Keeping Secrets Read online

  “It would be fun,” said Flora, excitement mounting.

  “You’ve never been to the mall alone,” said Min. “It’s ten miles away. I don’t know.”

  “What if we took a cell phone with us?” suggested Flora. “So we could call if anything went wrong.”

  “And we would promise to stay together the whole time. We would never split up or go off by ourselves,” added Ruby.

  “I’ll have to talk to Nikki’s mother and Olivia’s parents,” said Min.

  Flora nodded. “Thank you,” she said solemnly, and nudged Ruby, who was about to start begging again. “We’ll go along with whatever you decide.” She pinched Ruby to keep her quiet.

  By Saturday, everything had been arranged. The adults had agreed that the four members of the secret book club could spend the day at the mall as long as they followed certain rules. Mr. Walter had turned his cell phone over to Olivia (who knew exactly how much it would cost to replace the phone if she lost it). Min was to drive the girls to the mall in the morning and Mrs. Walter would pick them up in the afternoon.

  “This is going to be the best day of my life!” announced Ruby, who had said that many times in her life.

  At precisely eleven o’clock on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Min Read pulled up to the main entrance of Bingham Mall and dropped off four excited girls, one of them self-consciously responsible for her father’s cell phone.

  “We’ll call you if anything goes wrong!” Flora assured Min.

  “But nothing will go wrong,” said Ruby gaily.

  “We’ll check in with you once an hour,” added Nikki.

  “And we’ll be waiting right here at four o’clock,” said Olivia.

  Min sat uncertainly behind the wheel of her car. “Be careful with your money,” she said. “Hold tight to your purses. If you feel you’re in danger, go to the nearest store clerk or find someone from mall security.” She hesitated a few seconds longer, then pulled into the parking lot and headed for the exit.

  “Now I’m a little scared,” said Ruby.

  “Don’t be,” replied Olivia. “She’s just doing what grown-ups have to do. My mom said all those same things to me before I left this morning.”

  “Yeah,” said Nikki. She turned around to face the glass doors, which were adorned with green garlands and a large red bow, and waved her hand in a swooping arc. “Look! The world of the mall awaits. Let us enter the magic kingdom of consumerism.”

  Flora held one of the doors open and her friends walked through it. They entered a wide hallway lined with rather boring-looking businesses (a vision center, a dentist’s office, and a place for mailing packages), a row of strollers for rent, and a door marked SECURITY.

  “Now we know where Security is,” said Ruby nervously.

  Flora took her sister’s hand. “This is going to be fun, Ruby,” she said. “We’re here on our own. We’ve always wanted to come here on our own. And anyway, look over there.”

  Flora pointed down the hallway, and Ruby, Olivia, and Nikki let out a simultaneous gasp. Then Ruby began to run. The others ran after her. When Ruby reached the end of the hall, she found herself at the center of the mall. And the mall had been decorated for Christmas.

  “It’s —” Ruby turned around and around, looking above her (the mall was three stories high) and in all directions. “It’s — well, it really is like a magic kingdom.”

  Flora leaned over and whispered to Olivia, “An incredibly tacky magic kingdom.”

  The mall appeared to have been dipped in silver glitter and then to have fallen into a bag of candy. Shimmering snowflakes were suspended from the ceiling, drifts of sparkly cotton snow covered the inner courtyard, angels (also shimmering) hovered above, and everywhere Flora looked she saw giant gumdrops, candy canes, chocolates, lollipops, peppermint drops, licorice whips, and gingerbread men.

  Ruby was still trying to put her thoughts into words. “It’s kind of like Main Street if Mr. Freedly went crazy when he was putting up the decorations.”

  “Oh, let’s be realistic,” said Nikki finally. “It’s insanely overdone. But who cares? It’s also really fun. Look, there’s Santa’s house in the middle, in all that snow.”

  “Where?” said Ruby. “I don’t see it.”

  “Behind those two big snowmen,” said Nikki, and then she let out a scream. “Aughh! One of them just moved! I didn’t know they were alive.”

  “I wish I weren’t too old to visit Santa,” said Olivia.

  “You aren’t,” Flora told her. “No one is. We could visit Santa.”

  But the girls looked at the line of children waiting to enter the sparkly gingerbread cabin that apparently housed Santa Claus, and saw only two kids who appeared to be their age.

  “The kids who are leaving the house have candy canes and puzzles,” Ruby noted wistfully.

  “Well, we have shopping to do,” said Flora. She pulled a list out of her purse, then snapped the purse shut quickly and looked all around her, Min’s words coming back to her. Finally, she consulted the list. “Gosh,” she said. “Even if I get around to making a lot of my presents, I still need to buy things for Mr. and Mrs. Willet, Mr. Pennington, Willow, Cole, maybe Mary Louise and Claudette, and a bunch of dogs. I think I’ll make catnip toys for King Comma and Mary Woolsey’s cats, though.”

