Main Street #8: Special Delivery Read online

  The author would like to congratulate

  Matalyn Lund, winner of the 2007

  Main Street Contest and creator of

  Maty’s Magic Store, the newest

  business on Main Street.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Map

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 Sunday Morning, November 22nd

  Chapter 2 Sunday Afternoon, November 22nd

  Chapter 3 Sunday Afternoon, November 22nd

  Chapter 4 Monday, November 23rd

  Chapter 5 Tuesday Afternoon, November 24th

  Chapter 6 Wednesday Afternoon, November 25th

  Chapter 7 Wednesday Afternoon, November 25th

  Chapter 8 Wednesday Afternoon and Evening, November 25th

  Chapter 9 Thanksgiving Morning, November 26th

  Chapter 10 Thanksgiving Morning, November 26th

  Chapter 11 Thanksgiving Morning, November 26th

  Chapter 12 Thanksgiving Afternoon, November 26th

  Chapter 13 Thanksgiving Afternoon, November 26th

  Chapter 14 Thanksgiving Evening, November 26th

  Chapter 15 Friday Morning, November 27th

  Chapter 16 Friday, November 27th

  Chapter 17 Saturday Evening, November 28th

  Chapter 18 Sunday Morning, November 29th

  Chapter 19 Sunday, November 29th

  Chapter 20 December

  Chapter 21 A Peek in the Windows

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Flora Marie Northrop lay in her cozy bed in her cozy home in Camden Falls, Massachusetts, and reflected that there was nothing quite like a Sunday morning. Except maybe for a Saturday morning, but Flora’s Saturday had been busy. She and her sister and their friends had spent much of the day at Bingham Mall (without adults — the first time for all four of them), and she had gotten out of bed early that morning in a great rush of excitement. Now, on Sunday, she lay contentedly under her comforter, wriggling her toes in the delicious warmth, her hand caressing her cat, King Comma, who had crawled under the covers sometime during the night and hadn’t stirred since.

  Flora yawned mightily. She lifted the covers and peered in at King. “I’m surprised you aren’t meowing for your breakfast,” she said to him. But then she squinted at her clock and saw that it was only seven-thirty — which was why she was very surprised to hear the doorbell ring just a few moments later. “Who on earth could that be?” she asked aloud. She raised her shade and looked out onto the front lawn. She couldn’t see who might be standing on the stoop below, but she thought that the car parked in front of her house belonged to Aunt Allie.

  Curious, Flora slid out of bed, leaving King purring in his snug cave, and hurried out of her room. She met her grandmother Min in the hallway. Min was tying the sash of her ancient bathrobe and trying to pat her hair in place at the same time.

  “It’s Aunt Allie,” said Flora. “At least, I think it’s her car parked in the street.”

  “Goodness me,” said Min. “I hope nothing’s wrong.”

  Flora was certain her grandmother was remembering the night nearly two years earlier when she had received a phone call from the police saying that Flora and her sister, Ruby, and their parents had been in a car accident, and that Mr. and Mrs. Northrop had died. One phone call, one ring of the doorbell, and lives could be changed in unthinkable ways.

  Flora rushed ahead of Min down the stairs, but Min said, “Let me answer the door,” and peeked cautiously through the front window. “My stars and garters, it is Allie,” she said. She flung open the door. “Allie? What’s the matter? Has something happened?”

  Flora could tell from the smile — no, the grin — on her aunt’s face that nothing was the matter, and that whatever had happened was very good.

  Allie closed the door in a hurry, but a gust of cold air burst inside anyway, and Flora shivered. “I’m sorry,” said Allie. “I’m sorry to come over so early, but I waited as long as I could —” She stopped suddenly, put her hand to her mouth as if she might begin to sob, and then grinned again. She drew in a breath. “Is Ruby up yet? I have something important to say, and I want to say it to all of you at once.”

  Flora, now dying of curiosity, hurled herself up the stairs, calling over her shoulder, “I don’t know if she’s awake yet, but I’ll get her.” She left her aunt and her grandmother behind, Allie shrugging out of her heavy coat, and Min saying, “I’ll put on a pot of coffee.”

