Leppard, Lois Gladys - [Mandie 04] (8 page)

Mandie stumbled over something. The glass chimney on the lamp crashed to the floor. Mandie blew out the light. She couldn’t let the flame burn unprotected.

Then, in the darkness, from the other side of the attic, came the clanging metal and the squeaking board noises. The girls turned and ran, stumbling down the dark stairs as fast as they could go. When they reached the last step, they saw a light coming toward them. Before they could find a place to hide, Miss Prudence appeared in her long trailing nightgown at the bottom of the stairway.

She held her lamp up to see the girls’ faces. “Aha! So you two
do
prowl around after ten o’clock,” she accused. “What have you been doing up in the attic?” Glancing down, she noticed the lamp base in Mandie’s hand. “And where is the shade to that lamp?”

Mandie bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Miss Prudence. I broke it. I tripped and it fell off,” she explained. “I’ll pay for it.”

“Yes, you’ll pay for it. And you’ll also pay for being out of your room. You two will be confined there for ten days except for church, and classes, and meals. And if you don’t abide by the rules, it will be much more serious than that. Do you both understand?”

Mandie hung her head. “Yes, ma’am, Miss Prudence,” she replied.

“Yes, ma’am,” Celia echoed.

“Now, what were you two doing up in that attic at this
time of night?” the schoolmistress demanded.

“We’ve been hearing noises in the attic,” Mandie answered. “And tonight the noises seemed to be louder, so we went to investigate.”

“Noises? What kind of noises?”

“It sounds like metal banging, and we could hear boards squeaking like someone walking around up there,” Mandie told her.

“Metal banging and someone walking in the attic? How far-fetched can you get?” She turned the girls around and ushered them down the hallway toward their room.

“But, Miss Prudence, we’re serious,” Mandie protested. “We’ve been hearing noises like that ever since we came to school.”

“We have, Miss Prudence, several times,” Celia added.

The woman stopped and looked doubtfully at the two girls. “All right,” she conceded. “I’ll get Uncle Cal to look in the attic tomorrow. He’ll have to go up there anyway to clean up the broken glass. Now, not another word out of either of you.” She pointed the girls to their door. “Get in that room and don’t come out until breakfast time tomorrow.”

The girls quickly obeyed and closed the door behind them. They listened for Miss Prudence to go down the hallway, then began whispering in the darkness of their room.

“What a bad break!” Mandie exclaimed. “If I hadn’t broken that lamp shade, we might have found something up there.”

“Well, I guess the fun is over.” Celia sighed and crawled into bed.

“Oh, no, it isn’t.” Mandie slipped under the covers on her side. “I still plan to see what’s up there.”

“Mandie, you don’t dare!”

“Oh, yes, I do! And don’t tell me you’re afraid to go with me.”

“But, Mandie, there’s no telling what will happen to us if we’re caught again.”

“We won’t be caught again.”

“But you always say that,” Celia complained.

“Next time we’ll be more careful,” Mandie promised. “But, Celia, you don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to.”

“No, I don’t have to. But I suppose I will,” Celia replied. “I just wish I could understand why you’re so determined to go up there.”

“I can’t explain it,” Mandie answered, “but something tells me I should keep looking.”

“Well, I sure hope it’s worth getting into trouble for,” Celia said.

Even though all the girls were required to attend Sunday school and services, they were not all in the same classroom at church. Therefore, Mandie and Celia did not see April until they filed into the pews across the aisle from Mr. Chadwick’s boys.

April sat at the end of the pew directly across from Tommy. She tried her best to attract his attention, but Tommy didn’t seem to notice her. He looked straight ahead.

Celia poked Mandie and motioned for her to look. Mandie smiled as she and her friend sat down in the pew directly behind April.

During the entire service April kept looking at Tommy. When the audience stood to sing a hymn, she deliberately reached out and dropped her handkerchief in the aisle.

When Tommy didn’t respond, she tried other tactics. Quickly replacing her hymn book in the rack, she leaned across the aisle and spoke loudly above the music. “Tommy, do you have an extra hymnal? We seem to be short one over here,” she said.

All the girls held their breath and looked to see if Miss Prudence had heard. But the schoolmistress kept singing heartily.

Without missing a note, Tommy handed April his hymnal and turned to share Robert’s.

