Moans and Groans and Dinosaur Bones (4 page)

“We have no time to waste. We have to get to the museum right away” said Mrs. Peters.

All the other Pee Wees looked at Sonny. It was his fault they couldn’t have a swim or go exploring in the hotel. But Sonny didn’t look as if it bothered him at all.

Everyone began to get ready to go to the museum. They used the bathroom and brushed their hair and washed their hands and faces. They got back on the elevator while Mr. Duff studied the city map.

“These elevators tickle my stomach!” said Molly.

“Mine too,” said Mary Beth.

When they got off in the lobby Tim said, “Hey, look at that guy over there.” He pointed to a sofa partly concealed by a flowering bush.

“What about him?” asked Patty.

“He looks suspicious,” said Tim. “He’s got shifty eyes and a tattoo of a snake on his arm.”

“My cousin’s got a tattoo,” said Lisa. “And he’s no crook.”

“Lots of people have tattoos,” said Kevin. “My uncle’s got one and he’s nice.”

But Tim was not convinced.

Molly agreed with Tim. This man could be dangerous. He had a hat on, even inside the hotel. Almost no men wore hats. Maybe this guy was staking out the hotel. What if he was the leader of a band
of criminals? Would the Pee Wees be in danger? Molly could save them!

Then Molly remembered her wild imagination. It was running away with her again. Her imagination often got her into trouble.

Anyway, that man was probably someone’s uncle. Or a dentist or a doctor or a bus driver or even a policeman!

“He’s trouble,” said Tim. “I’m telling you now, that guy’s a crook!”

“H
e’s probably an FBI agent or something,” said Jody

“Or maybe he’s a regular guy,” said Rachel. “A boxer or a wrestler.”

But even allowing for her imagination, Molly thought Tim might be right. Tim wasn’t exactly a fortune-teller, but he often knew about things that were going to happen before the other Pee Wees did. He knew what people were like just by
looking at them. It was a talent.

As they passed the man on the way out, Molly could see that Tim’s crook looked nervous. His hands were shaking, and he seemed to be blushing as if someone had caught him doing something bad.

As the Pee Wees passed him he put his newspaper in front of his face. Molly had the feeling he was just pretending to read. She had the feeling he was hiding. But from what?

The Pee Wees climbed onto a city bus and rode for blocks. There was a lot to see in Center City. Molly felt as if she could write ten papers about what she saw. But if she wanted her badge, she had to write about what she saw in the museum.

The Pee Wees got off the bus in front of a large building with statues on either side of the front doors. Big letters overhead said
SCIENCE AND HISTORY MUSEUM
. In
the huge lobby full of echoes a guard in a uniform smiled at them.

Mr. Duff asked a few questions at the main desk and then led everyone to a room that had ancient treasures in it. There were pieces of broken dishes with colors still bright on them and cave paintings done with berry juice.

“This tells us a bit about how people lived thousands of years ago,” said Mr. Duff.

“Why did they use such old stuff?” asked Sonny. “Couldn’t they afford to get stuff that wasn’t all cracked up?”

Mary Beth rolled her eyes at Molly. “He is so dumb,” she said.

Mrs. Peters was patient and explained to Sonny and the others that when these people had lived, these things had been new. There were no department stores or discount stores to shop in. “They had to
make their own dishes out of clay from the earth,” she said. “These people lived a very, very long time ago.”

Molly studied the treasures and found it hard to believe anything could be that old.

“And here is the exhibit of mummies,” said Mrs. Duff, reading the sign that told how the ancient people preserved the bodies. There were rows of mummies, wrapped in white cloths and lying in fancy decorated boxes.

“That’s a real person!” said Jody. “Just think of that!”

The Pee Wees did think. There was a lot to think about here.

“Mrs. Peters,” said Lisa, “why did they preserve the mummies and not the daddies?”

Mrs. Peters smiled at the question. Molly didn’t know why she was smiling. It was a good question—one Molly had
wanted to ask herself. Why did you have to be a mother in order to be preserved?

“Mummies are not necessarily mommies,” said their leader.

This was not very clear. The Pee Wees frowned.

“That is, some mommies did become mummies, but so did some daddies. We don’t know for sure if these mummies are men or women.”

“You can’t be a mommy if you’re a man,” said Tracy firmly.

