The Secret Book Club Read online

  For the members of my book club:

  Amy, Gaela, Jamey, Debi, Nell, Ann, and Anne

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Map

  Dedication

  Chapter 1 Book Club Summer

  Chapter 2 Sirens in the Night

  Chapter 3 A Peek in the Windows

  Chapter 4 Not Invited

  Chapter 5 Ruby’s Great Idea

  Chapter 6 Project Green

  Chapter 7 Party Girls

  Chapter 8 Mr. Willet’s Great Idea

  Chapter 9 A Very Important Person

  Chapter 10 Complicated

  Chapter 11 The Secret Room

  Chapter 12 Robby’s Bad Day

  Chapter 13 Nikki Sherman, Private Investigator

  Chapter 14 Brave Saturday

  Chapter 15 And Sew On and Sew Forth

  Chapter 16 Olivia, Olivia

  Chapter 17 Madame X

  Chapter 18 Lost and Found

  Chapter 19 Brave Saturday, Part Two

  Chapter 20 Good-bye, Tobias

  Chapter 21 Happy Nelson Day

  Chapter 22 September

  Activities

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Flora Northrop sat on her front stoop and surveyed Aiken Avenue. Early morning was one of her favorite times of day, and an early summer morning was especially delicious. On this Friday in late June, Flora inhaled deeply and caught the scent of grass, of rose petals, and of something soft and sweet that eventually she realized was rain. It had rained the night before — the trees were vaguely drippy — and it looked like it would probably rain again later that day. Flora didn’t care. She liked rain.

  “Ruby!” called Min from the other side of the door. “Please get a move on. It’s time to go.”

  Flora listened for her sister’s response and heard nothing.

  “Ruby Jane!” called Min a moment later, and Flora thought her grandmother sounded just the teeniest bit impatient now. “Ruby?”

  “What? I’m coming!”

  Min, who had opened the front door, now ducked back inside. “Ruby, I hope that what I just heard you say was, ‘I’m on my way, Min dear.’”

  Flora turned around, smiling. But when she caught sight of her sister’s face, her smile disappeared. Ruby looked like a storm cloud.

  “For corn’s sake,” said Min. “Ruby, what’s the matter?”

  “I don’t want to go to the store,” replied Ruby, an impressive whine to her voice. “Are we going to have to go every day this summer?”

  Min turned a gaze on her granddaughter that said “What do you think?” as plainly as if she had used words.

  “All right. I know we won’t be going every single day,” said Ruby huffily. “I just don’t want to go today. It’s too early. I wanted to sleep late. Isn’t that what summer vacation is for?”

  “If you’re a sloth,” said Min.

  Flora got to her feet. “Come on, Ruby. Hey, I know what will make you happy. I saw the baby phoebes when I woke up this morning.”

  “The babies? The phoebe had her babies?” Ruby brightened, and Min shot Flora a grateful glance.

  “Yup,” replied Flora.

  Three pairs of eyes looked up to the window box outside Flora’s room. In it was a mossy nest built by a shy phoebe.

  “Did all the eggs hatch?” asked Ruby.

  “All three,” said Flora.

  “Just like last year,” said Ruby, and she skipped along the path to the sidewalk while Min locked the door of the Row House.

  Just like last year, thought Flora with amazement. It was hard to believe that she and her sister had lived in Camden Falls long enough to say that. But they were, in fact, beginning their second year in their new home.

  Flora and Min caught up with Ruby and turned right when they reached the sidewalk.

  “Malone!” announced Ruby as she passed the Malones’ front walk. Her mood was brightening. “Willet!” she called as she passed the next walk. And finally, “Morris!”

  Flora, Ruby, and Min lived in the Row Houses, the only building of its kind in Camden Falls, Massachusetts — eight attached homes, nearly identical, built well over a hundred years earlier. Mindy Read’s, the fourth from the left, was the house in which she had grown up, the house in which she and her husband had raised their two daughters, and now the house in which she was raising Flora and Ruby, her granddaughters.