April took the book but did not sing a word. She just stood there holding the open hymnal and watching Tommy. At the end of the song, as everyone sat down, April leaned across the aisle and handed Tommy the hymn book.

“Here, would you put this back where it belongs?” she said loudly.

Everyone nearby turned to look, including Miss Prudence. She frowned at April, then turned her attention to the pastor’s sermon.

When the service was over, Miss Prudence guided April out of the church. “This way, April, with the other girls,” she said.

The boys left by the other aisle, but April had to go with Miss Prudence. After shaking hands with the pastor at the door, the girls began their short walk back to the school.

Celia nudged Mandie. “Imagine carrying on like that in church,” she said softly so no one else could hear.

“I suppose it’s her last chance, for a while at least. I heard Miss Prudence tell her that her mother would be here to get her after the noon meal,” Mandie said.

“Hallelujah!” Celia laughed.

“Celia, didn’t the Sunday school lesson do you any good at all?” Mandie scolded.

“We’ll discuss that later.”

Mandie sighed. “I guess we’ll have plenty of time. Remember, we have to stay in our room except for meals and classes.”

“Oh, well, at least that’s better than being suspended like April,” Celia replied.

Reaching the school, the girls hurried to their room to leave their bonnets, gloves, purses, and Bibles. They would
have to move quickly to get to the dining table on time.

As Mandie and Celia entered their room, Mandie immediately sensed something wrong. Looking about, she discovered that her pink chiffon dress was missing. She had hung it on the hook next to Celia’s lavender dress the night before.

“Oh, no! Not again!” she exclaimed.

Celia understood immediately. “April!” she accused.

“I’m not sure, but April is going home today. We’ll see what happens while she’s gone,” Mandie said. “Come on. We don’t want to be late to the table. We’re in enough trouble already.”

In the dining room, a tall, arrogant-looking woman stood behind the chair next to Miss Prudence.

The schoolmistress rang her little silver bell. “Young ladies, this is Mrs. Snow, April’s mother. April will be going home today, and we are not sure when she will return.”

There was no doubt that April went home that afternoon. So when they heard the noises in the attic that evening, they knew it couldn’t possibly be April.

Immediately after supper, Mandie and Celia went straight to their room. The sun still shone brightly, and the two girls sat on the window seat, silently watching the other girls stroll around the lawn below.

The noise was barely discernible at first. Gradually it grew louder. The girls looked at each other. A moment later, the noise stopped.

“It can’t be April this time,” Mandie reasoned.

“No,” Celia replied.

“Are we going to see what it is or not?”

“That depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“On what you decide,” Celia answered. “I always go along with you.”

“All right. Let’s go.” Mandie led the way to the door, and they stopped to listen. “I can’t hear anybody in the hall,” Mandie whispered. Slowly, she opened the door.

“Quick! Let’s get out of this hall!” Celia told her.

They quietly ran for the attic staircase and hurried up the steps. The window let in plenty of light this time, so they could see that the door at the top was closed.

“The door!” Mandie whispered. “I didn’t close it last night.”

Celia thought for a moment.

“But Miss Prudence was going to send Uncle Cal to clean up the glass, remember? He probably closed it.”

“Right,” Mandie agreed. She put her finger to her lips, then slowly turned the doorknob and swung the door inward.

The two girls stood at the doorway and looked around. There was enough light to distinguish most of the discarded objects of furniture around the attic: tables, chairs, chests, trunks, and boxes.

“There’s nothing here,” Celia whispered.

“No, I guess not,” Mandie answered. Still looking around, she moved her foot. Crunch. She looked down. The glass chimney she had broken had not been cleaned up. She pointed to it, motioning to Celia.

“Uncle Cal didn’t come up here. Who closed the door?” she whispered.

At that moment a huge rat ran across Celia’s foot. She screamed. “Let’s go!” she cried. Running out of the room, she stumbled down the stairs with Mandie following.

But just as they turned the corner to go to their room, they saw Miss Prudence.

The woman put her hands on her hips and advanced
toward them with a stern expression on her face. “This is it!” she exclaimed. “You have broken my orders to stay in your room. You are both suspended from school for ten days. Celia, I will contact your mother immediately, and Mandie, I will send word for your grandmother to come and get you, since she lives here in town.”

Terrible thoughts revolved in Mandie’s head. Going to her grandmother’s house would be more dreadful than being suspended.