Mrs. Peters explained that
mummy
did not mean “mother.” It meant a body that had been preserved after death by being wrapped in cloths and herbs and other solutions. “After a while, it becomes mummified,” she said.

“It’s spooky!” said Patty. “Think how old they are!”

“Where did the mummies and the
treasures come from, Mrs. Peters?” asked Tim.

“That’s a good question, Tim,” said Mrs. Peters. “Men and women called archaeologists dig through ancient ruins to find them. They have found palaces and whole buried cities complete with the people who lived
there and all their supplies. It just needs to be dug up very carefully That’s how they find dinosaur bones too.”

“When we get home, I’m going to dig in my backyard,” said Tim. “I might find some valuable stuff I could sell to this museum, and then I’d be rich.”

“There are no mummies or palaces or ancient ruins in this country,” scoffed Roger.

“There could be,” said Mr. Duff. “We don’t know for sure who was here thousands of years ago. Tim might find a mummy or two, but they’d be buried pretty deep. He’d need a pretty big shovel!”

“Mrs. Peters, I’m hungry!” said Sonny.

The other Pee Wees groaned. “How can he think of food when we’re looking at these old dead mummies?” asked Mary Beth.

“Well,” said Mrs. Peters, looking at her
watch, “we can get you something at the snack bar downstairs, and then we’ll have to move on to the dinosaur room. Time is flying.”

When they got to the snack bar, they all stood in line. Sonny got a hot dog, and the others had soda pop.

“How do you know that hot dog didn’t come from some old tomb?” said Roger to Sonny. “It could be a million years old!”

“They didn’t have hot dogs a million years ago,” said Rachel. “Anyone who knows history knows that.”

Roger made a face at Rachel.

On the way out of the snack bar, Molly noticed a man leaning against the pop machine. He was reading a newspaper. He looked familiar.

“It’s him!” whispered Tim to Molly. “Look! It’s the crook with the shifty eyes from the hotel!”

“W
hat’s he doing here?” said Tracy.

“He’s probably just sightseeing like we are,” said Mrs. Peters when Tim told her about the man.

“He’s not a Pee Wee Scout,” said Tim. “And he isn’t here to sightsee. He’s a crook.”

“You can’t go around calling everyone a crook just because you don’t like the
way they look,” said Rachel to Tim.

Rachel was right, thought Molly. And yet … she trusted Tim’s feeling. She was more and more convinced the man was no one’s kind old uncle.

The Pee Wees followed the Peterses and the Duffs into the dinosaur hall. Molly tried to forget about the man. If he was a troublemaker, the adults would handle it. That was their job.

In the middle of the room stood a huge dinosaur skeleton. A sign said it was a
Tyrannosaurus rex
and explained its size and where it had lived and what kind of food it had eaten.

“Hey, where’s his skin?” shouted Roger. “He’s nothing but bones!”

“This is a model,” said Mr. Duff. “These are man-made bones created in the exact size and shape of the real thing.”

“Are the mummies man-made too?”
asked Kevin in a disappointed voice.

“No,” said Mr. Duff. “The Egyptian artifacts are real.”

“This claw is the real thing,” said a woman attendant next to a glass case. “This is the claw of a real
Apatosaurus
that lived more than a million years ago.”

The Pee Wees gathered around the glass case. There, on a little platform inside the case, rested the claw. A real claw was better than a whole fake dinosaur, thought Molly.

“That’s right out of some old dead dinosaur’s foot,” said Tracy in amazement.

It was about four inches long. It looked sharp.

“Wow!” said Kevin. “That must be very valuable.”

“It is,” said the attendant.

“Do you know what?” said Tim. “Dinosaurs lived on earth longer than
human beings have been here.”

“Really?” said Mrs. Duff.

The attendant nodded. “He’s right,” she said. “We often think of them as dumb animals because they had such large bodies and such small heads, but they were very smart.”

“Tim knows more than we think,” said Mary Beth to Molly.

Molly nodded. “About a lot of things,” she said, thinking of the man from the hotel lobby.

“Can we touch the claw?” asked Patty.

“I’m afraid not,” said the attendant. “We can’t remove the artifacts and fossils from the cases. They could get broken or even stolen. I’m sorry.”