A Big Box of Memories (5 page)

When Molly was playing with Skippy in the basement, she thought she heard the doorbell ring. Who would come to visit this late? When she looked out the basement window, she saw a car drive away. It looked like Jody’s van. The one his wheelchair fit into. But why would Jody come to her house? And why would he come at night?

This was a mystery.

When she went upstairs, she said, “Who was at the door?”

“What door?” her dad said innocently. Molly hated it when people answered a question with another question.

“The front door!” said Molly.

“Maybe a salesman?” said her father.

Molly’s mother frowned. “It was Jody,” she said. “He stopped by to say hello.”

This was even more mysterious! Why would Jody come at night to say hello to her parents and not her? And why would her father pretend he hadn’t come? What was going on?

The news was on TV, and her father was watching.

“Tomorrow will be cloudy with perhaps a few showers,” said the announcer.

When the weather report said there would be a few showers, there usually was a thunderstorm with lightning. Just like in winter, when they would say snow flurries, and a blizzard would cover Minnesota with three-foot drifts.

“And now in the local news,” one of
the announcers was saying, “we have the town’s youngest criminal! A seven-year-old boy was apprehended this evening for damaging city property by digging up the courthouse lawn! He was taken to the county jail and released into the custody of his mother. Well, we hope that after this the young man will do all his digging in his own backyard!” The three announcers behind the desk all smiled and made little jokes about a child-size jail.

Molly’s parents stared at the TV. “Could we know that boy?” asked her mother.

“No,” said her dad. “Molly’s friends wouldn’t dig holes on other people’s property!”

Molly couldn’t believe her ears. Could the boy be Tim Noon? She had seen him
with a shovel. What had Tim done? No Pee Wee Scout had ever been arrested before!

And why had Jody paid her parents a nighttime visit?

T
he phone rang early in the morning. It was Mrs. Peters.

“We’re having an emergency meeting this afternoon,” she said.

“Molly will be there,” said Mr. Duff.

“I wonder what the emergency meeting is about,” said Mrs. Duff.

Probably it has something to do with Tim, Molly thought.

When Molly saw Mary Beth on the way to Mrs. Peters’s house, Mary Beth
called, “Did you hear about the boy who dug holes? I’ll bet he gets sent away to a school for boys who get into trouble!”

When they met Tracy, she said, “Someone’s in real trouble! I think his mom has to pay a thousand dollars for the hole he dug.”

Molly couldn’t hold it in any longer. She had to tell her friends what she knew. “I think the boy in all that trouble is Tim.”

Her friends gasped. They could hardly believe it. “I’ll bet this meeting is to say good-bye to Tim,” said Patty. “I’ll bet he goes to that island where they put dangerous criminals so they can’t escape.”

Molly was so worried, she didn’t want to go to the meeting.

But when they got to Mrs. Peters’s house, Tim was eating a Popsicle and did not look as if he was in trouble. He
looked just the way he did before he was a criminal, Molly thought.

Mrs. Peters tapped on the table with her pencil. The Pee Wees were quiet.

“She’s probably going to announce the good-bye party for Tim,” whispered Mary Beth to Molly.

Rat’s knees, thought Molly. She should have brought a present for Tim. A book to read in jail. But Tim didn’t read much. Well, she could have baked a cake with a little saw in it so he could cut through the bars of his cell and escape. You would think Mrs. Peters would have baked a cake. But there was no good-bye cake on the table. No cake at all. And there were no good-bye gifts wrapped up in fancy paper either. If this was a party for Tim, there wasn’t much spirit. Not even any balloons.

“I called you all here,” said Mrs. Peters,
“to be sure everyone has their item in for the capsule. The millennium committee needs our box a bit earlier than they had said.”

The Pee Wees stared at their leader. That was all? That was why the meeting had been called?

Roger turned in his rusty nail with his name tied to it on a tag. Some of the other Pee Wees had changed their minds about their items and put different things in their place.

“Now the only one we are waiting for,” said Mrs. Peters, “is Molly.”

Molly had nothing.

Jody waved his hand. “Here’s Molly’s,” he said. And he gave something tiny to their leader.

The tiny thing looked like a book. Could it be the dictionary, come back by some magic?

“When Tim said he wished the time capsule were bigger, I thought maybe a better idea was to make the items smaller,” said Jody. “I remembered how important it was to Molly to put her diary in, but it was too big. And then I remembered the copy machine at my dad’s office. It makes things smaller! It makes them as small as you want! So I asked my dad and we went over to Molly’s and borrowed the diary and shrank it.”

Molly was so surprised, she didn’t know what to say.

“I didn’t read it,” said Jody quickly. “Not even one word. My dad took it back to her house right away.”

Rat’s knees! No wonder she wanted to marry Jody, Molly thought. He was one friend in a million. A friend who had saved her badge. A friend who had good ideas. Molly decided she loved Jody. She
felt like giving him a big hug, even a kiss—but that wouldn’t be a good thing to do at a Pee Wee Scout meeting.

Everyone clapped and cheered.

Roger whistled and shouted. “Let me have a look at that diary,” he said, trying to grab it. “I just want to see how small it is,” he said.

But Molly knew he really wanted to read it. She couldn’t risk that. And she couldn’t risk anything happening to it this time. She wanted her diary in that capsule as soon as could be!

“Yay for Jody!” called Kevin. “Why didn’t I think of that? My mom has a copy machine too.”

