Super Duper Pee Wee! (5 page)

“Would you like to come on a bike ride with us?” she asked sweetly. “We could ride by the grocery store and stuff.”

“Why would I want to ride with you guys?” Roger asked.

“Come down to the creek with us,” said Mary Beth. “We can dig for some night crawlers and sell them.”

Molly looked at her friend in surprise. Mary Beth hated worms! She was really going all out to get Roger on their side!

Roger looked like he had a lightbulb over
his head. “Ho
ho
!” he said. “I get it! You guys are trying to trick me into something!”

How could he know? thought Molly.

“Which one of you likes me?” Roger stood up with a big grin on his face. “Which one of you guys wants to be my girlfriend?”

So Roger didn’t know about her aunt. He thought it was him they were after! If they said, “Not in your
dreams
, mister!” Roger would be mad again. If they said one of them did like him, he would spread it all over town that one of them wanted to be his girlfriend!

“We just want to be friends,” said Mary Beth. “I mean, all three of us.”

Roger stopped carving the tree and sat down on his front steps.

The girls sat down too. Roger didn’t shove them off.

“It’s hot out,” said Mary Beth. “A good day for a barbecue.”

“I might stop at the grocery store on the
way home and get some hot dogs,” said Molly. “What is the closest grocery store around here, Roger?”

“What’s all this grocery store stuff?” asked Roger. “We go to Maxwell’s. Down on Main Street.”

Molly took her little notebook from her jacket pocket and wrote down “Maxwell’s. Main Street.”

“And when do you shop?” asked Mary Beth.

“My dad gets stuff on his way home from work,” said Roger. “He gets these great big steaks, this thick!”

Roger held his fingers apart about three inches and made loud chewing noises with his mouth.

Leave it to Roger to want to eat poor friendly cows, thought Molly.

“Every night?” said Mary Beth. “Does he stop and get steaks every night?”

Roger shrugged. “Some nights he gets a
great big fish,” he said. Now Roger was casting an imaginary fish line out into the yard.

Mary Beth was getting impatient. She stood up with her hands on her hips and said, “What day and time does your dad go grocery shopping?”

“What’s it to you?” shouted Roger, going into his house and slamming the screen door. “You guys are nuts, do you know that?”

The girls got on their bikes and rode toward home.

“Well, we know what store,” said Mary Beth. “We’ll just have to hang around and watch for his dad.”

“But how are we going to get my aunt down there?” asked Molly.

“Sales!” said Mary Beth. “We’ll clip coupons. Does your aunt like mushrooms? Room freshener?”

Molly sighed. Getting a husband for
Marie was so much work, she should get a badge for it!

Her problems were not going away.

Her aunt.

Her mother.

Her father.

Her pen pal.

Her badge.

When would something good happen?

When Molly got home, something did!

“Y
ou have some mail,” said Auntie Ree when Molly got in the house.

Auntie Ree held up a letter. A fat one. It had Molly’s name on it.

Molly took the letter and ran up to her room. The postmark on the envelope said Golden Grove! Her pen pal had written to her! She did have a pen pal after all! Even if it was a boy. She might get that badge after all.

Something smelled like lilacs. Molly
sniffed the air. It was coming from the envelope! Did Lyle use perfumed stationery?

Molly took her little letter opener from her desk and slit the envelope. She unfolded the big, thick letter. It was on several sheets of notebook paper, and the handwriting was big with lots of loops.

Then she had a long row of
x
’s and
o
’s across the bottom of the page.

Molly couldn’t believe her eyes! Her pen pal was a girl! She was an only child and had a dog and she wanted to be Molly’s friend! It was too good to be true! And her letter was
long
! Longer than Molly’s. Longer than even Heather’s!

But the biggest surprise was that her parents were divorced and Kyle felt okay about it! Molly had never thought that something so awful could happen and you could still be a happy family and go to school and write to pen pals and have a dog.

Molly got out a sheet of school paper instead of her flowered stationery. She needed more room to write this time. She started writing and before long she had filled both sides of the paper. She told Kyle all about her friends and Skippy and her aunt and Mr. White and all about her worries that her parents could be getting a divorce too.

When she finished, she felt good. Very good. She had needed to tell someone all those things. And if Kyle liked having two homes better than one, maybe a divorce wasn’t so bad. Molly hoped (if her parents did divorce) that her dad would move to California. The beach sounded like a lot of fun. Molly could take an airplane to see him
and eat dinner out of those little trays way up high in the sky! Her dad would be waiting at the airport for her. She could see him now looking at the crowd for Molly, worrying that she might be lost. Then he would see her and get that big smile on his face and sweep her up into his arms, and she’d give him a big, big hug! He’d show her his new house and the city and the ocean. Maybe she could even meet Kyle and her dad.