  Ruby ran ahead of Min and Flora, reached Dodds Lane, and doubled back. “Come on, slowpokes,” she said. Then, “Hey, Min, I need new tap shoes. My old ones are squeezing my toes, and I’ll be starting Turbo Tappers in August. I can’t have tight shoes then.”

  “We’ll order them from Hulit’s,” said Min. “Remind me at lunchtime. We’ll go to the store and pay a visit to Mrs. Hulit.”

  Flora still marveled at the fact that Min knew every single shopkeeper on Main Street. But then, Min had owned Needle and Thread for many, many years. And the people who worked in the stores, like the people who lived in the Row Houses, were a close community.

  Flora, Ruby, and Min walked along Dodds Lane for a block, then turned right on Main Street. Ruby took her grandmother’s hand. “Min?” she said. “Do you think I’m going to be bored this summer?”

  “Sweetie, when a person has as many interests as you do,” Min answered, “or as many as Flora does,” she added hastily, “I should think it would be hard for her to be bored.”

  “Yes,” said Ruby, “but this spring I was in the play and I had dance classes and chorus rehearsals —”

  “Not to mention school,” said Min.

  “Yeah, and school. Now I don’t have anything to do until Turbo Tappers starts. That’s over a month away.”

  Min sighed. “Ruby —” But she was interrupted by Flora, who was stooping in the doorway of Needle and Thread.

  “Hey!” Flora exclaimed.

  “What?” cried Ruby. “What is it, Flora?”

  “Look!” Flora straightened up and held out four mailing envelopes for her sister’s inspection. “They have our names on them. I mean, one has my name, one has yours, one has Olivia’s, and one has Nikki’s. They were just sitting here stacked up by the door. I wonder where they came from.”

  “The mailman,” said Ruby.

  Flora gave her sister a withering look. “Mail isn’t delivered in the middle of the night. Plus, these don’t have stamps on them. They don’t even have addresses on them. Or our last names!”

  Ruby reached for her package and hefted it on the palm of one hand. “Not too heavy,” she said.

  Flora appealed to her grandmother. “Min, look. Who do you think these came from?”

  Min busied herself searching through her giant pocketbook for the keys to the store. Flora imagined the jumble that was inside that purse: Life Savers and Kleenex and loose change, a mirror, a comb, a pen, Min’s reading glasses, earrings, buttons, notes, her bulging wallet, and several key rings.

  “Ah, here we go,” said Min, inserting a key into the lock on the door. “Oh. No. Wrong one.” She began the search through her purse again.

  “Min!” said Flora urgently. “Isn’t this strange?”

  At that moment, Min thrust the door open.

  “I’m going to look in my package right now,” said Ruby.

  “No,” said Flora. “Don’t you think we should wait until Nikki and Olivia are here so we can open them together?”

  Ruby gasped suddenly. “What if they’re from a psycho?” she cried, and dropped the package to the floor.

  “They’re not from a psycho.” Flora picked up the envelope and handed it back to her sister. “Min wouldn’t let us open something from a psycho. Come on. Let’s call Olivi
a and Nikki.”

  “It’s a bit early for that,” said Min, depositing the keys and her purse on the counter by the cash register. “You’d better wait until nine.”

  “Waiting,” said Flora, “is not Ruby’s strong point.”

  “No. But I have many other strong points,” said Ruby with great dignity.

  Flora sat on one of the couches at the front of the store, where later in the day customers would drop in for a friendly chat-and-stitch. She opened a sewing magazine but kept one eye on her watch. The moment it read exactly nine o’clock, she bolted for the telephone and called Olivia Walter.

  “Olivia!” Flora exclaimed. “The weirdest thing happened!” She told her about the envelopes. “So you have to come to the store right away!” She placed a similar call to Nikki Sherman, then returned to the couch and her magazine.

  “How can you sit there reading like nothing happened?” asked Ruby after a few moments. She looked at her own watch.

  Flora shrugged. “I just can.”