  She looked up from her list to see that Olivia, who was consulting a list of her own, was blushing furiously. “What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Well — um, it’s — well — I don’t —” stammered Olivia.

  Ruby leaned over and peeked at Olivia’s list. “Ha! Olivia’s wondering if she should buy Jacob a present!”

  “I’ve never bought a present for a boy before,” Olivia whispered, as if she might turn around and find a group of boys standing sternly behind her, judging her gift-choosing abilities.

  “You have brothers!” exclaimed Ruby.

  “That’s not the same.”

  Nikki, trying hard not to laugh, finally said, “You don’t have to make a decision today. You can just look around, okay? Come on, you guys. Let’s get going. We have the whole day ahead of us. And I’m already getting hungry. So let’s shop a little first and then go to the food court.”

  “Oh! Oh!” exclaimed Ruby as they set off. “Look what’s playing at the multiplex. That dog movie! I really want to see that!”

  The Saturday adventure had begun. Flora and her friends followed every one of the rules their parents had laid out. They used Mr. Walter’s cell phone, which Olivia guarded like a treasure, to call Min and Gigi at the store once an hour. They stuck together. And they fiercely protected their money and their purses.

  Flora had a successful morning of shopping, and the girls enjoyed a lunch of pizza and frozen yogurt in the food court. They continued their shopping after lunch and then checked the times the movie was playing.

  “We could see the next show,” said Ruby. “But you know what I’d rather do after all? Go get a soda or something and just sit and talk.”

  And that’s what they did. They found a quiet table by a glittering white Christmas tree, sat down, and looked through their purchases.

  “This is nice,” said Ruby. “We don’t get to do so much of this anymore.”

  “Of what?” asked Flora.

  “This. Being together, just the four of us. I don’t see you guys at school this year, and we’re starting to have other friends and do different things. So this is just … really nice.” She turned to Nikki. “Do you ever hear from your dad?”

  Nikki shook her head. “He sent us some money, but he hasn’t called or anything. Hey, did I tell you I visited Tobias at school?”

  “You went to his college?” said Ruby. “Cool.”

  “Ruby,” said Flora, “tell Nikki and Olivia about the Thanksgiving concert.”

  Ruby did, and the afternoon spun away.

  As daylight faded, Mr. Barnes, armed with a shopping list of his own, entered the mall and walked toward his first destination, th
e music store. He passed through the food court, and this is what he saw: Four girls sitting around a table, their heads bent, talking earnestly, Flora Northrop’s arm around a younger girl. Mr. Barnes considered stopping to greet his students, but as he neared their table, he heard Flora say, “I hope we can always have days like this,” and so he left them to their adventure — they did seem to be on an adventure of some sort — their laughter ringing out behind him.

  This is Camden Falls, Massachusetts, on the evening of the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The day is gloomy, but most people don’t care. The dark skies and frosty air feel wintry, and that seems appropriate since the holidays are close at hand. The tourists who explored town this afternoon found Main Street windows aglow in the fading light, decorated with a curious jumble of paper turkeys and cornucopias, droopy witches and graying ghosts. Main Street is a bit behind Bingham Mall when it comes to Christmas decorations; Mr. Freedly’s work won’t begin until next Saturday. The last vestiges of Halloween can still be seen, and in the window of Camden Falls Art Supply, an old back-to-school banner is still clinging to the glass by the tape on one corner. But the air is humming with the excitement the holidays bring, and everyone is feeling festive.

  There’s Sonny Sutphin calling good-bye to his coworkers at Time and Again and wheeling himself through the doorway and down the sidewalk. He has fastened a wreath to the back of his wheelchair and looks very jaunty as he crosses Main Street, whistling softly to himself. As he passes Needle and Thread, he waves to Min and Gigi, who are getting ready to close the store. They wave back to him, calling, “Good night, Sonny!” This year for the first time in ages, Sonny will be going to a real Thanksgiving dinner — he’s been invited to join Mr. Freedly and his family — instead of dining by himself in his kitchen with a football game on the TV for company.

  Walk a bit farther down Main Street, cross Dodds Lane, and pause before the Marquis Diner. A sign in the window reads OPEN FOR THANKSGIVING. Hilary and Spencer are disappointed by this — they long for the kind of Thanksgivings they used to have — but they understand that things have changed since their parents opened the diner. Besides, they’ve been promised a turkey dinner of their own at home after the diner has closed.

  Go back to Dodds Lane, turn right, then right again onto Aiken. Here are the Row Houses, a friendly fortress in the deepening darkness. In the nearest one, the Morrises are starting to get ready for the enormous family dinner they’ll be hosting, and the children have been put to work making decorations for the table. Lacey is in charge of place cards and she colors away busily until Travis peers over her shoulder and says, “Hey! You spelled your own name wrong!”

