7
" Wallace, Joseph, Joshua, and Peter!” yelled Mother, and she sounded like a drill sergeant.
She sounded like a drill sergeant who had just discovered that someone had made off with a pumpkin chiffon pie. A pumpkin chiffon pie made by somebody’s own hands from a recipe of someone’s great-aunt Minna.
The boys moved reluctantly into the hall from the living room and stood with feet poised as though ready to run the other way.
“What,” said Mrs. Hatford slowly, taking off her sweater, “happened to a certain pumpkin chiffon pie baked by Mrs. Malloy and delivered to our very door a month ago?”
Peter looked at Wally, Wally at Josh, Josh at Jake, and Jake looked down at his knees. “We ate it,” he said.
“Ate it? All of it? The four of you?”
The boys nodded, all four of them.
“Why? Why didn’t you save any for dinner? Why did you go out and buy a pie from Ethel’s Bakery, and try to make me think that was the pie Mrs. Malloy sent? I even thanked her for a bakery pie! I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.” She looked sternly at the boys. “Jake? . . . Josh? . . . Wally . . . ?”
Wally couldn’t stand it any longer. “We destroyed it,” he said.
Mother continued to stare. “I can’t believe this.”
“We were looking for dog doo,” added Peter.
“What?” cried Mother. “Have you boys gone stark raving mad?”
“We thought the girls might have baked the pie and put something awful in it,” muttered Josh.
“Why would those three sweet girls do something like that?”
“Easy,” cried Jake. “Very easy. I could see the Malloy girls doing about anything you could think of.”
“Sweet? Ha!” said Josh.
“Remember,” Wally reminded her, “they threw your cake in the river.”
Mrs. Hatford shook her head. “That I don’t understand at all. Something must have happened to make them do that. What did they think was possibly inside that box?”
“Dead birds,” said Peter.
“What?”
“Ellen, quit while you’re ahead,” Mr. Hatford said from the dining room, gobbling down his lunch before he delivered the afternoon mail. “The more you ask, the more they’ll tell you, and the more you find out, the more upset you’re going to be. "
― Phyllis Reynolds Naylor , Boys Against Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #3)
8
" What do you think this means?” Mrs. Hatford asked her husband at dinner.
“I think somebody’s large dog is loose, and an awful lot of folks are letting their imaginations run away with them,” said Mr. Hatford.
“If there is a creature like that running around Tom, we ought to be awfully careful about leaving our doors and windows unlocked,” said Mother.
“Ellen, if there is a creature like that around Buckman, it’s a creature, not a human,” said her husband. “It’s not as though it’s going around opening windows. "
― Phyllis Reynolds Naylor , Boys Against Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #3)
9
" Or maybe she would get up and go lock the door, but meanwhile, unknown to her, the abaguchie had crept around and come in the back, so that when she was locking the side door, the abaguchie crept up behind her, grabbed her by the throat and . . .
Caroline made gurgling, choking sounds.
“Are you all right, Caroline?” asked her father. “Drink a little juice.”
“I was attacked,” said Caroline, breathing heavily.
“By what?” asked Mother.
“An abaguchie came in and grabbed me by the throat.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Caroline!” said Mother.
“I just wanted to know what it would feel like if one did get in the house, and did creep up behind me, and did put its claws around my neck,” Caroline said.
“If that happened, my dear, you would not make another sound for the rest of your life,” said her father. “If you would like to practice not making another sound for the rest of the morning, I wouldn’t mind at all. "
― Phyllis Reynolds Naylor , Boys Against Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #3)
12
" You boys waiting for somebody?” he asked.
“No, uh . . . we’re trying to decide what to buy,” Wally said, because neither Jake nor Josh said a word, and Peter had wandered off to look for Matchbox cars on the toy rack.
“Maybe I can help,” said the pharmacist.
Wall desperately focused on the women’s socks and underwear, and just as quickly turned his attention to the Ace bandages.
“I was sort of looking for a knee bandage,” he said.
“An elastic knee sleeve? For yourself? Well, let’s measure you and see,” Mr. Larkin said.
Wally exchanged horrified looks with Josh and Jake. He didn’t have any money with him, and even if he had, he wouldn’t spend it on an elastic knee sleeve. "
― Phyllis Reynolds Naylor , Boys Against Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #3)
13
" Wally? Have you seen her?”
“At-at school,” said Wally.
“And you haven’t seen her since?”
“Maybe I did see her downtown, walking along the street.” Wally turned to his brothers. “Did we see Caroline on Main Street?”
“Yeah, I think that was her walking toward Oldakers’.”
Mother glanced over at Peter, who was sitting with his lips pressed tightly together, staring down at the table.
“Did you see her, Peter?”
He shook his head, lips pressed even tighter.
“You didn’t see Caroline Malloy at all?”
“If they saw her, I saw her,” Peter said.
Mother let out her breath. “There are times I think I have the strangest children in West Virginia,” she told them, and then, into the receiver, “They seem to think they might have seen Caroline on Main Street near Oldakers’. "
― Phyllis Reynolds Naylor , Boys Against Girls (Boy/Girl Battle, #3)