  “Well, when are they going to get here?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  “When is that?”

  Flora paused and was trying to formulate a reasonable answer when Min said, “Ruby, please go give Gigi a hand with those boxes in the back.”

  Gigi, who was Olivia’s grandmother and Min’s business partner, had arrived while Flora was on the phone with Nikki. Now she was in the back of the store, struggling with several cartons of new supplies that had been delivered the afternoon before. Ruby joined her, glad for a job.

  Flora, relishing the peace that would probably last only a few minutes until the first customer arrived, laid down the magazine and gazed out at Main Street. The year since she and Ruby had moved to Camden Falls seemed to her both very long and very short. There had been days that had dragged by, days when Flora could think of nothing but her parents and the accident, days that had each felt as long as a whole year. But in between those bad days, so much had happened that sometimes Flora marveled that it had all taken place in just a year.

  Flora remembered the June afternoon when she and Ruby had made their move to Camden Falls, the day the U-Haul had been packed up and Min had driven them, along with Daisy Dear (her dog) and King Comma (Flora and Ruby’s cat) from their old home, hours away, to the Row Houses on Aiken Avenue. Min had turned onto Main Street, the U-Haul clanking along behind her car, and Flora had passed Time and Again, Frank’s Beans, Heaven, Needle and Thread, the library, College Pizza, and all the sights that were now as familiar to Flora as old friends. But on that ride, Flora had barely noticed Main Street; her mind was only on what she had left behind — the house in which she and Ruby had been born, her school, her best friend, and the memories of her parents, who had died in the accident on an icy road five months earlier.

  After the accident, busy Min (whose name was short both for Mindy and for “in a minute,” something she used to say all the time to her granddaughters) had arrived, bustling and businesslike, and helped Flora and Ruby to reassemble the pieces of their lives. Flora had been ten then and Ruby eight, and while they had been relieved and grateful for Min’s efficient presence, they still hadn’t wanted to move to Camden Falls.

  And now they had been in Camden Falls for a year, Flora reflected as she watched old Mrs. Grindle unlock the door to Stuff ’n’ Nonsense across the street, and another summer was beginning. She wondered if this summer would be as eventful as the previous one. She hoped so, for Ruby’s sake. Flora didn’t mind spending time with Min and Gigi at Needle and Thread, but Ruby needed activities. Min had said that maybe this summer the girls could be more independent. Flora was contemplating what, exactly, that might mean when she saw Olivia Walter sprinting along Main Street. She bounced through the door and slid onto the couch next to Flora.

  “Where are they?” Olivia asked breathlessly.

  Flora pointed to the coffee table.

  Olivia made a grab for her package. “Huh,” she said. “Weird.”

  “Here’s Nikki,” Flora announced as Nikki chained her bicycle to a rack on the sidewalk. Then Flora called to Ruby, “Everyone’s here.”

  Moments later, the girls had crowded onto the couch, each holding her envelope. They sat squished together in a row — Nikki, her face pale, freckles scattered across her nose, brown hair tousled; Olivia, wild dark hair in a cloud around her face; and Flora and Ruby, with wide-set eyes and round faces, Flora’s framed by brown hair that she resisted cutting, and Ruby’s by blond hair that she wished were curlier.

  “Ready?” said Olivia. “One, two … three!”

  In a flash, the envelopes were ripped open. From each was withdrawn two paperback books and a letter.

  “The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, by Robert O’Brien,” said Flora, holding one book in each hand. “Did we all get the same books?”

  “Yup,” said the others.

  “Let’s see what the letter says.”

  “Do you suppose we all got the same letter, too?” asked Ruby.

  “Probably,” said Flora.

  “I’ll read mine aloud then,” said Nikki. She drew in a breath. “‘Welcome!’” she began. “‘You and your friends have been chosen — just the four of you — to be members of a secret summer book club.’”

  “Just the four of us,” said Olivia thoughtfully. “Someone knows us well.”