  Next door, the Hamiltons are preparing to go away for the weekend. They’ve decided not to spend the holiday in their new home. (The Malones will be away, too, and so will the Fongs and the Edwardses.)

  The fourth house from the left is buzzing with energy. Flora and Ruby, home from their adventure in the mall, are waiting for Min to return (at this very moment, Min is locking the door of Needle and Thread and calling good-bye to Gigi), and they are in a great state of excitement about the upcoming holiday.

  “I can’t, can’t, can’t, wait, wait, wait for the Thanksgiving concert!” cries Ruby as she bounces down the stairs. “It is going to be so excellent! I’m so happy that Lacey and I both have solos.”

  “I’m going to wear my new outfit,” replies Flora with satisfaction.

  “The one you made?”

  “I made half of it — the vest. Min made the pants. Velvet pants. I don’t know how she did it. Velvet is so hard to work with.”

  Ruby regards King Comma and Daisy Dear, who are curled up at opposite ends of the couch in the living room. “Remember when they were scared of each other?” she asks.

  “Now they’re buddies,” says Flora.

  “It’s a Thanksgiving miracle,” says Ruby.

  Next door, Olivia is in her room with her door partially closed. From downstairs she can hear pots clanking as her mother, who has come home early from Sincerely Yours, begins cooking dinner. Olivia opens her desk drawer and withdraws from it the card she has read over and over in the past two weeks. It’s from Jacob, a birthday card, and the message is simple: Happy Birthday, Olivia. Love from Jacob. The word “love” is the one Olivia keeps studying and also is the reason she believes she will keep the card forever. She sighs and returns the card to the drawer, taking care to slide it under a stack of papers. She’s eleven now, eleven at last. She’s not sure what difference this makes, since her body is as skinny and straight as ever, but at least she is eleven.

  Next door to Olivia, Mr. Pennington is seated contentedly in an armchair. He has decided to reread some of the classics, and his copy of Bleak House is open in his lap. He scratches Jacques’s ears absentmindedly as he reads.

  Leave downtown Camden Falls behind now. Several miles out on one of the county roads lies the home of Nikki Sherman and her family. It is a happy place on this evening. Mrs. Sherman has come home from Three Oaks early (she’ll have to work half a day on Thanksgiving, but only half a day), and Tobias has called to talk about Thanksgiving plans. Mae is chattering to him on the phone. “Remember when we visited you and I ordered coffee?” she cries. Nikki feels contentment wash over her. Only four days until Tobias will come home and the long holiday weekend will start.

  Travel several miles in a different direction from Camden Falls and you’ll find Three Oaks resting placidly at the edge of a small woods, the trees now bare. Mr. Willet is feeding Sweetie in his kitchen before he goes downstairs to join Mary Lou for supper. “Thanksgiving soon,” Mr. Willet tells the cat. “And we’ll have five guests for dinner.” Mr. Willet, whose apartment looks as settled as if he had moved in years ago instead of weeks ago, thinks happily of the holiday. The tables in the Three Oaks dining room, he has been told, will be covered with white linen cloths and decorated with vases of chrysanthemums, and Mr. Willet plans to add a chocolate turkey to each setting at his table. “All the fun of Thanksgiving and none of the cooking,” he tells Sweetie.

  Back in Camden Falls there is a house with just one person living in it and just one light on. The person has been hard at work all day, but now is about to spend a relaxing evening. The computer has finally been shut down and the desk cleared when the phone rings. The person sighs. It’s too late in the day for more work. But the call is not about work. It’s from someone this person has spoken to only once before. And what the caller says will change this person’s life forever.

  Author photo © Dion Ogust

  ANN M. MARTIN lives in upstate New York near a town not unlike Camden Falls. She loves to sew and loves to take walks with her dog, Sadie. She also has three cats, Gussie, Woody, and Pippin.

  Ann’s acclaimed novels include Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor), Here Today, A Dog’s Life, and On Christmas Eve, as well as her much-loved series The Baby-sitters Club.

  To find out more about Ann, please visit

  www.scholastic.com/mainstreet

  Belle Teal

  A Corner of the Universe

  A Dog’s Life

  Here Today

  On Christmas Eve

  P.S. Longer Letter Later

  written with Paula Danziger

  Snail Mail No More

  written with Paula Danziger

  Ten Kids, No Pets

  The Baby-sitters Club series

  Main Street #1: Welcome to Camden Falls

  Main Street #2: Needle and Thread

  Main Street #3: ’Tis the Season

  Main Street #4: Best Friends

  Main Street #5: The Secret Book Club

  Main Street #6: September Surprises

  Copyright © 2009 by Ann M. Martin. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  First printing, April 2009

  Cover art and illustrations by Dan Andreason

 
Cover design by Steve Scott

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-29571-0

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.