila Tubman? She got bitten by a poisonous spider on her first night in Tarrytown. In twenty seconds she was dead!