  “‘Every few weeks,’” Nikki continued, “‘a package will arrive containing a new book. I hope you will have fun reading each book together and talking about it. The book will be accompanied by a letter, such as this one, that will include activities, things to discuss, and some instructions to follow.’”

  “Ooh, mysterious,” said Ruby.

  “‘The Saturdays,’” Nikki went on, “‘is a bonus book. Future selections will contain one book only. Read The Saturdays first. Like the Melendys, you will be having lots of Saturday adventures this summer.’”

  “Who are the Melendys?” asked Olivia.

  “They must be characters in The Saturdays,” Flora replied.

  “Saturday adventures,” said Ruby dreamily. “I like the sound of that.”

  “Ahem,” said Nikki. “‘Then read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. When each of you has finished Mrs. Frisby, please do the following: First discuss the story.’ Then there’s a whole list of things to talk about,” said Nikki.

  “But look what comes next,” said Flora, running her finger down her own letter. “Read what it says under ‘Activity.’”

  “‘For your first Saturday adventure, think up and carry out a fun project that will help make Camden Falls a “greener” place,’” said Nikki.

  Olivia looked puzzled. “I guess we’ll know what that means after we finish the book.”

  “Hey!” exclaimed Nikki. “Listen to the end of the letter. ‘On the day of your final Saturday adventure, the person behind the book club will be revealed. Happy reading!’ And the letter just ends that way. It isn’t signed or anything.”

  Ruby scanned her letter again. “Well … well …”

  “Hey, Ruby’s speechless!” crowed Olivia.

  Flora giggled. “But really — who sent these?”

  “Min?” suggested Ruby. “Gigi?”

  Everyone turned to look at Min and Gigi, who were talking earnestly with a customer.

  “Somehow I don’t think so,” said Flora.

  “Let’s not try to figure it out,” said Nikki. “At least not right away. I like having a mystery.”

  Olivia frowned. “I can’t help trying to figure it out. That’s just how my brain works.”

  “Well, I’m going to start reading,” said Flora.

  “At least,” said Ruby, “the summer isn’t going to be boring after all.”

  Ruby felt that, of the group of friends consisting of Nikki, Olivia, Flora, and herself — Ruby Jane Northrop — she was more different from the rest of them than any of the others were. She knew that the other girls would n
ot agree. For one thing, everyone is different. Min said so all the time. And of course each of the girls was unique. And Flora said there aren’t degrees of uniqueness. You’re either unique or you aren’t. But Ruby didn’t agree. She felt she was the most unique.

  Olivia was different from the others because she was so smart — frighteningly smart, really. She had skipped a grade and could still master her schoolwork far more handily than any of her year-older classmates. Plus, she could read at the speed of light. Nikki was different because she lived way on the other side of Camden Falls, while Flora and Ruby lived within inches of Olivia. Nikki’s family had been in turmoil for years while her alcoholic parents tried to get their lives under control. Ruby could barely fathom such a thing. Flora was different because she was the shyest of the girls (even shyer than Nikki, which was saying a lot), and she possessed many solitary talents, such as her love of writing and her ability to sew and do needlework as well as most adults.

  And then there was Ruby. She was younger than the others, even younger than Olivia, and while in the fall the rest of the girls would begin seventh grade at Camden Falls Central High School, Ruby would remain behind at Camden Falls Elementary to start fifth grade, where, she already knew, she would not distinguish herself as a student, unlike the older girls, who frequently earned A’s and won scholastic awards. Furthermore, there was the issue of Ruby’s talents. Nikki, Olivia, and Flora each had talents, but they were of the less showy sort, such as Flora’s needlework and Nikki’s artwork and Olivia’s tendency to win blue ribbons at science fairs. Ruby, on the other hand, possessed talents of great noise and flourish. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. And she did all three as frequently as possible in front of as many people as possible. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to be shy — although she had occasionally had to act shy in order to play a part realistically. So Ruby was quite confident that although each of the four friends was one of a kind, she was the most one of a kind.