“Well, the important thing is that the problem is solved,” said Mrs. Peters. “Jody was thoughtful and generous and saved the day. Now we all have something memorable in the time capsule, and
we can all get our badges for this project.”

As the Pee Wees ate the treats Mrs. Stone brought down to them, Molly looked at the tiny diary. It had no hard cover or lock, but none was needed. The important thing was that all the words were there! It was better than the one she had copied over in tiny letters! It was an exact picture of her real diary!

Everyone looked at it and told Jody how smart he’d been to think of it.

“Hey,” said Roger. “Can you make me smaller if I sit on that machine? Or could you make me bigger, like a giant?”

Rachel groaned. “The only thing worse than Roger would be another Roger,” she said. “A bigger one.”

“Maybe Jody could shrink him till he was real little, and we could step on him!” said Patty.

Mrs. Peters frowned when Patty said that, and the Pee Wees stopped making jokes. But Molly secretly thought it would be fun to step on a teeny-tiny Roger. After all, Roger stepped on the Pee Wees when he had the chance.

Molly thanked Jody over and over again. She knew he hadn’t read her diary, because he was so honest. And she was glad, because she had written things in there she didn’t want him to see. She didn’t want him to know she was going to marry him. It was too soon. They were too young.

“I
guess this isn’t going to be a party for Tim after all,” Lisa whispered to Molly. “But I know he’s going to be locked up,” Molly whispered back.

“They have to have a trial first,” said Lisa. “My uncle is a lawyer, and that’s the way it works.”

Rat’s knees, Molly thought. They had to save Tim. The Pee Wees couldn’t sit by and watch a police car take him off to be
locked up. Molly wondered how much time she had to solve this problem.

She sighed. It seemed as if it was just one problem after another. The time capsule problem had just been solved, and she’d hardly had time to enjoy it. She had to work fast now to solve the next worry—how to save Tim.

She hoped she wouldn’t have to go to court and sit in that box the way they did on TV. She’d have to swear to tell the truth, so help her God.

Well, that would be easy enough. She could truthfully tell the judge and the jury that Tim was a good Scout. How he’d taken home a cat that had no food and fed it. How he’d learned to spell some words even though they were hard. She’d tell them how he had never been in any trouble in his whole life. Well, as far
as she knew. Molly hadn’t known him as a baby, but what was the worst thing a baby could do? Throw toys or bite someone. She didn’t think Tim had bitten anyone. She was almost positive.

After the treat some Scouts told about the good deeds they had done. Then Mrs. Peters clapped her hands.

Molly jumped. She had been thinking so hard of what she would say about Tim in the courthouse, she’d forgotten the meeting. She wanted to write her ideas down so she wouldn’t forget them.

But their leader had something else to say.

“I’m sure you all heard the news last night,” said Mrs. Peters. “And lots of rumors get started when something is on TV. Sometimes things that are not a big deal seem bigger when they’re on the news.”

“You mean like making mountains out of molehills, Mrs. Peters,” said Rachel. “That’s what my grandmother always says.”

“That’s exactly right,” said Mrs. Peters.

“Now, you all probably know by now that someone was apprehended by the police for digging a hole next to the courthouse and ruining a flower bed on public property. Well, Tim Noon was the boy on the news. However, no serious damage was done, and Tim now knows he should ask an adult before digging anywhere again.”

“I don’t have to dig anywhere now,” said Tim. “I was trying to make more room for a bigger space capsule. I knew Molly wanted to put her diary in, and it would fit if I could dig a bigger hole. And I could get my Snoopy alarm clock in too. But now I don’t need to. The diary fits
now. And my mom took my clock to be fixed so I can use it again.”

Rat’s knees! Tim had been digging a bigger hole for
her
! What a kind thing to do! Molly felt tears coming to her eyes. Whenever she was happy she cried. It was so embarrassing.

“That was a very generous motive,” said Mrs. Peters. “But even though you were being helpful, Tim, you can’t break rules and deface property.”

“My mom is paying for the flowers,” said Tim. “And I filled in the hole already. The police made me.”

“Well, that’s a happy end to a bad situation,” said their leader. “And now we can move on.”

So Tim wasn’t going to jail or boys’ school! His mother wasn’t paying a thousand dollars! Molly had been worried sick again, all for nothing! When would
she be able to get a grip on her wild imagination? How could she stop her mind from spinning make-believe tales? Rat’s knees, it wasn’t an easy habit to break!

“Mrs. Peters, I have something else to say,” said Rachel. “I think Jody should get the prize for finding something for Molly to put in the capsule.”

Then Rachel explained about the treasure hunt, and how no one had found anything suitable. But Jody definitely had come up with the right thing.

“That’s a great idea!” said Molly.

“I’ll give my extra video game to Jody,” said Rachel.

“That’s really nice,” said Jody. “But I think Tim deserves the prize for trying so hard to make room for Molly’s real diary.”

Tim looked happy when Jody said that.
And of course Jody was right. Tim didn’t have a video game. Jody probably had lots and lots of them. And Tim had been very generous. Risking his life to help Molly! No one could do more than that!

“That’s a very good idea,” said their leader. “If it’s all right with Rachel, that’s what we’ll do.”

Rachel nodded. Tim smiled. All the other Pee Wees cheered again.

“And now,” said Mrs. Peters, with a deep sigh, “I think we’ll wind up this emergency meeting by giving out the badges.”