And then when she was really lonely for home and her mother and the Pee Wees, she’d get on another plane and fly back to her own little room! Maybe Kyle even had two rooms of her own! One in each house.

Molly had been so lost in thought that she jumped when her father knocked at her door. She almost said, “I thought you were in California!” Molly had better get over this daydreaming. Her imagination had run away with her again. Her mother said she
had the wildest imagination of anyone she knew!

“Dinnertime!” said her dad. He didn’t mention California.

After dinner Molly sealed the letter to
Kyle and went to the mailbox to mail it. She couldn’t wait to get another letter back! Rat’s knees, getting this badge was fun!

On Tuesday Molly read her letter from Kyle out loud at the Pee Wee Scout meeting. But if she and Kyle told secrets in their letters, she wouldn’t read them out loud. They would be private. Molly would keep Kyle’s letters in the fancy candy box from Valentine’s Day. It was big and red and had a bow pasted right onto it. It was a perfect pen pal box.

Almost all the Pee Wees had a letter now.

Tim had a letter. And in the letter were two baseball cards.

“Hey, I think those guys are worth money!” said Kevin.

The Pee Wees looked envious of Tim. No one else got presents in their letters.

“I wonder why Tim got those,” said Lisa. “Maybe he asked for them.”

Molly shook her head.

“Tim is shy,” she said. “He’d never do that.”

“I’m so glad to see you are all enjoying getting this badge so much,” said Mrs. Peters. “I knew it would be a fun badge to earn!”

Some of the Pee Wees groaned. They pretended it wasn’t fun.

Mrs. Peters had a new map game to play. You had to draw cards to tell you how many spaces to move your little car. Whoever got to Golden Grove first, won. But some cards said, “Flat tire, go back three spaces” or “Detour six spaces.” There were roadblocks and stop signs and “out of gas” stops.

“This is just like all those kid games, like Chutes and Ladders and Sorry! and Parcheesi,” said Tracy.

“Yeah!” shouted Roger, moving his race car into Golden Grove. “I won!”

“You cheated!” shouted Ashley. “I saw you move when it was Tracy’s turn!”

“He did,” said Patty. “I saw him.”

Molly noticed Rachel didn’t have much to say.

Tim and Jody won the next games, and then it was time for cupcakes and good deeds and the pledge and song.

“Before long, we will get our badges!” said Mrs. Peters.

“Yeah!” shouted all the Pee Wees.

“Roger better hurry up and write a letter,” said Patty.

On the way home, Mary Beth said, “I’ve got a plan for your aunt and Roger’s dad.”

Molly had been so excited about writing to Kyle that she had forgotten about Auntie Ree! But she did want her room back. Especially now that she would be writing private letters she didn’t want anyone else to read. Her aunt might be looking for a pencil or a safety pin and pull open her drawer and find her candy box! Molly might write to Kyle about divorces and Roger’s dad.

No, Auntie Ree couldn’t stay forever. She was lucky to have Mary Beth for a friend. Mary Beth had a plan. And before long, Auntie Ree would be Mrs. White and in a home of her own!

T
he girls sat down on Mary Beth’s front steps.

“This is my plan,” said Mary Beth. “I go down to Maxwell’s and watch for Mr. White around suppertime. When he comes, I’ll call you from their phone and you get your aunt down there as fast as you can.”

“But what if my aunt won’t come with me?” asked Molly.

Mary Beth waved her statement away with her hand. “Tell her it’s an emergency,” she said. “Tell her there’s a fire you have to see, or you need a Popsicle right away. Now I’m going down there right now and hang out. You go home and wait for my call.”

Mary Beth set off to the market, and Molly went home to wait. Her aunt came in, then her mom and dad.

“Are you busy tonight, Auntie Ree?” asked Molly.

“Nope,” said her aunt. “Do you have something exciting for us to do?”

This was going to be easier than she thought! Molly
had
something exciting to do (what was more exciting than meeting the man she’d marry?), and her aunt was free and willing to go with her! Rat’s knees, Mary Beth was smart!

“Maybe,” said Molly. “I’m expecting a phone call.”

“How mysterious,” said Mr. Duff, setting the table.

Soon they all sat down to eat, but there was no phone call.

They finished their apple pie, and still no phone call.

They did the dishes and put them away and went in the living room to watch TV. Still there was no phone call.