“My grandmother?” she protested. “But, Miss Prudence, I don’t really know my grandmother. I don’t think she’d want me to come to her house. I’ve never been there. I’ve only seen her once in my whole life.”

Miss Prudence looked at her in surprise. “And what is wrong between you and your grandmother?” the schoolmistress asked.

“She didn’t like my father,” Mandie replied, “because he was half Cherokee. She didn’t want him to marry her daughter.”

“I know all about that,” Miss Prudence said with impatience. “But she is your grandmother whether she likes it or not, and she shall hear from me.”

Celia hung her head. “My mother is ill, Miss Prudence, because of my father’s death. Do I have to go home? It would worry her so much.”

Mandie spoke up quickly. “My grandmother’s house is huge, so I know she has plenty of room. Couldn’t Celia go with me to my grandmother’s house?”

“Oh, yes, please, Miss Prudence,” Celia begged.

The schoolmistress relaxed her stern expression. “I suppose it doesn’t matter where you go, as long as I know you are in responsible hands. But the decision will remain with Mandie’s grandmother, of course,” she said. “I suppose you girls were in the attic?”

Mandie nodded. “We heard the noise again.”

“It certainly is strange that no one else has ever heard these noises,” said Miss Prudence.

Mandie swallowed and looked her straight in the eye. “We’re not lying about it, Miss Prudence. We really have been hearing noises up there.”

“Probably rats. Now get your things together, and do not—I repeat—do not leave that room again tonight. I will send a message to your grandmother as soon as I can find Uncle Cal.” Miss Prudence stood watching while Mandie and Celia returned to their room.

The girls began picking up their belongings and piling them on the bed.

“Thank you, Mandie, for asking me to your grandmother’s,” Celia said.

“Never mind thanking me,” Mandie teased. “I’m afraid to face my grandmother alone. But I didn’t want your mother to be upset, either. This way, maybe she won’t ever find out.”

“Then I’m glad I’m going with you.”

“Oh, Celia, I just thought of something!” Mandie exclaimed. “Uncle Ned is supposed to visit me tomorrow night. How will he know where I am?”

Celia thought for a moment. “Ask Uncle Cal to watch for him. He and Aunt Phoebe said they saw him when he was here before.”

“Smart!” Mandie replied. “I’m glad you’re going with me, too.”

Later, the two girls stood on the veranda watching, while Uncle Cal loaded their belongings into the surrey.

As they began the drive to her grandmother’s house, Mandie spoke her concern to Uncle Cal. “You will watch out for Uncle Ned, won’t you, Uncle Cal, and tell him where I am?”

“I sho’ will, Missy. I be lookin’ fo’ ’im,” the old Negro assured her. “Phoebe see bettuh in de dahk. I gits huh to watch. Don’t you worry none, Missy. We looks fo’ ’im.”

“I appreciate that, Uncle Cal,” Mandie told him. “You know why we’re going to my grandmother’s house, don’t you?”

“Missy, I don’ ax. Miz Taft, she tell me y’all gits ten days outa school to spend wid huh.”

“Ten days out of school because we’ve been bad,” Mandie said, explaining about the noises in the attic.

“Ain’t ne’er been nobody in de attic since years ago, Missy, when I tuck some things up dah fo’ Miz Prudence. Ain’t nobody e’er goes up dah.”

“But we really did hear something—several times,” Celia insisted.

“Mought be de rats.”

“No, we saw some rats up there, but rats couldn’t bang on metal and make the boards squeak, could they?” Mandie asked.

“Reckon not, Missy. Reckon we oughta find out whut’s up dah, but I reckon Miz Prudence ain’t gonna do it.”

“You’re right, Uncle Cal,” Mandie agreed. “She didn’t believe us at all about the noises.”

Uncle Cal turned the surrey off onto a driveway leading to a huge mansion.

Celia’s eyes grew wide. “Mandie, is this where your grandmother lives?” she asked.

“I’m afraid it is,” Mandie replied. “But I’ve never been inside. My grandmother was never at home when we were in Asheville.”

The closer they got, the bigger the mansion looked.

“She sure has a big house!” Celia exclaimed.

Suddenly, Mandie’s stomach felt like it was tied in knots.
“Uncle Cal, are you sure she said it was all right for Celia and me to come and stay awhile?”