  Flora knocked on Ruby’s door, waited less than a second for an answer (which was not forthcoming), and then threw the door open. “Ruby!” she cried.

  Still no answer.

  “Ruby Jane!”

  “I’m sleeping,” said Ruby from beneath her own comforter.

  “No, you’re not. You’re talking to me. You have to come downstairs right now. Aunt Allie is here and she says she has something important to tell us.” When Ruby said nothing, Flora added, “It’s a big mystery.”

  “What time is it?” muttered Ruby.

  “Seven-thirty-three,” Flora replied instantly.

  “That’s too early.”

  “That’s what makes this a mystery. Come on. First Aunt Allie was smiling, then she almost cried, and then she started smiling again. Something’s going on. And she won’t tell us what it is until we’re all there.”

  “That’s blackmail,” said Ruby.

  “Maybe she won the lottery,” suggested Flora.

  Ruby flung her covers back. “Huh. And she wants to share her winnings with us. Okay.” She found a sweatshirt swirled in a mound of clothes at the foot of her bed and pulled it on over her nightgown. “We do have interesting lives. First we became orphans, now we’re going to be rich orphans.”

  “I hardly think —” Flora began to say, and then stopped. Arguing with Ruby was usually pointless, just one of the many ways in which she and her sister were different. Ruby, ten years old and in fifth grade at Camden Falls Elementary, was stubborn and talkative and overly confident. Her life revolved around performing — singing, acting, and dancing (she was a triple threat, she had once told Flora with great assurance) — and she liked nothing better than being the center of attention. Flora, twelve and a seventh-grader at Camden Falls Central High School, was quiet, shy, craved time spent alone in her room, lived in fear of being the center of attention, and engaged in activities that were as quiet as she was — sewing, knitting, reading, and attending to her homework. Flora was responsible and studious and usually at the top of her class. Ruby was impulsive and hasty and paid little attention to her grades. She gave Min a run for her money. (Flora had overheard her grandmother say this to Allie one day, which had made Flora even more aware of all that Min had given up in order to take care of her daughter’s daughters, more aware of everything that had changed in Min’s life as well as in Flora’s and Ruby’s in the last two years.)

  “Hey, space cadet!” called Ruby rudely from her doorway. “I thought you said Aunt Allie won’t tell us whatever it is until we’re all downstairs. Let’s get going.”

  Flora shook herself from her thoughts and followed her sister to the living room. Min and Allie were sitting side by side on the couch, Daisy Dear stretched languidly between them, her big doggie head in Min’s lap, her rump in Allie’s lap. Flora could smell coffee brewing.

  “Oh!” said Allie when she caught sight of the girls, and Flora had the feeling once again that her aunt might start to cry. “Ruby, thank you for getting up early, honey. I have something to tell you, all three of you. I wanted to tell you last night, but” (Allie turned to her mother) “I knew you were out with Rudy Pennington.”

  Flora tried hard not to scowl. Exactly how of
ten did her grandmother plan to go out on dates with Mr. Pennington? So much dating at their advanced age was unseemly.

  Allie folded her hands in her lap. “I have big news,” she announced.

  “Yes.” Ruby nodded solemnly. “The lottery. We know.”

  Allie looked puzzled, and Flora elbowed her sister, then pulled her down until they were squished together in an armchair. Aunt Allie clasped and unclasped her hands, looked in turn at Min, at Ruby, at Flora, and finally said, “I’m going to be a mother.”

  “What?” said Flora and Ruby.

  “What?!” cried Min with such fervor that she levitated from the couch, dislodging Daisy’s head.

  “I thought you were supposed to be married if you were going to have a baby,” added Ruby.

  And Flora thought, but was too polite to say, that her aunt — her mother’s sister who had never, ever been married — was too old to get pregnant in any case.

  “No, no,” said Allie quickly. “I mean I’m going to adopt a baby. I just found out that one is about to be born and I’ve been chosen to be the adoptive mom.”

  “But,” said Min, who had plopped back onto the couch, “how did this happen? This is so sudden. You never said anything …” Her voice trailed off.

  Allie sighed. “I know. It’s silly, but I was afraid if I told anyone what I was doing I’d jinx things and then I would never get a call like the one I got last night. It was from a woman — her name is Mrs. Prescott — at one of the agencies I registered with.”

  “One of the agencies?” repeated Min.

  “I’ve been looking for a long time,” said Allie. “I want to be a mom — it’s almost all I can think about — and then last night, out of the blue, Mrs. Prescott called and said that there’s a young mom, a very young mom, in New York City, who’s about to give birth to her baby prematurely, and she and the father have decided they can’t keep the baby. They’re still in school, they don’t earn any money…. Anyway, after the baby is born, he —”

  “It’s a boy?” squealed Ruby.

  “I mean, he or she,” amended Allie. “He or she will come home with me.”

  There was a moment of stillness in the living room, and then Flora shot to her feet and began jumping up and down. She grabbed Ruby’s arms, and they danced back and forth in front of the couch until Daisy let out a bark of alarm. Min leaned over and hugged Allie. “I’m going to be a grandmother again,” she said into Allie’s ear, tears starting to fall.

  “And we’re going to have a cousin!” exclaimed Flora. “Oh, this is the best, best day ever!”

  “But, Allie, please, you have to give us details,” said Min, disengaging herself from her daughter. “Forgive me if I sound shocked. It’s just that this is the first we’ve heard of any of this.”

  “I know, I know.” Allie smiled at her dancing nieces, who now fell, laughing, into the armchair. “Well, I suppose it began —”

  “Wait,” said Min, “let me get our coffee.” She left the living room and returned a few minutes later carrying a tray holding two cups of coffee and two glasses of orange juice.

  “Okay,” said Ruby, reaching for a glass of juice. “Start over.” (She was mildly annoyed that she was not going to be able to march into school the next day and tell her class that she had, overnight, become rich.)

  “It began,” said Aunt Allie again, “a few years ago when I was living in New York City and seeing a man named Paul Maulden. We were very serious about each other and planned to get married. Then, after lots of doctor’s appointments, I found out that I can’t have children. Paul and I were terribly disappointed, but we decided that we wanted to adopt a child, and because adoption can take a long time, we thought we should get things started right away, even before we got married. First we considered adopting a baby girl from China” (at this, Flora and Ruby exchanged a glance, remembering the mysterious closet stocked with baby things — mostly baby girl things — that they had come across in Aunt Allie’s house one evening) “so we filled out an application. Then we filled out applications with several other agencies. And then …”

  Allie’s voice faltered, and Flora found herself silently chanting, “Please don’t let her cry, please don’t let her cry.”

  “And then,” Allie continued, sounding stronger, “a year ago, Paul ended our relationship. He said it just wasn’t going to work. And that’s why I decided to move back here. I wanted a change.”

  “Oh. That explains things,” said Ruby sagely.

  “But I never gave up my dream of having a child. I want to be a mother very badly. In fact, the closer I’ve gotten to you two,” Allie went on, glancing at her nieces, “the more that desire grew. So I continued filling out forms and applications and signing on with agencies to adopt as a single parent. I’ve just been waiting for the moment when something would come through. And last night it happened. The phone rang and it was Mrs. Prescott telling me about this baby.”

  “And the baby is definitely going to be yours?” asked Flora.

  “Well, almost definitely. A mandatory waiting period follows the birth, during which one or both of the parents could decide to keep the baby after all. But it doesn’t sound as though that’s going to happen. The bigger question is when the baby will be born. The mother went to the hospital yesterday in early labor, but the doctors want to try to delay the birth for at least several weeks. The longer they can delay it, the healthier the baby will be.”

  “I see,” said Min.

  “And so,” said Aunt Allie, “I don’t know when the baby will be born. It could happen now or it could happen in a month. But … I’ve decided to go to New York City for a week. Do you remember my friends Debbie and David?” she asked Min.

  “The ones who live in Greenwich Village?”

  Allie nodded. “They’re going to be away this week, and a month or so ago they had offered me the use of their apartment while they were out of town. They thought I might want to spend Thanksgiving in the city. I said no, because I wanted to be here with you, but now I’ve decided to take them up on their offer. I spoke to them last night and they said of course I could still stay in their apartment. So I’m going to drive to New York this afternoon and stay until next Sunday. After all, there’s a slight chance the baby might be born in the next few days, and if that happens, I want to be close at hand.”

  “You get to go to New York City?” cried Ruby, and Flora couldn’t tell whether Ruby was excited or jealous. Furthermore, she seemed to be entirely missing the point about the baby.

  “Ruby, she used to live in New York,” said Flora. “And anyway, she’s going back there to get her baby. Maybe.”

  “I know,” said Ruby, who pouted so dramatically that Flora could tell it was her stage pout and not a natural one.

  “Aunt Allie, when will you get to bring the baby home?” asked Flora, hoping that Ruby would notice that this was an appropriate and not self-centered question.

  “Not until after the waiting period is over and the baby is healthy enough to leave the hospital. It could be a while. That’s why I know it’s silly to rush down to the city. But you never know what might happen. And I was planning to take this week off anyway, so I might as well make the trip.” Allie paused. “I’ll have to call Mr. Willet and tell him I can’t come to his Thanksgiving dinner. I feel bad about that.”

  “He’ll understand, honey,” said Min.

  Flora envisioned their former neighbor Mr. Willet, who had recently moved out of the Row Houses, where Flora and Ruby lived with Min. Flora’s house was the fourth from the left in the row of attached homes. Mr. Willet and his wife had lived in the second house from the left. But after Mrs. Willet had developed Alzheimer’s disease, Mr. Willet found a place for her at Three Oaks, a nearby retirement community, and soon followed her there himself. Thanksgiving was to be his first holiday away from the familiar Row Houses, and he had invited Aunt Allie, Min, Flora, Ruby, and Mr. Pennington (who lived in the third Row House from the right) to join him for Thank
sgiving dinner in the dining room at Three Oaks. Flora was very much looking forward to the holiday.

  “Wow,” said Ruby, “this is going to be some week. I mean, there’s the baby and the holiday — and, of course, my solos in the Thanksgiving concert on Thursday morning. By the way, did I mention that I’m going to have the main solo next month in the Christmas concert?”

  “Only about a thousand times,” muttered Flora.

  “Well, I think I can make this week even more exciting,” said Min.

  Three heads swiveled toward her.

  “How?” asked Ruby.

  “Allie, what would you say to our joining you in New York for a few days? We could take the train down on Friday morning and stay with you until Sunday. There’s room at Debbie and David’s, isn’t there?”

  “Sure,” said Allie, a smile creeping across her face. “Oh, that would be wonderful!”

  “Wonderful?! It would be stupendous!” shrieked Ruby, who leaped out of the chair and began dancing around the living room again. “‘New York! New York!’” she sang. “‘A fabulous town! The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down!’ Whatever that means. Oh, this is going to be so cool. Can we go to the Empire State Building? Can we see a show on Broadway? Can we —”

  “Ruby,” said Min, “please calm down. We will do as much as we can, but remember that since I’m planning the trip at rather a late date, we might not be able to do everything you want.”

  “Okay, okay. I don’t care. As long as we get to go to the Great Big Old Apple.”

  Flora’s mind was on other things. “Min, we’ll have a baby to sew for! Our very own baby! I’m going to start smocking right away. Aunt Allie, is there any way you could find out whether the baby is a boy or a girl? Oh, it doesn’t matter. I can just start sewing.”

  “And I’ll start knitting,” said Min. “We got a wonderful new book of baby patterns in at the store. Oh, the store! I’ll have to ask Gigi if she can cover for me next weekend.” (Min and her friend Gigi, grandmother to Flora’s best friend, Olivia, ran a sewing and needlework store on Main Street called Needle and Thread.)